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!