Our London Flat- UNDER CONSTRUCTION

On 30 November, we moved out of the church's basement and into our flat in London. Our 284sq ft flat is located a 10 minute walk from GraceLife London and right around the corner from Barbican tube stop. Living next to a tube stop is a huge blessing as any Londoner knows because it allows you to get around the city quicker. Being close to the church likewise is a blessing as Adam has been able to quickly get to the church for meetings and sermon prep work. Upon moving in, our rental company gave us this "house-warming" gift filled with mugs, candy and key rings. Now for the tour:


Because shipping is so expensive, we came over with just luggage. Through the kindness of Dana's sister, Jen, finding suitcases for us to pack along with Dr. Essex, Tom, Shawn and Elizabeth bringing suitcases with them on flights, we were able to get everything across the pond.

This is our wonderful living room window that we greatly love as it lets in a lot of light. However, we put blinds up shortly after arriving as we have office workers right across from us. :)

Here is part of our living room along with our dining room/bedroom. Yes it is a studio apartment which means one room for everything. Though it might seem small, the size has actually been a huge blessing in that it has made us downsize things we don't need as well as it only takes a couple of hours to clean the whole place.

This is Adam in our kitchen. We are so thankful for have tons of cabinet space and cute little cubbyholes to store our spices in. Adam's favorite part of the kitchen is showing people our microwave/oven. Yes it is a microwave and convection oven all in one.

Here is our bathroom. For my California friends, that silver thing on the wall is a towel warmer. Each of the bars heats up and gives you a nice warm towel. It is also great for drying clothing quickly.

Thank you for joining our flat tour and especially a big thank you to everyone who made our flat possible by your prayers and support! The flat is almost finished and we will post pictures when it is done.

Please continue to pray for us as we continue to transition to life in London. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure. We left the U.S. about seven weeks ago with around 35% of the support we needed for the year and the Lord has raised our support to over 65% of what we need for the year as of now. Our transition, as you can see above, has not been difficult but setting up a flat and getting to know a new city does take time. We continue to praise the Lord for all that He has done and continues to do for us. 

Family and Friends Along the Way

Even though we are in London now, it has been a blessing to look back and thank God for not only the churches and pastor friends we were able to visit but for the family and some seminary friends we were able to see too. 

The first stop was on our way out of southern California where we met my cousin, Emily, and her three kids, Brendhan, Kathleen and Patrick. We spent a wonderful time at lunch talking and watching the kids play.

The next stop was to see my cousin, Steph, her husband, Josh, and two (soon to be three) kids, Daniel and Lily, in Creston, CA. 

We were able to stay a bit in Houston with his brother, Lynwood, sister-in-law, Toyia, and two kids, Lyndon and Loryn. This stop included a stop at the pumpkin patch with big smiles all around.

After Houston, we stopped in Missouri to see Adam's oldest brother, CJ, wife, Lisa, and two daughters, Ava and Madison. We even got to help them plant a flower garden in their new house.

                                                       

In Louisville, I was able to see my friend and bridesmaid, Vanessa, and Adam was able to see one of his former classmates, Kyle.

We continued our journey to Richmond, VA where we saw his brother, Rob, and his nephew, Daniel, who recently surpassed Adam in height.

We wrapped up our family visits in North Carolina where we got to see my cousin, Leigh, in her first semester at college. 

Through the many stops along our trip, we thank God for his kindness in safe travels and the joy of seeing so many friends and family.

We Arrived in London!

We have now arrived in London! The Lord continues to answer our prayers as He has not only brought us over safely but also provided a place for us to live within walking distance to the church which we will move into at the end of November. The Lord also continues to bring in financial support as we have reached 47% of what we need for the first year here. Please continue to pray for financial support to come. Pray for us as we adjust to the time difference over the next few weeks. Finally, pray that we will be a help and a blessing to this group of saints.

The Lord answered our prayers in so many ways to bring us here. We have shared in a past blog post how the Lord provided visas for us in an incredibly short amount of time. We have also had plenty of other blessings to get us here.

