Monthly Archives: December 2013

Having already been to the church, ‘Le Gospel’, earlier in the year, I knew a little of what to expect, but what blessed me to bits this time was the desperate hunger of an ever-increasing number of people, to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done here on earth. When you have a church led by such a wonderful couple as Bernard & Anne-Margrethe Wenger, it is going to go places. Anne-Margrethe wasn’t around, sadly, as her dad in Denmark died on Friday evening, so she was with him, but Bernard said something to Mark & me that blessed me no end, not the usual sort of words you hear from a church leader! – ‘I don’t want a church, I want a missional community’ – and he holds the reins of the church lightly, giving people freedom to move, be, and do in whatever God has encouraged them.

For a small church (and they are smaller than they could be were they NOT a missional community , their influence is around the globe. I’m so glad that, before they leave for Senegal as missionaries, I had a chance to get to know Yannick & Therese Srowoda: what a great couple, going to Senegal as missionaries – not conventional missionaries as such, but to help change communities with – in Yannick’s case – farming practices that could – and will – be revolutionary. Not only that, but they go in February, when their baby will be just 10 weeks old….A young lady, Sarah Kolokea, who is part of the church, but from Hawaii, is studying at the top pastry school (apparently) in the world in Rouen – NOT, as you might think, to go into the huge money-making factory coking is these days – but to set up centres all over the world making top class food to feed the poor… coming, as she does, from a background of family that includes homelessness, and alcoholism, she knows the ‘ropes’ where the poor are concerned. What an amazing vision: to feed the poor with the very best food. I think Jesus told the story of a banquet, along those lines, right…?

A nurse (midwife specialist – she trains midwives), Malorie, has just come back from Spain on a ministry trip with another church young lady, Caroline: and, as a result of the weekend, wants to go to Colombia (both of them, in fact!), to teach not only midwifery skills, but basic health and baby care to people in the poor areas of Cali, which you can imagine thrilled me, as it’s the poor in Cali where my heart is.

So…we don’t want ‘church’: a missional community. Radical indeed.

And dear Gerard & Elisabeth, where Mark & I stayed, will be in Cali with me. Elisabeth is a nurse, too: Gerard a skilled carpenter/builder, but with a massive passion for evangelism. He did countless Bible-smuggling to Eastern Europe prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Such adorable people to stay with, they blessed us out of our socks, and as I said in previous blogs, the Presence of God resides in their house.

Mark got home to news that his blood pressure has gone crazily out of control, I got home – having tripped in the pitch dark en route to the loo up a step I’d forgotten was there! – with incredibly sore knees, Mark left his ‘outward bound’ type coat on the ferry, and both of us have had immense unnatural tiredness hit us, but we’ve just nattered on the phone, and today, we’re back at a higher place than when we left on Thursday! Mission does that for you…. 🙂

It feels like we’ve been here in Rouen for ages – not just 3 days – as God has done a lot, Presenced Himself with us and the church, and wonderfully in Gerard & Elisabeth’s home, too. We both feel that we’ve been richly ministered to, which has been my story since coming back to France in May last year, to the Vendee, Louange Côte Ouest (Colin & Sue) and Lisieux (Francis & Diane). It’s been refreshing and upbuilding, even though it’s been quick busy with meetings. So much has happened here, and in those other French towns, to begin to convince me that God is beginning to do what gets reported from distant shores. It happened in Seaford, too…. so Come, Lord Jesus, GOD CAME, – and what happened next is worth re-reading…

Ready for the final mass intake of baguette and cheese before heading on a beautiful sunny, cold, bright blue sky day for a ferry crossing… in the dark! But back here again soon I hope and pray….

Here’s Mark’s latest Facebook post…..

Just packing up here in Rouen and gathering my thoughts as I prepare to come home…. They say Europe is the spiritually darkest continent-which, may be true… BUT there are white hot little Kingdom fires all over it. This weekend with ‘Le Gospel’ church Rouen has been proof of that. People hungry for God, open to His Spirit and passionate about Jesus and His Kingdom. As God ministered physical infirmities were touched. However the most exciting part for me was seeing people’s faces and stature change as they began to grasp their identity, experience intimacy and receive courage to make a kingdom impact on the streets of their city!

It was a pleasure to do this with my good friend Paul Bennison who is just the best at giving his ministry opportunities away to others. Get on a trip with him sometime… You may discover one the most amazing fun Kingdom door openers alive!!!

Bless you mate – it’s mutual! I hope and pray that this is the FIRST of MANY with you, Mark Hendley!!!

