Jon’s NLI Adventure

Adapted from a post on Doug & Kara’s blog – slightly less biased than me!

“We have had a young fellow here at NLI serving as part of his school work experience. All high school students have to participate in a two-week work experience here in the UK. Some receive placements from their school (stacking shelves in Tesco) but those with more sense find their own placement.

Jon Linnell knew about the opportunity to work here at NLI through his aunt (me). He is well into media and design and extremely talented, so we set aside a project for him to work on. He spent two weeks with NLI, redesigning our ‘master’ brochure, called “The Way” (as in the way we do things). He managed to complete the project and now it will hopefully got to print.

His attitude allowed him to fit in quite comfortably with the staff. He had a real servant attitude and because of his level of knowledge in all things to do with web design and computers, he volunteered for a few other projects too. His contribution has been invaluable and we’ve appreciated having him around.

I can’t wait to see his work in print…

categories Uncategorized | Judith | datetime July 31, 2007 11:25 am | comments Comments (0)

Prayer Mission: Slovakia 2007

This article was written by one of the NLI Interns, Erica Louie, who was on the Prayer Mission to Slovakia in June.


Morning ‘devotions’ for the team

And I thought that all we would do is pray! We did, but I could hardly imagine that through our prayers God would work in such a mighty way. In June, a team of people from Canada, USA, and England went on Prayer Mission to Slovakia. Our aim was to pray for the church planters and their cities, to encourage them and to support the NLI Church Planting project in its 2nd year. During the week we had opportunities to minister in church services, prayer meetings, people’s homes, and even whilst we were ‘on the road’. Many testimonies came as a result of the mission, some almost instantly. Wherever we went, God was impacting lives! Here are just a few of the amazing encounters.



The team in Nitra

We encountered a Roma Gypsy family: 4 people living in a single-room house, unable to break out of their situation. During the Sunday service in Zvolen, the father of the family took part in a ‘faith action’, tearing up the paper on which he had written about their housing situation. Straight after the service a woman from the church pledged to give him 10,000Skk (£500) so that the family can now extend their house. During the same service a young lady became a Christian and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Since we returned home we’ve heard of many more miracles as a result of the prayer ministry during this service.


Team meal

To reach one Church Plant, some of us had to travel by train. Josef, from the Zvolen church, took us to the station. Before the train arrived he asked us to pray for him. He lifted his hands to heaven and we prayed that he would have boldness to witness. A woman from the ticket office saw this and after we left she asked him what it was all about. He explained that we were ‘priests’ and then he shared with her about Jesus. He offered to pray for her. The woman said yes, and so he led her in the prayer for salvation and also prayed for her needs. At this point, another young woman tugged at his sleeve and said, “me as well”. The young woman gave her life to the Lord on the station platform!


Praying for Josef on the platform

On our final evening we stayed in Bratislava. The team gathered together for a meal and time of sharing. After a little difficulty we found a restaurant that would seat the whole team together. Our young waiter was called Milan. He was extremely friendly and spoke good English. We were very blessed by his service. One of the team suggested that we ask God for some words of encouragement for Milan. We wrote down these ‘words’ and prayed over them. After the meal we shared them with Milan and explained what we had done: that prayer is not just asking God for things but also hearing from Him.


Milan reading the prophetic and encouraging words

Milan read them and was visibly moved. He told us that he had been a waiter for 10 years, but after tonight (patting the pocket where the papers were), he knew that it was time to move on. God had clearly spoken to him. We also left him a generous tip!Sometimes it’s about what God wants to do through people who are willing to go on mission. Our leaders told us that God had called each of us to be on the team. I did not feel such a calling beforehand, nor did I have any special passion for Slovakia. But once there, there was no denying that each of us was called, and that we each had something to contribute. As a team, our diverse gifts, backgrounds and personalities along with Spirit-led teamwork and unity, generated synergy and maximum impact on the field.

So what are you waiting for? Come and get involved in what God is doing in Europe!

For more information about NLI Prayer Missions or any other Short Term Mission opportunities please contact me at judith.linnell@nlieurope.com

categories Uncategorized | Judith | datetime July 17, 2007 11:50 am | comments Comments (0)

Mission In Action

There’s a whole lot more to Mission than meets the eye. The people from New Life Church, Scunthorpe have demonstrated this in a very practical way. In 2003, at the outset of NLI’s Church Planting project in Ukraine, a partnership was forged between New Life Church and a church plant in Staromihailovka, near Donetsk, Ukraine.


The Scunthorpe Team

As well as sending STM teams to Staromihailovka each year, the church hosted Pastor Slava Polivoda and his wife for two weeks in September 2006, and in April 2006, sent a small working party (including an electrical engineer and projects manager) to assess proposed building work. The aim of the trip was to draw up a scaled plan of the church site and building, identify specific needs in relation to the church fabric, and put together a proposal/plan as to how these needs could be met.


The site cleared for building

In April 2007 a further working party of five guys went out to Staromihailovka to actually begin the building work. The team, David Miles, Chris MacDavid, Tony Boorman, Mark Carpenter and Jotham Carpenter, went with several specific aims: church building and renovation work, maintaining contact with the local school, (developed by the previous STM teams) and ministering to the church community.

The actual work on the site involved – demolishing old buildings on the site and recycling material for use in the church boiler: block lining the cesspit in preparation for a new toilet block: rewiring and improving the church lighting (installing a voltage stabiliser, new sockets and wiring ready for fluorescent lights).



Laying toilet block foundations

The trip was also a great opportunity to connect with staff and children from local schools. Mark shared about his work and the challenges of being both a Police Officer and a Christian, something that would be an even greater challenge in Ukraine. He also took books, videos, and posters to donate to the school.



PC Carpenter on ‘school duties’

The ‘mission’ was a very rewarding experience, both for those on the work team and for those they came into contact with. New Life Church intends to send another STM team in September 2007, thereby strengthening relationships between the two churches. They look forward to blessing the church in Staromihailovka with ministry and work teams in the future.


What a great example of mission in action.If you want to find out more about NLI Short-Term Mission opportunities then please contact me at judith.linnell@nlieurope.com

categories Uncategorized | Judith | datetime 11:27 am | comments Comments (0)

Time for an update

Wow, how time flies. It’s been over 6 weeks since I last updated my Blog. Thanks for being patient. Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading these latest articles, and a few more to come in the next few weeks.

As for other news, I’m off to Slovakia next week for 7 days (23rd to 29th July). I’ll be catching up with a couple of Mission teams out there and also visiting the NLI office and my Slovakian NLI colleagues.

Preparation for the Prayer Mission to Romania (8th to 15th September) is also going well. Last Saturday we had a training day for all the UK-based team members. It was great to see everyone gelling together so well. God spoke to us about some of the themes and purpose of the mission.

For the first two weeks of July I was house-sitting for Ron and Janelle (Canadian couple from NLI). They’re back in Canada for 6-weeks. House-sitting was ideal because I was also looking after my 15-yr old nephew Jonathan who was doing his 2-week work experience with NLI. He had a great time and was given some media and computing work to get his teeth into – right up his street. I hope that in the future you will see the fruit of his labour, as all my colleagues were very impressed with his skills.

categories Uncategorized | Judith | datetime 11:12 am | comments Comments (0)

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