What an incredible year this has been. Even though it’s freezing outside, I am sitting here in the warm sun coming through my window, and all I can think of is how amazing God is.
The beginning of the year started with a huge financial blessing and me asking God what is He preparing me for? Little did I know that just a few weeks later I would receive the news that my stepdad had had a stroke (actually a spray of strokes) in the left part of his brain. That financial blessing covered last minute airfare, car rental and many other expenses!
The whole next month was covered in your prayers and support as I helped my parents through the beginning of the recovery process.
Two wonderful things came out of that time – First, you would never know that my stepdad has had a stroke! He has recovered so fast and so well! He’s still on a journey but he is truly a miracle.
The second thing, is that during that month, I started reading Christine Caine’s 'Unexpected' devotional on YouVersion (highly recommend the devotional and the book!) This devotional was God’s perfect timing for me and a phrase stuck out at me that I have carried for the rest of the year – God is not surprised, choose to feed faith or fear. I know it’s simple, but I can’t tell you how it impacted me in that moment.
I have come up against some hectic circumstances since the first day I read that sentence, and the peace of knowing that God was not surprised about any of it, has given me the strength to persevere.
It’s been an amazing year and I (and you) have had the privilege of being a part of so many things that have touched the lives of loads of people of every age group and from so many countries!
Last week, as I was reading my Bible another phrase gripped me – It’s from 2 Tim 2:9 “God’s word is not chained.” How powerful is that?!
I want to encourage you during these holidays and as you go into next year – God is not surprised at anything that may come your way and His word is not limited to your circumstances.
He can bring peace where there is none and He can bring breakthrough into impossible situations. I’m praying this for you and trusting that this holiday season will be filled with Joy and an abundance of blessings!
Thank you for a fantastic year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Lots of Love
Traci
I can’t believe a whole month has flown by since my last letter! Where did October go?
When I go back from Sweden at the end of September I literally hit the ground running and it’s only this week that I have come back to a normal routine of things.
The first week in October was Freshers week at Imperial College here in London and it’s where thousands of Freshman students descend onto the campus which is one of the top Universities in the world. We engaged with as many students as we could this week doing the God Test as well as many other activities to build new relationships with students. Here are 2 pictures from that week:
After that week, I spent the next few days catching up from being away in Sweden and then started getting ahead of things before my next trip to Timisoara, Romania!
I left for Timisoara on the 19 October for another Ten Days Mission. Here our team focused on 2 University campuses doing the God Test, building relationships and also having evening meetings to discuss identity and other relevant topics with the students we had connected with. We also connected these students with a local church who will be following them up and also hopefully starting a campus ministry to support students on campus.
Because of your faithfulness, 200 Gospel conversations were had, 3 people were saved, and over 20 students are interested in follow up discussions. If I we did not go, they would not have heard. Thank you for making this possible! Below are some pics from the Ten Days:
As soon as I landed back in London on 29 October I started preparing for our Freedom Day! On 3 November, we had 28 people from our 3 congregations come for a day retreat to experience teaching and ministry in Freedom from various areas in their lives. I love these days because people walk away as different people! Here’s a picture of me teaching:
The day after, I preached in 2 of our congregations on our Prodigal Love series specifically talking about the robe the father
gave his son. I love the word “Quick!” he uses. He left no room for doubt that his son was accepted. God’s grace does not put us on probation – His grace puts us in His Salvation.
To end the exciting nonstop month off, I had the incredible privilege of being on our London Student Weekend Away. After Freshers in October, we have had a wonderful time building relationships with new students as well as those who have been around for a while. This weekend was a special time of going deeper in their walk with God and each other.
It’s been an amazing month and I hope that you realise how many people you have had part in touching and how many countries and cities will be affected by it! Thank you so, so much for all of your love and support – this wouldn’t happen without you!
Lots of Love
Traci
As I am sitting here thinking about what to write, the song “It is Well” by Kristin DiMarco is playing in the background. The sun is shining here in London and it’s actually warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt! Combine the weather today and the things God has done this past month and I can confidently say – It is Well with my soul!
At the end of my letter last month I asked you to pray for a Women’s meeting that I would be speaking at and a Ten Days Mission to Sweden.
The Women’s Meeting was actually organised by a 21 year old Ghanaian young lady. She had a passion to get women together to worship and pray. She doesn’t go to our church but God connected us and she asked me to come and speak at the meeting. The people she was inviting were from an African or West Indies background and she wanted to expose them to a different style of teaching that they were used to and felt led to have me teach them about worship.
It was a wonderful evening and I believe that many people heard what worship is for the first time. It’s not just singing – but a response to who God is and we do it because He is Worthy.
On the 14 September I boarded a plane to Sundsvall, Sweden to join a team of 11 people from America. The original plan of our Ten Day Mission was to help Ronja who has started an Every Nation Campus society on MidSweden University.
We were going to be on campus every day doing the God Test, building relationships with students and inviting them to events we had planned during the week. Upon our arrival though, Ronja got word from the new student body president that he did not want us doing anything we had planned to do on the campus. In the past, this had not been an issue.
We were all discouraged at first but our leader had wisdom and quickly made a new plan. This wasn’t a surprise to God so it was still going to be a successful trip! She decided to put 4 of our team who looked like students on campus to just blend in and try to start conversations with students over the week. The rest of us would be sent to the town square to do the God Test and connect with anyone that we could.
Well………, out of all of the weeks in the year to be in the square – this was the week that they were having an international food festival! Every day the whole town would come to the square to eat food throughout the day. Teens, University students, families and people of all ages! How amazing Is God?!
Because our team was international we didn’t stick out and it actually looked like we were supposed to be there! We ended up doing over 250 God Tests and had many good conversations getting people to think about what they believe about God for the first time. The majority of the people we spoke to did not believe in God. One of our team members said it felt like we took most people from a -10 to believing in God to a -2. This was a success for us! We planted loads of seeds and we are expectant of what God is going to do there in the coming months.
One thing that really impacted us was that at the end of the mission our team leader and I flew out later than the rest of the team and we went into the square where thousands of people had passed through the week before. We were in the square at the same time it had been full the week before and not one person was there in the middle of the day! Look at the before and after below. God’s perfect timing!
Ronja, the Christian students from MidSweden University and the church Ronja attends were so blessed by the fact that people from across the globe would come to share the Gospel in their city. They have been praying for breakthrough in their city for years. We only had one salvation during our time there but out of the hundreds of people that we spoke to – we know God is doing a lot of work behind the scenes and can’t wait to hear stories about it!
Here are more pictures of me doing the God Test with people and another picture of part of our team. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!!
Lots of Love
Traci