by Pastor Joey Rozek, CC Cambridge
I will never forget my first mission trip to England when I realized that our team had missed the last bus from Bridlington to York after spending a day praying and reaching out to troubled teens. We needed to get back to the Bible College where we were staying but we needed God to intervene to show us how to get there. So we asked God to provide … and just then, I noticed a bus a couple of streets down the road that had just stopped. Telling the other leaders to stay with our team, I attempted to flag down the bus. Thankfully, the driver was willing to take us to another location where we could catch a bus back to York. There was only one other gentleman on that bus, and he happened to be a university professor, who was openly seeking to learn about Jesus Christ and whether God existed or not. We were already seeing how God works all things together for good as some team members shared the truth of God’s Word with him in a reasonable way.
When we changed buses and began our journey back toward York, I noticed our entire team were engaged in great conversations with different people all over the crowded bus. God had opened many effective doors for us to sow the truth of His Word in the hearts of these people. Some of the students were really encouraged by one particular man who was an African missionary living in York named Andre Abraham Silas. The interesting thing about meeting him was that he had lost his wallet earlier that day and was in a similar situation to us, needing to find an alternative route back to York.
God had opened many effective doors for us to sow the truth of His Word ...
Once we arrived in York, a team member introduced me to Andre and I immediately noticed he was a man full of the Holy Spirit. Our team was very excited to meet this brother who loved Jesus after a long day of ministering to apathetic young people. I love how God takes our disappointments and turns them into His divine appointments where He reveals His wonderful works. After I gathered our team together to pray for God’s blessing and favour over Andre’s ministry he looked me in the eye and said God had put words on his heart to share with me. Everything he shared was confirmation of the things that I had been praying about concerning God’s direction for my life. He then invited us to join him at his office that overlooks the main portion of the city centre of York where he spent hours each day interceding for the people there. Most of the team was exhausted after the long day, but six of the students decided to join us. The eight of us walked through the city until we arrived at some stairs that led into an empty office. It had no furniture but had some distinct items that hung on the wall. There was a map of the world, a shepherd’s staff, a picture of the face of a lion, and a Scripture verse that said, “Rejoice always, again I say rejoice (Phil 4:4). The verse caught my eye because I had shared it that very morning to encourage the team. Within a couple of minutes, the Lord had stirred all of our hearts to spend some time in prayer for this spiritually barren land that had forsaken God and the Bible.
... the Lord stirred my heart more and more for the British people
Moments after as we sought the Lord, the Spirit fell upon that room so mightily and without a word being spoken, that our entire team was either bowing down or lying prostrate before the Lord. We prayed for about three hours that night and many prophetic words spoken were very specific to each member of our team. It was like we were the eight souls that were safe inside Noah’s Ark experiencing God’s grace while the outside world was entrenched in their usual sinful nightlife. God had powerfully moved in all of our heats and before we parted our ways from this special night, Andre took the shepherd’s staff from the wall and handed it to me, leaving me with some final words of encouragement concerning the call that God had for my life. As we walked away, we began to wonder if Andre was actually an angel sent from God to encourage us.
Over the course of the next two years, I returned to England with teams of young people to assist the Calvary Chapel fellowships and to make people aware of the amazing love that Jesus demonstrated on the cross of Calvary and the truth of His glorious resurrection. During this time the Lord stirred my heart more and more for the British people.
God had just used Andre to confirm “His divine call to England” with Supernatural clarity
So on May 9, 2006, I spent a day fasting and praying at Monmouth Battlefield Park, which was one of my favourite places of refuge in New Jersey and ironically a battlefield where the Americans held their ground against the previously winning British forces. I needed God to clearly show me if He was calling my family and me to move to England to serve Him as missionaries. I really needed to hear from the Lord if I was going to leave family and friends behind and take my wife and children to a land and culture different from the one I was privileged to grow up in. I did not receive a burning bush experience that day at the park … but the day was still not over. At around 10:00 pm (which is 3:00 am in England), I received a timely phone call from Andre, of all people, after having no communication with him since our last encounter in York two years previously. He told me that God woke him up in the middle of the night and put me on his heart. After briefly catching up, we spent some time in prayer before He shared some things He felt God wanted to speak to me. What I heard that night is living proof that God not only hears our prayers but He truly speaks to those who are seeking Him.
Earlier that day, I had been wrestling with the Lord in prayer over three pressing matters that concerned me about moving my family to England. I was completely filled with awe when Andre began to speak prophetic words that directly related to all three of these areas one by one. He even gave me specific Scriptures that perfectly addressed each of these areas that I could from then on hold onto as words of assurance from God. He had no idea that he was answering all of the questions that I had raised previously to the Lord that day. I was also amazed when Andre told me that he had spent the previous week in Cambridge, praying with some believers who were gathered for an international prayer meeting, since that was the actual city I felt called to move to: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33).
God will always give a basis for our faith “... for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”
Then … as if what he had shared was not enough, he went on to speak a word that I had been meditating on for weeks concerning the life and ministry of John the Baptist and how he was called to be a “voice” of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. With tears filling my eyes and my heart overflowing with a heavenly joy, I knew that God had just used Andre to confirm “His divine call to England” with supernatural clarity.
It is exciting to know that God orders the steps of His children and is always leading us “on paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” to accomplish His eternal purpose throughout the earth. God provided everything that was required for us to move to the UK to serve Him, as the Shepherd always goes before His sheep. Whenever we are called to take a step of faith, we know that God will always give a basis for our faith for “… faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17).
We have been serving the Lord in Cambridge, England since the beginning of February of 2009. We didn’t know a single person in Cambridge when we first arrived, but after meeting a couple who had been praying for a Calvary Chapel here, we began to disciple them and open up our home to teach through the Bible. The Lord has faithfully connected us with many different people, many of which were praying for a fellowship that was faithful to God’s Word and yet open to the leading of God’s Spirit. God has also given us great favour among other church leaders in the community and we know that God has sent us here to be bondservants of Christ and the servants of all that we might add to each one and fulfill our call. And like Noah … when God calls us on these ventures of faith, He will show us what to do and how to build one beam of wood at a time.
“And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.” – John 10:4