Written by Melanie in April during our sabbatical . . . a story of the nearness and love of God:

Two days ago, I realised I’d lost an earring. I retraced the steps I’d taken since I’d put on a hoodie, assuming I’d knocked the earring loose as it went over my head. The missing earring was nowhere to be found and a search of the places I’d sat reading outside earlier also turned up nothing. This pair of earrings was a Christmas gift from my daughter and were shaped like world maps, a reminder to me of God’s heart for the nations. They were small representations both of my daughter’s thoughtfulness and one of my life passions.  They were small but significant.

Historically, I have been really good at reacting badly when I lose things and wallowing in anger and frustration. I think it’s that feeling of helplessness, of being totally out of control, of my carefully ordered world falling apart.

On this sabbatical, God has been gently working with me, teaching me to surrender control, to trust his loving sovereignty, to turn to Him first before trying to fix things. I have certainly not arrived, but I am slowly learning. So I prayed about the earring, let it go, and pretty much forgot about it.

This morning Peter and I were walking through the giant grassy field toward the house where we are staying. And when I say the field is giant, I mean giant. Like acres and acres and the grass is currently waving long. We were talking away and at one point I stopped and turned around. Though I was very much NOT paying attention to where I was stepping, something in my subconscious mind told me I’d seen something tiny and silver sparkle in the sun.  Stooping down, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was my missing earring. My eyes immediately filled with tears and they are filling up again now as I am writing.

The God of the universe who flung stars and planets into existence with His Word, the God who holds every molecule together every moment of every day, the holy God who sits on his throne with millions of angels falling in worship before him . . . that God sees me. His heart is for me.  He cares for me. He delights to answer my small prayers, prayed from my small heart about small things in my small little corner of this massive world. There in a small piece of a grassy field was my small earring sparkling in the sunshine, singing out of God’s big, big love for me. And not just his love, but his personal care, his intimate knowledge of my life, my heart, my desires. He’s a Father who delights in generously giving to his beloved children, not because we deserve it, but because he delights to love us.

My heart has been slow to accept this. So often, I fear the worst, expect the worst, struggle to believe that God really loves me and wants to bless me. I’ve been asking him on this sabbatical to teach me to trust his heart for me, to release the tight, controlling grip I often have on my life, to transform my ways of thinking and being. And I’ve seen him begin to do this. Not in a harsh or forceful way. But with constant gentle reminders, like finding my lost earring. He has been reminding me that he is intimately involved in my life. He has been reminding me that he loves me, deeply and completely.  He has been reminding me, like Katie Davis says in her book, that I am one of his favourites.

Over and over, he has blessed me with moments of joy where my soul has been overwhelmed with the beauty of creation, the preciousness of my family, the pleasure of rest, the joy of laughter.

One of these moments happened last week as we drove toward our destination here in Tennessee. We have been in many beautiful places on this sabbatical which have filled my soul immensely – sunshine and woods, ponds and sunsets. But as we drove out of the Nashville metro area, we began to climb into the mountains.  Mountains! Mountains all around us, blanketed in a lush, spring, green covering.  Words feel totally inadequate to describe the way the intense beauty of that sweeping scene overwhelmed my soul. Peter and I marvelled together. “Wow,” I said, “Of all the many places we’ve been, this has got to be the most beautiful.”

God, I whispered in my heart, you’ve already blessed me abundantly on this trip. But you knew. You knew! You knew how much I love the mountains. Thank you so much for this gift. As my eyes filled with tears, my heart filled with a profound sense of being seen, known and loved. Though my mind asks, “How can it be?” my soul affirms, “Surely, O God, I am one of your favourites.”

I did not know what to expect with a sabbatical.  We hadn’t ever had an extended break from ministry.  It has been over twenty-one years since we left Hillsboro and moved to West Wickham to start full-time ministry in the UK.  Even before that, there were several years of juggling study, paid work and ministry.  So what would a 12-week break feel like?  Would I get frustrated at not being able to preach?  Would I regret my commitment not to work on a book during this time?  Actually, not at all.  In fact, had no idea how much I would benefit from the break.

