In October we secured our new rented serviced office with DBS in Glenfield, north Leicester, and so we will move to our new home on 14th February 2019. For a short time, there will be some overlap between Glenfield and Welwyn. By the beginning of April everything should be running entirely from Glenfield.

The move will achieve two important things for EMF. It will reduce day to day running costs as we try to strike the biblical balance between dependent faith and good stewardship of God given resources. This we trust will relieve much of the financial pressure the mission has faced in the last few years. Secondly, a substantial part of the funds raised from the sale of Guessens will help establish a Training Fund to train future missionaries for Europe. Significant steps on getting that fund up and running have already been taken and I have also picked up a sense of real anticipation among some of our missionaries. A number of them have repeatedly emphasised in recent days the great need for more workers above all.

Guessens can never be ‘replaced’ in the hearts and minds of many closely connected to EMF. The building has been ‘home’ for so many who came to study the scriptures as they sought the Lord in preparation for His work. Staff and visitors alike will cherish times as they fellowshipped one with the other. Guessens has a long connection, even before EMF’s time there, with evangelicalism (a story we hope to tell more fully in the future). There is now an opportunity for supporters and supporting churches of EMF to make up for the absence of a missionary “home” with a warm welcome in the homes and churches of EMF’s partners in mission. Another advantage to the new situation is the possibility of reviving the family EMF Field Conferences, which were of such importance to EMF missionaries in previous years.

It’s our move but our God’s will and blessing we look for.

In the Vision of Europe magazine for October – December 1981, Omri Jenkins wrote a front page article under the heading “New E.M.F. Headquarters”. This article featured photographs of the old Watford premises and a shot of Guessens garden.

He uses the analogy of a “war office” for spiritual warfare. He wrote: “This is what our EMF headquarters must always be, namely, a base behind the front-lines in European countries where various matters essential to the well-being of missionaries and their work are “done decently Vision and in order”. Unlike societies in whose fields are in far-flung parts of the world and which therefore need both home and field offices, EMF combines both in one central office in England which being an integral part of Europe, provides rapid and close links with every branch of work in each country. An appreciable saving in personnel and costs is thus made while that intimate contact with every member of the fellowship, so essential when effective help and guidance are required, is maintained without undue difficulty.”

We can see here concerns which are practical, financial and spiritual all linked together. Do pray that the new set up and situation will effectively serve exactly the same aims and ends. It’s our move but our God’s will and blessing we look for.

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