A wonderful final day in Rouen today – two meetings, 2pm and 5 pm, it’s been fantastic being not only with the church here, but with Mark Hendley…. we’ve never done anything like this together before, but it was a real ‘hand and glove’ situation, with neither of us ‘pre-planning’ what we were going to talk about, other than healing, and the Kingdom. Everything has dovetailed in perfectly: Mark’s just told me tonight that, because of his recent church ‘change’, he’s preached more in the last 2½ days than in the last couple of years… what a missed gift to the church for that period of time, but I’m so thrilled he’s been here, and (unwittingly) I’ve been able to open a door for him that I hadn’t realised had been closed for so long to do something that is high on his list of major passions. I love it when I hear things like that, especially as I don’t have a ‘need’ to preach (a lot of preachers can’t/won’t sit and listen to other preachers when they have the opportunity of preaching themselves), so it’s a joy to me…

God has really allowed this lovely link with Le Gospel, in Rouen, to be massively strengthened: I think the number of people who want to go away with me next year was rising with each meeting! Could be Cali 5 or 6 times next year, along with Malawi (from the folk in Seaford last weekend) and Senegal from guys here. That’d be a blast for me, as it’s been a while since I went anywhere ‘new’ (to me!) and it’d take me to 108 countries!

Today was just brilliant in continuing to share kingdom of heaven culture with these lovely folk – I think this is a church with such a high percentage of kind people it’s amazing. Kindness is an old fashioned word these days, but they are so – KIND. And of course, with God, it’s his kindness that leads us to repentance: so kindness between friends is a serious relationship-builder. I think we must have prayed for just about everyone: some who’d not seen ‘noticeable’ change in their healing over the last couple of days did today, and there were so many prayed for prophetically and for encouragement. What a privilege!

Here’s what Mark’s had to say on his Facebook posts, so you can see it’s not just my view of the weekend!

• Fab day in Rouen, France. Long lie in… Baguette and cheese in abundance… Blessed by the gift of a 1000 day old Dutch cheese! Teaching this afternoon and evening on the Kingdom loads of prayer… Saw a women who while receiving prayer started to feel heat-(heat is good) lo and behold in 10 seconds her injured back is ‘perfect’ (her words) Thank you Jesus!
• Great finale in Rouen… God was here in His manifest presence… So real! The message of freedom and the Kingdom of God changed people and his power overruled the kingdom of darkness!!!! Yay Jesus

And, of course, masses of baguette, cheese, and a wonderful meal given to us tonight by the church leaders – an awesome steak! And a boot-full of cheese to get home – my car stinks to high heaven(!) but it’s worth it!! A beautiful time in France in October, and now – and then again in May, on the Vendee, with long-time friends Colin & Sue, for their conference ‘Louange Côte Ouest (West Coast Worship) –  and, it seems, an open door to come back here…. Thank you, Lord. I love France….

What a wonderful country France is! What a lovely city Rouen is! And what a beautiful church ‘Le Gospel’ is….

During the course of any year, I visit many, many churches. I love them all, but the church here, and ‘Le Source’ in Lisieux, have to be two fo the loveliest I have the enormous privilege – and pleasure – of visiting. Neither are ‘big’ churches: and as someone whose heart and passion is for small churches (you’ll only have to recall past blogs from the places I go to to know that), it’s a special joy to come to stay with wonderful people, Gerard & Elisa, whose home was genuinely ‘home from home’ for me from the moment I first came here earlier this year – and Mark feels exactly the same way about them and their home), but to be involved in churches whose main passion is ‘outside’ of the conceptual church many of us have.

Le Gospel is reaches out to the community in a huge way, reaches into other nations in a huge way for a small church, and does’t really have ‘designs’ on being a church as we’d know it (Jim… oh, that dates me!!), but is genuinely a family who want to love, serve, and bless their city, and in turn love and care for each other. It’s a church full of spiritual mums and dads, which is so, so lovely.

Yesterday was a wonderful day, from 3 pm to midnight, really, just sharing on what the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’  is, and this a church wanting and desiring to change the cultural mindset of church, not establishing church, but being the Kingdom on earth… ‘your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth..’ How many thousands of times have prayed that? And ow many TRULY believe it  is POSSIBLE to BE the Kingdom and to bring heaven to earth…?