Here are several ways I found the sabbatical refreshing and enriching:

1. Rest is good for the soul. I would not say that I am very good at resting.  I tend to feel quite driven and I can find days off a bit frustrating at times.  But this was not a few hours or a couple of days, it was 12-weeks.  And I have to admit that I benefitted from the rest more than I had anticipated.  Sleeping without an alarm clock.  Enjoying many walks in the wintery woods of Arkansas, around the neighbourhood in Oklahoma, and in the wooded trails of Tennessee in the spring – it was such a blessing.  I was able to read lots of good books, to journal, and to pray.  Then there were family times too: times to play games, laugh together, make memories, have extended conversations.
2. Slowing down allows you to see God at work. Instead of rushing from one thing to the next, I had time to ponder God’s kindness to us.  The places we stayed, the churches we visited, the kindness shown to us by people who did not know us, as well as the encouragement and support of our home church and prayer partners . . . we got to see God at work in so many little details.  Before visiting a certain church, I wrote in my journal how I’d love to meet the pastor whose podcast I enjoy every week.  The next entry, hours later, began, “Wow!…”  God had orchestrated an amazing interaction with him.  The following month, we changed our plans to arrive in Oklahoma a day earlier than planned.  The next day, as we sat in a safe room with a tornado-laden storm passing nearby, we thanked God that He knew we needed to be there that night, rather than driving through a dangerous storm.  I also hank God that he protected me when I choked on my birthday meal at a remote restaurant near Chattanooga.  In the end we clocked up five thousand miles driven safely, and countless reasons to praise God along the way.  God is probably showing us countless kindnesses all the time, but this time of rest allowed us to see these more clearly.
3. Prayer is a privilege.  The personal highlight of the sabbatical for me was a shift in my experience of prayer.  Before the sabbatical I was probably a bit scattered in my prayer life, inconsistent and certainly too business-like.  While walking in the Arkansas woods near the cabin where we were staying, that changed.  Praying through Scripture to enjoy the gospel personally, and being blown away by Revelation 1 that day, and worshipping God in response . . . I genuinely started to look forward to the next day when I could go on a walk with Jesus again.  To come into His presence prayerfully, with gratitude, with the truths of Scripture, with intercession, and with praise, that really is a privilege I fell in love with afresh.
4. My ministry does not define my identity.  I know this is true.  I could have preached or written a compelling case for this truth before we went away.  However, knowing something and experiencing something is not always the same.  For 12 weeks I was not a preacher, a pastor, an elder, a missionary, a prof, an author, or any other type of vocational minister of the Gospel.  I was a husband, a dad, a driver, an agent of dishwashing.  And spiritually?  I was a child of God, a member of the bride of Christ, a part of the body of Christ, a branch in Christ’s vine, and a sheep in His flock.  And in this identity, I was loved by God.  I know I am highly dispensable in ministry.  I know God doesn’t need me.  And for these 12 weeks, I had a clearer sight of the truth I preach: God loves us because we are in Christ, because we are His, not because of what we do for Him.

I could write much more – the lessons learned in marriage, the blessings of visiting over a dozen churches, or the special memories made with my girls and with the whole family during our family reunion week.  But hopefully this gives you a glimpse into the ways God blessed me during this sabbatical.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support during these months!

We are safely back home in the UK after our 3-month sabbatical.  Words seem very feeble to describe what an incredibly rich, life-giving, valuable time this has been for us.  We plan to share some of our deeper reflections about how God has worked in our hearts in an upcoming series of posts. For now, we’d like to share some facts about where and how we spent these three precious months – and of course we’ll include some photos!  The bottom line is, we have come home with hearts full of gratitude.  And we are now big proponents of sabbaticals!  God has been so good – we are not the same people as we were before.

Where? – We spent nearly 2 weeks in Dallas with Aliyah and Michael and then spent nearly a month in Arkansas before moving on to Oklahoma for several weeks.  We had a few days of transition and travel in Missouri and Kentucky before spending 3.5 weeks in Tennessee. Before flying home from Chicago, we spent a long weekend with Joel and Mariah.  We drove over 5000 miles through 12 states.  This may sound exhausting, but it wasn’t, as we stayed a long time at our main locations and had only 6 or 7 road trip days in the 3 months.  The travelling was actually enjoyable and we were able to see many parts of the USA that we hadn’t seen before. God’s creation is truly amazing!

