Welcome to the Spring NEWSLETTER, for 2008.

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Dear Partners-in-Ministry,

Who do you think was the busiest person whoever lived on earth? Maybe this quote will give us the answer:-

“And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John ch.21 v.25 NKJV.)

A person who loves books is likely to be a person of above average interest. Reading can be a passport into a world of blessing and inspiration.

God Himself has mediated to us the written word in 66 books. He loves books!

Notice in Psalm 139: “In your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (v.16).

And what does Malachi say in verse 16 and chapter 3? “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the Lord listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord And who meditate on His name.”

And there are references in Philippians 4, V.3 and Revelation 22 v.19 to “The book of life”.

We are persuaded that, generally speaking, our Christian brothers and sisters undervalue books. Since proof-reading for the Torch Trust for the Blind, I am reading many more contemporary Christian books that minister to my soul. (You will not get that on TV!) Reading is a discipline, watching TV doesn’t appear to be.

But there could be a great ministry to others, if only we would see the opportunity.

Christians ought to invest in books that explain the gospel, buying them from Christian bookshops into which nonbelievers are not likely to go: buying books to place in public libraries, prisons, hospitals – places where people have time to read. And what about testimony booklets to place in Doctors’ surgeries, dentists’ waiting rooms, airport lounges, etc. Books can be missionaries into a vast missionfield, if only we will send them.

We are in the process of reviewing the motive, content and length of our future newsletters.

_Motive: You will notice that we don’t call them “Prayer letters”. We don’t believe in bringing pressure to bear. We simply report news, and so it may be that that in itself will inspire you to pray for us. We regard writing to you as our privilege, and when you pray and support us, that constitutes privilege upon privilege, and grace upon grace!

_Content: We recognize that it’s so easy to become predictable in what we write, and thus we make it difficult for ourselves to avoid clichés. So in future, we’re not going to try to describe meetings as such, but concentrate more on people we meet. We hope you enjoy the comments made at the beginning of our newsletters, and we hope to continue with those.

As in this letter, we will include things that people say to us and write to us. We want all this to be informal, informative, and interesting.

_Length: Newsletters in future will be shorter. We appreciate that most of you are busy folk, having many claims on your time. It is possible that you will put aside a long letter, and more easily read a briefer one. (We will keep account of word count!)

Now let’s talk about our website.

Our good friend Gareth Jordan was the man who first put us on the Worldwide Web. But now, Gareth’s job has changed, and he is no longer able to do this valuable work for us. But we want to put on record our sincere thanks to him for all his endeavours.

Our webmaster now is the very person who brought me into the I.T world, Mr. John Barker.

With John’s technical knowhow and wonderful ideas, the Website is going to be completely revolutionized, including much more audio, which we believe makes for interest and friendliness. We gratefully welcome John as our Webmaster.

As you know, we’ve had to keep up with today’s technology, which means that we have virtually finished making commercial cassettes, and have moved on to CD’s and DVD’S. Coming on stream shortly will be, in DVD and CD format “The Peter Jackson Story”, which is, of course, my testimony given in front of an audience.

This is both timely and apposite, because I had decided earlier last year that I wouldn’t give my musical testimony any more. I was afraid of getting stale after forty years, and equally fearful of exaggerating for greater effect.

Also to come is a DVD and CD of the life, ministry and return of the Lord Jesus in music, and with Margaret reading from the Scriptures. That will be entitled “The stranger of Galilee”.

And finally … A piano CD of songs portraying the personal ministries of Jesus to His loved ones called “It’s all about Jesus”. As soon as any of these come on stream, we will make an announcement on the Website with samples.

“Inspiration from the Internet” went out of print last December, and persistent demands for more copies cause us to look into the possibility of having a reprint. Once again, it will be featured on the Website and announced in our next newsletter, God willing.

And now:-

What people tell us.
Heidi’s dream:
After the evening service, Heidi told us about her dream which led to her conversion.

“I dreamt that I couldn’t see, and yet I knew that the Lord was standing by me. I woke, and heard myself saying: I don’t have to see you to know you are there!”

This is a letter from Pat Goodman, one of our Partners-in-Ministry:
“When my sister died a few years ago, your music was a balm to my hurting soul. So, one day last week I remembered and put on your Sankey 2 tape. I must have left it halfway through, because you played “God be with you till we meet again”. I felt it was like a message from the other side. I wept a little bit, felt comforted.”

Here’s part of a long email from Sarah in Scotland:-

You won’t know me at all! However, I was so disappointed when I missed your concert in Ayr, Scotland on Friday (18th January) for two reasons.

Firstly, I really wanted to hear you play again! Secondly, to thank you for the impact you had, many years ago, on my life and ministry without you even knowing that God was using you in such a way.

I first heard you when you were part of the Filey team, way back in the mid 70s. I, along with everyone else, thought you were amazing. But it was what you said that God used even more. I didn’t realize at the time just how important the statement would be until quite a number of years later.

You said (this is not verbatim!) that you made a vow that if God allowed you to play the piano, then you would play for Him only.”

Sarah’s story is a long one with many a setback and disappointment: but now she’s putting her musical gift to the service of her Lord and Saviour.

We do hope you will have enjoyed our letter to you, and in closing, we wish to thank you all for your prayers and kind support for our ministry.

God bless you all in many wonderful ways.

Yours in our
LORD JESUS CHRIST,
MARGARET & PETER.

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