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
No comments:
Post a Comment