Keith's travels

Keith is travelling again next week, this time to visit some of the teams in Europe; Norway, Sweden, France and Germany. He hasn't been to Norway or Sweden before, so is very excited to be able to add to the list of countries he has visited!

Logos Hope

The Logos Hope, OM's new ship, has been launched, after a few years in a dockyard in Croatia. She is on her way to Kiel in Germany for the final refitting. The ship is hoping to visit England sometime next year. Visit http://www.omships.org/ and follow the links to the virtual voyage to view the webcam and the voyage tracker. We were able to watch last Thursday as the ship left the quayside.

Latest news from the frozen north

An update from the Mallons

I write this missive at 6.45am on the train from Carlisle to Birmingham, this is the start of a fairly busy patch and we’d like to keep friends and family up to date with what we’re up to!

We are now established in our own home which is a great blessing – the house is a big Victorian semi with loads of room to get lost in. The kids each have a fantastic room and we have a guest room too – so book in and come and see us. The Lake District is nearby – 20 mins to Scotland and Gretna Green, we’re en route to anywhere North and 3 hours from Sheffield.

The kids are settling in to life well now, many thanks for all your prayers, we have had our moments! School is getting sorted gradually although Tessa remains in the lowest set for IT which we all think is hilarious. Ruth has a good circle of friends and fits into the local youth group well, Tessa hasn’t found a youth group but is getting to know folk gradually. Izzy is fairly shy at the new school but has found a pal in the locality.

We’ve been going to the local church round the corner called St James it’s an evangelical Anglican church and well connected to the community – as yet we haven’t finally decided we’ll stay. Many of the neighbours are members and it is a real local community.

My (Keith’s) work is getting into gear with more travel, relationships and challenge. Principally I am working on how we can arrange financial systems of OM to satisfy a wide range of global regulation requirements. This means keeping the money flowing to missionaries in a bunch of high risk countries.

This takes a deal of international co-ordination and I have recently been back to the USA to meet sister organisations such as Wycliffe and Navigators to see how their structures are working.

The role is very challenging and I am having to draw upon lots of experience and a huge measure of faith. Trying to get people to think globally is difficult and occasionally my brain pops! Nevertheless it is very stimulating and I am enjoying working with some great folk. What I am doing is hugely appreciated which is a big encouragement.

Dawn is looking more relaxed than we envisaged, it turns out she was really ready for a change from teaching. No longer in constant danger of assault she has entered the field of communications and seems to be returning to her original love of digging for information.

We have been sort of detached from our former life for nearly a year now. A few statistics on the past 12 months

Keith has flown on 38 flights covering 77000 miles at least once round the world. We’ve been to 9 countries, met over 50 nationalities, lived in a ship 130m long and 16m wide and on some days seen 12,000 available to receive a gospel message.

We think that’s not a bad change in life so far!

Keith is in the USA this week, visiting Wycliffe and Navigators. It will be useful for him to see how other international organizations operate. It has been a punishing schedule: Denver, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Atlanta. By the time he returns he will have been on 9 plane journeys in a week, so his carbon footprint is massive! 33 plane journeys this year....!

summer activities

We are back online now in our new house and hopefully better able to communicate with the world! We love the house.

I will give a brief overview of our summer:

Dawn took Tessa and Izzy to New Wine, which was rather waterlogged, but a great time of meeting with God and catching up with friends.

Ruth and Tessa went to Mission Teens only, run by OM for its teenagers. It took place in Germany, and despite some homesickness the girls have made some good friends, and are now communicating internationally on MSN.

Ruth also attended a summer school for Luv Esther. It is a musical which is well worth seeing if you get the chance. She opted for dancing at the summer school, (what a surprise) and spent 3-4 hours dancing each day. The time including teaching and small group times, and she came back buzzing!

Ruth's cosmetics and clothes arrive...

What can I say - we have a home. This is the trailer that delivered our stuff. And what a lot of stuff - this underlines the need for a change in lifestyle.

Dawn went away and left Ruth and I to do it - very wise!

