Gathering Grounds & Fundraising

Hello everyone! 

Well… today I have officially started fundraising for next year!

I’ve been postponing it for a little while because I wasn’t entirely sure what my ministry was going to look like… I wanted to make sure I had a good description to give everyone.

I have really enjoyed working with Youth for Christ this past year, but I’m ready to start a real life here in England instead of doing another gap year with YFC.

So I have been praying like crazy and I really feel like I know what God wants from me.

Here is my heart for next year: 

I have accepted a visa and position at Mosaic Church (in Darlington) to be their Outreach Youth Worker.

I am so excited to work with this church! It is a new church plant and still fairly small. Instead of buying a regular church building to meet in, they bought a coffee shop which sits right across from a college campus. They did this because they want to reach young people! The church meets in the coffee shop on Sundays for collective worship. But during the week, it is a regular coffee shop called Gathering Grounds. It is dedicated to reaching college kids and building relationships.

(Side note: colleges in England are only for students aged 16-19)

I am so amazed by the passion this church has to reach these young people! It is their number one goal as an organization and they have put so much money and effort into this vision.

My job will be to run the coffee shop, build relationships, and be a bridge leading towards church and God. So many people come in and out… but there are about 10 young people who come in every single day between classes and they hang out for several hours. A few of them are Christians but the majority are not.

The coolest thing to me… is that these non-Christian young people feel so comfortable in the space. There are Bible verses on the walls and they know that the baristas are all Christians… yet they still love hanging out with us and questioning us about our faith. Often times, they do it quite rudely and argue against everything we say. But I love the fact that they are willing to talk so openly and hear what we have to say! The really like us despite acting so challenging and cheeky.

I am SO excited to work with these young people!!! My plan is to start some Bible studies and life groups with the kids who are already Christians. Maybe it will tempt some of the non-christians to join and hear more! I would also love to start a fiction book club. I have a list of books that have subtle ties to Christianity and theology. They could create some great discussions and debates!

Here is where things get a little tricky….

Mosaic has only hired me to work 20+ hours per week in Gathering Grounds because they are a small charity and cannot pay me. They know that I need money to survive and want to give me time for a second paid job.

However, there is more than enough work to do at the church because Mosaic does not currently have a youth pastor for their Sunday services or Wednesday evening life groups.

I would absolutely love to fill that position as well as the coffee shop outreach youth worker. I could easily work 35-40 hours per week doing both of those jobs for the church. It would be wonderful to keep Gathering Grounds open five days every week instead of four.

So here is what I am asking… if I have enough financial support… I can be in full time ministry at Mosaic Church without needing a paycheck.

Would you please consider and pray about supporting me financially next year so that I can give all of my time and energy to this ministry?

I know what God will work things out either way. But my heart is being pulled so strongly towards full time ministry with Mosaic. I have a real passion for everything they are doing.

Thank you so much for all of your prayer and support this past year! I am so grateful for all the amazing opportunities I have had to serve here in England.

So much love,

Jess
jessmdavis12@gmail.com

Big News About Next Year!

About a month before I moved to England, I was feeling really restless and unsettled. I was so ready for the adventure looming before me to begin!

I personally think every moment is a good time for Tolkien… but that particular moment felt perfect for watching The Hobbit.

As I watched the movie (wishing I was a hobbit) I figured out why I related so strongly to Bilbo Baggins.

As a child, he was filled with a wild and free spirit. He craved travel and dreamt of grand adventures outside the Shire. But as he grew older, his life settled into a comfortable pattern. He gave up on the dreams of his youth because he thought his moment of opportunity had passed him by. Then when his dream suddenly resurfaced and he was given another chance for adventure, he wasn’t sure if he could actually do it.

As Bilbo sat debating whether to grasp the adventure before him… he asked Gandalf this question:

“Can you promise that I will come back?”

Gandalf replied.

“No. And if you do… you will not be the same.”

I had to pause the movie because my eyes started tearing up. I felt God speaking to me through those lines. This is what He said:

“You don’t know what you are following me towards. You don’t know what lies before you. This adventure may not be a quick break between comfortable things. You might not return. But if you do, you will not come back the same person. I am going to change you and mold you in ways you can’t imagine. Life is never going to be the same for you after this. Whether you come back or not.”

Well here I am… almost a year later… and I’m not coming home!

This past year has been amazing and I finally feel like I have found the place God wants me! I’m not sure if I’m only staying for one more year.. or two.. or a lifetime.

