Dear Friends

Greetings, for the last time, from Cuenca. On Saturday 17th July the removal lorry is to arrive at 9am to take us to Ciudad Real. We thank you for your prayers as it looks like we will be ready in time.
Thank you also for your prayers following the death of Mireya. The family, whilst insisting on a Catholic funeral, allowed the church to hold a short ‘evangelical’ service in the Chapel of Rest.  About 80 folk were present, the vast majority being unconverted family members and friends, who listened very respectfully. Luis Cano spoke really well. What a joy it was to assure the family that, as a believer, Mireya was in the Lord’s presence and free from the suffering that had plagued her during the last twelve years of her short life. No parent expects to bury their child, but on visiting the family on Wednesday we found them very calm and accepting the situation. Please continue to pray for them in their grief, and also that the words spoken during the service will take root in their hearts.
Last Sunday was our last in Cuenca as a family. It was a moving day, with the church having lunch together and also presenting us with a lovely picture of Cuenca. Please do pray for them as they seek to move forward, especially the three main couples - Oscar and Blanca; Claudio and Cristina; Sergio and Evelien.
Please could we also ask for prayer for a tenant for our flat in Cuenca? As yet there is no sign of one and we really need someone very soon.
We had a very good Cipriano de Valera Conference at the beginning of the month - Matt and Jacob attended. All the sound ‘things’ seemed to work well, and the conferences themselves were excellent, especially Andrew Birch on ‘Worship’ (they should soon be on www.reformados.es in Spanish, if anyone is interested).
Whilst Matt and Jacob were at the Conference and Judith was at home packing, Thomas was at a special badminton course in Toledo. He was picked amongst the top 30 promising young people in the region for a week’s special coaching, including some from national champions and Olympic competitors.
Once in Ciudad Real we will have a week to get organised (!) and then will have a short break with Matt’s Mum, Dad and two nieces on the coast. After that it will be back to Ciudad Real for two weeks, to prepare for a children’s camp starting on 16th August - it looks like we will have record numbers this year with over 40 booked in already.
Please note the new address at the head of this email. Whilst our email addresses remain unchanged for now, we don’t know when we will have Internet in the house - we were told it could take a month - so if you do write we may not be able to reply straight away.
Jacob continues on his ‘milk-shake’ diet and the doctors are very pleased with him. He has put on the 10lb that he lost earlier this year and has suffered no soreness since being in hospital. He has started on the treatment for the underlying Crohn’s in order to keep it in remission and generally he seems a lot better in himself.
Judith’s brother Glyn still has frequent visits to the hospital as the doctors continue to try to get to the bottom of his health problems.
We would obviously value prayer for the days ahead. We have to get the boys into school, hopefully one where they have friends already. We also have to make the transition from being ‘pastor and wife’ to being ‘in the pew’, after 16 years. And so much more. Please pray that as we take this time out from pastoral ministry that we can be useful in the local congregation in Ciudad Real, that our ministry will be a blessing to local churches through the different areas we will be involved in, and that above all we would be faithful to our unfailing God.
We trust that you will have a restful and blessed summer.

The following letter was written on Friday the 16th but for technical reasons could not be sent at the time.  Just to add that we are now installed in our house in Ciudad Real, with lots of folk helping in the move at both ends.  The house in now more or less in order, although still with lots of bits and bobs to do (curtains, lights, etc).  We now have Internet connected, Matt also has a new email address (1689mateogil@gmail.com) which is operational as of now (please amend your records accordingly), and we have a new fixed telephone number (+926 700306).

In Christ