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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
The last few months have been full of challenges and growth for both me and for YWAM York. We have established local ministry more solidly in our community through weekly kids club and youth nights, as well as through Easter activities and a holiday club. Our relationships in our neighbourhood are going deeper, and we love getting to know our community better. We especially love our deepening relationships with our youth, who have started to let us into their lives more. In our most recent holiday club, we talked about heroes in the Bible, and several of the children initiated conversations about Jesus and God. It is amazing to get to be a part of those moments of discovery with them!
We also saw somebody come to Christ on a recent evangelism that we did with a Brazilian DTS team that was visiting York, and a time of Easter evangelism, a Chinese man met Christ! In our unchurched nation, these are victories that we celebrate!
However, there are also internal challenges that we are facing. Our team has gone down to three members now - Raya left at the end of June after praying and feeling that it was time for her to return to the States. Her departure was not due to anything in YWAM York or in our relationship with her, and we miss her! We are learning to do life as a three and not a four. We are also now splitting our rent and other costs between three instead of four, so we are trusting even more for God to show up every month!
The first weekend of July, we hosted a retreat for all of the bases of YWAM North England. Before you get too impressed, I should say that there are only four bases, and that each team has around 3 members on it (give or take a few for children!). We came together to pray, share vision and to get to know each other. We are already planning activities that we can do together, which are much easier to run with 12 people than with three! It's also nice to have nearby support from our YWAM family. During the retreat, somebody prayed that we would receive money from an anonymous businessman to help with the upkeep of our community centre. I decided that I would really trust God to come through in this way, instead of just agreeing with the prayer and keeping going. This prayer was prayed on 2 July. Three days later, we received a thin envelope through the post at the base. I opened it, and there was a cheque to YWAM York for £1,000 from an anonymous person, dated 2 July! To be honest, I was not surprised; when I saw the envelope, I knew there was a cheque. But it was tangible confirmation from God that He will provide for us in these next months! He is already providing for our building in the face of increased energy costs and maintenance issues!
We are also taking part in several festivals this summer. English people love a festival - the not terrible weather really encourages them to get out their tents and brave the rain in order to be all together. I will be at a total of four festivals this summer - three of them camping! This past weekend, Renee and I were at Cedarwood, a festival for northeastern churches. We represented YWAM England, and we even got to pray with some of the children and the youth who came to visit our YWAM England stand!
In a few weeks' time, I head to SixtyOne, which is a festival for Christian young people. I have the privilege of creating the artwork for the venue (a massive shed that fits 1,000 people). This intersection of two of my passions - art and students - has me very excited! Some of the students that I know will also be at the event. I can't wait to see students from across the UK awakened for Jesus!
A few days after arriving home from SixtyOne, I will head back to the same location for Satellites, a youth festival. I will both be representing YWAM England at the YWAM England stand and helping out with the youth from my church! I am so excited to be able to be there as they encounter God in a festival setting - something that hasn't been possible since 2019.
Festivals are the time youth and young people generally make big decisions for God, decisions which we then get to walk out with them throughout the year. Could you pray for our youth and young people to feel encouraged to take those steps at the festivals this summer, and for us to be able to support them, not just in the coming weeks, but throughout the year? It takes enormous courage to be a Christian young person in England - there aren't so many of them, so just being Christian is a bold move. But they are also the ones who will reach their generation - it is a privilege to be able to walk with them as they influence their generation!
Could you also pray for YWAM York? Renee, Yvonne and I are doing well, and we want to grow in our communication and to create a healthy, good culture for anybody else who decides to come with us. We are spending time over the next few weeks to ask God how He wants us to move ahead in different areas of both our ministry and our community, and we are re-structuring accordingly. We want to be a YWAM base that moves in God's best way for us, that loves God and loves people well!
If you'd like to receive our team newsletter, which will be going out soon, send me an email at deborahestevenson@gmail.com, and I will sign you up for it!
It is early in the morning here in York, and we are in the throes of a double pronged Christmas outreach (meaning that every day, we are reaching both the city at large through evangelism and our local community through specific community events), but I wanted to take a moment to share what we are doing!
