In a few minutes we take Jayma to the airport for her return flight to OKC. We know what she’s headed for – culture shock, loads of people asking her what she’s going to do next (to which the answer is “I don’t yet know”), and an environment sans two little children who all but refuse to allow her a moment’s peace.

Jayma – You have enriched our family in inexpressible ways. You likely cannot see the countless ways your care for and service to our family has made the ‘downs’ more bearable and the ‘ups’ more joyful these past 6 months. We love and respect you deeply. Chris and I will miss teasing you and being teased back, our evening chats, and processing spiritual issues with you. Blake says he’ll miss wrestling and baking with you, and Mackenzie says she’ll miss your piggies and reading books. God has used you to redefine for Chris and me what true biblical community is supposed to be. Thank you for risking it all and trusting God by sacrifically giving up 6 months of your life to serve alongside our family.

To those of you reading this, please take a moment to pray for Jayma’s safe journey home and a clear understanding of God’s direction as she unpacks (literally and figuratively) her life-changing experience in London.

Enjoying our weekend…

Jayma and I went into the city together for an evening out on Friday – cannot believe she’s returning to OKC in just two months.  These past 4 months with her have gone sooooooo quickly.

Yesterday Chris attended the last Global Leadership Summit in N. London to meet with LC.tv OPEN users and explain the OPEN program to other church leaders interested to learn more.

We had twin girls from Blake’s class and their father over for an extended lunch and play date yesterday.

Over 25 countries were represented at the 9am GMT LC.tv experience today and 2 salvations!

Jayma has 2 friends from Oklahoma staying with us tonight!

We’re off to tea with our dear friends whom we first met nearly a year ago when we first arrived in London. (You may remember them as the couple who located and paid for a hotel room for us when our first flat offer fell through.)

May your weekend end well, friends!

Chris and I leave early Friday for the UK’s Global Leadership Summit (Willow Creek) this weekend.  I want to give a great big thank you to our friends at Milton Keynes Christian Centre who’ve provided for us to attend.  We just know we’re in for a huge personal blessing to absorb the teaching this weekend.  THANK YOU Milton Keynes friends!  We’re touched by your generosity.

Please keep Jayma and the kids in your prayers for a fun, safe, and healthy weekend together.  The kids are VERY excited to have Jayma all to themselves Friday and Saturday.

We had 16 people tonight at The Open Door!  We’re getting excellent feedback and encouraged about heading into this week with some good leads and appointments that came out of tonight’s fellowship.  I’ve included some pics (remember the church is under construction!).

When we arrived we discovered that the Korean church that meets before us had prepared a feast in the church kitchen. As I walked upstairs in the stagnant heat I could smell the garlic shrimp. Thankfully, the ever-helpful Jayma ran (and I think she literally may have run!) down the street to buy some Febreeze so our attendees wouldn’t turn around and go back home! We had a really great time of worship and were especially happy that Chris’s college roommate from his freshman year at OK Baptist University, who is now the pastor of Tecumseh OK’s First Baptist Church, attended while in town on a mission trip.

…Maybe you’ll be joining us on September 14th at The Open Door launch?!? 

I sent an e-mail to our prayer team earlier this week and we’re already seeing the positive results of those prayers!  We’re gaining a sense of which LC.tv OPEN churches we’ll visit in August, had a wonderful 9am GMT Internet Campus service this morning, and tonight’s experience at The Open Door was very good as well.

While we did not have a large group, we had nearly all different attendees tonight and a ‘seeker’.  This person liked the experience, plans to return, and has asked for prayer this week.  There was a good sense of community and many, many positive comments about the message on “Habakkuk: When God Seems Unfair”.  The feedback was the best we’ve ever had, in fact.  We are also thrilled that 3 different people have now agreed to help provide live worship on occasion for The Open Door – something we’ve been seeking God in prayer for since February.

We’ve been processing every detail of this evening in our living room with Jayma this evening and are pleasantly surprised to discover that – even though we’d assumed it would be young families – the demographic we’re reaching and attracting is consistently single people in their 20s and 30s.  This is good for many reasons, one being that we can actually hold off on providing children’s programming until a need arises.  We’ve been seeking a children’s ministry leader but see that God’s not yet provided as it’s likely not going to be needed in the immediate future.  Always very interesting to gain another piece of the puzzle…

We’re truly encouraged by tonight’s attendance, participation, and response to the message.  I took a few photos to upload to our blog, but we continue having connection problems and I’m unable to get it done tonight.  I’ll try getting them up again tomorrow.  Just wanting to leave you with this update before I head to bed…YAWN!…

Love and thanks to each of you for your prayers!!

Today we fulfilled a promise made to Blake last April - to ride the London Eye when we were back in England.  Jayma (one of the family now) joined us for the ride. 

We’re very excited to have our friend Keith from Wales (moving here in September) staying with us tonight.  He’s come in town to attend and volunteer at The Open Door tomorrow night!

It’s been fun settling in last week and beginning this week with a routine. We were able to resume Skype chats with our families last night but continue having temporary Internet connection problems. The issue is not the Internet service rather our cable company. You probably wouldn’t believe the issue if I told you – add it to the list of everyday things that cannot be done simply when you’re living overseas! Thank goodness Chris is creative and is on the case as usual.

Yesterday we had a sweet reunion with friends at Hillside Church and enjoyed sharing in their last week of One Prayer, during which the church viewed Craig’s One Prayer message, “Lord, Make Us One”. The theme of churches encouraging each other in ministry has launched us into deeper conversations between Chris and me and Hillside leadership to confirm the path for The Open Door (LC.tv Network Church service being held at Hillside) in its early stages. Please pray for our wisdom to we know what God would have us do regarding the extent of our connection to or autonomy from Hillside.

Happy First Day of School to our Blake today (see pic below of Blake in school uniform)! He woke up excited about beginning today and (though clearly exhausted when we picked him up) had a wonderful first day.

Chris joined some guys from Hillside Church on a bike ride Saturday morning (see pics below). 20 miles later he came home limping. Our return to walking as transportation (and now biking, for Chris) has us huffing and puffing away those pounds that magically appeared while in the US!

Since we began our new family schedule today, Jayma spent the morning with Mackenzie at home and I worked for a few hours. We’ll do this 3 days a week so I may focus with Chris on our 3 points of ministry: The Open Door, Expanding LC.tv’s 9am GMT Internet Campus service, and promoting LC.tv’s OPEN program in the UK. Because our Sundays are so full from start (LC.tv 9am GMT Internet Campus service from 8:15-10:30am), Hillside Church (10:30-12:30pm), The Open Door (4:30-??), we’ve established our Fridays every week as our family Sabbath on which Chris, the kids, and I spend the day together. Hoping that keeps the peace!

It seems God’s steering me more in the direction of fewer updates on our blog as the ministry expands here. We’ll likely roll our blog into our Blue Door Ministries website in the near future and include regular updates there for you/donors to read. We’ll also begin sending monthly prayer requests to those who joined our prayer team while we were in the US. (If you did not return a donor card to us having checked the “I’d like to be on your prayer team” box, send me an e-mail at danabyers@yahoo.com and I’ll add you to my list.)

We are thrilled to have had 3 surprise contacts this weekend from people we do not know but who are interested in attending The Open Door in Wimbledon! I believe God has been preparing others’ hearts to attend The Open Door these past 3 months as well.

Those are all of my scattered thoughts for now!  I will post again as news happens and as our Internet connection allows!