We found out last week 2 of the containers with our stuff were flood damaged - very sad but not very precious stuff . It should all be insured and frankly in comparison with all the folk flooded down south it seems minor.

It is great to have a home again - looking forward to welcoming you all!

Move day!

Dawn, Tessa and Isabel are clearly the clever ones, they've gone to New Wine - actually might not be so clever with all the flooding at present.

This leaves Ruth and I to work with the removals men on the house move. It was all going swimmingly well - exchange last friday - keys on wednesday - bit of cleaning and painting - stuff arrives monday - good timing perhaps?

All blown out of the water (almost quite literally) having paid removals in full on wednesday day (very polite lady at SBS) to be informed on thursday that 2 containers have been flood damaged!

So hopefully its the expensive things we dont like and not the precious cheap tat that adorned our house.

Hoping we can post exciting photos of sludgy unwanted items with high insurance value later this week.......

Ruth has had me paint her room already - deep purple colour on the chimney breast and light brown / velvety brown walls. This is important Daddy and daughter time. I managed to switch the quantities of light and dark paint at the diy shop and the plan was retrieved by an obliging Ruth who quite liked it anyway.

I do like our new home - lots of lovely folk from the OM office came and helped clean and cut back the garden on Saturday - we're looking forward to opening up the home to all and sundry.

New school

Izzy had her first visit to Trinity school, which is where Ruth and Tessa already go and where she will go next year. On the left is the impressive looking 6th form block, but the school is quite a sprawling site, comprising of what was 3 schools, so I will give you a view of another part of the site. Unfortunately Izzy has not been put with any of the girls from her primary school, so she will need to make new friends again when she starts. She will at least be able to arrange to meet the girls she knows at lunch times. We think the school is about 25 minutes walk from our new house; they have to be there at 8.25 so will have to be organised!

new home at last!

We have exchanged contracts today and will have the keys to our new house next Wednesday! It will be another few days before our containers can be delivered but then after 6 months we will be reunited with our belongings and have a home again! The house, a late Victorian semi, is in Denton Holme; to the West of the city centre and south of the river, for anyone who knows Carlisle. It is a great location, in a quiet unadopted road, but only 15 minutes walk from the city centre, 25 minutes to school for the girls, and also within easy reach of the station, swimming pool, library and bowling alley. It is of course not far from the Lake District and we will have plenty of room for guests!

Carlisle life has begun - no home yet!

We apologise for the limited communications - Dawn has now been appointed Director of Commuinications (Mallon Inc) European (North) (Scottish Borders) to rectify the deficiency

This is not our prospective home but Carlisle Castle which we regularly drive past (no helicopter view like this)

We are still homeless and have been living out of the same 5 suitcases and 5 hand luggage bags that we took around the world in a series of houses belonging to some very kind people! Admittedly we have added to the luggage- especially some warmer clothes than we needed on our travels! However, it is frightening to find that we have had few problems without the container loads of “stuff” that are still in storage, and thankfully not under water, despite being in Sheffield! But the news today is that our house purchase could all go very fast now, but we are not sure we can believe it until it happens!

Filling in the gap of the past few weeks...

Well we have had intermittent internet contact for a few weeks and we really need to post an update!

Picking up the thread from our where we left off before….

We met up with our dear old friends the Butlers presently residing in Wollongong Australia to give them a dose of good old English culture. The kids (Elizabeth, Peter and Martha) have slipped badly into local Australian colloquialisms and could quite easily pass off as locals in due course.

We were subjected to a whirlwind of treats – climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge – Sleepover at the zoo – Kayaking down Kangaroo creek – surfing – BBQs – chilling – rain forests …… we realised how much we miss these dear friends. Now we can imagine what their life is like which colours in the picture. We all cried when these friends left our UK lives, we lived in one another’s’ pockets and shared deeply. We sort of felt like the advance party and encourage all their friends to book those flights and go see them!

Next stop was New Zealand for a spot of educational interest (volcanic – geothermal – steamy – geysery things) for a brief rest then on to the USA where we connected with our family.

