Loving London

The past three weeks have just flown by in West London. I have been working with Hope Community Church in Perivale a suburb of London. Hope is an amazing church that truly lives out walking by faith. Being led by God Hope took their small café that they started over 10 years ago and decided to make it into a ministry to the Perivale community, they felt God leading them to no longer charge the people who came into their Café but to trust God to provide so that they could better serve the community. So now the staff is completely volunteered, and the café runs on donations and blessings.

The café is also where the church is meeting at the time being. The café is becoming quite the busy place with different groups meeting in the café throughout the week. I was able to spend a little bit of time with a group of women who had various addictions in their past, these women meet together once a week in the café to just support each other and their desire to continue in sobriety.

 Besides learning the ends and outs of the fancy coffee machine and learning how to make a proper cup of tea, I was able to spend some of my time going into the prayer room with people from these different groups or with people that came in for a cup of coffee but needed more. The vibe in this café/ church is very much sit back and let the spirit lead but get ready because he is going to lead, you never really knew who was going to come in that day, or what exactly was going to be happening that day, but you just knew that God had a plan and it was going to be a great day.

This past week was “Christmas Cheer” week. For the fourth year Hope set up tables at the Perivale station at 6am and spent the next 3 hours wearing Santa hats passing out sweets, tea, and of course coffee as workers were on their way to work or school.

 It was so interesting to me to see how some people slowly started to warm to us being there. Others were so happy to see us from day 1 saying “now it feels like Christmas since you’re here” but others would see us duck their heads and walk right past us. One guy in particular would not even acknowledge my existence as I said “Merry Christmas, have a sweet” trying to let him choose a chocolate, but by Wednesday he gave me a smile and by Friday he took a sweet and said “Happy Christmas” back! J I take that as a victory! Towards the end of the week we even had people making donations of their own to help with the spreading of the cheer, women bringing in Bananas, Children going home and baking cupcakes so we could pass them out to other kids, one sweet little girl even brought in some of her candy and passed them out to all of the workers, another man from South Africa came in and gave all the workers little cross keychains that his father hand makes. It’s just so amazing to see what a little love can do, to see how fast love and kindness spreads!

 I mentioned earlier this week on facebook, how this world has been so full of hate and terror lately, everywhere you turn be it facebook, on the tv, in the presidential candidates, etc.… you see people being fearful, hateful, and closed off. This media fear transfers to everyday life and you can feel the tension in people especially in big crowds in the city, and anytime the subway stops in the middle of the tunnel, everyone is on high alert. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing to be alert and aware of your safety, but it is when this cautiousness causes you to take the love out of your life, to take the light out of your life, when this cautiousness causes you to live in the bondage of fear and hate to people you don’t even know. In John 13:34-35 Jesus says “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jesus knew what laid ahead for him on Calvary, yet he loved us with a life-giving, self- sacrificing kind of love that was willing to die for others. People should know that we are his disciples by the way that we love people. Christmas Cheer was just that, loving people regardless of their age, sex, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and social status; intentionally loving people where they were so that they can experience the fathers love.

 Another thing about this experience is that even though it’s crazy early in the morning and you are thoroughly exhausted by the end God just kept encouraging and filling us with his love in this process and He showed up even in the midst of the power outages he was there and working in more ways than I can count.

One thing about this crazy year long journey I’m on is plans and life changes on the daily, my attempt at making plans I’m sure is comical for God. So the original plan was for me to be in England till after the New Year then head into Northern Ireland and Ireland before flying home out of Dublin. Well like I said things changed and God is always working, things at Hope were winding down for the holidays and the people I was going to be staying with had to be away for Christmas now. So having some amazing friends in Germany hearing that my Christmas plans were now in the air invited me to come back to Duisburg to spend Christmas and the New Year with them! Not only that but I was able to catch a ride with Heike who was the one that got me hooked up with Hope church in the beginning! We had quite the journey to say the least getting back to Germany but I’m excited to visit FEG Duisburg-Beek again and be a part of celebrating the birth of Christ with them. 

 I now will be wrapping up this year long journey at the Kontakt Mission home office in Wustenrot Germany, getting to talk with some of the staff there and see more of their different programs they have. Sometimes I am in complete awe at the way God works things out in life, at the way he connects people, the way he just provides and takes care of his children, the way things play out and how they make no sense other than the fact my father in Heaven is bigger than any situation and that he has perfect timing and knows what he’s doing.

Please be praying

-          For Café Rendezvous- that the volunteers can be strengthened and that new volunteer can rise up and help take some of the work load. Also be praying for their financial situation, that they continue to walk in faith that God provides for this ministry and that they can just be that light for the community.

-          For Leigh and Phil- the pastors of the church, be praying that God strengthens them in their walk with him, in their family lives, and through their ministry in Hope Church. Both of these men have such a heart for this community and for those apart of this church, it was truly encouraging to see the way they loved on these people and made sure everyone had a place and felt welcomed in this part of the family.

-          For Hope church- 2015 has been a hard year for Hope, they have had a lot of setbacks financially and changes made. They had to leave the school they were renting for their church and had to start meeting in the café which is not really large enough to hold everyone. Despite all of these setbacks and being crammed into a small place, God is ever faithful and the church is growing. Be praying for insight as the leaders of the church figure out the next step for their church body, and the building/ space issues.

-          Be praying for the ministries that meet in Café Rendezvous. As I said earlier many different groups meet for different functions at the café, be praying that the café remains a place where these people can come in and experience God regardless of what group brought them in.

-           My trip is coming to an end and although I had originally planned for the last two weeks of this journey to be more of a reflective debriefing time between me and God it looks to be pretty busy and full. Please be praying that despite the business of my schedule that I can still work through some of the things God has been laying on my heart. Be praying that I finish this year strong and that there is clarity in this time.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. My next blog will be a more reflective blog over this whole year… I can’t believe it’s almost over! Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and the warmest of New Years.