Spiritual Power

 

We have been discussing spiritual gifts for a few weeks in our little FLTR family.

One of the key aspects of knowing if something is a natural gift (you were born good at it), an acquired gift (you have practiced and learned the skills to be good at it), or if it is a spiritual gift is the source of power. For the first two, we are fueling and developing those gifts through our efforts or talents, but for spiritual gifts it is the Holy Spirit.

 

This means if you are using a spiritual gift, it should not wear you out and should provide spiritual joy as it is the Holy Spirit working through you.

To give a practical example, we had one of our church family members over for dinner.

 

Before he had come over, we had a long day. We found out a friend who was trying to move back to Lithuania was having trouble getting on the plane due to not having the right crate for her cats and their combined weights. Luckily, we had the exact crate she needed. Rachel even went into the airport with her to make sure she got through everything okay.

 

We also had a meeting that was a bit emotionally draining that day.

 

So, by the time our friend showed up, we were both exhausted.

 

After eating dinner, Rachel was trying her best, but she was fighting the tiredness that had built up. Then the Spirit kicked in and she used one of her spiritual gifts.

You see, our friend had recently gone through a breakup and was heartbroken. Seeing our friend hurting, her gift of mercy kicked in. Suddenly, Rachel’s energy levels were through the roof. She was able to listen and encourage, and by the end of the night, we had made a plan of how we were going to meet regularly all together weekly to focus on the idea of lament in the Bible. Not only did Rachel deliver God’s heart through her actions and feel his presence, but our friend said he felt genuinely alive both inside and out for the first time in a while - thus experiencing God’s loving presence for him (i.e., a mercy gifting).

 

It is always awesome when the Spirit moves. And the movement of the Spirit always results in awe and worship of our God both from giver and receiver of such gifts. Praise the Holy Spirit for equipping us to bring the kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

Bible in Britain

At the beginning of the month, we gathered all the MicroChurches together to have a “family chat.” This is part of our ongoing efforts to make sure that each of our MicroChurches stays connected. Rachel and I led worship at the beginning. We then celebrated birthdays, births, and weddings over the last several months together as a group. Finally, we discussed how we could use these spaces to grow us all as a family. It was a great night of fellowship and fun.

 

The community board we set up last month has been a big hit. After filling up with encouraging notes from our customers, we are now using it to ask questions. The question for October/November is “What are you thankful for?” When I saw this note specifically, I knew I had to share it with all of you!

 

Rachel and I have been doing well at creating and maintaining the healthy rhythms we mentioned last month. While it takes a bit of intentionality and work, scheduling a weekly Sabbath has been helpful. I have also helped start a group within our MicroChurches focusing on weekly fasts. Each person is fasting slightly differently (it may be on different days or from different things), but it is encouraging to do it together.

But wait, what is FLTR?

 

If you are new to our prayer letters or need a refresher on what is FLTR and how we are serving our community, lucky for you I recently made a video explaining exactly that! You can watch it here.

Financial Update

October is the start of a new “financial year” for SIM. Looking back over the last year it has been so encouraging to see the tremendous generosity that God has provided through ya’ll. Remember, that you are not just giving but partnering with us. You get to share in the fruit, as giving is taking part in God’s work throughout the world. We love having you on team with us.

 

Looking forward, I know that SIM (as well as Rachel and I) would love to see us reach the budget goal they had set for us last year. While our current amount ($6,327) does cover us enough, we would love to get to $7,700 as that would mean we would be set up well for the future (as costs are only predicted to go up over here in the UK).

 

If you are feeling led to join us in reaching that goal, please use the button below. In addition, we would really love it if y’all join us in praying about this over the next several months. Because of the holidays, we will probably have to wait till next year to do any “serious” fundraising, but we want those efforts to be built off a foundation of prayer.

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Monthly Highlights

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Every Friday in our town centre we have a small outdoor market. Often, one or both of us will be in the coffee shop on a Friday but one Friday in October we both happened to be free and wandered in. We got to pick up some specialty cheeses but the highlight was meeting a couple who do BBQ. I knew I was in for a treat when I noticed pulled pork on the menu and how he described slowly smoking the meat for over 24 hours. Another fun discovery was the pit master’s wife turned out to be a Christian blogger. This led to us connecting and having a great time chatting. We hope to run into them again on another Friday.

 

While I ran one of our monthly board game nights, Rachel was able to join some of our regulars at the local pub quiz. For those who have never done one, these are trivia nights at your local pub where the questions can be about anything. Rachel was happy to help her team answer the one question about the Bible!

 

The husband of one of the couples we have grown really close to, Oli, had his birthday this last month. To celebrate, Rachel cooked them dinner and we all played a board game together (as they, like us, love boardgames). Since it was Jurassic Park themed, Oli brought out a giant dinosaur that he had bought for one of his sons.

 

Finally, one of my favorite things I did over the last month (when it was a slowish day at FLTR) was to doodle on our to-go cups. Though it started as a silly thing, these drawings now incorporate encouraging notes for our customers. It has already been a hit and has brought joy to those who found them on their cups as they left.

Praise and Prayer Requests:

- Praise God for creating spaces for us to grow together as a church family. Pray for our new weekly meetings with our friend, and for the group of us fasting together to be ways we grow closer to each other and God.

 

- Praise God for the reaction our customers had to our community board. Pray for wisdom on how we can use it creatively to help encourage people to draw closer to God.

 

- Praise God for his provision over the last year. Pray with us as we lean on him to continue to provide for us as we move into 2025.

 

- Pray for those who come into FLTR, both our customers and church family members. Pray for FLTR to be a place where heaven meets earth and all who enter encounter the presence of God.

 

- Pray for FLTR as we prepare for Christmas. We will be planning for and decorating the coffee shop this month and want our decorations to provide opportunities to share the true meaning of Christmas.

 

- Pray for each of us as we are meeting with our teammates about what the next year looks like for ministry in Bicester.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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