Stories
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Southend-on-Sea was the first place in the UK to deliver the fathers love letter to 75,000 homes. Churches worked together and delivered a card with The Fathers Love Letter inside an envelope and a response card. This was delivered during the week of Valentines Day which was what God told us to do. It was delivered by hand so every house on every street was prayed for at the same time. 300 people became Christians and were fed into various churches throughout the city.
The most common testimony was from people who said they had never had a Valentines card and the first one they received was from God! Many of God’s children who had drifted away came back to God as well through the letter; and many people still have the card. God speaks to people through this letter of paraphrased bible verses and Gods word does not return to him empty.
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Located 130 miles north of the Scottish mainland, the Shetland Isles consists of 100 islands of which 16 are occupied, with a population of around 23,000.
The ‘Scottish design’ of the Father’s Love Letter was first produced in 2007 and around 220,000 were first given away during the 50-day ‘Connecting Scotland’ tour between Easter and Pentecost that year. The following year, a group of Christians decided to deliver a copy to every home in Shetland. Given the remoteness of some communities, plus transport and weather challenges, it turned out to be a major project, taking 3 years – from 2008 to 2011 – to deliver one to all 11,000 homes. Christians from all over the Islands and different church backgrounds were involved, helped on one occasion by a visiting YWAM Team.
There were many testimonies from that time. This one is typical: “Unbeknown to me, many of my friends were faithfully praying for me … they were praying that I would truly see myself as God sees me, not as I saw myself. Although my dad was an amazing man, this was a real revelation to me, that I could come to God as my Father. I had previously only really considered God to be a terrifying entity somewhere in space who one day I would have to stand before to explain my failings in life. It was about this time that I read the “Father’s Love Letter”, a collection of Bible verses put together in such a way that shows God’s real feeling towards us as His creation, and family. The more I read the Bible, the more it finally dawned on me that God, My Creator and Heavenly Father was actually rooting me on earth. He didn’t create us to live a life of fear and uncertainty, but to live a full, vibrant, fulfilling life. Free from all guilt and shame, forgiven for all past mistakes.”
The author of this testimony now serves as an elder in a lively church in Lerwick, Shetland’s main town.