Who? – We had time with family at the start of the sabbatical (in Dallas with Aliyah and Michael) and the middle (a reunion week in Oklahoma with all of our children and their families) and the end (a long weekend in Chicago with Joel and Mariah).  The rest of the time, it was just the four of us.  Peter and I were able to attend two marriage weekends and we had a whole week alone together as a couple which was such a gift.

**More photos at the bottom of this post**

What did we do? – We stayed in some truly beautiful locations and so we spent as much time outdoors in God’s creation as we could! Some of the highlights were amazing sunsets, long walks in the woods, lovely ponds and mountains.  We saw some wonderful wildlife – including deer, wild turkey, geese, many other birds and also elk and bison in a special reserve area in Kentucky.  We even caught a glimpse of two black bears!  God blessed us with a lot of sunshine even in the winter months.  We experienced a huge variety of temperatures (from -5 C to 34 C!)  We read LOTS of wonderful books (individually, as a couple and as a family).  We played games, ate good food, took our time doing everything and laughed a lot.  We took a few day trips to interesting places (The Great Smoky Mountains and the Ark Encounter were highlights!) and enjoyed the culture of the southern US states.  Peter and I had a lot of good time to connect as a couple, both serious conversations and fun.  We both journaled a lot, and had plenty of unhurried time to read the Bible and pray and journal.  The girls crocheted, sewed, played outdoors, made boats to sail on the ponds out of recycling material, baked, kept journals and went horseback riding.  (Yes, and they did some schoolwork too!)  We had many, many God moments – where we really experienced His presence and his love.  If you prayed for us, thank you so much. He has answered abundantly.  More on this in upcoming posts!  For now, we’ll share a few more photos at the end of this post to give you a taste of the beauty and joy we experienced.

Memory making moments? (Scary, funny and enjoyable!)

On the way home from a Rend Collective concert we were privileged to attend, we hit a skunk on a dark, lonely road in Arkansas. It was a smelly situation, but we were very glad it wasn’t a deer! We were also thankful to just miss hitting a deer in Tennessee.

We ended up in a safe room in Oklahoma the night after we arrived because of a tornado. It really sounded like the house was going to blow down but God kept us safe! We had no idea that changing our plans to drive to Oklahoma the previous day meant we were not travelling during the tornado (but God knew!).

During high winds in Kentucky, a large construction barrel blew across the freeway and Peter was able to swerve to miss hitting it head-on – another kindness from the Lord.

On the more humorous side, we accidentally walked into two weddings! (ask us if you want to know the stories!)

We had lots of interesting, funny and also some meaningful experiences at various churches.  And at two of them Peter ended up connecting with the pastors in a really special way! (Again, please ask for the stories if you are interested!)

We attended an Easter morning service at an arena in Chattanooga, and we ended up standing in front of thousands of people and receiving a gift as we had come from the furthest away!

It’s been great to be home but it’s definitely felt like a big transition.  We are still readjusting to normal life and catching up on emails and messages so thank you for your patience if you are waiting to hear from us.  Peter is also getting ready to leave for the European Leadership Forum on the 15th where he will be teaching in the Bible teachers and preachers network.  Thank you so much for your prayers for him and for all of us as we  adjust back to our life and ministry here in the UK.

Here are a few more photos:

Watch this space for more posts where we will share some of our reflections on our sabbatical and the ways that God has worked in our hearts.

God bless you as you continue into 2026! We’ll be in touch again after our sabbatical. Please do let us know if you’d like to receive our itinerary and prayer requests.

We have had a very busy but wonderfully blessed summer, full of events and milestones for our family. Here are some bullet points of what’s been happening. At long last, at the bottom of this post, we will share some photos of Aliyah and Michael’s wedding which was such a joyous time!

