North Devon

If any of you are curious as to where you can find one of the most beautiful places on Earth, I recommend North Devon. I spent a four-day weekend in Ilfracombe with my friend Elie and her family, running barefoot on the tors, exploring the coast, and relaxing on the beach. It was a wonderful time to enjoy God's people and His creation. Now I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Photo Tour of Ridley

Our Front Entrance yesterday morning. We do a community drop-in every Friday and most Wednesdays.

Elie and Philly working on the Easter Craft in the lovely sunshine. You can see where our side yard opens just behind Elie.

The side entrance to the building is just outside of this photo's frame. The wall to the left originally had children's paintings from an event some ten years ago. Elie and I whitewashed it over a school break, but we left up the verses.

Yordan working at a desk in our main hall. In this picture, the hall is set up for use as a community space. There are tables, coffee, and tea just out of the frame to the left. In the course of an average week the hall alternates between a team meeting place, a community space, a youth room, and a sanctuary.

The back room has been seeing more use since Philly led the charge in redecorating. Here you see it set up for an Easter event. This is another room with many purposes serving as a meeting room, Mums and Tots area, Sunday School classroom, and Bible Study area through the course of an average week.

Since January

The past two months have been interesting. They were full of hope and frustration, exciting moments and doldrums. Sometimes the slow pace of progress has this particular American chomping at the bit to move forward. Other days, I come home and look through my notes wondering how so much can possibly be jammed into the course of a week.

We have moved forward with our Mums and Tots group with varying degrees of success. On the very first week, no one came. We continued to spread the word, and by the next Friday our small room was full of mothers and children. The majority of the women attending were from Muslim backgrounds, and conversation was friendly and open. In the following weeks, none of these women have returned. Rather, two different women - one Muslim, one Sikh - have brought children, generally at different times. The room is almost empty again, leaving Philippa and I to wonder whether mothers have been offended by something we've said, unimpressed with the playroom itself, or simply have busy and unpredictable lives. The fact that the playgroup has only been able to meet on Fridays thus far - a day of prayer, instruction, and ritual cleansing for Muslims - has also been unhelpful.

The situation with youth outreach has been accompanied by similar frustrations. The students who attend are from what may be considered Christian backgrounds. Outreach to young men has been going wonderfully, with Sammy, Ali, and Kaine interacting through casual conversations and games during youth club on Tuesday nights and Philippa's husband Chris helping to lead Bible Studies on Fridays. Young women have finally begun to attend youth club regularly - streaming in at once, chatting in tight groups or playing games for a few moments, and streaming out again before any real conversation can take place. Recently, I've been learning names, but it feels like we're making very little progress. Yesterday we held an Easter event for young women based on feedback from the students. We advertised for several weeks and received numerous assurances that the girls were happy to attend. Of twelve to fifteen girls who appeared interested none whatsoever attended. Frankly, this is an area where I'm finally seeing how spoiled I've been by the engagement of students at Grace.

For the past several weeks I've been attending a Bulgarian Bible Study led by Yordan. There are two to five people who have become regular attenders, and they are asking good questions. Last night's passage was John 3:16 - 21 and I was excited to see what they would make of such an explicit statement of the Gospel. They appeared engaged, but as soon as the prayer following the lesson was over conversation turned immediately to the shallowest possible topics.

I came home last night and brought this litany of frustrations to my housemates while we prepared our dinners. They were each encouragements, reminding me both that exciting things are happening and that these situations are in God's hands. I can not decide how many people come to events, I am not in control of how interested or receptive people will be, and God is the one who opens eyes that are blind to the Gospel. Now it's just a matter of remembering that. 

The Latest

Hello Everyone,

January has been a very full month. My brother Sam visited for a while earlier on and was able to meet many of the people I work with.

(Sam, I'd like to take this opportunity to give you a shout out for being a good sport, letting me steal your bacon and cheese chips, and eating a kidney pie without my help.)

On to current events...

I have some exciting news: The funding for the Mums and Tots program at Ridley has finally come through. We hope to do some deep cleaning and decorating work on the back room of the Centre in preparation for this outreach. Many mothers in the area are willing to visit us for a time of discussion and fun activities with their little ones. This is a wonderful opportunity to connect with people who otherwise have very little time to spare and let them know they are welcomed in the Church. It's especially exciting to see the interest continue as we are open about our faith and our role in an evangelistic organization. Please keep this outreach in your prayers.

Another area where we are currently experiencing growth is in the after school youth clubs. Currently we have a relaxed game time on Tuesday evenings. Last week we began a youth Bible Study on Friday nights. The first one was very promising, and I'm excited to see what happens this week. Please pray that students remain interested in learning more about Scripture and that we would have sufficient enthusiasm and wisdom in our interactions as leaders.

On a personal note, I am still uncertain what opportunities to pursue next year. Please pray that I would be wise in considering the future as well as diligent in the here and now.

I was reminded of this verse today while visiting a local school for an afternoon club. The motto of the school was something along the lines of Nisi Dominus Frustra.

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain." 
- Psalm 127:1 (ESV)

 
It's good to be reminded that this area is not my mission. It's not the team's mission. It's not even LCM's mission. Ultimately, it's in God's hands.

