A warm welcome and a spring recap

Hello and welcome to the first blog post on my new missions site!! It is my sincere hope that creating Courtney in London will help me be better with regular ministry updates, and also provide a platform where it will be easier to share more of my life here in London. Given that I'm currently averaging 1.5 updates a year, I know this is a lofty goal, but a girl can have faith, right?

So without further ado, here is just the tip of the iceberg on what God has been doing here at YWAM London Radiant over the last few months!

NORWAY, THE SEND CONFERENCE + A DEEPER "YES"

In June, I was part of small team that headed to Norway for four days for the The Send, a missions-sending conference that empowers young adults to live all-in for Jesus. While there we also filmed for The Anchor of the Week and connected with local churches. We went into it not necessarily knowing what to expect, except that God will show up. And let me tell you, he did! From divine encounters on the streets to sustaining us physically (we were averaging three hours of sleep a night and still had so much energy for ministry) to blessing us in ways that we could never have expected that made us feel so seen by him. Each day was filled with so many testimonies of His goodness!

On a personal note, God did some really big things in me during this trip. By the time we got to The Send, I was asking God for breakthrough in some areas of my life that I had felt had been holding me back but that I couldn't quite put a name to. So at this conference, here I was watching all of these young people crying out to God and telling Him that they will give their whole lives to Him and go anywhere He asks them, and I was...angry? Yes, angry. God was revealing to me that I had this same uncontainable passion six years ago, completely undone by the Lord and so desperate for Him to use me, yet here I was after serving Him for over half a decade and honestly feeling a bit worn down and jaded. If I had known all those years ago the challenges, grittiness and sacrifices that a life of missions requires, would I have had the same passion? When I told God I'd "go anywhere, whatever the cost", I had no idea how expensive that cost really was. So I found myself at this crossroads - I could stay bitter at young Courtney for praying these bold prayers in what now seemed like ignorance and for getting me to this place, or I could choose to say "yes" again, but this time now knowing more of what the actual cost is. I clearly chose the latter, and let me tell you, the renewal of my "yes" brought so much freedom and healing. In fact, I properly cried for the first time in a year, but that's a story for a different day.

THREE BIRTHDAYS AND WHOLE LOT OF FAITHFULNESS

In May, THINK Coffee & Ink turned three, and in June both Hope + Anchor and Radiant turned seven! We love celebrating in general as a team, but we don't take for granted each year of our ministries because it represents another year of God's FAITHFULNESS. Logically, sometimes I can't understand why things are still up and running. Sometimes you never know where the money is going to come from to pay the rent of THINK or you feel way too under-qualified to run schools - the list goes on. But God has continued to choose us so we'll keep obeying and trust that He is bringing His Kingdom to London through these ministries. After all, they're HIS ministries, not ours!

UNEARTHED: AN EXHIBITION OF THE ARTS

In July (I realise this is no longer spring and therefore doesn't count as a spring recap, but I don't know how else to classify this), we had our most recent art exhibition, UNEARTHED! We have three exhibitions a year where we creatively communicate God's heart and the Gospel using the theme as a prompt. We have everything from photography, filmmaking, creative writing, barista, culinary arts, live music, dance and theatre performances, magazine production, fashion, live hairstyling and tattooing, visual art - you name it, we have it! Both staff and trainees create pieces for exhibition and it's such an amazing way to connect with people in the way that only art can. Check out the live streams of the two night event on Facebook!

Alright, I think that's it for now! We've now entered August, which perhaps our busiest month of the year, so you can expect another full update soon!

Until next time,

Court xx