********

Last week, we had a strong desire to reach the wider community of Cymmer, by sending groups out to prayer-walk, to minister to people in pubs and on the street.  Due to the different format of this discipleship week, we realised that all of our time was being spent within the Church.  So, after discussion, prayer and consideration we decided to completely transform the layout of the day.

We opened the front doors of the Church, inviting everyone to enter and ask questions/have a cup of tea/be discipled/experience the presence of the Lord.  We created stations around the room, including a prayer tree, an art corner, a question table, and a deeper discipleship/bible study room.  It was really encouraging to see so many children and young people come to the Church, even just to chat to the leaders.  People of all ages came to the open church, including mothers of the young people that normally attend Revive.

While this was taking place, a number of the team were sent out to reach and minister to the local people in their situations.  These guys prayed, worshipped and implored the Lord’s light to enter that dark place.  We’re also developing relationships with members of the community, and Revive is being widely recognised and respected, which is encouraging.

Let’s pray, however, that it would be the name of Jesus that would be recognised in that place…. and that the Gospel would be spread rapidly, through families, schools, businesses.  We realise that these are big prayers, but as Jesus said, ”With man this is impossible, but not with God; ALL THINGS are possible with God.”

Please keep interceding for these broken people, and pray that God will give us a greater measure of His Spirit and of faith, as we prepare to serve and worship Him the last couple of days.

We have to say another massive apology for the delayed blogs this week. We really do appreciate all your prayers so much and will do all we can over the next few days to keep you all regularly updated. This week the team has been really struggling with tiredness and keeping energized to serve God with our everything, so please pray that we would finish this week spending ourselves on building God’s Kingdom in the community of Cymmer and pouring ourselves out in prayer and worship to the King who has called us to this mission.

This week our focus has been on discipleship more than outreach. After previous missions we felt it was so important to seek to bring more depth and seriousness to the commitments that many of the children and youth have made, rather than simply continuing to scatter seeds and then leaving them without any mentoring for the whole summer. On friday in our team worship time Paul challenged us to cry out to God, the only One who can bring growth to the ground that we’ve been preparing and the seeds we’ve been sowing. This week has been about calling upon the Holy Spirit to work deep in the hearts of the kids, bringing them into a lifestyle of daily following and loving Jesus rather than simply praying a prayer and forgetting about the beauty of the gospel.

Our team prayer and worship times started this week with a time of pruning, purifying and repentance. There were many tears as we prayed for God to humble us and prepare us to serve Him. 1 Peter 5 vs 5 has been burning on my heart the last two weeks, the truth that God gives grace to the humble. As we lower ourselves and admit our weakness and dependence on Him we welcome His presence and prepare the way for the filling of His Spirit. We’ve been singing a new song this week, “We prepare the way” and that’s been the cry of our hearts this week, that our love would welcome His Spirit to move powerfully in our midst, bringing salvation, healing and discipleship. It was a great way to start the week, though I think the intensity of the time caught up with us physically later in the day.

The format of kids club was significantly different to the week before both Monday and Tuesday and we didn’t know how the children would react to the new format. But thanks to God we’ve had so many kids desperate to learn more of God’s love. We stripped the club of all games, have been more strict on misbehaving and have been using a mentoring system, where two leaders spend their time doing a bible study with 1, 2 or 3 kids. It has been amazing. Jesus called the little children to come to Him and this week we have seen Him do just that. It has been beyond a blessing to see some of these precious children who have only ever know brokeness, depravity and darkness give their lives to Jesus and commit to following Him. We’ve been blown away by how much they have understood the theme of the weeks discipleship, “Grace” and have begun to take steps towards living in response to the grace shown by God’s undeserved kindness in their everyday lives. As we’ve worshipped with them, they’ve sung and clapped their hearts out and are really hungry to know more of God. They’ve asked profoundly deep questions, have loved getting into the bible and have listened supernaturally well as we’ve explained God’s grace to them in the light of sin, the cross, life and eternity. I just pray that one day the church will have a permenant place where these young worshippers can come and seek God with their childlike faith and enjoy getting to know Jesus. The amount of amazing feedback from the team about conversations that have been really fruitful has been incredible. Its such a privilege to serve in this way, fulfilling Jesus’ final commission to make disciples of every nation (Matthew 28). We’re believing that some of these young boys and girls are going to be the future leaders in the church in Wales.

