Ministry Update: Winter Festival Report, Move-in Date for Building, Prayer Requests
Thank you for your continued prayers for us and the work here in the UK. Here are a few updates and prayer requests:
- Building: The London City Mission has accepted our proposal for renting the building, and we are planning to move into the Churchdown Centre (60 Churchdown, London, BR1 5PQ) on 1 February 2015! We are very excited about the opportunities this new building will provide, one of which will be to begin a Sunday morning service.
- Winter Festival: On Saturday, we had a stall at a festival hosted by the local library and community centre. We were able to give out 150 gift bags to children with sweets and invitations to the church. We met lots of people and had 74 different families register to win a Christmas hamper/basket. Those who registered also signed up to get our church newsletter. It was a great opportunity to meet people, give out gospel literature, invite people to the church, and involve many people from our church.
Youth Work: We had another good youth meeting with Missionary Jason Mann sharing a devotion with the young men, and then discussing end time events. (Jason is a missionary preparing to go to Hungary who was with us learning and observing over the last week.)- Literature Distribution: We delivered 2500 invitations to our Christmas services this week. We did this in several ways: at the bus stops, letterboxes, and in local shops. We have another 2500 to get out this week.
- Christmas Services: Please pray for our Christmas Carol Service and Buffet taking place on this Sunday, 21st Dec and for our Christmas Day Service taking place at 11am on 25th Dec. This a key time of year when people will go to church who might not go all year long. We have already heard that several unsaved friends and family members have been invited. Please pray for me as I prepare and preach these special service.
Things to pray for:
- Souls to be saved and lives changed by the truth of the gospel – especially for unsaved people who will attend our Christmas services
- Our colabourers, Chris and Sherry Waye
- Jessica Wachter, who has been interning with us for 6 months and returns to America at the end of this week
- Everything to go well with the transition to the new building for Downham Baptist
- God’s blessings on our Christmas outreach and services – 21st Dec: Carol Service, 25th Dec: Christmas Day Service
- The Saturday football outreach and youth meeting
- Provision of finances for the new church plant in Downham and for special opportunities at Northwest Baptist in Derry/Londonderry
Important links:
- Great Missions Books: My pastor, Austin Gardner, and several men from our home church have started a new publishing ministry called Our Generation Publishers.
- Self-Harming in the UK: This is a very sad article by the BBC that shows how many young people are “self-harming.” These young people are hurting themselves because of much deeper and no doubt spiritual needs.
- Interview with Missionary to Hungary: I interviewed Missionary Jason Mann on my podcast this week.
- Church Planting Fund: Please pray for a special church planting fund that we need to raise money for. We need to raise $800/£500 per month for the next 36 months.
- New Missionaries to Slovenia: Friends of ours, John and Katie Grasty, just moved to Slovenia this week to do church-planting work. Please pray for them as they get set up and begin learning the language.