Alpha Away Day

 One of my favourite parts of my job is helping to lead the citywide Gospel Sharing group for One Voice. James, the other leader, and I have coordinated Citywide Alpha as a part of that group for two years now. Last year, when we were encouraged to figure out what a citywide Alpha would look like, it was a challenge to communicate our vision and to help others to envisage how we could blanket York in Alpha courses. But this year has gone a lot more smoothly, with ten different Alpha courses starting across the city on the same week. They meet during different times of the week, so that people can choose a time and location that suits them. We all come together for the Away Day, the time on Alpha when most people make their decisions to follow Jesus.

(Alpha, for those who aren't familiar, is a 10-week course where non-Christians come together to have a meal and explore what it is to be Christian. It is most often hosted by churches, and the guests are then invited to make decisions for Christ, if they want, and to come along to church. It is international, but originated in the UK and works really well for our culture of people who love to approach things intellectually.)

It may seem obvious, what with my job being a missionary, but I love translating Christian-ese for people who are exploring the church. And on Saturday, I got to do just that! We had 118 people come together at a venue in the centre of York, and we got to listen to talks, worship, discuss and pray together. 

This may not seem impressive, but considering that non-Christians rarely do any of those things, it really was! Many of them were overwhelmed at being in a room with so many people, and I realised that gathering together in large groups to listen to a talk (a British term that can range from a lecture to a sermon), discuss and sing together is pretty uniquely Christian. And once again, I had the privilege of explaining it in everyday terms to the people in the room and to leading them in worship, many for the first time!

The lead up to citywide Alpha was not without its challenges. It always is when you are working across tradition and denomination. It is also quite hard (and maybe this has been exacerbated by Covid) to get people to commit to something like an Away Day. But the day itself was amazing. We discussed getting to know God more deeply and offered times of prayer for healing and decision making. I was not with a specific church group, since I had coordinated it for everybody, but one woman still came up to ask for prayer. It turned out that she was ready to pray to give her life to Jesus! God was so kind to let me be a part of that process for her - He knows how much I enjoy getting to be a part of that moment. I think her group could easily have led that prayer with her, but God gave me the cherry on top! She then immediately began praying for her family members!

Many others were so encouraged by being all together as Alpha courses from across the city. York is pretty decidedly non-Christian, as I tend to bang on about. But on Saturday, they had the chance to look across the room and see how many other people were interested in learning about God and how to follow Him. And many of them have been taking the next steps in these weeks of Alpha. 

I am so encouraged by seeing so many people exploring Christianity in our city, and by the way that they asked for prayer and for healing, even if what they were asking for would have embarrassed most of us (think UTIs, porn addictions, etc). They were open to receive and humble. 

Sorry if this whole explanation and good news report is a jumble - I am still tired from the coordinating and executing of the day (especially because my usual duties haven't paused!),  and the Alpha courses haven't finished yet! Please pray that those on the ten courses who haven't made decisions for Jesus yet will in the last few weeks of Alpha!

                                                            (watching a talk all together)

                                                                (Praying in small groups)

The Christmas Journey

It wasn’t until speaking with my mum this week that I realised how incredible of a thing our Christmas outreach was. I mean, I knew it was amazing that we had a real Baby Jesus. And I knew that the transformation of our old church building into Israel in 1 AD was surprising. But what I had forgotten is how rare it is to be able to teach school children about Jesus.

You see, there is no separation of church and state in England, and all children are required to learn Religious Education, or RE. So for the whole of the past week, they’ve come to our church, put on robes and tunics, and lived the Christmas story for themselves. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

This past week, we partnered with our church and the local charity that goes into schools to teach them about Jesus, and we put on the Christmas journey. I wrote the script with my friend Anna, and our outreach worker at church, Louis, worked alongside several others to source the materials needed to turn our old church building into five different scenes from Israel in 1 AD. The story was told from Mary’s perspective, and we used my friend Vanessa’s baby, Tilly, to be Baby Jesus. And over the course of a week, we welcomed in over 100 people from the community and over 400 year 3 & 4s (7-9 year olds) into the story of Jesus. The best bit was being able to be blatantly evangelistic and say to them things like, “Jesus was all of God, but in a human body. Jesus came to be with all of us. How amazing that the Messiah we’ve been waiting for came to be with us all.” And because we were in a stable with a real baby, the story became real for them. 

