This March a few of us paired up with some members of a sister church and had the opportunity to serve the youth in Finland with some additional participants who attended from Hungary. We ran a short programme over the weekend focusing on the theme 'Spirit and the Word' and incorporated some of our testimonies throughout the sessions to share how God had been working in our lives. We had a time of ministry where we opened up an opportunity to pray with individuals who wanted to experience a personal encounter with God and be filled with the Spirit as most of the youth have followed their parents to church and had not found their faith in God.

I recently went through a 3-month redundancy process, from mid-September to 30 November 2023. Out of those three months, I experienced multiple employee consultation meetings, out of which the first half was group consultation, and the last half was personal consultation. By the end of these meetings, I was confirmed to be made redundant. I never experienced a firm restructuring, so you can imagine the magnitude of overwhelm.

Emily and I travelled to Albania towards the end of October, staying there for 10 days in the city of Vlorë. It was there that we met our team who are responsible for doing outreach to Roma and Egjiptian kids, along with Melissa, who was also participating in the short term outreach with us. The theme that the team chose was “Kids Love Books!”, encouraging the kids to study and stay in education for better careers, as well as reading the Word.

Most of you would have heard about the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector who climbed up the sycamore tree to see Jesus. I’m not sure if you have heard of the Sycamore tree programme delivered by Prison Fellowship in prisons across UK. I thank God for the privilege that I can take part as a facilitator of the course last September in a local Prison.

The Bible Course is an eight-session course exploring the Bible through video teaching, group discussion, personal reflection and daily readings. The weekly meetings provided a fantastic way for us all to learn from each other as we connected and explored the Bible together. Here's how some of those who attended found the course…

It is encouraging to witness the Lord work in people’s lives uniquely and purposefully. He has certainly moved in mine in the least expected and humbling ways…

Do you have any hopes or dreams? Is there something you yearn for? Perhaps you did but have given up on them? Or maybe there isn’t anything you really want and you are quite happy where you are?

Towards the end of August, we organised a summer camp for the youth, with the purpose for the youth to experience and gain a deeper understanding about Him. This year’s theme for the summer camp was “The Power of God''. This was important, because many of the youth who were attending the camp have lost touch with God, and that they needed help with getting back on track. Prior to the camp I was feeling positive that it would have the same effect as the previous year; being able to see many of the youth being transformed, and seeing friendships being formed between them, as well as gaining a better understanding about God.

In August was my first mission trip abroad. It was an eye-opening experience that challenged me, taught me, and encouraged me a lot. From the testimonies and the stories that I heard from everyone, it really showed how much God’s love and time was invested in discipling these teenagers through the years at the church in Bod. It was a blessing to hear how much they have grown and a joy to see the fruit produced in how they are serving in their local community and ‘making disciples’.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect coming into camp. I have always felt a little unsure whether or not I’d be the correct type of person to lead and teach people about God as I didn’t think that I knew enough myself to be able to or that I wasn’t good enough, similar to the saying “the blind leading the blind”.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains —
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121: 1-2

'As vulnerable as I can be' was the first thing I wrote down on my devotional notebook the day I got the first rejection phone call from a job. It was 17 March 2021, I remembered it vividly because it was a beautiful, sunny day. Then I started to write down how I felt. I thought - perhaps one day, it could be the beginning of my testimony. Lest did I know how long I would’ve walked this journey since then. I knew from the beginning that this is a journey that I had to walk with God alone – there is a purpose that He wants me to walk this journey alone.

I would have never thought that last year would be the year where a lot would change for me. The start of leading the youth, and the opportunity to be a part of the worship. And this is what God does; He works in the most unexpected of things!

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” - Galatians 5:13-14.

Serving can take many forms and be a vehicle to bless others and display God's wonderful love to those around us. The Bible talks a lot about serving and we, as Jesus' disciples, are called to serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13).

With the pandemic preventing us from serving our partner churches abroad for the second year in the row, little did we know that God was stirring up a renewed passion for mission and discipleship in us. The result – our very first UK based youth camp! During late August, youth from our sister churches gathered together for a week of climbing, rafting, team building as well as important sessions learning about who God is, why we worship and why its important to be plugged in within a church community.

Over the past few years, we've had the privilege of serving at a small church called Speranta (means hope in Romanian) in the central Romanian village of Bod. Like with almost everything else, the pandemic has prevented our team visiting the church for the past two summers. However, the Lord has allowed us to keep in even closer touch with the church's teenagers and leaders via Zoom.

“Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly, and if left unresolved you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place.”

Unlike any other Christian fiction, The Shack seriously challenges the traditional imagery I had had of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in a way which left me feeling surprised, amazed and refreshed.

Were there areas in your life that was not as you expected? Or areas that did not go to plan? Perhaps, you’ve given up on some things because they seem so unachievable?

This is the latest book by American singer/songwriter Michael Card, who actually was a student at Bible college when he began his career by putting scripture into song at the request of his lecturer.

At the beginning of this year, we hosted Alpha for the first time. Alpha is a series of interactive sessions, creating a space for people to explore the basics of Christianity and to discover life, faith and meaning.

A one minute testimony about how Jesus changed my life. In our brokenness we can find meaning and true identity through Christ's ultimate sacrifice for us. He restores us, sets us free and makes all things new.

The past year has seen deep hurting throughout the world, and sometimes it’s all too easy to feel selfish for remembering the microcosms of individual pain which form the bigger picture. And so the fallacies are all too relatable: thinking that God has forsaken me, to the point of self-deception — that to lean on others is weakness, whereas withdrawing unto myself actually weakens me further, not least since when feeling ashamed to come before Him what I most need is His light.

2020 has been a rollercoaster for most people and it has been the same for me as well. That time where I unexpectedly did not sit my exams and instead had to wait for my results - the good thing about the pandemic. But because of the pandemic, I have spent half of my year at home doing nothing but waiting; this felt strange compared to what I did in the previous years. This also included not meeting up with any of my friends, and most importantly, not going to church in-person.

2020. What a year it has been. Unprecedented, uncertain and challenging are some of the words we may have used to describe what we’ve been going through. We, certainly I couldn’t think to imagine that such a massive crisis would come and be with us to this day.

At the beginning of this year, by the grace of God I was selected to be one of the twelve participating artists for The Unveiling Arts Festival 2020. This event aims to engage people in a deeper understanding of the Gospel and the heart of God by sharing insights through the creative arts, relating to specific themes.

Since 2015, our church has participated in an annual mission trip to Romania with several of us flying out to Bod each summer to support our partner church in their discipleship and outreach activities.

As August was fast approaching, I felt more and more nervous in teaching an origami class that I had agreed to do for a virtual mission with a Romanian Church in Bod. Would the kids like it? Would they understand me? Will the translator pass on my thoughts the way I want? My anxiety was ill-focused, leading me to over-prepare lesson plans and presentation slides that might not necessarily add any value.

I first came to know about God during school, as I went to a Catholic school for my primary and secondary education. In both cases, I was taught Religious Studies and attended mass as part of the school year. My parents, themselves, were not particularly religious, but occasionally we attended church as a family. Despite knowing about Jesus and God, my days of believing I was a Christian were short-lived when I went to university.

During this current pandemic, God revealed to me a vision of what is happening in this season. We may never know the reason for the suffering, but I believe one purpose God has allowed this difficult time to happen is to bring attention to the world and us as the Church.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23

This lockdown period has certainly been an interesting test of all the fruits described in these verses. While the world is going through a health crisis, grief and heartbreak, it can seem really selfish for us to feel sorry for ourselves cooped up inside, working from home and attending church via Zoom.