But I do know that God was right. I am not the same person I was ten months ago. I feel like the person I always dreamed of being! One who fearlessly follows God even when the path seems a bit crazy.

I’m not entirely sure what next year holds yet. I have loved working with Youth for Christ but I’m ready to start a real life here in England. So I will not be doing another Gap Year with YFC.

I’ve found a part time job with Mosaic Church in the nearby town of Darlington and I’m so excited to work with them! They have just recently opened a non-profit coffee shop called Gathering Grounds. It is located right beside a big college and I will be running it! My job will be a combination of youth worker, barista, and manager. There are several young people who come into the coffee shop at the same time every day and I have relationships with them already. I’m hoping to start some Bible Studies and Life Groups during their breaks between classes.

Finding a ministry job that will provide a Visa for foreign people like me is incredibly rare. I am so grateful to God for providing me with this opportunity! I get to stay in England and do something that I love!

Unfortunately… since the job is with a non-profit organization.. I will not be getting paid a salary. So I am still looking for a second part time job in the area.

I would very much appreciate your prayers while God is working out the rest of His plans for this next year.

When I first moved to England, I majorly struggled with anxiety. But the biggest thing God has been teaching me is to trust Him.

My life is completely opposite of the traditional American dream… but I don’t need to worry about money or my future when God is in control. He has completely taken care of me these past ten months and freed me from my fears.

I feel free. I feel brave.

So here we go… England round two!

Bring it on!!

If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31

The Life of a YFC Worker

Happy New Year everyone! 

So I’ve written a few blogs with brief explanations about what I’m doing here in England, but I’ve had a few requests for more details about the activities I’m involved with. Therefore.. this blog will simply be a breakdown of everything I do with Youth for Christ!

Oh, but first I should mention.. every YFC worker has a different experience. This is definitely not what all of us do. All of our lives look completely different and I don’t cross paths with them very often during work hours.

Most YFC workers do the majority of their work in schools and with city councils. But my church (All Saints Church) is one of the largest in the area and needs two workers to get all of the work done. There used to be two paid youth pastors, but now there is only one (Kathryn Belmont) and I am filling in for the second one. Almost all of my time is spent at the church working with the same group of young people and I love it because I am able to build such strong relationships with them.

Okay here we go!

Sunday Youth Services (once a week)
After worship and announcements in the sanctuary with the whole congregation, the young people leave to have their own service in the youth room. We usually start with a quick bonding game, then we study a passage from the Bible, then one of the youth workers speaks about the topic and challenges the students about what they have read and heard, then we have a discussion time as a whole group or in small groups, and we usually end with some kind of response or reflection time where they can pray and think about what God is teaching and saying to them.

Regular Life Groups (once a week)
This is the time of the week when we dig the deepest into the Bible. We spend two hours with a small group of young people from our church and they usually spend just as much time talking as we do. The style is less “teaching/instructing” and more devoted to discovery and discussion.

Girls Life Groups (once a week)
We meet with a group of girls from the local school who are not members of the church. This is more of a community gathering than a Bible study. We eat food, bake, make crafts, and talk about issues and things going on in the girls lives.

Youth Club (once a week)
Every Friday night, we have a youth club which is open to any young person from our community to come hang out and have fun. We have several big tvs with gaming systems, billiards, pingpong, basketball, soccer, air hockey, foosball, board games, movies, and a candy shop. This is our biggest outreach ministry. There are many kids who only enter a church building because of this event. At the end of every Youth Club, we have a leader give a quick 5-10 minute talk about God.

Assemblies (six times per month)
The school in my community invites youth workers to come in and speak at assemblies every week. They want us to be teaching young people about moral qualities and characteristics for having a happy and purposeful life. The purpose of the assemblies is not to evangelize and share the gospel.. but the school doesn’t mind when we add Bible verses to our talks at the end of every assembly. We try to mention something about our faith every time and we alwayyys invite the students to Youth Club on Friday nights.

Christian Union (once a week)
This is a brand new project and we have only had about 5 meetings so far. Basically it is a lunch club for Christian students at our local school. We gather in an empty classroom and eat our lunches while we talk about God and socialize. The point of this outreach is to remind students that they are not alone in their schools. There are other people around them who love God. Right now, we are focussing on building relationships with these young people and encouraging them in their faith. Eventually, the plan is to start reaching out and sharing the gospel to non-christians students.

Toddlers Ministry (once a week)
The children’s ministry at my church hosts play groups several mornings a week. I help serve by setting up toys and play areas, passing out juice and biscuits, and watching the little ones while engaging with parents and caregivers. Most of these families do not attend the church and these mornings are a great time to build new relationships and invite them to other ministry events.

