God at Work

I really love when you see God at work in people’s lives. This is what happened when a small group of us spent some time in Brighton last Friday talking with people on the streets about Jesus. It was a really encouraging time, with many people willing to stop and talk to us about what they think and believe.

My favorite conversation was with a guy who was feeling quite depressed when I first starting talking to him. We got to talk about the difference that knowing Jesus makes in our lives. It was a really great conversation. At the end of it I got to pray with him and see Jesus touch his life. We then walked down the street together continuing to talk and we noticed a guy who was leaning against a bin having severe chest pains. A shop security guard was seeing him to and they were waiting for an ambulance. The guy I had been talking to and praying with immediately said this guy needs prayer and went straight up to the people seeing to him and asked if he could pray for the man. They let him and so he prayed for the guy. By the time the ambulance arrived the man who was in pain was doing much better.

It is amazing when God touches one life how it just spreads. This guy challenged me in my faith, his boldness and conviction that if he prayed it would make a difference, just as it had made a difference to his.

God is really amazing.

A weekend out

Christy and I had the pleasure of taking a group from the current Discipleship Training School (DTS) for a weekend of outreach with a church in Brighton. We headed down on the Friday and returned late on the Sunday. We started by spending the Friday evening prayer walking around the centre of Brighton, as this is what we felt God asked us to start with. The Saturday was then spent in the same area talking to people about Jesus and praying with people. Then we had a time of worship in the evening. The Sunday was spent helping to prepare and lead the service in the church we worked with.

It was a really significant time for all involved; everyone had to step out of their comfort zones. We got to have quite a number of significant conversations with people, as well as a number of very short ones. A good number of people wanted prayer after we had had conversations with them. One of the people we got to talk to started by saying that “He was not the right person to talk to, he was not interested”, the conversation ended up being about 30 minutes and he gave us his phone number and asked to be called later after he had finished work to talk more.

The last person I got to chat with was a guy from Majorca, it was a shorter conversation than some of others in the day, but it was a very significant one. I really felt that God simply wanted him to know the depth of Love that He has for him. When I shared this with him tears started to well up in his eyes, I did not get to have much more time with him as the person he had been waiting for arrived and they needed to go. It showed me how much just sharing the love of God can mean to people.

Our time of worship in the evening was probably one of the deepest times we have had so far during this school. God seemed much more real to everyone that evening. When you have been out speaking to others about Jesus and what he has done in our lives, when you come back to a place of worship after this, it helps to focus the reason for worshiping, and the depth you go to with God.

Everyone who came grew so much and really enjoyed their time. It certainly challenged them to step out and talk to people about Jesus, but it is something that we all need to become confident to do to see the kingdom of God grow.

Discovering Outreach

The DTS (Discipleship Training School) that Christy and I are currently working on now know where they are going on outreach. Over the last week the staff team for the school here at YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Holmsted have, with God speaking clearly, arranged two different outreach opportunities for the trainees. Once we had done this we asked the students to go and spend last weekend praying and asking God about colours, then when the teams were determined by colour the locations would be revealed. We did it this way so that people would not pick based on locations, but on what God was asking them to do.

When we got the papers back we were so grateful to God that the teams were divided evenly, 7 in one and 8 in the other. That the trainees had listen to God and taken a step of faith.

The team that Christy and I are leading will be spending time in both Spain, mainly in the south (for 2 months), and Brighton (for almost 3 weeks). We are really excited about this and so is the team. We are made up of 7 nations and will be 10 people in all. We are known as the green team, as this was the colour that represented our team when we asked people to ask God for a colour.

Praying over Brighton

Each week Christy and I take a group to Brighton to pray and talk to people about God. We felt that we should do things a little differently last week. So we took the group to an area on the South Downs here in Sussex called Devil’s Dyke to pray over the city.

It is an interesting place and the legend of the Dyke is this:

“The legend of the Devil’s Dyke runs that the Devil tried to drown all the Wealden churches by cutting a huge swathe through the Downs towards the sea at night. An old woman saved the day by lighting a candle to see what all the kerfuffle was. The Devil, so close to finishing his task must have been a bit tired, because he confused the candle with the rising run and scarpered, leaving the Dyke unfinished.”

