Team one overview, team two begins Monday

The rest of our team left yesterday and we trust they arrived home safely with few adventures along the way. To all of our families...thank you for loaning your precious loved ones to London. We know this trip is as much because of your sacrifices and taking care of home as it is about our encounters here.

This past week has been eye opening, encouraging, invigorating, convicting, and challenging. We had a debriefing meeting a few nights ago and thought you might enjoy hearing some of the things we learned and that have changed us.



London provides an opportunity to rub elbows with the nations. This could easily be a place for revival that shakes the world.

His people are in this city! They are a remnant, but they are here!

There are more languages in this city than in any other city in the world.

We have seen how powerful prayer is...and how much we desire to immediately see fruit of our labor and have something to show for our prayers, as if it depended on us instead of God. We were challenged to truly believe God is sovereign.

We recognized how Christianity is often just a thing we do on Sundays, not who we are. We saw the vast presence of Muslims here and realized that we as believers often do not visibly stand out like they do. Our neighbors and coworkers should be able to see the difference in the way we live, act, respond, etc. We ought to look different and not blend in so well with those around us.

We want to learn to share Christ with others NATURALLY...not as part of a program, but part of our lives and as an overflow of our gratefulness to Him.

We each mentioned one person who had impacted our lives that we would mentally take back with us to pray for and some to continue to be in communication with them.

We learned that God is purposeful in our lostness. The times we intended to go one way and lost our paths were the times when God had people he anted us to interact with or pray over. We know you were praying for our steps to be directed and that was a very clearly answered prayer.

We must be passionate around people we are afraid to be passionate around.

One of our members was here last March and she enjoyed seeing the power of prayer from her last visit being answered specifically that young children would come on a future trip. The children's feet allowed us into MANY conversations and locations we would not have otherwise been able to enter!

We were challenged over and over again that our prayers were of utmost importance, much mores than our words to or around others. This was a difficult lesson for many of us to learn and grasp.

We all expressed a desire to pray and walk purposefully in the Spirits guiding at home in our neighborhoods and where the Lord daily guides our feet. Please hold us accountable in this.

One last note, Laney asked that you pray for her. She is now throwing up and can keep not even a sip of water down for the last twelve hours. We change hotels tomorrow, so please pray she can gain enough strength to do this.

From Winston

Wilma

Many of us through the course of this past week have noticed the precious servant around us in ... Wilma we shall say. She has warmly welcomed us in the hallways as she prepares to clean our rooms. She has kissed and hugged on our children and done even little extra special touches to our rooms, such as folding blankets and setting the kids stuffed animals on the bed in an inviting way. Many of us have prayed for her. Today we learned that she is a mom from Romania and her eight year old son is back home. With tears in her eyes she held onto Laney, kissing her again and again. She showed us pictures of her son and her brother. We cried and prayed. Then continued cleaning. Due to the language barrier, we do not know much more. Please pray for Wilma and her endurance and favor with her employers as she very much seems a lamb amongst the wolves. I do not know if she know Christ, but my heart believes she in fact does.


From Winston

Wilma

Many of us through the course of this past week have noticed the precious servant around us in ... Wilma we shall say. She has warmly welcomed us in the hallways as she prepares to clean our rooms. She has kissed and hugged on our children and done even little extra special touches to our rooms, such as folding blankets and setting the kids stuffed animals on the bed in an inviting way. Many of us have prayed for her. Today we learned that she is a mom from Romania and her eight year old son is back home. With tears in her eyes she held onto Laney, kissing her again and again. She showed us pictures of her son and her brother. We cried and prayed. Then continued cleaning. Due to the language barrier, we do not know much more. Please pray for Wilma and her endurance and favor with her employers as she very much seems a lamb amongst the wolves. I do not know if she know Christ, but my heart believes she in fact does.


From Winston

Another perspective

Prayer partners.

Here is a copy of some experiences for one of our team members for this past week. Please read as it will give you some more insight on our week.


