A SUMMER OF REST
I don’t think any one of us realised how knackered we were!
We would say tired but it just doesn’t seem to describe how we felt. We were totally spent! We had given our all in the past and had very rarely rested. We both knew that this was not good and that if we weren’t healthy spiritually, physically and emotionally then all we would do was build an unhealthy church. Our foundations had to be right!
We looked at ways we could have a holiday. Money was tight for us; we had always been generous with everything we had so we were not really in a position to jet off to a foreign land and just take time to rest. We tried to think differently about how we could rush out and get jobs with the hope that one day we would have saved enough money to do that.
It is amazing that God knew exactly what we needed and He turned up for us in the most incredible way. A beautiful couple who we love with all our hearts came to us and simply said “We have been blessed greatly and we want to bless you so give us your bank details”. The gift they gave us still overwhelms and humbles us! They wanted nothing in return however they did want two things for us - a holiday and a summer of true rest.
This was such a beautiful moment for us. Not because of the gift but the fact that this couple had thought about us and we knew ‘only God’ could have done this. We were so emotional because in the past we had always been the ‘givers’ and would never have accepted a financial gift. Somehow we just knew this was different though. This was God blessing us through others. We knew this, we felt this and we accepted this!
This gave us time that we needed. Time to rest, time to not rush out and find jobs but most importantly time to hear God on what kind of church he wanted us to build. We don’t think we have felt so close to God in all our lives. This has also brought the relationship we have with each closer. We thought we were strong before but this is a new level that we didn’t know existed.
God did not just bless us with financial gifts and believe us when we say more gifts came through the generosity of others: he gave us people, good people whose hearts aligned with the vision of the church we believed God was telling us to build. Each time someone approached us to say that they felt called to be part of the church planting team; we ensured that they had scriptures to back up what they were saying. If they didn’t have anything concrete to stand on we simply told them to pray and to hear God.
Some of those who had nothing to stand on have never come back to us and that is good, not awkward. Our vision for the church did not include just taking people from other churches; it had to be a God thing! Although we never met physically as a church in the summer, we did visit other churches together and met to build relationally. We intentionally did not visit our usual ‘go to’ churches as we wanted to see what else was out there. Three churches really stood out to us and in no particular order these are:-
Light Church Kirkham – Dan and Holly Belshaw
Liverpool One Church – Luke and Emma Bryant
Life Church Bradford – Jock and Shirley James
God spoke to us so much through our visits. It was not just through the Word and Worship but through the environment and whole experience. Everything reflected Jesus! Every detail crafted an endless show of God’s love and goodness. Even our ‘build relationally’ meetings went far above our expectations! God was moving and God was building us in a deeper way than we could ever have expected. Vision and values poured out of us all. It is incredible that what was on each of our hearts oozed out of everyone else. We were ONE.
It was now time to find a venue.
Simon & Valda
August 29th 2022