It was probably one of the most significant times of pray we have had over Brighton and God said so much to us all about the city, His heart of it and how he wanted us to pray for it. We all came away from this time greatly encouraged by it.

We have really enjoyed having a larger group to come with us each week. It has really helped us to reach out wider in the city and has also allowed us to be able to cover more ground in the city itself.

Half the night

Christy and I are working on a Discipleship Training School (DTS) Here at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Holmsted. One of the things that we did with the school recently was a half night of prayer for the nations. We started at 8 in the evening and finished at midnight.

It was a really significant time for the trainees we have here at the moment. We spent time in a mix of worship and intercession (praying on behalf of something) for the whole time. The presence of God was very strong and He led us to first pray for this current generation and then the next generation. Speaking both life and identity over them as God was leading. During this time one of the people praying felt God say that we should carry the nations in prayer and so we found all the spare flags that we have and everyone put one on. We then spent time praying on behalf of the nation we were wearing and asking God to bless the nation, and move in power through the people who live there.

It was a really significant time for two reasons. Firstly God was definitely leading the time, we all felt his presence strongly and felt closer to him when we finished. Secondly it was a time of breaking off fear in individual lives. Everyone stepped out of their comfort zone as God was leading them, and we all had so much fun.

A New School

We are currently helping to lead a Discipleship Training School (DTS) here at Holmsted Manor. We have 15 trainees from 10 different nations, mostly European, but also Canada, USA and South Korea, which is very exciting.

We have been together for about 4 weeks now, and it has been great to see the group grow together well, and how much they are excited to learn and meet with God. We have local outreach once a week, which involves going to different places close by and both serving the local community and sharing with people who Jesus is.

We are both really excited to see what God does with all of the trainees over the next few months. Where they go on outreach and what they do with God in the places they go. Everyone has a special story and it is such a privilege to be apart of it, even for a short time, and see where it leads.

Prophetic Intercession

We have recently returned from helping to lead a 10-day short-term mission experience in Krakow Poland with a small team of 16-22 year olds.

Just before we left we spent some time praying and asking God what He wanted us to do while we were there. We all felt that the main reason for us to go was to pray and worship in the city, to lay foundations in the spiritual. The great thing about the team we went with was they are all creative, and can all sing (and Harmonize).

Our times round the city were amazing, as we walked round we would sing worship, which at first seemed hard, but as we kept doing it, it got easier. We even had people thank us for bringing Joy as we walked. We also spent time praying at different places round the city that we felt were key places. A few of the team are incredible drawers and so would pray and then draw the things God was showing them.

It was very interesting to see how things changed over the time we were there. Everything seemed really hard and heavy to do for the first few days. But as we were faithful to what we felt God had asked us to do, we found that it got easier to pray and walk round the city, and people became much more open to talking about Jesus with us.

One thing that I have both been taught and learned practically in the last few years is that everything starts in prayer, and if you want to see things change and God move in a place then you have to start by giving Him space and listening to Him and being obedient. The guys we were with all came back with a very different view on how to do mission and the value to prayer and submission to God. It was a really great 10 days.

Night Walk

We helped to lead a short-term mission trip for 16-22 year olds to Krakow in Poland earlier this month. We did a number of different things while there, one of which was going out in the evenings and talking to people about whom Jesus is and what he did.

On one of the evenings we were out me and one of the other guys on the team got to talk to a couple of different people in the main square. The first was a guy who was studying to become an actor. We got to chat for about half an hour and got to share with him about Jesus and what he did. We gave him a little picture that we had made on which were the words Jesus loves you in Polish, which he really liked.

The other guy we got to talk with had not been to church in about 10 years. Even though he had grown up in church he had never heard that God wants relationship with us and that Jesus loves him. We got to talk for a while and when we parted ways he said he was going to go home and spend some more time thinking and that he would probably spend time praying before he went to sleep. The thing that challenged him most was that 2 people from England had come to his town and wanted to tell him that God loved him.

