Wales Mission Group with Derek Rees, Summer 2009
The first Welsh-speaking church to be planted in Wales in 75 years!
(Click photos to enlarge.)
Wednesday July 1, 2009
Our first official day on the mission field was our best day in Wales ever. Ever! We began with Troy's good teaching on the evangelism season of "Plowing." Then we met Derek Rees, the pastor our team is assigned to work with. He is a 23 year old gentle giant of a man at once imminently likable and vivaciously visionary. You aren't sure if you want him to be your "Best Friend Forever" (Jordan Deah's words) or if you want to "Follow him to storm the gates of Hell" (Allen's words). Or both. Either way, it would be So Much Fun! He is a man who has a love for life nearly as great as his love for Jesus.
Derek led us to grab a lunch on the run (Gregg's again) and then to the train platform heading toward Swansea. The train was 75 minutes late, so we ate on the platform and the ten of us celebrated "church" together clustered around a hard wooden bench on the bustling, high-pitched whistling, engine-roaring, concrete slab, discussing the chapters of the book of Acts we have read so far. It was a sweet time of bonding with our new friend and leader.
Just as sweet was Charlotte, an elderly lady of grace who the ladies convinced to sit next to Deedee. A great amount of love ensued as Deedee, Nikki, and Shannon coaxed from Charlotte the story of her life. By the end, Nikki was convinced she should write Charlotte's story into a best-selling novel. Charlotte was a Scottish child evacuated from Britain during he bombing of World War Two. She joined the Royal Army, keeping the secret from her "mum" until it was too late. She met the love of her life, a Welshman, in of all places, Egypt. They married, had children, devoting much of their energy to caring for a daughter with a serious neurological condition. Charlotte was returning from a holiday her husband insisted she go on as a mental break from caring for their daughter. All Charlotte could think about was returning with great joy to see the love of her life, her husband of 34 years. Our ladies let Charlotte know that they were devout Christians, and Charlotte suggested she herself as a Christian in the way she whispered words of encouragement, especially to Nikki. As Charlotte parted from her three new friends, some of our ladies blessed the moment with holy tears.
We took an hour long train trip to Swansea, walked to Derek's church, and took pictures on the church steps, dodging workmen as they carried lumber on their shoulders into the worship area, which they defended like home turf. Our team burst out into thundering applause as Derek crossed the threshold. It was a historic event. Our team was a witness to a great moment in the Church History of Wales. The first Welsh-speaking church had been planted in Wales in 75 years! Derek moved to Swansea only yesterday to physically and spiritually reconstruct a dead church. Today was his first full day to visit his new ministry. And we were there.
One Hundred years ago, evangelicals sparked a revival that converted 100,000 souls to the faith and rocked the world. Since then, much of Wales has been controlled by Liberals uninterested in biblical doctrine. Derek is a new generation that is a throwback to the pioneers of revival in Wales. A new day had dawned and the Welsh dragon is rising from his own ashes.
We went to a large second story room in gentle decay and disarray, sat in a circle on the dusty dark tiles and prayed for Derek. And Prayed. And Prayed. We prayed for Derek's physical, emotional, and spiritual life, his new building, neighborhood, and city and his future congregation. Some of us laid hands upon him as we prayed. We fought dozing, we ignored cramping, and we went numb from the floor crushing upward against our tailbones. And we prayed. It lasted more than an hour, seeming like nanoseconds, blending into eternity. When we were done, we had merged into a single entity with twenty arms and legs.
The rest was a delirious blur -- Prayerstrolling through Swansea city centre and its markets, Derek using his pastoral authority to force us to become dairy addicted to Joe's marshmallow flavored ice cream, and conversing and cackling over dinner. At the train station back in Cardiff hour later, Derek's parting felt like a surgical removal of a vital organ. Why can't he stay at the Etap? Why can't we adopt him right now as our legal brother?
The nine of us crammed into Gavin and Dustin's tiny room, occupying every square inch of every bed and chair. We had the sweetest most unified "debriefing" in the history of debriefings. We all feel we are part of something great, even historic, like witnessing day one of the founding of the the church at Antioch. And the guiltiest part is that we are having the time of our lives. We are giddy for God. The delirium can't last, of course. Missions have a way of taking one wild turn after another. But what a group! What a ride!
Allen
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