Fun fact: The 2012 Olympics were in London this year. And that's where I was! So crazy. For a week, I was in London with half of the DTS working with a church in East London which was just a 30 minute walk away from the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. It's pretty crazy to go from watching the opening ceremonies (LIVE I might add) one night to walking right next to it the next. (Seeing the US Olympic athletics team was pretty sweet too.) But it was so great to be working with this church as they were running a cafe which had the Olympics up on a big screen open to the community. So we went out inviting people and just simply talking to people. We also had the chance to go into Stratford a few times to talk to and pray for people. That was quite the experience as there were a lot of other religions and beliefs right on the doorstep as well.
I'll share just one quick story from that experience - When we first got there to Stratford, I felt that God wanted me to hold up a sign that said 'Free Prayer'. So I held it up, which took a lot of courage in me, I was definitely nervous about it. After 2 difficult rejections, I held it up for the 3rd time and almost immediately a man walked over who was actually passing out flyers for Islam. He then went on to telling us exactly what the Gospel message was to us. He told us that he knows the Gospel, he knows God, he studied to be a pastor, but everything was taken away from him. (This is the very short version, we were talking to him for over an hour). Just 2 days before we talked to him, he turned his back on God. So we got to pray for him and encourage him that God still loves him and wants him back. Again, there's a lot more to it but it was just in simple obedience that God was able to use us to help lead this man back to God.
Working with the cafe was so great as well. It was so cool to see it grow throughout the week from just a couple people to having so many kids and parents and others coming and enjoying being there. It would not have been the success that it was without us being there to help bring people in. The church is hoping to open up a permanent cafe at the church and these weeks opened up the door for them to do that. There are so many stories of how we were able to love and be a blessing to the people in the community.
It was such an incredible week and I was sad to leave. The people at this church were amazing and they had such a heart for community and family which is something that I really love and was so encouraging to see. It was so great and I felt that my heart was in the right place to be doing what we were doing. I was striving to perform for perfection but I had that desire to simply see and know this love that changes hearts and I saw it.
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