One of the tough things over these 2 days was finding out that one of the youth was involved in a car accident on Monday. By Monday night we had found out the accident was very serious, with him being placed in a coma with a bleed in the brain. Once again many tears were shed as the team cried out for our Father to stretch out His healing hand and restore this young boy. He is so faithful and more than able. The amount of times He’s answered our weak cries these last few weeks have shown the immensity of His compassion and goodness. By tuesday we found out that this boy was out of the coma and off life support, praise Jesus! And now he has woken up. Its amazing. Considering the severity of the accident we were told it was a miracle he’d even survived. God has so used it all for His glory. I think it was one of the most significant events of this years mission as the Lord used it to show us and the youth how much the community relies on the church and the ministry of REVIVE as a place of refuge when life falls apart. We were able to pray with many youth at the scene and later in the youth club and do a bible study with some of the boys closest friends on God’s comfort, healing and protection. It was such an encouragement to know that our Father used us to breathe comfort and reassurance to some young people in very dark times (2 corinthians 1). The courage and faith that the best friend has shown in God through this trial has also led many of his friends closer to knowing Jesus for themselves. His love for God and trust in Him hearing prayers has been a model of what it means to follow God and is bearing fruit amongst his friends already. God is so good.

Tuesday night finished with the team feeling at the end of themselves after an emotionally draining few days. Jon gathered us to discuss how many of us were feeling spiritually exhausted and depressed and to suggest that we fasted, re-evaluated our commitment to the mission and re-devoted ourselves to giving all over the last 3 days. We spent the evening encouraging each other and praying for each other in an environment of prayer and worship that went on into the early hours. We were refreshed and revived as we spent time in the Lord’s presence being built up. Pray that the last few days will see God move with freedom in this community as we continue to faithfully proclaim His good news.

Sorry for the delayed post.  It’s been an exhausting but great weekend!  We ran a Fun Day for the community of Cymmer on Saturday, and led the service at Rhondda Apostolic Church on Sunday evening.

The Fun Day involved a bbq, a bouncy castle, face-painting, a beauty salon,  as well as a prayer table, to encourage the young people (and parents) to lift up situations or problems to God.  Some of the prayer requests were:

‘Help me to read the Bible…’
‘Help me to know God better…’
‘Help me to be good…’ (written by a particularly difficult child)
‘Help my mummy and daddy to stop arguing…’

Some of these prayer requests were heart-breaking, as we learned more of the children’s desires and vulnerability.  So many of them have grown up in families that are disfunctional, involving conflict, alcoholism and often violence.  Let’s pray that God would protect them from these broken family situations, and would reveal His uncompromising love which passes all understanding, and covers all by grace.

It was also so exciting to see parents participating in the activities, and taking gospels home to read, intrigued by the truths that have been taught to their children.

Last night we assisted with the worship, prayers, reading and general structure of the service in Cymmer.  It was a real privilege to support the Church, and a large number of young people attended the service, most of whom sat listening intently to the words spoken by David Brownut, on God’s unconditional love for the world.

——–

^‘For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.’

….Please pray that the people in Cymmer would know and understand this incredible truth deep in their heart.  Pray that God would reveal His hope, purpose and love to them, that they would seek Him with all their heart.

It’s 3am, and we’ve recently returned from the streets of Porth, where a few of us have been interceding, worshipping and sharing God’s amazing story to the lost and broken people of that area.  Conversation after conversation took place, and we are in absolute awe of God’s faithfulness and presence.  We laid hands on non believers on the street, gave out gospels, explained to people the reason for our hope, and also just covered the high street with prayer for God’s mercy and salvation to fall.

