Whirlwind Trip
Many of you had been praying for our survey trip in December, and I want to start this letter off by thanking each one of you for those prayers. The trip was a great success, and I believe we owe that success to all of your prayers. Thank you!
Drinking smoothies before our flight!
Our trip started on December 6th, when we flew out from the Charlotte Airport on a direct flight headed to Heathrow. The process of getting COVID tests here in America before we left as well as getting tests booked for after we landed in England was quite stressful and constantly changing even as we were booking them. But God is good and worked it all out. We landed on December 7th, grabbed our rental car, and drove down to Portsmouth before heading on to Southampton for our second round of COVID tests in 24 hours! The next day, Tim and his brother, Trevor, had an opportunity to interview a British pastor who planted a church in Portsmouth. He had some really great insight into the commitment required from your “core team” in church planting and shared with us some struggles he faced in renting a space due to the growing opposition to biblical Christianity.
The next day we set off early for our big trip. We had the opportunity to take this trip around the UK with our future teammates, Trevor and Amelia Galbraith and their two kids, Evie and Vera. The first leg was to Norwich, which is North-East of London. Norwich is a city with a metro population of 275,000 people and is, statistically, the least religious city in England.
Norwich city center
Archway driving in to King’s Lynn, Norfolk
We had an opportunity to interview a pastor of one of the very few biblically sound churches in Norwich. He explained the challenges he’s faced in reaching a “post Christian” people, but also how God is opening up new opportunities through the pandemic, and how people seem to be searching again. After spending some time in different parts of Norfolk, we drove to York and spent the day there. Following York, we headed further north to a small town called Parbold, between Liverpool and Manchester. We visited a small church in Parbold that preaches the gospel. This church had just called a new pastor, and it was his first Sunday there! The Pastor graciously invited our families over for lunch following the service, and it was a fantastic time of fellowship. We were able to ask the pastor lots of questions about ministering in a small town versus a larger one, and he had many valuable pieces of advice. He shared a real burden for his community and a concern for how lost they are and in need of the gospel.
Later that afternoon, we drove over to northern Wales and drove down through Wales to the city of Newport. Newport is a city with a metro population of 319,000 people, and it has no solid gospel preaching church that we are aware of. It is unbelievable to think of a town that size with no church there to reach the lost people with the gospel. We walked around the city center and then drove further into Wales to see more of the country.
Our view from the car as we drove through Wales
We arrived back in Portsmouth on Monday night, the 13th of December. Over the next few days we took some day trips to nearby towns, and spent one day in London at the Hyde Park Christmas Market. During that time, we had another opportunity to sit down with two more British pastors who had been ministering in the area for many years. Their two churches had been working together and had successfully been able to revitalize a church that had been near to closing it’s doors. Once again, they gave some really practical advice and shared things they had done that were successful over the years.
One of the castles we visited in Scotland
After spending Christmas with Tim’s family, we then drove from southern England to north eastern Scotland for a quick two day visit. We got to see the homes and schools Tim grew up in, and the boys even got to have a snowball fight with Dad and Grandad on the top of a mountain in the Highlands. We saw lots of Castles and countryside our first day in Scotland. The second day we drove down to Edinburgh, which is the capital of Scotland. Edinburgh has a metro population of about 900,000 people and just a small handful of good Bible-believing churches. We walked around Edinburgh, ate some haggis, and really enjoyed our time there.
We headed back to the US on December 31st with mixed emotions. We were really sad to leave, but we have arrived back with such excitement and enthusiasm for what God is doing in the UK and what we believe He is going to do through us when we get back. One of the biggest take aways from our trip was the staggering need for gospel preaching churches in the UK, and we were encouraged by the remnant of good, British churches attempting to meet that need the best they can. They are in desparate need of help. While we were there, we were welcomed warmly and felt very comfortable. While we do not know exactly where in the UK God is calling us yet, we do feel like the trip has helped give us some direction, and we will be spending much time in prayer as we pursue the options for where He may lead.
We have one last announcement to make. We had been asking you to pray that we would be at 25% of our monthly support by March of 2022. We are so blessed to say, as of right now, we are at roughly 40% of our monthly support! Thank you all so much and please join us in thanking God for His faithfulness in exceeding our expectations.