We all had many different conversations that had a similar theme during our time, and got to be apart of God showing himself to the people we met. It was a really amazing trip, and we were all challenged a lot in our own faith and why we believe what we do.

Afternoon Drama’s

We have just returned from spending 10 days in Krakow Poland helping to lead a team of 16-22 year olds on a short-term missions experience. One of the things we did while we were there was street drama.

We spent some time asking God what we should do and where we should do them. In the end we practiced and did 3 different dramas around the castle. When we prayed and asked God about them, he told us we were making a declaration of freedom for the place, and that we did not need to worry about doing it for other people.

After we had done the second drama a number of people had stopped and started talking to us asking us to do it again, so we did. It was great fun and the group watching ere really enthusiastic about it, even shouting out when Jesus came on, and when we finished they cheered. It was really nice to talk to them afterwards about who Jesus is and sharing with them the gospel and why we had come to Krakow.

The whole team were really nervous about going out and doing street drama, but we all felt that this is what God had asked us to do so we wanted to be obedient above our fear. It was a great lesson for us all to learn, that when we step out in faith in what God has asked, all sorts of interesting things happen, and conversations about Jesus happen easily.

Grzegorz (Greg)

We have recently spent some time in Krakow in Poland helping to lead a small team of 16-22 year olds on a short-term mission experience.

Near the end of our time we decided that we should go out for a meal as a team so a couple of us went to find somewhere to eat. We asked God where to go and He led us to a restaurant close to the centre of town. It was a great meal and the waiter that served us was a lot of fun. We got to talk with him quite a bit about who we were and what we were doing in Krakow, that we were there because it is where we felt God ask us to go. At the end of our meal he asked us to pray for him. His name was Grzegorz (or Greg in English).

We spent some time praying for him as a team and listening to God about whom he is and what God wanted to say to him. We then made a large card for him and wrote and drew the things God showed us. We then took it to the restaurant for him the next day.

It was really nice to meet him and get to pray for him, and the team all really enjoyed the way God connected us; and then the chance to be able to bless him. It was a really nice way to finish our time in Poland.

School Cleaning

We have just returned from Krakow in Poland having helped to lead a short-term mission experience for 16-22 year olds. One of the things we got to do was work with a local church to help to clean a school that had been vandalized.

We spent our time painting over graffiti and cleaning up the grounds. This was the first time that the church had had an opportunity to work in the school, and they will be running a family day in the grounds at the start of August. The hope is to be able to do much more in the local community through the school in the future.

It was a great day and every one really enjoyed the opportunity to serve the school and local community. The team helped to open a door for church to be able to do more in partnership with the school for the local area.  It is real blessing to be apart of the start something, to plant the first seeds, and we are really looking forward to seeing what comes out of this.

Just Go...

We have just finished helping to lead a short-term missions experience for people of the ages 16-22. Altogether we had 23 go to 3 different nations in Europe (Poland, Serbia and Romania). People came and spent 3 days here at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base, having teaching and orientation before spending 10 days in the country they applied to go to. After this we spent another 2-3 days back at the YWAM base debriefing.

Christy and myself helped to lead the team that went to Poland, and spent our time in the city of Krakow, which was the capital of Poland about 300 years ago. We were 8 in total, split evenly boys and girls.

It was a great team to lead as everyone was so willing to seek God and do what they felt He was saying. They were all quick to worship, so much so that when we would meet as leaders to talk about the day and pray for the team, we could hear them next door finding worship and praising God.

We saw God do so much in each of them individually as well as in the city of Krakow. They each grew and took hold of what God was teaching them quickly and willingly. They all came back with a new view of who they are, what it means to know God and what it means to do mission as a life style, not just an experience. We both felt very privileged to have been able to be apart of this season in their lives.