Looking back to the beginning of the day, we can see that God’s hand was clearly at work right from the moment we arrived.  After a time of worship, Paul shared with us personal testimonies of manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and other encounters of God’s incredible presence.  He encouraged us to seek more of Him and implore Him (and trust Him) to grow the seeds that have been planted.   Dan brought a picture during this time, that stirred us to be more expectant in our prayers.  He explained that when we see the beginning of God’s rain (His power, miracles and revival), we should immediately be praying for and expecting MORE to follow.  As soon as we feel a touch of rain upon our skin, we should call out to God and ask that those drops of rain would develop into heavier rain storms, developing into gushing floods through the region of Cymmer, bringing upheaval and God-driven transformation.  We responded to this by bowing to our knees, thirsting for more and interceding with desperation for the lost.

During the kids’ group, we ran a disco, as it was the last official meeting.  It was a really great evening, with party games, glow sticks, a smoke machine, DJs, and lots of balloons!  Geraint spoke on God’s love, and how He demonstrated that love so perfectly through Jesus’ death on the cross.  This provoked many conversations with the children, and we believe that they are truely beginning to grasp the fact that they are adored by their Father in heaven, and that He sent Jesus as a way to bring mercy and grace into their lives.

During the youth club, the guys went up to a field and played football, while the girls stayed in the church to paint nails, do face masks, watch a film and eat chocolate fondue!  Everyone had a really great night, and the girls were particularly captivated by the message (given by Lois) of God’s unconditional, unfailing love for them.  It’s been such a privilege this week to witness God’s gentle interventions into the hearts of these young people, and we pray that God will continue this work in them, as they learn more of Him and of the life that He has laid out for them.

We also praise God for His attentive ear and healing hand that we have clearly seen tonight.  A member of our team was having bad pain in her shoulder, that was causing distraction and difficulty.  We all laid hands on our sister in Christ, declared that God is sovereign over all disease, pain and trouble, and prayed that He would heal her…… after about 20 minutes, she announced that the pain had disappeared - praise the Lord for His compassion and goodness!

‘He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy;  he will crush the oppressor.  He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations.  He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth.’ Psalm 72:4-6

‘Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.’ (Hosea 6:3)

‘You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
       let the clouds shower it down.
       Let the earth open wide,
       let salvation spring up,
       let righteousness grow with it;
       I, the LORD, have created it.’ (Isaiah 45:8)

*****

Today, God has met with us, challenged us and answered our cries and prayers.  We’re not worthy, our prayers are feeble, but He chooses to lavish His blessings and love on us – thank You Father.

The day began with a time of worship, where we once again lifted high the name of Jesus, encouraging each other of the hope and victory that we have in Christ.  However, during this time, our exhaustion became quite evident – physically and spiritually.  The sense of excitement and anticipation from the night before seemed to have drained from the team’s spirits, and we were praying and worshipping with a stilled, content heart, lacking in urgency, utter devotion and passion.  Our team mate Paul challenged us about this and encouraged us to fight and strive for more of God – to not allow any complacency to hinder His work through us.  He also challenged us to be living with more attention upon our purity of mind and heart, so that we do not allow the devil to gain access into any area of our lives, but rather we’d be completely filled with His ‘righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness’ (1 Timothy).  We followed this time by praying in our prayer triplets, and opening up to each other with honesty and vulnerability about our individual struggles and weaknesses.  This time is so precious, as it allows us to be more deeply united, and fills us with encouragement and prayerful support from our brothers and sisters.

Today we ran an exciting show called ‘Cymmer’s Got Talent’ (with special appearances from Ant and Dec, 3 judges and even Susan Boyle!).  We ran the competition with both children and youth, and it was a real success!  We worked together as a team to make the room look impressive and attractive, and some team members even took part in the show, as the Spice Girls!

