Category: General
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Nuts to be Normal
Should this become a book? That is the question I’m wrestling with. Maybe your honest feedback will help me make my decision. During our year of travel, I started with writing a book as my intention, and below is what I’d begun with. But then a few months in, a few key folks said I…
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The World Tour in Numbers…
I’ve purposefully hardly shared about our travels this year – choosing to live in the present and not putting it all ‘out there’. So the focus of this blog has been largely on Burundi; but many of you have asked about our travels, so here’s one way of reporting back – and others have been…
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Beautiful New Life, the Seemingly Impossible Happening…
Nobody would have ever believed it possible, but it has indeed happened. There is always hope, even in the most apparently hopeless situations. So I just wanted to share the joy of Freddy (formerly-melted-faced-beggar-now-graduated-with-distinction-from-university-and-married) and Floride having their first baby yesterday. Oli weighed in at 3.5kg and came into this world by C-section. For your…
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Cumulative Little Steps…
On the back of last week’s Phone-Call/Email from God, I got this brilliant response from a friend, which I wanted to share with you: I know friends who read your emails and they are hungry for more of God. However, there is a passiveness in the ‘waiting for the phone call’. They are paralysed by…
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A Phone Call/Blog from God!
A phone call changed the trajectory of my life. Many of you know the story already.* And this weekend, we hung out with a man (pictured above, Lizzie and I, with Ted and Lorraine) for whom likewise a phone call rocked his world and gave it a remarkable trajectory. I want to share his story because…
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Big Opportunities…For You?
What do you know about Slovenia? I knew virtually nothing until we went there this last week. And yesterday I got to preach at the biggest evangelical church in the country, which you’re probably thinking is a few thousand people strong. But no, it was maybe 130 people, because there are only about 500 evangelicals…
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A Call from Macedonia!
Greetings from a small village just outside Shtip in Macedonia! We’ve just had a stunning weekend of outreach alongside Brother Jimmy from Nigeria, who has been here 35 years and done incredible pioneering work during that time. Macedonia has 0.2% evangelical believers – that’s 2 out of every 1,000 people. The gospel needs are huge.…
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Top 3 Life-Lessons from 20 years in Burundi
The above picture was taken on Day 1 of our world tour, as we set sail from England with the white cliffs of Dover in the background. Three weeks in, we still love each other(!), are in our 10th country, Romania, and have had some precious times. The only place I’m regularly posting is Instagram…
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The Adventure Begins!
After another frenetic and fruitful summer of preaching and family fun, the big day has arrived. Tomorrow we embark on our 33-country 10-month preaching and world-schooling tour. I feel a mixture of emotions – excited, daunted, and if I’m honest a tinge of fear. Why the tinge of fear? Well, we’ve got a good marriage…
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More Miracles in Burundi!
A famous witchdoctor called Makari received what he thought were prospective ‘clients’ into his den. His reputation went before him and so our evangelists wanted to challenge his authority. When they revealed their identity, the power of God came on him and he fell to the ground. When he came to, he sat and listened…
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Bird-Turd-Splattered at Buckingham Palace!
It was a memorable day in more ways than one… We’d only just flown in from Africa the day before, and for logistical reasons were coming in by car from Southampton (Lizzie, her Dad, and the boys) and by train (Grace, my parents and I) from Henley. When the British Ambassador rang me asking if…
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The Marriage of the Year – Move Over Harry and Meghan!
In January, I shared with you ‘a fairy tale come true for the ugliest duckling in Burundi’. Well, on Saturday, he got married to his babe, Floride! Nobody, NOBODY, could ever have believed this was possible, from being the ugliest disfigured reject in Burundi twenty one years ago. God is amazing! In 1997, he had…
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The Beginning of the End…
In two weeks’ time, we’ll be back in the UK, and our time as a whole family living together in Burundi will be over. I find that hard to take in. In fact, none of us actually wants to leave. We love this country, and we love living here. So it’s good to be leaving…
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Am Grateful Martha can Die in Peace…
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! A number of you have written in asking for an update on our appeal for a new vehicle. So this is reporting back to you that all the money came in – hurray – and we’ve ordered a spanking new Toyota Hilux, so can now put Martha out to…
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My Country Wept…
Theo did as he was told and laid his head down on the floor, waiting for a machete to end his life… Here’s a massive recommendation to buy yourself (and for others too) this newly-published book about my friend Theodore Mbazumutima’s truly extraordinary story. He should be dead, but somehow, on multiple occasions, his life…