United Kingdom-Southwest
January 29
Praise the Lord for the saints here in Reading (pronounced Redding)! Although our time here in Reading
has been only 2 full days, the Lord has been etching the saints in to our hearts and impressing us with the
sweet testimony that the Lord has for Himself here in Reading. There are about 35 saints in total, not
including children. The past two days, we only got to meet around 9 different families with many children
age ranging from 1 to 16. There are still so many we have not gotten to meet. Many of them migrated
here within the last 7 years from the US, other parts of the UK, Russia, and Lithuania. All the saints here
work part time or full time. There are no “full-timers”. Yet somehow, there are neighborhood children’s
meetings on Thursdays, sisters’ times on Thursday mornings, appointment times with students on
campus on Wednesdays, and student meetings on Fridays with the remaining fruits from Freshers’ Fair
last fall. Most of the saints live within 10 minute drive of University of Reading, and one particular home
lives right across the street, you literally cannot get any closer.
A highlight
The saints have been living here as a testimony by simply abiding and enjoying the Lord, living out
Acts 2:46- a day by day, house to house church life. In the ministry it says our church life should be 20%
meetings and 80% in the homes. It was often a mystery to the trainees how that could be actually
achieved. But here, one of our highlights is experiencing the 20/80 church life. The saints are just always
at one another’s homes. So far, our experience has been if we’re not on gospel or travelling, we’re at a
home resting and feasting with the saints. It has been very sweet!
Need in Reading
Despite the saints’ pursuing and serving in every capacity, they are stretched quite thin between the labor
on campus young people, and Rhema contacts. There really is a need for a team here for the campus
and young people. Earlier last term, they had a table to distribute Rhema sets during Freshers’ Fair, now
it has been 5 months, and still 3 students meet consistently. However, there could have been more if
there were more immediate one on one contact. The saints do what they can here with all that they have,
but the fields are white, and the laborers are few. Please pray for a full time team here in Reading.
Also today, we were supposed to have more saints coming for calling and for gospel but a big number of
the saints and their children were affected by a stomach flu going around. Some of the trainees are also
showing illness symptoms. The Southwest blending meeting in Cardiff is this coming weekend, please
pray for the health of the saints, that each family would be strengthened body soul and spirit against the
attacks of the enemy and that many would be able to come to the blending meeting this weekend. And
please also pray for the road conditions, that it would be conducive for driving to bring all the saints there
safely.
Statistics: 30 tracts, 15 contacts, 1 prayed (Muslim), and 2 Bibles passed out. 3 want further contact.
Prayer burdens:
Pray that the Lord would release some job-dropping full-timers to come here to serve and follow up
with students, Rhema contacts and the shepherding of young people.
Pray that the saints would be strengthened even more in having one-on-one contact with the students
in Oxford and the new ones in Reading.
Pray that the two Oxford brothers would be built up together in this coming term as solid spiritual
companions and that many students and saints would join together with them to read the word week to
week.
Pray for the health of the saints and the trainees that the Lord would strengthen our mortal bodies to
be in Cardiff for the blending meeting and to continue on with the gospel trip.
Pray for the blending time this weekend in Cardiff with all the Southwest UK saints. Please pray that
the Lord would be with the saints in their travels.