In the Spirit of Honesty

In case any of you are imagining London as a sparkling city - its harsh edges softened by the falling of gentle white snow in the crisp moonlight, its serenity broken only by the sounds of the Salvation Army choir in the far distance and the revelries of children playing the exuberant games of youth in the powder of the snow - I thought I should mention that London is too far in the south of England to ever get a decent snowfall.

Christmas cards and Charles Dickens have a lot to answer for.

The view out my window this afternoon

Christmas

Hello All! A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you. :)

Several months before leaving, I decided not to come home for Christmas. Thankfully, a friend at work invited me to join her family for the holiday, and I had a wonderful time with them in London, Suffolk, and Cambridge. I can now confirm that mince pies, mulled wine, and Christmas pudding are all delicious, and that nothing beats feeling welcomed in - especially at a time of year that is otherwise so associated with loneliness. When I spend Christmas with my immediate family, I expect their love. I expect them to be kind, generous, and fun. That alone is a gift, but one of the many blessings of this Christmas was that I knew I had no right to expect any of those things. I found myself praying on Christmas morning for a way to respond because I hadn't done anything to deserve such kindness and generosity, and I was suddenly reminded that that's the point.

We cannot deserve Christ. There is nothing I can do to make myself more worthy of His sacrifice. That didn't stop Him from loving us anyway, and giving to us far more than any of us could have asked or imagined.

In the spirit of Christmas in London,
"God bless us, every one!"

This week

I'm aware I don't post stories on here very frequently, if at all. This is for a variety of reasons, chief among them a desire to respect the privacy of everyone I have the opportunity to interact with. Today, however, I have permission to share a very recent experience of a fellow LCM worker which I hope will be of encouragement to you.

X was walking her dogs down the street on her day off. She had a leash in one hand and a spray bottle full of water in the other, in case the dogs became too mischievous. It was another normal London day. As she walked down the street, a man approached her.

"How are you getting on with the dogs?"

X stopped. This was a rough area of the city, and London isn't generally known for its pedestrian chitchat. (Let that be your understatement for the day.) She made cautious conversation, telling him a bit about the water bottle she was carrying. The conversation eventually moved to his health and how he believed he had healed himself of a debilitating disease. X was curious.

"But you're better now?"

The man paused for a moment. It was evident something was still wrong. X gave him time to find words to describe his current condition, and at last he told her about the demonic oppression he was struggling under. He said he was dealing with it in his own way, but X told him she had the true answer to his problem. As soon as she mentioned the name of Jesus, the man began to smirk. X became nervous. It was an unsettling situation. What was she doing here, on her day off, trying to tell a man on the street about Jesus?

Suddenly, an enormous man approached from behind X. This gentleman was "suited and booted" as the saying goes - wearing an outfit that appeared to be incredibly expensive. He was an African man and had a handsome face with what X later described as "a permanent smile". As this new stranger walked up, he looked at X and said, "Lead him to the cross."

X and the oppressed man both turned to look at him. The stranger repeated himself, "Lead him to the cross." and continued walking. Before he walked out of sight, he turned around and called out,

"It's only through the cross!"

Then he was gone.

This gave X the courage she knew she needed. She was able to continue her conversation with the man she had just met, challenging him about his unwillingness to believe in Christ when he was so ready to accept the existence of spiritual forces. She tried to get him into contact with a nearby Christian mission. As it turns out, that ministry was already aware of this particular man, and they are now taking steps to reestablish contact with him. Please be in prayer for wisdom for the missionaries reaching out to this person, and pray for Christ's healing and redemptive work in his life.

"How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: And "how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
- Romans 10:14

X shared this message with our training class this morning, and it struck me that this was the second such story I've heard this week. I received her permission to share her story online, and now I would like to tell you briefly about another.

I have the opportunity where I'm serving to meet regularly with a woman named H. H speaks Bulgarian and Greek, but virtually no English. Thankfully Yordan, one of the missionaries at Ridley, speaks Bulgarian as his first language. This is a tremendous blessing as it's not a very common language in the sea of cultures that make up Forest Gate, meaning H often has a great deal of difficulty communicating.

On Tuesday, during the meeting with H, an interesting question arose. I had heard previously about the day she first arrived at Ridley. Sammy, our Centre leader, had been trying to learn where she was from and if she knew any English when Yordan entered the room. It became immediately evident that they (quite literally) spoke the same language. As it happened, she had a flat very near the Centre and had decided to visit. That was all I knew about how she became associated with the ministry to begin with.

The question that came up this Tuesday was how she had decided to visit in the first place. H told Yordan she had been in England a very short time and was walking down the street when a Bulgarian woman came up to her and told her to go to Ridley Christian Centre. 'There is a man there who will speak to you in Bulgarian.'

H hasn't seen or heard from this woman since. They spent some time trying to decide who it could be, but Yordan doesn't believe he has ever heard of this woman or met her at all.

Please let this be an encouragement to you. So often we can fall under the burden of not knowing who to speak or reach out to. So often we can become frustrated when we come up against a barrier - whether it's fear, language difficulty, or any of our myriad limitations. Please be reminded that God is faithful and very actively involved. I know it's encouraged me.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 
 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
                     - Isaiah 55:8-9 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
                     - 2 Corinthians 12:9a