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.