We are loving London. The people are as diverse in this area as I have ever been in. Literally the WHOLE world is in London...except for Caucasian Britains - we have only met a handful - very interesting! We are here praying mainly. Our leader has equated this trip to moving rocks through prayer and engaging with the people in this area. We are moving rocks so that the ground can be tilled and the then a seed to be planted, etc. etc. so that spiritual growth can begin...it is literally that spiritually dark here! (If you are curious about this prayer walking, mull over Luke 10: 1-4) The main perspective is a more heightened sense of tolerance than what we know in the South. Most folks in the South might say they are religious or know about God, but the folks here say they care nothing about religion. And one religion is just a irrelevant as another...Muslim, Catholic...and there is almost no mention of Christian except inside the few churches we know of in the area. It is amazing to know how many fathers of our faith came from England and now how incredibly dark and far away the people are here.

We cannot thank each of you enough for agreeing to pray for us! We have seen the Lord answer so many prayers...as a team we have met one believer since we have been here, we have found one Gospel centered church we didn't know about, and have seen smaller prayers answered amongst the team - including quick healing of throwup/diarrheah (how do you spell that??) of Daniel last night. The kids are also doing really well with the sleeping arrangements. They are both sleeping on a pull out sofa and we are in a double bed. It is complete family togetherness, but it has been really going well...much better than I could have expected.

We have told the kids that they get to be Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego as we go on our excursions to various parts of London to pray and engage with the people here. They have enjoyed that immensely! They have been as much a blessing to this trip as anyone! A precious moment occured a few nights ago. We walked past a homeless man huddled along a very busy pathway and my heart broke. Laney was beside me and asked why that man was sleeping there. I told her he didn't have a home. She was quiet and then asked...but "Mama, where is his pillow? He doesn't even have a pillow to lay his head on." Tears rolled down my cheeks as I heard the Lord's compassion in my daughter's heart. A few minutes later, we prayed as a team and said "Amen." Our leader began talking and she said, "I want to pray, too!" She boldly and loudly prayed, "Please give that man a home and heal him. Thank you for all the people in the world. Amen." I well up with tears as I'm typing. She has the faith and confidence that God will answer her prayers. And he does and I am challenged to really believe that prayers will be answered, but I do believe that. A childlike faith is a beautiful thing that I desire to return to!!

The kids favorite part has been the various modes of transportation they have gotten to enjoy. We began by riding a "school bus" to ATL and then on a plane (as we are in the air, Daniel was reclining in his seat in his PJs with his headphones on repeating "I'm flying! I'm flying!") and then on a choo-choo train (the Tube...subway) and then hoping on different buses. Today was their favorite of a boat cruise down the River Thames. It doesn't get much better than this for a 4 and 2.5 year old! Laney had a really fun b'day here. One of the girls on the team bought her a tiara, another bought cupcakes. She enjoyed the attention! :) There is another family on the team, so Daniel has had a little buddy on the team. They have had fun together, too.




Brian has had an opportunity to preach this past Sunday. One of the convictions is do I have compassion or critisism toward those who do not know the Lord and live in a totally different lifestyle? Because the world is in London, there are no cultural norms. It is really interesting. I am gently pushed and am stretched to engage and find commonalities. One of the sweetest parts of the church that we experienced on Sunday was the amazing family that can be built amongst people from so many different nations. There were probably 100 people in this congregations...which is HUGE over here!!! and the people were like family...but they were SSSOOOOO different from one another. It reminded me much of what heaven must be like with all of the nations singing to God on His throne in their own languages!! It was just beautiful!

Funny stories:
We were walking along the same bridge I mentioned above in the evening. A ton of various sorts of people were out. Laney was walking ahead with a few other team members taking notice of the people around her. She walked past one man who was sitting on the side of the bridge and quickly turned around and said, "Look! He's got blue hair!" I was too far behind to do anything! Oh, my! Out of the mouths of babes!! A few minutes, our leader asked if she wanted to have blue hair. She quickly responded "No...I want to have pink hair!!!"



From Winston

Great last two days.

We have finished our work for the first team to London, but we have not finished the task. Please pray for the safe return of team one and the safe journey of team two.

