What is God doing?

 When we were on camp in Scotland a few weeks ago, my fellow pastoral leader gave a devotion where he challenged us to ask God to give us eyes for what He is already doing. That has been playing in the back of my mind, and as we use the last days of summer (summer ends in September here) to build relationships in Tang Hall, prayer walk and listen to God, I am asking Him what He is already doing in our city.

Earlier this week was Tilly (Vanessa’s daughter)’s first birthday. I organised a little playdate that turned into a party for her, and we invited over a baby who is a week older than her. This little boy’s father isn’t in the equation, and it was really nice to see him interact with Mark, Tilly’s dad. As we all sat round the table - two babies, three single women and a married couple - we shared stories and advice and generally talked about mundane, life situations. Tilly tried to steal the other baby’s water cup, and they held hands briefly between spewing broccoli. And I realised that, at that table, we were functioning as family. The baby’s mum doesn’t have a partner to bounce her fears and ideas for raising a child off of, so Mark and Vanessa served that purpose. She doesn’t have somebody to process a tricky relationship, and Yvonne and I can fill that role. She speaks Spanish to Tilly and sings amazing birthday songs and brings life and joy to the places she finds herself. And our third single friend is a widow who has already raised four children and moved internationally, so she brings us the wisdom of an experienced mother, grandmother and Christian. She and I have gone on holiday with Mark and Vanessa before. I see the way that God has brought all of us together to form a family type unit who can support each other as needed. 

Today, my team and I went to York Minster for a time of prayer. Whilst we were sitting and praying for the city, we marvelled at the ways that York has contributed to Christianity. In my reading for my theology school intensive residential that I have coming up, I’ve been amazed to see how often York comes up. For over 1200 years, this city has been instrumental in the spread of Christianity and in training lay people about God in times where mostly only priests and ordained people received religious education. 

Whilst we were in the Minster, there was an announcement for a service in the chapel for anointing for healing. We decided to go along. The whole service was grounded in Scripture, which we alternately quoted with the priest. He talked about Jesus’s power to heal, and we extolled Scriptures praising God. The priest read from Ezekiel 46, where God declares His desire to bring healing. And when the priest asked those who wished to receive prayer for healing to come forward, there was a queue of over 30 people. He took his time to pray with everyone. Then we had communion together.

As I watched all of those people queue to receive prayer for healing, I realised that there is a hunger and desire to ask God for healing. I recently read John Wimber’s book Power Evangelism, and he reminds the reader of how Jesus’s great miracles of healing led to many towns believing in Jesus. I see that hunger alive in England - in York! - today. The Minster was offering healing prayer to tourists - many of whom don’t know God - quite openly. It was not hidden away. Others crowded in the back to watch and see what would happen. There were no explosions, but as people returned to their seats, you could see the peace that they were experiencing. 

So what is God doing? I suspect that it is something to do with being family and community. There is an openness for healing - and maybe for people to come to Christ through witnessing it! And as I pray about the church planting that I am beginning to be involved with, and as our team continues the process of moving to Tang Hall, I want to join in what God is already doing. Healing. Being together and supporting each other. And hopefully, welcoming more people into God’s family.

As a side note, I think that I may have to discontinue a public blog and move instead to email newsletters. As I move into more of the church planting and building deep relationships with people, I don’t feel comfortable posting the stories of my work on a blog where anybody can find it. So if you would like to be a part of my email newsletter list, please do email me at deborahestevenson@gmail.com to let me know!

US/UK Connection Continued

 Hi everyone! It was so good to see so many of you on my visit to the States earlier this month. It is always an encouraging reminder that there are so many people who are praying for and investing in York alongside me. So thank you!

I have been back in the UK for just over a week now, but it has been such a busy week, so I wanted to share briefly about the outreach team that we hosted this week.

The team came from Renee's church in Massachusetts, and they were all in their fifties and above - the oldest team member was 80! That made quite a change from the teenagers that we usually host on outreach teams. They wanted to learn how we do missions in our city, so they came alongside us as we held two outreach events: one in the city centre and one in Tang Hall, the neighbourhood we hope to move into soon. We brought out the bubbles, bracelet making supplies and poi and brought joy to the area as we got to know the people who came to see us.

City centre outreach and Tang Hall outreach are quite different. When we got the bubbles out in the city centre, there were suddenly more than ten children and their families surrounding us. They were from all over the world - the Netherlands, Turkey and more! Because they were in the city centre enjoying the sites, they were open to chatting and having a good time. Two of the youth that we mentor came along on the outreach, and they were amazing at monitoring the children at the bubbles whilst we had conversations. 

One of our youth and one of the outreach team making bubbles in front of the Minster

Our Tang Hall outreach was a bit different. We prayer walked around the neighbourhood, then took Tilly, Vanessa's daughter and our youngest YWAM volunteer, to the local park. She helped us to meet the families who were there. It took longer for them to warm up to us, but by the end, we had a group of ten or so gathered around, making bracelets and chatting. We are aware that it will take time to meet people and build relationships in Tang Hall, and we went into the day just hoping to meet some people. Tilly really helped with that - some of the small children went to our church's toddler group, which Vanessa runs and Tilly attends! We hope to meet these families again through our children and youth work, and just through being a part of the community.

