[News from the ‘inside’!]

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
 Matthew 6:34 (Message translation)

The past few months have definitely been a time of testing and character building for both me and Lucas.  As I expect most of you know by now, on top of concerns about Lucas’ job situation and ongoing financial challenges we discovered Lucas has Hepatitis C, which was a huge shock.  Thank you if you’ve been praying for us, it has definitely helped to know people are standing with us.  Although our situation hasn’t massively changed we’ve seen God’s provision for us over the past few weeks and I am confident that God is in control.  We have definitely been strengthened as a couple, which has got to be a good thing in the run up to our wedding. 

Work within the women’s prison has really taken off and it definitely feels as if we’ve turned a corner, especially with the young offender work. Both me and Hannah have built really good relationships with the girls and are starting to see the benefits of this with the girls being much more open and accepting of us.  The Thursday morning session has gone from being the most challenging thing I do to the most enjoyable thing I do!  We also found out that our funding for this session has been extended by another 6 months, probably another 12.  The current ‘head of young offenders’ in the prison sent us a report relating to the work within the young offender house, including our involvement, and it was so encouraging to read.  Since we began going in a year ago cases of self harm and mental health have declined from around 15 vulnerable girls at any one time to zero for most of the time!  Also, there are now rarely physical fights on the house.  It is definitely testimony to God’s Spirit at work in the house and the girls’ lives. 

With so much encouragement we also had the bad news that funding was not going to be secured for the ‘Uncut’ pre-Alpha course, which we’d hoped to run and had been praying for.  This was a bit annoying but both me and Hannah felt excited regardless and were unprepared for what happened next…!  On the following Thursday morning session we took in a Christian guy called Nick, who’s a rapper, to teach the girls lyric writing and rapping.  Nick has an amazing testimony and is a natural evangelist so within 10 minutes of arriving he had 15 girls hanging off his every word as he shared his story of God saving him from a life of drug addiction and crime.  It was totally unplanned but amazing and resulted in us staying an extra half an hour to pray for anyone who wanted it.  That morning 10 girls responded to the gospel and made a commitment right there in the living room of the young offender house.  We have met with some opposition as we’ve tried to follow up the girls so please pray that we’re able to do this and for future opportunities to share.

My other personal highlight of the past few months in prison has been helping out on a week-long drama project in one of the male prisons, which is an open prison holding 18-24 year old guys.  I joined ‘In Yer Face’ The Message’s drama team in a support role, just encouraging the guys and helping them be creative.  It’s always nice to have a change of scenery and male prison is a very different experience to female prison.  It was also great to see the development over a week of work and I saw a huge change in the guys who were involved.  The guys created several stand alone scenes on themes suggested by ‘In Yer Face’ such as passion, sacrifice and forgiveness.  At the end of the week they performed a selection of the best scenes in front of an audience of other prisoners as well as prison staff.  Unfortunately I had prior commitments on the final day and was unable to see them perform but I came away from the week really encouraged.  Please continue to pray for all the work Reflex does in both the three male establishments as well as the female prison, everything that happens makes a difference to the lives of the people it’s reaching.

As I am now just over half way through my year (can you believe it?!) I have begun praying about my next step.  One thing I considered before I embarked on my year at The Message was the possibility of Social Work, as most young offender teams contain social workers, and this was where I initially felt drawn.  Recently a new initiative has started where social workers are trained on the job, whilst completing a Masters degree and being paid a small salary.  There are only 200 places in the country so please pray that I get one if this is the right next step.  I have applied to local authorities near me, in and around Manchester.  If it’s not right then I am confident that God will make it clear what’s next!  

Finally please pray for Lucas, as he is still out of work and feeling frustrated.  Please pray for God’s direction and peace while he waits; also for God’s healing of his Hepatitis C.  Thank you again for your support; I couldn’t do what I’m doing without it!

“What a God we have!  And how fortunate we are to have Him, this Father of our Master Jesus!  Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven- and the future starts now!  God is keeping careful watch over us and the future.  The Day is coming when you’ll have it all- life healed and whole.  I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.  Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through suffering comes out proved genuine.  When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of His victory.”  I Peter 1:4-9 (Message translation)

God bless,

Hannah (and Lucas)