I have been so bad about posting this time. Forgive me. Things have been so different. This time we have just been more focused on what we are actually doing, rather than posting about it, and I know that is not fair to you guys back home who sow so faithfully into us for us to be able to be here. Things have been more challenging this time. We had so many plans to expand on what we did last time, but the Lord has had us on a different journey than what we had thought.
Originally, we were living a little further out from the city, but we soon realized the location wasn’t conducive for what we needed to be doing, so we moved back to the city centre in the middle of December. Since then, we have been able to be out in the city centre and do more outreach, have people over for one on one time, and spend a lot of time in prayer and study. We intercede for this city. Some of you will remember this from last time, but the building we are in is called Highpoint, and the building itself speaks life over the city of Bradford. All around the exterior of the building, there are proclamations of what Bradford is. A city of FAITH, a City of Joy, a City of Innovation, a city of possibilities, etc. Billy and I love it here because we have a view of the entire city from our windows in both the bedroom and the living area, and we can pray over the city looking out those windows. The building also has a dog park at the very top of it for our dog, Mocha, and we are always up there alone. I have sung “I Speak Jesus” from the rooftop of the building over Bradford at the top of my lungs on several occasions. We have soaking music or worship music going in our flat all the time and we love coming into the space to be able to commune with him. We have felt a deep call to prayer while we have been here, so we spent a lot of our free time in prayer, study, and worship.
We spend our days serving at Community Meals, or doing Saturday Gathering- a church service for those on the margins of society. On the days where we aren’t at Fountains, we are having people over to our place for some one on one time, or doing outreach in the city centre. We have seen a few people really want to make a change and go to some local christian rehabs this time around. So much of our time here is spent loving the people. We see so many people with a lack of focus, with a lack of purpose, that we spend our time pouring into their lives so that they can see that they are worth it, and that Jesus loves them. We have only been in our little flat a few weeks and we have had 5 different groups of people over for time with the Lord. We tend to have soaking music on while people are here, and we just let them marinate in the Holy Spirit and let the Lord do his perfect work in their lives.
We have spent a lot of time getting to know some people from Iran, Poland, and Romania, this time, and China, too, believe it or not! . The Lord has really placed all the different cultures here on our hearts this time around. We have made connections up at the local University now, and they have a Global Cafe for people of different nationalities that are here studying to come and hang out, and we have been able to make friends with several of the students while they are here studying. Billy says, “How often do you get to minister to people from China- a closed off country?” Our desire is to really see these people come to know Christ before they go back home to China, so they can then spread the gospel on the inside of China. We are actually holding a taco night up at the Global Cafe next week so we are excited about what the Lord will do there during that time.
We spent Christmas preparing a meal for those who didn’t have anywhere to go, and had some of the students from the University join us, as well as some of our friends from the Community at Fountains. We had such a great time. We all enjoyed ourselves so much. We are thankful to our Highpoint apts staff for allowing us to use the communal space downstairs to hold the meal in, as our flat is way too small for anything like that. The Lord’s hand was definitely in that day, and even in cooking all the food, setting up, and cleaning up, it was a stress free day, and we can say we enjoyed the day and have nothing but good memories from that day. Several times during the meal, Billy and I were overcome with emotion at the goodness of the Lord for putting us here to serve like that.
Our flat is only half a mile away from Acts Church- the original church of Smith Wigglesworth, so Billy and I have attended there several times, and have made plans to go and do some outreach in the city with them as well. We went for their crossover service on New Years Eve and had such a good time praying in the New Year with everyone there.
Those of you that followed us last time will remember I kept posting about how bright it was all the time. The sun was coming up around 4 or 5 am and not going down until 10 or 11 at night. This time has been the exact opposite! Its dark a lot of the time here. The sun doesn’t come up until around 830, and on the shortest days near Christmas, it was dark by 3:30 in the afternoon! We are starting to see daylight until 4 or so now that the days are getting longer again. I can see why so many people here battle with seasonal affective disorder. Many days are filled with clouds and rain even if it is daylight. I am thankful that Billy and I haven’t been too terribly affected by the lack of sunlight.
We appreciate all of you so much, and know that we love you. We appreciate your faithfulness to pray for us. We hear reports from home of you guys asking about us, and it encourages us. One family sent us a Christmas card all the way over here, and it blew us away! It made our entire week! Your love and support to us means the world, and I am sorry we have been slacking on keeping up with the updates back to you guys! We just got lost in the moments here, and got busy and this got pushed to the wayside. I will try my best to do better for the last little bit of our time here.
We love and miss you all!
