Hello Hunters!
Sorry that there haven't been many updates over the last season.
During the last few months we've come into a season as a local church where we felt that God had told us to do the following:
Isaiah 54:2-3
‘Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities’
Part of this we felt was in not spreading ourselves too thinly as a church but prioritising ourselves in particular areas, making them our main focus for the coming season and doing those things well rather than doing lots of things but not effectively.
Obviously there is of course the God factor! - It's not about the effort we put in but there are underlying principles relating to practical stewardship of resources, both with people and time.
With this all taken into account we felt that as we had 2 street outreach ministries in operation (Treasure Hunts & Prayer on the Square) and that both had the same means to an end (praying for people) that we would be best served to really put our weight behind one for the next season, to develop a team and do it effectively.
We decided to emphasise the Prayer on the Square model. It is much like the Healing on the Streets model that the Vineyard churches are using, but with a few adjustments.
We felt it was both visible and targeted, also allowing for use of the prophetic in the same way as a treasure hunt, so as to get clues for people you may meet in the morning.
We've found in previous times we are seeing the same people walk past week after week and are starting to build up some relationships with local people through the regularity and location of it.
I am happy that for this season we have made a good decision and that in the future we will be able to re-engage with the treasure hunt model in some shape or form, but the tools and skills we have learnt as a church, the confidence in moving in the prophetic and approaching strangers has been invaluable.
I long for myself and others not just in our own church but in others to really grasp the fact that God wants to speak to us, to have us living supernaturally, not just on church organised outreach vehicles but in the day to day of everyday life, at the school gates, in the supermarket, at work, in the home, in the park, the tennis courts, gym, wherever - God wants you to reach out and impact the world around you with His mighty power displayed through your compassion and obedience.
I will try and keep the blog updated with testimonies over this coming season and can only apologise for my rather long delay in posting anything up here!
Happy hunting!
Gordon Watson
Medway Family Church
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Friday, 11 March 2011
Thursday, 12 February 2009
The Bright Blue Coat
Met up with Andrew today to venture out on a little 'Treasure Hunt'.
We met at 9.30am and had a brief chat. We ushered in the presence of God and asked for the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us and then set about filling up our clues in the alloted 3 minutes!
It was strange. Andrew had Chatham High Street as a clue and although I hadn't put it down I felt that we would end up there when I was driving to our meeting!
We bumped into Susie as we left MFC and we mentioned some of the clues we had. We both had piercings as appearance clues and she mentioned that there was a tattoo and piercing shop on the main drag into Chatham.
As we drove into Chatham we realised we had a big problem - parking!!! - I only had 26p and Andrew had a £20 note, so we spent the next 15 minutes driving here and there before settling at Staples where we duly noted the Customers Only sign and set a timer on my phone to let us know when our 1 hours stay would be up so we could avoid the inevitable clamp!
We headed up to a tattoo parlour and ventured inside (nervously) and met a lady named Kim who looked us up and down like we were nut-jobs and after a brief look at our treasure map she suggested we go down to another tattoo place down the road - We did and it was closed!
After stopping a couple of random passers by in the hope they may be able to open some things up for us we ventured into Chatham High Street. We popped into a blue shop that was a paper shop but didn't get anywhere with the rather confused lady behind the counter.
Andrew really felt we should venture up towards the Debenhams superstore, he had a picture of it in his mind and was aware that it had cobbled streets. We made our way there and sat on a bench outside a fish shop. We stopped a couple of people that passed by but again no doors of opportunity opened.
We walked up a bit further and saw a leather coat shop and as we had suede sheepskin coat we felt this place was a must so we made our way inside... but after 5 or so minutes of Andrew very politely trying to explain what we were up to the owner glazed over and we moved on. 2 shops down and there was a lovely bloke called Ahmed in another leather coat shop who had suede sheepskin coats for sale. He tried to be helpful and was very open but we had to cut our time with him short as my alarm on my phone went off telling us we had 10 minutes to make it back to the car before the clamping man could get his hands on it.
