We want to tell you a little story, and it just so happens to be a little snippet of our story.  We hope it will encourage and inspire you to think BIG when you think GOD!

Introducing Tom and Lydia Fasham, just a regular couple with an anything but regular God!  Our lovey dubby courtship began way back at the turn of the century, culminating in a beautiful wedding day in late 2004. Despite Tom’s childhood dream of becoming a stuntman and Lydia’s of being an air hostess, God had other ideas and Tom was soon an all singing, all dancing civil engineer. Lydia, not such a dab hand with calculations, found her place working on staff with our church in Swansea. Now, 4 years later we find ourselves living in the Philippines, serving God for a year with ministries without borders... how did that happen? Why the drastic change?    

We’ve always loved travelling but travelling and actually serving God overseas, well they’re totally different stories.  If we were to move overseas we’d need to leave our local church, jobs, house, friends, families and roast dinners... terrifying in the extreme.  But despite all the ‘comforts’ of home we couldn’t deny that God was impressing on our hearts to go, and put the gifting He’d given us to work overseas.  

We had heard of the work of ministries without borders amongst the poor in the Philippines and, after making some enquiries, established that Noralv and Tone Askeland were very open to having us join them in the work. But we wanted to know that the gifting and skills we could offer married up with their current needs - we felt this would be a good indicator that God was in the move.  On a very practical level we could offer them skills in engineering, looking after volunteers, experience in children’s work and leadership... what were their needs? An engineer, someone to look after volunteers, children’s workers and people with leadership – praise the Lord – we think He may just have spoken!  

Since arriving our time here in the Philippines has absolutely flown by.  We’ve learnt to take a very flexible approach in our serving, working in areas that we previously had experience in and areas that we previously had NO experience in... it’s certainly got us out of our comfort zone, which is a very positive thing indeed.

Jail ministry definitely fits into the being stretched category. Every week we visit the local prison, spending time with both the juvenile offenders and some of the older female inmates.  Being with the youngsters has been such a privilege; some of them are as young as six, locked up with no idea if they’ll ever see Mum or Dad again. We’re able to show them God loves them in very real and tangible ways, with fun and laughter definitely being the key ingredients to bringing light to their day.  Our time with the ladies has been equally awesome and we’ve been blessed to lead many of them to Christ and then watch with thanksgiving God’s transformation in their character.

Leading people to Christ is a real highlight for us. Earlier in the year we led on a youth camp with a team visiting from Norway. Many of the kids that came had never heard the Gospel, and only a handful of the 50 young people were born-again... well, that was at the beginning of the camp! It’s amazing what 48hours can do when God is with you... by the end over 30 had committed their lives to Jesus and been baptised in the conveniently placed Pacific Ocean. Praise the Lord! 

 

 

The variety of ways that we have been able to serve God in this year has been incredible.  Reaching out to the poorest of the poor is extremely humbling and we really feel our character and gifts have been shaped by these opportunities. We won’t deny that moving overseas has provided its challenges - making new friends, finding our place again in church life, adapting to a different culture, language, and of course... the cockroaches. But, as in the words of James, we “count it all joy” as we know we are being changed and challenged in ways that only stand to benefit and build us as God’s children.

We hope this testimony will be an encouragement to you to realise that God has great big plans for our lives. If God is speaking to you about a change in your life whether it be a change of attitude, job, or location then be brave and move out your comfort zone, He’s with you all the way – you won’t regret it!