Heidi Helbig - GAiN UK
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.” Hebrews 4:9-10
I’m very grateful for a time to have a sabbatical. I’ve been feeling exhausted and depleted since last Autumn, so just needed to stop and have a break. And what a break I had.
A few weeks after starting my sabbatical, I had a viral infection which lasted 5 weeks, so these weeks were real physical rest. It showed that my body just needed a break.
Some of my goals during my sabbatical was to tune my heart mind and soul to God so that I will be able to see, hear and know what He is telling me. I also wanted to simplify my life, that means sorting out our stuff and getting rid of unwanted things that others might be able to benefit from. Lastly, I wanted to improve my painting skills.
I’m glad I had unhurried time to be able to do all these things, not that I have achieved it all perfectly, I’m still in the process of learning and discerning. But it was very good to be able to spend time with God, quiet my heart and try to listen to him speak. For he does speak, it’s I who’s not able to listen to what he tells me.
Ministry updates:
Since moving into our Involvement Centre on Mott Street, Birmingham in early 2023, we’ve been so grateful for this space. We always knew that it would be a temporary home for us as the site is due to be developed and so the time came recently to move!
The logistics team have done an incredible job of quickly organising and executing this transition, with a lot of back and forth driving and heavy lifting. We are now settled into our new home and already have had corporate groups and individuals packing with us. We’re so excited to see how we will continue to love and serve people well in this season.
As you hopefully know we’re all about partnership, and the timing and opportunities we’ve seen during this move have been so encouraging as we share location with Feed The Hungry, at The Halo Centre, Progress Way, Coventry, CV3 2NT.
As we look ahead to the second half of the year, we’re excited to let you know that via local grants, we have procured the finances to send two shipments to Bulgaria to serve the shelters and families that our local partner supports. From August we will be starting to process the aid going in these shipments and so do pray that we can bless our partner, Full Gospel Church in Sofia as they serve homeless children and adults there and in neighbouring towns and cities.
From 21-27 July, we will have our European All Staff Conference and our British staff conference in Berlin, so please pray it will be a blessed time, continuing to be inspired with a vision of what we are called to do and to continue in our service to our God.
We are also making preparations for our Benin LIFE trip in October. We hope to send another team to Benin to help provide safe drinking water to rural villages and to tell them about the Living Water, Jesus. Please pray for God’s guidance every step of the way. For more info: https://globalaidnetwork.org.uk/benin/
As always, I’m grateful and thankful for all your prayers and support. God bless!