Every week, we as a team have committed to do evangelism outside of the Minster (the Cathedral in York) and the Belfrey (the smaller Anglican church that is next to the Minster). Local churches know that we are there, and they occasionally come along to join us as we reach our city. For our Christmas outreach this year, we decided to do evangelism in front of the Belfrey every day and to invite all of the churches that we know along. On Wednesday, at One Voice, the pastors' unity meeting that we attend weekly, they commissioned us to go and reach our city this week. Several of the pastors and ministry leaders have also signed up to come along and join us over these days.
Yesterday was our first afternoon out. The sun sets around 3:30 pm these days (that's how far north we are!), so we finish as the sun is setting. We have live music, carols, dance, testimonies and of course bubbles on hand to engage the throngs of tourists that have descended on York to visit the famous Christmas market. Whilst Laura, a local university student that I've had the pleasure of getting to know, played Christmas carols on the bazouki (an Irish folk instrument), I got to speak to several people, including a Chinese student who is studying in Leeds, the biggest city near us. She had gone into the Minster and encountered the Apocalypse Window, which recounts the stories of Revelation.
Whilst talking to her, I had the privilege of being the first person to explain Jesus to her. I got to explain why Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter and what that means. Then we walked into the Belfrey, where I gave her a Gospel of Luke and told her a bit more about Jesus. I returned outside to continue the evangelism, and when she came out 45 minutes later, she told me that she'd already read about a quarter of Luke and that she would finish it at home. She has since messaged me on Instagram, indicating that she'd like to meet again.
It is amazing to me that God orchestrated it so that she went into the Minster, encountered stories of Jesus, and that I got to meet her afterwards to explain who He is. It can be difficult to explain Jesus to people who have no concept of Him, but it is also so good to remember why I love Him and how extraordinary faith is! It was even better to be able to give her a Bible, something that she doesn't have access to in her nation. We have been praying for weeks for the conversations that we will have over these next few days, that God would send us people who are ready to find out who He is!
Tonight we are hosting our community Christmas party in the Barnabas Centre. We have Covid precautions in place, but as the government is warning people off of meeting, we are praying that God still sends the right people to our party, and that they encounter love, community and God in our building. We are also praying for no Covid to be in that place, as the girls are meant to travel to their families next week and my parents are travelling here.
Would you join us in praying for the people that we meet during this Christmas outreach? We want to see people meet Jesus and come to faith. We want to see the lonely caught up in family and the joy of Jesus fill our streets. And most of all, we want God to be glorified in York this Christmas season!
On to other news: I am a British citizen! I had my ceremony on Tuesday, which means that now I am a dual British and American citizen, so I can live and vote and have a job and raise British children here. This has been over nine years in the making, with a few bumps in the road along the way (you can read back through this blog to see those!), but it is amazing to see God’s faithfulness through all of it.
And now for what I really wanted to share with you:
On Wednesday evening, Raya and I went to a talk at a local church, the Belfrey, by Eleanor Mumford (she and her husband founded Vineyard Churches in the UK), and she said, “The church is not declining in the UK. God is calling people to Himself, and they are meeting Him.”
At first I was skeptical, because I live in the reality of church here. But then, I realised that she is right. Something that I deeply admire about the church here is the way that Christians have to fight and be dedicated to God. There are so few Christians in workplaces, in schools, that they have to be willing to stand up and look different. It isn’t normal or expected to be Christian. The youth that we worked with at camp this summer talked about being the only Christians in their year groups at school, or having only one other Christian friend in the whole of their class. Everybody knows that they’re different!
I’ve also seen hunger for God and to be a part of the church that it so beautiful (and convicting)! Last week, I met with a young woman who is a Christian in a sleepy village outside of York. She has to get two buses into town every Sunday morning, and because of the bus timetable, she can’t attend her church’s youth and young people’s service; she goes to the family service with the young children. But she still makes it a point to go to every activity that she can, even though it means travelling longer distance and a lot of planning and effort. But she so hungers to be a part of a church family that she’s willing to do it! She can’t wait for the day that she lives in York, just so that she can be even more intentionally involved in the church than she already is.
