Easter Greetings!

Amazingly 3/4 of our time here in the USA has now passed. Since my last update we have certainly lived life to the full and had many great experiences.

In February our Beeson pastor group went to Romania for a missions trip. As well as helping in a large working bee job cleaning up a former communist building that now operates as the regional Baptist Centre in Arad we spend time most evenings attending a range of churches in the countryside preaching and sharing testimonies. These were often small villages with just an Orthodox and Baptist Church. They were special occasions with full congregations in the small Baptist chapels with great singing and enthusiasm. Obviously we needed a translator and I made the most of being from the "ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8) Younger Romanians were very familiar with Lord of the Rings and were keen to talk about Middle Earth. It was sobering to talk to older people about the long communist years and how Christianity had to go underground in so many ways. It was inspiring to hear their stories. On the way back from Romania we had a day in Budapest (Hungary) which was a beautiful city on the Danube with stunning architecture.

After returning we had our last two full courses at the Beeson Center. These were Preaching with Dr Tory Baucom (Rector of Truro Church Washington D.C.) and Advanced Leadership with Kent Reynolds. I think all our preaching efforts improved and we had a good time as a group together encouraging and supporting one another. As I write this I am working on my final assignment for the leadership class - a 20 page effort!

Earlier in March Jane and I made a day trip to Nashville, Tennessee, to visit World Methodist Evangelism. Dr Eddie Fox was very warm in his welcome and we spent several hours with him. It seems likely a World Methodist Evangelism training event will be held in New Zealand in September 2009 which will involve a range of denominations. This will be a timely and special opportunity for faith sharing equipping and ecumenical co-operation. In May Jane and I are also planning a trip to Lake Junalaska in North Carolina to World Methodist Council Headquarters to talk about our Wesleyan Methodist membership and involvement.

We recently held a "New Zealand" night in the Beeson Center for all our families. We prepared a power-point, had some Kiwi give-aways and shared about some of our history and famous citizens. Kristie read a piece about Sir Edmund Hillary and Simon about Sir Ernest Rutherford. The local newspaper here in Jessamine County even picked up the mention of Sir Edmund and printed a story of Jane and I remembering our most famous citizen. We have a "South Pacific" missions night at the Wesleyan Center on 22 April and hope to attract a range of students who might be interested in potential mission work.

Over Easter we drove to Indianapolis and stayed with Peter and Ellen Moore and family. Peter is the Operations Manager at Global Partners (Wesleyan World Missions) and who led a missions trip to New Zealand in February 2005. We had special time together and worshipped on Sunday at Trinity Wesleyan where they had a wonderful Easter musical. That afternoon we even visited the Indianapolis 500 Race Car Museum. An excellent display of historic cars and we even did a lap of the famous track at 35 mph in an old bus. Apparently the racing is the single largest one day sporting event in the world! I had meetings at the World Headquarters of the Wesleyan Church and caught up with a range of people, all of whom are so affirming of our New Zealand work. We also had a night with Craig and Tammy Dunn as well as visiting with Jonathan Nace (Tanya was away) and seeing their new house being constructed. Then it was the four hours home via the Creation Museum which was an interesting place displaying more of a biblical perspective on the wonders of creation and redemption.

In a few days we leave again for Washington D.C. to see some of the sights with the Spring Break giving the children a week off school. We will also drive further north to visit Houghton (Wesleyan) College. Wayne McBeth at the college is a good friend of our New Zealand work and has arranged an excellent programme for me to meet a range of college staff including the new President. While at Houghton we will also make a trip to nearby Niagara Falls and connect with Mike Belt and his family (ex KCC and now at Eastern Hills Wesleyan).

We may be on the "countdown" to home but there is still much yet to experience, both here at the seminary and in our travels. Jane is working quite intensively at auditing a wide range of classes and I have a curriculum to write for my dissertation ("Discover Your Wesleyan DNA")as well as much preparation for East City Wesleyan and the return to busy ministry. I am presently awaiting the first audit of my three chapters for my dissertation (96 pages)so I am no idle!

Our last Beeson pastor trip is to Korea in the middle of April for 10 days so there will be more international experience.

We much appreciate all the regular communication from home and pray for so many of you.

Blessings

Richard