Thanksgiving in London

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! We've had a busy few days of life and ministry between Home Group, a trip to York for Presbytery on Friday and Saturday, and a very full day at church yesterday, so sorry we're just now getting around to posting this. On Thursday evening our Home Group Bible Study celebrated a very international take on an American Thanksgiving Dinner with guests and dishes from around the world.

Even though Thanksgiving is celebrated in several countries other than just the U.S., including Canada and Brazil, the United Kingdom is not among them. In fact, many British people and many other nationalities often don't know much about Thanksgiving or why we celebrate it. So because of Thanksgiving's origins and orientation toward thanking God for the blessings in our lives, it’s a really great opportunity to talk about Jesus. Before dinner Dawson gave a very brief explanation of the origins of Thanksgiving and a short devotional from Psalm 100 before praying for our meal.

This Thanksgiving will be especially memorable for our family as we gathered together with our regular Home Group members as well as a few non-Christian friends who we’ve been getting to know and reaching out to from our Free English Classes outreach. Please continue to pray for our Home Group Bible Study and for our outreach to international friends through Free English Classes.

Please pray especially for non-Christian friends Parham (Iran), Adil (Pakistan), Benson (Hong Kong), Dmitri (Russia), and Francesco (Italy) as Dawson meets with them weekly to read and discuss the Gospel of Mark one to one. Please pray also for growing Christian friends who we are meeting with regularly as well for one to one discipleship, including Eduardo (Spain), Zuri (Brazil), Justin and Zuko (both from South Africa), Fenno (Kenya), Amirreza (Iran), Yuki (Japan), Prateek and David (both from India), Dawid (Poland), as well as many others, and that the Lord would continue to open doors for new opportunities for evangelism and discipleship through Free English Classes, church, Home Group, and the Ealing community.

A Year Ago, We Were Still In Texas!

This time last year we were still in Texas, anxiously waiting for our U.K. Visas to be approved! But as we reflect back on 2022, we're amazed by Lord's goodness and the incredible things he has done since our arrival in London in January. From street evangelism to Bible studies, discipleship, and Holiday Bible Club to theological development, we've been so encouraged to see how the Lord has been at work. Tonight we launched our new Free English Classes, Ealing outreach at our church, IPC-Ealing, in hopes of reaching the 40% of Ealing residents who were born outside the U.K. with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray with us for this new and exciting outreach opportunity for us and for our church!

With today being "Giving Tuesday", would you pray and trust the Lord with us as well to raise an additional $23,000 to help our family and ministry to the Unreached in London start out 2023 on solid footing after what has been a rather unpredictable year in the U.K. financially with significant cost of living increases, inflation, rising energy prices, and a wildly fluctuating exchange rate? If you feel that the Lord may be leading you to give a special year-end gift to the Great Commission through our ministry in London, we would be so honoured, and you may give your gift online at www.mtw.org/bean. We so appreciate your prayers and partnership in taking the Gospel of Grace to the Unreached, in London and beyond.

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." -Philippians 1:3-5

Happy Thanksgiving American friends! In honour of all of our friends back home in the States I thought I'd post this classic Thanksgiving throwback pic from our days with RUF in Martin, TN in 2013 when our babies were little and my beautiful bride made her very first Thanksgiving Dinner all on her own without the help of parents and in-laws, grandparents, aunts, or cousins!

While we've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the different holidays here that are part of British culture that we don't have in the U.S., Thanksgiving is absolutely one of our favourite holidays back home in the States, maybe even more so than Christmas! But here in the U.K., today is just....Thursday. Our kids are in school all day today and no one here (except fellow American expats) gives a thought about stopping everything to gather with family and friends and consume massive amounts of roast turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and all the rest (that's just a Sunday roast dinner here). And just forget about pecan and pumpkin pies, and American Football!

So, American friends, we are counting on YOU to flood our newsfeeds today with pics and videos of family gatherings, full plates, football, parades, autumn decor, deer hunting, and all the rest that Thanksgiving entails for you and yours! We will celebrate as a family on Friday when our kids have a day off from school, and we have an incredible "American Thanksgiving" Feast planned with our church House Group Bible study after worship on Sunday afternoon. So have a big slice of pumpkin pie in honour of the Beans in London, and don't go easy on the whipped cream!!!