Chambersburg Bible Church

Thank you for your prayers for our Christmas outreaches. We had visitors at all of our events and we are so thankful for these opportunities. SNOW! Our girls had a great time in the recent snowy weather building snowmen and making snow angels. We are also grateful for the opportunity to meet several of our neighbors and their children who also were outside to enjoy the snow.

OUTREACH

We began our Coffee Morning with few visitors but attracted a pretty full house by the end. We handed out invitations to our special Christmas services. For our Carol Service, we were thankful to see a good number of visitors, including our new neighbors and a shopkeeper friend of ours. Steve preached a short gospel sermon, and several stayed for tea and mince pies afterward. Our Christmas Day service drew a large number of visitors as well. Joe Nicholson preached and many lingered afterward for fellowship. Please pray that we will have continued contact and ministry with these people.

FAMILY MATTERS

We all enjoyed our second Christmas in Wales, though we missed home a little more this year. We celebrated with our co-workers and enjoyed a Christmas ham from our butcher. We hosted a drop-in on the bank holiday after Christmas and had several church and non-church friends into our home for food and fellowship. We are thrilled to see the Lord continue to help us build relationships with people in the community. Please pray for the advance of the gospel in these relationships and that we would have patience for the Lord’s working in hearts. n other news, our Gwyneth Grace turns two years old today. We love her more every day and thank the Lord for her! Please pray for our children to grow in wisdom and to come to Christ at a young age.

THE NEW YEAR

Steve continues to volunteer at the Youth Center. We have not been able to get in to the school yet, please pray for an open door. The monthly Ladies Bible study has seen increased attendance. Pray for receptive hearts as they continue a study on biblical womanhood. We are also continuing to hold the after school Bible club on Thursday afternoons. Please pray for more children to attend and for the salvation of the ones who do. Once again, we thank you for your prayers.

Sincerely,

The McLean family
www.mcleanstowales.org

We appreciate the opportunity to update you personally about what the Lord is doing in our lives and ministry in recent days.

The biggest event in our lives lately has been our move from an apartment to a house. As you can imagine, this required a great deal of time and effort, and as it followed on the heels of my parents’ visit in September, we have nearly forgotten what it is like to have a normal routine. With regards to our move, we ask that you pray for good opportunities to meet neighbors and begin friendships with them. People tend to be quite guarded when meeting strangers, so we definitely need the Lord’s help even in meeting neighbors who may not even be interested in meeting us.

I have been making efforts to become involved in the Religious Education program in our local high school. Initially, it seemed like I had a wide-open door for this, but progress in this has been stalled by our busyness lately. However, I have an appointment with the headmaster next week.  Pray also that the head of RE would be open to my helping in some of his classes.

Lord willing, in the next couple weeks I will also begin volunteering at the local youth centre, helping with some life skills/job training for older high school students. This is not something in which I can overtly evangelize, but it does provide opportunities for building relationships, and I am free to talk about the gospel if the students bring up the subject of faith, etc. Please pray for an opening for the gospel through this opportunity.

With our move, we are also anticipating that we can use our new home for ministry in the form of hospitality. Obviously, this adds to Marcia’s load as homemaker, but it’s a ministry she is eager to take up. Please pray that we could get settled and then that we could make the most of the home the Lord has given us for the gospel’s sake.

Thank you again for your prayers and support!

Every blessing,
The Steve & Marcia McLean Family

www.mcleanstowales.org