We’re open to what God says and where he takes us

Matt and Ellie Heywood are currently adjusting to life in the Philippines during their first month as Elim missionaries. But how did the journey begin and where is mission life taking them?

 

Matt and Ellie, where did your journey as missionaries begin?

Ellie: It started when we were teenagers in youth, around 2015.

Matt: We were 16 or 17, we were dating, and we had an opportunity with our previous church in Worcester to go on a missions trip in Thailand.

Ellie: They had a partnership with an orphanage over there. We’d raised all this money – our whole youth group had done a cycle-to-Thailand thing on pedal bikes – and we were super excited to go, then something happened and the trip got cancelled.

Matt: But we both still very much felt called to mission and started exploring that. I went to Malawi for two or three weeks to another church ours partnered with. We visited some churches they’d planted, did some evangelism work, visited some schools where children we sponsored went and did some other projects too. It was a really amazing experience.

Ellie: Something had been sparked in me when we’d been planning to go to Thailand so I signed up when I saw Elim Missions were doing a big trip to the Philippines in 2015. We went to Manila, to City Gates’ school in Antipolo and we visited Coron. It was phenomenal to meet the children and see the land the church had bought on one of the islands which was ready for a primary school to be built. That’s where it first started for me.

Matt: When we got back we shared where we’d been and what we’d done and we both had a desire to go back to those places for longer.

So at that point, were you starting to sense a longer-term call to mission?

Ellie: My heart is for children, and the Philippines is very family and children orientated, so I thought the trip would be a really good short-term opportunity. I didn’t think about anything longer than that though. I just felt God was pushing me to give it a go.

Matt: We had a heart for mission but didn’t understand fully what that meant; whether it was about long-term work or just to start exploring mission and see a bit of the wider church in another context in the world.

What happened after these trips?

Ellie: Nothing to do with missions for a really long time! I began looking for work and got a job at Birmingham City Church as a children’s leader. What’s interesting, though, is that BCC was one of the churches sponsoring the building of the church in Coron. I didn’t know that when I was interviewing, but it felt like a massive God-thing when I found out; it felt like this is where I was supposed to be and I could still be a part of Coron in a small way.

Matt: We were so young then and there were a lot of things we wanted to do, but we didn’t have the experience, qualifications or skills at that point. So while Ellie went to BCC I went to Regents to study theology for three years, then I trained and became a primary school teacher, which I did for six years. I taught across the whole range of primary ages in my school, and in both our jobs we gained experience and qualifications which could be of use when we moved into whatever our next season would be.

Did you have any sense that your next season might involve mission?

Matt: We’d always talked about going back on mission again, but we didn’t know what that would look like. We’d got stuck into working life in the UK and time had passed very, very quickly – it was 2015 when we went to the Philippines and Malawi now we were in 2024. But last year we began feeling like we were coming out of that season.

Ellie: Yeah, definitely. God was doing something, but we didn’t know what. Then BCC organised a trip to the Philippines in February this year to reconnect with the work over there after Covid and we decided to join it.

Matt: That opportunity came at the same time as we were both thinking we were ready to move on to the next chapter, whatever that might be, and had started praying about it. When we got to Coron in February we very much felt this was where we were being called to.

How has God prepared you for the work you’ll be doing in Coron?

Ellie: God’s really used my time at BCC, especially leading the children’s ministry, to prepare me for what’s ahead in Coron. I’ve learned so much about working with children, planning programmes and supporting families and volunteers. More than that, it’s grown my heart for serving and being part of what God is doing in a community. I’m excited to take all of that with me as we step into supporting the children’s and community work in Coron.

Matt: It’s definitely felt like our steps have been guided along the way. I’ve taught all ages in school but about 18 months ago, out of the blue I was offered a move to reception, which is four to five-year-old children just out of nursery. It was a massive jump from 10 and 11-year-olds in Year 6 where I’d been before, but I very much felt it was a good idea, although I didn’t know why. As it’s turned out, I’ll be teaching nursery and reception-aged kids in Coron and they use the English curriculum too, so what I’d been thrust into over the past 18 months is exactly what the school in Coron needs. That experience is going to be really valuable in terms of teaching and equipping more local teachers to deliver the curriculum.

Is there anything in particular that you’re really excited about?

Ellie: Pastor Glenn Isaguirre, who’s the lead pastor at City Gates, wants to set up another church in town. They already have one connected to the school in the mountains, which is reaching poor families in the community to give their kids an education.

But I’m really excited that he wants to reach more people in the town as well. We’ll get to be a part of that process. They’ll be doing a café church and we’ll get to join in with that. I’m really looking forward to the plans Pastor Glenn has for the island and how we can serve and help them.

Do you have any long-term plans?

Ellie: We’re dedicating two years to Coron for now, and will just trust God.

Matt: Exactly; we’re just very much waiting to see what opportunities unfold and what impact we’re able to make. As Ellie says, we’re open to what God’s saying and where he takes us.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.