I just sent this message to people in the Mission Somerset network to sum up what has been happening over the last few weeks. It's quite long but it sums up well the work we are doing. It's really not about being clever but being willing to step out and respond to Jesus...
"A few weeks ago Demian contacted me to share that he felt Jesus was asking us to give out food to people during lockdown. I was unsure about the idea because we don't have any money and we don't want to just do 'nice' things that help people but don't actually bring Jesus into their lives (People might need food for today or tomorrow - but they Jesus to save them for eternity!) So we decided to try it for one week - to use the little money we had (actually Demian used mostly his own money for the food. He could have used this money on something else but he didn't) We set out with 10 food boxes and went round to see people and to pray for them.
It went really well and me and Demian were praying to God and asking him about whether we should do it again the next week. As we were driving to a house in Street to deliver the final box we had - I had a message from a friend who said she had sent me some money to support the work we are doing. I checked my account. I thought she was sending me £10 or £20 but when I checked she had sent me £500!!!! So we used this money for the next few weeks to buy food and to continue seeing people. Each week we prayed that while we gave out food we would be brave to share about Jesus and to offer prayer. Rachelle reminded us one week that we needed to share Jesus more with people - and that week we went to see some of her friends who lived round the corner. We went into their house and offered to pray for them all. Rachelle shared her story about how Jesus has saved her. Jess and Matt (Who have both been baptised in the last 2 weeks) were in that house that day 🙂 Meanwhile there are others as well who have been touched by God by us taking food and at least 2 more people want to be baptised next week. 5 people have already been baptised in Yeovil in the last 2 weeks.
Then last week we were praying about whether we should continue with giving out food because we had run out of money. I woke up the next morning and someone had sent me £1000 for mission somerset 🙂 So we sent £500 to our friends in Africa to help them with their mission and used the rest for food and things needed here.
Then this week I had a message from Demian saying that we have been offered 6000 frozen meals (If you think about it - this is about £10,000 - £12,000 worth of food!!!!) So far we have been able to take 500 meals and store them in different people's freezers to give out to people. The point of the story is this guys...It started with one person (Demian!) listening to Jesus and sharing it with the team (us!) As we gave out food we are making disciples of Jesus (Lotsy, Matt, Eric, Ed, Jess, Hayley and more!) and helping those who are already disciples (too many names to mention) to grow in their faith and make more disciples. God has miraculously provided for this work and team members have sacrifically given their money and time each week. And we have been able to bless people in other countries as well!
For more information about the work of Mission Somerset please contact us