Intermissions

 

Village of Christow, Devon

This morning we heard a message on the radio about “intermissions” in our life….times where God gives us a “selah” or a pause…a change point….  we really identified with what was being said…that God gives us those times for refreshment and rest.  Often these will come at the end of a chapter in our life so we can get new direction for the next one.  So that is why the title of this post is “intermissions”.  That is exactly where we are right now.

The past 8 months have been filled with new things from every aspect.  Believing God was telling us to let go of all that was weighing us down and be free to move out in new avenues (Hebrews 12:1-2), we sold most of our worldly ‘stuff’, moved out of our house, stepped out in faith to see what He would do and took off for England.  In the 7 weeks that we were there, we saw the Lord open many new doors of ministry and faith to us.  We could literally write a book about it…but we won’t attempt that on this blog!  Briefly we will touch on the highlights of our time there and try to give you a small taste of our experiences.

 

Plymouth

We came to truly love the people God has brought together in the Plymouth area.  They are meeting in a home on Tuesday nights to fellowship, worship and study the Word; and they drive up to Exeter for church on Sundays…some even are driving up on Wednesday nights, also.   Every one of them has a heart for God and a desire to see Him do something in their own lives and also where they live.  They have been grieved in the past several years that the churches they attended have drifted away from the solid teaching of God’s Word….and they are hungry for that.  Some actually live in the city of Plymouth and some drive from nearby smaller towns and villages.  Devon and Cornwall counties have for centuries been very strong centers of witchcraft and satanic worship.  Ministering the gospel there is hard and discouraging.  But these believers sense that God is at work and beginning to move and they are excited to be a part of what He is doing.  Almost all of them were involved with volunteering at Creation Fest in August….truly a group of servants who are fervent in their desire to follow the Lord.

 

Citadel at Plymouth harbor

Plymouth Bible study worship

 

Bumper sticker in Devon

bumper stickers

Creation Fest UK

Creation Fest UK is a giant music and Bible week in Cornwall that Calvary Chapel puts on every year with the help of other churches from the area.  They have bands and teaching sessions all during the day and night.  People camp out and bring their families.  It is a great time of reaching out to unbelievers and encouragement to believers.  We were volunteers at Creation Fest this year.  I worked in the kitchen, washing dishes and helping with food prep and Steve mostly did security. We stayed at a local farm guest house and had several opportunities to talk about the Lord with our host who came from a Muslim background but believed all religions are the same.  We left him with a copy of C. S. Lewis’s book “Mere Christianity”. 

Steve doing security

Barb and friend Jan in kitchen

Mark and Ingrid from Plymouth

Our host at guest house in Cornwall

Exeter
 

Since we were living in the city of Exeter and walking to town almost daily, we had many opportunities to meet people and interact with them.  The fact that we had an ‘accent’ made people take notice of us; and they often would ask us where in America (or Canada…ha) we were from and why we were in England.  This gave us an open door and a chance to share about the Lord….sometimes just briefly and other times a longer conversation…but all seeds that were being planted.  Steve found a local diner where a lot of contractors and blue collar workers hang out and he was able to share the gospel with 2 of the regulars. 

 

Diner

 

 

Street Kids

In our emails and on Facebook I shared about the chances we had to minister to some of the street kids.  If you didn’t get a chance to read about those experiences you can read about them by clicking on "Street Kids" at the top of this page.  I think this was truly the highlight of our time there, in terms of actual ministry.  The privilege of reaching out in compassion to these kids with the love of Jesus…being His hands and feet….was something I can’t even put into words.  This is one thing we hope to continue to do when we return. 

High Street where we ministered to street kids in the evenings

Shop on High Street

Shop on High Street

Shop on High Street

Calvary Chapel

The people in the church in Exeter are a wonderful, loving body who welcomed us with open arms…spending time with us and inviting us into their homes and lives.   We quickly came to love them and can’t wait to see them again.  Steve, especially, connected with some of the guys and was able to lend an ear, give counsel and be a friend to them.  One of the young men sent a message saying they missed us and asked when we were going to ‘come home’…that was special.

Sunday at Calvary Chapel

 

 

Our main area of ministry  centered around relationships...encouraging people to draw close to the Lord, love His Word, walk with Him passionately and step out in faith to share with others.  Over and over again they told us how grateful they were that we would leave our lives back home to come and encourage them in the Lord.  Because of the many decades of spiritual drought in that country, they do need much encouragement.  In his prayer one night, one brother was thanking the Lord for what He is beginning to do in England and for sending people from America to re-ignite the fires that have grown cold.  He said it was like “a fresh new wave has washed upon our shores” and he was so thankful. 

Visiting in Ivybridge

Visiting in Bittaford

 

These are just few of the things we experienced in our time in England.  We hope to be able to share more with each of you in the near future, as the Lord allows

 

School of Ministry

Exeter seems to be a ‘hub’ of things the Lord is beginning to do in England.  With the university there, the opportunities to reach many with the gospel is exciting.  There have been several pastors of other churches who are seeing the need to teach the Bible in an expository manner…line by line through the whole Bible.  They have approached Bob and asked him to teach them how to study and teach the Bible the way the Calvary Chapels do.   So Calvary is currently in the planning stages of putting together a School of Ministry in Exeter.  This will be a three month program for both single and married men who sense the call of God upon their life to step into pastoring. The single men will live in a dorm house and have regular morning classes, and the married men will be taking a couple of night classes as well as Saturday mornings.

Steve and I have been asked to be the ‘house parents’, so to speak, for the single men.  We see this as an exciting opportunity to be an encouragement to these young men and hopefully have an impact on their lives and future ministry.  

So that brings us back to the “intermission” we are in right now.

We have been back in WA since the middle of August and are hoping to be able to return to England sometime in November, Lord willing.  We are working on obtaining our visas and raising the rest of the financial support we will need to be able to live there for a minimum of 2 years.  While we are here, we will be ministering in a few churches in Oregon and Idaho, sharing at some home fellowships and also heading down to Phoenix to visit friends and supporters there.  Our schedule is filling up so if you would like to visit with us, please let us know soon.  We would love to spend time with as many as we can.

Praise

1.  The Lord gave us many divine appointments to sharing His love with people and many seeds were planted.

2.   We had opportunities to minister in worship and teaching and encouraging the body.

3.  Our health remained good the whole time.

 4.  Many wonderful relationships were built in the short time we were there.

 

 Prayer

1.  Divine guidance in visa applications and favor with the British government…it is complicated!

 

2.  Wisdom in many decisions that need to be made for this move.

 

3.  Good use of our time here ….and spending time with family and friends.

 

4.  Continued good health and getting doctor, dentist and eye check-ups.

 

5.  Prayer for all those we were able to share the gospel with….the street kids, contractors, our host in Cornwall…that the seeds that were planted would find good ground and take root.

 

6.  Raising the rest of our financial support before we leave. 

 

We are continually thankful for all of you and are very aware that this is not just ‘our’ ministry to the people in England….we are just the extension…the ‘arm’ of the ‘body’ of those who are praying and supporting us in this.

 

Teaching women

2Co 3:5-6  “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. “