News from Robert & Beth Landon joining World Horizons, based in Wales.
Landon Family Prayer Update: July 2004
Hello! Phew, so much has happened since our last newsletter in April, that we thought it was time to send out some more news to inform you in your prayers. Firstly, we would like to say again how highly we value your prayer for us. Secondly, may we apologise to those of you at St.Peter’s who didn’t receive April’s newsletter. Beth had technical problems with e-mailing it to the church office, and only realised when it was a bit late!
The kids
Our main event since April has been
the safe arrival of Emily Ruth on 18th May. At 7 weeks she is now
sleeping well and growing out of her newborn clothes. She is also very good at
being in prayer meetings, as she barely cries until late afternoon usually! We
are discovering you can enjoy a second baby so much more, as you are a bit more
confident about how to handle them. Thank you for those of you who prayed for
Nathan, who has been very unsettled recently. He is returning back to being the
lovely, happy boy we know he really is, with more usual levels of naughtiness
for a 2 year old! Please continue to pray for him, as Emily becomes more alert
and a greater diversion for Mummy and Daddy’s attention. Nathan starts at
a Welsh-medium play-group (without mummy!) in November, in preparation for
nursery school a year in September.
Robert writes………
Since April,
the team I am in has led residential camps for 7 groups. They have been
incredibly varied, ranging from a Christian school to recovering addicts!
In our team, we enjoy a privileged position of leading very adventurous and
challenging activities where we rapidly get to know people and gain their
trust. Helping someone sobbing through a tight cave is one of the most potent
catalysts for friendship I know! And I have been amazed by the openness of many
young people to share about their hopes, beliefs and struggles while scrubbing
clay out of caving suits, or hanging up buoyancy aids at the end of the day.
God has an amazing knack of using these practical, physical things to open
people up to spiritual truth. In a book called Wild at Heart, John Eldridge
talks about man’s God given desires for 3 things: adventure, beauty and
intimacy. I think some of the effectiveness of activity camps lies in the
combination of adventure amidst the beauty of nature raising awareness of the
missing third – intimacy with the creator.
From my family and church
background, I have found it easy to relate to visiting church youth and
Christian school groups. It has been great to share as they have talked about
things like peer pressure and feeling misunderstood. I need wisdom to know when
listening and gently encouraging is the best course, or when a more direct
response is needed.
Working with groups like international students from
Swansea, or City Gateway (skills training centre for young people – mainly
Muslims - in East London) has a very different feel. We don’t want to
‘Bible bash,’ so talks from the front may cover topics such as hope,
or fear in the most general of terms, and we look for times to share THE hope
we have if people show interest. Normally for me, that time comes shortly after
they hear the word ‘volunteer’!
Two young men became Christians
following the City Gateway camps and are now starting to tell their friends.
This is a bold step, particularly for Res, a Bangladeshi, as his peers struggle
to understand how an Asian can be a Christian.
There is so much more I want
to write, but I will resist. On our training they told us how to write good
news letters – apparently 2 sides should be the absolute limit. Some rules
are made to be broken……….
Beth writes…
Life for me has of course
been focused on the children, with no time for anything else very much until
recently. This week I have been leading devotions each morning for a group of 6
young people who are training to be assistant leaders on the camps over the
summer. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and have been left with a hunger to do
more! Other than that I remain part of the Asia UK team, attending prayer
meetings when possible, and am about to take up the responsibility of making
sure all our workers in Asia receive birthday cards. I am still seeking God for
what he has for me to do in Horizon’s, as this continues to be unclear,
and plans I had continue to fall through! I have recently been sensing God
challenging me to give more to life and to see things more positively. Please
pray for me in this, as I tend to be easily overwhelmed. I am getting more used
to this unusual way of life, making more friends, and generally feeling much
happier (perhaps partly the relief of not being pregnant any more!).
The future
We are praying at the moment
about what we need to be doing in the next year or so to prepare us, and to
help us determine what God wants us to do, on a more long-term basis.
Living abroad is very much in our thinking, but not definite. We are
considering spending a couple of months next year in Asia (Central?) somewhere,
as this is the area of the world we both feel drawn to. One major issue with
this is the health of the kids, so we need to know for sure if this is what God
wants us to do.
We would also love to take a group from St.Peter’s to
North Africa, if there are enough people interested (please let us know if you
are!), and perhaps spend a bit of time there as a family too. We are thinking
about early next year for this.
For the near future, though, we anticipate
staying in Llanelli. Robert has lots of outdoor pursuits qualifications still
to achieve, and for now we feel we’re in the right place with lots of room
to expand in this work where we are. In particular Robert’s team is
looking to step into commercial outdoor activities and Robert has been asked to
head this up.
Currently, all our camps are run on a charitable basis (not
for profit) and with the explicit aims of evangelism, character development and
promoting missions. Some of the team (me included) now want to branch out into
running more commercially focused activities with less explicitly Christian
aims. Why? Because we want to build experience that will be a springboard for
running similar events, and eventually businesses, in countries where anything
overtly Christian is out of the question, and where good business credentials
are a pre-requisite for getting visas. Good businesses also make good
employers, and some of our teams overseas (e.g. Cambodia) are crying out for
more good quality job opportunities as a platform for their discipleship work.
This is a new avenue for us and I feel completely ill equipped. My only
‘qualification’ for entering business is an increasing sense of
God’s guiding in this direction.
We Value Your Support! We can’t stress this enough and please don’t take the infrequency of our letters to mean anything else!
With much love,
Robert, Beth, Nathan and Emily.
Contact details:
These can be obtained from the Church
Office.