“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

The past month has not been without its drama but as always God is faithful and has sustained both me and Lucas through this time.  Having ended up in hospital with an infection a couple of weeks ago, I realised the need to slow down and make time to properly rest.  I think the stress of the past few months really took its toll although I’m learning how to trust God on a whole new level and totally let go of things into His hands.  Praise God for putting such amazing friends in my life, especially my housemates and friends at church, who have been so encouraging and supportive during this time.  Praise God too for old friends and family who are the best people to have on the end of the phone when you need a boost!

It is such a privilege to be able to go into prison everyday and get to know the young women in there.  I so enjoy building relationships with them and seeing them gradually open up.  It’s funny how the girls who are most disruptive and uninterested initially, often seem to be the girls who most benefit from us being around consistently and normally end up on side.  Both Hannah and I find ourselves taking certain girls under our wings, which is great because it often gives us the opportunity to speak into their lives and give them positive encouragement.

At the end of April/beginning of May we were able to follow up girls after Nick’s testimony (where several girls responded to the gospel), which was incredible.  The first week we held a ‘finding out more’ group and nearly the whole house (18 or more) girls were sent over to the chapel to meet us.  As it turned out many had been sent against their wishes, which wasn’t exactly what we had planned, but all the girls stayed and heard the gospel clearly explained.  About 10 of the girls chose to stay after this to chat and several wanted prayer.  It was really good to see God break into the situation.  In the weeks following we had encounters with many of the girls during our Tuesday afternoon slot in the chapel- on one occasion we saw one girl healed (resulting in much freaking out and a long conversation) and another respond to an accurate word of knowledge (God told me something which I couldn’t have otherwise known and I was then able to pray for her).  As the original group of girls has begun to be released from prison or be moved to other prisons we have found this group shrinking and eventually having no-one coming to it so for now it’s been stopped.  Please pray that we build good relationships with the new girls coming in and are able to keep some momentum going.

Our presence in the young offender house and openness with regards to our faith has brought about some interesting conversations and situations.  Several weeks ago one of the girls Gill asked if I would pray in her room as she believed it was haunted after messing around with a Ouija board.  After checking with the on duty prison officer that this was ok both Hannah and I went upstairs to pray in Gill’s cell.  While we were there, other girls saw what we were doing and asked for us to pray in there rooms also.  Hannah and I felt strongly that there was spiritual oppression and darkness in the rooms so it was great to get up there and pray.  A week later, without any prompting, Gill came and told me how things had been peaceful in her room since we’d prayed and she’d be sleeping so much better.  Praise Jesus!  This whole situation made me really aware of the need to be a warrior in prison but also to protect myself.  Please pray that the girls look in the right places to satisfy their interest in spiritual things.

During the past few weeks I have begun seriously considering my future plans.  So far the one thing I am confident about is my passion to continue working with young offenders or young people at risk of offending.  I like the idea of working more on the resettlement side, where young people are introduced back into their community and given practical support.  In my last newsletter I talked about a Social Worker course I had applied for but I recently found out I was unsuccessful in this application, which I was totally at peace about.  Confident the right thing will come along in the right timing!

My wedding is now just over 3 weeks away…crazy!  It is unlikely you’ll be hearing from me until some time after the wedding but please continue to pray for the work in prison, which will be continuing during my short absence.  I shall also hopefully be moving into our new house in the next few days so it’s all very exciting!  Lucas still desperately needs a job though.

Thank you so much for your continued support.  Both Lucas and I greatly appreciate it.

Lots of love,

Hannah (and Lucas)