Yesterday there were no ‘blockbuster’ miracles, but there were people healed: more importantly, there were lives touched with the Kingdom principles, and those already with those principles accelerated further into seeing God’s Kingdom Come…

It is a real privilege to be here, and the ‘bond’ with this church has grown exponentially this weekend. It seems that possibly 10 or more from this small church want to go to Cali, Colombia, with me, next year – so that’s two trips with 5 each over and above the 2-3 trips already planned! Mark and I have had so much fun here, too: fun, and Kingdom, is a great mixture… and when God shows up and changes lives too, that’s an even greater blessing….

The meeting today is at 2pm, which takes it instantly out of ‘normal church’ mentality, so we’re looking forward to seeing what God’s going to do in the next 6 or 7 hours!

Flying over from Ireland to Heathrow Thursday morning was interesting, as of course the massive winds had been forecast! Added to that, the forecast for England was that the winds would increase massively during the day, and Mark Hendley & I were due to be on a cross-channel ferry overnight, so when I got up at 4.30 on Thursday morning, it was with some interesting ‘anticipation’!

Truth is, the flight was fine – much quicker than normal as we had a 200 knot (the pilot told us that’s about 250 mph!) tail wind, so even though we left Belfast late, we landed in London early! It’s been really great spending this time with Mark, and the ‘prediction’ from our mutual (lovely!) friend Brian Louden that Mark snores louder than a chainsaw (I do, too, I think!) didn’t seem to be fulfilled in our little cabin on the ferry! We both slept well! And the ship rocked a little, but not anywhere near as much as we’d been expecting!

Staying again with lovely friends Gerard & Elisa has already been and still is a delight – their home is so filled with the Presence of Jesus: they really are a wonderful couple, and make us so at home.

Last night, I wanted Mark to ‘kick off’ the weekend, as I’ve been to the church ‘Le Gospel’ before, and he shared some very basic but essential foundational stuff about the Kingdom of Heaven, which, it seems, is exactly what the pastor, Bernard, has been preaching on the last few weeks. We ended up – unsurprisingly! – praying for quite a few people, and finally left the church at twenty past midnight! Quite a bit of the praying was to do with insecurity, fears, doubts that God could ‘use me’ – and so it was lovely to see those issues go in some people, and faces change as the dawning of truth after just years of ‘knowledge’ became the reality.

Two sessions today – 3 pm and 7.30 – so I doubt there’ll be a ‘break’ between 3 and midnight again, but this really is a church where faith and expectation exist in a real way, and are rising, so it’s going to be good!

And then, of course, there are the baguettes…. and the cheeses…. oh, suffering for the Kingdom eating both is such a terrible hardship….

Wow… it was a packed weekend – partly my fault, and lots of people to pray for! – in Seaford, on Sussex’s wonderful coast. Fresh Springs fellowship met in the lovely Clinton Centre – certainly a lot more impressive a building than when I used to wait for the bus home from school almost outside it 50 years ago! A lovely fellowship, too: very warm, friendly, and open. Three meetings, 3pm and 7.30pm Saturday – which effectively became one meeting as I finally finished praying with the ‘afternoon’ folk at about 7.20! – and another at 10 am yesterday, which ended around 2pm! I’d chosen to fly over Saturday morning early, and back Sunday md-evening, so it sort of compacted the weekend into a lovely continuum of God touching, blessing, healing, and encouraging people.

One lovely lady, Lesley, who has the most awful problems with her feet and legs, mostly due to failed surgery, said yesterday morning that she could stand up without staggering and almost falling for the first time in many years: Rosie, also with leg and other problems, including feet, said that she was ‘comfortable’ for the first time in a very long time! Friends from Facebook from quite a radius came, too, and here’s the report from one – Gail – whose husband, David, a retired doctor (enforced, because of cancer everywhere) – they’d driven quite a distance, from Pembury in Kent, o be there – with David weak and in pain – a ‘your faith has made you well’ situation:

• Thank you so much for praying for David This morning he said his leg weakness was 20-30 per cent improved! Thank u Jesus ! We are standing in faith for lots more to come ! Bless you ..x

David & Gail have been friends for many years, and I know that David has got so much left to do for the Lord, so it’s wonderful to read that! You know, so often, we’re looking for the ‘instant miracle’ – which, of course, we ALL want, for ourselves, and those we pray for, but the Apostle Paul DID separate gifts of healings (a process, by nature of the word) and gifts of miracles). We can lose the ‘healing’ because we end up disappointed, maybe even angry, at God, as we didn’t get the miracle, so God bless you, David – and Gail – and I’m with you every step of the way until you can come on at least one long trip overseas with me! And you’ll be back in Albania….

