Welcome! It's wonderful to see you here!

I'm a passionate writer - and therefore spend most of my time writing thriller novels. But I also live an interesting life in the nations. This blog is here for that aspect of my life - our life - I live with my wonderful wife and two daughters.

I believe in encouragement. I live for obedience. I believe in learning from our experiences, and this blog exists for both of those, and more.

So that you stay connected, getting every new update, please add your email address to receive all updates directly, or follow the RSS feed.

I was part of the leadership team in St Petersburg, Russia - which planted Hope Church in 2009.(www.hopechurchstpetersburg.com).
In March 2012 Hope Church sent my family to plant into Tallinn, the Capital of Estonia. I therefore lead this small but growing church plant team. Here is the website for Hope Tallinn (www.hopetallinn.ee)

For details on our journey here, read the series called Adventures of Faith which is linked for you on the right hand column, just below. That details our original journey to Russia and then onto Tallinn 4 years later.

Author for fiction novels - Cherry Picking (2012), The Last Prophet (2015), The Tablet (2015) and The Shadow Man (2016) are available on all major bookselling sites. Please visit: www.timheathbooks.com

Some want to help in practical ways:



Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Life & Times - Part 6

Sunday's 'The St Petersburg Times' made some interesting reading. In a Reuters article titled "Islamist Militants Say They Killed Mayor" it says;

"Islamist militants claimed responsibility on Thursday for killing a mayor in Russia's North Caucasus, an attack that prompted security services to warn that violence in the region could destabilize the entire country.
A sniper shot the mayor of Vladikavkaz, capital of the mainly Christian region of North Ossetia...
..."The execution of the enemy of Allah was carried out by the amir of Kataib al-Khoul", a statement posted...
...The group said it had killed the mayor because of his policies that insulted Islam and women"

It goes onto talk about how these arms attacks and bombings are threats to Russian national security.

Closer to home the paper also reported in an article by staff writer Galina Stolyarova about an explosion in a car that killed three and left one injured here in St Petersburg. You get a glimpse into the Russian political scene in trying to play down any foul play when they are quoted as saying "The most plausible version is that Simonov (one of the victims) happened to be carrying a grenade on him, which exploded accidentally"

Erm...yes, that would sound the most plausible solution.

In all these things, as a foreigner coming into this different culture, and as a Christian living here, reading things such as these can make you feel worried. And outside of God that would probably be the case. And yet, we know we are in the will of God here - so in reality this is the safest place for us to be on planet earth today!

We have been here just over 4 months now - we're into December, the light of day is not here for long now so its starting to feel constant evening and night time.

We've had some good times, some rough times and some tough times. But we are here. We are glad that God called us. We are glad that we listened and went. Now we want to press on to win the prize...

Blessings everyone.