We haven’t all been together in some time and there was great significance in us all meeting up before we attack the next phase of life. Paddy and Mary return to Sheffield in June and Nigel and Sue (+kids) follow in July. We had a super time and it sort of closed out our time of family travel before we establish our new UK home base.

During our travels we sold the Sheffield home and attempted to secure a home in Carlisle the OM team base. All the best laid plans fell apart and we have been blessed with time at Mary and Paddy’s flat in Sheffield. Ruth and Izzy have national SAT tests and their schools were kind enough to let them return to their classes (no small miracle) and so we see ourselves relocating in Carlisle after the half term break in early June.

Keith has started working with the International Coordinating Team for OM in Carlisle and will commute for a few weeks. So please pray as we tackle yet another period of change!

Initially Keith can keep up life on a skateboard travelling around to get to know folk within OM and getting a grasp of how the finance systems work. The challenge is how to hold family life together with a deal of uncertainty.

Taiwan - Hong Kong - Australia

We have commenced our travels again having left the MV Doulos at the end of the port visit to Kaoshiung. Our first port of call was Hong Kong to regroup and get some family time. It was an emotional time leaving the ship separating from many new friends who we have come to love and shared a fantastic time with. The ship was leaving on the same day to plough on to Taichung – this port was to be very busy having previously notched up the highest recorded number of visitors ever at a previous visit.

The kids were very sad to leave all their new found friends and we all shed tears at the quayside. There was much to rejoice about having experienced a wonderfully exciting dimension of the ministry. On the last Sunday Keith preached at the on board service and was able to share something of his heart. In the afternoon we went on deck to look out over the thousands of folk who were waiting on the quayside to get on board. It is amazing to see so many folk drawn to what God is doing on the ship.

We stayed for a couple of days on an island which we reached by ferry from Hong Kong Island. It was a chance to concentrate on one another – ship life is hectic and it is possible to live in close proximity but never connect as a family so we all had a lot to process. It was fun hanging out together. Ruth managed to revert to long lie ins very skilfully and we took a day out to visit some of the amazing sights of the frenetic former colony.

Hong Kong delicacies

We also met up with Al French who Keith did some Alpha training with in Bihar India - they are about to run an Alpha training course for Chinese pastors with 1500 booked in which is really exciting


The kids also needed to do some study! These pictures are evidence...






Next port of call was Sydney so we took off to fly to the Southern hemisphere! Initially Keith was meeting up with Shane who he is taking over responsibilities from in OM. Shane and Sarah and family live north of Sydney in a terrific suburb. They welcomed us into their home and we were blessed to join their family for a few days. Their church is amazing with a real heart for mission in their Sunday service we found out they have loads of missionaries supported all round the world.

We had a trip out to the Blue Mountains famous for the blue haze caused by the Eucalyptus trees.

The 3 sisters - apparently the Queen regularly visits this site!

Thereafter we have just joined up with our old friends the Butlers in Wollongong. We have missed them so much since they emigrated some 9 months ago and we are pinching ourselves as we sit round the same old table they had in Sheffield. The sun shines outside and the kids are all chattering and we realise that relationships can endure beyond anything we imagine. It is lovely just to enjoy one another’s company. Their home is lovely and the banter familiar. Last night we met Peter’s girlfriend and family – makes you shudder – I wonder how long we can avoid such a predicament!


Old friends new context


Only a few more weeks and we will be back in the UK and starting the next phase of life. First we are en route to see Keith’s family in the USA which is a real blessing. Meanwhile our house purchase in Carlisle seems to have faltered and we are starting to feel rootless. Please pray as we try to work out how to sort accommodation issues out!

Philippines ~~~ to ~~~~.....Taiwan

Voyage from Batangas, Philippines to Kaohsiung, March 6th-9th
The voyage was reported to be the worst for over a year, with waves of 3-4 metres. The majority of the crew, including us, suffered from seasickness! Our cabin is very close to the front of the ship, and therefore moves considerably! We therefore spent as little time as possible in the cabin; the girls slept in the lounge at night, in the centre of the ship.

