This has been a busy but good month for me! It’s been a stretching time as I am moving more and more into a role where I am speaking more, so I have been finding my feet and finding a new rhythm of doing things.
I am continuing to mentor teens and adults as well as being involved with people in the community but I am also making space for preparation for different speaking opportunities. I love the fact that I get to be involved in reaching the lost as well as raising up and equipping leaders!
This past month I had the opportunity of speaking at our annual Empower Worship Day. This day is where we invite worship team members from our London churches as well as our other Western European churches to come together for some equipping and encouragement on how to lead worship. Having been involved in worship pretty much all of my adult life, I know the struggles and joys of being on a worship team. Taking my experience as a worship team member and as a pastor, I spoke on the topic of being Fit to Fight. This talk focused on our own spiritual walk “How are you and God doing?” In worship, we are bringing an attack on the devil so we need to make sure that we are prepared for the fight!
We also just recently started a series called Soul Detox in our Sunday services, where we are focusing on being spiritually healthy. This past Sunday I preached on “The Wounded Soul.” I have to say, it was one of the hardest messages I have ever spoken on. Many people have wounds in their souls as a result of hurts (physical, mental and spiritual) that they have experienced. Many people have not properly grieved and have got stuck in the grief stages and those wounds have become toxic and have not allowed a person to experience the abundant life that God has ordained them to have. My sermon was focussed on recognising this and encouraging people that there is hope and healing for their wounded soul. The service was a heavy one but the response has been incredible!
I would love to say that you could listen to the recording of this message but the recording did not come out… If you would like my notes then please feel free to email me and I will send them to you.
This coming Sunday I have been invited to preach at a church around the corner from ours! It’s a church in our local community that we are friends with and the pastors have been wanting me to come and speak for a while so I’m excited about being able to join them this Sunday.
Thank you so much for all of your prayer covering for me. I am loving what I am doing and you are a part of it all. People are experiencing Jesus, some for the first time and many are experiencing the fullness of what He did for us on the cross. Thank you sooooo much!
A few of you have been concerned about my busy schedule so I want you to know that this coming week I have holiday and I plan on relaxing a lot and enjoying God’s amazing beauty outdoors. Please pray for a refreshing time and continued health in my body and spirit.
Lots of Love
Traci
This past month was filled with lots of discipleship/mentoring, training and building up small group leaders, teaching Bible School, and Baptisms!
I have been focusing more over the past few months on my small group leaders. Making sure these leaders feel supported and have the training they need to lead their groups confidently is important to me but also making sure that they themselves are connecting with God is even more important. I have loved meeting and praying with them over the past few months as well as hearing the testimonies coming out of their groups.
I am also teaching and overseeing Bible School for part of this term which is something I love! This month I am teaching on Spiritual Disciplines. This past Monday I taught on Daily Devotions and Fellowship. In the coming weeks we will cover Communion, Fasting, Worship, Stewardship and Tithing as well as the Sabbath. If we are going to have a fruitful walk with Christ – we all need these disciplines!
Finally, one of the biggest highlights of last month was Baptisms! I love seeing people get baptised and I especially love it when I have been walking with them and get to take part in baptising them! Six of our teens were baptised as well as five adults. Five of the teens come from families that don’t attend church. Two of them have parents that don’t even believe in God. This is exciting for me! What made it amazing is that the parents who don’t believe in God all came to watch their teens be baptised! As a church, we had a wonderful opportunity to show them love and show them how much we love their teen. Please pray for more opportunities to share Jesus with them.
One of the teens that I had the privilege of baptising was Jessica. I have been mentoring Jessica and I have loved seeing her fall in love with Jesus. I truly believe that Jessica’s love for God will be a huge instrument in bringing her parents to Christ. Her comment that she made on Facebook afterwards shows you how much it meant to her – “This morning was definitely something! It was such an amazing morning. I'm feeling great & like a new person to be honest! Would just like to say a massive well done to everyone who got baptised today! I'm so proud of you all & I'm so blessed that I've been able to share this experience with you! Also a massive thank you to all of my youth leaders, pastors & friends/family that have supported me through this massive step I've taken today!”
Your love and support have been such an amazing blessing to me. I would really like to ask you to please remember to pray for me as well. God is growing me in SO MANY WAYS! I actually feel like what I am truly called to do is coming to pass. I am teaching and preaching loads more and I am beginning to feel the weight of the responsibility of a pastor more and more. I am loving, it but at the same time I realise more and more that your prayer covering is so essential.
Also, please remember that you have a part in every life that is being touched here in London.
Thank you again for all of your love and support!
Lots of Love
Traci
The blossoms on the trees, the flowers in our garden and the hay fever medicine have all come out! Spring has arrived in London and I am loving it! The sun is shining and people are happy on the streets and on the buses and tubes – what a difference the weather can make!
This past month has been quite busy. One of the things that I have been a part of is our annual Mums & Daughters Tea Party. We put on this Tea Party for the Mums & Daughters that attend our church but also as an outreach event for the Mums and Daughters in the nearby community. We spoil them with amazing treats as well a short talk on instilling Godly values in their relationships. This talk was focused on how to communicate with your teenager.
We’ve taken our teens twice now to a Saturday night youth event called Soul Survivor Saturday Celebrations. These evening are a time where hundreds of young people get together to spend time worshiping God, hearing from His Word, and waiting on His Holy Spirit. The first Saturday that we took some of them we weren’t sure if they would enjoy it or want to come back but by the end of the evening one of the teens approached us and said “for my birthday next month, I want us to come back for the next Celebration evening!” We did exactly that and the teens loved it again and are looking forward to more in the future. We are seeing a real hunger for a relationship with God growing in our youth and we are so excited about it!
This past weekend was also filled with excitement. Many of you have followed Elijah’s life in my newsletters the past 4 years. He was born with Myotublar Myopathy and every day is a miracle. He turned 4 last week! He might not be able to talk and move around a lot but you can definitely see life inside of him as he smiles at his surroundings!
Also, this weekend I had the privilege of preaching on one of my passions – Discipleship. We are doing a series at the moment on re-DIGGing your wells based on the scripture in Genesis 26:17. One of those wells is the Well of Discipleship. I had a wonderful time preaching this message and was blessed to see God move and touch peoplethrough the service. If you would like to listen please click HERE. Also, please have a look at the PowerPoint that goes along with the sermon to see pictures that I show during my message so you have the full impact ;o).
Thank you for loving me and your prayers and support! God is doing amazing things in and through you!
Lots of Love
Traci