EMERGING FROM AN INTERNSHIP DURING LOCKDOWN

I came to Plymouth for university in 2017 and have been part of Redeemer Church since then. Reflecting on my time at university, God placed students from different nations in my path – both on my course or through the Christian Union. I found such joy in getting to know and spending time with those students, some of whom have since become great friends. After university I felt God calling me to stay in Plymouth and embark on an internship at church focusing on Reaching the Nations. During some Unreached training at the beginning of my internship I learnt that we all have such a great opportunity to take Jesus to the nations by loving those on our doorstep…mission starts at home!

My internship has been based at Open Doors International Language School founded by two members of Redeemer church who have long had a heart for taking Jesus to refugees and asylum seekers in the city, and to equip the church to do so too. Regardless of most of my internship being in a lockdown and feeling very restricted, Jesus has patiently taught me that we are to do all we can do and leave the rest to him. To bring all we have – even if it seems small and insignificant – and trust that he will do the rest by multiplying and blessing. A small handful of us have been meeting to pray for ways to reach the nations. When we initially met, we felt that God was encouraging us not to be discouraged during lockdown and to use this time to pray and to be equipped to love those from other nations in our city.

Out of this, we’re making preparations to start a Conversation Group as a way to develop relationships with students at the language school. This group will give the students the opportunity to improve and practice their English through story-telling. We also hope that the group will be a community which embraces and accepts difference. A place where the students and our church family can build and enjoy friendships with people from different cultures – I’m personally looking forward to having fun with new friends and to eating a variety of food! But above all else, we’re ultimately hoping that God will work in and through us to love those from the nations and to plant seeds of Jesus.

There are still so many preparations to make before we kick-start our group and we’re trying to cover everything in prayer. With that in mind we’d love prayer for these three things:

That God would continue to fuel our Christ-like love for people on the margins and would give us confidence, coupled with humility, to transparently share Jesus in word and deed.
That Jesus would captivate the hearts of our new friends and they’d respond to his call of ‘Come, follow me.’
That God will draw more people from our church family to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ on our doorstep.

We’re eagerly excited to start our Conversation Group and we’re expecting God will do more than we could imagine, in and through us, to make Jesus glorified and known amongst the nations