‘…and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live.’ – Deuteronomy Chapter 6 v 2.

I guess as parents and grandparents one of our greatest desires is to see our children and grandchildren go all out for God as they become teenagers and adults.

However, statistics show that many children from Christian homes do not go on with God in their adult lives. There are some alarming figures that indicate as many as 80% of Christian young people ditch their faith in their teens and twenties. Gavin Calver, UK director of Youth for Christ, wrote: “It breaks my heart to think how many of my mates got lost along the way. Of a group of 10 to 15 people, only one other person and myself are still going for God.” Unfortunately this seems to be a pattern repeated in most churches across the UK.

So what can we as Christian parents and grandparents do?

First of all let us remind ourselves that there are no guaranteed answers. However we can stack the odds in our favour. Deuteronomy chapter 6 is amazingly practical in its advice to parents about how they can bring up their children in the faith.

The next few posts will look more closely at this wonderful chapter to see what can be done. You may be surprised at just how practical and relevant the answers are!

Good news: the Embassy called to say that they will grant me the Volunteer Visa! My passport was sent to London today for the Consulate to insert the final document. The Visa will be given for one year, and at the end of this it can be extended for several more years.

It’s a relief at the end of such a long wait! Pastor Bill Wilson says “The only way to win is to not quit” – and he’s right. If there’s something in your life you’ve been waiting a long time for, keep going – God is faithful!

So, Susan’s children will finally all be leaving home… She has been very supportive and patient considering I am still living at home, 18 years after I left school! She has made this preparation time possible, so a big thanks to her.

Meanwhile I am waiting to hear from the Happy Child Mission office in Brazil, to see when they may be ready to receive me. God called me to Brazil in 2002, so of course I am really looking forward to going back having now been away for two years. Hopefully I can continue helping children to learn to read, training more staff to teach reading and start the Maths project I have been wanting to begin for so long. Soon it could be time to book the plane tickets! As soon as I get any more information I will let you know.

Thank you for all of you who prayed – it was well worth it! Now that the time of waiting is over, a few verses come to mind:

Psalm 25:3 “No-one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame”
Psalm 28:6 “Praise be to the Lord for he has heard my cry for mercy… my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.”
Psalm 30:11 “You turned my wailing into dancing… and clothed me with joy… O LORD my God, I will give you thanks for ever.”

A big THANK YOU to everyone who prayed and helped secure the visa, and so hastened my return to Brazil. Please pray: that I’ll be able to get out to Brazil without further delay and will choose wisely which resources to take on this occasion.

If you would like to be added to the list for the email version of the newsletter, or if you have any questions, please contact cocacola2000@hotmail.co.uk. You can see more about Happy Child International at www.happychild.org or call 01372 375 848 for more info or donations.

Many thanks for all your support, Alistair.

Imagine that a survey was carried out around the UK, asking the question “Where is God?” What answers do you think would come up? I’d guess that quite a few people would answer “Well, I don’t believe in a god, so nowhere.”

Other people might give the answer “God – if there is a god – is out there.” Maybe these people realise that the physical world can’t be all that there is. They’ve haven’t ruled out the idea of some kind of god existing, but if he does exist then he is very distant – “out there, somewhere” or “up in the sky.” And this answer is partially correct; God is out there (the Bible says “the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain Him”), but it misses out the more amazing reality that God is also near.

So the third answer, and the one that we would give, is that God is near. Rather than being a distant, impersonal force, God is a Person and He is interested in being in relationship with us. But where do we get this idea from? What does the Bible say about it? We’re going to take a quick hop, skip and a jump through the Bible to see what it says about this theme…
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“For everything there is a season” (Ecc 3v1).

One of the most important things that every farmer and gardener knows is that a seed has to stay in the ground if it is to bear fruit. Every Christian has to learn to keep the seed (the word of God) continually in their hearts until they get the promised crop. The Bible says that we bear fruit with perseverance, however we often expect immediate results after God has spoken His word to us, or gives us a promise. We are tempted to dig up the seed to see if it is growing.

In the book “Ever increasing faith” by Smith Wigglesworth, when asked the reason for his faith being so strong, he answered “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” Hebrews chapter 11 speaks of the heroes of faith, but remember that these great saints had a faith that matured over many years of testing. We need to guard against bringing the world’s thinking into the church. If we do, we should not be surprised if we become disappointed when we don’t see immediate results.

God’s words planted in our hearts, like seeds, need time to produce all the potential they contain. Jesus said that the seed planted in good soil (heart) brought forth much fruit with endurance. Every promise of God planted in our hearts will indeed come to pass if we stop digging them up and realise that there is a due season for the seed sown.

For someone who has lived in different countries, you would think that moving house to another place in England would be a simple thing. The actual process of moving from Seaton to Minehead (on 14th February) was very smooth and we are now renting a large 3-bedroom flat until Mum buys a smaller flat in the centre of town.

But having always eventually returned to Seaton, from wherever I’ve been, it seems strange learning to call a different town “home”. Seaton has been the most familiar place in the world to me since 1977, and in Minehead it’s rather like being in a foreign country to have to learn so many simple things now, that were previously so easy. Although the experience is rather like being an uprooted tree, the positive side is that I’ve lived longer in Brazil (approx. nine months in total) than the two months that I have been in Minehead. Consequently Brazil feels more like home than here, and I am looking forward to going back! But how? What about the visa and travel costs? Well…
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