Play & Praise (once a week)
This ministry is almost the same as the regular toddler mornings, except we add a puppet show on Fridays. I meet with the rest of the puppet team before every Play & Praise to practice the songs and Bible stories.

Skate Park Outreach (once a week)
We have currently put this ministry on hold because the sun sets at 3:30pm in the winter and there are no outdoor lights at the park. We hope to resume hanging out with these kids in March when the daylight lasts longer. I really miss going up there and making a fool of myself. I’m terrible on wheels and fall down a lot.. but the kids think its hilarious and several of them know my name now. So its worth it!

Youth for Christ Meetings (once a week)
The whole YFC family meets every Monday morning at a church to worship, pray, and study together. Most of us are working on Sunday mornings and don’t get to experience church like a normal attender. We all spend so much time serving, teaching, and pouring out. This is a time each week that is meant to build us up and encourage us. It is our time to be poured into.

Church Staff Meeting (once a week)
All the leaders of various departments and administrations within our church meet every week to share what is happening in all of our ministries. We always spend time praying for the church and for each other. Then we spend time planning and coordinating upcoming events.

Youth Group Planning (once a week)
I meet with Kathryn at least once a week to plan out all the events happening in our youth group. Thank goodness our little town has several awesome little coffee shops to meet at. Because it takes several hours to plan all the events, talks, and assemblies every week.

Mentor Coffee Dates (random)
Meeting alone with young people is really hard in England because there are so many rules in place to protect them. This is awesome, but it makes it very hard for youth workers to build strong relationships with youth. I am only able to take church member girls out for coffee dates if I have written permission from their parents. So I’ve only met with two girls so far.. but now that I am more established and well known in the church, I plan to start inviting more of them to get coffee. I want the girls to know that I truly care about them and that I want to know what is going on in their lives.

Café Church (once a month)
Costa Coffee is basically England’s version of Starbucks. There is usually at least one shop in every town and many of them have been very open and supportive towards churches. Several of them have opened their doors to YFC and they allow us to host mini-church events in them once a month. Our Costa Coffee in Yarm usually closes at 7pm but they stay open until 9pm and continue making coffee for us while we have live music and a guest speaker shares about God’s love. This is one of my favorite ministries because I love coffee and the laid back atmosphere which draws in people who might be too intimidated to come to a church building service.

Doulos Leadership Training (once a month)
Doulos is the Greek word for servant. This is a program designed to train young people to become servant leaders in their churches and communities. It incorporates several churches in the area. The youth leaders of those churches chose a few members of their youth groups who were very outspoken about their faith and had openly dedicated their lives to God. We invest in these young people every month and train them to be leaders among their peers. We build their confidence, encourage their boldness, and give them tools to help them share their faith.

Refresh Events (once a month)
This is a youth focused worship service hosted by my church and run in partnership with two other churches nearby. It is for all of the youth in our area. Tons of young people come from all over the Tees Valley. Most churches in England are on the old-fashioned side.. so the young people love having a service with contemporary worship songs and young speakers who talk about real issues they have in their every day lives. Lots of the YFC workers come as well. They bring kids from their churches and we all have an amazing time worshipping together!

Messy Church (once a month)
This is an evening service hosted by my church designed specifically for families with young children. It is loud, messy, and totally insane. The kids absolutely love it! When families arrive, they walk into the gym where stations are set up everywhere. There are games, crafts, and food creations galore. Then everyone is herded into the sanctuary where all the kids sit on the floor and watch a funny skit or puppet show about the Bible. Dinner is served at the end of the show and everyone sits together at long tables in the gym to eat and laugh. We have had many families going the church because of these monthly events. The chaos is worth always worth it 🙂

Equip Training (once a term)
This event is hosted by my church and it helps connect youth workers across the Tees Valley with resources that will help them serve their youth groups and churches. Speakers from other organizations and churches come to share what they do. Many YFC workers also come to these events. This is such an incredible way to connect with other people who have the same passions and goals for reaching the lost. One of the things I love most about England is how connected many of the churches are. They help each other and combine efforts to reach more people.

Camp of Champions (once-three times a year)
These are sports day camps that last one week. This ministry takes place in public parks around the Tees Valley. They are run by Axiom Sports Ministry which works hand-in-hand with YFC. All kids are welcome to come play organized games and we have breaks throughout the day where we sit down with the kids and tell them about champions from the Bible. I helped run one camp during half-term in October and I think I will be helping out with a few more in the spring and summer.

