In this issue, Julia Brand explores what it means to love and serve God with all our heart, mind, and strength, we share our gratitude for some of the longest-serving Network's Trustees, and their words of encouragement, celebrate God's provision for the Besom in Cambridge and details for our next Five Steps webinar.
Loving and serving God with everything in us
We have been given a great commandment to 'love the lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind' (Mark 12:30-31). But how can we possibly do this when we are feeble human beings prone to hurt, sin, pain, and disappointments?
Julia Brand - Besom Family's Prayer Co-ordinator helps us unpack this.
Julia has been a long-serving member of the Besom Support team since 2021, a Cluster facilitator, a Besom Co-ordinator for the Besom in Ashtead, and our Besom Family Prayer Co-ordinator. As she steps away from the network's responsibilities to focus on Cluster management and prayer coordination, we take a look back and celebrate her Besom journey.
Here's Julia's Besom journey.
Julia's Besom highlights over the years
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Being together to pray, share, and encourage one another
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The joy and sense of family together watching the network support team come together
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The numerous answers to prayer and seeing prophetic words come to life
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The faithfulness of the team of people coming in every week to serve others without giving up
How God's been working on Julia's heart
Julia shared that God's been encouraging her to trust Him more and know that when He asks us or entrusts us with a job, He also gives us everything we need to get the job done.
Julia's stand-on scriptures
Julia leans on these two scriptures and wants to encourage us with them.
Ephesians 2:6-7 'And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.) (NIV)
Proverbs 3:5 'Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight'.
Thank you, Julia, for your servant heart and words of encouragement.
Living with a servant heart
Another besom-er who's served the network for a long time is Tony Hewat. He's served Besom and the network as a Trustee and Treasurer, given pastoral care to the network, and has/still is a core member of the Besom in Woking.
As Tony steps down from the network's responsibilities, we are so grateful for his servant heart and how he's always managed to split his time between serving the various areas within the network and Besom at large.
He's been a very busy man, to say the least.
Here's what we found out about Tony and his Besom life.
How did Tony come to a decision to join the Besom network in 2021?
Tony was serving at 'Churches Together' when he was asked to join the team, he asked his lovely wife Pat who encouraged him to take up the role when he least expected it.
Pat explained that she thought he should accept the role because he's a reliable, honest man who loves organising and bringing people together, but also because he's a man of wisdom.
Tony then had a chat with Steve (Trustee, Cluster Facilitator, and Coordinator of the Besom in Sheffield) and was encouraged to accept the role.
Tony's highlights
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Drawing a team together and building Trustee experience
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Encouraging the teams to feel confident and comfortable to always say what they feel freely
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Meeting lovely people while serving Besom at large
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Seeing people develop during prayer times
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Prayer times together and chats of encouragement
How's God been working on Tony's heart?
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God's been building his patience
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God's given him 'stickability' when challenging situations have happened
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God helped him shape his role, giving him the strength to share during good and sad times
What's Tony's 'pick-me' up scripture
Luke 9:62 Jesus replied, "No one puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God'. (NIV)
Tony's wisdom to us
Always be aware that we should be growing in grace towards others particularly those we help leaving judgment behind.
Thank you, Tony, for serving us so wonderfully.
(In the photo above from left to right: Tony and Pat Hewat)
Kings Church welcomes
Besom-Cambridge
It's always a delight to receive invitations from churches to talk about our work. Felix Hearn, Coordinator of the Besom in Cambridge, recently spoke at 'King's Church' in Cambridge and this opened up amazing doors of provision that they had been praying about.
Not only did they receive financial gifts from the church but there may also be some new time-givers joining their team from this church
Praise the Lord who always surprises us in ways big and small, and hurray to the team in Cambridge, may God continue to surprise you in wonderful ways.
(In the photo above: Felix Hearn)
Can you invite someone?
Our 'Five Steps' Webinar is coming up at the end of this month - Thursday 31st October.
Please invite anyone you know in your community or other churches who might be interested in finding out more about our work or setting up a Besom in their community.
Come share your Besom stories too with us all, let's encourage each other.
Join in every last Thursday of the month at 7:30 PM
Zoom log-in ID: 736 354 4303
No passcode required
Look who featured Besom
in their newsletter
We were thrilled when the Cinnamon Network approached us to delve into our roots and discuss why we meet community needs with love. We willingly contributed a piece detailing our work, history, and motivation, suggesting how churches could adopt our model to reach those in need.
Enjoy reading this piece and consider sharing it with your church community.
Until next time, we leave you with Ephesians 2:10 to reflect upon, as we continue loving the Lord and serving each other and those around us under His guidance. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (NIV).