We also have a young lad in our neighbourhood who is hungry for God. He’s a part of the “bad boys” group; he rides his bike round with them and gets up to all sorts of mischief. But he also hangs around whenever we have a worship night outside, sitting on the edge and listening to all of the worship and preaching. The other week, we were outside of the local church, meeting with our local councillor, and he and his friends came rolling out of the church in a flurry. It turns out that he had been trying to pray in the church, and he’d taken the other boys with him, but they’d started to be disruptive. He was so upset that they’d distracted him. So I took him aside, and together, we talked about how he could pray to God and what he wanted to say. In earshot of his friends, we prayed together. He wasn’t ashamed in any way; in fact, he wanted to take his friends on his spiritual journey with him.
This kind of hunger and boldness for God is the reality of the church in England. Yes, numbers don’t look great. But God is doing an amazing work in people’s hearts post-pandemic. When we speak to people in evangelism every week, we are amazed by their openness. And we are trying to remember that as we speak to people so that we are more bold in how we invite them to be a part of God’s family. But I think Eleanor Mumford is right: God - and the church - are on the move.
Receiving my citizenship from the head registrar of North Yorkshire
Hello friends, and thank you for your patience with me in waiting for an update! Pioneering means there’s loads of establishing to be done in the worlds of admin, finances, emails, certifications and sussing out legal requirements, so when we’re not actually out with people, there’s a lot to do!
But I do have a praise report! We received our charity number just two days after finalising and submitting our application for it - and that’s a process that could have taken up to 6 months! That means that YWAM York is officially a UK charity with a board of trustees and the ability to get a bank account, have property, etc. It also opens us up to apply for grants, donations and other things like that. We know that God is the one who has gone before us in this, because the application was a steep learning curve (thank you to Carrie at Radiant for all of her help!).
On another note entirely, I’ve just gotten out of a meeting with various YWAM Europe leaders in which we heard some appalling statistics that really shed light on what is going on in the UK right now. Fasten your seatbelts, because it’s grim:
The church is increasing massively in Brazil, China and Iran (that’s good news!).
But in the UK, 70% of young adults were polled as saying that they have no religion. Of the 30% of the total number polled that do, 10% are Catholic, 11% are Protestant and 9% are other religions (6% are Muslim). Of that 11% of Protestants, only 2-3% go to church.
These young adults, Generation Z and the tail end of Millennials (my generation!) are heavy on my heart. When going into evangelism recently, all four of us have realised that we need a heart change. We can’t go in and expect everyone to hear about and receive Jesus in one day. So when we talk to different people, we need to be willing and ready to invest time in getting to know them and in welcoming them into our lives. Getting to know Jesus can be a process!
This is actually amazing, because God has been speaking to us about being a base of hospitality and generosity. We want to welcome people in to be a part of family and life with us, whether that’s for an evening or as a student for five months, or if they become staff members and join our family! COVID-19 has shown everyone the need that we all have for community, and God has placed us so well to provide that.
We are still getting to know the youth in our community - next week is our first official youth activity as we host a holiday club during half term school holidays. We’ll do arts, sports and Bible classes with the children who come. But I’ve also gotten to know several artists recently, and through photo shoots, bespoke fashion workshops in our community centre and just doing photography round town, I’ve got to start building relationships with these women who have common interests with me.
I also joined my first ever running club this past week, and the girls are starting to attend dance classes in town from next week. It’s amazing to get to bring Jesus to people in these relational ways. All of this is in addition to the classic street-style evangelism that we do. This past Saturday, we played worship and did dance in front of the Minster, and we got to talk to and pray for the people who stopped to watch and listen.
Thank you for all of your prayers. It really is exciting to work alongside God as He gives us new ways of reaching the people of York. One of the great parts of pioneering is trying many different ways of doing things. If one doesn’t work, we just try again! And so often, as we pray and listen to God, He shows us where doors are open, where people are willing to hear about Him, and we get to follow Him into new activities and ministries. So if you are praying for us, please pray that we will hear God clearly and follow Him to the next thing, and the next!
