‘Blessing and Glory and Wisdom and Thanksgiving and Honor and Power and Might be to our God forever and ever’ — Rev.7:12

It now seems a long time ago that we were about to fly to the UK for our long awaited trip… We had a very blessed and wonderful time. We spent over 2 weeks with our family in the north of England — Charles, Sarah and Evelyn, age 5, and William, age 3. Our fear that after a 2 year gap the children would be shy of us was immediately dispelled with the smiles and welcome hugs they gave us and we soon fell right back into place as Granny and Poppa… We spent a happy week at the seaside with them and another fun filled week back in their home area. The weather was good, fine and warm. The time passed way too fast and it was hard to say goodbye.

We then began our travel south, staying in the Midlands. We saw good friends in Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield and family in Birmingham and the Cotswolds. Never enough time with everyone but great time none the less.

Next, we continued on to stay in the Cambridge area, spending a few happy days with Meryl’s brother, Tony, and sister in law, Rita. We spent a precious time with their daughter, Meryl’s niece, and her husband and daughter… A lovely but too short stay.

Going on to the London area, we stayed both with Noel’s sister, Joycelin, and her husband Bill, along with spending a day with their daughters Amanda and Penny and their children. Also staying with Noel’s brother, Julian, and his wife, Ann. This included dinner together with Noel’s nephew, Dominic, and his family. It was a busy but fun filled visit.

The blessings of the trip are way too many to list… We are grateful for our family and friends and their generosity on so many levels to us. But a few highlights were the time spent with each friend and family member which was very special including the chance for Noel and his brother and sister to reconnect with cousins they had only ever seen twice before in over 60 years! We all had a great day together. Noel spent a great afternoon with his brother watching Arsenal’s first game of the new soccer season, the first match they had been to together for over 50 years.

We returned to the USA one day late on August 21st due to a technical fault with our plane on the London to Amsterdam leg of the journey. This caused us to miss our connection to Boston but thanks to KLM we spent a very comfortable night in a hotel and flew the next morning. Acting for us, Toby was able to rearrange Noel’s appointments from Wednesday to Friday and we finally arrived home safe and sound very late Friday evening… Since then our feet have not touched the ground as we have been back in to the swing of our busy everyday life… And being Granny and Poppa to Charlotte and Lucy… They and their mom and dad have also had a busy summer…

One activity they did every Saturday afternoon during July and August was to hold a Lemonade Stand on our driveway… To raise money for the American Cancer Society… to pay it forward for the help and encouragement our family has received and to teach Charlotte, as a cancer survivor herself, the importance of helping others. They have raised over $500! Wonderful!

Noel did really well for the whole trip… He was able to pace himself and his energy levels stayed good… he did have some sore mouth issues and a slight head cold but did not let either spoil his enjoyment.

His appointment at the Dana-Farber on Friday went well… His blood work had stayed stable showing not much difference either way. Dr Soiffer continues to be happy with him and has again reduced by a little the drugs he is on in an effort to in the long term get him off all the drugs. Since Noel’s progress continues to be good he has now been moved to an appointment every 6 weeks…

We realize how blessed we both are. We give great praise for the wonderful summer we have had and for our families. We do not take Noel’s health and recovery for granted, we have met and know many others who are struggling in many ways with their health. We simply try to be prayerful healing encouragers, helping and serving others.

Thank you for you love, encouragement, support and faithfulness to us, please continue to keep us in your prayers…

• for Noel to continue to be healthy, he still has some immune issues.
• for our ever increasingly busy lives….no retirement here!
• for our family on both sides of the Atlantic;
  both our son’s increasing busy work lives;
  for our daughters in law as they juggle work and motherhood;
  for all four grandchildren who next week begin new school years…
  for health and safety for them all.
• for Noel’s ministry and the funds he needs to carry out the travel he hopes to be able to do. Ministry income has fallen by $500 each month this year, which immediately limits what Noel thinks the Lord is calling him to do: but we remain convinced that God supplies the resources necessary, for example, and specifically, $2000 estimated, needed for travel and subsistence for visits for the sake of Chaplains and Veterans (healing of trauma) to southern Pennsylvania and south east Virginia in October. Noel is so wanting to be back into traveling for his ministry again.

Our next regular update will be after Noel’s next appointment on October 2nd 2013.

We remember you all in our prayers do please stay in touch and let us have your own updates for prayer. God Bless you!