Getting Wet In Brighton

I love being a part of Discipleship Training School’s (DTS’s). It is a real privilege to see God work in people’s lives, and to see this spill out to others around them also.  One of the young men who came to be apart of the DTS which was running from January to June here at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Holmsted Manor really had his life turned around during these 6 months. His desire to demonstrate this and show his commitment to living his life fully for God led him to ask to be baptised. He decided, however, that since we do not live very far from Brighton, that he wanted to get baptised in the ocean. So we all headed down with him to Brighton to join with him in celebrating what God has done in his life and his commitment to God.

He told us afterwards that the water was not the warmest, but that he would not have wished to do it any other way. It was great to be able to worship God with him on the beach and to affirm what God is doing in and through him.  Such a special day for all of us here.

Mind Body Spirit 2013

We had a stand at this years Mind Body Spirit Festival (MBS) in London offering both healing pray and creation prayer. We had an amazing 4 days; God touched and healed so many people, and we got to introduce quite a few to Jesus for the first time.

Creation prayer is where we spend some time asking God who this person is, how he sees them, then we share what we feel God has said about them and talk to them about it. Healing pray is where we pray for someone to be healed.

We also spend time each morning before the place opens praying and worshiping together and listening to God about who he wants to touch that day, we then write these things on a board so people can see them as they walk past.

One of my favourite stories from the week was if a lady named Judy. We had written here name on the board in the morning and she came past the stand at about 3 in the afternoon with a friend and stopped, seeing her name. She told us at the end that she would not have stopped to have prayer if her name was not on the board. I got to pray for her with Christy, while two others sat and prayed with her friend. God is amazing, really, what we felt Him share with us spoke really deeply to where she was at and what she is doing. She was blown away herself and ended up in tears at the fact that God cares and loves her so deeply, and sees her and her heart for the voiceless in Thailand. It was such a blessing to be able to pray for and encourage her in what she is doing. God Also spoke very deeply to her friend as well, bringing deep emotional healing. We were able to connect them to other people close to where they live as they both wanted to know more of who God is.

My other favourite conversation was with a guy who came and sat with us at the very end of the last day, to be prayed for. He did not know Jesus before he sat down, but as soon as he sat he told us it was the most peaceful place he had found in the place. We prayed and God showed me the most amazing picture of an eagle soaring. When I share this with him he came alive and told us that a few weeks ago he had been in India climbing some of the mountains when the most incredible thing happened to him. An eagle had soared over to him and hovered about a meter above him for 10-20 seconds before slowly gliding away again, and then he found 3 eagle feathers on the ground of different sizes. So he started asking us who Jesus was as he wanted to meet him. So we got to talk to him about Jesus and share the Gospel with him. I ended up giving him my contact details so we could talk more as the places was closing.

It was a really encouraging time; no one we prayed with told us that what God had said was wrong. Everyone said they felt encouraged and many of them want to know more about who Jesus is. God also healed so many different people, from small sports injuries, to arthritis, and even a lady who had lost the sight in one eye. All I can say is God is amazing.

A Family Gathering

We had our YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Staff gathering toward the end of May. It was a great time meeting old friends and making new ones from the various YWAM locations around England, although with over 300 people attending we did not manage to meet everyone!

It was really nice to here how the different locations are doing, and what they are up to, from those that have helped to establish new teams recently, to those locations that have been running for over 25 years here in England.

We spent time worshiping together, praying for England and also having teaching.

One thing I will say is that the YWAM family in England is pretty big, and when we get together we have a lot of fun. One of the highlights was the huge BBQ that was done at the end of our time together; we had a really amazing time of celebration.

CRE

A group of us from Holmsted had the pleasure of running a stand at this years CRE (Christian Resource Exhibition). We all had a great time and got to talk to a lot of different people who were either looking at how they could get involved in Mission themselves or were people like Youth Pastors who wanted to know more about where they may be able to encourage their young people to get involved in something stretching.

It was a great opportunity to talk to people about who YWAM (Youth With A Misison) is and what we do and raise the profile of mission’s work both here in England and overseas. And to be able to encourage others to think about how they may get involved with missions work, both short term or long term, or even supporting work that is already happening.

