The Christmas season was full!  This year George and I kicked off our Christmas by checking out the Birmingham Christmas parade for the first time. We found it was quite different from the parades we see at home since this one began with real reindeer pulling Santa Claus (Father Christmas) leading the parade, not ending it.  This was followed by three wisemen riding atop of live camel which was then followed by a live nativity on a float. There were many storybook and winter symbol characters on stilts or roller skates and very few floats and marching bands like we see in Canadian parades. It was fun and unique!

It was a delight to host the ABWE England Christmas party this year. An older MK declared it “the best ABWE Christmas party” she’d attended!

George and I attended an advent service for the area churches and also helped with an outdoor carolling event in a busy commercial area as well as the annual carolling at the seniors’ care home near our church.

One day as I finished teaching my ladies’ English class, the activities’ director from the seniors’ care home near our church came to ask if we had any children who could come and sing for the residents. It was a special blessing to go over on Dec. 22nd with our 3 church families who have younger children to do a little program for them.

On the 23^rd at our church family service, I led the children’s nativity performance and thankfully each child (every one was NEEDED!) was healthy and did well. George and I were asked to do a special number at our church “Carols by Candlelight” service.  George had been fighting a chest cold but was thankfully, well enough to sing. It was a busy day since we also attended the Bengali Fellowship Christmas service/party in the afternoon.

Our little church here in Birmingham traditionally holds a short service Christmas morning, which George led and spoke at.  Once again, we Canadians were “family” for each other, getting together for Christmas dinner at Jeff and Rachel Lees’ home.

On our last day of classes for 2012, I gave the ladies a Jesus DVD in their mother tongue as a Christmas gift. Please pray they and their families view this film and are touched spiritually by it. The ladies requested that we have our Christmas party during the holidays so their children could be a part of it. I was thankful to have Rachel Lee and her 3 eldest children come along to help at it. We had 14 ladies altogether with 21 children. It was a busy happy time. The ladies each received a Scripture calendar in Urdu/English and the children a small book about the Christmas story as well as several little goodies.

Now on this first day of 2013, we want to wish you a Happy New Year!

Karen

Tonight I walked down the road to my local kebab shop with two missions in mind. First, to buy some delicious and spicy chicken tikka on fresh nan bread. My second purpose was to give the four Muslim guys working there a special 2013 calendar with scripture verses in English and Urdu as a Christmas gift. As I gave each of them a calendar and wished them a Merry Christmas, a smile broke out on their faces like the sun breaking through the clouds. The customer next in line asked one of them who was particularly smily, “What are you so happy about?” To which he replied, “Someone wished me a Merry Christmas!” I was genuinely surprised that my small gesture of good will would mean so much.

This helps me look beyond the commercial hype of Christmas and see the spiritual opportunities this season offers. This past week we were part of two Christmas witness events, one in a public shopping precinct and the other in a seniors complex. Coming up are two special Christmas services on Sunday the 23rd, preaching at our traditional Christmas Day church service, preaching at the Last Sunday of 2012, planning the New Years Eve meeting, as well as working with Karen on numerous Christmas visits and hospitality in our home. It’s all good. If in any of the activity we can see someone blessed like the kebab shop guys were, praise God.

By the way, we wish YOU a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

George and Karen King

This is definitely not a “Fall” update.

We had to learn the hard way that the British do not think of “fall” as a synonym for “autumn”. That is, by referring to the “fall” while giving church announcements, and then noticing the curious looks on faces as people realize we had uttered yet another North American idiom. The only “fall” you hear about in churches here is the one by Adam and Eve which plunged the world into sin and death.

What’s more embarassing is to talk about “pants” in front of a congregation only to realize that you meant to say “trousers”, because “pants” here are “underwear”. Not that we’ve ever done such a thing 😉

Praise Items

1. Ladies English classes going well.
2. Attended an encouraging Church Planting among Muslims conference recently.
3. A new local network of Christians praying for salvation of Muslims will likely begin shortly.

Prayer Requests

1. Mens English class not doing so well.
2. Discouragement for various reasons in the church, sapping vitality and enthusiasm.
3. That current efforts to unite and equip Christians for local ministry to Muslims would succeed.

Thank you for praying. Keep in more frequent contact by becoming Karen’s Facebook friend.

Yours,
George and Karen King

It has been a busy summer of ministry here in Birmingham, England. Apart from our regular ministries in the church and the community, add the following:

1. 4-day Retreat with families from our men’s English conversation group. The whole group comprised well over 30 men, women and children. Talks on spiritual matters arose naturally as we cooked, ate, and stayed together at a Christian centre in Wales.
2. Olympics Night with games, food, and watching the opening ceremony together on the big screen. Good participation from the community, praise God.
3. Jobsearch Strategies for Youth ran for one week offering tips to improve employment prospects in a city marked by chronic high youth unemployment.
4. Ladies ESL classes continued through Ramadan (the month of fasting) at the request of students, much to our surprise.
5. Hospitality – We had frequent overnight missionary guests. It seemed like we were either enjoying their time with us, or getting ready for the next group of guests.

Now we are looking ahead to the following:

1. Vacation during the last week of August and first week of September, away from Birmingham, somewhere else in the UK.
2. New evangelism thrust as we plan to run “Christianity Explored” for the first time in the fall.
3. Welcome to the Lee family as Jeff, Rachel, and their adorable children who will be joining us in the work here. The Lees are fellow ABWE missionaries who have completed their ministry in Milton-Keynes and now will spend the next 2 years here helping us before they leave England for their first furlough.
4. The Way to Joy adaptation for the Muslim world, as a companion volume to the recently completed Story of Hope. Once again, George will serve on a team doing a major rewrite of the material to help Muslim readers more fully understand and embrace the teaching of the Bible.

Along with these things, of course there is the day-in day-out ministry here in Birmingham. Please bathe these matters in praise and prayer to our heavenly Father. Thank you for your support and interest.

George and Karen King