Hello everyone.  Greetings from the midlands of England.  Clay and I have enjoyed our day in Cannock with Dorcas Harbin and her ministry team from One Another Ministries.  The day began with me thinking that we were going to miss one of our trains because the connections were too close, but God was gracious to us, as he has been this whole trip, and we made it with plenty of time to spare.  The trip from Hertford to Cannock took about 4 hours, so Dorcas picked us up at about noon.  We headed to a restaurant to meet up with her fellow team members (Robert, Debbie and Twala).  We were very encouraged by the work this team does for Christian workers around Europe and beyond.  They are all very skilled in the areas of counseling missionaries as well as provide leadership training, missionary assessment and organizational development  for missionary organizations among many other things.  Their ministry training center, The White House, is located in Cannock Chase, which is a protected forest providing a beautiful setting for those who stay at the ministry center.  In addition to the six guest rooms, the center has a large board room for smaller trainings with two consultation rooms off to the side.  It has a lobby area where meals are served for visiting Christian workers/missionaries and a large banquet hall that enables them to hold trainings for larger ministry groups as well as meals.  They truly could not have found a more perfect space.  Tonight Clay and I have the whole place to ourselves because there are no guests here tonight.  Dorcas was kind enough to let us stay in our own separate rooms tonight.

After getting to see the White House Ministry Center, we went on a driving tour (that’s right, no walking!!!) of Cannock and several of the surrounding towns, including Litchfield and Stafford.  While in Litchfield we got to tour the Cathedral there, which used to have an Archbishop along with Canterbury and York, but then lost it some time later.  The building that is there now is the third one on that spot and it was built between 1185 and 1335, which makes some of the stones over 800 years old.  We also got to see Shugborough Castle, which is located in Stafford, and was home to the Earl of Lichfield.  It was an impressive building and the grounds were incredibly beautiful.

After our driving tour, Dorcas took Clay and I to her house where she treated us to a delicious dinner of pumpkin soup, cheese and crackers and steak-and-ale pie.  Dorcas truly has the gift of making people feel at home, and we truly felt at home with her.  We leave for Durham tomorrow morning and arrive just after lunch to visit with the Griggs family before heading out the following day to Edinburgh.

Thank you for continuing to pray for us…I (Brett) was able to get some medicine for my sinus infection, so hopefully I will get rid of the infection by the time I get back home.  Despite the crazy schedule, we have been blessed by spending time with our missionaries and feel like we know the ministries so much better.  Thank you so much for sending us!

The One Another Ministries Team (Twala, Dorcas, Debbie, and Robert) and Clay