Hi friends!
It's been an eventful past couple of days! Which is good, because I didn't come out here to sit around. :) Yesterday in particular was a very on-the-go day, but in the very best ways.
It started with a walk to Ivy Central. Ivy Central is about a mile down the road from Merseybank, but I had never walked it on my own before. I had a map from my host Cat, and it got me there with no problems at all. I also got to walk along the beautiful River Mersey, which was a real treat. I made it in time for the 10am service, and we started right off the bat with worship. The most incredible thing about this was that everybody, and I mean everybody, was singing their heart out. It was a beautiful noise to hear everybody's voices ringing out and to see everybody giving their all to the words they were singing. It was amazing. My friend Olli gave a brilliant message to kick off their new series called "Summer of Direction." For this series, they are looking at the letters in Revelation to the churches. We looked at the beginning of Revelation (1:9-20) when Jesus appears to John, and how this exchange shows how Jesus loves us and loves the church. The reassurance of this message is that we are in safe hands with Jesus. Jesus himself is not safe, but we are safe in his hands. It's like Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia - "He's not safe, but he's good." Following Jesus and doing his work as the body of Christ is rarely in our comfort zones, but he is still good and is still carrying us through that. Because of that, there are three main things to do from this passage of Revelation: we need to pray for the church; we need to treat it as family; and we need to know that we are safe to take risks. As I'm figuring out my own calling, it was encouraging to be reminded that no matter what, God's got this. I'm safe in his hands even if it involves risk, just as we all are.
The second church service was on the estate here in Merseybank. I love this church in particular because it has shown me that church can happen anywhere. As it says in Matthew 18:20, where two or more are gathered in his name, Jesus is there! This church meets in the community centre of Merseybank, and we had probably about 25 people there, but the Holy Spirit sure moved in that room! For this particular service, a band from Ivy called Galaxy was leading, and their mission is to create a new style of worship music that reaches listeners outside of traditional-style worship. In other words, they're all about fun! A lot of their songs were from the group Hillsong Young & Free, whom I love dearly. It was amazing to see how at first, most people were just standing and listening while singing along, and gradually more and more people let their guard down and started dancing! It was so much fun, and the Holy Spirit was moving in that room. There was some time to share testimonies and faith stories, and it reminded me again how God can be glorified through any story. After the service, we shared a meal together, and it was great to both be reacquainted with people I met last year and to meet some new people as well. I got to catch up with one friend in particular from last year who has been a huge encouragement to me as I'm trying to listen to where God is calling me, and she asked me what the most difficult part of it all has been. I thought about it for a moment, and I told her that the waiting has been the most difficult. I'm confident in that God has called me somewhere into ministry and in some fashion, but it is really hard to wait to hear from him, especially since I have no idea what my life looks like after Track 2 of the NewThing program (see my other blog: newthingadventure.blogspot.com). She gave me some more encouragement and prayed with me, and I felt again that God will reveal it to me in the right time. It is just not easy to be patient sometimes. (Can I get an amen?!)
Now, there was another service happening at Ivy Central following the Eden Merseybank church, and a couple of my friends at Merseybank asked me if I was going along, to which I said no since I was there this morning. I thought it would be the same service. However, as you can see from my title, I've already told you that there were three services, so you can probably guess what happened. I felt like I was being told to go to the service, so I changed my mind and went with my friends. I'd had a lot of fun dancing with one of those friends during the previous service, so part of me thought it would be fun to go to this next one with her, too. So, I tagged along, and boy was I wrong about it being the same service. First of all, I finally got to meet one particular Ivy pastor in person whom I had communicated with a lot before coming here last year. We had Skyped a few times and emailed a lot, but he was not in the UK last year while I was here, so I had really been looking forward to meeting him, and now I got to hear him teach. One of the worship pastors I had met last year was also leading this service, so it was great to see him as well. The message that evening was called "Stuck In the Middle," and as crazy luck (or divine intervention, rather) would have it, it was about waiting. The Scripture being taught out of was the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. In that parable, a sower is planting seeds and generously flinging them everywhere, regardless of where they might land. Jesus talks about various seeds where they landed and what happened to them, and this was connected back to seasons of waiting in our lives. Now, God is very much like the sower in that he is extremely generous in spreading the seeds, or spreading blessings. We, on the other hand, tend to hold onto the seeds because they are the safest in our hands. We don't want to risk them in the soil. What we need to do, however, is to hold onto them with open hands and let God do his work. The question then is this: how are we going to wait?
After we concluded the service, I ran into the same friend that had prayed with me at Merseybank, and immediately she affirmed for me that it was a God thing that I was there to hear that message. It really was! I've been trying to be patient with God, but just as it is with all of us humans, it is really hard! The message affirmed for me that God knows exactly what he is doing, so waiting doesn't mean that nothing is happening. Just like a seed planted in the soil, things are happening even if I can't see them.
Today, I got to meet with the same pastor over lunch, and we got to spend some time chatting and getting to know each other, while also looking ahead at what God is doing. We talked about the NewThing program, and also about the possibility of doing the leadership residency (which is the third part of the program) out here in Manchester. It was incredibly affirming for me that he was the one that suggested doing the residency out here, and if I'm being honest, that is what I terribly want to happen. Even so, I want it to be God's will, and not just my own. If I could so boldy ask of you all reading this, could you pray for me in this time? Pray that I would have an open heart to hear from God about where he wants me to go. I'm praying that he would open the right doors at the right time, and that I'm not only pursuing my will but his will. I want to make the most of this season of waiting, so that not only is it a season of waiting but also one of growing and learning along the way.
Thank you for reading, and may you know the depth of the love of Jesus today!
Cheers,
Lindsay
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