Dear Friends and praying Saints:

This has been one of the wettest winters on record for the last hundred years, and severe winds have taken a huge toll on trees across the UK. It took nearly a week just to clear the roads and downed trees are still everywhere. A few hours of sunshine today highlighted this barn built on high ground—a safe haven for sheep and feed. In just such a way the Lord is our shelter from the storms of life, and He covers us with his hand.

We were very encouraged by a small prayer gathering inspired by the Heal the Land Conference that we attended last October. There we gathered to pray in groups according to our localities across Wales, and we were recommended to try and meet locally throughout the coming year. So this was the first of seven consecutive Saturday meetings in our area. Represented here are folks from Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and Ceredigion, and we would like to encourage more from West Wales to participate this coming Saturday.

These meetings were organized by a very dear friend who was called by the Lord to pray for revival in the 1980s. We've known one another almost since we first arrived, and have been mutually blessed and encouraged over the years. She gave an introduction to the meetings and the history of God moving here powerfully back in the 1970s. In fact, she has researched and written some amazing testimonies of God's workings here during that time. You can read her article at this link. 

There were some powerful prayers for revival for our area, and for the Lord to call into action the many members of the Body of Christ who have not been walking in the fullness of God's giftings. From there we we moved into a precious time of prayer for one another present, for boldness, free anointing,  physical healing, etc. We finished with communion, and are excited to see who and what next Saturday brings.  

For some time I've felt a gentle leading of the Lord to find a way to share more of the things He puts on my heart, so I've launched a small podcast project called "Welsh Morning Moments". The aim is to record a daily, or nearly daily, short reflection based on the scriptures and/or surroundings.

These are just spontanteous impressions I receive and pass along to encourage us all to spend more time seeking the Lord in prayer and making ourselves available to receive new things from His heart to ours, and so have more light to shine into the lives of those around us each day. I am very much in the learning-my-way stage, and you can dip in as often as you like through the web version at this link: Please click here. I hope to make it a regular podcast you can subscribe to as soon as I figure that out! I trust and pray it blesses and encourages you! Today's podcast is called, "Digging for Treasures of Salvation"

May the blessings and grace of God and His goodness fill you, follow you, and flow out through you into the needy world that surrounds us.

Dick & Gladys

Dear Praying Friends:

On my way to Cilfowyr Chapel this morning, I was singing this song: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. In the city of our God, on the mountain of His holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King." — Psalm 48:1-2

As I sang, the phrase "Beautiful for situation" came to mind, and I reflected on how it applies to the church—the body of Christ worldwide—today. We are living in a time of distress and challenges, yet we stand within the unfolding plans of God. As we look toward Mount Zion and the new Jerusalem—the city of God—we find encouragement in what it prophetically symbolizes: the body of Christ.

Just yesterday, I finished reading Revelation and was struck by its description of the new Jerusalem. The city’s gates are never closed, and the kings of the earth bring the riches and glories of what is outside into it. This made me think about how we, in our daily lives, bring offerings to God—our worship, our times in His word, and our giving of thanks. Each moment we spend with Him becomes an act of bringing treasures into His presence.

When we testify about Jesus or share His love with someone, we are contributing to the treasures of the body of Christ. As believers, we are built up in God through hymns, spiritual songs, and revelations, and we don’t need to be in one central place to do it. We are part of a global body. For instance, if someone in the South China Sea experiences a revelation and gives glory to God, we are immediate recipients of that spiritual input into this new Jerusalem.

Then I thought back to the Old Testament, where offerings and sacrifices were central acts of worship. They were about consecration, setting oneself apart, and bringing glory to God. Today, the principle is the same, but the offerings are different. Romans 12:1 says, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God."

As we walk through life, every interaction can become an act of worship. If the treasure within us—God’s Spirit—shines through in our actions, those become our offerings and sacrifices. Living in the presence of God, we are these sacrifices, contributing to the treasure of the body of Christ.

The church is strengthened day by day, word by word, and believer by believer as we fulfill the unique roles God has given each of us. This is the beauty of our situation: wherever we are, whatever we’re going through, we can glorify God, contribute to the body of Christ, and prepare for the Lord’s return.

Hallelujah! May God bless and empower you in this brand-new year as we walk together in faith!

Dick & Gladys

Dear Friends:

First off we want to wish you a very blessed and meaningful Christmas this year, and that the incoming 2025 be full of God's blessings and guidance as we navigate this rapidly changing world around us. If there was ever a time when we need more of Jesus, it's now!

Somehow three months have disappeared, and but here's a start on an update of the most recent things first. In the photo I am cutting our back garden for the last time of the year. This was my first day home after spending three weeks in the hospital. It was the result of a recurrence of myasthenia gravis which I had back in 2013. It started with double vision in September and October saw me reluctantly put back on a course of steroids, which by the end of the month landed me in the hospital due to a severe reaction they caused. A different set of medications in hospital, and much prayer from many many friends, enabled me to come home again just over three weeks ago now.

In October we spent a good deal of energy making connections for our friends from New York, Rich & Joyce Swingle and Tim Mercaldo, who were busy making contacts to bring their production, Songs of Revival - Hungry after God Himself, next year. It was exciting to see how God orchestrated so many divine encounters and opened extraordinary doors for them, and we were all amazed and thrilled to watch things fall into place like clockwork.

Our hearts are filled with gratitude to the Lord for His work of restoration in my condition. My first weeks in the hospital were lost in a blur, and thankfully our youngest son Richard was able to make himself free enough to come and accompany Gladys and help with driving back and forth to visit me in Llanelli, a 90 minute drive, plus all the household tasks of shopping, etc. He was a real Godsend for his mother, and they got to spend some fun times exploring, and just hanging out together—a special treat because he had left his wife and little girl home in Maine at great personal cost to come and fill in during my absence. Our gratitude to him and his family is great, and we clearly saw the goodness of God in their sacrifice on our behalf.

We're delighted to report that I am doing much better. I'm getting stronger day by day in myself, and have been able to drive over to spend time at the chapel several times and reestablish some routines that were very difficult just a couple of weeks ago. We can't thank the Lord enough for His goodness through it all. It seems to be evidence that we are being prepared for a new chapter.

In fact, His goodness has followed and surrounded and sustained us all these nearly 20 years, and we are amazed and humbled by this fact. The Lord has been impressing on me these verses in Zechariah 8:12 (AMP), "For there the seed will produce peace and prosperity; the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will produce its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit and possess all these things." The vine, the Body of Christ here in Wales, is in just such a position, and we see the coming year as manifesting a new level of fruitfulness that will gladden the hearts of many, old believers and new.

Thank you once again for your interest and especially your prayers as we walk together into this new year. May God bless you and your loved ones in profound and special ways,

Dick & Gladys