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Some new areas of ministry

Dear friends and family,

God is opening up some amazing doors for ministry! I’ll try to give you a ‘brief’ update on some of these different new areas. All our other areas of ministry are still going amazing and I’m so stoked to see the lives God is changing and the people that are being raised up in ministry and as ambassadors for Christ. 

Overall my biggest prayer request is to draw more intimately close to the Lord and from there for Him to do supernatural ministry through me!

UTurn Rehab Study

For a months now I have been going with Pastor Antonye to breakfast and Bible study at a men’s rehab down in south London called UTurn. I know that sounds strange. The reason I first started going was because of a couple of women who help in the office that really needed ministering to, who were starting to come to the study. I have had some really cool times connecting with and reaching out to them as they are in some not good places. However, for the last couple of months I’ve hardly seen either of them when we are there. As I was praying about if God wanted me to keep going to the study He just gave me a total peace that I should keep going. Which seemed strange at the time. In the last few weeks though it has been really awesome because God has opened up the door for me to start reaching out to some of the girlfriends of the guys that are there. Some of these women have started to express a desire to get help as well so the guys at UTurn have been sending them to me (UTurn is only for men). Because I’ve been going there this whole time the guys in the program and those leading it know me and trust me. Please be praying though as it is very difficult to really connect with these women and setup times to sit down with them as they are on some pretty serious drugs and going through some crazy stuff. 

• Pray for supernatural wisdom as I reach out and minister to these women
• For them to really commit to getting together and setting up times to meet with them. The ones currently reaching out to are Nicola, Laura and Nicci.
• Pray specifically for Nicci as she is on a lot of serious drugs, recently lost her mom, has lots of difficult issues and has a 6yr old son that I’m not sure is getting appropriate care.

Human Trafficking

As you all know this is a huge heart of mine and I’m stoked that the Lord is potentially opening up doors here to start getting more involved in this area of ministry. I’ve been having several meetings with different people around London that are doing work with prostitutes and trafficking victims. I’ve had a couple meetings with this one ministry and have one coming up this week to talk more specifics about potentially getting involved with them as they are looking to open up a safe house for rescued girls. There is a huge need in this country (and our city) for non government funded safe houses and rehabilitation for girls and more importantly ones that are Christ centered. There are only a few in the country and they are all government funded. It is a complicated process to even get a girl into a safe house and then at that they are only able to be there for 48 days and then there is no followup after they leave. One lady I met with has been asked by one of the safe houses if she would be willing to start connecting with the women they release and getting them connected with others that can be support networks for these women. So we may start being a ministry that she connects these girls with. There are also some potential opportunities for us to start helping some outreach with street prostitutes. One girl in our fellowship has just begun working with a ministry doing this in a bad area in south London. I am looking at creating some connections to be able to start doing street outreach to prostitutes in our area in North London.

• Pray for wisdom and the Lord’s leading in all of this in regards to our involvement in this area of ministry to those trapped in the sex industry
• Pray for the freedom and healing in Christ for these victims. 

Performance Industry on the West End

I have always had such a heart for the dance and performance industry as I know how dark it can be and extremely hard to be a Christian in. Due to my muscle disorder getting so bad I haven’t been able to dance in many years so it really seemed like doing any kind of ministry through dance wasn’t really an option. However, our fellowship here has several amazing professional dancers in it which has started to open doors for really reaching out to the dance community. God is so good! I love how He can take our passion for something and still use us in that arena even if it looks radically different than we thought it could.

For those of you who don’t know the West End is a famous area for major theater companies. The scene behind the stage in the performance industry is one that desperately needs the light of Jesus. There’s a girl that goes to one of our weekly Bible studies that works in The Lion King. She has really gotten on fire for the Lord and started reaching out to her cast and crew. Through this God opened up the door to start a weekly Bible study in a coffee shop in Covent Garden (right near all the major theatres) that is mainly geared towards those working in the performance industry. We just started a couple weeks ago and are going through the Gospel of John. The other week a couple other girls and I were able to go around to several of the major theatres and dance companies and put up fliers about the Bible study on announcement boards at the desks at the backstage doors. God gave us amazing favor to be able to put these up. Pray that these fliers really stand out to the people that need to come and hear about Jesus. 

As I have been walking and praying over these theatres the last couple of weeks the image that really has been in my heart is of starting sparks in each one these theatres that will then catch people on fire for the Lord. Imagine if we can help raise up strong  ambassadors for Christ in each of these casts that will then be bright lights within their companies and bring others to Jesus. Just like what we are already seeing happening in the cast of Lion King. God is so amazing I can’t wait to see what all He has in store!

