Our team has made it to Birmingham, England. Jim and Jackie Davis, Karen Olson, Christian Rector and I met at the Charlotte airport Monday at 11:00 am for our flight to Birmingham via a connecting flight at JFK in New York. Everything went very well and we landed here a few minutes early – at 6:26 am Tuesday morning (1:26 am in Rock Hill). Our IMB missionary and the Pastor of the local church plant we will be assisting met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel. Ron and Kathy Goolsby met us at the hotel. They had come over a few days earlier for vacation. After we checked in, all of us ate an English breakfast at a nearby restaurant. Since then we’ve spent most of today resting. We’ll have an orientation Wednesday morning and begin visiting homes that afternoon.

At the top of our prayer requests today is for physical stamina and health. Some team members are really feeling the affects of the five hour time difference and not getting much sleep on the overnight flight. I’m feeling it more than I usually do – probably because I had not fully recovered from my trip to Africa.

Also pray for God to give us favor with the local residents when we visit their homes this week. We will invite them to a “Summer Fun Day” scheduled for Saturday. This is similar to a “block party” in the states. It is sponsored by the church plant and some local organizations they’ve enlisted.

Pray that God gives us many opportunities to share our testimony and have spiritual conversations. Ask the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts and minds of those we will visit.

Pray for Oikos Church. That is the name of the church plant. You can check them out at www.oikoschurch.co.uk.

Thank you for praying for us. We have already seen God’s hand at work in an important way I cannot write about in this blog. Your prayers matter.

Pastor Steve Hogg