The kids behaved brilliantly today – there was an amazing atmosphere in the hall, of unity between the leaders and children, and none of them were asked to leave!  We are praying that the simple act of running this talent show will restore to these young people a glimpse of hope, and may bring about further clarity of God’s love and interest in their lives and gifts.  We did a talk on the mercy and grace that Jesus showed on the cross, and also discussed the parable of the prodigal son to display God’s incredible forgiveness and mercy that is waiting for them if they only run back to Him.  Once again, our faithful Father answered our anxious prayers of noise and disruption, and brought His beautiful peace into the room, right until the talk was finished.  Several exciting discussions followed, and many children were approaching God’s table of mercy with greater insight and, we trust, greater understanding.

The youth also really enjoyed ‘Cymmer’s Got Talent’, and many got involved with dances, songs and comedy acts!  After all the acts were performed, Hannah shared her testimony, and explained the way that God has shown her such an extent of His grace and mercy, and such an abundance of His love, despite pain and difficulties.  This Fatherly, unconditional love of God really penetrated the hearts of many young people, and resulted in a large number of long-lasting conversations… thank You Lord!

Please pray particularly for those young people who are using their reputations and peer group pressures to restrict or hinder their response – pray that God will transform the lives of fundamental, influential characters within the gyouth roup, to possibly break this stronghold of the devil.

Detached teams didn’t go out tonight, as we needed extra man power in the church.  A few team members, however, spent a large proportion of the evening on their knees, interceding for their brothers and sisters who were engaged in exciting conversations with the youth, and calling out to the Lord to have compassion on the lost.

This followed by a spontaneous time of team worship, (when the youth had left) in which we also laid hands on each other and prayerfully encouraged each other.  We declared God as King of kings once more, and He lifted our hopes and spirits and reminded us of His sovereignty and power to save even the hardest of hearts.

Please also pray that the Holy Spirit would really assist us in these last few days – pray that we would pray with perseverence, genuine passion and a greater measure of faith.

Thank you all so much.

God bless x

******

We started today by sharing communion with each other. It was so good in the middle of the first week when many of us were feeling tired and weary, but so thankful and graced, to take the Lord’s supper together. The team this year has been so unified and willing to do whatever God has called them to and it was just amazing to remember what Jesus did both on calvary and what He has done in our own lives, together as a team. As people were taking the bread and wine we quietly began to worship, singing the hymn that was the anthem of the last major welsh revival, “Here is love vast as the ocean”. It felt almost like a prophetic declaration as we sang these revival words, “who His love cannot remember, who can cease to sing His praise” over a nation that has by enlarge tried to forget the love of Jesus and refused to worship Him, forsaking Him for the love of money, drink, drugs, sex and other worldly pleasures. It was a reminder as we worshipped today of what God was calling us as a REVIVE team to do – to be part of God reminding the nation that He so loves of His worth and calling them back to worship Him.

As the time of worship came to a close, Paul came to share with us about the nature of the Kingdom of God and about the way Jesus moved to defeat the powers of darkness when He was on earth. It was great to be reminded of the truth of the battle that we all face when advancing God’s Kingdom of Light but also gave us great courage in the amazing confidence we can have that Jesus is with us in the boat as we face the storms thrown by the enemy. We experienced His presence with us today in a very real way as we were reminded of what a battle we’re facing when preaching the gospel to hostile and hardened hearts.

The kids club today was very hard work! We had a bouncy castle for them all to enjoy, but that seemed to over-excite alot of them to the point of being very disruptive. Although alot of them were really well behaved, the minority that were being a bit rowdy got very hard to control and during the talk Rob did really well to speak of the justice of a righteous God on those who sin against Him amidst shouting and resistance to leaders’ instructions. It felt like the kids were just being very hostile towards the message and the authority of the leaders today and so we made the decision that for the sake of the safety of others we would have to close the club early. This was a bit discouraging for us leaders at first but provided an opportunity for us to go out in teams prayer walking, talking to the kids about Jesus outside and pray inside for the parents of the children who may have been a bit annoyed. One thing I noticed was that after the club had been closed, about 20 kids gathered outside and didn’t want to leave. We tried reading the bible to them and at that point they got so aggravated and quite aggressive. It just reminded me that the enemy kicks and screams and trembles when the Word of God, His sword (ephesians 6) pierces the hearts of children who don’t belong to Jesus.

