'Make this valley full of ditches. For the Lord says: You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet this valley shall be filled with water..' (2 Kings 3:16-17)

The bible tells us: always be ready! To be ready to give a reason for the hope we have in Jesus. To be ready to help anyone we come across in need. To be ready to hear and obey God's voice. To be ready to resist when temptation comes. To be ready for Jesus' return.

Recently God has been whispering these words into our hearts and into our context: Get ready. Be prepared. Dig ditches that I will fill.

And so this year we want to get ready for God to pour out His Spirit among us in greater measure.

I love the Christmas season. It is a chance to reflect again on the amazing fact that God came down in human form, as a little baby, to the world He created to bring us back to himself. He came close because He loved us. As John says:

'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.' God made His home among us that we might see and believe! And this is what we proclaim every day of our lives - JESUS is alive and our purpose is to make Him known by shining His light - His love, mercy, kindness, truth and justice wherever we are - in our families, in our communities, in our nations - wherever He sends us. It is why we are alive - it is our

During the past few months we have been delighted to see the activity happening at our Centre in Vilanculos, Mozambique. Orlando a member of the Charis team and a gifted worship leader has started to work out his vision of training up young people in the guitar, keyboard and singing equipping them to become true worshipers.

It was a joy to reunite with our team in person again after a few months in the UK. It was so good to spend time studying the bible, praying and worshiping together as well as relaxing over shared meals. We made a trip to Maputo together to chat with a potential partner and bumped into a good missionary friend of ours Les Harper- an amazing woman of God, both her and her husband Mark are such an inspiration to us and our team!

As we approach Easter we reflect on the amazing love and mercy of God! How amazing is it that Jesus chose to leave his beautiful holy heavenly home and incarnate himself as a humble man in a broken world. How amazing that he chose to live in the world that he had created with the breath of his mouth, and reveal His glory to the sick, the weak, the downcast, the unclean, the poor, the harassed crowds, the oppressed and oppressors. How amazing that he ultimately allowed himself to be mocked, spat upon, whipped and beaten and crucified by evil men! How amazing that he did all that for me and you, that we might be reconciled to God and receive the gift of eternal life. How else can we respond, but in worship and thankfulness to Jesus and offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to Him.

As we enter another year we cannot believe we have been serving God among the vulnerable poor of Mozambique since 2008 and Ethiopia since 2020!

As we reflect on another year it is tempting to focus on the shadows of this dark world, where sickness, pain, death, poverty, hatred, discrimination and war cause us to groan inwardly as we long for God to make everything new.

At the weekend we heard Jesus' story of the Rich Man and Lazarus again and as always we were left feeling deeply challenged.

After almost 2 and a half years we finally made it back to Mozambique in May spending 6 quality weeks with the team.

The past 3 months have been personally very challenging and difficult. As many of you know…

Reflecting on another year in which Covid has continued to influence our lives we praise God that He …