I don't need to rewrite what was already said so beautifully, so here are some quotes from it that really were powerful to me:
Living radical isn’t about where you live — it’s about how you love.
It’s about realizing– Love doesn’t happen when you arrive in a certain place. It happens when your heart arrives in a certain place – wherever you are, right where you are, dirt road Africa or side street America.
Radical isn’t as much about where you move – but about looking into the face of Jesus – and letting Him move you where you are.
Hospitality isn’t for the good housekeepers — it’s the grid of life for anyone keeping company with Christ. Hospitality is meant to shape our churches and politics, our work and our schools, our homes and our faith and our schedules and our meals and our lives.
Hospitality is Life with no Gates.
Hospitality means if there is room in the heart —
Don’t start with a program. Start with a plate.
That is just a portion really, but you can go and read the whole post if you want more :)
So what does that mean for us? Why are we moving across the sea so far away from everything we know? Why not just stay here and be used by the Lord here?
Why are we uprooting our family?
There is a need for the gospel to be proclaimed here in America just like there is a need in England.
All we can really say in response to that is the Lord has put England on our hearts. We truly have no good logical answer to why we would go except for our hearts yearn to love the people of England and share our love of Christ with the people there.
Even in coming here to St. Louis for Michael to come to seminary didn't make sense except for we felt the Lord's calling to come here. We didn't know how we would make it with finances, but the Lord has provided thus far. He has graciously given us all we need and more. We have been blessed with incredible relationships that we will have years beyond living here. The Lord has shown us that if he calls us and places it on our hearts to go, he will provide the way.
What will it look like?
We don't really have a set agenda. Our hope is to see churches planted throughout the northwest in HIS timing. We would love to be a part of the spreading of his gospel. For us, that won't mean standing on the streets proclaiming scripture, but instead diving into relationships and loving the people whom the Lord puts in front of us. It means opening our home to whoever. Opening our lives and living life and sharing the love of Christ in our actions and building trust where we can speak the truth of Christ in love and once their heart is softened to receive.
Our desire is to see His church growing and spread throughout the surrounding villages of the Warrington area and beyond. But we know it might not happen the way we think it might. The Lord will probably shake it up a bit and do it a completely different way that the way we are thinking it will.
So really, we have no set agenda. We have thoughts on what we could see happening, but the Lord is in the driver's seat and we are open to following his path.
But doesn't England know the gospel? Aren't they a "Christian" nation?
Less than 5% of the population attend church regularly.
96% of Children in the UK will grow up with no gospel influence at all.
70% of pop. have no intention of ever attending church.
There are 10 million people in the northwest alone. About 62 million in all of England...which by the way is about the size of Alabama.
That's why we go. I know this blog is getting long, but I just wanted to share why our hearts are drawn to go.
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