On the way to Kaohsiung we were given orientation into Taiwanese culture, by someone who has lived and worked here for a while. The orientation included an introduction to Taiwanese tea, cold with “black pearls” in, practice in using chopsticks, some language, and instructions on which way to approach a toilet!

Taiwanese culture is steeped in ancestor worship and the church is weak with less than 3% Christians. This is in marked contrast to the Philippines where there was an ease of communication and great warmth to the good news. 22million people live here in the 2nd most densely populated on earth.

Kaohsiung – Taiwan’s 2nd city
Keith is very excited to be here as it is the only country we will be visiting on this trip that he hasn’t been to before! Less English is spoken here in Taiwan than in the Philippines, so meetings are translated into Mandarin. It is amazing how much can be communicated with little common language, and there are enough Mandarin speakers, including the local volunteers who come to help for the duration of the port, to help out when we get into difficulty! We can walk into the city from the ship, which we are enjoying after being dependent on public transport in the last port. The bookshop is quite quiet during weekdays until early evening, but much busier at weekends. The first weekend 18,000 people came on board and this weekend people have had to wait in line for several hours to get on the ship.


Crowds waiting in line to get on board

Keith and Ruth were on the national tv news for a few minutes when the shot some footage of the ship arriving.

The city is just like a western level of affluence but people work very hard and all the signs are in Chinese characters. The political situation is very difficult for the Taiwanese and they are quick to point out that they are Taiwanese not Chinese.

Lantern Festival


During our first weekend we had the opportunity to visit the “Lantern festival”, as Chinese New Year was still being celebrated. We, along with hundreds of other visitors, walked through a tunnel lined with lanterns made by elementary and high school pupils, and students, from recyclable materials. The lanterns were amazingly complex; many were pigs for the year of the pig. We met some students who answered our questions, and had kits for the children (quite a few of the families were with us) to make their own lanterns. The students seemed to really enjoy meeting so many foreign children.

It is evident that the advertising for the ship has been very effective and many people recognise us as coming from Doulos. It makes it very easy to invite them to visit

Night Market
One member of the A-team (land based team) from the Philippines, Solomon, is from Taiwan. Our team spent an evening at the night market with him as our guide. It was great to have him around to explain some of the culture, and to encourage us to try food that we would otherwise have avoided. The night market was lined with stalls selling food and trinkets, and was a hive of activity. We avoided the duck’s head and pig’s intestines, but enjoyed our noodles, dumplings and fruit drinks.

Ministry Opportunities
The people are very open and keen to practice their English – Keith has been subjected to numerous photo sessions with young Taiwanese girls who want a picture alongside his good looks in the bookshop.
On the first weekend he had an opportunity to preach in a local church and encourage the believers. It was a privilege to be part of their service and the meal afterwards had loads of different types of fish.
It is amazing how much you can communicate even with out language skills. Dawn has made friends with a lady called Mavis who has visited 4 times bringing gifts and clearly wants to strike up a friendship.


Ruth plucked up the courage to perform tap for the crowds one evening!


The crew engage with the crowds

Our further travels
Please pray for us as we leave the ship in a weeks time – our time draws to a close very quickly. On 27th March we head to Hong Kong then on to Sydney to spend time connecting with the present Financial Officer and start some actual work. Thereafter we travel on to the USA to connect with the Mallon clan before heading home at the end of April to Carlisle. Pray the kids will adapt to what is another huge wrench, pray we will end well and say our goodbyes again well. We thank God for a wonderful time, Keith is preaching at the ship’s Sunday service 25th March. Also our house in Carlisle is not yet exchanged so we could do with some reassurance for that!

What happened on our adventure into the interior...

A-team report

Our team: Katharina Reikoff (TL), Jonathan Chereau (ATL), Solomon Tang, Keith Mallon, Dawn Mallon, Ruth Mallon (14), Tessa Mallon (12), Isabel Mallon (10)

Location:

Near Lucena, Philippines, while the Doulos was in Batangas

We were in a rural area with paddy fields surrounding us. Their housing was wooden or concrete structures with corrugated iron roofs, and had usually one or two rooms. There was no running water and few had toilets. Drinking water needed to be bought but was not purified. The irrigation channel for the paddy fields was used for washing clothes, crockery, and for sewage.

