A week of mission

Things have been a bit quite on the blog for two reasons. Firstly because me and a mate have been penning our first publication Pioneer Mission: The Travel Guide For Missional Adventurers. More on that in the next few weeks.

Secondly we’ve just finished leading our first short term mission week. We’ve been praying for a while that God would send us some more workers for our corner of Nottingham, and lo and behold we were asked to help host a short term mission team from California. So me and Hannah took four of them over to Sherwood to spent time spreading the love on the streets and in the pubs.

We didn’t really have a plan, other than to seek God’s guidance in ways to bless the community. We started off by simply handing out bars of chocolate and offering prayer on the high street. We were amazed by how open people were. The first person I spoke to told me they had been diagnosed with cancer, and as the afternoon went on people told us they’d been made redundant, they couldn’t stop drinking, and were struggling with all kinds of illnesses.

As the week went on God led us to more and more needy people who he wanted to bless. I’ll share some of these stories over the next week or two. Here’s the first.

On one occasion we sensed God prompting us to go to a particular pub. We sat down near the bar wondering how God wanted to use us. Almost immediately a man sitting on an adjacent table began speaking to two of the team. He had clearly been drinking and was distressed. As the team talked with him, he revealed that his teenage son had been killed in a car crash. The pain of this terrible event had led him to drink, and as his habit worsened his wife had told him to leave. He then confessed that it was his intention to continue drinking until the pub closed and then to take his life. The team shared Jesus’ love for him and his family, and laid hands on him and prayed for peace. He said that he did believe in God but was confused by everything that had happened to him. He said though that he now knew he wouldn’t kill himself. He left the pub leaving us feeling grateful at what God had done but still very anxious for him.

The next day we decided to take the evening off as it had been another intense day. Before heading out for food we asked God where he wanted us to go and two members sensed God prompt us to go to a different pub to the one we’d been to the night before. As soon as we sat down in the pub we realised the man we’d spoken to the night before was again sat on the table next to us, and he was with his wife! He told us that he’d gone home the night before and told his wife everything that happened and she’d accepted him back. Amazing!

Tim