Recently, one of our supporting churches in the United States sent me a list of questions aimed at understanding our ministry in Wales more fully. After reflecting on my answers, I thought that others might be interested to read some of them and so I plan to post those here (slightly edited for a more general audience) over the next couple of weeks.

What do you see as your primary role (in Wales)?

My wife and I view our role as missionaries to Wales, no different than any couple sent by a denominational mission board, except that we are self-funded—partly through our employment in local ministries and partly through the support of churches via Grace Church Planting Ministries (GCPM). When a church becomes one of our partners through GCPM, they are supporting a missionary family and not just one person. My wife is the full-time manager of a local Christian bookshop, Harvest Books & Crafts, and this has opened tremendous doors of ministry for me, both within local churches and among marginalized people who come into the bookshop seeking advice, counseling, benevolence, spiritual guidance, and friendship.

My primary role is two-fold at the present time: (1) serving as a church development worker for Temple Baptist Church in Pontypridd and (2) ministering more widely in South Wales and beyond. Even our fellow missionaries with the Southern Baptist Convention in South Wales work primarily through local churches, helping them build a more effective ministry of outreach to their town, region, and nation. The only difference is that Temple Baptist Church pays me a part-time salary for three days per week. Without this income support and my wife’s income from the bookshop, we would be unable to remain in Wales.

Sometimes it’s difficult to make a clear distinction between the work I do with Temple Baptist and the ministries outside of that role, since there is a lot of overlap. For example, I might act as the regional coordinator of a large mission team from the states, working with a wide variety of local churches to insure proper placement of the teams; and yet I also have responsibility to effectively deploy that same team’s resources assigned to Temple Baptist Church.

One Sunday morning I had been asked to preach at our church and I gave a practical illustration of how Christians can make a difference in the lives of others. We had taken a young heroin addict into our home, against the advice of the local police (they knew him), and we were able to get this formerly homeless man placed in a Christian drug rehab center in Birmingham, England. Today he is a vibrant Christian who is serving on staff with that ministry, and they recently sent him to Sydney, Australia, where he is establishing a new drug rehab ministry there.

Several days later, I received a phone call from a woman whose friend heard me tell that story and she was desperate for someone to help her 22-year-old daughter, a heroin addict and a prostitute. The young woman has suffered several serious setbacks, but we are still engaged with her family and ministering to them as God opens the doors for us.

So to answer your question, we are simply sharing the Good News with those who don’t know Christ; and we really don’t mind what path the Lord takes us down to share His grace. It can be a lead through the bookshop, a contact through the local church, a support role to encourage church planters throughout Wales, or helping American mission teams learn a new culture and share their faith with those in South Wales.

Some days seem so ordinary—no different than if we were back in the states and living a normal Christian life—and other days highlight the massive cultural transition we are experiencing for the cause of Christ and the extension of His kingdom. Our Christian friends in Wales often express their gratitude for those who come here to labor alongside them and encourage them in the faith and our non-Christian friends candidly share their disbelief and bewilderment that we would move from the white sands of northwest Florida to the valleys of South Wales. “Are you mad?” they sometimes say; and occasionally I tend to agree with them.

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READ THE NEXT ARTICLE HERE –>: “Our Ministry in Wales, Part 2“