It was also really nice to be able to go and talk to other exhibitors in the place and make some connections that should come in useful further down the road, such as printers.

A New Home

We have recently moved to West Sussex, to a place called Holmsted Manor. It is another location of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) here in England. It is a beautiful place, and also YWAM England’s oldest location. Here we will continue to help train and lead mission trips as a couple. We will also be helping to develop some new ministry with YWAM aiming at Brighton on the south coast of England.

We have settled in well over the last month and have made some very good friends. We are both very excited to see this new season with God looks like and where we end up going.

Cutting Things Down!

I had a great opportunity a couple of weeks ago to help start something with a friend of mine. Here in Harpenden the council do tree planting and clearing of the large common area with volunteers once a month. We thought that this would be a great way to be able to help serve the local Harpenden community, and to get to know a few more people here in Harpenden. This is something that we will now be doing each month, along with the trainees.

It was really good fun, to be able to work alongside the council and a group of other people from the local area who are all retired. To hear stories and get to talk about who we are as YWAM and what we do. We got to clear an area of trees and undergrowth to  re-open an area that has slowly been lost over the last twenty years or so. It was a really beautiful day to be able to do it, and the guys we were working with were a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed doing this as it is something I used to do a lot of, and I really enjoy being outside.

I am really looking forward to seeing how this connection grows and what other doors God opens in Harpenden. We are certainly looking at how we can be more intentional as a campus in serving and blessing Harpenden as well as sending teams out from here.

Restoration

The September 2012 Discipleship Training School (DTS) Graduated last week. The trainees all successfully made it through both their lecture and outreach phases. I have had the pleasure of spending time with these guys as they have helped in the maintenance here at YWAM Harpenden. To see the difference that a few months can make to someone as they go to share the Love of God in both practical ways as well as verbal is inspiring. They are all so much more alive then when they arrived. To see God challenge them and take them through past hurt into a place of great healing is so very precious.

It is when we let God into our hurt and brokenness that real deep restoration happens. To see these guys so excited for what God is doing in this world at the moment, and really wanting to be apart of it is great. Only by His grace do we see people transformed and released to transform others. It is such a privilege to be able to be a part of the process and to know that God is being made known.

Latte Art

Christy and I have been apart of the Oval Café team here in Harpenden since November of last year. Our time has been a lot of fun so far, learning how to make and serve many different types of coffee, tea, smoothies and other blended drinks. We have also been able to learn a lot about the management and running of a business such as a café, which is one of the main reasons for us joining the team.

One of the skills that I have been trying to learn during this time is how to make good latte art, just to add that little flair to drinks for the customers. I discovered that it is a more involved process than you may first think. You have to steam the milk in a certain way, pour it into the coffee shot with at least two different pour techniques for each drink. My efforts over the last couple of months have been varied, but I am finally managing to get the hang of them (see picture below).

 It has been such a joy to be able to work in this ministry, and to also help train others. The vision of the couple who manage the café is to be able to invest in others so that they can go and establish a community café where they can meet the people who live in the local area and build relationships with them. To give people a space where they can come and ask questions about faith and life, but not to pressure anyone into anything, a neutral place. It has been great to see how the regulars here have engaged and stated to ask some really deep questions of life.

Knowing that God and his kingdom values are at the core of what we do in the café, and having people around whom can both encourage and challenge us in our own faith is such a valuable environment to be able to work in.

A Quiet Night

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I had the privilege of taking a group to Batchwood part way through February. This is the local club to where we are in Harpenden and a place we do regular ministry at. We try to go at least once every two weeks with bottles of water and lollipops, we also take blankets etc in the colder months, and spend time chatting to and give out the water etc to the people who are coming out of the club, before they head home.

This particular night was one of the quieter ones I have been to, but we still had a good time. It meant we got to spend quite a bit more time talking to the bouncers about faith and why they do what they do, and what they believe. One of them in particular wanted to know more about the church we partnered with and about what it would mean to start coming along.

