(Yorkminster)
"I waited patiently upon the Lord and He inclined and heard my cry.
He pulled my up out of the miry clay, He set my feet upon the rock.
He gave me beauty for ashes and joy for my mourning and praise for heaviness.
He put a new song in my heart and a crown upon my head, He gave me life forevermore.
He's been so good, so, so good to me, so good, so, so good to me, so good, so, so good to me, Jesus.
He picked me up, and He turned me around and placed my feet on His solid ground
Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Now I've got love, joy, peace, and righteousness in the Holy Spirit.
Oh Yay." (Cory Asbury "So Good to Me")
(Becky's 18th)
I attended my first 18th birthday here in the UK. The legal drinking age is 18 here today, so it's a big birthday. Amid the little boy who knew the moves to the Michael Jackson songs, the can-can contest between the men and the women, and the 90-year-old grandma who boogied on the dance floor, was a sweet family blessing their daughter on her big day. Becky is a sweet part of our youth group at church, going hard after God and challenging us to do the same.
(Re:create Stomp Session)
Becky and some of the other youth participated in Re:create Preview Day. Re:create is a youth arts camp aimed allowing the young people in our city to express themselves whilst giving us a chance to build relationships with them and find out where they are with God. The day was full of fun - we all did our own unique artwork - and more fun - we staged our own rendition of "Stomp" - and building a new relationship with a local girl. I'm believing God will do great things in her life.
(Our banner)
I think I told you that we've been going through a book by Mike Seth entitled "Here Comes Heaven" with the children in the Launch Pad. We recently created a banner with our lesson about our role as ambassadors of Heaven. Maddie took the lesson to heart and taught the actions from Launch Pad worship of "Superhero" and "Everlasting God" to two classmates. Her teacher asked the girls to perform for the class and then for the entire school. And "Superhero" doesn't mince words either. The entire population of Malin Bridge Primary heard, "Jesus, Your my superhero, You're my Star, my best friend." Beautiful!
(Alpha Weekend Away)
ACC Sheffield has been running an Alpha course with great success. Part of the course is a weekend away to build community and teach about the power and presence of the Holy Spirit then allowing the participants to experience that power and presence. It was a great success, and God totally came through. Sarah and Todd had no idea how many people would be able to attend and didn't even have a venue until a week before the event. God came through in a miraculous way. Discussion groups have changed since the weekend and one man especially is very close to giving his life to Jesus. Whoop whoop!
(Baptisms Yay!)
One of the Alpha attendees along with a woman who was saved on a previous Alpha course were baptised this month. The baptisms occurred on the same night that we installed our first set of elders as a church. We had a community meal and many visitors including a sweet family from Malaysia. As a church, we've seen many new visitors this past month, and it's exciting to see new people coming to the Gathering. One of our previous visitors and now regular church attendees, Sarah, an asylum-seeker received here indefinite leave to remain. She will now be able to seek employment. We celebrated with a party and her favourite song at church. Her testimony is awe-inspiring, and God, God has been good to her.
As we said hello to our friend Sarah, we said goodbye to our teammates the Roberts. They have embarked on a 3 month long furlough to reconnect with family and friends, raise support, and share what God is doing here in England. I miss them already, but am excited to see them in Colorado this summer for our organisation's biannual conference called ICON. I booked my plane tickets just the other day and am excited that three of our English staff members will be able to come. Please be praying with us for God's financial provision for the journey and see the instructions at the bottom of my blog if you would like to give.
(Wall entrance)
I'll leave you with some photos of a recent trip I took with some of the Uni girls to York. The day was meant to include a training session about reaching university students, but we unfortunately miscalculated the duration of the journey. Not one to waste time in a lovely city, we walked the streets. Especially impressive was the Yorkminster. It's the largest church in the north. Equally enjoyable were the walls around the city. You can walk on top and appreciate that people really are a lot taller now. Plus, I was able to visit a small shop down one of the alley-like streets and purchase some genuine American root beer. A special treat.
(Training exercise)
I pray this finds you well! Here in England we are getting used to a coalition government, hung parliaments, volcanic ash disrupting travel, and a chilly May. We've starting searching for a permanent building and are looking forward to achieving charity status. Daniel has turned in the rough draft of his thesis, and the Roberts are expecting their third baby. May we choose to walk in the love, joy, peace and righteousness from the Holy Spirit. Let's talk soon!