SOUL SURVIVOR (once a year)
This is the most anticipated event of the entire year!!! Our youth kids have not stopped talking about it since I arrived. Every summer.. a massive tent is set up in a huge field and thousands of young people from all over England gather. They sleep outside on the ground every night, they have no electricity, and no one cares what they look or smell like. It is a massive worship festival with some of the best names in contemporary worship. There are speakers from several churches across England including the Mike Pilavachi. Young people spend one whole week doing nothing but worshiping God, learning more about Him, and making friends who also share their faith. There are foam parties, silent raves, and massive bonfires. Words cannot express how excited I am!!!

Check out the video links below to get a glimpse of how awesome it is:
Soul Survivor 2015 Highlights
Soul Survivor 2016 Promo

Wow.. that was a long blog and a ton of info..
I was going to write some other stuff about how life is going but my fingers are tired of typing..

Until next time!

Jess

Happy Christmas from England!

 

Happy Christmas from England!

It is so cold… but I am currently sitting in a warm cozy little coffee shop in the tiny quaint village of Yarm. The front windows are foggy and iced at the edges… but I can still see a wintery mix of snow, ice, and rain falling on the cobblestone streets. The smell of coffee and the sounds of Christmas music make this moment feel like the beginning of a romantic holiday movie. Haha.

It’s been just over three months and sadly, I’ve already stopped noticing moments like this. Writing causes me to reflect on the beauty of my surroundings, so typing this blog right now is helping me appreciate how adorable this moment is. But otherwise, I probably would have passed right over it without a second thought. The cobblestone streets, cathedrals, villages, and accents have started to disappear a bit. England has become normal and comfortable for me already. This is kinda sad… but equally awesome! Because the first two months were kinda difficult and now I really feel like this place is home.

The hardest adjustment was not having a car or being able to drive anywhere. But I’ve figured out the bus and train system now. The food was almost as hard.. and I still occasionally lie in bed at night dreaming of Chick-fil-A… but my tastes buds have mostly adjusted to English food. I still miss my family, my church, Ashton, Lauren, Kali, and YACS. But I have made so many new friends through Youth for Christ! Plus my host family is beyond incredible. They make me feel so at home and loved.

I think the biggest thing that has made this country feel like home so quickly, is being so busy all the time! This week has been insane.. I’ve worked about 45 hours which is definitely over the limit for the number of hours we are allowed to work under our charity worker visas. But shhh.. don’t tell anyone! Because I absolutely love being a part of so many things in the church and the community!

Mostly, I am still doing all of the things I wrote about in my first blog:

School assemblies, Sunday youth services, girls life groups, regular life groups, individual mentoring, Café Church, Friday Night Youth Club, Doulos leadership training, Toddlers Ministry, Play & Praise, puppet ministry, Messy Church, Equip training, Refresh events, Engage services. We also have weekly Youth for Christ meetings and I have a mentor that I meet with once a month.

We have stopped our skate park outreach at the moment because sunset is at 3:30pm and the kids don’t come out after dark. And to be honest, I hate the cold so I’m kinda grateful that there are no outdoor lights for the park. Haha.

We have one new ministry! We just started a Christian Union at Egglescliife School! This is the school near my house where I do all of my assemblies. We don’t have Christian Unions (CU) in America.. but it is basically just a club where Christian kids can come to hang out, eat come food, and study the Bible. We had nine students at the first CU and we are so excited and praying about how to help it grow.

On a fun note.. I will have dressed up as an elf six times by the end of next week! If you know anything about me.. I LOVE dressing up in crazy costumes. So needless to say… I have been very happy and full of Christmas spirit lately. Haha. Hooray for children’s ministry and youth Christmas parties!

I can’t believe how fast these last few months have already flown by.. how is it already Christmas time?! God has been blessing me in so many ways since I’ve been here… I can’t get over all that He has done for me. I honestly feel like I’m getting spoiled a little bit! I have everything I need and yet I keep getting blessed with even more. I have always dreamed of spending Christmas in London but I didn’t think that would ever happen because I’m currently living that broke missionary life, lol. But then my friend Ashley has a friend in London who asked us to apartment-sit for her during the break!! So I get to spend eleven days in London for free!! We will probably be eating packed lunches with pb&j sandwiches every day.. but who cares! LONDON!!

Well.. I guess that’s about it for now.. we have a huge Youth for Christ conference in January when we get back from Christmas holiday. I’m so excited to meet all of the other teams from across the United Kingdom. I love the Tees Valley and I personally think my team is the best… but it will be so cool to see what God is doing in all of the other areas across England as well.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support from home!!