Please do pray for these children’s parents, Jon had a chance to talk to a few who were pretty angry about the whole situation at first but by God’s grace were very understanding by the end. Despite all that went on, during the team feedback time at the end I heard more testimonies of amazing conversations had with kids than any of the other days of kids club. The Holy Spirit was whispering to the hearts of the kids above the noise of the shouting and disruption that was going on all around them.

After the kids club there was a fresh urgency and desperation in our prayers for God to move. I think for many of us, the amazing things that have happened that have blown our minds over the last few days may have made us a bit apathetic, not calling out on God’s power and relying totally on His mercy. So the kids club just re-awakened that amongst the team members as we prayed for the youth evening ahead. And it was such an encouraging evening! There was such a sense of the peace of the Lord in the building and once again they were totally silent, attentive and interactive during Paul’s talk on justice. Hannah and I had an amazing conversation with about 6 girls and one guy in one of the back rooms for about an hour. It got to the point where they were really shouting at us and not listening as we tried to explain God’s love and power. Then all of a sudden one of the girls asked “are your parents christian?” to Hannah. I think this is a massive barrier that alot of the kids have to accepting God’s truth – they assume its a family thing. When she responded “no”, utter silence fell on the room. From that point on as she told her testimony of growing up in the valleys like them, they were absolutely glued. God’s presence totally fell on that room and the atmosphere changed from resistance to a real openess. By the end we got to pray with them all, and each of them asked God to reveal Himself to them so they could know and follow Him. Pray especially for one of the girls who was absolutely terrified by the fact she might be going to hell. Pray that our Father would cause her to run to Him because of that fear, the Only One who can save her from that reality. Conversations like that were had by numerous people during youth and the whole team felt massively encouraged by the end. God is faithful and works even in the midst of storms. We have seen Him do that today.

*******

Today was a special day. God’s manifest presence and call to pursue more of Him and more of His Kingdom seemed to permeate every time spent worshipping, praying, preaching and loving. Keep praying, God is being so incredibly faithful in answering beyond what we could ever ask or imagine. There have been things today that have just left us in awe, wondering at the might, power and tender grace of our incredible God. His Spirit has been moving with such beauty and authority in our midst.

The day started with a few guys and a few girls meeting up separately to share, pray and worship together. Its been such a blessing being part of a team of such passionate servants of Jesus and getting to know them all better. These times have been and will be so precious and we fellowship with each other, pray for each other and build one another up as we acknowledge the battle we all face in an intense mission environment. For us guys this morning, there was a strong emphasis on the call to suffering with Christ and loving Him so much that are willing to pay the cost of picking up  our cross and following Him daily. As we headed up to Cymmer it was so encouraging that God had put that same message of loving Christ even to the point of counting death as gain and being willing to suffer with and for Him, on Dave M’s heart as he shared with us today. He also talked about our obedience being rooted in the revelation of who Jesus is and the affections that follow that recognition. I always love it when Dave brings God’s word to us and in his honesty I think it really opened up people to respond to the call to enthrone Jesus more as the Lord of our lives, even counting our lives as loss for the sake of knowing Him. The time of worship that followed the talk was beautiful, as we sang songs of surrender and offering ourselves to Christ, our One True Love and then moved on to declaring that our hope is found in Jesus alone.

