[Hannah’s Pre-Wedding News!]

“We don’t yet see things clearly.  We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.  But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!  We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: trust steadily, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” 
1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (Message)

I thought I’d send a quick update before the BIG DAY just to let you know how we’re doing and what’s been going on the past few weeks.  We…or should I say I…moved into our new house two weeks ago and have started to make myself at home.  Pre-wedding list delivery I’m having to cook with two saucepans and a fork but it’s teaching me to be a bit more creative in the kitchen!  We’re still praying and believing God for breakthrough in both Lucas’ job situation and his health; we really appreciate your continued prayer specifically for these areas.

The above scripture is a new translation of the classic ‘love’ passage from the Bible.  I was initially quite against having this scripture during our wedding service simply because I thought it gets quite overused especially at weddings but God put me in my place and rightly so!  Over the past few months God has really been speaking to me about the importance of love, especially in the work I’m involved.  A few months back I was actually saying to people and God ‘I don’t have anything to offer in prison, all I can do is love the girls’ so no wonder God put me in my place.  If we believe scripture, which I do, then love is the most important thing we can offer people and bring to every situation.  I had the revelation that I could be the most gifted person in the world with so much to offer in prison BUT if I don’t love the girls then all the other stuff is useless and wasted.  So really I’m in a pretty good position!

Prison work has been very up and down the past few weeks, especially in the women’s prison.  We’ve unfortunately had a few run-ins with prison staff and are on somewhat shaky ground within the prison.  Please could you pray that things settle down and most importantly that nothing comes against the work God is doing in the prison through us.  On a positive note, both Hannah and I continue to endear ourselves to the girls who are massively responsive to our workshops now and rarely cause us problems. 

Workshops on the young offender house have continued to go well, despite the ever changing group of girls.  A culture seems to have been established during our sessions and with enough girls appreciating the work we do and liking us, the more disruptive girls tend to stay quiet.  This is a huge contrast to when I first began working on the house last October.  As I mentioned in my previous newsletter, several of the girls have very much become like little sisters to me and I’ve found myself looking forward to catching up with them each week.  I do always have to remind myself that I am in prison but so many of the girls are normal, bright girls who have made bad decisions in life and so it’s not hard to spend time with them.  Such a privilege to be there and with the recent turn of events we’re not taking our position in there for granted.

I’m still very much praying about my next step in September and am still keen to continue working in a similar area, although perhaps on the other side of the prison gate.  For now I’m concentrating on the wedding and our much needed honeymoon, so I’m planning on taking more serious steps to finding a new job once all the madness has calmed down.  Please pray for me!  This is the final time I will be signing my newsletter as a Wagstaff; here’s to Saturday and all the exciting adventures that lie beyond!

 
Thank you again for all your support.

All my love,

Hannah (and Lucas)