Have a wonderful Christmas and an amazing New Year!!!

Jess

I love my Christmas cards this year! Snow, bikes, and British post boxes. These are a few of my favorite things.

My first month in England!

Well.. I have officially been living and working in England for a little over one month! So I guess I’m long over due for an update. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind and I feel like I’m just now starting to really get my feet under me.

The first week was exhausting but incredible. I arrived early so I could settle in, get lots of sleep, and learn the area. I’m so glad I did because jetlag is no joke! I could barely keep my eyes open during that first week, but it didn’t keep me from exploring my new home. So many people from my new church volunteered to show me around. I barely had a free moment because people were ringing the doorbell every day to pick me up and drive me somewhere new. There was one day when I had breakfast, lunch, and dinner, each in a different town and with different people. It was an awesome way to see so many parts of the Tees Valley and meet so many loving and generous members of my church.

The second week, everyone had arrived and we started our Youth for Christ training in the Lake District. It was GORGEOUS. Like seriously.. I was basically in the Shire. Most of the week was spent doing team building exercises, hiking mountains, and climbing trees. By the end of the week… I had fallen in love with my new family. This is the first time in six years that I have a big group of friends my age and in my walk of life. They are all adventurous travel-lovers who are absolutely on fire for God and most of them are also rocking the perpetually single life, lol. My soul feels alive with them.

The third week was also training but we were back home in Stockton and with our churches. We had so many seminars. There are a million laws and rules about working with youth in England. To be honest… it was a little scary to hear about all of the ways we could lose our visas and be sent home. We can never take pictures of the kids or reference any of them in social media and we can never really be alone with them. We also had first aid training and learned our roles in our churches and schools.

During the fourth week, we finally got started working and settling into our regular weekly routines. Here in England, schools don’t start until the beginning or middle of September, so we hardly missed anything.

I am actually not doing very much in my local school at the moment because they already have so much involvement from permanent local youth workers. I will be leading six assemblies per month, but that is about it as far as school-work goes.

But not to worry… I am still CRAZY busy. My church has one of the largest youth groups in the area and they are insanely active in the community. There used to be two youth pastors at the church to handle the workload. But now there is only one and I filling in as the second.

These are some of the things I’m involved in at the church:
Sunday youth services, girls life groups, regular life groups, individual mentoring, Café Church, weekly skate park outreach, Friday Night Youth Club, Doulos leadership training, Toddlers Ministry, Play & Praise, puppet ministry, Messy Church, Equip training, Refresh events, Engage services, mission trips, and a Soul Survivor conference.

In addition to the work at my church and school assemblies, I also have several things I do with Youth for Christ. We will have a mission trip and a few conferences spread out through the year. We also have weekly Monday morning meetings which are meant to encourage and fill us up. We are all spending SO much time pouring out into others and I can already tell how much of a blessing these meetings will be. Spending two hours worshipping, hearing uplifting messages from our leaders, and fellowshipping with each other is going to be very needed.

So I guess that’s about it.. life is finally settling and a pattern is forming. I love it so much. I’ve felt so restless for such a long time.. but my heart finally feels at home. All of my weird little quirks just fit here. I have ZERO doubt that this is where I belong. I’m pretty much always exhausted, but I am so in love with this busy crazy life. The students in my youth group are incredible. I already feel so close to them and I am beyond excited to grow these relationships throughout the year.

Oh, and on a personal note.. England is just straight up gorgeous and amazing!! I get two days off per week (usually) and I spend every single one of them exploring this incredible island. Trains are the coolest and cheapest things ever! It is so easy to go see new places. History is everywhere and I am realizing that America is basically a toddler in comparison to England. Everything is so old here and I love it.

There are a million little things about England that I want to share, but this update is already quite long. I’ll post something soon about crazy words, weird food, pretty places, and fun mishaps!

Love and miss you all!!

Jess

This is the 2015 Youth for Christ team! I love them all so much!!

My story so far…

Well… I’ve never written a blog before, but here goes nothing!

Hello! My name is Jessica McCall Davis and I am 25 years old. I am an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy. Ever since I was a little girl, I have desired adventure and travel to exciting and fairly dangerous places. However, I grew up with very loving, down-to-earth, protective parents who (thankfully) kept me grounded. They taught me how to follow my dreams and be responsible at the same time. They also raised me in the church where I fell in love with Christ and I began to desire His best for me.