We were walking back, rather disappointed that we hadn't had the opportunity to really introduce God to someone. We were discussing the good and bad things we felt we had learned from our time out and all of a sudden we spotted a lady wearing a bright blue coat and she had red hair and a push chair. We wasted no time in accosting her in the name of Jesus and introduced ourselves and our treasure map. I explained briefly that I felt she was our treasure and how God had given us the clues that led us to her. She was very open and seemed to find it all rather interesting, and as she scanned the list for anything that she may need prayer for her mum all of a sudden pointed out that she had back pain and a bad elbow and a bad shoulder. At that point it was apparent that she was the one that God wanted to impact - I asked if we could pray for her, right there in the middle of Chatham High Street. She agreed, we prayed a simple 1 minute prayer, releasing the healing power and love of God.
I asked her how she felt and to try and do something she couldn't do before. Her faced changed as she described the pain that was there in the morning had now gone - Praise God!!!
She then mentioned that she had diabetes, and I explained how that was also on the list and that for sure God had specifically equipped us to meet her there in the street.
She was bowled over and greatly blessed - We explained who we were and what we believed and then remembered the blessed car - So we left, telling her that God loves her and that's why we were there!
We dashed back to the car and there was no clamp and we realised that God's timing in all of our failed parking attempts, tattoo shop visits and wandering around was perfect in us bumping into Doreen so He could display His love in her life - What a great and amazing God!!!
We met at 9.30am and had a brief chat. We ushered in the presence of God and asked for the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us and then set about filling up our clues in the alloted 3 minutes!
It was strange. Andrew had Chatham High Street as a clue and although I hadn't put it down I felt that we would end up there when I was driving to our meeting!
We bumped into Susie as we left MFC and we mentioned some of the clues we had. We both had piercings as appearance clues and she mentioned that there was a tattoo and piercing shop on the main drag into Chatham.
As we drove into Chatham we realised we had a big problem - parking!!! - I only had 26p and Andrew had a £20 note, so we spent the next 15 minutes driving here and there before settling at Staples where we duly noted the Customers Only sign and set a timer on my phone to let us know when our 1 hours stay would be up so we could avoid the inevitable clamp!
We headed up to a tattoo parlour and ventured inside (nervously) and met a lady named Kim who looked us up and down like we were nut-jobs and after a brief look at our treasure map she suggested we go down to another tattoo place down the road - We did and it was closed!
After stopping a couple of random passers by in the hope they may be able to open some things up for us we ventured into Chatham High Street. We popped into a blue shop that was a paper shop but didn't get anywhere with the rather confused lady behind the counter.
Andrew really felt we should venture up towards the Debenhams superstore, he had a picture of it in his mind and was aware that it had cobbled streets. We made our way there and sat on a bench outside a fish shop. We stopped a couple of people that passed by but again no doors of opportunity opened.
We walked up a bit further and saw a leather coat shop and as we had suede sheepskin coat we felt this place was a must so we made our way inside... but after 5 or so minutes of Andrew very politely trying to explain what we were up to the owner glazed over and we moved on. 2 shops down and there was a lovely bloke called Ahmed in another leather coat shop who had suede sheepskin coats for sale. He tried to be helpful and was very open but we had to cut our time with him short as my alarm on my phone went off telling us we had 10 minutes to make it back to the car before the clamping man could get his hands on it.
We were walking back, rather disappointed that we hadn't had the opportunity to really introduce God to someone. We were discussing the good and bad things we felt we had learned from our time out and all of a sudden we spotted a lady wearing a bright blue coat and she had red hair and a push chair. We wasted no time in accosting her in the name of Jesus and introduced ourselves and our treasure map. I explained briefly that I felt she was our treasure and how God had given us the clues that led us to her. She was very open and seemed to find it all rather interesting, and as she scanned the list for anything that she may need prayer for her mum all of a sudden pointed out that she had back pain and a bad elbow and a bad shoulder. At that point it was apparent that she was the one that God wanted to impact - I asked if we could pray for her, right there in the middle of Chatham High Street. She agreed, we prayed a simple 1 minute prayer, releasing the healing power and love of God.
I asked her how she felt and to try and do something she couldn't do before. Her faced changed as she described the pain that was there in the morning had now gone - Praise God!!!
She then mentioned that she had diabetes, and I explained how that was also on the list and that for sure God had specifically equipped us to meet her there in the street.
She was bowled over and greatly blessed - We explained who we were and what we believed and then remembered the blessed car - So we left, telling her that God loves her and that's why we were there!
We dashed back to the car and there was no clamp and we realised that God's timing in all of our failed parking attempts, tattoo shop visits and wandering around was perfect in us bumping into Doreen so He could display His love in her life - What a great and amazing God!!!
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