Tuesday 16 February 2010

Encounter Weekend - Town Invasion Feedback

Hello Hunters!

Just wanted to fill you all in on the amazing time that was had by all at the Encounter Youth Conference last weekend over at The Town Church, Sevenoaks.

We had the pleasure of having Julian Adams come and teach/minister to us over the Friday evening and all day Saturday - He spoke on the Fathers heart and many people encountered God in fresh new ways. The worship was electric and it was such a pleasure to see 100+ young people going all out for Jesus!

On the Saturday afternoon we had approx 30(ish) youngsters signed up for the Town Invasion.

We had a short time of teaching and instruction on Treasure Hunting before heading out into Sevenoaks to bless the people that God led us to.

All of the teams came back having found clues and being led to people. Many of the teams had some really exciting encounters where the love and power of God really touched peoples hearts.

Some of the youth had tried this method of evangelism before but for a few it was their first time out and they were all hugely encouraged as they realized that hearing from God can be an everyday occurrence and that it's not as difficult to share the Kingdom with people as they originally thought!

Some of the testimonies will be posted soon... watch this space!

Happy Hunting!

Gordon Watson
Medway Family Church

Oxted Hunt Testimonies - Jan/Feb 2010

Here's a few testimonies from Kings Church in Oxted.


Orange Hair in Nero’s

As soon as we set out, David found his first clue and blessed someone whom I had already had contact with through a woman2woman event. She was open to be blessed and prayed for which was an encouraging start.

It was a bitterly cold day so Kate and I were keen to move on to my next location clue which was NERO'S!!!! We were incredulous as we saw our treasure, sitting at the back of the cafe. A woman with LURID BRIGHT ORANGE/ RED HAIR. Bulls eye!! She was deep in conversation so Kate and I decided to sit nearby and wait until we had a chance to talk. When our ‘treasure’ did eventually get up to leave we decided to ask her about her amazing hair colour; she needed no second bidding and sat down next to us with great eagerness and gave us a moment by moment account of her last trip to the hairdressers. We finally managed to explain why we were drawn to talk to her and showed her not only the hair clue but also the words GRIEF which Kate had written on her card. She was astounded that God had spoken so accurately, especially as she had just confessed to her friend to being up to her neck in grief moments before. It transpired that she was a Christian and had been in an abusive marriage for 23 years. She felt bitter that God had saved her on her wedding day but since that day, her life had been very difficult and she was so angry with God and feeling guilty because she had just separated from her husband. We spent some time bringing truth and words of comfort and life and we prayed for her. The tears flowed and we felt that God had made His point - what love He has and what mercy and grace was flowing in spite of her anger and confusion. We really felt that we had brought His presence and that this precious Christian really knew that she was on Father God's heart and that He wasn’t angry with her as she had previously thought.

It was an extraordinary meeting and we are sure that she left us feeling that God would never let go of her and that she was loved.


Rescued by Eddie

After we left Nero’s, Kate and I headed out for our next location, but on the way there, we found our next clue; a lady with JET BLACK HAIR and the skinniest pair of BLACK SKINNY JEANS stood before us. We explained what we were doing and were met with a very suspicious response- partly due to the fact that her English was poor but also because she clearly didn’t trust us. I was fast beginning to wish that we had never stopped her as we could see that the shutters had gone down. At just the right moment, in perfect timing, Eddie and his team walked by and he immediately saw our predicament. He began speaking to the lady in Bulgarian, and assuring her that we were safe. It transpired that she and her family were Bulgarian and Eddie had witnessed to them in the past. The transformation was astonishing, she started to smile and was open to hear what we had to say. We shared about Jesus with her and although she was very busy and life was stressful, she conceded that she might come to visit us one day at church. She left us looking happy and realizing that God sees her.


Flat Cap by the Legion

We made our way to the BRITISH LEGION, looking for a man in a FLAT CAP who had a WALKING STICK because of his bad back and whose name we thought was BERT. Having waited in the cold for a few minutes and seeing no one we suddenly saw a man walking up the hill about 100 yards away. He had a flat cap and was clearly in pain from the way he was walking. We caught up with him and it turned out that his name was David (not Bert) but that he did had a bad back. The doctors thought he had a trapped nerve but were unable to offer any solution and he had been in pain with it for 6 years. We asked if we could pray for him and when he said that was ok we laid our hands on his back and commanded the pain to go and for healing to come. We then asked him how his back was and he smiled and said that the pain had definitely got less. So we prayed again and encouraged him to walk up and down and see how it was. By the end of our time praying for him he said that the pain had been 8/10 but was now below 4/10. We encouraged him to keep thanking God for what He was doing and to keep asking Him to heal his back completely.


Happy Hunting!


Dale Barlow

Kings Church, Oxted

Saturday 6 February 2010

TOWN INVASION - Saturday, 13th February 2010


Hello Hunters!

Just to let you all know about the Town Invasion (Treasure Hunt) this coming Saturday, 13th February, that is happening as part of the Encounter Weekend youth conference with Julian Adams.

We will be at The Town Church in Sevenoaks, with the invasion preparation starting at around 1.45pm.

There will be a quick time of instruction and testimony before we get our clues and head off into Sevenoaks in teams of 3/4 people to find the people that God gives us the clues to find.

I'm expecting God to really impact some people on Saturday afternoon through the power of His Holy Spirit!

Each team will be out for about an hour before heading back to The Town Church for a de-briefing session (military stylee!) so we can all hear about what God has been doing.

Feel free to message me via the Encounter Weekend Facebook page (just search for Encounter & you'll find it on there!) if you have any further questions.

I look forward to meeting many of you there.

Happy Hunting!

Gordon Watson
Medway Family Church