There are many other ways that we need prayer, from the finances to pay off the rest of the base building (£11,000 now - down from the £30,000 that it was when we moved here in November! God is so good!) to getting a bank account to receiving male staff when God’s timing is right - there are so many little boys in our community who would benefit from knowing Godly men! But for now, I wanted to share how we see God moving and our hearts for reaching the people of our beautiful city. It is such a privilege to get to serve God here.
Flyers we put through all the mailboxes in the neighbourhood at Easter with John 3:16 on the back.
Vanessa, our friend who joins us for evangelism, praying for (and playing guitar at the same time!) a man who came all the way from Leeds and spent time singing along and talking to us!
Ruth and I met Tori during evangelism and have been doing fashion evenings with her in the Barnabas Centre.
I am so sorry that I've not updated this blog in so long; we are quite busy doing missions, as you may have guessed! Life in Lockdown 3 in England was not slow in the way it was in other lockdowns; now that we've cracked how to do much of life virtually or one-on-one in outdoor settings, our days were filled end-to-end. We started online workshops in February which filled our evenings with doing different arts (photography, writing and dance) with people both locally and internationally through Instagram and Zoom. We also started Zoom intercession prayer times with Christians from around Yorkshire, which became in-person last week. We finished the leadership course that we were doing virtually two days a week with YWAM Radiant in London (leaders from YWAM around the globe came online to teach us about different aspects of leadership), and best of all, we have spent afternoons in the park behind the base getting to know the local youth.
But I will get into all of that in another post. I wanted to show a video that we filmed last week whilst a team of guys from YWAM Radiant was here to help in the base and with our local youth. None of the people we minister to appear in this video (since that is not allowed legally), but you can see some of what we've been up to!
And I am working on a longer update that will share more details of everything we've been up to!
So, you may have heard that England is in another lockdown: our third lockdown. At first, we were all a bit despondent, especially when it came to light that we may be in a lockdown until the end of March. But now, we are involved in so many different activities that our days are filled end-to-end, and in some ways I am thankful that we have time to do everything!
Obviously, reaching out to people in the traditional sense isn’t possible in a lockdown which has the aim of keeping people from meeting together. However, as a charity, we have leave to continue our charitable work outside of our homes (the nation is under a stay-at-home order, which means you should only leave home for exercise or essential shopping). We have been helping our local food bank to collect food donations and to distribute food to our neighbours who are self-isolating. This has resulted in some amazing conversations with our neighbours. One neighbour overheard us worshiping in our garden, which opened the way for conversations, sharing a Gospel of John, and prayer. Please pray for him as we walk through this lockdown alongside him - there has been a lot of tragedy in his life recently, but his heart is opening to Jesus!
Radiant is also using this lockdown as an opportunity to do a staff leadership school, which we are all taking part in via Zoom. Not only do we get to see our London family twice a week, but we also get to take part in teachings with YWAM leaders from around the globe. As much as we complain about Zoom, there are so many conferences and meetings that have a global aspect now that wasn’t possible in person.
We are also using this time to improve the Barnabas Centre, the community centre that belongs to the base. It is an old building that needs repairs, and while we are a small team, we are doing what we can! We hope that different outreach teams from YWAM England will come to York, both to take part in what God is doing in our city, and also to give us a hand in the building. Luckily, somebody (it was me…and Lucas from Radiant. Okay, it was mostly Lucas. Thank you, Lucas.) built a shower, so the building is perfectly suited to hosting teams.
The challenge of the Barnabas Centre is that, during this year of COVID, it hasn’t been able to be rented out to dance classes, churches, and other activities, so we don’t have the income we need to pay the bills and to pay back the debt on the building. While there isn’t a rush to finish paying off the debt, it is something that we are consciously trying to be faithful in and to pay off. There are also different improvements needed - if we are going to continue cafe work, the espresso machine needs to be updated or replaced, the dance floor needs to be sanded, etc. If you could pray for us and send us any ideas you have for how we can raise funds for this, we would appreciate it. We have definitely thought of bake sales, but it would take a lot of bake sales, and COVID has made them quite impossible! But we so want this building to be a blessing to our community, to be a place in which people are welcomed and safe and can meet each other and, most importantly, Jesus. It is the only building of its kind in our neighbourhood. We are so blessed to have it! And we are looking forward to seeing how our God is going to move in this area - since we can't comprehend it in our logical minds, I think we're well poised to see Him come through in one of His amazing ways!
