Going to London?

(this exert is taken from our first letter that explained to friends and family why we felt called to London) Greetings from Orlando! As you know we have been here for the past 3 years, as Thomas has been studying at Seminary, and our time is coming to a close here. So what’s next? In short, it looks as though God is placing the mission field on our hearts! How did this come about? This certainly did not happen over night. Actually, we met on a mission trip almost 12 years ago in Jamaica. It wasn’t love at first sight, but God did use another mission trip 9 years later to bring us together. Cleary and providentially God has aligned our paths even at an early stage in life gearing us towards the mission field.

So, the next question you may be asking yourself is where do we want to go? If you don’t already know, we are going to London for the summer. Why London? Recently, we went to London on a mission trip with World Harvest Mission. What we found is that this is an incredible place because the “whole world is in London.” What do we mean by that? London is blessed with an incredible amount of diversity and culture from all over the world. There are so many universities and people travel from just about everywhere to live, work, and study there. There is, however, an incredible anti-Church mindset in that place. The latest statistics say that 2.4% of England is evangelical and of that only 2% are under the age of thirty (that’s .05% of the population). It is now being referred to as the new Dark Continent. If God were to begin a new work in London, the whole world would be impacted.

So, what does our time in London look like? We have applied to World Harvest Mission to do a 3-month apprenticeship this summer. Yes, that means that we are leaving very very soon! This will be used as a trial period for us, as we try to determine whether God is calling us to London long-term. While there we have an incredible opportunity to partner with London City Mission, a group that has been around in London for almost 200 years, and do evangelism with them all summer. They are on the pulse of what is happening in London as they are involved in every conceivable mercy ministry and have multiple partnerships with London churches. Living with Brits and working with Brits will very quickly indoctrinate us into their way of thinking and living. And we are really drawn to such a lost and needy place.