With the wind lashing rain against my bedroom window, when my alarm went off at 7.15am, the last thing I really wanted to do was get out from under my duvet….but I had to, as I had a full Ulster fry breakfast ahead of me, before speaking to a good number of guys at Christian Fellowship  Church, Holywood’s men’s breakfast. If you’ve never had an Ulster fry, I suppose your waistline might heave a sigh of relief, but you’ve missed a treat….being a ‘normal’ bread fried bread lover, soda bread ad potato bread are rather tasty And somewhat more-ish….

my good friend John Gault had asked me to speak about November’s trip to Colombia, and the astonishing story still to really unfold concerning the ‘favela’ and cartel guys…..thrown in, of course, were a few healing and miracle stories! My great delight is story-telling! John also asked me to talk a bit how i got to where I am today, as, though I’ve spoken at the church before (though It was probably 3 years ago), there were a lot there who don’t know me, including guys from their new CFChurch in Newtownards. I love it, too, when a meeting is thrown open for questions: I love the ‘unexpectedness’ of them.

I had a chance to pray for a good number of guys, involving  a few men who wanted to get join in with the praying, and was blessed by a great young man, David, who wanted to pray for me, and is so passionate for people, healing, and seeing the Kingdom of God established, and not just ‘another church’. His heart hit a chord with mine, as I’m a passionate ‘Kingdom’ person. My theory is this: if you want to plant a church, you have a church. If you want to establish the Kingdom, you’ll see thousands of churches. That’s why so many churches ‘happen’ in countries where Kingdom people want transformation of their community, like China (where the last figure I heard, on good authority) is that 35,000 are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit every single day of the year, and in Mozambique, where Rolland and Heidi Baker just love people, with no strings attached (like – if you get saved you must come to my church, or God will heal you if you come to my church) – where I believe, now, they’ve sen over 12,000 churches begin in not much more than a decade….

So, it was a great morning: and tomorrow, I’ve been asked to tell the same story (!) at Cafe Church, one of the ministries of West Church, Bangor, which – when I’m home and able to go to church – is my home church. Paul the Presbyterian… 😉