Ok so to be honest, this missionary journey has not been an easy one for me. In actuality, we didn’t initially see ourselves going to England through the traditional missionary route. The main reasons were because we knew it would mean support raising and because it would be a lot of money to raise since we have a family and we’re going to one of the most expensive cities in the world! But as we were seeking God about moving to England, Meredith and I made the decision to knock on every door and see which one God would open.
We literally tried every avenue possible including (but not limited to) connecting with a pastor in England who was related to a mutual friend, trying to transfer to a Starbucks in London, going to school there, trying to get jobs at a University there, and finally going as a missionary. Another reason we didn’t think we could go as missionaries is because we had been told that U.S. missionaries out of the Assemblies of God were not allowed to go to England and we knew that there had not been missionaries there in the past.
As we knocked on most of these doors, we quickly found out that they were not only closed but padlocked with security guards next to them and a hi-tech security system rival to that of the 3 casinos robbed in the movie “Oceans 11”. Unfortunately we didn’t have a team of highly trained professionals looking for a difficult challenge with a great payoff at the end.
Finally we made contact with the area director over Northern Europe (Tim Southerland) who lives in Wales. Immediately it felt like a God connection as he told us that not only was the British Assemblies of God (referred to as AOG) now allowing missionaries to come, but they had also recently asked for help. In fact, the 1st time I spoke with the area director on the phone it had only been a couple of weeks since he had been in a national meeting with the leaders of the AOG. He told me that at the meeting there were 1000 leaders who were on their faces crying out to God for revival. I’m not sure if you know British culture but even Pentecostal churches over there are full of very reserved people who don’t usually do things like that.
The area director also told me that after the meeting the superintendent of the AOG came up to him and asked if he knew anyone from the states who could come help. At this point in our phone conversation we were already getting excited when Tim told me that he felt like God was opening a giant door over the UK. This was an incredible confirmation to us because just the night before that phone conversation Meredith felt like God was putting a scripture on her heart that states, “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”
The area director also told me that after the meeting the superintendent of the AOG came up to him and asked if he knew anyone from the states who could come help. At this point in our phone conversation we were already getting excited when Tim told me that he felt like God was opening a giant door over the UK. This was an incredible confirmation to us because just the night before that phone conversation Meredith felt like God was putting a scripture on her heart that states, “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”
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