 |
No trip to this region of Australia would not be complete without our visit to the Evangelical sisters of Mary. We arrived in time for the 3pm worship at the small chapel within the grounds, followed by afternoon tea with the sisters. Linda and I are always blessed by the Kingdom conversations, laughter and songs around the dining table, and the sisters love giving us many gifts from their centre.
We always find that in the midst of our busy travel and teaching schedule this annual visit recharges our spiritual batteries. And again, such a joy to feel part of God's vast international family. I thoroughly recommend the teaching books and booklets written by the founder, a mighty woman of God, M.Bailea Schlink. |
|
|
 |
This teaching was given at Ellel Pierrepont on July 15th and is now available on the Ellel website or on You tube. |
|
| Something different! |
 |
Photography is my hobby but I don't do weddings! However I made one exception for a Jewish friend of mine. He married in Israel and brought his wife to Northern Ireland for a week and asked if I would do their album. Nervously I agreed and so on August 29th - at a National Trust property - I photographed the wedding party. Praise God they are delighted with the photos! |
|
|
|
 |
| Egypt September 9th - 19th |
 |
This was my first time teaching in a middle eastern nation and it came through the invitation of Ben Gray, CHI ministries, Australia who has ministered there for many years.
On arrival in the very early hours of Friday morning we over-nighted in a guest apartment in Cairo before journeying with a small team to a 9 acre Christian compound - known as 'Beit Agape' - some two hours outside Cairo on the edge of the desert. This remarkable place built up over many years has 7 conference rooms of varying sizes and a 940 bed capacity! It was founded and continually developed by a former head of YWAM Egypt Magdy and his wife Annelise.
Truly an oasis in the desert! |
 |
LEADERS OF TOMORROW SEMINAR - Saturday 10th - Monday 12th September
The original programme dates were moved forward by several days so we were into the programme the day after we arrived at Beit Agape. Pastor Ric Benson from Australia did the first session on Saturday evening and the first session on the Sunday morning, and then I did the next four sessions under the title of Living a God revealing life! Each session was an hour and a quarter with one session two hours long - the longest session I had ever done to that date! Event organiser Ben Gray took the final session at both events himself.
My tireless translator, brother Sameh, had the somewhat difficult task of turning my Northern Irish English into Arabic - no easy task! I got on very well with the young men especially and Linda and I quickly had to get used to the great many requests for a photo with each young person. |
|
|
|
|
MAIN PASTOR AND LEADERS CONFERENCE - Monday 12th to Thursday 15th September
This was held in the very large and very beautiful main conference hall capable of holding some 600-700 people on three tiers. |
|
|
| This main conference was attended by some 550 people, some who came on a bus journey of 7 hours - longer than it took Linda and I to get from the UK to Egypt. During the event the Holy Spirit suddenly took me off script and I spoke on people who did 'Christian things' but had never truly surrendered to Jesus with all their heart. I made an appeal and 10 people stood up to fully commit to Christ, and 4 more came the next day to do so! This event tied in with the release of my first book Loved Like Never Before - also the title of the conference. |
|
I did 6 sessions, each one and a quarter hours and one two hours long. One lady in tears said to Linda and I, "we have never had teaching like this in Egypt. We have always thought God was constantly punishing us! Now we know He loves us! "
|
During the conference there much praying done every evening with the delegates and Linda and I must have prayed for more than a hundred people individually. Even when we went to the book shop on site we would end up with a prayer queue! I signed a great many books with many people buying several. Picture above is of Linda and I saying goodbye at end of the conference. |
 |
The conference was a great success and very memorable but Linda and I agree that for us the most memorable part was meeting a group of Christians from Sudan - a country where Christian persecution is extreme.
This group of young people sang several songs on stage and then we met many of them individually afterwards to sign books and pray for them. Only on their signed books did I also add, 'May God continue to protect you'
The fragrance of Jesus was very evident on all of them.
We will keep them in our prayers. Please, will you also keep that nation in your prayers
They are heros and heroines in our eyes and a terrific example to us. |
|
The smaller 'winter cave' shown here was our favourite. |
Since the dates of the original programme had been moved forward we had three free days at the end to relax and see more of Egypt. Our gracious hosts Magdy and Annelise Saber kindly took us all to see the famous cave churches set in the stony hillsides where much of the stone was cut for the pyramids. The main cave can seat up to 20,000 people and every Thursday some 10,000 Egyptians gather there to worship and the Presence of God is so evident that there is a side room full of wheel chairs from the many healings that have happened. There are even deliverances happening there.
We also visited the oldest part of Cairo - originally Christian - and also the oldest Christian monastery in the world which was only a few miles from our compound in the desert. |
|
| But of course no visit to Egypt would be complete without a visit to the famous pyramids and Sphinx just outside Cairo... |
|
All in all, a truly memorable mission to a truly remarkable country. Thank You Lord!