To list just a few, first and foremost of the blessings we have received on our way getting to London has been the prayers that were prayed on our behalf and on behalf of GraceLife London. Followed by the blessing of family and friends who housed us as we traveled across the country saved us an immense amount of money (we'll discuss this in a later blog). Along with this was the blessing we received was the opportunity to visit with so many friends and pastors along the way.

After arrived we were welcomed on our first Sunday at GLL with an instillation service for Adam. There was a question and answer time with Adam as he was able to give his testimony of coming to Christ, going to The Master's Seminary, meeting and marrying Dana, and eventually ending up at GLL. The pastors (with a few pastors from other churches) prayed for Adam as he begins to serve as associate pastor. Following the prayer time, Pastor Rick Battenfield preached an encouraging message on 1 Timothy 6:11-14 called "An Exhortation to a Man of God."

The evening ended with a potluck feast and an overall warm welcome for Adam and Dana. The card above was a gift from the church where each family wrote words of welcome to us.

It is such a blessing to be at GraceLife London. Please do not stop praying for us as we seek to bring glory to God in our service to His people.

Cross-country Update 7: Richmond, VA and Danville, VA

Our final visits were in Richmond, VA and Danville, VA. We were invited by Bill Cross, associate pastor at Grace Bible Church of Richmond, to a meeting with the missions team.  TMS grad Rick Zaman serves as pastor-teacher at GBC. We were able to share with them what the Lord is doing with GraceLife London to spread the Gospel to England. The men were encouraged by the ministry of GLL and we left even more encouraged as they prayed for us and shared their excitement with us for what the Lord is doing.

Grace Bible Church has been an immense blessing to Adam's family over the past few years. Two of his brothers and his sister-in-law were benefits of fellowship with the saints and the biblical preaching and teaching at GBC. The congregation is full of people who love Christ and love His people. We praise the Lord for this church and their faithfulness to living out their relationship with Christ.

 In Danville, VA, Adam had a was able to sit down over lunch with Seth Lackey, the children and family pastor of Faith Memorial Baptist Church. FMBC has Daniel Lackey as its senior pastor. Seth and Adam were able to speak about the spiritual condition of the Danville/Pittsylvania County community and how the Lord is using FMBC in this area.

Danville has one of the highest crime rates in Virginia while also having over 200 churches in its population of 43,000. It is called "The City of Churches" as it has more churches per square mile than any other city in Virginia according to Forbes. We are grateful to hear that the Gospel is being preached through this local church in this particular area.

Cross-country Update 6: Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Central Virginia

After Louisville, we continued east till we arrived in Virginia. We were able to visit several friends and pastors on the East Coast.

Our first stop was Haymarket, VA where we were privileged to worship with Piedmont Bible Church on Sunday, October 18th. PBC is where TMS alum John Chester serves as pastor. John connected with Grace Advance to plant this church in 2012. It was very encouraging to see what the Lord is doing with PBC and to hear the testimonies of how the expository preaching taking place is affecting the lives of the members there.

After the Sunday morning worship and a wonderful lunch with John, his wife Cassandra, and members of PBC, we headed north to Baltimore, MD where we had a few minutes to sit with David and Marleah Mora, members of Hope Bible Church. David is a graduate of The Master's Seminary and currently serves at HBC often teaching Bible studies and one day seminars.  Our relationship with this couple stretches back to Adam's beginning years of seminary and working in the security department of The Master's College. We are grateful for their encouragement to us and their friendship.

Our day ended with a stop in Purcellville, VA where we met up with Dave and Ann Jordan. Dave is a TMS alum and now pastors Grace Bible Church and has since September 2013. Dave caught us up on what it is like pastoring in Purcelleville and the joys and challenges of church revitalization. Dave was one of Adam's main examples in seminary of godliness and hard work. As can be seen, the Northern Virginia and Baltimore areas have many men serving the Lord in pastoral ministry and we pray that the Gospel will spread throughout these areas with the many churches that are committed to expository preaching established there.

We are in our final week in the U.S. before catching a flight across the pond to London. Pray for us as we continue to prepare ourselves to serve in GraceLife London. Please continue to pray with us for financial support as we are around 33% of what we need for this first year. The Lord will provide what we need.

Update 5: Saint Louis, MO and Louisville, KY.