• The five of us went to the Josiah Venture missionary care conference at the end of April and we loved it! Peter spoke from John’s gospel and we all enjoyed connecting with many wonderful missionaries (and kids) serving in Eastern Europe.

If you would like to hear Peter’s messages from the conference, click here. And here is an interview Peter did for the Josiah Ventures Stories podcast on ministry life and biblical preaching.

• Aliyah graduated from Moody with her degree in biblical studies on 17 May and then she and Mariah and Michael flew to the UK and the pre-wedding preparations started in earnest.

• We had MANY visitors with us during the pre and post wedding weeks. We had quite a few days of 40+ people eating with us in our home which was an organisational challenge (!) but such a privilege. Mariah and Hannah were my right hand women. It was a very sweet few weeks – we only wished we would’ve had more time with each of the precious friends and family that filled our home. In June and July we enjoyed more days with friends who visited from the USA.
• The day after the wedding, Kaylah got baptised! What a joy for her to share this day with all the friends and family who were still in town. We had an amazing evening at our home afterwards – a special cake made for her by a friend, Kaylah and her friends learning and performing a dance in our driveway and an impromptu worship time which filled our neighbourhood with a joyful noise!

• The weekend after Aliyah and Michael’s wedding, our niece Rebecca married Kenny in Norwich. The girls were bridesmaids and Peter did the sermon. It was a lovely day!

• Trinity Chippenham held our biggest youth weekend away yet (end of June – Peter spoke) and largest ever whole church weekend away (middle of July during a heat wave!). Both were really encouraging times! Peter managed to finish the speaking at the youth weekend before succumbing to the tummy bug that ripped through our family that following week – no fun, but it thankfully somehow stayed contained within our family despite the many people who we were around! The same weekend as our whole church went away, Noah graduated from his course at Union School of Theology. We’re so proud of him!

• Aliyah and Michael stayed here for a few days after their honeymoon in Montenegro before they moved to their home together in Dallas. I celebrated my birthday with the best gift – having our whole family here together. We had a special night of worship along with some dear friends from TC. (The photo at the top of this page was taken that night!)

• Joel graduated from high school on the 5th of July! We had a small celebration as a family that included a photo slideshow, messages of encouragement and advice from some men in his life and a biscoff cake made by Hannah. We are so proud of him. He leaves one week from today for Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. We will miss him very much! Mariah took the senior photos below while the two of them were in Albania visiting missionary friends.

• It was a joy having Mariah here with us this summer. She was so helpful and brought so much joy and enthusiasm to our family! She went back to Moody mid-July in order to work a lot of hours at her job in security at the school which she loves. We were sad to see her go but we are so thankful at how she seems to be thriving in the Lord, in her studies and job too.

• In the midst of all the events this summer, we’ve been continuing to serve the Lord at Trinity Chippenham and beyond. Peter went to the European Leadership Forum in May, he’s been preaching through Galatians on Sundays at TC, we’ve continued to help lead our life group and continued with various types of personal/pastoral ministry.
• At the end of July, the younger girls and I finally finished our school year (we had to take a lot of breaks this year due to travelling and the wedding). I continue to be thankful for the privilege of educating and discipling our children.
• We leave for France a week from tomorrow where we’ll attend the Christian Workers Conference (a break for those full-time ministry), in Annecy. Then we’ll have another week on our own in another part of France. We are definitely feeling in need of a rest so please pray it’s a refreshing and restorative time for us.

The big highlight of the summer was Aliyah and Michael’s wedding!  Here is the video in case anyone would still like to watch it. The wedding was an absolute joy – so Christ-honouring and meaningful and also fun.  The weeks surrounding it were also wonderful. We were overwhelmed and humbled to see how so many friends supported us in a myriad of ways – accommodating the many visitors from overseas, helping to provide food pre and post wedding, helping with flowers, food, decorating, etc for the wedding . . . the list could go on! I think those weeks were the biggest organisational situation I have ever been part of and it was amazing to receive so much help and support.

If you’ve read this far, let us bless you with a few more photos of our sweet grandson Owen, who will turn one next week. We adore him and enjoy every minute we get to spend with him and Hannah and Noah.

