Ian and Keith in India

Ian and Keith Mallard have recently returned from India where they enjoyed an excellent time among the Regions Beyond churches and good health!  

They first attended The Glorious Church conference attended by over 400 people from Regions Beyond churches from across the country. A number of people came from Orissa which involved a 36-hour train journey! There was great teaching and lively worship - sometimes in three languages.

They then travelled to Nashik with Edgar & Isabel. They have a church in the slum and we visited many people and were overwhelmed by their warm welcome and hospitality. Ian presented the gift to the church, which we raised from the Brass band concert which will be used to help them develop their centre which is based in the slum to give education and training to those in need. On the Sunday Ian preached on healing and saw a number of healings take place. 

Later in the week they travelled to Pune to be with Colin and Navaz and their church, which reaches out to a very different community. Ian taught on the Doctrine of the church on Saturday to the discipleship team. Ian preached at the church on Sunday morning, and Keith did some leadership training in the afternoon.

“It was wonderful to stand alongside our brothers and sisters as they seek to see God’s Kingdom come in their  city.  They may face different challenges than we do, but we both stand on the same ground and look towards the same Father for love, encouragement and support.”
— Ian

Please do have a look at this short video which has a few photos from the conference, Indian scenes and the Centre that Edgar is building in the slum - there is a thank you from him for our contribution.

Regions Beyond Forum

Recently Ali Scott attended the Regions Beyond Leadership Forum in Kerala, India.

Here's his report...

From the 20th to 24th January I had the privilege of joining around 40 men and women from Regions Beyond churches around the world for a gathering in Kerala, India, that Steve Oliver called together. The primary purpose of the time was to discuss the Regions Beyond values that we, as a family of churches, are in the process of putting together and then publishing in a booklet, so that people and churches know who we are and what we’re about.

The 4 days together were incredibly inspiring as we heard 10 different people share for around 30 minutes on each of the 10 values and then broke into discussion groups for another 30 minutes to flesh out what each value means in practice. Although the wording and explanation of each value is still being confirmed, they are about Scripture, the Holy Spirit (which I had the joy of teaching on), grace, mission, diversity, the poor, relationship, the church, servant-heartedness, and team leadership. It was wonderful to immerse myself in each of these values and to consider what each of these mean for who we are as a local church in Durham and Chester-le-Street.

The highlights, though, were the times of passionate prayer and worship with people from different nations (UK, India, USA, UAE, South Africa and Brazil). We heard more of what God is doing through Regions Beyond churches in different nations, some of which are nations very opposed to the gospel indeed. I would love it if you could join with me in praying for the church plant in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Colin and Pam Nicholls moved there from the UK a year ago to plant a church they believe will be a church planting resource base for the Free State in South Africa and into Lesotho. They launched weekly Sunday meetings on 29th January and launch the church publicly on 5th March. They saw someone saved on their first Sunday – please pray God would bless them abundantly and they would see great growth and impact in that nation.

Steve Oliver also envisioned us about where we are up to as a family of churches and that now is the time for ‘taking the cities’ (by which he also meant towns and villages!). It was a real provocation to us to keep on planting new churches and taking ground for the Kingdom. We must not settle for where we currently are but must keep pressing on for all that God has for us!

Hub weekend away

Recently, many of our students and 20s enjoyed The Hub weekend away, with teaching, worship, prayer and encounters with God.

Here are a couple of their stories.

“In one of the earlier sessions I lay down & had my eyes closed. My eyes were tired so watering a bit (also later cutting onions, I’m a fragile man). Would be awkward if someone came & prayed for my sadness. As I enjoyed the worship/prayer time, I’m was pretty sure I had a team of angels around with hands out praying for me. (quick peek, nobody was nearby)
Later in the same meeting, I was praying for some ladies at the back. Felt God giving me a message for them that was based on my angel experience. Shared it with them, and shared some tissues.”
— Gregory Marler
“Weekends away are always my favourite!
Friends laughter, worship, seminars, prayer, great words of encouragements! What’s not to like! Just before Christmas I was really really down. A few weeks ago I decided to be bold and brave and visited the doctor and I have been put on medication! I felt so anxious about the weekend away and felt sick the whole way there I didn’t really want to go, I didn’t really know what to expect although I really should as it’s my 5th year! But no! I felt anxious nervous I felt I had no one to talk to and felt like nobody wanted me there! I was praying to God in my head over dinner on Saturday evening! ‘saying God why am I feeling like this is it because of my past and because I’ve never felt loved from anyone especially my ‘mam’ who has never really shown me anything but hate!! Then John brought some words about not feeling loved by families and I just broke down completely and Tori come over and prayed with me and brought some encouraging words! One which she got from me wearing a minion onesie! I was still very emotional at this point and I just couldn’t stop the tears! I just sat by myself crying and thinking God why do people hate me so much why don’t I feel like I have friends! I got a tap on the shoulder and it was Tori again saying Taiwo wanted to pray for me! His prayer was really encouraging and has really opened something up in my heart! I still feel hurt by my family but I’m beginning to see that I do have friends and that a lot of people do care about me, my real family may have disowned me, but I know I have a new family now and that’s through an almighty God who is continuing to show me just how much he loves me!

One verse which kept popping into my head is Psalm 23: The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want, he maketh me lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters!

This is one of my favourite verses.

Although I’m not 100% I know I have an almighty GOD who is bigger than any of my problems! And I know even though my real family don’t care about me I’m surrounded by Gods family!
Prayer is still very much appreciated as I still have times where I feel down and will still have my days where I feel like I have no one! And I just want to thank everyone at Emmanuel for been the best family!
GOD loves us all!
Amen!”
— Sarah Cooper