As I grew in my faith, I realized that maybe God gave me such strong desires for travel because he was calling me overseas to be a missionary. I dreamed of working with orphans in third world countries like Africa, Thailand, or Haiti. But I knew I needed to get a college degree first because if I waited, I would never go back to do it later. So I suffered through several long miserable years until I finally had a piece of paper to prove I could be an elementary teacher! With my degree completed, I was beyond ready to serve! I looked into many organizations trying to find where God wanted me to go. But every single door kept closing in my face. However, no matter how hard I tried to serve Him on the mission field, God kept telling me no. Eventually, I stopped fighting.

With a defeated and (admittedley) bitter heart, I started looking for teaching jobs near my home in Georgia. I found one quickly and started teaching kindergarten. To be honest, I did not enjoy teaching that year, but I was slowly finding peace with the idea of the staying in America and living a normal life as a teacher.

The end of that unhappy year rolled around and I got hired at the best school in the world! Young Americans Christian School. My alma mater. It felt like I was going back home. For the first time in several years, I was excited about my future! I started using words like career and retirement. I absolutely loved teaching! I could see myself settling down and staying there forever. I imagined meeting my husband, buying a house right down the street from the school, and sending our children there so I could be with them every day.

I had finally surrendered my life to be whatever God wanted it to be. I still had desires for missions and travel, but I was willing to do whatever God asked of me. If His plan was for me to live in Georgia forever and use my hard earned money to fund other missionaries, that was fine. If God’s plan was for me to go on yearly mission trips with my school, awesome. If His plan was for me and my family to move overseas in 10 years, woo hoo!

Well… apparently this was the lesson God had been trying to teach me all along. Unfortunately I’m a little stubborn and learn slowly sometimes. It took a while for Him to mold me and prepare me for what He had planned. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not finished cooking! The timer won’t go off until the day I die. I still have a million more lessons to learn. But apparently I’m ready for the next step of life.

Okay, let’s flashback for a minute. About three years ago… I fell in love with a British television show called Doctor Who. It is a dumb and cheesy science fiction show with terrible special effects… but it is one of my favorite things in the whole world! It became my gateway drug into a massive fascination with England. I started watching several other British television shows and spent hours online reading about the history and culture. When I started drinking hot tea with milk and sugar, I realized I might have a slight obsession…

Alright, back to our original story.

Due to my newfound love of England, I decided to take advantage of my long teacher summer and spend a few weeks in the UK. I had a friend who lived over there and worked with a couple organizations simultaneously. So after Christmas break, I sent her a message asking her if I would come help her ministry for a few weeks during the summer.

Next thing I know, I have emails from the director of Tees Valley – Youth for Christ and I am sending him an application to work with his organization for a year in England!! WHAT?!

To be honest, I didn’t really expect anything to come of it… In the past, no other organization had worked out for me. Plus, it seemed like I was already where God wanted me. Also… who in the world goes to England to be a missionary? They are the definition of a posh first-world country. Christianity came to America from England. Surely it would be better to go to a struggling third-world country with no clean water and starving children. Not England. I wanted to go there on a fun vacation to see the sights.. but living there to share the gospel seemed crazy!

However, the more I prayed about it, the more I started to wonder if there was a reason for my new fascination with England. Even the fact that I absolutely love rain and chilly weather seemed to have a purpose. (It is always raining there.)

I also learned some shocking facts about the lack of faith over there! In a recent poll, only 5% of the population claimed to have a relationship with Christ. In the last few generations, the people have turned their backs on religion as a whole. The churches, cathedrals, mosques, and temples are practically empty. The British people are so consumed with accepting everyone that they are rejecting anything which creates rules, expectations, or consequences. They have created an environment where everything is okay.

Over the next month or two, God opened door after door after door for me to join this organization. I was absolutely amazed at the signs and confirmations God gave me. Every time I started to back out or change my mind, He did something to push me along. I would love to share all of those stories, but I have already been rambling way too long for this post. (Maybe I’ll share them in another post later.)

So I guess that is where I’m at right now… I quit my job, I’m selling my jeep and most of my other belongings, and I’m moving to England in 90 days! I am pretty terrified… but equally excited! This is a non-profit organization and it is quite scary to imagine living in another country without an income. But I know for a fact that God has called me to England and nothing (especially money) is impossible for Him.

If you would like more information about how I will be spending my time every day in this organization, please visit my support page and read the description below my cheesy picture! 😛

http://www.youcaring.com/mission-trip-fundraiser/support-jess-in-england-/333561

Thank you so much!

Cheers!