Yesterday we donned shirts saying "Love Tremorfa" because we genuinely do love Tremorfa. We love this neighbourhood, and we love these people, most of whom we haven't even met. We don't love for what it is, not for what it is or isn't doing, but rather because Jesus has called us to love this place, these people and has overflowed us with a deep love for them.
And we wanted to bless, to serve this place. We want to bless and serve this place.
We wandered one day looking for people to pray with...and turned up empty (that's another story though). But we saw this ugly wall in Tremorfa Park - it needed some colour. So we thought, "We could paint it!" A week later I wandered Tremorfa taking pictures for Gary's America trip and low and behold the wall had been painted.
A bit shocked by how quickly that wall had been painted since we had just thought about, we realised we had to move onto something else. God had something else for us to do in the estate.
So we prayer walked around Tremorfa park. There is one part of Tremorfa weighing heavy on our hearts. This part is where a lot the young people we know live. And we saw the play park. It's tiny just two swings, a slide and a rocking horse. But the paint is chipped. There are brambles surrounding the back of the park. Some serious litter is needed to be picked up. And a dad and his child are using it. This park is used, especially by the part of the estate weighing on our hearts.
So we start praying for God to open the door for this to happen. We contact Cardiff Council and get an almost immediate response and go ahead. We gather the people. We want this to be something that joins local churches in the community to bless the area.
People gathered from different churches, different nationalities, different ages to paint, to pick up litter, to bless this community by doing something so simple.
We made new connections with people. We were able to get know one of the lads who comes to club on a Thursday better - he even said he would come to church tomorrow! We met people who were curious. Three curious little girls said they too were coming to church. Another lady said she would join us if we let her when we did it again. Two lads spend the day with us - they didn't really help - but they spend the day with us associating with us. That's a big step.
We didn't see in big conversions. But our God is faithful as we follow Him. He held the rain. He brought the people. He made this happen. And we believe more is to come as He is faithful and does big things.
Michael and I took a 5 minute walk and were reminded that what we feel called to here is long term. It will take time. We have to not just say but also be willing to accept and commit to Tremorfa may be our forever home. And we commit in the day by day, to be obedient day by day, loving these people day by day.
Love Tremorfa yesterday I believe is just the start of something. So join us as we pray for more opportunities like yesterday. More ways to go beyond the church to meet people, to love them. We want people to meet Jesus. We don't want to give them another church (though we love and value the church), we don't want to give them religion or even another movement. We want to point them to Jesus. Because meeting Jesus changes everything. Jesus sets free. Jesus brings hope. Jesus is better than anything the world can offer, than religion can offer. Jesus is who I need, you need and they need. So pray that they would meet Jesus.
