Romania prayer mission – breaking news!!

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Colour 2008

‘Hillsong Colour at takes over the Royal Albert Hall’

‘One of London’s premier concert/conference venues’

‘Your first peep inside literally takes your breath away – stunning!’

Kara & I had a good start to our trip. At Victoria underground station I managed to get on the Tube, but Kara didn’t. It was rush hour and she couldn’t muscle her way onto the train. Well, she managed to get her suitcase on, but not herself. We were eventually reunited at Bayswater station.

We also stayed in a rather ‘interesting’ B&B in the Bayswater area. It had two things going for it – price, and proximity to the RHA venue. Unfortunately, I did get very little sleep due to some noisy blokes in the room next door.

The opening ‘ceremony’ was stunning: Hillsong continue to push the boundaries with their media production. We had street dance, grand piano, drum solos, violinist, vocals, (above) and fantastic media presentation, including a very moving ‘voice-over’ of Hosea 2, (courtesy of Robert Fergusson).

‘The opening extravaganza’

The closing ‘ceremony’ was also pretty special too: a sequence of hits from musicals, along with giant balloons falling from the RHA ceiling. On our way out we were greeted by handsome male ushers in full evening wear, and each handed a beautiful red rose. Now that doesn’t happen often does it? (Never, actually!)

As for the conference itself, I really enjoyed the preaching of Priscilla Shirer from USA. She had an amazing ability to bring scripture to life and apply it to 21st century living. She was also very funny! It was good to hear how the Hillsong women are getting involved in a variety of outreach projects. You can read more @ http://www2.hillsong.com/women/default.asp?pid=1391

If I’m honest, I was a tad disappointed in some of the sessions, (speaker-wise) but taking the 2 days as a whole, it was a great time: a good chance to get to know Kara, Judith, and Becca a little better as well as exploring more of London.

Why not book yourself into Colour ’09.

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First Team Back 2008

The team from Pacific Academy High School with some children at the orphanage

The first mission team of the year was a group of students from Pacific Academy High School in Surrey, BC, Canada. After spending 6 months preparing for the mission, the team felt well prepared for what was to come. They travelled to Zvolen (Slovakia) for a busy schedule, including church ministry, schools work, care home and orphanage visitation, and community service (bagging shopping at a local supermarket). Throughout the mission the team was able to connect with young & old alike, praying for the aged & playing with the young (or was it the other way round!).

The team get involved in some practical work

Bag-packing in the local supermarket

Team leaders, Sunil and Sheila, gave this report.

“We gained a better understanding of the struggles that the pastor of a very small church faces. We were able to assist in opening doors for the local church to now move in & begin to minister & reach people. The whole team was changed by what we saw, what we did, & how we interacted with each other & the people around us. When we were in the Crisis Orphanage we entered into a room where the children were not familiar with visitors. These precious lives had been horribly abused & many could not even speak because they were so traumatized. Some never smiled, some were fearful of the males in our group. We began to blow up some animal balloons & our students began to interact with the children. After 4 hours of playing, skits & having fun almost every child was laughing & squealing with delight. When we asked the director of the home if there was anything we could do to bless them her answer was, ‘You already have, just by coming & playing with the children.’

Apparently many churches come to the home to drop off toys etc. but no one will come in because there are gypsy children in the home. We were the first to actually go in. This was just one of the many open doors that we were privileged to be a part of. We wished we could have done more to help or could have stayed longer because the need of the people is huge. However, we firmly believe that our mission was to open doors so that Pastor Otto can go into these communities, to build trust & favour, & to take the gospel of love & peace. We would love to go again.”

Thanks to the PAHS team NLI has had a great start to the mission year & we expect to see many more testimonies like this. Please pray for the teams heading off into Europe, that they will have amazing impact, just like this team did.

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