Hosts:

Our hosts were Sonia Beraňa, the Director of EHMI, and Susan Sanchez, who works alongside her. EHMI is a holistic ministry. As well as running the church which was planted 3 years ago they provide counselling and spiritual direction, and run retreats for groups and individuals. They reach out to the community using a sponsorship programme for school children and students, micro lending livelihood projects.


The team and our hosts

Accommodation:

 We stayed in the church, which was comfortable with good facilities. The garden surrounding the church was a real haven, as it was designed for hosting retreats.

Tessa relaxing

Izzy in character

Food:

Food was cooked in the adjacent house, and we were very well fed. We were all very humbled to realise that people from the area were bringing food contributions of rice, vegetables, eggs and fish for us, despite having so little themselves.

Local makeshift transport on the redundant railway line

Rice harvest in front of the church

Some of the team tried Balut, a cooked egg containing a chick, a favourite food in the Philippines.

Language:

The language spoken in the area is Tagalot. A few people spoke good English. Some people spoke a little English but were very self conscious about using it until later in the week. We tried to learn some Tagalot phrases, which the Filipinos really seemed to appreciate.

Ruth taking it easy

 Ministry:

Adults: We made some visits to homes to encourage and pray for people, and attended and lead Bible studies in homes. We were touched by the way that we were welcomed to their homes and that they were willing to share deeply about themselves, though an interpreter!. The theme for the church in March is mission and the leaders are hoping to help their congregation to recognise other needs in the world.  We were able to help them in this by using the weekly prayer meetings to focus on our own countries and by using mission, in the context of God thinking we are all special and wanting to use us, as a theme in the Sunday.

Time for mime

Children and youth: We introduced some songs and games to the children in Sunday school and kids club, told them stories and showed dramas. The children were very eager and excited, and loved it when we showed an interest in them. One evening we lead the youth meeting, challenging them to seek God for His call on their lives. There were 2 opportunities for us to teach some of our skills; in a Bible study group at the University, and at the weekend when we ran a seminar for the youth, teaching drama, mime,  ballooning and how to share a testimony. The day was challenging to many of them as they were very shy, and for one of them it was the first time she had been willing to join in anything like that, but several of them expressed their appreciation. Some of them performed the mime in church on Sunday. The children on our team were able to participate in these programmes.

Retreat:

The team at the church encouraged us to spend a morning in silent retreat. We all really appreciated that time, and their focus on ministry being a result of our relationship with God.

Our contribution:

We had a time of feedback with the congregation at the end of our time. The overriding feeling seemed to be that they felt valued by us. We think this may have been our most important contribution as many of them had such low self esteem. They also commented on how good it was to have a family amongst the group; few men attend the church and many families have broken and strained relationships. The youth felt that they had some new skills as a result of the workshops. We all felt that we had made some worthwhile relationships, and had mixed feelings about leaving.

 

This might not be the best thing to show you!

Come to Daddy! This is Ruth - Dawn was the only chicken!

En route to Batangas the ship drifted for a few hours as we were ahead of schedule- the Captain announced a small excursion with comprehensive safety rules - the crew we sooooo excited! It has not happened for 3 years

The sight from a local island

Bye bye Cebu hello Batangas

Cebu daily star - spot the bald geezer from Blighty!



We arrived in Batangas City & Province today to another big welcome. We left Cebu after a long 4 week stay – some 130,000 visitors came to the ship book exhibition buying 133,000 books - 18,000 came to conferences on board including 10,000 school kids. All left with some element of the message of the ship which is - to bring Knowledge, Help and Hope.

As we left the quayside a large group of local Christian supporters and street kids waved us off. It was quite emotional. Its amazing how quickly you can connect with folk. We were showered with attention. An example – we got back to our cabin to find a gift bag on the door, on investigation it was from a couple we met on a marriage seminar. We had chatted for a very short time and they had been impacted sufficiently to express thanks with a card and big bag of cookies.