As we finished singing together, Lois felt burdened to split into our prayer triplets and pray for the neighbours, particularly for one lady who has been particularly opposing to REVIVE and has shown a really hard heart towards the gospel and the church. Jon shared later in the day that he has had a distinct feeling, even when praying for the mission before it started, that although our predominant ministry is to the children and youth of Cymmer, God was going to use us to bring His hope and love to the older members of the community as well. It was great to spend time praying God’s protection and mercy over the area, and it was incredible to see the fruit of those prayers later in the day.

After having spent some time playing Cymmer ball (the REVIVE mission team football-basketball hybrid game), setting up and praying, we kicked off the kids club. The Lord brought in so many children today! We had way beyond the limit of the amount of people we were allowed in the church building and so we had to take some of the guys up to the field to play football instead. It has been amazing to see and hear from parents how much REVIVE means to these kids and how much they value coming along. Though it was a bit hectic in the club, there were loads of kids who were glued to the talk by Katie and Miriam about the humility of Jesus shown in His washing the feet of His disciples. The kids have been responding so well in the times after the talk and it is such a privilege to be part of the Holy Spirit stirring their hearts and opening their eyes to the truth of the gospel. Jesus said that the Kingdom belonged to those with child-like faith and seeing their simple acceptance and trust in the truth of God’s love has been really challenging. The kids club ended with some fun parachute games which ended with the room being very hot and sweaty!

Having eaten some amazing food the teamed gathered once again to pray and lay hands on each other for the night ahead. None of us could have imagined what God was going to do tonight. He blew our expectations on so many levels all across Cymmer, as well as in the youth club. We have a God with whom truly “nothing is impossible” (luke 1 vs 37). Within the youth it was sumo wrestling night and they absolutely loved it! The highlight for me was seeing big steve getting beaten by one of the kids! When it got to the talk I was really apprehensive about them talking and being disruptive. But as we spoke to them about the humility of Jesus and His sacrificial love, a complete supernatural silence fell upon the room. The Holy Spirit just seemed to still every heart and tongue and they were so attentive to every word. We’re just praying that the preaching of God’s word will bear fruit in the lives of these young people and that they will be the future leaders of the coming generation of the church.

Detached teams once again hit the streets and were obedient to God’s voice in knocking on doors, chatting to people and loving the community. The boldness of the team in being willing to do anything to tell people about Jesus is so encouraging and we’ve had so many good conversations with people. One guy in particular invited some memebers of the team back to his house to discuss faith more and they got a chance to pray for the healing of his sight and a revelation of God’s unfailing love towards him. At the same time as the youth group and deatached teams there was an incredible conversation had by the team on the door with the neighbour that has been opposing REVIVE’s work for years. They talked to her about God as Creator, about His love for her and about the ministry of the church. Honestly, even having a peaceful conversation with this woman was a huge answer to prayer, let alone being able to freely share the glory of the gospel with her. It’s incredible. When we got back at the end of the evening to share testimonies there were many tears wept over God’s work in the life of this woman. God broke and convicted each one of us, showing that He is mighty beyond our wildest dreams. We ended the evening with one of the most powerful times of worship I have ever experience. It felt like the heavens were opened and joy and faith were released as we sang of God’s power to save. His Kingdom truly does reign and as we bowed low, raised our hands, cried out, applauded, shouted, rejoiced, wept and danced in His presence tonight, He was very much among us. He is so good and His presence is so beautiful. Let’s keep calling upon Him and relying upon Him in prayer for all He’s going to do in Cymmer, in the valleys and in the rest of Wales.

************

Thank you all so much for your prayers – our faithful God has held us and met us by His power today. He has been stirring our hearts for a desire to see His Kingdom come in the town of Cymmer, and He’s been breaking our hearts for the lost and broken people around us.

We began the day by immediately worshipping God, celebrating His victory and declaring His majesty. It was an exciting time where we once again focused on the cross, and surrendered our all in response to His beautiful sacrifice. It helped us to point our gaze and focus our hearts on the reason for our ministry, which raised our hopes, expectations and excitement for the week!

