Sunday morning Janice and I arrived yesterday in London for a week in the United Kingdom. We are going to Stopsley Baptist Church for the day today for worship this morning and one of the Christmas Carol Gospel Festival service. The Program is being called "Gift of a Lifetime".
Seven churches in the Luton area, just a bit north of London, came together to create a mass choir and program with all the churches participating. Each church will have their own venue in auditoriums, shopping centers, and churches. It actually started Friday night (the 5th) and will continue through the week to next Sunday the 14th.
On Wednesday, I will go to Scotland for two meetings to see what the future holds there and then Thursday, Janice and I will travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for three meetings there.
Certainly all this need an umbrella of prayer. The United Kingdom and Ireland are varied in the religious "waterfront". England is almost completely secular. Ireland is very Catholic and Northern Ireland is very sectarian with a great deal of conflict along a religious identity differentiation.
Please pray for us as we serve the King in the Untied Kingdom!
Alan Heavey, formerly an IC EuroLeadership team member, asked me to forward this to as many people as possible to pray for a project in Romania.
We have had a great day in Luton, worshipping at Stopsley Baptist church, visiting and eating (and eating!) with three families of dear friends. We will communicate more tomorrow....
Jerry & Janice
What a wonderful set of experiences Janice and I have encountered this this week in the United Kingdom! We have discovered new friends, new opportunities and and seen the hand of God at work in new ways.
The Christmas Carol Gospel Festival among 8-9 Baptist churches in Luton County appears to be very successful on many fronts. While I don't have results from all the venues, I did understand that there were 27 responses last Sunday at Stopsley. There are five venues (presentations) starting last Friday and going through tomorrow (Sunday) night. Additionally, tyhe churches have found the cooperative venture a great tool to build up relationships among themselves. There is talk to do it again, perhaps next year. Some other ideas are being floated..... Stay tuned!
Bryan Doyle, long-time friend, former IC EuroLeadership team member, and also pastor at Stopsley, went to Scotland with me on Wednesday. We met with David Gordon, the new Evangelism Coordinator for the Scottish Baptist Union. Having Bryan there was a great help as we attempted to explain 30 years of partnership in only 3 hours. David and I will become great friends, I know, because he knows where there is great Chinese food! We will continue exploring how God would have IC serve the Baptist churches of the Scottish Baptist Union. One other interesting bit of news: David pastored for many years on the Isle of Man, an autonomous country that is part of the commonwealth of Great Britian (much like Puerto rico is to the USA). Perhaps some contacts can move forward there.
While in Scotland, we had the opportunity to visit also with John Magee, a long-time partner in the gospel. Janice was a guest in his church 20+ years ago on the lovely Scottish Island of Islay and it has had a warm place in her heart ever since.
On Thursday, Janice and I flew to Ulster (Northern Ireland) where we met the President and the General Secretary of the Association of Baptist Churches of Ireland, Clive Johnston and Billy Colville, respectively. what fine gentlemen and hosts they were. We have agreed to think through possibilities to see if the Lord would have IC connect and assist with the Baptist Churches who are part of the Association.
Two more new friends, Alan and Rosemary Armstrong treated us to lunch at a golf club that would make many of my friends and family green with envy. They serve with European Christian Mission and Rosemary is on the board of the Association. We discussed possibilities of how IC and ECM might help advance the kingdom in some areas of cooperation. They are a mission sending agency and have mostly longer-term mission opportunities.
It is always a joy to reunite with special people and we concluded our time in Ulster by reconnecting with Wallace Pepper, a key lay-leader of the Willow Creek work in the U.K. He was so kind and generous to invite us to his home for the evening meal (sometimes we really have to work to get all the meals done each day!) prepared by his super-chef wife, Margaret. We had some time to meet his beautiful daughters and rugby-plying son, Susanna (20), Kathryn (17), Edward (13), before he kindly drove us to the airport for our evening flight back to London Luton.
Janice and I were able to spend a bit of time in the Operation Mobilization office in Northern London on Friday. This is where Lori Martin, from the IC main office, has felt God calling her to minister. She goes there next month.
Janice and I have spent the rest of our time here enjoying being together. This month marks our 35th year of marriage. How Janice has tolerated me for so long is a testimony to the power of prayer! We have seen three plays: one musical (for Janice) and one drama for me. We also went to the stage version of "Wait Until Dark" which was an [old] movie we enjoyed back when we were sweethearts at Baylor. It was nice nostalgia.
Tomorrow we will go to Stopsley for their morning worship services and then return to London for our last anniversary celebration event: high tea (really a gift for Janice of "I love you enough to go eat dainty sandwiches" from me).
