News from Cambridge
Read about what the Lord is doing in my personal walk with Him, as well as in ministry, and in the Church in Cambridge!
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Cambridge, 19th of January 2025
Anticipation & Preparation
This past week has been quite intense spiritually. A few things going on at church that I can’t yet say have made the enemy very unhappy – praise God! The Lord is so faithful though in encouraging us and I really do feel like He is setting us up for the great things He has for us this year.
I have been more consistent in my writing (thanks to Cambridge Writers), which brings me so much joy and I have the crazy ambition of finishing the novel by the end of the year. However, one of the ladies in my writing group has been working on hers for eight years so in comparison I really don’t feel any pressure. 75 pages have already been written, in need of serious editing though, and prayerfully the story is slowly developing in more detail. I’m hoping to have a mini-holiday in an English Christian guesthouse in the Black Forest (where my novel is set) this year, and have a bit of a writing retreat. It seems that the Lord continues to open doors for me to visit that part of Germany.
More stripping back has happened this past week as the Lord gave me a greater vision of the beauty He sees in meek simplicity that seeks to draw no attention to self and finds itself content with humbly and simply following Jesus. I’m very grateful for all the real-life examples the Lord has placed in my life that demonstrate this attitude, for it so very countercultural and it is very easy to be swept away by wordly influences in the opposite direction. Consequently, I tried to get rid of all that I noticed in my heart and home that stood in conflict to this attitude, and remove things I found to be prideful. What great freedom lies in that!
Today we had our annual meeting at church – it was great to look back at the things the Lord has done for us in 2024 and I’m so very grateful to be part of that fellowship! Literally, I could not think of a better place to be than in the presence of these people who love the Lord so much and are overflowing with His Spirit and zeal for His Kingdom. What a shame that there are not more places like this.
God bless you & with love,
Anna
We were filled with laughter,
and we sang for joy.
And the other nations said,
“What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”
Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!
What joy!Psalm 126:2-3
Cambridge, 10th of January 2025
A Blessed Headstart
Strength comes out of weakness, a well-known Christian principle. I wrote about tiredness and a tangible need for God in my frailty in my last blog post, and ten days into the new year I can testify of the strength and security that was born out of that. Again and again the Lord confirmed to me the word He gave me about simplifying my life in order to focus on Him, removing distractions that are continuously thrown at us through the use of social media – and what a difference it has made already! A steady peace and an increasing ability to focus enabled me to have greater clarity, hear the voice of the Lord more tangibly, ponder Scripture more deeply, and enjoy life more in the small things. And I found that I don’t miss out on anything! Contentment in the simiplicity of Christ is great gain.
On Tuesday this week I attended ‘Cambridge Writers’ for the first time – a small group of authors meeting to give and receive feedback on any pieces they have written. On the way there I was also able to share the Gospel with my taxi driver, a friendly guy with a great sense of humour who seemed very open. A few things I shared clearly made him think and I pray that he will continue to ponder them. The group itself was a blessing. Exactly the kick in the butt I needed for my writing project – meeting monthly will motivate me to keep at it with my work and the feedback from skilled sets of eyes and outsiders’ perspectives are so very needed in the writing process! None of the people in the group are Christians which gives me the opportunity to share the truth with them through my story, and test how my writing falls on the ears of unbelievers as they are the intended audience of the novel I’m writing. We will see what the Lord does with that!
Also on Tuesday this week our pastor was meeting with a vicar of a church in Cambridge, hoping to secure us a building in the city centre to preach the Gospel in the heart of Cambridge on Sunday afternoons. The meeting went well, but a few hoops have to be jumped through still, so prayers are very much appreciated for this mission!
Excited for all the things the Lord has in store for us this year!
God bless you & with love,
Anna
Cambridge, 30th of December 2024
Simply Christ for 2025
To be honest, I had rather imagined to head into the new year feeling strong, perhaps accomplished, filled with a sense of achievement looking at the year that now lies behind me. After all, there is so much to praise the Lord for and I know that, by His Grace, I have come far. However, instead of this sense of tangible victory I feel weak, tired, and aware like never before of how much I have need of God. And perhaps this is the right way to start the new year.
I have spoken to other sisters as they have shared the same sentiment and have felt the same call as the Lord has placed on my heart: to strip back and to simplify my life in order to focus on Him, which gave me assurance and encouragement that the Lord is leading me to a fruitful place. I don’t know about you, but when life is full of good things, an abundance of the Lord’s blessings as it has been the case for me in the past few weeks, the simplicity of simply having fellowship with our heavenly Father in prayer, Word, and worship, is often neglected. And then spiritual fatigue sets in. Multiple times I have fallen into this trap in the past year and sometimes it takes us falling into the ditch several times until we finally get up and walk the straight and narrow path. However, following Jesus is about getting back up again and again, and the last days of the month of December are times for new year’s resolutions, aren’t they?
So as the Lord showed me that our society in general, and me specifically, are too overstimulated with good as well as bad things it is time to make some changes. Overstimulation tires us out, and we are more vulnerable for the enemy to attack. Overstimulation, which can very well come through Christian content as well, pushes the simplicity of intimate prayer and the purity of God’s Word aside. Other voices become louder, and we become restless, disconnected from the Lord, and dissatisfied with life.
I noticed that small and temporary changes, as I have made them in the past, won’t do the trick. I fast social media for a week, maybe a month, and then go back to my old ways and don’t reach my full potential in the Lord. The Christian life always has been a call to radical change, and my heart is in a place right now where I thirst for the presence of the Lord, am dissatisfied in a healthy way, and prepared to do whatever it takes to fill my life with Christ. And even just the prospect of that, in my tiredness and exhaustion, fills me with excitement and joy! Praise God that in a sense it is so simple, and that we don’t need much to lead a successful, fulfilled, and joyful life. We simply need the presence of God and the determination to get rid of anything in and around us that hinders His presence from unfolding in our lives.
What are those things in your life? As for me, it will be my phone and digital media. I have grown so used to consuming quick, accessible, and stimulating information that I now find it hard to focus in prayer, and reading the Word has become difficult. I wonder how my brain would change if I went from “fast-food” Christian content to mainly books and the Word for a year. Only one way to find out, right?
And with these thoughts I leave you as we head into the year 2025 – thankful for what has been, humbled for what I have left undone, and determined to not waste the future potential of Christ in me.
God bless you & with love,
Anna
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
Psalm 1:1-3