Open Doors

During Faith Camp 2007 I received a really clear word from God. It came from 1 Corinthians 16:9, "...[A] great door for effective work has opened to me and there are many who oppose me." Last year we received some very exciting prophetic direction from Pastor Paul Taylor. He explained that there will be many dynamic new things for us to look forward to in the years ahead. In 2009 Pastor Gary Rumbold also encouraged us with a word that we are a 'breakthrough' Church. All this shows us that God is opening new doors of opportunity for us.

When we met this morning, it became clear that some new doors are already being smashed open for us by the Lord. Pastor John was sharing about some extremely exciting opportunities for developing our Zambia work including a powerful conference organised by Bishop Hudson Luwi involving over 250 Church leaders from Solwezi and the surrounding areas which took place during his last visit. Such was the success of this 'mini-conference' that we will be looking to run another week-long event in October with Pastor Richard joining Pastor John in Solwezi to provide support and teaching. There are some significant decisions to be made regarding these new developments and I believe Church members will be receiving a letter about this in due course.

Bob has also had an extremely profitable time with the Aid International Building Team with a dramatic turn of events just this last week which, if it comes together, will create a very new and highly influential work in Lusaka. I'm sure he will share more when he returns this week.

A bit closer to home, the new Associate Vicar at Holy Trinity Kingswood, Rev. Andy Mason, has been in touch with us to help develop some new initiatives for, amongst other things, youth outreach into the local community. He is keen for us to be involved and he is working hard to gather like-minded people from across Kingswood to pursue these strategies. I heard last week that Kingswood Congregational Church has also employed an evangelist, William Gaydon, to help them develop a greater community impact in Kingswood and beyond. What tremendous answers to prayer!

This is just the start. Keep praying - the doors are opening and we all have a part to play.