Breathe Update

We moved to London to set up a church focussing predominantly on the arts, media and entertainment culture, and targeted towards those people who are not yet part of a church, or who don’t feel church is relevant to them.

We have begun to explore some of what that might look like with Matt (Kay) and Sarah (Lawson) (who have also moved down with us) and we are catching up with three or four other people next week (25th) as we launch Breathe London. We have already established a Facebook page, where we have begun to network with people, and we’re currently putting together a blog, which we will give you more information about soon!

Since being here, we have also had lots of opportunity to catch up with old friends, and spend time with people we have not seen for ages, and we have both seen more of our families (which is great). London has also been pretty busy with various festivals, performances and events, and we have enjoyed making the most of them! We have also followed up a couple of leads, and at the weekend met up with a couple living in the area who have been here for 17 years, and who were very encouraging about (and encouraged by!) what we are planning to do with Breathe. A lot of the prophetic stuff we had about Breathe fits in with a lot of prophetic stuff about Wandsworth (the borough we are in), and, although they warned us it was likely to be very hard work, felt that our approach to church was very much needed and right for this time and this area. Although we have only met them once, we feel that they could become key players in Breathe, so thanks to all those people who told us we had to meet up with them. You were right!

Although it is great living in London with so much going on, and there’s lots of good stuff happening, day to day life is quite tough at the minute. There are a number of areas for which we would really appreciate your prayers. As well as joining us in celebrating the successes and recognising Gods interactions, it would be great if you could join us in petitioning God on the areas that are currently unresolved! The biggest of these is the sale of our house in Loughborough, which still has not gone through. Although we are very glad to have a sale at all, it is taking much longer than we expected, and is costing us more money than we can afford – particularly considering we are also having to pay London rent too.

Whilst Becca has a job, I am still looking for a teaching position. I have signed up to a number of agencies, but currently have had no work, which is clearly not ideal as this means I am not getting any money coming in! It’s also not great that I have to get up at 6.30 every day, just in case there is some work for me! Sometimes it is easy to rely on God and remember that he has led us here and will provide for us (as he has already done). But in the day to day, with no house sale and no job, it is very easy to lose sight of that! We are also very aware that both of these situations are being exploited by the enemy to challenge us over our decision to come to London. This clearly confirms that we are here and doing the right thing, but pray that Matt, Sarah, Becca and I can stay strong and focussed on being here and connecting in to what God is doing.

Although it has been fantastic to catch up with people we have not seen for a while, we are all missing our friends in Loughborough. So pray for us to network quickly, and to find friendships so that we feel relationally connected and settled here, whilst giving us ways to continue to enjoy our friendships with people further afield - We are looking forward to people visiting us. We'll be back in Loughborough soon to celebrate the arrival of Elsworth baby number 2 and to catch up with as many people as we can. - We are exploring different ways to do this, but a bit of clarity (and a job!) would really help.

Well, as I said, a bit of a mixed bag really! We hope that you can join us in supporting us through prayer, and would really appreciate it if some of you would be up for being part of a regular prayer support system for us on a more ongoing basis. Becca and I know that lots of you are doing this on a more informal basis anyway, but think it might be easier if we made it a bit more structured and official. We recognise that we cannot do this by ourselves, and that we need God to be involved as much as he possibly can be! If you would be prepared to join a group of others who get a regular update and then can commit to praying for us and for Breathe, email us back (with a preferred email address), and we will get back to you soon!

Thank you all so much for your support, and we look forward to catching up with you all soon – let us know if you are in London at any point and we will have to catch up. You are also welcome to stay with us if we can find a free weekend. Email us back with any news you have, and let us now if we can support you in any way!

Posted by: Wayne Cullum on Wednesday Sep 17th, 2008

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