Thank you so much for reading this and praying for our family! We are truly grateful for your prayers and support as we serve the Lord in the UK and beyond. As always, please let us know how we can pray for you too.

Our trip to the USA was extremely busy, but full of blessings and answered prayers! Thank you so much for praying for us while we were travelling. We know that God used your prayers to strengthen us in the midst of the non-stop schedule.  Here are some stats: 47 days, 4 flights, 1 train ride, 2 snowstorms, 39x Peter speaking (including 2 Cor Deo intensives, one youth retreat, two seminars, 1 chapel service, 1 church podcast, 1 radio show, 1 advent series of videos pre-recorded, 3 adult Sunday School classes), 5 churches visited, 9x packing our bags, dozens of prayer partners and friend connections, two daughters visited! Whew!

God so graciously sustained us through these seven weeks. The highlights for us were spending time with precious friends and family. And being able to serve and love people in various settings – both in homes and in churches.  We all really enjoyed the wintery weather too, especially the snow which we don’t often get in the UK!

We have many photos to share  . . . this will be a long post! We hope you enjoy seeing a little glimpse of our trip! Although we were very, very busy with ministry, we were so blessed to also have time with family.  The majority of the photos are focused on family times and the beauty of creation as it wasn’t always appropriate tor easy to take them in settings with prayer partners and ministry moments.

(NOTE: the photo above is our reunion in Missouri with Aliyah and Mariah as they came down to help at the youth weekend at Wildwood Church).

 

 

Wow, if you got this far, well done! I know this was a super long post, but we wanted to give you a flavour of our trip and share a few highlights. We are back full swing into normal life here in Chippenham. We’d appreciate prayer for ongoing ministry at Trinity Chippenham including the challenges that are coming with growth. We are praying especially about leadership development as well as God’s provision for finances for the building we are looking at buying. As a family, we are also taking a 5 day trip to the Czech Republic at the end of April where Peter will be speaking at a Josiah Venture missionary conference. It is a privilege to serve Jesus and we need His grace and wisdom so much every day. Thank you for praying for us!

Happy New Year to all of you! We have had a wonderful time being all together as a family these past weeks. It’s been a very full house and a really special time! (See the bottom of this post for more photos)

Hannah, Noah and Owen flew to the USA yesterday to see Noah’s family. We will miss them so much as between our two trips we won’t see them for two months.

It’s been sweet having Michael (Aliyah’s fiance) with us for the past week. He leaves on Friday to go back to Dallas where he is studying.

The rest of us leave for the USA next week.These days before we leave are going to be very busy for us. Please would you pray for health and strength (during this season of many illnesses) and sleep (which has been very challenging for Melanie recently).  We’d also appreciate prayer for focus and efficiency as we prepare many details for our trip and for God’s help as we make preparations to make sure things are covered at Trinity Chippenham while we are away.  Humanly speaking, it feels impossible to get it all done, but we are trusting in Him to help us.

Also, two big church related requests: the full-time Trinity Chippenham elders are preparing to interview applicants for a new role at Trinity Chippenham – personal assistant to the elders. Our church is growing and the elders are in great need of help with practical matters so they can focus on pastoral ministry. Please pray for wisdom for them to choose the right person and that whoever is hired can immediately begin to help reduce the workload that the elders carry. Secondly, we are excited to share that we’ve found a potential building as a new home for our church. It’s still early stages, but the building search team will present what we know so far to the church on the 12th of January. Please pray for wisdom as they communicate to our church family and for God to open doors for us to move ahead if it’s His will for us.

Thank you for praying for us and Lord willing, we will see you some of you soon! Here are a few photos from the past weeks.

So, what are the 15 sessions?

Today, I will teach for three hours at Union School of Theology, using Zoom. It is a first-year Bible handling and preaching class.

I am in Guildford this weekend at a church I visit twice yearly.  I have five sessions spread through Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday morning.  Two of these sessions involve training preachers. I have an evening session on how to respond to a shifting culture, and then I preach twice on Sunday morning.

