Emily Graves spoke with Matt Long to find out more about the missional community founded by Gerard and Chrissi Kelly

Matt: Well the place itself has actually been in one way or another, a Christian place, a retreat house for decades. It's been the space where God has been doing something. Four years ago the couple who were there called us up and said: We're moving on, would you like to buy it? So first and foremost it's just this space that God seems to have marked out to do something. There's this great story from World War II where the woman who was there was just sitting in her kitchen and then she got a knock at the door. Some soldiers came to the door and they said, "Excuse me, you might have a bit of a rough night, we are camped here and the Germans or the Allies, whoever it was, are on their way over the hill, so you might want to leave your house and get out of here". She refused and she just sat under her kitchen table all night and prayed and apparently not a shot was fired. There was this sense from then on that it is marked out for something that God is doing, so we are the next chapter in that process. Very specifically for Bless, we feel like we're making a bit of a bridgehead into mainland Europe from the UK. So people come to us, they spend some time engaging in our rhythm of life and prayer at Bethanie and then they go out into the mainland and serve churches

Emily: And locationally as well, you're able to reach all of the places really easily as well?

Matt: Yes, very much so, within a couple of days you can drive almost anywhere.

Emily: You said that people can come in and get involved in different events and mission trips, so what does your programme look like?

Matt: We've got three main areas people can participate in. We run prayer weekends, so three times a year we pray for 48 hours non-stop. We do that as a community, but we invite people in to that, so if you want to come and join in with our community and pray with us for Europe for 48 hours then come along and do that. The second thing is we do short-term mission trips, which we chatted about earlier, where we send small teams to serve churches throughout Europe, so that's in July each year for two or three weeks and there's different opportunities to go and serve churches in France and Germany and Holland. Then the third thing is we run internships and gap-year stuff, so people can either join the community at Bethanie for a few months or they can go on placement and serve in different places. So for example we have two girls at the moment who are working with the Alpha offices in Paris and we're just about to send a couple of people out to serve a church in Perpignan early next year.

Emily: That's great! And also another area that you guys have is something called the Bless Kitchen?

Matt: That's right!

Emily: So tell us a little bit more about that.

Matt: One of our core values is hospitality and one of those things is just eating good and simple home-cooked food, often food that we've grown on our veggie patch. So we started doing that and it got bigger and bigger, so we started a blog which is now theblesskitchen.eu - it's just a collection of our favourite recipes: recipes we've cooked for people when they've come out. Then a whole bunch of graces: we're trying to write and blog a grace each week at our community meal. It's this mix of eating home-cooked, simple food, good food and eating together around a table and just taking time and putting value into what you eat and share in life in that way.

Emily: People can connect in with you guys through Blessmail as well, which isn't your standard newsletter either, is it?

Matt: No it's not at all! We send that out every month and it's this mix of news and interviews and resources. Each month there's a recipe and a creative prayer idea. There's often an article or something to read, there's normally a video or something to watch and then there's news of how to get involved with Bless and then interviews with people who are doing stuff for God around Europe. It's this mixed bag of resources and stories and bits and bobs that comes out every month, so feel free to subscribe to that. You can do that on our website which is blessnet.eu.

Emily: Before we wrap up, Matt, what are some of your hopes for the future at Bless?

Matt: Well I guess first and foremost we need to complete the purchase of the place. We are still raising money to complete that: we secured a private loan a couple of years ago which we are now paying off, so we still need to raise some money to pay that off, so that's one of the big things right now. Then secondly once that is done and we have secured the place fully, there's just so much potential there in terms of the land and the buildings to increase our capacity so that more people can come through. That our team would continue to grow: it's been growing the last couple of years. That we would just be able to go to more places in Europe and get more of a hand on what God is doing in this continent.

Emily: That's great, all very exciting! So once more can you just let us know what that website is if anyone wants to check out Bless?

Matt: The website is blessnet.eu and we're also on Twitter which is @blessnetwork and there's a Facebook page too.