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.