I am travelling to Suffolk next week to speak at a Keswick Living Word event.  This is a gathering of local believers under the Keswick banner, where I will preach for three evenings from 2 Corinthians 3-5 on the New Covenant.  I also have two leaders workshops during the day.

Then, the following weekend, we will head to Surrey. On the morning of the 27th, I will preach at Oakhall Church from Galatians, then return to Trinity to speak in our Judges series in the afternoon.

There it is, fifteen sessions in twelve days.  Prayer is appreciated for travel, family relationships, and each session to make a difference.

What did we do?  Well, we led five church services, had four midweek meetings, ran a holiday club over five days, spent time with the children and youth outside of holiday club time, and spent time with local believers and missionaries to encourage them in their work.

It is encouraging to feel aligned with local workers and to feel the mutual trust building so well.  They risked sharing their relationships with locals with us and it was a real honour.  For example, the church in the village, which they have planted fifteen years or more ago, is doing well in its connection with women and children, but the men of the village are much more resistant.  We were invited to a gathering of 16 local men, all but one of whom would call themselves Muslim.  Three of us were able to share our testimonies and find out more about the challenges they face trying to provide for their families (essentially trying to farm with inadequate water supply!)  The gathering went well and hopefully it will be part of building a bridge to these men.

The children’s work went really well.  We definitely felt an increase in distraction and interruption on the day when we told the story of the cross, but other than that, they were very attentive and focused throughout the week.  It was really encouraging to see how the local women had grown spiritually during the last year.

One of the key roles we could have on this visit was to encourage the missionary family that we met on previous visits.  They are a wonderful family who are plugging away all year round.  We can come in and offer some energy and a week of activity, but they are the ones who are walking with the locals through all of life.  It was a blessing to be able to bring a Ukrainian speaker from our church who proved to be a huge encouragement to the Dad who doesn’t speak English and tends to miss out on so much of the fellowship as a result.

It was not all easy.  The temperatures were high, hitting 39 degrees C (102F) on the first day of the kids work.  Many on the team struggled to sleep well, even though we were blessed by the accommodation provided.  Some sort of cold/flu worked through several members of the team, taking them out of action for a day or so, one after another.  And sadly, on the Friday afternoon, we received the sad news that one team member’s grandmother had died unexpectedly.  Everyone’s heart broke for her , and we were able to get her on the next flight home, accompanied by another team member.  So there were challenges, but the team carried each other’s burdens and the ministry progressed even when one or two were missing at various times.

I (Peter) left the team on Saturday evening, to get back for church at TC on Sunday.  The rest of the team returned on Monday afternoon.  We are all tired, but thankful.  Please continue to pray for the church in Albania.  It is not an easy country to live in, but God is building his church and we were thankful to be able to contribute just a little bit to that work.  Thank you for praying for us.  We are grateful to be able to co-labour in ministry with you!

It’s been an eventful few months since we last updated our website.  We are thankful for God’s faithfulness and kindness to us.  We had Hannah’s husband Noah’s parents and brother come to visit us in April.  We had such a great month together, including a special week away together on the Devon coast.  It was a beautiful area and we made lots of memories.  Above you can see the 11 of us on Peter’s birthday. (We missed Aliyah of course!)

Aliyah and Michael have been dating for a year and a half.  In that time, we have all grown to love Michael.  We had some time with him in the USA last year while we were there for Hannah’s wedding and then he spent a few weeks here in England last summer with us too.  He is a godly guy who loves the Lord and wants to serve Him.  We can’t wait to see what God is going to do with these two for His glory!  Lord willing, they will get married at the end of May next year.

We are so thankful to God for sustaining us these past months.  Peter and I have felt very maxed out at times in terms of ministry – preaching, life group, pastoral care, leadership and more, and of course parenting, our primary ministry.  There have been many moments of exhaustion but also many joyful ones.  We feel so privileged that the Lord gives us so many opportunities to serve him.  Our home has also been full, not only with our children, but also full of many visitors and we have more to come in the next few weeks.  Please keep praying for us to abide in Christ and draw all we need from him.  Also pray for Peter, Joel and Aliyah as they go to Albania with the TC team at the end of July.  God is so good and he is worth pouring ourselves out for!