By Esther Price
BTBAB has officially been in Liverpool for 7 months now! In September 2022 I finished my mission trip to Thailand and I returned to Liverpool not knowing what was to follow.
In all honesty I was a bit unsure how I would adapt to living in a city, having always lived in the countryside – well apart from Bangkok – but I have found myself adjusting far better than I thought I would and am actually enjoying living here!
When I started out in October, I only had one regular activity per week that I was involved in – working with the Toxteth Women’s Centre which amongst other things teaches English language to women of Ethnic minorities. From this I have built many relationships with the teachers, students and I have also visited the homes of a couple of the women I teach.
I have settled into a new church – City Church – and as the pastor has been a missionary to India, he fully embraces the work I do. He has also opened many doors of opportunity to me, and I have served in many different areas of the church, including the food hub for the poor and disadvantaged in the area. I am also looking at partnering with City Church with some exciting new opportunities in the autumn – more to follow.
Through a contact here in Liverpool, I have also started to serve at All Nations Hub a large church building that hosts eight different churches on a weekly basis. I have been involved in pioneering a new student work at the church, attended their weekly interchurch prayer meetings (where I have networked with many different people from other churches) and preached at their English service on three occasions. Through my contacts at All Nations Hub, I attended the European Revival Conference in November and being one of the intercessors praying for the event. I was also privileged to be prayed for by Brother Yung (a Chinese persecuted Christian who wrote the book “Heavenly Man” who was speaking at the event).
In these first few months of settling here, I have been endeavouring to network with different churches. In the last few months I have been invited to attend a prayer breakfast for the evangelical church leaders in the city with Together For The Harvest and I have been to two meetings now. I have met many new pastors and they have all been very embracing of our mission organisation and there are a few open doors to speak at their churches. As well as this, on a regular basis I also serve with the Street Pastors here, having transferred from Evesham.
I am now starting to feel at home here and I sometimes bump into people I know in the street or the supermarket, and I wonder how I can be feeling like a local in just seven months, it can only be God! When you are walking in the calling that God has given you, it really is an exciting journey of faith and adventure, but it’s not easy and it comes at a cost. Starting in a new area after only being in Evesham for four years was quite tough. I found it hard walking into churches alone, finding a church to call home, and finding meaningful friendship connections, which all took time. But in it all I knew this was where God had sent me. I love the multi-cultural mix of the city and I regularly cross paths with people of so many different nationalities and this is what I love. Only a few weeks ago at church I was sat at a table talking to a group of women from my church from China, Bolivia & Ukraine and I suddenly realised that I was the only English person in that group! The nations have come to this city and I am thriving here. I am looking forward to seeing what God is going to do next.
