Transit's Out for the Summer!

(written with Lauren!)

We’re sitting in the beautiful kitchen of a huge, picturesque 17th century manor house tucked away in the countryside near Bristol, listening to the Goo Goo Dolls and trying to think of something to write here, about Transit. And it’s hard. (Mostly because this kitchen is distracting me. Three cheers for 24-7 for letting us stay in this house for our last retreat!) For the last 10 months, we’ve been trying to describe Transit. That was the number one question we tried to avoid: “What is Transit?” and “Are you studying? Working?” Um, no. And….no. Like face book-- it’s complicated.



What can I say? We all came here to the UK to do Transit, each of us with different reasons, whether it was to learn about Boiler Rooms, or just to learn more about Jesus and be discipled. The UK Transit class of 2008 consists of 10 students, 2 hosts, and 2 kids. We came together from7 different countries: New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Canada, England, Wales, and the United States. It’s been a cross-cultural experience simply living together.



On our ten month discipleship training programme/experience, we became a part of our Boiler Room communities, volunteered in schools, in youth clubs, and with creative mission projects. We prayer-walked and prayer-carded. We got involved in several 24-7 Prayer weeks, including ones in Auchterader, Egham Belfast, Aberystwyth, Guildford, and Southampton). We purposefully found ways to be “intentionally missional” in our greater communities. We practised hospitality; our doors are always open. We travelled around on mission weeks, even as far as the Czech Republic. We had weekly teaching times, and more intense, monthly training. We read the Bible together as a narrative. We had many early mornings of prayer and late nights of watching films or chatting about the tough things of life. That’s what we DID on Transit.



In all this, Transit has been about learning. Yes, it was 10months of learning. That we are the clay and He is the Potter, and that it sometimes hurts to be moulded into the image He wants us to be. That “as iron sharpens iron”, so we sharpen and influence each other-- and it’s not always pleasant. (Think of iron against iron- not a nice sound.) And I think the most important thing we learned was (here it is, Transiters!) that life is supposed to be about loving God, loving others, and sharing the gospel with the nations. I think that’s what Transit centred on, rally. In all our activities, that’s what we were challenged to do. Love God as we go about our lives. Love others out of that place of loving God. And do our part- whatever that might look like- in taking the gospel to the world.


Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may be able to test and approve what God’s will is-- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

It’s like that. It’s been an inward journey for all of us. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that God renewed our minds in different ways, and He transformed our very beings. We are leaving next week, very much changed from who we were a year ago, and all for the better. This chapter of our lives is nearly finished, but there is more in the story for us.