Of the many activities I have been involved in recently, one highlight was attending my first Syrian wedding here in Liverpool. I went with the only other British guest, who is also an ESOL teacher. We soon discovered that it was a women-only celebration, while the men celebrated separately, and at the end of the evening the groom came to collect his bride. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos, as photography was not allowed, largely because many of the women had removed their hijabs and were enjoying the freedom to let their hair down. In fact, it was the first time I had seen the hair of many of my students! It was certainly a memorable evening, and they even persuaded me onto the dance floor for the first time in years.
In March I also helped to organise a day away for the young adults that I lead in my church. We hired a venue in a beautiful location in the Wirral and invited two different speakers. They really enjoyed their time together and the spiritual input from Rob the pastor from Long Lane Church. As we only set up the group in the autumn of 2025, it was our first time taking them away to receive spiritual input.
Apart from my normal outreach activities, a lot of my time is spent meeting with pastors, missionaries and young people. In the midst of these meetings come opportunities to share about what I do and to draw them to the work of BTBAB. But my biggest joy is to interact with people from different nationalities as I love to learn about their cultures. And there are many times when I rarely interact with white British people as I regularly meet people from the Middle East, Africa and South America. Liverpool really is a ripe mission field!
