Westmorland County Show - September 2011

Rain, queues, mud, more rain and then at 3.30pm the sun came out. Despite the weather we were kept quite busy. David had the van on site before 8.00am and I was able to join him shortly after 9.00am having spent some time waiting to get onto one of the car parking areas. I was particularly encouraged by a visit from a young family from Staveley, grandson of neighbours who died some years ago; I’m sure the grandparents would have prayed for their family and would have rejoiced to see an answer to prayer in this family. “God turned our lives around” was their testimony and we rejoiced together. What an uplift to hear of God working in such a wonderful way.We had visitors from Ireland, a young missionary couple from Shanghai as well as local believers.

Several contacts from work days came for a chat and all were sympathetic to what we were doing and accepted literature. The rep on the Blood Donor stand after a bit of prompting realised that the first blood donor was Jesus who shed His blood for us.

John Heron joined us in the afternoon and together we gave out more that 100 tracts and leaflets although I was struck this year by the number of refusals to accept literature. The guessing box was used quite often but the lack of knowledge of bible stories among children is becoming increasingly apparent. Despite the rain and mud a good number attended the show and seed was sown – let’s water it with our prayers.

Thanks to David Johnson for an early start and late finish and for all the work in between.

Gordon Egglestone, David Johnstone & John Heron