Likewise with the street kids, my heart sort of broke to see them at the quayside waving us off – they shouted messages sang choruses and behaved as kids should. They however live on the streets largely unattended, some complete orphans. Philippines has a huge number of children like this scratching out an exposed life and wide open to all sorts of abuses.

It has however been a time to give huge thanks for – I talked to the local OM leader as we sailed away and she expressed how this visit had not only penetrated the churches with the encouragement for mission but the media and the business community. When so many are affected things can change.

One highlight was meeting our little Compassion girl Sarah May and her family – she and 165 other kids from the scheme came to the ship on the final Saturday. Less overawed and more relaxed she talked more and we will leave with enduring memories. Amazingly another couple on the ship have a son who has literally just started sponsoring a little boy form the same centre – the whole situation just replayed a week after ours. Now 265 kids all think their sponsors will be coming!



Sarah May and friends enjoying lunch on board



Well we need your prayers for the next week. We are joining an A team (A for action)

This involves a 9 day stay away with a church in Lucena some 2 hours away. We will be involved in practical building work, bible studies, student evangelism and all things church wise. The kids are coming too – the team are very excited – our kids are less than muted (you can imagine) we leave 24th Feb and return 4th March

Pray – for health and safety –impact with the church – great team times – kiddie harmony and opportunity for good news!

Oh yes and – the house in Sheffield has sold!!!! Still waiting for Carlisle house to happen

Dreams can come true.......

We met Sarah May her sisters and Mum!


Sarah May and her family

We saw our extended family in Cebu, Philippines! Some 7 years ago the girls came back to our tent at New Wine (Summer Conference) suggesting we support a child. Well it seems obvious to do – you can’t resist and the direct debit bank forms were duly completed.

In due course we heard that we have a little girl called Sarah May born in 1994 and living in the Philippines. Over the course of the past few years we have received a steady stream of letters in clearer English marking her progress through the education.

Of course you assume you will never meet this child…. Well not so!

When we heard we were coming to the Philippines with MV Doulos we dug out our details and checked the atlas and found that she lives on the island of Cebu where the ship is going to be. But the Philippines is big and we would of course be miles away.

Anyway when we got here and made some enquiries we found that she was indeed some 70km away in another city – but through the Doulos contacts Dawn was able to make contact and yesterday we found we would be able to visit.

So today was our day off and after breakfast we struck out on an amazing adventure. First a taxi – to the bus terminal. Then a 2 hour bus ride – just ask for the Shell Gas station – then cross the road to the Baptist Church.(in a city 2 hours away)

And so we arrived to meet the team from the church who work with on the programme to rescue children from the trap of poverty. It turns out it was their day off but all 6 of them came to be involved. The work in Toleda City has been going 17 years but they have never had a visit from a sponsor of a specific child. We were so excited (not just for a safe arrival).

The church assists 256 children through the Compassion programme providing school fees, uniforms, health checks, training, spiritual input – all the things that will make a difference to the children. Another 100 are fed every week to keep them healthy.

We were received by a wonderful dedicated team with a big heart – they took us to the school (by local bus) where we were able to meet Sarah May – you just don’t expect these things to happen. Better still we met her sister then they took us to her home to meet her Mum.

She is 12 years old – same age as Tessa – and works hard at her studies. Recently her parents had to move closer to the shipyard where her father was able to gain work. She rises at 4am has a long journey to school for 7am and returns at 6pm – a long day for the oldest who has responsibility in the home with 2 sisters.

We were all moved to tears not least Sarah May’s Mum whose warm faith and gratitude instantly registered that we were indeed part of the same heavenly family. The children recited bible verses and sang songs becoming gradually less overawed. The Mallons even had a go at singing a few little numbers. Our bible memory verses were not so polished.

It was a special time – her home is down a track and through a field and along a bit and – well not on a bus route that we are used to.

The amazing thing is her whole group from the church are coming to visit Doulos in two weeks and we may never have known! So we will see her again.

The wonderful staff of the centre asked us to pray for them and the children – we feel like we can do this so much more effectively. You see what is a few quid for us we have seen with our own eyes turns a little girls life upside down. And it’s well spent.