During this team time Paul shared some challenging thoughts on a passage from Luke 5, when Jesus called His first disciples. He encouraged us to begin the week by capturing a deeper glimpse of God’s character, and allowing Him to impart to us a true revelation of Himself, before we step out and serve Him. Paul reminded us that revival must always begin in our hearts, so we can truly know and follow God’s heart for a particular mission field. We need to be walking alongside God, hearing His voice, following His footsteps and discerning His Spirit. Please pray that this will be a constant process…. and that we would never begin to raise our voices so loudly that we can’t hear His.

Kids club was amazing! We had an hour of games, craft, a talk and general mayhem! They listened well to the talk by Jon and Esther (all about the authority of Jesus) and some good conversations developed afterwards. It was so encouraging to hear young children ask, ‘Will Jesus really forgive me if I say sorry for the things I’ve done?’, knowing that they’ve lived lives of brokenness, sin and complete rejection of God. (After a moment of silence, this young guy followed by saying: ‘I’ve just said sorry to Him’.) Please pray that God will be continuing to demonstrate His incredible love and grace to these children, and that they would gain a deeper understanding of the mercy that is available to them if they choose to accept Jesus.

Our youth club took place later in the evening, which went really well. Dave did a talk on the authority, judgement and mercy of Jesus, which deeply engaged a number of the young people, and provoked several conversations with team members. It excites us to see the way the young people are beginning to hear and understand foundational truths about Jesus and His authoritative, yet compassionate heart for them. Also, some members of the team went out and prayer-walked around the area, and returned with really positive feedback – there was a particularly peaceful spiritual atmosphere around the town tonight, which is very unusual for Cymmer, as there is so often a strong sense of darkness and hostility. Praise God for an incredible answer to prayer! …… ‘If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday’. (Isaiah 58:10)

Throughout both sessions, we also had ‘detached teams’ going out on the streets to pray and seek God’s direction for ministry in the town. Some teams gave out flyers, others covered the streets with intercessory prayer, others knocked on doors to invite local residents to Church, and others were even led into pubs and engaged with some desperately hopeless people who poured out their hearts to them.

We’re thoroughly excited and encouraged by the sense of openness and vulnerability that we encountered this evening – please pray for an increase of this, and for God to break down more of Satan’s strongholds on these lives. Please also pray that we, as a team and as individual servants of Christ, would be continuing to learn to listen to our Father’s voice above all, to desire His presence above all, and to obediently walk in His perfect will for Cymmer.

Thank you!

(2 timothy 4 vs 1,2 + 5)

***

SATURDAY 13TH JUNE

The REVIVE Mission 2009 is about to begin. Its been a year since God moved in amazing ways – bringing salvation, transforming broken lives, purifying His people and revealing His glory and love in the valleys. Over the past year the ministry of REVIVE has grown significantly by God’s grace and He has done incredible things in our lives and in the lives of the young people we’ve been serving and the churches we’ve been partnering with. And now there is such a sense of expectancy, unity and faith of how our Heavenly Father is going to amaze us with His presence and His saving power as we seek to humbly, obediently and faithfully preach the gospel to the community in Cymmer.

Today we had a day of preparation. In Joshua 3 vs 5, Joshua commands the people to“Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.” We have spent the day preparing practically, physically (trying to rest before the craziness!) but most importantly spiritually. This morning we met together to go through CRB things, get a feel of what the week would look like, got our schedules, tee-shirts and other important information and spoke about spiritual warfare. We started the day with worship. All throughout this next two weeks of mission, its always going to start with worship. Just like in Isaiah 6, we can’t expect to be sent out in God’s power unless we’ve spent time beholding Him and praising Him. After Jon  R had taken us through some of the practicalities, Pete E brought the word to us. He spoke from the passage above in 2 Timothy about the brokeness in the valleys and the urgent need to love the lost through preaching God’s word. He shared about the fact that if we are true to God and obedient to His call it will take EVERYTHING. We can expect suffering and attack from the enemy when we are preaching His gospel in the strongholds of the enemy. It humbles me to think how far I am from that reality so often, despite longing for it. This next two weeks (and the rest of our lives) we need to be utterly surrendered to Jesus and seeking His Kingdom only in all we do.

