Hello all! I just wanted to pop in and give a quick update on us, and then fill you in on the state of the ministry as well.
Most of you know, most of you know we sold our home before we left to go to the UK, so while we are back in SC, we are staying with my Mom, and we are so thankful to have a place to call home here. Also, I have gone back to work part time with Greenville County EMS, to help cover our expenses. Billy and I had sticker shock over the price of groceries when we arrived. We couldn’t believe just how much the price had gone up in the six months while we were gone. Billy spends his time working as well. He is helping out a few families remodel homes, or repair homes from Hurricane Helene storm damage. While he could go and get a job, we really felt like his time would be better served helping those in the community that need it, and the Lord has been faithful to us in the meantime.
We are so enjoying our time reconnecting with our family and friends, but England is never far from our hearts. We miss the UK terribly. Lots of things here feel slightly out of place for us and we can’t find exactly where we fit, but God is good and we see His hand even in this season. We know we are here for a purpose and that is evident as we go throughout each week. We are consistently getting new ideas for our mission in the UK, and the Lord is teaching us things about ourselves while we are here as well. We found a great beginner discipleship book that was recommended to us by someone locally, and reading through it, I am so excited to be able to use it for some bible studies and discipleship courses when the time comes. Also, I have recently finished up a course on reaching Muslim women, and I really learned a lot in the course. I am excited to take other courses in the future to expound my knowledge of reaching the Muslim community that is so prevalent in Bradford.
When we went to the UK for six months, I didn’t realize how many different languages we would come into contact with. There was even a need for Spanish all the way over there. Three of the languages that we came in the most contact with were Polish, Urdu, and Romanian. I want to be able to communicate with these people, so one of my goals while we are home has been to begin learning languages. Polish was the one that we seemed to come in most contact with during our times at the community meals and Saturday Gathering, so I have started to learn Polish. I am just at the beginning stages of learning it, but I am excited for all the opportunities for communication it is going to open up. Once I get some basic communication skills in my head for this language, I’ll start learning either Romanian or Urdu at the same time. I just didn’t want to confuse myself here at the beginning.
I have also spent some time assisting a local ministry to the homeless here in Greenville called Soldiers of Hope. In Bradford we focused more on the spiritual side of things and meals, but here we have been doing more going out to where they live and passing out supplies, learning what they need, and how best to help them in the environments they are in. Soldiers of Hope is a local ministry to the homeless and underserved in Greenville, and they have so many plans for how to help this community. They hope to start a spiritual part of ministry to this population as well in the near future, but some logistics have to be worked out first. I have enjoyed helping them, as working with this population is something that is near and dear to our hearts, and it is teaching me more and more about this community in general.
We had the opportunity to share about our experience in England at The Dwelling Place, a local church in Greer, SC recently, too. Sharing about England fills our heart with joy and reconnects us back to all of the people there. We are so grateful for the opportunity. They invited us back a second time for ministry, and after Billy got finished sharing, they chose to pour back into us with the prophetic, that was so very much needed. We love our Dwelling Place (formerly Three Streams Mission) family.
We are still working on our visas and hope to be able to share more on this soon. I believe I have mentioned in previous newsletters that we have had 3 different options for visas. One of those options has been weeded out at this point, and we are down to two different options that we are pursuing, and hope to have something more definitive on those this week as well. Please continue to pray with us in this area.
We had a friend from the UK visit us this week! It was so good to see Denver Thompson, listen to him share such a great, truth filled message to our church and to be able to fellowship with him over coffee and meals. Being around Denver brought tears to our eyes on a couple of occasions for just how badly we long to be back home with our friends and family in the UK.
We spend a lot of our free time communicating with friends in Bradford. We have many video chats and have even been able to do some discipleship via the phone. It has been good, and we love getting updates from England. For those of you in the UK, I love seeing your pictures that you post on Facebook, as it makes me feel like I am there, and it helps to keep us connected back to you guys.
Also, we celebrated Billy’s birthday this week with cupcakes, and a few gifts. He wanted a “PomFather” shirt so badly! HAHA! Anyone that knows us, knows our dog is near and dear to our hearts! I included a pic of Billy in his new shirt with Mocha, our Pomeranian, for effect.
We thank you all for your continued prayer and support during our time here in the USA while we figure out the next steps to get back to England. We would not be able to do this without all of you covering us in prayer and supporting us on this journey. If you would like to donate financially toward our cause in England, you can do so via our website at www.thehillsgo.com. There are several options listed, including a non profit option through our church, God’s Way Church of SC.
