Dear Family and Friends
I can’t believe that January has already been and gone! What a month it was! I left America in the midst of upheaval and transition and moved into my own transition of coming back to the UK with much stricter Covid rules and starting to work with my new Church at Every Nation Slough. I came back to 2 weeks in quarantine and my housemate who was still recovering from Covid.
Let me introduce to you my new Senior Pastors Greg and Suzanne Albrecht. They are both originally from South Africa and actually met here in London at one of our all night prayer meetings many years ago. I was there when the sparks flew! They started pastoring the Slough congregation shortly after it was planted just over 10 years ago.
Growing the church in Slough has had it’s challenges. It’s a place that in the past, has had a reputation of being rough and industrial, but in the last few years was voted as one of the top 25 places to work and live in. All that said, the church has grown to almost 150 adults and 75 children with nations represented from Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Poland, England , Scotland, Philippines, Japan, Sri Lanka , The Caribbean, America, Egypt, India, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Uganda, New Zealand, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Rwanda, Thailand, Korea, Czech Republic, Burundi, Portugal and Spain. All of this growth in the church has taken place with only Greg working fulltime as Pastor (Suzanne works outside of the church) and Anna their Children’s worker on staff 2 ½ days a week, plus some amazing volunteers!
My job role to start with is to come alongside many of the different areas of ministries in the church and to help them to operate more effectively such as Kids, Youth, Connect Groups and Discipleship. Also, once the world opens up again, I will be getting missions going for Europe! Once I have found my feet, I also hope to be involved in teaching, preaching and worship. For now, building relationships with people in the church is all done by zoom and video calls on our phones which is challenging but working!
Please pray for me and our Slough congregation as we get to know each other. Also, pray for me to have wisdom on how to help the different areas of ministry and to be a blessing to those in the church.
Thank you for being a part of my team! You have no idea what a blessing you are!
Lots of love
Traci
Dear Family and Friends
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, these last two months have been the first time I have spent holidays with my family in over 15 years!
Over Christmas, my younger sister, her kids and their families surprised us by coming up to Georgia for Christmas. It was a full house and we had an unexpected white Christmas which forced everyone to stay overnight. Every room, sofa, and blow-up mattress was full!
It gave me a chance to finally meet my beautiful great niece who is almost a year old now! Here are just a few pictures from our time with a few people missing.
I was also able to spend a few hours with my "Guatemalan Family” who happened to also be gathering here in northern Georgia.
It was such a blessing to be able to spend this time with my family but I also recognise that 2020 has been a year where so many people have lost loved ones around the world due to Covid and other reasons. I am still grieving for the ones that I know who have passed away this year and I am praying for their families that God would comfort them and bring them peace during this season.
2021 will be the start of a new season of ministry for me as I begin working with our Every Nation Slough Congregation. I am excited about new building new relationships with people and seeing what God is going to do.
There is a lot of unknown in this new year as we continue to see what will happen with Covid – BUT one thing I am sure of is that GOD IS GOOD AND HE IS FAITHFUL!
I am praying for you and so thankful for you! I pray that even in the midst of uncertainty that you experience Him in an incredible way in this New Year!
Lots of love
Traci
Dear Family and Friends
This past month I experienced something that I haven’t experienced in over 15 years.
Earlier this year in March, I was due to fly to Florida for my yearly visit, but as the day approached to fly, the UK went into it’s first lockdown due to the pandemic. A few days later, my flight to Florida was cancelled. I ended up doing as many “visits” with friends and family on video or phone calls for the time period that I was supposed to be in Florida as much as I could, so it didn’t feel like an overall missed trip.
I also had a flight planned for December to spend the first Christmas with my parents in 16 years. But as December approached, there was another announcement of a lockdown coming, and this time I was determined that my flight would not be cancelled! Because of Covid restrictions, 99% of everything I do at the moment is online calls and meetings, so I arranged to work remotely and changed my ticket to leave 2 days before lockdown started! I arrived in the state of Georgia (where my parents live) and arranged to quarantine in secret for two weeks before surprising my parents who still thought I was coming right before Christmas!
SO, you might ask what did I do that I haven’t done in over 15 years? I got to spend Thanksgiving with not only my parents and older sister but also my aunt and uncle and some of my cousins! There was soooooooooooooooooooooo much food and it was the most people I have been around since March and to be honest, it was a little overwhelming at times hahaha. What I also appreciated, coming from the UK and having much stricter rules regarding Covid, all of our family had taken extra precautions of quarantining or testing, etc, to be around each other because a few family members have health issues. It was a safe, joyful, blessed, overeating time!
I have continued to work as if I am in London and have tried to stay as much as I can on London time starting at 5am most mornings. As I mentioned a few months ago, I will be transitioning to another Congregation at the beginning of the new year so I am in the process of handing things over and making sure that the transition not only goes well for me but also for everything and everyone that I have a connection with.
I will finish work on 13 December and be on holiday until Mid-January where I will start working with the Slough Congregation.
My apologies to all of you who are stateside for not letting you know that I was here. I needed to keep it a secret to surprise my family. I will be in Georgia during my stay this time but will come back in March to Florida for a few weeks.
I’m praying for all of you and I so appreciate your prayers as well! Please continue to pray for God’s provision in every area of my job transition. I am really excited for this next season!
Praying God’s richest blessings over you!
Lots of love
Traci