We got to do see what many would dream of seeing – all you guys out there that support these children – keep doing it – God is changing lives.

Thanks so much to the Staff of the Toledo Student Centre they really love these kids and give of their time sacrificially. We think you’re fab!

Our latest Sunday

Cebu – Philippines

Well we have been moored at the port of Cebu since Thursday. Cebu is the main city of Cebu Island where they speak their own language. The island is an idyllic holiday location in parts but poverty is round the corner in many places.

Let me describe the reception we received at the port – the ship sailed 2 days to reach the port having left Manila on Tuesday. A line up team goes to a port some 3 – 6 months in advance of the ship’s visit – this is to gain necessary permissions – link up with locals and generally get the whole thing together. On the day of arrival local churches will often prepare a welcome – the ship appears over the horizon from the port and the crew hang over the decks with all their national flags. This ship has been to Cebu 4 times previously over the last 20+ years and many folk were expectant about its arrival.

We got a big welcome in Cebu – a drum band, classical orchestra and worship band all were on the quayside with banners and dancing from local kids and a cultural group. The ship was involved in establishing a ministry among street kids last visit and about 30 from the day-care centre danced for the ship. It was all quite moving – a family from the ship came from the city so there was a big banner welcoming them and their family alongside. A local Pastor addressed us all over the tannoy and the worship band did their thing!

I had to break off in the middle to start getting the book exhibition ready – I am detailed to work there for the next few weeks – you work on shifts (in uniform). The book-ex (jargon) caries 6000 titles and sells great titles at huge knockdown prices. The split is 50-50 secular spiritual and gives the local population for miles around access to literature at an accessible price – westerners just take this for granted.

It takes a full day to prepare for the visitors the shelves need replenishing – vast quantities need to be retrieved from the hold – the lift is 90 years old – a lot is basic manhandling. I am hugely impressed at the young 20 somethings who run it all with military precision often working 10 hour shifts. Clear up and replenishment sometimes goes on ‘til 2-3am to v=be ready for the next day.

The books are really good and great value – the marriage section has loads of titles we have never seen and it is really excellent. There are cookery books – kid’s books – Christian living titles – devotionals – atlases – history – classics – just masses.

So we do a big opening with dignitaries – First time in the Philippines it was President Marcos who opened the exhibit – people dress in national costumes – there are 54 nationalities on board at present. There is a grand opening function – then the invitees hit the book-ex. Of course all the time we are looking to engage with folk and share what makes a group of folk like us want to live together in a metal box that floats.

The main exhibition opened on Friday with a bang – 12000 people came through the exhibition – that is a lot of people. This port 10000 school kids are scheduled to come through – there is programmes for them and pastors and all sorts of groups – teaching and fun and tours etc. So all the kids at this port will get a clear Good News presentation.

On Sunday I joined a team to preach at a local church in Talisay City. It was a real honour; I went with a Malaysian girl, a South African grandmother and an American. I preached in the main service and they did a kids programme. The church runs a programme feeding local kids on the dump site – we went with them to run fun games and a presentation for the kids. After the presentation the kids are fed a meal which is their only regular meal. Other food they have to work the dump for which I can assure you is a shocking existence. Their families live there and the church project has an amazing impact on their lives.

They were great kids – bright excited and excitable! Just hungry, not the scrawny bloated belly African near death hunger but hungry enough for huge excitement around a pot of stuff I would have died eating.

It all affects you – the Pastor explained a local businessmen supplies 4 chickens a week and a bag of rice a month and that’s how they afford it – 4 chickens £12 x 52 – 12 x £5 = £700 per year approx to make a huge difference to a whole little community. The amazing part of being involved – is when we go – they know someone cares about them – maybe its less practical than the local Pastor – it really carries some clout though.

Compassion has some 24 centres on the island where children from poor homes are supported by monthly western donations – turns out the little girl we have been supporting for 8 years is on this island – so we are going to see if we can find her….This church runs the scheme and it is quite something to see the kids that actually benefit – clean, clothed, healthy and every bit as happy as a child should be at that age.