In response to the weighty word and challenge Pete brought, we spent some time in prayer, kneeling down, crying out for God to move. I’m so looking forward to praying, worshipping and labouring with such passionate brothers and sisters over the next few weeks. As we prayed Jon brought us an encouragement from Revelation 19 about the might and power of Jesus. He is the Only Hope. He is the One we need to fix our eyes on. He is Salvation for the lost. God is stirring hearts that are yearning for more of His Kingdom reign in this land. It’s going to be a blessed, stretching, special time.

Please pray for us. Pray that we would stand united (John 17 vs 21). Pray that we would be continually humble (James 4 vs 10). Pray that we would be bold  (Ephesians 6 vs 19). Pray that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit (John 1 vs 33). Pray for protection (Psalm 46 vs 1). Pray, above all, that God would be glorified and that His will would be done (Matthew 6 vs 10).

We’re excited to see what’s coming! Bring on monday! Come, Lord!

Today as we worshipped there was such a passion and urgency in the prayers of the team as we pleaded with God for the hearts that had not yet been won. We prayed for salvation, we prayed for the community to wake up and we prayed for the walls to come down. We put on a party again for the kids today, and despite the horrible weather we had a decent turnout. We played a bunch of games and ate some food and Pete Evans challenged the kids with the Gospel message. Praise God that one girl made a commitment to follow Jesus! For the youth we had another rave. The bad weather meant the turnout wasn’t as good as last week but a good time was still had. Dave Medlicott preached the Gospel and challenged the young people not to put off embracing Jesus any longer. Two lads responded and were saved! One of them is the brother of a girl we know well who became a Christian at last year’s mission, so Praise God that He is evidently moving in that family! The other lad is 15 and has been chucked out of school, chucked out of jobs and made to feel like a failure. God has completely changed his heart and over the 2 weeks as I’ve chatted to him and got to know him I’ve seen God move in that lad’s life so beautifully. He has such a desire to turn away from sinfulness, he doesn’t care what anyone might think, and is already getting stuck into the Bible and trying his best to change his ways. Seeing him on his knees repenting and asking God into his life will stay with me forever. Pray for him…he’s an influential lad in this area, and his salvation is already being talked about by the other youth in Cymmer. May God use him to reach his mates straight away!

What an awesome way to end the mission! We gave God the glory and we praised Him and thanked Him for all He has done over the 2 weeks. Not only have we seen this community touched and individuals transformed, but we’ve seen God do great things amongst the team. We’ve all fallen more in love with Jesus these 2 weeks and we’ve all gained an even greater heart for the South Wales Valleys. The Mission ’08 is over but our mission is by no means complete. There is a huge mission field in the Valleys, an exciting and challenging one too. We want to bring the Gospel to the farthest reaches of the valleys and we will do whatever it takes to see it happen. We’ve seen God move in these weeks because we got on our knees each day and prayed. I’ve understood the power of prayer like never before. Pray for Wales, pray for the Valleys and you know I believe we might just see something incredible, something big happen.

So tonight was pretty emotional as we said our goodbyes and out thankyous! But like I said, it is by no means the end. The summer discipleship course starts this Sunday (29th) and runs fortnightly throughout the summer. Pray for it, come and get involved. What else is happening in the near future…Revive is becoming a charity…we’re aiming to have 15 teams by January ’09…we’re running 4 Christmas missions in different areas across the Valleys…and we’re hopefully joining forces with the other universities in South Wales. Exciting times are ahead and I can’t wait to see what God has planned. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I cannot begin to thank you enough. Keep praying, and keep praising God for what he has done in Cymmer over the last 2 weeks. Pray for lasting impact. Amen. 

PS> we’re going to keep this blog going with regular updates so keep checking back!