Tilly takes in all of the bubbles and people at Tang Hall outreach

The outreach team heads back to the States today, and we head up to camp tomorrow! Please pray for us as we take the children and youth from York churches up to Scotland for a week of learning about Jesus. In every baptism that I have been to recently, YCYH (the camp) has come up as a definitive moment in the young people's faith. Pray for our energy, health, safety and for God to move through us and in their lives. And please pray that it doesn't rain the whole time! And once again, thank you so much for your prayer and support. It means a lot to know that you are all behind me!

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!

Long Overdue 2023 Update

 Hello! It has been five months since I have updated my blog - please forgive me for that! I could say that we’ve been busy, but then, when haven’t we been busy? 

Over the past few months, we have turned a corner with YWAM in York. We are working with our local Church of England church to transition our youth and children’s work to them over the next nine months so that we can prepare to move into Tang Hall, a neighbourhood across town that is larger and rougher than our current neighbourhood. I’m not quite sure how that will look, so I am praying with my elders and asking God to help me to make the right decisions now that will open the doors that we need to have opened in order for us to transition across town - which includes selling our community centre, finding a new house, etc, etc. 

We are working with our church, which is located in Tang Hall, to create a week of Easter outreach events for the community, and we are so excited to be able to meet more of the families and youth of the neighbourhood where we feel God calling us! It is also amazing to see Yvonne and Renee reach out to our local youth and build relationships that have now led to our unchurched youth signing up to Feaster, the Easter event for youth that the church youth workers for the city are putting on together on Maundy Thursday. 

Despite the work load of all of that, it is refreshing to dream again. There has been a rough situation with another YWAM team that I have been dealing with over the past 14 months, and it has taken a lot of my attention and energy. I have also been battling some health situations - I’ve had gastritis that has led to me being poorly since November 2021. I am finally seeing the gastroenterologist in hospital next week, so hopefully we will have a new treatment plan soon! 

I have spent the past few months coordinating city-wide Alpha as a part of my role as a One Voice York trustee. I love One Voice York - our church unity movement - and I have been a part of the team praying into gospel sharing. We are asking God for strategies for reaching the 190,000 non-Christians (as opposed to 20,000 Christians) in the greater York area in the next ten years. If we all turn around and reach those closest to us, we will achieve it! But that means equipping the local church (one of my favourite things!) to be able to do that. I was very privileged to be able to share at the Holy Spirit Day that we had as citywide Alpha a few weeks ago. Twelve churches have run 14 different Alpha courses simultaneously - at least one every week day - and we held the Holy Spirit Day all together in the city centre. I had the opportunity to explain worship and giving a testimony to people who had never been to church before - and to see them trying out worshiping and giving testimonies for the first time! It was beautiful to be able to pray with them and to see them encountering God. As the Alpha courses are all winding down, I am looking forward to hearing more about what God has been doing. I know that several refugees who fled a Middle Eastern country were baptised at one of the churches this past week! 

Cooking for outreach week for our local university's Christian Union.

City-wide evangelism

On a personal note, I was speaking to a non-Christian friend about God as a Father this week and about how His consistent love makes it possible to know that we are loved, in spite of what earthly fathers or friends may do or say. She said to me, “Yes, and because you have His love, nobody can take that away. You are loved.” It was so beautiful to hear about God and His love from her perspective. These kinds of conversations are certainly not the norm, which makes them even more precious when they do occur! 

Something else that I have really enjoyed is leading worship in different circumstances. I’ve known since 2013 that God has made me a worshipper, and since coming to York, there have been so many opportunities to both grow in that gift (and in using it as a part of a team). We have a monthly extended worship meeting at the House of Prayer where we have seen so many younger people growing in their relationship with God in leaps and bounds. I have also gotten to guest worship lead at a few different churches and events, and it is so good to see the ways that God is worshipped in churches across our city! Our church has a monthly worship team gathering where we learn more about the heart of the worshipper and how to bring that to our church and grow together, and it has equipped me really well to be able to take that out to churches who don’t have as many musicians in their congregations. This Sunday, I get to worship with a local church who invites me in quarterly to guest worship lead and to spend time with them. Their church consistently has visitors who have never been to church before, and I learn so much from watching how they welcome those people into their family and teach them about God. 

God is moving in York, and the local church is searching out how to prepare ourselves to open our arms to people who are going to encounter Him. Please pray for those of us who are coordinating things on a citywide level, that we will follow God and the ways He is opening for us. And please pray for YWAM York as we transition across the city, that we will complete the work God has for us where we are and that we will step into the right things that He has coming! 

On a personal level, if you could pray for my health and healing, I would really appreciate it! I am also continuing to learn how to drive in the UK and looking into starting studies to pursue a graduate diploma in theology part-time, hopefully in autumn, so I am looking in how to finance that dream that I’ve had for a while, which I feel God leading me into now. Buying a car and studying both cost money, but I recognise that they are both necessary if I am going to step into the more that God has for me and for my ministry in York! 

And as ever, if you have any questions or want to chat, please email me at deborahestevenson@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you!