Thank you for your prayers for this trip. Speaking of prayers, the Preschool minister from our church, Pat Ann Fenner, has finished her chemotherapy treatments for leukemia, and the results appear very, very positive. We praise the Lord for that and for each of you who prayed for her. Let me also ask you to pray for several of my friends who are with a former client of mine, all of whom are believers and are caught in a very negative set of circumstances with a great deal of heart-ache for all.
Pardon the long email, but wanted to bring all up to speed....
With gratitude for your partnership,
Jerry & Janice Byrd
We had just finished packing for our return to the US tomorrow when we received a phone call from our son saying that they were on the way to the emergency room for the second time with our three year old grandson, Bryson, who had a second unexplained loss of consciousness.
We trust the Lord completely, but London is such a long way from that E.R. bed.
Join us in prayer for an intervention of our Holy God in this need in Bryson's and all our lives.
Jerry & Janice
PS We have tried to get an earlier flight but all seems full.
What a comfort it is to know that hundreds of people all over the world are praying on behalf of little Bryson! What power is there in that....
It is Monday, 6:30 am in London. We have just heard from Patty, Janice's sister, who is at Children's hospital in Dallas. Bryson had another seizure at the hospital (his 3rd). They are admitting him, but are not too worried. The seizures are short and the doctors say that is good (but frightening still).
We are staying up and planning to go to the airport to standby for an earlier flight (2 hours earlier). Someone will pick us up at the airport and take us directly to the hospital. We are so very grateful for your prayers and for your special partnership.
So very gratefully,
Jerry & Janice Byrd
We are on the earliest and best flight to Chicago, then Dallas, arriving 2 hours earlier.
Pray on!
Jerry and Janice
We are so grateful to God for His answers to the prayers of many of you and of our own petitions. Little Bryson went home yesterday from Children's Hospital in Dallas. All the tests returned Clear and he has no medication. The medical team there believes that this was a relatively isolated occurrence and things are ok.
Since he has had one seizure, he is more likely than the general population to have another in the future. According to one doctor in the ER, they have 25 children per day that come in having had a seizure! I was shocked at how common this is.
Janice and I believe that God has intervened in Bryson's life and we thank Him for it. Likewise, we thank you for your prayer intervention on his and our family's behalf.
Jerry & Janice Byrd
Please continue praying for wisdom in dealing with these new developments...
Jerry Byrd
[These are a series of emails that Jason. our son, sent out. They are in reverse order.]
Friday, December 19, 2003 8:41 AMWanted to send another update on Bryson. He had another seizure this morning at the house, so we are now scheduling an office visit with a Pediatric Neurologist as soon as we can to determine what our next course of action will be. Again, please keep all of us in your prayers. Thank you so much for your support.
-Jason
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 10:44 PM
Update on BrysonThank you to all that had our family in your thoughts and prayers, and to those the sent us words of encouragement. I wanted to just give you guys a quick update... Bryson has not had seizures since Sunday. He had an EEG on Tuesday which came out normal, surprising the doctors (since he had had three seizures in one day.) Had he gotten EEG results like they might have expected, history and statistics would say he would have had an 80% chance for another seizure. However, his normal EEG means that he has a 50% chance. Consequently we left the hospital Tuesday night without medication.
Now we will go each day watching and praying that he is in the other 50%, yet prepared for his next seizure. If it occurs, we would need to reevaluate the prospect of ongoing medications for at least the next 2 years.
Thank you again for your prayer, encouragement, kind words, errands, dinners, gifts, compassion, time and love. Merry Christmas!
-Jason
Monday, December 15, 2003 2:45 AM
Medical Situation in my familyI wanted to update you guys with what is going this week and what will inevitably effecting me this week at work....
My 3 year old son Bryson had three grand mal seizures over a 12 hour period today (Sunday) and we will be at the hospital probably through Tuesday running tests. (He has no history of this.) You can call my cell phone tomorrow, but I might not have much access to my email.Literally, while arguing with the physicians about why Bryson should stay at the hospital overnight after "recovering" his second seizure, he seized again with the medical staff there. Now, after this third episode they have him on a collection of medication to try and break the cycle. Over the next two days he will be at Children's Medical in Dallas getting an EEG and an MRI. Unless we find something specific (which they don't expect), we will be left making the decision about whether or not to put Bryson on medication for the foreseeable future (and accept their side effects), or attempt to go back to life as usual hoping that the day of December 14 was some sort of triplicate anomaly. Please pray for wisdom... and much peace.
-Jason
So many of you have emailed to inquire about our grandson, Bryson. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayer!
Bryson saw his pediatric neurologist today and he received the complete history from Bryson's parents. He has started some medication which is expected to reduce the likelihood of future seizures. The challenge is for his parents, his grandparents and other family and friends to let him live a normal, little-boy life. We look forward to seeing what God has in store for Bryson.
We pray for all our wonderful encouragers to have a blessed Christmas. We hunger for more days of service together!
Jerry & Janice Byrd