The Last three years of our lives have been one of the most incredible testimonies of God's grace, love, and faithfulness. We couldn't have even dreamed this up! 2008 was truly a year of new beginnings for us as we left Los Angeles in transition to London in February of '08, at which point we really started to get that sense of independence that can be both liberating and terrifying all at once. It seems that God has had us on some kind of "one year step plan" up till now. Let me explain:
Lizzie and I started working full-time in Los Angeles during the summer of '06 and got married :) It was then that we started praying about church-planting in Europe, but primarily the U.K.. Now, it was during the Summer of '07 (one year later) that we got to scope out the land during Creation Fest in Devon and spent some time in London where we heard the call to move over. Naturally, we started taking steps towards making the move landing us here a year later in July '08. That leads us to the current time, as we find ourselves at last in central London at Notting Hill Gate. It was exactly a year from when we left L.A. to when we landed our place in the middle of London. And now we are praying about starting church services in Aug. Lord willing, which would make it around a year since we made the move over. HA! Whatever the case, we can say for sure that it gets better and better every year.
So, here we are in a new year entering into an exciting new season of ministry without loosing any time. Since Christmas we have been floored with ministry and moving. During the month of January to kick of the new year we filled in at C.C. Twickenham while the Dingman family made their U.S. visit. That meant four Sunday morning services, where we studied the Epistle to the Philippians , followed up with a weekly prayer meeting and Bible study. We had a great time with the church and learned a ton. We were also looking for flats in London during that time as well, which took us to a level bordering Chaos, but exciting none-the-less. We will spare you the details of our flat hunt, but in summary just about when we were ready to give it up for awhile, God led us to the perfect place.
It was just a week after we found a place and finished filling in at Twickenham that Britt and Tim (our pastors from California) came for a visit. That was an awesome time of hanging out and sharing in what the Lord is doing here. We spent one whole Sunday visiting four different churches from morning till evening, which was both extremely encouraging and extremely concerning. It was encouraging to see that God IS moving in England and that there is a faithful remnant here serving Jesus and preaching His Word and that there is also a MASSIVE need for more of that in every way. However, it was also terribly concerning to see and hear some of things that are being declared as the Word of God and done in His name. For this reason we are praying and trusting that God will use us in any way to help fill the need here and bring some Biblical correction with truth and in love.
We had an awesome time visiting with those guys. It was so nice to connect with them and share about how the Lord is leading us. They are some of the coolest, most encouraging, and hilarious people we have ever known, and we are so blessed to have them as brothers and to be partnered with them in ministry.
And so here we are in our new place looking forward to a new season of life and ministry with Jesus. We had our first official reality london prayer meeting last week, which has left us so excited and encouraged about what the Lord has in store, but we will save that for the next update!
Thank you all for your love and support!
Much Love,
M&L
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2 comments:
What are some of the things that are being taught and done that is of concern?
Hey Justin, well there was two major concerns, or rather griefs, that we had which arose from two of the churches we visited. The first was in doctrine, which was revealed through what I heard the speaker at one of these Churches say: "...There are really two Jesus' in the Bible... and even Jesus was confused about it..." There was more, but this was the topper.. Now, I know that the speaker could've been inferring something that was just poorly conveyed, however by the fact that the person was going all over the place with opinions, loose Bible references, illustrations, and scattered thoughts I have to say this was not an acceptable statement. It's first and foremost a heretical statement according to the council of Chalcedon of 451; And secondly, extremely confusing for people who don't have a solid grip on the Bible or basic Christology. What was appalling to me was that here we had a massive theatre FULL of young and old, hungry for the Word of God (with notebooks and all), getting there heads spun with horrific Bible teaching topped with a humanistic flare and inspiration. Overall, what we saw in this church was an amazing atmosphere of worship that is attracting multitudes of hungry people that are getting starved from the bread of life!! One encouragement though, is that we've heard several accounts of people that get saved in this church and get re-directed to a more balanced church. The sad thing is that some are just falling away from deprivation. All that's to say is we are praying for God to have mercy..
The second church we visited was just plain whack in there ministry practices. We visited this second church during one of their nightly "Revival Meetings" to find an atmosphere of borderline chaos, or just plain silliness, with a miss-use of spiritual gifts, emotionalism, and people getting "slain" and blown on in the face by the minister during prayer. One person was laying hands on people and yelling "Fire!" over and over again as he prayed for them. Now, I will say that we visited the same church on a Sunday morning to find that though it is not what we are used to at least they were preaching & teaching the Bible with some sense. Overall though, we are concerned about the inner-workings and theology pervading in the meetings.
These kinds of things can be found anywhere I know, but it's a grief to say that there is a real difficulty to find a solid balanced church here in the midst of it all, though as I said before, God IS working here and there are still faithful churches and ministries, but few and far between.
Good to hear from you brother, keep in touch!
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