Not all those who wander are lost

Dear friends,

‘All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.‘ JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In many ways Anji and I have lived a kind of odyssey. We married as 20 year olds wanting to change the world. We are coming up to 35 years married now and have had the privilege of intentionally living on the front line of urban poverty on three continents and ministering in many countries. We may not have changed the world, but it’s starting to feel like no attempts in faith, hope and love have been wasted.

For example, Anji and I have just returned to Birmingham after a month of itinerant ministry and connections in Queensland and then Victoria for me. We had a blast speaking with many thousands of people in meetings, seminars, churches, connections, book launches and catching up with friends and family. Seedbeds Australia will now start with a pilot of Change Makers in May (Queensland and Victoria) and I was thrilled that my new book, No Wastelands, went to Number 1 on Amazon Australia for its category!

Anji travelled on from Queensland to Bangkok and the Thai-Burma border with friends from Birmingham. We have connections from our Springvale days there and lived in Bangkok for 12 years. Anji was able to build on our recent work with the National Unity Government and the beginnings of a Seedbeds Myanmar. They especially focused on creating new resource channels for entrepreneurs, educators and health care professionals who graduated from our Change Incubators programmes over the last 2 years.

We had a sense that 2024 could see Seedbeds grow our reach internationally, but what a start to the year it’s been! We are humbled by the kindness, hospitality and appreciation we’ve received nearly everywhere we went.

We began this season of life in Winson Green, Birmingham in 2014. We felt, even then, that opportunities for growing capacities for change from within local leaders and their communities could happen not only locally, but across the world too. While we have a long way to go, Winson Green is now starting to see deep and multiple level flourishings. Not least with Newbigin Community Trust on four sites and with a new state of the art high school that opened in September. Winson Green has turned out to be a brilliant international base.

I hope you too can deepen your planted-ness and expand your reach this year. We all have unique calls, gifts and missions in life. When we find it, even feeling buried for a while can be worth it. That nothing done in faith, hope and love is wasted. Indeed, it’s all that remains.

We are so grateful for your love, support and prayers. Nothing we do would be possible without these. Much needed financial support can be given here.

Shalom,

Ash Barker

seedbeds.org

PS. Our Seedbeds.org programmes now include:

• ‘Change Makers’ in the U.K. and Australia
• ‘Change Incubators’ in Myanmar and Thailand
• ‘Scholars’ based with NTC in Manchester and UETS in Kyiv
• ‘Communications’ book launches of ‘No Wastelands’
• ‘Pioneers’ with local missional leaders in England and Scotland
• ‘Pilgrims’ on St Cuthbert’s Way (Scotland and England) & Winter Camino (Spain)
• ‘Equippers’ begins with training the trainers in the U.K., Australia and Myanmar