Another thing that we are starting in this lockdown is online workshops. We are all artists, so we are beginning workshops in our different art areas - Yvonne and Renee are doing dance workshops for children, Raya is doing story and character development, and I’ll be teaching photography workshops. The idea is to start them online and to create a little virtual community, and then to move them to real life when restrictions are lifted. People are desperate for community, so we want to reach them however we can. In order to do this, we do need a professional Zoom account, which is £120 a year. We have also begun hosting weekly Zoom prayer times with people in our community and across Yorkshire, and so far we’ve been using a basic plan, which is fine, but it does limit us to just 40 minutes. Having a professional Zoom account would definitely give us more freedom in our various online community activities!
A way that you can be praying for us is that we are currently in the process of becoming our own charity. Right now, YWAM York is a daughter charity of YWAM Radiant in London, which is amazing for getting us started. But in order for us to have a bank account, property, or anything of that nature, we need to be our own charity. I have begun the paperwork, and it is complicated to say the least. Luckily, Carrie from Radiant has been guiding us (thank you, Carrie!). Raya has also been tackling some budgeting stuff for the base property, which means sorting through vast quantities of paperwork from the past decade, and it is not easy! We are trying to put on our professional brains for all of this, but let’s face it. We thrive when we are with people, telling them about Jesus and walking through life with them. Paperwork is not our strength. So please pray for us as we do this, that our brains would be alert and that small details wouldn’t trip us up.
A final way that you can be praying and fighting on our side is for finances. God is a God of provision - we have seen this in every way. Just this past week, a piano was given to us. I have been praying for a piano since before we moved, since it is my main instrument and having worship times with a guitar has not been going well. We looked at different options online, but nothing was really working. We were finally about to settle for a partial keyboard for beginners, since it was in our budget, when we were told that a lady from church was clearing out her mum’s house and had an electric keyboard that we could use. It has 88 weighted keys and a built-in stand, and it fits perfectly in our office. God has provided for us again and again, and this is only the most recent way!
That being said, some of our team are still waiting to see full support each month. I’m just going to drop everyone’s Paypal info here, and if God puts it on your hearts to support them, they will definitely be blessed by it! I will also put mine there so that you can donate towards the Zoom account if you’d like. And if you can’t give financially (COVID has touched us all), prayer is not a second option. It is a first option, and one that we have seen change circumstances in our lives incredibly. We are blessed by the way that you fight for us in prayer!
I would just like to finish this off by sharing that it is snowing in York today. That isn’t abnormal (we are in the North now), but it does remind me that God is doing a new thing in this time. He won’t let this season be wasted. There are some things that won’t come out of this pandemic. There are old ways, old mindsets, dead traditions that we will leave behind. And there are new things that He is teaching us that we will take out of it. It is so exciting to be able to follow God through this: our first year as a base here in York and in a global pandemic. I am constantly reminded of Isaiah 43:19: “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” He is the God who guides us, who provides for us, and who will bring us through this season more covered in His glory, if we will continue to listen and follow Him. What a privilege it is to see His new way and to work with Him to make it our reality!
A room in the base that we re-painted!
What team meetings look like via Zoom + toddlers
We baked cookies for the local bus drivers
We also wrote cards to NHS (National Health Service) workers
Our Thursday Zoom prayer meetings with people from across the country
Cookies for the neighbours
Delivering food to a homeless hostel in town
Delivering food to our wonderful neighbour
Doorstep chats with our neighbours
Prayer time with our neighbours on 31 December
We all four went to Scarborough, a seaside town, right before we went into lockdown
On Christmas Day, we got to celebrate (gasp: inside houses) with our whole team together
Naomi, my running buddy
Walks with friends (okay, this was back when we were allowed to be more than one-on-one)
Our Christmas bubble - YWAM York all together in one house!
Savannah is our childcare bubble, so we get to hang out with her, even in lockdown!
The video of our Christmas outreach to the city centre.
