Nicole

At the beginning of the week-long New Wine conference this summer, I was approached by someone who asked me what my prayer for the week was.

I said, ‘That it wouldn’t rain and we’d stay healthy’.

He responded that during the course of the week God would heal my broken heart, anoint my ministry and bless my children.

My first reaction was that I’d totally missed the spiritual part - and that I don’t have a broken heart. As I fancied the rest of the prophecy, though, I thought I’d claim the whole package! Well, my heart was broken on Friday when I was badly let down by a friend, and it was mended by Sunday. The children were blessed; I’ve been freed up and fired up for Jesus; and I’ve had numerous opportunities to serve him since then, as you’ll see if you read on.

One talk at New Wine really stirred me up. The speaker encouraged us to ‘ruthlessly pursue the presence of God; expect great things from God; do great things for God.’

We need the presence of God, he said, in order to do great things with courage. We also need time – Jesus had time for people and interruptions – so we should keep our eyes open for these ‘opportunities of interruptions’.

I also learnt about ‘the overflow principle’: whatever you are full of will overflow to those around you. If we are full of hurt, then this will overflow to others; if love, then this will overflow as well. We need to have our identity in God alone to receive his love to us, so it can flow out to others. People around us can feel the difference between acts done out of duty, and out of genuine love.

While I was still at New Wine, someone unexpectedly gave me a large sum of money. They had no reason other than they clearly felt the Lord telling them to do this for me. I was taken aback at first - this overflow of God’s genuine love from someone else to me was overwhelming. It highlighted what God had been teaching me, and then I felt he said, ‘Now go and do likewise: be ready to give, and ready to listen to me for my prompting.’

After New Wine my children were set to go on their first holiday ever with their dad, - they would be away for over a week. How could I use this opportunity to serve God, with so much time to myself? Fired up from the conference, I thought I’d go off to Hong Kong to work with Jackie Pullinger. I thought, ‘I’ll just fly in and get out on the streets!’

The only slight problem was that you can’t organise that in a week, and it costs a lot; I’d need to raise about a thousand pounds. Then God showed me that even if I could raise a thousand pounds for the mission trip, most of it was going to be blown on aeroplane fuel and create greenhouse gases. How much more efficiently could I spend even a fraction of that money in London, right here on my doorstep?

So that’s what I decided to do: to get out on my own streets. I dedicated the time to serving the Lord though I had no idea what I would be doing. But God knew. He filled every moment from morning until night, giving me opportunities to speak out for him and help others.

Day one
As I walked to the corner shop a woman stopped me for some money for food. I hesitated a second, thinking of all I was about to do, then remembered that I have space in my life this week for interruptions. So I told her I would buy her some food, even though it was expensive. (I had to remind myself that I’d decided to use money here in London instead of raising it for a mission trip.) Shortly after, we were sitting chatting about her life over a pizza. My trip to the corner shop took a lot longer than planned!

Day two
I was at the swimming pool and I saw a mother I recognised from my son’s nursery days, years before. I plucked up the courage to re-introduce myself to her even though it was time to get out and shower. Tossing aside my need to keep to schedule, I ended up talking with her for another hour by the pool, following my mention of Jesus. She blessed me with stories of her passion for the Lord over the years and I think we both came away refreshed.

Day three
I popped over to a friend in need, planning to stay for just an hour because I had a large backlog of work to do. I was still with her four and a half hours later, because God wanted me to keep on praying. When I got home I had a phone call from a Jewish neighbour next door, followed by the neighbour living in the flat above. I was supposed to be seeing other friends that evening, but two hours passed in conversation with my neighbours as God asked me to stop and build relationships with them.

Day four
As I got off the bus in the evening, eagerly looking forward to home and a shower, I saw a young woman sitting on a bench by the road looking very sad and swigging from a wine bottle. I felt the Lord prompt me to talk to her so I went to sit next to her and asked if she was OK. She wouldn’t speak at all, but looked at me and began to cry. I didn’t know what to do, but then I remembered I had a tissue in my bag and gave it to her. She seemed overwhelmed by the gesture. I continued to talk to her gently though she didn’t utter a word.

I said, ‘However bad things may be, there are people who care and God cares for you. I know this because he has sent me to talk to you.’

Fresh tears filled her eyes, and I continued to wait quietly by her side, praying silently all the time. An hour later, having told her of the love Jesus has for her, at times just sitting saying nothing and other times chatting generally, I told her I would leave. At this point she sat up and called out. Now I knew she could at least understand me and was English! I asked if she wanted me to stay with her and she nodded. Another hour went past before I left her. I felt I had done all I could - she had built up some trust in me and had asked me to walk her to the pub, where I protected her from the hostility of those on the door.

I left her late in the night in the cold evening by that pub, still drinking. I felt there was so little I could do for this beautiful young woman. But what God showed me is that one of the greatest needs in London is not for material things, but an answer to the problem of loneliness. My being with her, even though it was just a couple of hours, was fulfilling her need for a short time.

Day five
Was a bit stressed as to how I would manage everything I’d committed myself to that day – I was hosting and catering for ‘open house’ for church, and I’d also agreed to do some babysitting for a couple in the evening. I entrusted it to God and got in with doing the barbeque I’d planned. When everyone was there and the evening was in full swing I left them all in my flat to go and babysit. When I came back I was totally blessed to discover an immaculately tidied flat!

Day six
I gave the next few days to serving at Besom, a Christian charity which provides furniture and goods to people on low incomes. We prayed together, loaded up the van and took some bedroom furniture to an Eritrean asylum seeker in Stockwell. He had literally nothing – only the stone floor to sleep on. I was struck by the man’s response to us, saying ‘God bless you,’ over and over again, even though we had no bed to give him.

Day seven
Amazingly, God provided all the rest of the furniture the Eritrean man said he wanted for his flat including a sofabed and details like a wash basket. We worked hard to assemble everything and made it look really homely. It was the first night he could sleep in his own flat.

That evening I went back home to cook dinner for a friend. As I dropped her home, I got a text from a friend in distress asking me to come by and pray. It was 11.30pm! But as I happened to be a road away from where I was dropping my friend, I went and prayed until 1.30am. God gave me insight into the situation and how to pray,

Day eight
I was too tired to get up for the van run down at Besom, but felt I had to go in to talk to the staff, particularly one woman. When I got there everyone was out to lunch, except for her. We ate together and she had tine to share her problems with me. We worked together in the afternoon and I was able to tell her what I felt the Lord was saying to her.

That evening I went back to the home of the friend who was in distress, along with another friend, for more prayer.

Day nine
I did some work from home then out to a leaving party. Another friend was there in deep distress over very bad news concerning her marriage; I talked with her late into the night. She said I was an answer from God to her, and my words stuck with her throughout the night and for the next couple of days.

I learnt so much in that short period of time. As I gave my time to the Lord, and also made space in my week to be used by him, he brought people across my path.

I think that God will use us if we choose to go with whatever he’s put in front of us. If we make the space every so often in our busy lives and keep our eyes open, these ‘opportunities of interruptions’ will always come along.