God Is At Work!!

           About a month ago, I had written a post about the beginnings of Gateshead Presbyterian Church and promised more post on GPC to help you get acquainted with our brothers and sisters over there. Today, and for the next several weeks I want to continue with that. In preparation for writing this blog post, I have been reading a few of the update which Bill Schweitzer (the pastor) sent out over the past several years. Today I would like to introduce you to evangelism at GPC.

            This of course happen just from members of the church talking with their friends and neighbors in informal conversations as school and the like, but another and related part of evangelism at GPC is the evangelistic home group they have each semester called “Christianity Explored” GPC’s website says the following about the homegroup:

Christianity Explored (CE) is an informal introduction to Jesus Christ and his mission to save people like ourselves.  CE consists of ten weekly sessions meeting in a home.  The most recent courses ended in May 2011; the next courses are scheduled for January 2012 (there, however, is a follow-on course to CE called Discipleship Explored that will be held in September-October 2011). Everyone is welcome--from the most sympathetic church goer to the convinced atheist.  We shall respect your background, and you can tell us as little or as much about yourself as you feel comfortable. 

The basic format as I have shared with some of you is as follows:

1.      A meal and fellowship

2.      Bible study and watching a DVD on the topic for that week

3.      Coffee/Discussion/Fellowship

          The coolest thing about this though is that God has been using it over the past several years help people in Gateshead hear the gospel and to bring people to Christ. In one of Bill’s more recent updates, he wrote of how, “The last few meetings [of this year’s main Christianity Explored] were greatly blessed, both in terms of the main discussion and in terms of informal dialogue.” His update also tells how the homegroup ends up with a “Day Away” and how one of the young men in the group, named Lee, professed faith in Christ that day. However, as Bill also wrote, “This is an illustration both of God’s grace and of the spiritual condition here in England, one requiring much patience” because Lee had attended a previous CE and the follow up plus 6 months of church attendance leading up to this. Also, for the third year in a row the whole group showed interest in attending the follow up.

            The reason why I’m sharing this is that this is an example of why it is important that God’s Word is preached in England and that there are more faithful churches built up there. The soil is dry, but God is at work and He is bringing people to himself through faithful churches like GPC. That is what I am going to be a part of, particularly as I will be working to reach out to college students at the University of Newcastle. When I read about what God is doing I can’t wait to be over there. I hope this excites you as it does me and encourages you as you pray.

In Christ,

Benjamin  

New Church Picture

Just so you know I have updated the picture of Gateshead Presbyterian Church at the Bottom of the blog with a more up to date picture! God is doing exciting things and bringing new faces. I am eagerly awaiting getting to be apart of what God is doing there!

Note about Monday Post

Just a note. My Monday post will be posted on Tuesday this coming week. I will be driving back from a wedding on Monday.

Some Encouragement

This summer I have been trying to pray a prayer from the Book The Valley of Vision each morning and evening along with my Bible reading and spontaneous prayer. This book is a collection of Puritan prayers which are rich in God up lifting and holiness encouraging words and so I use it to help focus me on the wonders of our God. This morning I read these words about God in the prayer I was reading:

"In the works of creation thou art almighty
In the dispensations of providence all-wise,
In the gospel of grace all love."

There are many truths here but what stood out to me was that God is in control and that he loves me as His child and therefore I can trust Him to work everything for my good, as Paul says in Romans, even the dry spell I had been going through in support raising.

Later this day God in his providence saw fit to bring me some more encouragement when I look at my current totals of support. In the last few, days several new people have joined my support team financially and I have also had several good meeting or conversations with other people. The result is that I am already now pushing 30% of my goal for the amount of money I need to raise in June to stay on track. Not only that, but God is continuing to open up doors. However, please pray that God would be continuing to do so both with the many people I am contacting for the first time or following up with, but also with people whom God has not yet sent my way.  

So you see God has encouraged me again that He knows what He is doing and He is making this happen as I am faithful. Thank you for your prayers and I hope this is as encouraging to you as it is to me.

Also, I hope to start posting on here every Monday and Thursday and to include not only updates on me but several more posts on Gateshead Presbyterian Church, and also posts on topics that will help you as you continue to pray for GPC and for England.

Finially...an Update!!!!

Well it has been a while since I posted anything. I have been focusing on graduating and spending some time with friends that I will likely not see very much of anymore. However, I am now graduated, my fulltime job is fundraising, and as I was told by one of the RUF interns at Virginia Tech getting from $0 to, wherever fully funded is, is definitely a fulltime job.

In any case, I want to bring you all up to speed on where I am and what I am doing. The good news is that I have now raised all of my one-time expenses and about two months worth of my monthly expenses. The challenge is that that means I now have nine months worth of support to raise. One month of support equals $3,744. I know that some of you have wondered why I have to raise so much (now $51,000,) but the more I understand the process the more I understand that it all has a purpose. If any of you have more questions about this please feel free to send my an email. Also know that MTW is willing to be flexible about some stuff as I get closer. Another point is that I am not going to get rich off of this. My total salary, including housing and food etc. is only 14,000 pounds or around$ 23,000 or 1,972 pounds ($3,183) per month.  

Also, I am now planning to get to the UK in early September rather than early August. The long and the short of this is that I now have three months to raise the rest of my support. I was look at it yesterday and this means that I need to get 21 people each of those months to commit to $50/month (or $550) or the equivalent to this in smaller or on time gifts. When I look at it this way it seems very manageable...if not easy.

So hopeful the nuts and bolts of my situation were not too boring, but the reason I have gone into some detail is because you all are my partners in this. “Support team” is not just a nice term. So I would urge you to be in prayer for me and my support raising in the following ways.

1.      Pray that my focus would be on God and that my time with Him would be sweet and encouraging. ONLY He can bring in the necessary funds!

2.      Pray that God would move in people’s hearts to see the need in England and to see that they can be a real part of what God is doing by supporting me.

3.      Pray for patience for me.

4.      Pray for Gatehead Presbyterian Church and their desire to buy a building.

5.      Pray for them as they reach out to their community

6.      Pray for student at Newcastle University that God would be preparing the ones that He would have me interact with.  

Also, one last request I have of you is to be in prayer about if there are people in your lives that might be interested in supporting me and the work of God in England. If you think of someone please let me know. My email is bwontrop@gmail.com

As the people of God, who had returned from the exile, struggled with discouragement in the face of an unfinished temple and a ruined city, God gave the prophet Zechariah these words, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts…For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.” (Zech. 4:6,10)

In the new covenant, individuals are the temple of God and what I will be doing, in part, in England is be a part of God building temples to His glory, but I cannot get there if God first does not raise up the money to make it possible. My prayer is that I would not despise the day of small things, but trust in God. Please join me in that prayer.