^{30 April 2006}

^{A QUICK TRIP TO THE STATES}

^{We will be flying to Texas the second week of May for a brief visit with our sending church, Tabernacle Baptist Church of Crane, Texas, and a few other churches in and around the Fort Worth area. And while we are there we really ought to attend the May meeting of the World Baptist Fellowship and see the 2006 graduates of Arlington Baptist College on their big day (since our son Ian is among those graduates ). He begins a four year enlistment in the Air Force as a linguist on the 5th of July, so we want to spend some time with him before he becomes the property of Uncle Sam.}

^{During our visit we will meet up with Roy and Sonia Sherston, a Welsh couple who are helping us to start over and plant a new work here in South Wales. They will be at the May meeting in Arlington, so if you want to meet a genuine Welshman (and Baptist), look for Bro. Roy.}

^{OUR PRESENT SITUATION}

^{The home Bible meetings continue here. We have been looking at the topic of Biblical hope since January, and it has been an encouragement for everyone, including the preacher. We definitely need to find a facility soon to hold public services, as we can only fit a handful of people in a sitting room in Wales. We have pretty much exhausted our venue search in the neighborhoods of Cardiff (city to the west of us) and are now looking north and east of Newport (city to the east of us). In particular, we are interested in Caerleon, a town just a couple of miles upriver from Newport. The town has a hospital, a university campus, and a major comprehensive school (junior and senior high school). The old Baptist church in the town closed down around 1982 or 1983, the graveyard moved and the chapel converted into houses. This is a shame, since there had been a Baptist witness in the town as early as the second century (for sure) and likely the first century, as the old histories record disciples of Paul leaving Rome for South Wales in the 60s AD. The Roman town of Isca (Caerleon) was at the time the primary town in South Wales.}

^{When we return from Texas, we want to try and persuade the ‘town fathers’ to allow us the use of the town hall in the town center. It is one of those situations where you must know the ‘right people’ to be granted such a concession. We know that our God moves the hands of kings and emperors according to His plan, so if it should please Him, making those town fathers to look favourably upon our request is not a problem. We would ask that every time you think of us during the month of May, that you would take thirty seconds to ask this of the Lord on our behalf.}

                                                                                                                        ^{Feeding a few and fishing for more,}

^{Tom and Patti Wheeler}