I think the best way for me to break this down is to write about the different sections of our mission trip…to ENGLAND! Aaaahhhhh! Yes, it was amazing for all of you who are wondering.
We leave Redding at 10 a.m. with a three and a half hour drive to San Fran, and after a 10-hour flight we arrive in London! By this time I’m running on pretty much no sleep…I mean, who actually sleeps on a plane, especially when you’re in a middle seat? We get to London around 11 a.m. and probably all starving since plane food is…well plane food, yet all that fades away as we get a gigantic welcome (literally) into the Heathrow airport!
Next, we load up into some mini buses that are fully equipped with cell phones, English chocolate, and bottled water by some of our amazing hosts, Richard and Jean, and head to the north. Props to all of our amazing team drivers who sat on the right side of the vehicle, driving stick-shifts on the left side of the road! Once we get to the north, our team of 35 splits into four or five smaller teams to bless and minister to different towns in the area. I had the privilege of going to Dewsbury and staying with the amazing Nundy family, who are also the pastors of the church where my group ministered.
We get in late Saturday night, and of course, upon arrival to our host homes are offered tea. Who drinks tea right before bed? The Britts. Which is actually something I love about their culture, I just can’t take part in it or I’ll never sleep with all that caffeine. After a little bit of quality time with the Nundy’s we’re off to bed – basically passing out – before service in the a.m. Of course, Sunday morning comes way earlier than it needed to, especially since the time changed that night and sprung forward an hour. Don’t you just love mission trips?! Anyway, service begins, and you can feel the warmth of family and community in the atmosphere. We have a great time of worship co-led by one of our leaders and one of theirs and then…ministry time begins. Oh crap. I’ve never actually done this; I have nothing to give right now – no word of knowledge, no prophetic word, etc – yet for some reason I’m not nervous or anxious at all. Weird. Anyway, Ian (the pastor) gets up and feels a grace for healing at that moment, so we come up to give words of knowledge for healing, and I’m not really sure if Holy Spirit is speaking to me, so I just say the first thing that comes to mind – neck or spine issues. And what do you know, a guy raises his hand. I was calm outside, but inside, I was thinking “That’s right, you go Holy Spirit!” After a few words we prayed for these people, and the rest of the service carried on. We were able to pray with anyone who wanted it at the end of the service, and even though I didn’t see any great healings/miracles, I know God was moving and I could totally see His presence refreshing people through our ministry. He’s so good!
After a great service, we had a wonderful time of fellowship with the rest of our team and their host families before getting ready for a regional meeting that night…I think it was that night. Anyway, several churches from the surrounding areas gathered together (all the churches that the rest of our team had split up to) and our whole team, all 35 of us, were able to minister together and release God’s presence into the room and lives of those there. To start off, we created a fire tunnel at the entrance. It was pretty funny, because those who knew what it was would take their time walking through, and those who didn’t know what it was…well you could tell they were a little freaked out and tried to run through without being touched, but by the end of the service we created two fire tunnels and a lot more people were willingly walking through and being refreshed. For anyone who doesn’t know what a fire tunnel is – basically we make a line, and then some others make another line facing us, creating a tunnel between the two lines. Then people walk through us and we pray for them, lay hands on them, and release all that God has given us to bless and refresh those that are walking through. Quite a sight if you’ve never seen one! That night we saw several healings and tons of people encounter the presence of God. We were exhausted, but it was totally worth it!
Monday rolls around, still didn’t get enough sleep, but this is a fun/site seeing day for us. We get to go to Smith Wigglesworth grave, who (I’ll sadly admit) I didn’t even know about before coming to Bethel. I really need to take it up a notch with my revival history. We also got to see the building where he used to minister, which oddly is surrounded by a Muslim (I think) community now. After a bit of driving around we stop by Old White Beare, which is a pub that is partially built with the original timbers of the English Royal Navy ship, White Beare (from the 1500s). Anyway, we get some amazing, traditional English food while at the pub; my choice: a savory steak pie with potatoes. I mean, where can you go wrong with bread, meat and gravy, and potatoes? I don’t think you can. After filling myself to the max with my savory pie, I order a yummy cherry bakewell tart – mmmmmm!
To end our history tour day, we had a leadership meeting where we blessed the leadership team of the church, which was amazing, because when we first got there our initial insight was that we were there to bring refreshing, and God is so good that He orchestrated it all beforehand for us to do that. We had a great time of worship, prophecy, and teaching, and then were blessed by the leadership team as they sent us off to our next destination – the midlands. 
No comments:
Post a Comment