Sensing Serenity

This week has really emphasised how much we need to rely totally on God's strength and not just think we can do it by ourselves without his help. With having such a busy week, it can be so easy to forget to ask for God's help in it and put on his armour, but it so obviously makes such a huge difference when we do and when we do take that leap of faith and trust that he will turn the situation around as he says in Romans 8v28 "He works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

I don't think 'busy' cuts how I've really felt over the past few weeks, but it has been such an amazing experience all at the same time. I have had to keep apologising for bad replying to emails and text for being so delayed, if you are one of those, I will apologise again now! We are really looking forward now to having a relaxing weekend at Lee Abbey, catching up with everyone we can, seeing Miri and my Dad and just getting in some good family time before getting stuck back in again into our last week, we are calling it 'our mini retreat'.

We have met such lovely people here at Barnstaple and have so loved all the work we have put into here, the kids clubs and the youth work, it has been such an eye opener into how much is going on to getting people to learn more about God here in North Devon as well as all the job involves.

We started the week today with a small gathering of those from Grosvenor and had a prayer meeting for the youth and children of Barnstaple, it was such a lovely way to start the week, putting God into my main role here. We tried to focus on Psalm 62 which I want to finish this post with as it has such lovely verses to reflect on.

"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.
                                             He alone is my fortress, I will never be shaken."




Love Hannah

Taking on a seefood diet...

I have now moved into my second home here in Barnstaple and have been welcomed by a lovely family, even though I was sad to be leaving my old hosts. I am however grateful that I will still get to see them at Church before totally leaving Barnstaple and looking forward to the 3 weeks I have at my new location.

My work has been as busy as ever with going to a toddlers group called Noah's Ark, to planning and running a Monday evening youth group called Explode, to organising the Holiday club happening in a few weeks time to doing our personal study and joining in with the study the apprentices do at the church; it never stops. 

Barnstaple seems to always have food offering for some reason alot more than home, Sundays have turned into a constant food day with big Sunday lunches with my hosts, having afternoon tea with James' hosts and a 'neccesary' McDonalds after the youth evening service, it has turned into my favourite day of the week as I'm sure you can imagine, if a little filling.

Last Saturday we had a child protection talk for 4 and a half hours at one of the neighbouring churches in Barnstaple, which surprisingly was really interesting and has made us so aware of all the  different factors to remember when working with children. A doughnut break in the middle also really helped keep our concentration.

If you felt you would like to pray for me, energy would be really great! It has been quite exhausting maintaining energy to continue giving for God's work all the time and even though I have loved the work it is quite exhausting and I'd love to feel that I can keep going with his work and manage each day and give my best to it. Also please pray for continued intriguing study time, it has been so rewarding studying and would really like to be able to go deeper throughout the week with it, not just during our designated study time and see how it can be related to real life in a practical way.

The end quote  has really been what life has been like for myself and James here in Barnstaple, continuing to keep exploring as much of the church work and Christian work as we can here to enable new doors to open and our brains become more in gear with God's work and what he wants of us in later life as well as now.

Love Hannah

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." -Walt Disney

"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord."

Barnstaple is our current location and next stop before our big adventure to India in mid April. We arrived here on Monday early evening, where we were welcomed by each of our host families and started to settle into our homes for this month, dispite James getting slightly lost on the way to his. Since then we have met many of the people who work and attend Grosvenor Church, along with the two people we are working with.

Through out my time here I am mainly shadowing a lady whose main role is involoved in the families and the young children of the Church. She, along with the help of others, runs a mum's and toddlers group through out the week, which I have been along to 3 times already, as well as Sunday school classes and a Monday night Youth group for children of Primary years. On top of helping with each of these groups, we both are joining in with the studying on a Friday that the 3 apprentices of the church are currently doing and also doing our own discipleship course that First Serve have set us. As you can see it is quite a full on programme but I guess that comes with having such a huge church. The people we have met have been so welcoming to us and it has been great to see the work Christians in Barnstaple are doing to spread the Bible to as many people as they can. There is so many great things that Grosvenor Church is doing and it really feels like a great priviledge to be able to be a part of that, even for a short time.

The transition from leaving the students at Tilsley, to an extremely brief stay at home with family, then moving onto working at Grosvenor, has been quite exhausting and I have found it to be alot harder than I first thought. I am so glad God has given James and I these first few steps in order to prepare us for the huge leap we will be taking when journeying across to India in only a months' time.  It has already began to show how much it has started to strengthen us individually and as a couple to be ready for what we will be facing out there. We are so excited and amazed that we have such a great opportunity, but along with this comes expectant fears and worries. This verse in the title, found in 1 Corinthians 15v58, I have really tried to embed in my heart when imagining life when we head over seas, to maintain our focus for going as well as assuring God's protection over us and our time there. It will be such an eye opening experience but we can only do it with God's strength rooted in us and knowing his profound love and affirmation for our travels.

Love Hannah