“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”  (Isaiah 61)

Firstly I feel the need to apologize for the ridiculous amount of time it’s taken me to send this update; I hope you can appreciate the first few months of marriage have been fabulous but hectic!  Secondly this will be my last update working for the Message and I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by!  I will no doubt keep you updated with what happens next for those of you who are interested.

Please pray for both mine and Lucas’ job situation, as I write this newsletter we are just over a week away from both being unemployed and zero money coming in so we seriously need a miracle…thankfully I know a God who specializes in them! 

The past few weeks, God has been taking me back to the start and reminding me of the words He spoke to me, which led to my prison adventures. 

This reminder has helped me make some sense of the emotional rollercoaster I seem to be on!  I always knew that my current role would be for only one year but I’ve found myself very sad at the prospect of leaving the work especially in light of the amazing partnership, which Hannah and I have formed.  That aside, God has put it on my heart to be working in a way, which provides both practical and spiritual support to women on their release from prison.  This has guided my job hunting and my dreaming as I look to where God can use me both now and in the future.

Work within the women’s prison is much more settled again and going really well.  We continue to build excellent relationships with the women especially the young offenders and we have seen an increase in the number of young offenders who are genuinely interested in finding out more about Christianity.  This interested has sparked us starting a short course to explain the basics and give a more open opportunity for prayer.  I personally have been really surprised at how much more some of the young women have opened up to us and let us pray for very sensitive issues in their lives, an amazing opportunity.  I have also been encouraged to see some of the more ‘difficult’ young women turning up at the Chapel week after week without prompting and have yet again had my eyes open to realize that God’s doing the work (most of which I don’t see) not me!  That’s always a liberating realization!  Last week Hannah (on request) took two of the young women plus a Mum to a local church after their release from prison.  We’d only met the two women twice whilst they were in prison but they were so keen and have even arranged to meet up and catch the bus together this Sunday!  Please pray for them.

On the young offenders house our workshops have now been limited to a smaller amount of women, as we were regularly running workshops for around 20 women!  We were initially a bit worried about having fewer women each week (as we obviously love having contact with as many of the women as possible) but it’s actually become a positive thing as we are much less stretched and have built stronger relationships.  My to-the-point blunt nature has meant the ‘difficult’ women end up being those on my heart and I often get the opportunity to speak encouragement into their lives, such a privilege.  Hannah has recently commented that she can’t believe some of the things I say and thinks if she asked such to-the-point questions or made such blunt comments the women would hit her!  I guess as I’m just myself I get away with it and actually it’s often the best way of getting through to the women and making them think.  I certainly feel put in my place when I think back to a year ago when I was laughing at God for telling me to work with these women and thinking there was no way He could use me!  Please continue to pray for Hannah and all the amazing work that Reflex does in the prisons.

I have also had the privilege this month of covering some of the work in one of the men’s prisons working with slightly older young offenders between the ages of 18 and 24.  This was really encouraging as things have really been exploding in this prison (in a good way) and they’re seeing many guys healed and changing.  On the first session I was in, one of the guys had a badly pulled shoulder, which we offered to pray for at the end.  Nick (the intern for this prison) prayed for him with one of the other prisoners and to the injured guy’s surprise he was completely healed!  He was so shocked he stared wide-eyed and then dropped down into press-ups to test it in disbelief.  This is an almost weekly occurrence, which is amazing.

Where work has been going well, me and Lucas have been having a bit of a tough start to married life – thankfully it has brought us closer together rather than cause an issue.  As well as our job situations being in question, we have had to face up to the reality of Lucas’ Hepatitis C and how the upcoming treatment is likely to affect our lives.  Please pray for healing so that treatment doesn’t even have to happen.

Finally, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your support whether in prayer or financially.  I literally couldn’t have done this year without the support and I am so grateful for the opportunity.  It has been an incredible, life-changing year and I’ve truly learnt what it means to view people through God’s eyes.

All my love and heartfelt thanks,

Hannah (and Lucas)