As I write this Elsie and I are at present in the Georgia USA at the in Atlanta OM USA headquarters. I am part of a team that is looking at the possible purchase of new software for the whole organization. Over the years we have spent an enormous amount of effort writing our own software called Petra and Caleb. Petra has been written to handle local administration (active in 100 sites across the world); and Caleb, based on the web, where we share information from all over the world. This a very important issue and has the potential to give us huge advances in functionality. However it can also be a divisive decision time. The solution, if not implemented properly, could cause great harm to unity and functionality. I am so very conscious that it is only the Lord that can give us the wisdom to make right decisions. Please stand with me as I give leadership in this area. As I look back over the last 15 years of effort to help OM (working in 100 countries) move ahead together. I frequently marvel at the good decisions the Lord has enabled us to make. Every time he brings in the right people with the relevant skills and experience to move us ahead. This morning I had breakfast with a man who was with OM in Iran over 30 years ago. He has almost exactly the relevant skills and experience needed to help us to implement a major direction change such as we are contemplating. He is now coming available to leave what he is doing to help us. He is delighted at the prospect. How does God do all this. Truly we are dependent on his power and foresight. I love it.
We have taken the opportunity while here in the US to have Christmas up in the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina and had an amazing time with our three girls, Alison, Fiona and Pete and assorted husbands and in laws. You can see photos on our blog at www.lythnews.blogspot.com . We feel very rich in our children and their love and fun. As we look ahead we wonder if some of our time in the years ahead may have to be spent this side of the Atlantic. Of course as soon as we start thinking that Dave and Susannah (www.kretchies.blogspot.com/ ) head off to India for six months to work with rescued underage prostitutes. Chris and Esther (www.centralasiafamily.blogspot.com ) continue in Afghanistan with our two grandchildren Zara and Richard. Life there becomes increasingly uncertain with frequent suicide bombings and kidnappings. Alison is planning to join OM USA this year and will launch a ‘women’s advocacy’ programme where she speaks up for the needs of the marginalized women of the world among the wealthy women of the USA. This is a new adventure and she looks ahead to enabling women in
We will be back in the UK at the end of January. Elsie will have been away for nearly two months. Now that we don’t have children at home we tend to be more on the road together. It is wonderful. Thanks so much for praying - those who do.