It is really encouraging to have been doing this over the last couple of years, being consistent, and getting to talk to these guys each time. I really enjoy getting to spend a bit of time with them, giving them something to think about other than when the next fight may be, and to have them ask me questions which gets me thinking a lot about who I am and why I am doing what I do. I have really seen God’s faithfulness over this time, and how valuable individuals really are to him. It is such a blessing to be able to honour the people we meet and show and tell them this.

A Process of Healing

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Over the last couple of years Christy and I have spent time praying each week for her healing as she suffers from a number of different food intolerances. Over the last couple of months we have seen a significant change in her ability to tolerate and digest certain food without the pain that she once suffered, which is incredible. When we started we felt God say it would be a gradual process of faithful and perseverant prayer, not an instant fix. This is why we set aside a time each week to pray. We are not all the way there yet, but God has been so faithful to his word during this time. I am so amazed at what has changed over the last couple of years; the journey God has taken us on in this, and what he has taught us. I am so grateful for this, and look forward to what God is continuing to and going to do.

Finale

Some friends of ours here at YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Harpenden started a ministry as a rock band a few years ago. Just before Christmas they played their last gig together before moving into other things they have felt God talk to them about. Over this time thy have been going into pubs and clubs and playing gigs alongside other bands. Very much witnessing to those who may not normally meet other Christians, such as the other bands, people going to the gigs, sound guys etc. Christy and me have both had the pleasure of helping these guys periodically over this time. Christy with her voice, especially when they were starting off, and me with transport, driving the van for them.

They have really challenged me a lot over this time and the journey they have gone through. Especially the way they have been right in the centre of things and made such an impact on people’s lives. They have just been themselves in those places they have gone too and had fun.

The final gig was pretty awesome. Christy even got the chance to sing with them one last time. A lot of the people they had met over the last few years came down and packed out the venue. For all these guys it was a real bittersweet experience, with tears shed by the most unlikely people.

 Having watched them over the last few years, and seen what they have done, it has really challenged me in the way I see how we live as Christians. What it means to actually have a real relationship with those God calls you to impact, to treat them as people, not just as a project or numbers. Which is really how Jesus treated people, he gave them value and treated each and every person he met as an individual. I know that this is very much a journey and I really look forward to seeing where God leads Christy and me.

A light read...

As a YWAM (youth with a mission) community here in Harpenden we thought that it would be a good idea to kick of the new year with a little light reading. So we set aside 4 days and started to read the bible out loud! We started as the new year started, at midnight, and took hour shifts as both individuals and small groups.

Me and Christy got to get the ball rolling, with Christy leading some worship for about 30 minutes before the new year started. We were joined by two others at about 23:30, before settling into Genesis at midnight. Me and Christy read together quite a few times over the few days, which was great as we got to talk about what we had read after we finished each session.

I think we were both overwhelmed and very thankful for Jesus and what he did after reading big sections of the old testament, especially the sacrifices, regulations about clean and unclean and just how hard it was to be in a relationship with God, before his incarnation, death and resurrection.

It was a really great time to reflect on what has happened since creation and also where we are now and what is to come. Such a great way to start off the year, both very encouraging and challenging.

The Provision of God

I have seen a much greater level of God's care and provision over the Christmas period in the form of a car.

Me and Christy have been praying for a car or the means to purchase a car for the last few months knowing that we will need one for what we feel God is calling us onto. Just before Christmas we were offered a car by a member of my family who was upgrading his. So, on January 3rd, we became the owners of a 5 door Ford Focus.

It is amazing as it is everything we had been praying for, with a few little extras! It will give us the flexibility needed to engage in new ministry and to be able to see family more easily. More amazing still is that we were not only given a car, but we had someone else write to us with a desire to support us monthly, which will greatly help with the running cost of a vehicle. Completely blew me away.

When we first started praying I was not sure if I really expected to receive a car, I have heard of it happening to others, but did not think that it would happen to us. But as we prayed and we started to dream of what we would need and why, I started to get excited about it happening. God is amazing, and I think I know him a little better though this experience. I am so happy that we kept praying, and so in awe of God for his provision of exactly what we were in need of.