By Cathy Miller
Liverpool 24th – 26th February 2023
It was very special to join the team on the Saturday of the workers weekend in Liverpool, which is now the official BTBAB base! It was very much a time to come together in His presence as we grow in this new season for BTBAB. (Song of Songs 8:14; 1 Peter 5:10)
We were blessed with Shirley’s church at Long Lane allowing us to use the building as our venue. Nick the pastor from Long Lane, spent some time with us at the weekend sharing a meal on Friday night and sharing two very good teaching sessions from the book of Haggai.
Elaine from City Church (where Esther goes to church), very kindly volunteered to prepare the meals for us, and they were so good!
How blessed is that? so many doors opened to us.. welcoming us into Liverpool.
What we did?
After some wonderful praise and worship from Jenny and later from Alan, we had the opening welcome message again, as unfortunately I had not been able to make the Friday night meeting. Following this, Esther was interviewed about her heart journey with God during her journey from Hereford and Evesham to Liverpool. This was a beautiful time where Esther was able to share how God has been moving in her life and heart and it was lovely to hear her story.
After a coffee break we continued with looking at what God has been doing in our lives as individuals, an opportunity to share our testimony about how He is working in us, allowing us to praise and glorify God for all He is doing and to encourage each other.
After a lovely lunch, we went out for a walk in Sefton Park and had a coffee in the Palm House. We went back to the same place in the park where we prayed last year. It felt important for us to go back to the place where we first put the stake in the ground as we prayed for the base. We went back to say thank you to God (Luke 17:15-16) and felt led to put coins in the ground this time as we prayed.
It was during preparations for the weekend that the Palm House seemed have some significance for us. So, after seeing pictures and hearing the history of how it was restored after being neglected and left to decay, we felt it would be good to visit. Nick also shared a little history of Liverpool and the story of when the Palm House no longer protected the plants and the gardeners had taken the delicate plants to look after in their own greenhouses. They brought them back to the Palm House when it was re-opened, re-populating it… and the blessing returned. A couple of the large palm trees did survive in the open, and can now be seen standing tall having survived the elements.
During the planning for the weekend, we felt strongly that Shirley had something to say and we were privileged to hear what God had put on her heart. We heard about Shirley’s journey and how God had given her a heart for mission and that Liverpool is the place to which God has called her. We all got involved as Shirley had us up on our feet while she demonstrated and explained her journey and talked about BTBAB.
I came away Saturday evening feeling so uplifted, knowing that I had spent the day with a wonderful team whose hearts are seeking God’s heart for BTBAB now and in the future.
I’m sure that we will all soon be hearing more from Shirley as she leads BTBAB forward with the team in this new season discovering what God is saying now as we’re moving into new waters.
