Maryland, USA

Greetings from Maryland, USA. We've been here 2 and a bit days so far & spent most of that in the company of the lovely people of Central Maryland Vineyard Church. They're made us feel very welcome and we've had a cool time. Jacob, Nathan & I are staying with a lovely family - Dan, Suzanne and Elizabeth in a beautiful old farm house with a small lake (frozen over) and horses next door. On our first morning, we were treated to an American Country Breakfast - sausages & bacon, hash & eggy bread - all with maple syrup. Delicious!!

We went to see a fantastic movie called Amazing Grace that just opened over here, telling the story of William Wilberforce and how he led the move to ban slave trading in UK 200 yrs ago - I cried buckets!!!

Then the serious work started and we led a training meeting for children's workers last night and the first ever Great Big God USA event this afternoon - with around 100 kids & their parents. The band sounded great, everyone danced and sang and had a great time. There were five workshops, stories, games and a lovely ministry time at the end with many connecting with God. What a privilege to come all this way & do something we love doing...

I know that quite a few folks back home are thinking about us - thanks so much for your prayers, comments, emails & texts. So far it's going really well and we're all fine. Tomorrow we take part in the church service (I'm preaching to the adults and the others are leading the kids) before sightseeing in Washington DC, then we fly on on to California on Monday.

I'm still struggling to get my head around the time difference (having lived in the same time zone for 37 years it's frankly a bit weird) but my body is slowly getting the idea.

Anyway - gotta sleep. Peace & Love to all.

Nigel