It was hard work to do this every day for a week! But it was worth it to hear these rowdy classes go silent when they entered the stable and the presence of Jesus. Some of the adults even cried when they saw Baby Jesus. One man said, “Everything up to that point was fake, but Jesus was real.” It impacted him so much that he was deeply moved. It was important to me that the children and adults alike should all be able to touch and interact with Jesus, because we are all so good at putting Jesus out of our daily lives. But Jesus came for all of us! And luckily for me, Tilly is very sociable, so she enjoyed meeting everyone as well! I do have to say, for a three month old, she was a dream. 

We still have a few more Christmas outreach bits this year for our local community, but doing the Christmas Journey helped me to think about how amazing it is that the Messiah, the chosen king that was long awaited, came as a wee baby. The king didn’t live in a palace. He came to a working class family, to be with people as one of them. And Jesus is still that person who is close to us today. How amazing. 

Here are some pictures and a video so that you can experience a taste of the Christmas journey for yourself!

The marketplace where you meet the wise men.

Me as Mary in my kitchen, ready to meet an angel.

Mary and Baby Jesus (aka Tilly and me)

The marketplace

The stable scene - with a real baby!

Our snowy church building!

Vanessa and Tilly in the manger.

All three of us YWAMers with Baby Jesus!

A video walkthrough of the Christmas Journey!

further joy

 Two posts so close together? It must be good news!

And it is!

Mondays are generally our free day, but when we found out that Simon Guillebaud, a missionary to Burundi and evangelist, was holding a time of evangelism this afternoon, we decided to forego our free day and to spend the afternoon on the streets with him. He shared an app that will help to share the Gospel easily, then paired us off. 

Yvonne and her evangelism partner, Bobby

I had the opportunity to go out with a guy called Chris, who is from Hull (a city about an hour away) and who recently came to Christ from a rough background. It was a great opportunity to approach people who would normally not respond well to a woman alone, and he related really well with some of the homeless people we met. We were speaking to one of these men who had just been kicked out of his hostel, and after speaking for a while and sharing the Gospel, he decided to receive Jesus. So we prayed with him and gave him the information for how to get to my church on Friday afternoons for a meal and different courses (Alpha, a debt course, a life skills course, etc) and church on a Sunday. 

Simon Guillebaud praying with a man

I wanted to share that quickly because that's the second person I've seen come to Jesus within the span of a week - that's a record for my time in England! England has been notoriously hard ground for Gospel sharing, so I do feel that both of these are definitely encouragements and gifts from God. And I am so grateful!

You may also be wondering why I haven't been very vocal on this blog lately. Well, I began studying in September! I went away for a 5 day residential to kick of my graduate diploma studies in theology, where I had twelve hour days. It was incredible to learn about the Old Testament and spiritual formation with around 60 other classmates from across the UK and Ireland. Since then, we have had "hub night" once a week, where all of the York students (there are only three of us) come together to watch our recorded lectures and to have video calls with our lecturers. I also submitted my first essay - an exegesis on Genesis 2 - last week. As I cleaned up my annotations (the notes that I made in the Biblical text), I was so thankful to see how much I had learned and to realise how fun it had been! 

I am still leading YWAM in York, and we've been doing our usual kids and youth work. Last week, we had a "light night," where we gave away glow sticks and hot chocolates to the trick or treaters who came by. We had a lot of great conversations with local families. 

Izzy, a youth worker who helps us with our local youth work.

I am also preparing for citywide Alpha, which will run again in January. It takes a lot of planning and coordination to get around 15 churches across the city to begin their Alpha courses together, but last year, when around 100 people met together for the Holy Spirit weekend, all of the effort was well worth it. It is such a privilege to be able to share with people about God and to introduce them to how we worship Him together in church. We are asking God to prepare the hearts of the people who will come on to Alpha - could you pray with us? 

