By Lisa Dawn “LD” Akers
During the last two weeks of June, a small group of us (six to be exact!) had the wonderful opportunity to travel 4,000 miles across the pond to London, England to team up with our LCC missionaries, Gary & Penny Seithel.
From the moment we stepped off the plane at London-Gatwick to the time we were hugging (and maybe even crying a little too) and saying goodbye, our mission experience was action-packed!
It began after nearly 15 hours of travel…Gary greeted us at the airport and took us to a place where the caffeine is abundant and smiles are instantly restored – McDonalds. (Yes, we’re a bit ashamed to admit it.) From there, we attended a Sunday worship service at Gary & Penny’s church in Chelmsford during our beautiful first morning in England, even though a few of us were fighting back the sleep-deprived yawns.We spent the majority of our stay with host families in Brentwood, Essex and paired up with 10-11 local churches to participate in an outreach event called “On the Move.” This event took place over four days in which we prepared free lunches for the residents of Brentwood. We began each day at a local church praising & worshiping God, as well as spending time in prayer & celebration for what God was doing through “On the Move.” From there, we would all walk up to the event site and start setting up.
The event was located in the midst of old chapel ruins on the main shopping street in town. We had four different teams in which everyone had a job AND a purpose. We had a praise team playing worship songs, a group of inviters walking up & down each side of the street telling people about the free lunch, a food team cutting up onions galore & slaving over hot grills BBQ’ing pounds upon pounds of hamburger & sausage meat, and a group of table hosts who had the amazing opportunity to sit at the different tables and share in the lives of the men & women we encountered (And through that encounter, share the love of Christ with them!)
In Matthew 25, it tells us how we are to give food & drink to those who are hungry and thirsty. Not only were we able to give physical food & drink to the people of Brentwood, we provided them with spiritual food & drink, so that one day the King of Kings can say to us, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since creation. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” ….Through “On the Move,” we were able to serve over 6,000 meals, receive several new brothers & sisters in Christ, and be confident that seeds of truth were sown in the hearts of many. And how exciting is it that we’ll have a few more friends to split that inheritance with now? (Praise Jesus!)The remainder of our trip, we spent doing school assemblies, talking to the kids about “Prayer” and how God is always there to listen, even if he doesn’t answer the way we want him to. One of the days, we even got to see a live dress rehearsal of a true British musical about World War II, complete with a number about “them jitterbugging Yanks!”
God is good and people all over the world need to hear about His Redeeming Love. Our team is so thankful that He was able to use us to spread His Word in London, England (and a couple of us even wish that “Papa” Joe hadn’t made sure we boarded that plane back to the states).