Well this is enough for now – today I (Keith) had the experience of helping the team unload a 40ft container of books – we have 2 at this port – some 30+ pallets of books after the crane lifts them to the deck each box has to manhandled to storage – I am wrecked and sunburnt!

Quick Update

We are now safely ensconced on the MV Doulos moored in the port of Cebu – Philippines, this is after having sailed for 2 days across the Philippine sea.

We arrived in the dead of night on Sunday /Monday after a mammoth 30 hour journey from Frankfurt – London – Hong Kong – Manila. Only one real moment of panic when Virgin wouldn’t allow all our hand luggage!

Needless to say we have been struggling to overcome our jet lag – Keith is up most of the night but the girls a re doing well. We were met by our dear old friends Heather and Edward – we were at University with Heather – they have been part of the ministry for many years and are currently the Acting Directors of the ship. We are occupying the Director’s cabin whilst they are on furlough.

The accommodation is actually great – Tessa and Izzy have their own room and Ruth has a separate cabin, our room packs up to allow hospitality through the day.

Keith has been detailed to work in the book exhibition to gain some comprehension of how the ministry works. On Sunday he is due to preach in a local church.

To find out more about OM’s ship ministry check out http://www.omships.org/ we are on the Doulos. Basically it is a huge floating book exhibition which comes to ports with a sense of a state visit. When the ship arrived in Cebu today we had a school band, local dance troupe and all sorts of quayside welcome. We are here for 3 weeks and will be involved in a wide range of ministry.

The book exhibition welcome 93000 visitors in 3 weeks in Manila – this gives a sense of how huge the contact with the local populus can be!

We are not connected to the internet very well on board so are trying to get info out we are temporarily using emails for the ship on board keith.mallon@mvdoulos.org dawn.mallon@mvdoulos.org same pattern for ruth, tessa & Isabel (spelt like that)

Hopefully you can get through to us, we tried sending out an email today and have had a few bounce back with wrong email addresses – if you didn’t get one and want one let us know! We will try to keep you informed with fresh info!

Pray we will settle in well – kids all need friends, also everything is different 30 different nationalities so we are getting a bit of culture shock – all the familiar things are just not there. The house sale seems to be going through OK……

Getting into Gear

We have had a great 2 weeks at the conference in Germany. We have been well looked after in nice accomodation. The girls have been the only ones in their age group but have enjoyed helping to look after the little ones and have been taking part in the chilren's groups as well as some of the adult programme. They have also been doing some school work in between!

We have spent time with some lovely people, have had some chance to recuperate after a very busy lead up, and have had some great input. We have had training for cultural differences, great worship and prayer times, time for fellowship and heart searching, as well as challenges about our relationship with God.

We leave very soon for our flight back to Heathrow, meet Dawn's parents in the airport for a few hours, then fly to Hong Kong and then Manilla. We get there midnight on Sunday their time. We are getting excited!

Leaving at the airport

Finally fixed the upload of pictures - (phew) - had a couple of brains on it then it turns out it is a tiny fix

This is us hanging about in the airport ready to go - 20 seconds later a hot cup of coffee flew across the table and soaked me!

We were dog tired but ready to go!

We're off!

HI everybody - we write this while waiting for the departure at gate 5

What a send off - we are so grateful to all our friends for commissioning us and endorsing what we are doing.

We finally packed at 1.30am today and Mum and Dad and Steve & Gail sent us off at 5am after a few hours sleep- thank you so much

The events of the last week show God's timing

We pulled our house sale on tuesday last (7 days ago) we received another offer on the same day the surveyor came on thursday we tried to buy a house thursday it was taken off the market. The prospective owners of 27 came round on saturday, we offered on another on saturday pm and finally heard 5.45pm Monday we have an offer accepted for a Carlisle home

Amongst that there have been many tearful goodbyes with some much encouragement all round

Thank you to those who have prayed and those who support we need you all

We set off in a tired state but full ofconfidence that God is calling us.

Wewill keep you posted!

First is 10 days in Germany foe a GO conference where we get training in cross cultural stuff and who knows what

20th Jan we fly to Hong Kong and Manila to join the ship