Buckets of Love

Here at Holmsted we are continually looking for ways to be able to express something of God to the people we meet when we go out. We often spend time asking God what he wants to say to people and how he wants us to express this.

So this is what Christy did with a few others from here at Holmsted and they felt God say to them ‘Buckets of Love’. What they did was to fill buckets with statements of truth, such as ‘you are wonderfully made’, ‘You are precious and honoured’ etc.

We went to Brighton and set ourselves up on the seafront close to the pier and had a giant red heart to help get peoples attention and we also had a guitar so we could have live music going on as well. We spent the afternoon engaging people as they passed by giving out these statements. We had a great range of responses from people politely declining to people taking and saying thanks, to people stopping to talk for a while about what was written on the paper. We had a lot of fun; we even had a guy come and dance with us after taking and reading one of the notes.

 

The conversations we had with people ranged from a thank you to some significant conversations about who God is. I know we brightened up a number of people’s days as people left smiling. I really like the gentleness of God to take truth and use it to touch who someone is deep down. It certainly encourages me every time I get to be a part of this.

A Marine Connection

I ended up in a great conversation last Thursday in Haywards Heath with a fellow marine biologist. We spent about an hour talking about life and why we were doing what we do now, and what we were hoping to be able to do. He was not a Christian, but we talked a lot about doing things for a reason and a passion. I got to share with him my journey from what I was doing in the Seychelles to what I do now. For me it was a very significant, I got to pray with him, for what he and his partner are hoping to be able to go on to do in the next year, which was such a privilege.

It was one of those what I call a ‘God Conversation’, it was easy and not stressed. It went in a very natural direction, with both of us talking about what makes us tick and the reasons for doing what we do, for me this meant talking about Jesus. I really felt the Holy Spirit come and be apart of the conversation and prayer. God is really amazing, and I love going out and walking with him, as things just seem to happen. It does not mean that I end up in conversations like this every time I go out, but I always come back uplifted by who God is.

A Gathering at Holmsted

Christy and myself, along with another couple here at Holmsted, had the privilege of organising and hosting a DTS (Discipleship Training School) Gathering here at Holmsted in February.

A DTS Gathering is were we gather a number of DTS’s from around the country gather together in one location for a week of teaching and actively going out and sharing the love of Jesus in the local area. The weeks teaching normally focuses on this and what is mission. We had over 50 people come from all over the country to be apart of what was going on.

I always really enjoy these weeks as it both challenges and encourages people to think about why mission is important and why sharing the love of Jesus with other’s is important. For some of the trainees it is the first time they have actually been asked to go out on the streets and share some of who they know God to be with the people they meet, which can be both scary and exciting.

Over the week we had some great teachers, including Lynn Green who helped to establish YWAM (Youth With A Mission) England back in the 70’s. Talking about why mission is an integral part of the Christian life, both at home in the places we live, as well as in other cultures. I really loved to hear some of the stories of what God has done and be encouraged to chase after him and ask him for my own stories.

We split those who came into 4 different groups, sending them to 4 different locations during the week. We went to Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Crawley, and Brighton, all places close to where we are based. We asked people to listen to what God was saying and to go and do that in the places where they went. Our theme for the week was ‘celebrating real love’ as the last day of the gathering was valentines day, so all the groups used this as a basis for what they were doing while out.

                           

I know that a lot of conversations happened with people on the street, with a lot of people being prayed for and at least 3 people made a firm commitment to follow Jesus. I had a great week, I love to be able to encourage people to share their faith and also be able to go out and do the same, and I know that God did a lot with all who came.

Opening Doors

Christy and myself lead an outreach team around England just before Christmas, with our last location being Brighton. Before we went we had arranged a place to be able to stay cook etc. Sadly it all fell through with less than a week to go, so we were left in an unfortunate position of having to decide what to do as we were technically homeless for our last couple of weeks. So we did all we could do, we took some time with the team and spent time praying and listening to God. We felt God say that we should still go, and that we should spend the next 3 days fasting, so we did.

God is pretty amazing; in those 3 days we travelled to Brighton and spent time walking round the city asking God to open doors and where we should go. By the end of those 3 days we had somewhere to stay, somewhere to cook and somewhere to shower. God is so faithful.

I certainly experienced a new level of His faithfulness during these few days. As a team we followed what we felt he was saying to us and every time we knocked on a door it was opened to us and we had a positive response back. We felt very strongly we should be in Brighton and the only way we could have managed it on our budget was for God to open up places for us. I am so grateful for who He is and it made me think back on one of the last things Joshua said to Israel. “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled.” (Joshua 23:14 NIV).

For Christy and myself it is also really exciting as we feel Brighton is somewhere God has called us to be long term, and this has helped us to connect with a number of new people in the city. Which is something else we have been praying for. It felt like this was a push for us to see something happen in Brighton, It felt like our time shifted something for us in what we feel God has called us to do.

Graduating the July DTS 2014

Christy and myself have had the pleasure of leading a Discipleship Training School (DTS) here at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Holmsted Manor over the second half of 2014. We had the amazing privilege of getting to graduate 10 trainees just before the Christmas break. Each of them have had their own journey of faith which brought them to the school, and have spent the last 6 months exploring faith in a deeper way, spending time getting to know Jesus better, and then going out and sharing this with others around England.

We are very blessed to have been able to be apart of this journey and have watched each and every trainee come into a much greater place of freedom with Christ. I have been involved in a number of schools now and God continues to surprise me with his faithfulness to meet each and every person where they are at and draw them into one of the greatest adventures of life.

I am always so grateful for what has happened when I reflect back on a school once we have graduated them. God is so amazing and I can not imagine a better way to spend my life than walking a journey with him.