I have two very exciting bits of information to share with you all. The first is that we received notification last week that our entire team is 100% fully supported! $53,419 has been raised thanks to your generosity and has been used for the glory of God through giving (1 Chronicles 29:9), partnership (Ecclesiastes 4:9; John17:21), receiving (James 1:17), and the gospel being shared (Romans 10:11-15; Philemon 6). On behalf of our team, we are so grateful for each and every one of you supporting us in various ways by sending us to the UK. Know that we feel privileged to have you walking alongside us in various respects of this mission to send the gospel forth and to participate in God’s glorious plan of winning the world to himself. We are truly blessed and cannot thank you enough.
The second bit (Brits use this a lot in place of “piece” or “part”) of exciting information is that a Japanese student who has been attending The Crowded House has recently gone from death to life and come to faith in Jesus! We are so grateful for this new life who has confessed that there is no greater gift than the forgiveness and redemption that is offered to us in Jesus Christ as an atoning sacrifice for our sins and the ultimate source of joy and satisfaction. The Lord has done a beautiful work in this student’s heart especially considering the pressure or value in Japanese culture to conform (being a Christian would be to go against conforming) and despite the potential rejection from family and friends this student has decided to follow Jesus for the rest of their life no matter what storms, failures, or persecutions get thrown her way. Please praise the Lord and rejoice with us for this new light that is already heading back to Japan who Jesus has revealed himself to and made himself so beautiful that the things of this world can be counted as loss in order that this student may gain Him.
Our team did some more traveling this week as well. Tuesday we were in Leeds all day (a city about an hour north of Sheffield) in order to do some investigation of campuses and the city. Then we traveled to London and were there Thursday through Saturday. We really enjoyed our time in London, and we got to see many of the sights that a typical tourist in London would see; we saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament, Hyde Park, Tower Bridge, and much more. It was an enjoyable three days for our team, but we are all excited to be back in Sheffield for the remaining 16 days that we have in the country.
In these next two weeks we will be doing various things. This week we are happy to have Paul and Sam Poteat, Tim Devane, and Ann Nelson with us. Our focus over the next two weeks is international students. They have just returned from a two-week holiday and will be resuming classes tomorrow. Please pray that we would be able to spend lots of time with different international students we have met already. It is incredible to see how God brings people from so many different nations to come study in a place like Sheffield. Our God is a God of the nations (Pslam 67:4) and we long to see laborers sent to the places that are least reached (Matthew 9:37-38).
Thank you all for your continued support!
- Maura Bickner & Ben Hansen