God has been so gracious to our week, despite ourselves. It seems that even when we went the wrong way or found ourselves walking in a different direction than we had planned that God had purposes for his glory in what we did not plan or intend.

For an example here is a story of one of our many examples as written by one of our team members.



It's amazing how God is in all the details of our trip and continues to affirm how He listens and answers our prayers. Our Bible study for Thursday's walk was from Luke 10:4-7. It really focused on two main points: trusting God to take care of the needs and building relationships. Today's journey demonstrated both principles.

Walking down a street that we did not intend to we ran into and met Rory. As we asked him about his neighborhood and he began to share, we got a great sense that he was heavy hearted about his life, relationships and job. One of our team members asked him about churches in the area and his thoughts on church. He stated that he was Catholic and a follower of Jesus Christ. Again sensing his troubled heart we asked him if we could pray for him. After our prayer, Rory became very emotional and with tears in his eyes, he thanked us stating that he had never had anyone pray for him. He then stated that we have no idea what he was facing in his life and could not believe that he would meet three strangers on a road going home and have them encourage him and pray for him on that road.

God is so good and had us at the right spot at the right time despite ourselves, to be used of him to encourage and comfort a stranger. What a blessing to be used as such an encouragement to someone. Please pray for Rory right now. Pray for his job, his upcoming marriage, and his growth in having Jesus as the treasure of his life.


Rory was one of the few believers we met this week. Most people do not think about religion. They are too busy in life and too distracted with life to have a thought about God Most believe that church is only relevant as a place for social community and a place for social justice.

However, we did see that God is at work in this great global city. We rejoice in 2 Cor. 4:1, "Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart." We truly recognized and praised God for the opportunity to be apart of His ministry in London. To walk the streets of London, to learn about it's people, to speak and engage them and to most importantly pray for them. We ask that you join us in praying Luke 10:2, praying to the Lord of the harvest that He send out laborers into his harvest field.

We thank you for your prayers and ask you to continue to pray for Gods movement in this area and that perhaps God may use you on one of our future trips.

From Winston

Lawyers, Beauty Therapist, The haves vs. The have nots and eyes to see

Today was a great day. God has been so good in allowing us to see how he is answering and directing our prayers. It was very encouraging about the movement happening at Heath St Baptist church, and today one of our team members was invited back to a storefront in that area and was able to have a great discussion with a couple of the "Beauty Therapist". They have never really thought about religion or going to a church. It would be great for a new minister to come and lead this church body to reach out to it's neighbors.

We also found out today that St. Luke (a church we found yesterday and were encouraged by it's display of scripture and efforts to reach the community), was applying to get a school. Please pray for this as this is a church body that wants to make Christ known in the community.

I will also leave you with a little story from Paul. We met Paul today in a park and were able to speak with him for a very long time. He is a
young attorney and gave us great insight into the life in London. He said that London can be a very lonely place for people as it is very crowded but nobody knows one another. He said that many have dogs as they provide a companionship that does not require much and always accepts and wants to spend time with it's owner. He said that he and his girlfriend and friends spend their time playing sport games, eating dinner with one another, drink together, drink some more, and drink again. "that's what you do in London, drink". Paul is not a religious person and doesn't think too much about religion, church or christianity. Please pray for Paul, that our talk about Christianity would spark an interest and God would draw Paul to himself.

We also observed today that the haves are so content that they do not see a need for Christ, and the have nots are to bitter to desire a fix for their discontent lives. Please lift up the people of London to find that they do need Christ and to free themselves from their bitterness or their self sufficiency. This of course applies to our home area as well.

We have learned from our observations that when you know what to look for, you start to see it all around you. Distractions however blind us to what is in plain sight. Therefore, we pray that we can take this insight and knowledge back home and start to see our home with intentional and open eyes. We pray that you too will be able to "see" what is around you and that you will make a start toward praying for lostness, hopelessness, bitterness, and self sufficiency that surrounds our every day walks in life.

