WE'RE BACK!

We are back, and we will never be the same. After a week in Amsterdam and Paris where Mike was attending business meetings and Lia and I set about to uncover every inch of those beautiful cities, we met up in London with our mission group of 14 students and 3 other chaperones from Champion Forest. From there we travelled by train to Middlesborough, England, where we were welcomed by our host families from Great Ayton Methodist Church. We spent three full days in two different schools, where our students taught religion classes and spoke as guests in math, English and science classes. They had spent weeks learning to turn common questions into opportunities to share their faith, and they were amazing. Over and over, they talked about why they were Christians, how they had come to know Christ, why He has made a difference in their lives, and how the God they had come to know and love in America is the same God who loves every man, woman and child in England. In a country where religion is taught in public schools but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is rare, our students were seen as a bit odd and yet refreshingly joyful and passionate.

On Sunday our students led two worship services. At Great Ayton Methodist Church four students shared wonderful testimonies, some read scripure, one sang, and four students led a children's church ministry. As a chaperone, I was humbled and greatly blessed by the students' efforts to glorify their Lord without bringing any undue attention to themselves. It was a great service, one of the most moving and meaningful I have ever attended. Later that same day, we led the service at an ancient church in the next town, where we had to squeeze into the pews to make room for the ten congregants who regularly met to worship. Again I was humbled as the students strived for the same level of excellence in their efforts there as they had earlier with 120 or so in attendance.

Before we returned, the overwhelming response of our students was their determination to share their faith in Spring, Texas and at Baylor and A&M with the same boldness, confidence and trust in the Lord as they had experienced in England. Without a doubt, students in England learned about the Lord while we were there. And, just as certainly, our own students saw Him revealed in their own lives. To God be the glory! Great things He has done.