• Pray for the right people to see the fliers up backstage of the theatres and come to the study
• For a girl in Lion King named Sarah who just gave her life to the Lord
• For a couple other girls in Lion King that are wanting to get serious about their walks with the Lord and are going through some hard stuff. I’m hopefully going to be meeting with them personally here soon. 
• For the dance and performance industry in here in London to no longer be seen as a dark industry but one that is on fire for the Lord!
• Pray for those that are Christians to stand up and be bold about Jesus and live for Him.
• Pray for us as we seek to build relationships with the different casts and crew of these theatres.

Fundraising

Sorry this update is getting extremely long. I am blessed beyond belief if you have read this far!

I did want to inform you though about my current support raising situation. As you all know the only way that I am able to have any kind of funds as a missionary here is through support from individuals from the States. As of now, my monthly support is about $1000/month short (i.e. 50 $20/mo supporters) of where it ideally needs to be in order for me to be able to stay living here. So far I’ve been able to use some of the little I had saved from before and have been able to live with the pastor’s family for low rent. However, it isn’t sustainable. The the areas of expense are cost of living, ministry expenses and travel. 

My travel expenses have been going up quite a bit as God has called me to so many areas of ministry all over the city. You get charged for every zone you travel through. We live in zone 5 (cheaper to live), and I now have different ministries in zones 1-4 (one being central London and the most expensive to travel through). To buy a monthly pass for zones 1-5 it is around 190 pounds which comes out to about $300. Currently I have zones 2-5 (116 pounds) and just pay the additional fee when go through zone 1. I only explain this so you can get an idea of what some of the costs look like. 

Sorry I know most people hate talking about money, myself included, but I really felt that I needed to be completely honest about my current status. Also, I wanted to ask you all to pray about a few things...

• For God to provide in His way, in His timing  so He gets the glory for every aspect of this ministry!
• Let me know if you have any great fundraising ideas to either help with or head up back there in the states. If so talk to my mom or sister Anna if you know them and are in the Sacramento area or let me know and I can get you connected with others in your area.
• Pray about if God may be leading you to be a part of this ministry through monthly support.
• Pray about if one or a few people wanted to specifically fund my monthly travel card. This is huge in that it really frees me up for ministry as I’m not hindered financially from going to meet up with people wherever needed and serve in the different areas of ministry. Especially as we are doing some much now in central London. 
• Thank you so much for those of you that are currently financial supporters!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!!!!! You are all such a vital part of this ministry the Lord is doing here in London. Please know how valued you are and the blessing you are to me!

In Christ Jesus,

Naomi

naomielissa.blogspot.com • naomielissa84@gmail.com | To Give Through Shepherd’s Staff Visit: www.ssmfi.org • click on donate • my account #1023 

Catching up on some picture updates

Sorry I've been so bad about doing updates on my blog. So I decided to just post a bunch of different random pics that have been taken so you can see a glimpse of life here.

God has been doing so many amazing and powerful things here that I think I have just been almost intimidated to try to sit down and write it all out. Especially since I know no one has the time to read a novel in the midst of their day. I just can't stop praising the Lord for the amazing and beautiful work He is doing and the fact that I actually get to be a part of it. Our God is so good, so amazing and powerful! As my dear sister Amiyna put it one night when she was teaching 'He is God ALmighty not some-might.' So while these pictures won't even begin to tell of all these amazing things I thought people might enjoy getting to see faces of the people here that you can be praying for.

Look back at the last several posts to see the different albums and read some of what has been going on.

Thank you all so much for your prayers! God bless!

Wed Night Study

Wed Night Study, a set on Flickr.

What an amazing night of worship and teaching! God is doing so many amazing things in this beautiful body of saints!

These are some pics I last month at our Wed night study.

Wed Night Outreach

Wed Night Outreach, a set on Flickr.

One of the highlights of my week is getting to go out on Wed nights after the study and share Jesus on the streets of Camden. You never know who or what your going to run into but for sure the hope and love of Christ is being shared. It's amazing to watch the Lord work through each person that comes out with us and it's such a blessing to see my brothers and sisters so eager to share the Gosple and love on people.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, [fn] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes..." Rom 1:16

Sunday Mornings

Sunday Mornings, a set on Flickr.

So amazingly blessed by our fellowship! It has been instant family since the day I got here. God is doing such amazing things in and through this fellowship!

Most of these are photos someone took this last Sunday. It was such a sweet time of worship (with our new praise team that's being raised up), prayer during worship for other nations and for all the fathers in our church, time in the word and fellowship afterwards at our bring and share.

There are a few pics from a previous Sunday as Tonye was teaching on the role of the priests. As we have been going through Exodus and all that God setup with the Tabernacle we've had people from our fellowship create life size mockups of the different furniture and clothing. It really helps to get a sense of what it's talking about. I've been so blessed too to learn more of the meaning behind how God very specifically setup the Tabernacle with every single aspect of it having such deep meanings. As well as how every piece of it also parallels so much of what Christ would then do. Especially as you compare these aspects of the Tabernacle to the 7 'I AM' statements in John. Such cool stuff. Let me know if anyone wants more info on this.