Please continue to pray for our team. For energy and for health. Daniel has gotten a stomach bug so please pray for him to feel better and for the rest of the team to not catch the bug. Also, many things are happening at home with our loved ones as we are away. Please pray for the families we have left behind for their health, and for God to protect them from any attacks. Lastly pray for our work. We are very burdened for the people of London. Pray that we will continue to depend on God and to not get distracted.

Thank you for your prayers. We are confident that because of your covering in prayer we have had great success in our journey.


From Winston

Location:London

Answered prayers from past teams

Monday was a very long day. Each of the four teams went out and worked really hard in their areas. One such area bordered a past area and a church that is dying. We learned from a previous trip that the minister at this church felt like the church was not relevant anymore and that her duty was to care for the older members until they died giving a hospice type care for the church. Then we prayed that God would remove her and that God would bring someone to this church who loved the truth of the gospel and would faithfully preach and lead this church. Today we learned that the church minister is retiring and that they are looking for a new minister.

Praise God!

Now we need to continue to pray for a minister to have a vision for spreading ten gospel in the area.

Please continue to pray for us, our energy, and our work.


From Winston

Birthday, walnuts, and our brothers and sisters

Sunday was a great day for our team. Although struggling with jet lag our Father was good in providing energy when needed.

Today was Laney's birthday. It was a great time celebrating this life. She is a precious girl with such a prayerful and tender heart. All the kids are doing great and have really enjoyed making a lot of friends.

Before the service today though three of us were standing up the road from the church when two guys on motorcycles came by and threw a walnut toward our direction. Fortunately it hit a tree we were standing by but it did not hit us. We have never had objects thrown at us before so it was an interesting experience.

Soon after we had a wonderful service where one of our members preached the message. He did a great job and we were very blessed by this message. We then had a great time of fellowship with this body of believers. It was a great experience to see and be with this light of hope that is located in central London.

After the service at the right time (God's timing) we were able to pass by another congregation of Ethiopian believers. This was special as one of out team members is from Ethiopia and was able to connect with this group of believers.

The rest of the day we went to three different sections to prayer walk, observe the people and to engage in conversation. Each team had a great day and had many encounters. We thank God for these opportunities.

Sunday was a full and exhausting day but nonetheless very exciting start of our journey.


From Winston

Across the pond minus one?

We arrived safely into London on Saturday morning. We thank God and praise him as he answered many prayers and logistical issues. One issue in particular demonstrated that depending on God is the only way.

As we checked into our flight everybody checked in except one. The airline had a reservation but the travel agent did not pay the airline so the reservation was dropped. After speaking with the travel agent we were told that this team member would have to wait until the next day and then fly out. This however was not acceptable and after much prayer and speaking to many supervisors we were able to fix the issue and get this team member on the plane. We rejoiced in how God answered our prayers and made a way. god though was not finished in demonstrated our need for dependance in everything. As we left security to rejoin the rest of the team at the gate we entered the airport train, just as the doors were closing our team member dropped their ticket and passport. The ticket fell through the gap between the train and platform falling to the tracks, but the passport fell inside the train and we were able to grab it before it went into the gap. What a nightmare that would have been!

After going through this much before the plane left I started to wonder what was next and started to worry about our trip. Our father though gently reminded me though that he was in charge and I didn't need to worry but instead depend, even in the small things. How easy it is for us to forget but what a blessing it is when we do intentionally depend on God for His provision and protection.

More to come...


From Winston

Location:London, UK

Sunday At Kings Cross Baptist

From Jen;

God has overwhelmed my heart by bringing a little bit of West Africa to me this morning to worship with...loving all of you there...

On our way

Dear prayer partners,

We are once again on our way to London. Please pray for our flight and for our bodies as we adjust to a different time zone. We will be prayer walking and city narrative mapping this week in a new area of Camden. Please pray that God will direct our steps, open our eyes, and give us the words to say when we are able to speak to those we encounter.

We thank you for your prayers and we look forward to sharing with you how God will answer those prayers and make His name famous.

Please pray Ps. 67:1-3


From Winston

Location:Winston,United States