Our first visit to Revelation Church

We went to London, as a family, for a weekend last August and stayed in Stef & Davina's house while they were away.

We did some fun stuff on the Saturday and took Jemimah on the Tube for the first time!

And on the Sunday we went to Revelation Church for the first time...

Ok, so picture the scene if you will. Tim and I know that we are going to Rev Church on this occasion with a view. We have 3 kids in tow who as yet do not know about our plans to move to London. We are aware it's a 'Summer Sunday' so no kids work at the church that day. We have a ton of stuff with us to keep our 3 kids occupied during the service. Tim and I have agreed that we want to keep a relatively low profile and certainly not tell anyone at the church about our plans as we had not yet shared it with our ACC church leaders....! We are simply in London for a weekend break as a family and thought we'd come to Rev.

We walked from Stef & Davina's house to the school where the church meets and were greeted outside the building by someone I knew at Rev. We got inside and Tim saw someone he knows, who is from Norfolk. We were very warmly welcomed and did a very good job at not saying why we were there and keeping a low profile. Pat on the back for us!

However...our youngest daughter, Jemimah, is not known for her ability to keep a low profile. That is definitely not something that would be said about her. At all.

So we find some seats. You would logically think that five seats would suffice for a family of five people...but no, because you have forgotten that a 5 year old girl needs two chairs to lie across and one chair as a table for her colouring...so we are taking up quite a lot of space! The service is about to start and Jemimah needs the loo. So off we go. When we get back to our seats, someone is sitting in one of Jemimah's three seats...

Now, for those of you who are parents, I am sure you will understand the attempts at telepathic negotiation with your child in situations like this. I shot Jemimah a 'we are in a new place and keeping a low profile and it really doesn't matter that someone is sitting in one of your three seats because quite frankly three seats is not at all necessary' look.

Jemimah ignored my pleading look and said to the lady; 'Excuse me, you're in my seat...'

This lady was called Sally Utting. I had not met her before, but knew her name as I had seen her and her husband being interviewed at the Leadership Conference a few months earlier, about their move to London. Sally was very kind and said to Jemimah, 'I am so sorry I am in your seat, let me move.' Jemimah shot me a very smug look and re-positioned herself across her three seats.

Now all through the worship time, I was conscious of two things. Firstly that old 'impossible' word again - I just kept looking around and saying to God, 'you're saying that this is going to be our new church family and yet I just can't see it, it's so impossible.' Over and over again, the phrase 'this is impossible' went round in my head. Secondly, I was conscious that Sally kept looking at me - definitely more than just an occasional glance!!

But anyway, the service progressed. Esther was reading at the back, Eli was drawing next to me and Jemimah...? Well the guy preaching that morning asked for some volunteers...and so Jemimah headed on up to the front (remember - not good at keeping a low profile!). She did what was required of her to help with the visual aid and then announced to the church that she needed a wee...cue lots of laughter, clapping and full attention on us! It was quite funny.

And then it was time to take communion. This surely has to be the most stressful part of any service, when you are trying to coordinate three children, by now sitting in three different places, whilst being unaware of how communion is 'done' in this new place you have never been before. Agghhh! And so as I started to gather my children, Sally came up to me and told me that we needed to take communion with her and her husband. We agreed, though ended up being separated, so Tim and Eli were together and I was with the girls and Sally. We took communion, the girls went off and then Sally asked me if she could pray for me.

She said; God told me that there would be someone at church this morning who has a head full of decisions to make - I think that's you, are you facing some big decisions?'

Remember, we have agreed we are not sharing about our call to London, so I think I muttered something very vague in response to her! She then prayed again and said;

'I think God wants to say to you that He is going to answer the impossible.'

Well, I knew that God was using Sally to speak to me - seriously, if you've read the past eight blog posts you will know how many times I have used the word 'impossible' to describe this situation.

I felt a complete change of heart as soon as she said it. And some conviction actually. I had been so focused on myself and my own limitations rather than focusing on who God is and what He can do. Now the interesting thing is that the impossibility of moving to London hasn't changed. Fast forward to the present day and we are still waiting for God's miraculous provision so we can move - it is absolutely impossible. But where my confidence lies changed from that moment. My confidence is in my Father in heaven, who loves to give good gifts to His children, who can make the impossible possible. My Father always keeps His promises and never abandons me. By His very nature, He is good and kind and loving. That is where my confidence lies.

By way of an ending today, let me just tell you how Jemimah left Rev church that day. She had been drawing little pictures all through the service and just as we were about to leave she said, 'Wait a minute' and got all her pictures out of her bag. She then gave them out, one by one, to people in the church whom she had never met before. I met one of those people who received a picture from Jemimah about 6 months later and she told me that she still had it. Amazing.

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