During January, Pastors John and Debbie - along with a few other church leaders from Wales - spent five days in Atlanta, USA, as guests of New Hope Baptist Church.  

New Hope and Pastor Rhys Stenner have a huge heart for Wales. They have regularly sent missions teams to Wales over the last few years and last year, they contacted John to talk about extending their borders into Rhondda during a trip planned for July 2010. 

Whilst the main purpose of the visit was to plan for July, John also got to meet and fellowship with Al Meade, a Paralympics triple gold medallist, Lee Haney, eight times Mr Olympia and perhaps the greatest bodybuilder of all time, and Truett Cathy, owner of  American fast-food chain Chick-fil-A.

“It was an incredible trip on lots of different levels”, John told us. “In many ways, Atlanta is like a another world!! All the people we met were so warm and generous and to see their heart for Wales was amazing! They were blown away by our Sporting Marvels and East Africa vision! It was an honour to share with them – and we believe we have gained some more supporters for life!”

On the Saturday night, John & Deb were guests at a Missions Banquet where Wales featured prominently on the agenda. The visiting Wales contingent brought the house down by singing, ‘Here is love vast of the ocean’ in Welsh and John presented Pastor Rhys with a Wales track-suit from international rugby player Garin Jenkins. Pastor Rhys is a Welsh Rugby fanatic so you can imagine his delight!