Our trip did not stop in Missouri. We continued east bound first stopping in Saint Louis, MO to have breakfast with our friends Steve and Holly Linsky. Our relationship with these two go back to our time in California. Adam worked with Steve in The Master's College's security department. Dana worked with Holly as administrative assistants at The Master's Seminary.

It was a wonderful time catching up over breakfast with how the Lord is Steve and Holly. Steve has served as minister of children and families at New Community Church in Wildwood, MO for a little over a year. They are also very busy with two young and energetic little boys, Cameron and Austin.

We left Saint Louis on US-70 waving goodbye to the Gateway Arch and continued east till we arrived outside Louisville, KY to a place called Crestwood. Our time was spent with Jack and Lisa Hughes. Jack is pastor of Crossing Church in Louisville, author of Expository Preaching With Word Pictures, and frequently blogs at drivennails.com.  Jack also serves GraceLife London through helping with oversight and guidance as the church continues to grow and mature. I was blessed to have him as a professor at The Master's Seminary for "Bible Study Methods."

Lisa is a well-known conference speaker, author of God's Priorities for Today's Woman, and is also a blogger at http://www.jackandlisahughes.com/blog. They are a very gifted couple who continue to serve the Lord with the gifts that He has blessed them with. We were blessed to be able to hear about how our great God brought them to Crossing Church and provided a home for them outside of Louisville.

We were also introduced to the best restaurant in the area. It was literally called "Our Best Restaurant" which is quite funny considering nothing but farmland surrounds it. It was formerly a grain meal converted to a restaurant. Where else will you find a tin roof and gutters inside a restaurant? By the way, the food was excellent southern-style cooking.


Our departure date to London has been set for November 11th. 33% of the support has been raised, but given the urgency of the need for help in London, the elders agreed that we need to be there now and we hope to continue raising support from across the pond. Please continue to pray for us and, if you’re able, to support us with any discretionary funds the Lord may have blessed you with.

Cross Country - Update 4: Owasso, OK and Prairie Village, KS

As we planned our travels from Texas to Missouri, we planned an ambitious drive 14 hour drive from in one day. Instead of another long day on the road, our friends from Owasso, Oklahoma Matt and Nelly Feldi took us in and hosted us for an evening.  Their kindness was such a blessing to us, not just opening their home to us, but being able to catch up on what the Lord is doing in their lives and with the ministry of the Bible Church of Owasso.

We are thankful for the blessing they were to us, making our trip much more bearable and making one 14 hour drive two much shorter drives.  One of the biggest blessings of this cross country drive has been the opportunity to see friends that we had not seen and probably would not have seen for a few years.  We were reminded as we spent time with the Feldi's that the Lord has blessed us with many friendships through the fellowship of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ around the U.S. and even around the world.

On October 11th, our travels took us to Kansas City where we were able to spend time with Rick and hear him preach from 1 Peter 4:10-11 on the stewardship believers have to use their gifts for the benefit of one another. It was a great time for us to visit Rick at Mission Road Bible Church in Prairie Village, KS where he has been pastor since 2011. MRBC is also a home of The Expositors Seminary where Rick serves as a professor.

Coming to the middle of the country means that we had approached a most serious issue. Where do we find the best barbecue? Our third weekend surely provided us with a potential answer. Pastor Rick Holland and his wife Kim took us out to the best burger I have ever had. Whenever you put burnt ends on top of a burger, you win!

We are grateful for the friendship of the Holland family and are excited to see how the Lord is using biblical shepherding and expository preaching at Mission Road Bible Church to affect the city of Kansas City.

Prayer Request
Praise the Lord that our visas have been approved and it happened in such a short period of time from us submitting the paperwork. 
Please continue to pray for financial support as we have 30% of what we will need for the first year. (If you have any discretionary funds please consider giving to this ministry so that the help they need will be provided as soon as possible.)
Pray also for GraceLife London and pastors Tom and Ross as they endure health issues and continue to preach the Gospel to London and throughout England.

Cross Country - Update 3: Spring, TX

On Sunday, October 4th, our travels took us to Spring, TX (just north of Houston) where we were able to spend the morning and evening worshiping at Founders Baptist Church. Founders Baptist Church is one of the most recent homes of The Expositors Seminary. Richard Caldwell has been pastor of Founders for 18 years following 10 years of pastoring at a church he planted outside of Austin, TX. He is also finishing his Doctorate of Ministry degree from The Master's Seminary.

