Last day at school - a blast!

Julian having lunch at the church, sitting outside with his wrap and salad, the meeting room from the front, Bill Johnson speaking, breakfast at the hotel for Gordon, Helen and Ian (from Croydon).

A quick update before our breakfast (on Sat morning) to say that yesterday was great. It was the last day of the school. The morning was looking at working with other churches in seeing the city transformed, the guy who spoke for the morning was very inspiring and the strategies they have put together i've not seen so well co-ordinated under one banner before. He's not from Bethel church but another church in Redding.

Gordon and I ate a 'brick' again for lunch. I'll try to take a picture so you can see the size of the cakes they have in the cafe (He-brews) at the church. They are enough for about 4 people!

Then we had Bill Johnson for a couple of hours which was very insightful, you have to listen carefully to that man or you miss it! Every other sentence is light a pea followed by prayer for impartation for each of us, we all lined up in the corridor as he went along and lay hands on each. That was particularly powerful for some!

After this we had a time where each church represented there was called up the from and given prophetic words and prayer. A couple of those with prophetic gifting (Dawna and Faith from the Sozo team) had spent time praying and asking God prior to the meeting and so they then listed off what they felt God had said. Obviously they don't know the churches so what was brought was more insightful. It was all recorded, so we can re-listen.

Here's a mention of some of what was said - Healing was spoken of, that there will be many healings happening in the church and then they listed of significant illnesses/conditions that God was going to heal including Autism, depression, bi-polar. The other main area was of evangelism, that there would be an increase in evangelism coming from within the church, not by one evangelist but that many would be quickened to reach out. That it would not all all depend on the number of people in the church but the quality and what God is doing by his Spirit.

As this was spoken the Spirit fell (as it did with each church group) to various effect! In fact throughout the day God continued to speak and meet with those on the team, but no doubt each team member can share what they experienced and what God was doing/saying with them. Actually, to be honest it will probably be hard to relay it all. It's not easy to put these things into words. It's more about what God does in us which then comes out in family, work, church and city.

In the evening we then went to a prayer meeting which was more of a soaking/encounter room which to many (esp. faint hearted evangelical brits) would seem slightly odd to as much of the room walks round in a big circle while they pray! With others lying (or crawling) around on the floor overwhelmed by the Spirit. There is no prayer agenda or list to get through here! The emphasis is on meeting with God before the meeting, people are praying in their own way, sitting at the side of the room, reading the Bible etc.

We then went to the worship of an evening conference session before going off to a restaurant about 9pm. Annu was tired so we dropped her back a the hotel before meeting with others. Bed at about 11pm!

Adam