more facts

The truth is, I gravitate towards extremities.  Apparently writing is not immune to this tendency; in order to avoid extremely verbose and borderline sentimental writing, I find myself needing to head to the opposite pole and report in a factual, clinical way.  It’s either philosophy or science, I think, and to make sure I actually give you facts and not just vague allusions about life here, I’m going to stick to the science pole today:

LLCC Wellington:

Ready, set, go: The first Sunday meeting went well!  Children and adults, there are 70 people in the church- mostly families that have been a part of the Taunton church, and most were there for this first week.  We’re meeting at Courtfields School, the only secondary school in town, which means we get to enjoy the full set-up/tear-down process each week.

 

Life in the church: The whole church will begin Vision and Commitment, LLCC’s spiritual foundations course, at the beginning of January.  There will be no official home groups until V&C is finished, but there will be less formal care groups that will facilitate building relationships and encouraging evangelistic initiatives.

Getting into Wellington:

Building relationships:  Many people in the church are well connected to the community already, some having lived here for a lifetime.  The outstanding question is how to best pull people into the life and family of the church- not necessarily in overtly evangelistic efforts.

Connecting in:  I’m finding, along with others in the church, that it’s quite possible to have divine appointments- having words for people, being able to pray for others, and having an opening to clearly articulate the gospel.  But although people can be very open and receptive in these moments, it’s really common for them to become evasive after that.  It’s an interesting pattern; one that I’m praying into a lot at the moment.

Getting involved:  Needs are not as overt as they would be in a third-world country, and the culture is a far more self-sufficient one, so this has been a topic of a lot of thought and research for me.  At this stage, there are a variety of initiatives that have surfaced that are interestingly very in line with issues that I’ve felt God’s spoken to me about, including serving basic needs of those under economic pressure, providing environments to pull people into the family of the church, working with the town’s youth, and human trafficking.  We need wisdom to know where and how to move forward.

…and then there’s me:

Visas and such:  The first stage of the visa process finally(!) cleared this week, praise God!  This means that I can now apply for my own visa.  Immigration rules dictate that I have to fly back to the US in order to apply.  This is not ideal for two reasons: first, the obvious expense.  Second, due to the time frames we’re working with, it’s somewhat risky that I could end up outside the UK and not be able to come back for any portion of the actual program.  We’re looking into asking whether an exception could be made so that I could apply directly at the US embassy in London.  I may end up spending a day at the embassy next month, pleading my case.  If you’re praying, please pray for favor.

Being in school:  That’s how I feel at the moment.  There are things that I believe God’s just beginning to teach me and ways that he’s adjusting and broadening my perspectives on plenty of things, including how we build our lives in God and the church, expecting the supernatural in the everyday, and how I perceive fruitfulness.  I’m challenged on the subject of faith constantly.

Enjoying the “now”:  In the spirit of Thanksgiving Day (which, incidentally, doesn’t exist over here), here are a few things I’m thankful for right now:

-Welsh cakes

-small cars

-stone buildings

-living with four ‘siblings’

-my new mountain bike (a gift!)

-talking strategy with Kim

-my gym membership, soon to commence (another gift!)

-bugging John with my color-coded spreadsheets ;)

-my knee-high riding boots (charity shop find)

-time to read volumes of C.S. Lewis

-the kindness of God to encourage in the most timely ways

-eggs with really orange, not yellow, yolks

-windows with no screens

-temperatures no lower than 40 degrees

-morning running

-new friends

Happy Thanksgiving. :)