Next month, we are partnering with our church to bring The Christmas Journey, an interactive experience where we will walk primary school aged children through the Christmas story with Mary. I co-wrote the script with my friend Anna, and we will be spending a whole week doing the set up, acting and tear down from the event. Last year, this outreach reached many families in Tang Hall, the neighbourhood we hope to move to next year. We are hopeful that this year will reach even more children and families! Please pray for us as we finalise the set, props, script and bookings with the schools. 

And in the midst of all of this, I am still studying, photographing weddings, going to counselling with somebody who specialises in helping those who have been hurt doing religious work, in a relationship with a godly man and volunteering at church. My life is very full at the minute, but I am thankful to be able to both work and study as well as to be a part of seeing God move in York!

a little celebration

 I have just a very brief update because I wanted to share that tonight, I met with a friend (who I mentioned in the last post - the one that I took a walk with) that I made last winter. She was not Christian, but ended up being very open to hearing about things of God. We have met up consistently since then, and she has come to different barbecues and social events at my house. It's been so nice to integrate her into my other friendships. 

Tonight, I gave her a Gospel of Mark and we talked about how Christianity is different to other religions because it isn't completely individualistic - it's about loving and caring for other people, as well. We read the bit in Mark when Jesus encounters the rich young man who he tells to sell his possessions - it says, "And Jesus loved him." We marvelled at this Jesus who loves us so much that he'll tell us the hard truths that are best for us. We saw that it is love to be spoken to in such a way and to be offered a different path to what the world offers us.

And in the course of the conversation, my friend said that she follows Jesus. We spoke about how I can hear God speak today and what it means to have the Holy Spirit among us. I love walking this journey with her and hearing the way she grows to love Jesus more and more. It hasn't been a one-time decision - she is walking closer and closer to him, and now, by her own admission and the evidence in her life, she is following him.

And we are rejoicing. Hallelujah. 

A Day in the Life

 “What is a typical day in YWAM like?”

After 11 years in YWAM, I still cannot answer that question. Or the, “So what is it that you do? How does it work?” question.

Last night, a friend was giving me a lift home, and she mentioned that she has never understood it, despite a dear friend of hers having been in YWAM for several decades.

So today, I thought, “It isn’t a typical day, but it’s typical enough.”

So here is what I did today:

I woke up and spent time with God.

We maintained the Barnabas Centre (we currently have a rat problem that has also given us an electricity problem - this is why maintaining a 100+ year old building is not one of my favourite activities).

We worshipped together and went on a prayer walk around the church where we will be having a Table Top Sale on Saturday. We then continued praying as we did a walking loop through town.

I met with a woman (not pictured) who just moved to York from Germany. My friend Eliza came along last minute, and we got to know her and showed her around the city.

I had a call with one of my elders where we spoke about vision for the base and next season and prayed.

I went on a walk with another friend who has deep questions about God. She has just started reading the New Testament, so we got to speak about what Matthew means by “childlike faith.” I also recently gifted her a Psalms journaling book, which she pointed out was so different to the New Testament, because it talks about fear. I got to try to explain what “fear of God” is - but something I am learning from these conversations with her is how simple it can be to explain what faith is. After so many years of learning about faith, I think that I over-complicate it in my own thoughts. But getting to walk through the beginning of faith with her helps me to simplify it - which also helps when I get to be a part of citywide Alpha or speak to youth who may not know about certain aspects of Christianity yet. 

When I got home, I found Yvonne prepping for the table top sale (she is baking bread), so I went to do some organising for it as well, before Yvonne, Renee and I had dinner and watched telly together.

So there you have it - a day that is as typical as any is likely to be!

Whilst I was speaking with my elder today, I was struck again by how much I do love getting to walk with people through different stages of faith. I was reading 2 Corinthians 5 this morning, where Paul talks about our job being to reconcile others to God. What a beautiful thought. It is my job - and an absolute privilege - to be able to walk with others as they discover the wide open arms of their Saviour.

