Missing in Action!
I think it is safe to say that we have been missing in action over recent months!
Some will know and some may not that we have made a huge amount of change over the last 2 years that has taken every bit of faith that we have within us to be brave and courageous.
Intrigued? Wondering what this might be?
Rich and I, for all our married life, have known that we have had a future in full-time ministry, but have not really seen the shape and destination of this.
We have youth pastored, we have been involved with church planting or pioneering, and we have served on church leadership teams.
Our service has been in Gods timing for all these things and in His plan and will for our lives, and, to be honest, the time has gone quickly - we have had a blast.
I can honestly say that we have seen God’s grace and favour on our lives and we have seen Him do some amazing transformations in people’s lives.
But… there was more!
So this brings us to December 2017.
I remember the morning so clearly. I woke up in the morning and literally my first words to Rich were “you’re not going to get another contract, are you?”
I don’t think that was particularly on his radar, but some things come to a natural end and this was one of them.
To put this into context, Rich had been IT contracting in Bristol for the last 7 years or so by this point. To be honest, it gave us a very comfortable lifestyle and not really much worry.
For the last 2 years, we have partly been living by faith and Rich has been working with local funeral directors and looking after families that have lost a loved one and taking the funeral services for them.
There have been times when we are not quite sure how we have paid our bills, but something turns up just at the right time in the right way. I am convinced if we did a paper exercise, we would be in more awe of how God has provided for us, and the family. There are other parts to our journey and story but maybe next time would be a good time to tell you about those. So now for the news, the reason we have dropped off the blogging world for the last few months.
HOT OFF THE PRESS NEWS!
In February this year, I was reading a newsletter and there was an article about community chaplaincy. It was short and not of any particular detail, however, I sensed that nudge from the Holy Spirit and a thought process that followed where I was reminded of a picture that I had a long time ago.
Being me, I just smiled and carried on with my everyday life thinking something like this would be amazing but not much else.
Until 2 days later. I was scrolling through Facebook and, there before me, was an advert from the local voluntary council for a feasibility study for a chaplaincy in the centre of Bristol.
I have to say something inside me leapt. (didn’t that happen when Mary and Elizabeth met, and they were both pregnant with John the Baptist and Jesus?). I’m not sure the last time Rich saw me move so quickly or fill him in on the opportunity I had found.
Over the last few months, we have prayed, believed, networked, made new friends and gathered information. We have written a report and now we are mobilising Bristol Chaplaincy.
Beyond excited is the way to describe our present. We believe we have heard from God and said yes to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
There is seed funding to start the project but our God is our provider. He has shown us this in the last couple of years. (The money does not cover a salary: there is an opportunity to support us personally if you would like to.)
There are a few people that have committed to working with us to get started. We have offers of gifts and time in kind to help with the mobilisation phase.
One of my favourite statistics that we came across was from Michael Campbell, from the Alliance of Town and City Chaplaincies.
“The church reaches 5% of the community, but projects like Christian’s Against Poverty, Food Banks, Mother and Toddler groups and many more reach the 95%.”
Chaplaincy is very much one of those projects reaching the 95% and we are excited about the fruit the project is going to see.
This scripture has been laid on our hearts from day 1.
Matthew 28:19 - “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
If you would like to know more about Bristol Chaplaincy, you can visit our website: www.bristolchaplaincy.co.uk or you can email us for a copy of the report.
Finally
Keep an eye on your emails because we are back blogging and sharing on The Faith Narrative.
written by Lois Evans