Richard preached two unforgettable sermons "Clinging to the Gospel for Life" from Hebrews 2:1-4 and "Godly Wisdom and the Guarded Heart" from Proverbs 4:20-27 which are still echoing in my head and heart today. When you have a chance, please listen to both for your own sake. We are grateful for Richard's kindness to have us come share the ministry of GLL with Founders.

I should take a moment and explain how the Lord providentially brought an answer to our prayer from this congregation. Dana and I ran into an issue with our visas a few days before we visited Founders. We were ready to spend more money to make what would turn out to be the wrong choice. I was given the opportunity to present the ministry of GraceLife London to the Founders' congregation during the evening service. After the service, a lovely couple Chris and Tiffany, walked up to us to explain how they had seen our support video and had been praying for GraceLife London for quite a while. It turned out that Chris works for the U.S. government and was able to help us get the answers that saved us both time and money. We are so grateful for God answering our prayer through this couple and their wonderful encouragement to us. 

Our time in Houston also led to us spending time talking with Ken Ramey, church planter and pastor of Lakeside Bible Church in Montgomery, TX. Ken is the author of the book Expository Listening. It was an opportunity for us to hear about how Lakeside was established and its recent progress.  We are grateful for Ken taking time to talk with us and allowing us to talk to him about GraceLife London.

The Lord is providing for us as we go but we still have a ways to go before we have the financial support we need for the first year at GraceLife London. Please continue to pray for financial support. Also, we just submitted the final paperwork for our visas. Pray that the process will be fast and that we can receive them by November 10th.

Stay tuned for more updates from across the country including this past Sunday at Mission Road Bible Church.

Cross Country - Update 2: Austin, TX

Our first Sunday stop was September 27th with the congregation of Grace Community Bible Church in Austin, TX where TMS alum Michael McGrath has served as pastor for a little less than a year. I was privileged to preach for the morning worship service.

 

We also had the pleasure of sitting down with a few of the families at GCBC for some great fellowship around some really good barbecue.

Michael has established a culture of expository preaching and sound doctrine at GCBC. We were excited to hear from the members of the church their desire to grow in God's word and serve God's people. May the Lord bring the Gospel to Austin and to all of Texas through this local church. We are grateful for Michael and his family's friendship over the last five years.


We are still working on the visas and seeking financial support to join GraceLife London in the next few months. Please continue to pray for us through this process. Also, pray for GraceLife London as they continue to spread the Gospel to England!

Cross Country - Update 1: Central California/Las Vegas

As you may be aware, we set out on September 21st to drive across the U.S. telling pastors and churches about the ministry of GraceLife London seeking to raise financial support as we wait on authorizing visas.

This journey has given us the opportunity to sit down with pastors in different states to not only talk about the ministry that we are joining but to hear about the various situations of these pastors and churches in their unique locations and circumstances. As we go, we will update on the local churches and pastors we encounter.

For the first stop on our trip, we were able to stop in Bakersfield, CA for a lunch with Steve Swartz, pastor of Grace Bible Church. One of the exciting things happening at GBC is the Bible Training Institute which Steve began not long after becoming the pastor. They recently had their first graduating class.

GBC Bakersfield will also be hosting the "Steadfast Conference" October 16-17 which Steve, Pastor John MacArthur, and Carl Hargrove (Grace Advance Academy) will be preaching at. We are encouraged by Steve's faithfulness and are excited to see how the Lord will continue to use this local church to spread the Gospel. http://www.steadfastconference.org/

A second stop took us to Las Vegas where we were able to have breakfast with Jason Vaughn, pastor of Cornerstone Las Vegas. Cornerstone is a Grace Advance church plant established in December 2012. Jason kindly sat down with us and explained to us how it is to pastor in what has been called "Sin City." We were excited to hear that there is a church with biblical preaching and a love of the truth in a city that desperately needs the Gospel.

We will continue to provide updates concerning the churches we visit and the pastors and other saints we speak with. Stay tuned!

Please continue to pray for us as we continue to work on the visas and seek financial support to serve in GraceLife London.