There were other stories of blessing and healing: and also – and this is often the case! – one lovely young lady, Nicky, who got worse after I’d prayed for her…. here’s another ‘you know’… Nicky and her wonderful husband, Ross, have just taken a massive leap of faith in their lives: Nicky has (I’ve forgotten the name of it again, Nicky!) – a disease whereby the ligaments and muscles are too loose, and bones continually go out of line. It’s very painful. You know, the enemy is out to steal, destroy, and discourage: and here’s a couple walking right to the edge of the cliff (and that’s a perfect analogy if you know what they have done for the past few years! – Beachy Head ‘Suicide’ Chaplaincy), and when Nicky said she was ‘worse’ yesterday, I was almost delighted… not that she was in pain, but that the enemy is so hacked off with them he wanted to stop her… he ain’t going to stop them….

Friends Dennis and Cathy Acott came down from Maidstone: I’m too embarrassed to precis what Dennis posted on Facebook, so I’ll paste what he wrote here:

• Keep doing what you are doing, young man. Don’t stray out of the SONshine. Sure you should stay just the way you are. It’s who\where you were called to be. Explains why you love it so much.
• What can one say? The sheer nerve of the man!

  Matron and I go out for a nice leisurely day after my full return to work. What could be nicer than to have a mooch around Alfriston before a great pub lunch and a short drive on to Seaford?

  We find a car park near the Clinton Centre, where we plan to catch up with Paul Bennison for his 3pm meeting, stroll down for a quick look at the sea, then buy a baguette for the young man’s tea before going to the CC to wait for his arrival.

  It was a great meeting and then comes the ministry time. Well, we thought, this will be good to watch – before we say our au revoirs and toddle off home for a quiet evening. Then he does it!

  “Come on out and help me,” he says, casually. We were still there for the 7-30 meeting and finally got in our car at 11pm! Got to bed at 1-30am!

  There is no point in saying what a privilege it is to minister alongside this man. He is genuinely too humble to acknowledge that. Should we even say how much fun and how exciting it is? If you have never done it yourself you would not understand. If you get anywhere near Paul you will be encouraged to find out, though (like the young couple he also persuaded to join him last night) and so you should.

  That is Paul. He knows it is not all about him (but Him) and that’s how he operates. Yes, he has got a nerve. And we love him for it! God is so good!

  Oh, and we met and ministered to some lovely people and it was a joy to see Father blessing so many.

Thank you, Dennis. It made me cry…. here’s some of the comments:    Gail Chaput de Saintonge It was a joy to see Paul again … And of course you two. Well done for wading in and blessing others .We were fortunate to have been on the receiving end of Paul’s wonderful ministry in the afternoon and to be home by our fireside by 7 !!

Brian Louden He has a habit of doing that Dennis. It’s a large part of the reason I ended up in Colombia this year!!!

And I got to see some people I haven’t for years, thanks again to Facebook! Wonderful to see John & Patricia Musgrave, though I DID see them about 3 years ago, and Juliet Dann, who was Juliet Hillman when I last saw her in about 1983! And to meet Karla Willows, whose mum I’ve known since the early 70’s, Beatriz, a lovely Colombian! – looking forward to meeting Alex, Karla!

I have to say that by the time I staggered to the boarding gate last night, at Heathrow, I thought my knees might not make it off the plane this end: and, just occasionally, for a few moments, I think to myself, ‘I can’t keep doing this!’ when every step is agony… but only for a few moments… and Thursday, crack of dawn, I’m back to the singing/dancing airport (check out my Facebook page, the video of Belfast City airport!) to go to Rouen, France: with my great mate Mark Hendley, I’m so looking forward to being with the lovely church there ‘Le Gospel’ (fairly self-explanatory name for a church, eh??!!) and to being with Mark for a few days.

Another ‘you know’ – I’ve long been ‘under pressure’ – and am, currently, from certain quarters, to ‘charge’ for ministry invitations. The sort of sum of £300 a day has been been mooted: I can’t. I JUST CAN’T. Jesus said, in commissioning the disciples to go and ‘establish the Kingdom’, in Matthew 10: 7 – ‘Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, raise the dead. FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE’.’ I’m not sure that most of the places I go to would ever be able to contemplate such a sum, particularly if they’re ‘liable’ for airfare, and all other expenses….I know that I was blessed in Seaford, will be blessed in Rouen, without knowing if anything was coming back/will come back… but I DO know that God has, thankfully, shown up increasingly in power of late, and my heart is to see that happen more and more, without my bank balance being worried about the consequences!

So, France – baguette! YES!! Cheese! YES! Red grape juice! YES! And God, in power, doing what God does best, through plonkers like me….