Dear
friends,
I
hope you are well- my apologies for the delayed update. Time flies.
It has been nearly 7 years since I moved to England, and it is my 14th
semester teaching at the Bible college.
This semester I am teaching 1 Corinthians and the Gospel of John. What can I say but that I am blessed to be
able to do what I do. God has been at
work in every generation (Ps 90:1) and He hasn’t quit with this generation;
it’s exciting to see a group of young people who love the Lord and are studying
His word and seeking His will for their lives.
We are down to our last 3 weeks of the semester. The students just came back from outreach
week; teams went to Finland, Belgium and Ireland for a week of service and
outreach as a part of the Bible college program. There was also a team that remained in York
to serve in various ministries at the church and also did outreach at a local
mall and a nearby town.
Earlier in the fall we took the students
to the picturesque Yorkshire Dales as usual for Speaker’s Week. Pastor Dave’s brother-in-law Tim shared a
series of messages with the students and they were also able to get out and
hike and spend time listening for the Lord’s voice in a beautiful pastoral
setting. We also took a group of
students from the Church History class to Fountains Abbey which fell into
disrepair after the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.
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| Fountains Abbey |
I’ve
been reflecting for a while on the idea of the secret place and how God sees us
in secret (Matt. 6:6). Serving the Lord can be difficult and just being a
Christian contains its own struggles in the sense that we have seen the
“consummation of all perfection” (Ps 119:96) but at the same time live
imperfect lives in the land of imperfection.
Yet God sees us in secret as we seek to live honest and sincere lives
before Him as best as we are able and with the great help of His Spirit. And there is nothing in all the world like
feeling His smile and His pleasure as He looks upon us in the secret place
where we are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Amen to that.
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| Thatched Cottage in Yorkshire |
Austria
Back
in the spring we had taken a group of students to the Castle in Austria as a
service project to get the facility ready for summer conferences. While we were there, I was invited to come
back to help out for the busy summer season, so I went for 6 weeks over July
and August. It was a great blessing to
serve there and also at the nearby church (CC Spittal) where I led worship over
the summer. We had a baptism at the end
of the summer and 10 students were baptized in the lake. It was a beautiful day recorded in heaven. Praise our Lord.
CC York
It’s a great blessing to serve the Lord in an international church in the heart of a city with over 2,000 years of history. It was in York that Constantine was proclaimed Roman Emperor in AD 306. We are blessed to have university students and congregants from many nations fellowshipping with us. I’m blessed with the privilege of teaching and leading worship in the church from time to time.
Prayer Requests:
Please
pray for the UK as it is in the midst of transition. As you are probably aware, Queen Elizabeth II
passed away in September after a 70 year reign and was succeeded by her son
King Charles III. We have also had
several prime ministers in recent days and there is much economic and political
uncertainty ahead. Pray that many would
turn their hearts to the living God and be saved.
Please pray for our Bible college students as the semester ends and they seek the Lord for the right way to go; also that the Lord would put together the student body for the upcoming spring semester.
For myself, please pray that the Lord would fill me afresh with His Spirit and that my life would diffuse the “fragrance of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15) in the places I go. Thank you for your prayers and may the Lord richly bless you!
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