Dear Family and Friends
The month of May has been a difficult month
for me. Even though we have had amazing weather and the flowers have been bursting open showing new life, we have experienced loss in our church family. One of our nurses who had been a part of our church for over 15 years died quickly from Covid-19. Jennie had worked hard and proud for the NHS for almost 20 years and was a leader on our Kids Team. She was so in love with Jesus and everyone who met her knew it! Today was her online funeral and not being able to celebrate her life together with her family in our “traditional way” is another thing this virus has taken away from us. I am celebrating that she is with Jesus though and that she leaves a legacy behind her of so many who have been touched by her love of her Saviour!
We have over 100 healthcare workers in our church and many of them have not only seen more death over the last few months than in their whole careers – they have also
lost colleagues to this Virus. As a church, we are doing everything we can to support
them through this time as they process everything they have had to work through and also to help them to process through the trauma and grief of so much loss.
This past month, I have been visiting some of our Connect Groups mainly made up of nurses, as you can see in the pictures here.
It's been an honour to encourage and pray with them and I have been so blessed by their passion and strength.
As I said, it’s been a hard month, but even though this virus has stopped us from doing so many things, it has opened so many opportunities for new things to happen.
We are still seeing people attending our online services that would have never walked through the doors of our buildings. We are also seeing double and triple the amount of people attending our courses that would have never been able to attend because of the distance and their work schedule. Disciples are being made and this we rejoice in!
In the next few months, we are trusting for opportunities to do even more new things online that will reach every age and every nation in our communities.
Please pray for me and for our church to have wisdom on how to walk with and care for those in our congregations and to anyone we are reaching online. Thank you so much for praying for me and your continual financial support. You have a part in everything that God does through me!
Loads of Love
Traci
Dear Family and Friends
Lockdown started on 23 March for us here in the UK. How are you coping being isolated? I am an introvert but I am actually finding it hard to be away from my “family” here in London. The new norm is most of us spending loads of time on every means of social media to stay connected with people. It’s been great to stay in touch, but I also join many of you who have had Zoom, Facetime, Whatsapp, Skype, Messenger, etc overload! I’m so grateful that so many of us live close and we’ve been able to have a ten minute conversation standing 2 meters apart.
Working from home has taken on a whole new look and way of life. As a Church, all of our services and courses are online now. It has put us into a new learning scale to figure out how to record at the best quality as well as how to communicate not only to the individual but to groups of people all at the same time. All of us are doing our recordings from our own homes with the equipment that we have and we pray that the final product always looks good but the process to get there can sometimes be hilariously messy!
We’ve had loads of people in our church diagnosed as positive for Covid-19 and many others with symptoms. Praise God though, we have not experienced the loss of one person in our congregation.
We are also hearing praise reports of people being able to share the Gospel with colleagues and some of them becoming Christians! With all of our courses and Connect Groups going online, it has also made it much easier for people to attend whereas before, their schedules or where they lived prevented them from attending. I’ve even had to train new leaders because we have been able to start new groups as a result of more people being able to meet now that they can meet online. Our Evangelism team just did an event this past week and had almost 150 attend from all over the world. Although we are restricted from travelling, the Word of God has no restrictions!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and continuous support in so many ways. I am healthy and God is giving me such grace and wisdom on how to walk through this time. I know that this has a lot to do with everything that you do for me. Please continue praying that God would help me to lead our Connect Groups and to help make sure that our congregation as a whole is staying connected. We really want to make sure that there is not one person who is doing life alone.
Loads of love
Traci
Dear family and friends,
As many have you have already heard or realised, my trip to America was cancelled due to the Coronavirus. This annual trip has always given me an opportunity to see family and friends as well as being able to thank the many people who are supporting me in finances and prayer throughout the year. It has also given me a chance to meet new people and build new relationships with people who could also join our team to reach the nations in London.
I am sad not to see everyone this year and in the midst of everything that is going on with the virus I am not only trusting and praying for my own provision but also for the provision of so many of you who have lost your jobs or are struggling in this time of uncertainty. The one thing I am hanging onto and that I am certain of is that this virus is not a surprise to God. He is still the God who heals, provides and brings comfort and peace. He is also still the God of miracles!
Even in the middle of everything that is going on we are hearing about people getting saved – especially hospital staff! Also, people who normally who would be isolated are connecting with people online for the first time. God is moving in the midst of the storm.
In my last letter, I mentioned that I had the privilege of speaking on Breaking Free from Destructive Patterns at our European Student Conference. We have had such good feedback from the conference and I wanted to share with you one testimony from a student that you had a part in by praying and supporting me – “during the Breaking Free workshop, I felt like God has set me free from the destructive pattern of lust that was in my family from at least 3 generations. I had to fight this thing before with my prayers and my small group prayers, but during the conference I felt Freedom.”
I also mentioned in my last letter that I was going to be celebrating my 50th Birthday. It’s definitely a birthday I won’t forget because of this virus! What was amazing is that as our world was going into isolation, 4 of my closest friends and I went into isolation in the countryside. They spoiled and blessed me loads all week.
Here are a few pictures from that week that I hope will bring a smile to your face like they did for me.
Lots of Love
Traci