Half-Term Club

Every half-term, we hold a half-term club for primary school aged children (ages 4-11). We have games, crafts, and of course, Bible stories. It is such a privilege to share about Jesus with the children in our community. This time, I made a small video to show you what this outreach is like!

Theology School

 I have applied to theology school! 

I always knew that I wanted to do further studies at some point after I finished my bachelor’s degree, because I love learning, but it wasn’t until the past few years that I realised that I would value the opportunity to study theology. I researched different programmes that allow the study of theology alongside a full-time job, and whilst at many different Christian festivals serving YWAM last year, I spoke to different schools. I landed on Westminster Theological Centre (where my friend Vanessa happens to attend), which does a hub model, meaning that you travel to one of the hubs once a week for an evening of study. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a hub near me. I decided that, if WTC ever came to York, I would look into getting a graduate diploma with them.

Fast forward ten months, and WTC is opening a hub in York in September! It has just become official this month, and I have already completed my application!

I have spoken with my YWAM elder about it, and we agree that, after living a difficult time in the London team and being taught a lot of things that weren’t helpful, it would be good for me to have a solid basis of theology. It might even provide some healing! 

In addition to that, in my role as a YWAM location leader, I am frequently asked to teach other groups of people, whether through churches, universities, youth groups, or other YWAM teams. I enjoy being able to teach, but I am also aware that James wrote that teachers would be judged more severely. I want to make sure that I am teaching what is Biblically sound, and not just what makes sense to me. I also want to empower people to be able to study God’s Word for themselves, so that they can read it and decide what they believe. If we don’t teach people in this way, they will believe whatever others tell them is true!

The course I am going to do is a two year graduate diploma in Church Planting and Leadership (A graduate diploma is the next step if you have a bachelor’s degree that isn’t in theology. After I have a graduate diploma, I can do a two year master’s degree). I attended a taster lecture last night on servant leadership, and I learnt so much through that half hour! Whilst I am a little bit nervous to write essays again, especially because they are marked differently here to in the States (you are allowed to write in first person! What????), I am also excited, because even the essay topics are geared towards helping you think about your current ministry and how the study of theology applies. The school also holds two residentials a year, where all of the students come together for four or five days to do teaching in-person. The days begin and end with prayer and worship as a whole school. The lectures are begun with prayer, and from the residential day that I attended last year, I can tell that the lecturers take time to speak about what they sense God leading them to say in the moment. It is amazing to see a theology programme where God and His Word are living and active! 

This course will take one night a week for two years, as well as the two residential study weeks in September and January. I will re-structure my weekly rhythm so that I have a day a week to study and write essays, so that I can do both studying and missions. 

While I am very excited, I do have one final hurdle: the finances. I need £4250 a year for this course. I have begun teaching singing lessons and photographing more clients alongside my regular, full-time missions work, but that won’t bring me nearly all of the £4,250. So if you would like to support my theology course, I would be very grateful. For Americans, you can still send money through the YWAM base in Tyler, Texas. 

For Brits, you can bank transfer me and put a note that it’s for WTC. My bank details are: 

D E Stevenson

20-96-55

83047881

For Americans, there are several ways that you can support me:

1. Send money using Paypal.com to deborahestevenson@gmail.com (it goes directly to my personal bank account - there is no tax receipt for this.)

1. If you are in the States, you may also contact susancookstevenson@gmail.com, since my mother is a co-signer on my bank account and helps me conduct my finances State-side.She can help you use the apps Xoom (a Paypal method of sending money to my bank account) or Zelle to transfer money to my Bank of America account. She can also tell you how to support me via YWAM Tyler in Texas, from whom you may receive a tax receipt. 

1. If you are in the States, you can also give cash or a check to my parents or grandparents. 

1. Mail a check made out to Deborah Stevenson to: 

Susan Stevenson

49 Belle Gate Court

Pooler, GA 31322

Thank you so much for all of your prayer, and as ever, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to email me at deborahestevenson@gmail.com if you would like to talk! I also have WhatsApp, which I will give you via email!

Deborah