Hope Garnish

Getting married, returning to England, home owning and renovating, attending a new church, applying for a new job and building new friendships in a new community… safe to say I didn’t expect any of this 9 months ago. It would be completely understandable for anyone to conclude that this is perhaps too much to change in a year but I have been so incredibly amazed at how God has guided me and Tom so gently through it all. Through words, pictures, conversations, prompts and a strong heart direction change, God has clearly shown us the way He wants us to go and we are both so thankful for this.

Through this process of huge change I am so grateful for God’s evident guidance but more so, I am thankful for God’s work in my heart to increase my faith in him and become more convinced of what is written in Psalm 32:8 ‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.’ Coming to know this more, I have felt a real change in my heart of feeling more peaceful and confident of God’s active guidance for each step of our lives. He really does love to guide, all we must do is bring it all to Him in surrender and listen.

Now drawing my time in Turin to a close, after 5 years, it brings me so much joy to reflect back on God’s faithfulness to bring about fruit as we continue to labour for His glory. The past 2 years working with the church have looked so different to what I expected due to more immediate needs of the church and lower capacity from personal ongoing illness. My heart has had moments of discouragement and worry that I have not done enough; feelings the enemy would love for me to dwell on, but God, in his fatherly love, has again kindly reminded me of his plans that prevail whether it seems to make sense to us or not. During the time I have loved working with the Pastors to consider how to develop the ministries throughout the church, seeing a big change in the welcome team and Sunday school especially. It is such a joy to see the teams not only striving for excellence in their ministry but also meeting regularly and praying for one another as they serve. It is also a huge joy to now see sustainable structure and vision in the women’s ministry. Lastly I have enjoyed so much doing more practical design jobs for the church like creating sound panels and helping make our new building feel more welcoming and homely for all.

I am so grateful for the opportunity God has given me to be a part of and serve the international church family here in Turin. I will miss them dearly. What a joy to know that one day we will all be basking in God’s glory together, forever.

Please note that MISSION PRAYER CENTRAL on Thursday 20 June at 7.30 pm will be IN PERSON during which we are looking forward to hearing from Hope.