'From the dpeths of our hearts we would like to thank you for your visit, for your prayers, for your time and for all your efforts to come and be a part of the conference at Beit Agagpe (Cairo) Receive our sincere gratitude and may God bless you richly for the great inspiration you have been for many brothers and sisters here. We pray God's blessing upon your family, ministry and all your activities'. Magdy and Annelise Saber
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
 |
October 6th - 12th. This was our 5th visit to Sweden and it is always a real joy to meet the Swedish Christians again. I was asked to take the Ellel Sweden prayer ministry team's annual weekend team event and impart knowledge that I and my team have gained over the past two decades, especially in one particular area. The weekend was held at the Teen Challenge Base near the town of Orebro and it was here we met some Syrian refugees who have been temporarily placed there by the Government. It was very moving to hear their stories and our hearts went out to them. |
 |
 |
My faithful and seemingly tireless translator for the fifth visit is Goran Andersson and as usual we stayed in their home during our week long visit. He has the unenviable task of turning my Northern Irish version of the English language into Swedish! The Ellel team leader wanted to bring me back and asked the Lord to confirm this by anyone else there asking for the same thing. Ten team members asked for that, so God willing, we will be back next year. |
|
|
Teaching two sessions from the Father Heart of God on Tuesday evening at this beautiful Church in Orebro. |
 |
Report published in Ellel Ministries International Prayer Update Dec 2016
|
|
|
|
| The 2016 Autumn prayer ministry school - October to December |
|
|
 |
This is (we reckon) the 12th annual 'Introduction to prayer ministry' school we have run. Starting early October it runs every Tuesday evening until mid-December. The topics include, Qualities of a prayer ministry person : Lordship of Jesus Christ : Forgiveness : Understanding the spiritual realms : Understanding spirit soul and body : Understanding generational influences : Understanding 'soul ties' (person to person relationships) : Rejection : Mindsets and careless words : Abortion : Fear : Anger : Blood Covenants: Prayer ministry skills : Attendance is by invitation only, and those who have attended the basic course on any year can attend the advanced classes held in the spring time, where subjects can include subjects such, Abuse : Freemasonry : Occult : Queen of Heaven. The primary intention is to help build prayer ministry teams in local churches and also to make Christians more knowledgeable about subjects not normally taught in Church, but very much part of the Gospel.
|
|
|
|
| 10th anniversary visit to God's Garage in County Tipperary. October 21-23 |
|
|
 |
|
|
God's garage at evening time |
Anne-Marie Mulrooney felt the call of God to build a meeting place within the grounds of her home so that we could teach and minister in her part of Ireland. Our first visit was October 27th 2006 and this was our 27th visit!
Some of the CRi team in ministry sessions on Saturday afternoon |
|
Anne-Marie keeps careful records of each visit, including what was taught and who was ministered to, and by whom. Looking back over the years showed us God's faithfulness to her, to us and to the many people who have come from so many parts of Ireland. Teaching sessions are on Friday evening and Saturday morning with prayer ministry on Saturday afternoon. Our seven strong team ministered to 4 people each for an average of an hour per person. [see photo above] Our next visit is due January or February. To mark to 10th anniversary we presented Anne-Marie with one of my photographs of new born lambs, signed by every member of the team. The very appropriate scripture beneath the lambs was from Isaiah 40:11
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Life Apps at Green Pastures, Ballymena, Northern Ireland |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Something new and working well. Green Pastures is offering a large range (14) of 40 minute Life Application seminars (Life Apps) before the 11am morning service and again before the 6pm evening service The idea is that people come to either the morning or the evening service - leaving more free time on Sundays for quality time with families. These Life Apps cover subjects such as Parenting God's Way, Finding Grace In Grief, Financial Stewardship, Strong Start, Be-Planted, Meet The Holy Spirit, Keep The Love Alive etc. These mini-seminars are held in various rooms throughout the large church premises. The main auditorium hosts the weekly 'Headline App' and I will be taking the Sunday morning Headline App in November (10am - 10:40) and doing the same teaching again in February evening sessions. (5pm - 5:40) My subject is Step By Step. The Making of A Disciple. The photo shows the first Sunday where session one was sub-titled 'Growing Up and Moving On'. Session two 'Hearing God' Session three 'Eating discipleship food' and session four, 'The line in the sand' |
|
|
|
|
|
| The simple truth that just keeps on changing lives! |
|
|
| A week ago a lady I had never met before told me that two years ago 'The Father Heart of God' teaching had completely changed her life and she wanted to thank me for that teaching. But of course it is the Lord's truth I am simply conveying and that truth just keeps on turning lives around. The book has now been translated into English Swedish French and Arabic and I have now been informed it has been translated into Norwegian and should be in print by January. It is the Lord's doing. These translations have been initiated by the nations themselves, not by me! I am just watching in amazement what God is doing with the teaching!! God willing I will be teaching The Father Heart of God in Norway next April. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
On December 13th those visiting this site would have been met with the above notice. The web site was unable to function as it had - for the first time ever - exceeded the substantial bandwidth allocated to it. When I contacted the hosting company for advice, the first line of their reply was "Wow that's a lot of bandwidth" I had never given much thought to how many people might visit the site, but this event forced me to go to the server control panel and dig out some vital statistics. From January 1st to December 13th 111,222 'unique visitors' opened 252,580 pages making 1,883,629 'clicks' on those pages. Wow!! (Every computer has a unique 'fingerprint' so it is easy for the hosting company to record 'unique visitors') I have now purchased double the previous bandwidth and so the site is up and running again. Here are the statistics... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Let me introduce you to my good friend Phil the pheasant. He comes to our home nearly every day to be fed. (and in season with his lady friend)
Being very nervous creatures by nature, it took patient work for more than a year until he trusted me enough to come close, but now he happily comes into our home as soon as we open the door! He has been coming for years now.
Aren't we all a bit like that with our Heavenly Father?
|
|
|
|
|
| December 18th - my 69th birthday! |
|
|
 |
On December 18th I completed my 69th year and so entered my 70th year. It has been another good year, another fruitful year and of course at times a challenging year.
Interestingly, as a young man I always thought I would be unlikely to reach such a senior-citizen age because of the number of potentially dangerous sports I invested in. (Parachuting and paracending, sub-aqua-diving, winter mountaineering, rock climbing, survival courses etc)
Then in July 2005 the virus that attacked my heart and stopped my liver and kidneys from functioning was a close shave. The consultants gave me less than 24 hours life expectancy.
But praise God here I am!
And all glory to my creator.
|
The 2017 Newsletter should begin towards the end of January |
|
|
|
|
|
|
