Please support this Lausanne initiative

Please support this Lausanne initiative if you can – http://ow.ly/7gtk306jb0c

Great publication from CMF https://admin

Great publication from CMF https://admin.cmf.org.uk/e8680ad1/a1147c89f8052fedc512fe774da8eb0f1f320612.pdf

Prayer for the persecuted church:

Burkino Faso: Few countries in West Africa are more dominated by idolatry, fetishism and secret societies. The Union Chretienne Medicale et Paramedicale has been a member country of HCFI since 1993. Pray that their ministry to care-givers, particularly in the area of discipleship will remain a vital force for good in the land.
“For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord; thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope” Jer 29:11

From The God-Life (Jim Graham) 1Tim 1:1

From The God-Life (Jim Graham) 1Tim 1:1 – That same eternally Anointed One, Jesus, is our stability in the midst of cultural chaos and our security whatever the future might hold.  (Recommended book – https://www.sovereignworld.com/the-god-life)

Prayer for the persecuted church

In Brunei evangelism is illegal and foreign Christian workers are not permitted in the country. The Christian church exists under very difficult conditions and harsh treatment meted out to believers is drawing the churches together and birthing a holy determination to stand strong in the teeth of the storm.

Pray for creative and powerful means of bringing the Good News to health professionals and protection for those who already discreetly seek to witness in their workplaces.

“Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you'” Is 35:3,4

Prayer for the persecuted church:

Prayer for the persecuted church:
Pray for Bhutan where believers are denied religious freedom and face various degrees of persecution or social ostracism. Pray for a vital fellowship amongst healthcare staff and that their compassionate care of patients will speak to the hearts of many, including their colleagues and families of those they care for.
“Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” John 8:36

Looking Back – Looking Forward!

Looking Back – Looking Forward!

As we approached Christmas this year I became captivated by a Chris Tomlin Advent song featuring Lauren Daigle – ‘Noel’.  One line in particular seemed to stand out to me – ‘Come and see what God has done!’ This spoke to my heart as a kind of refrain for all that had already come to pass in this busy year which is now nearing completion. God had indeed done immeasurably more than we could have thought or imagined 12 months previously! Come and see…

Some of the highlights involved travel to four hitherto unvisited places:

The first was Novisad, Serbia in January for the European HCF intercessory prayer retreat – a nasty dog-bite on the first day resulted in a close-up view of the Balkan healthcare system but even this couldn’t detract from the joy of spending time with many friends from across Europe on the banks of the beautiful (half-frozen) river Danube.

 

February saw my first visit to the amazing country of India. Joining the prayer team at the Shalom Healthcare conference at Christian Medical College, Vellore was an absolute blessing and meeting so many deeply committed Christian healthcare workers from this vast continent was exhilarating. It was also a lot warmer than Serbia!

 

Mary and I had a month-long visit to USA in April, initially to see Jenny in New York but then to visit various cousins in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and finally down south in Nevada. A trip hopefully to be repeated one day.

 

The final overseas trip of the year was in October when Jeff went to Poland to take part in an intercessory prayer assignment relating to the medical experiments carried out by Dr Josef Mengele and other Nazi doctors at the Auschwitz extermination camps. This was an incredibly moving experience.

 

In September the nations came to us as Jeff planned and organised the HCFI Global Prayer Summit which was held at Hebron Hall near Cardiff. 140+ individuals from 41 nations graced us with their presence and, although practically all of the summer was spent in organising it, what an inspirational event it turned out to be.

 

Other notable ministry events included the launch of the Friends of Bethel (Christian care home) which Jeff chairs, the re-opening of the ministry school at the Bible College of Wales and a fabulous visit to Birmingham for the UK prayer leaders conference. In early December we held another (smaller) HCF conference at Hebron Hall which saw the re-launch of the ministry in UK – watch this space!

 

Talking about launches we can’t forget the new Dyas family boat – Aquila!

Mary and I rented a flat in Cardiff Bay for 6 months to see how we would get on with ‘Bay-life’. We had a great time there visiting restaurants and coffee shops, walking and cycling in our spare time – not forgetting to come home to Barry frequently to see ‘baby’ Scarlett who is growing rapidly!

 

At Easter and Christmas we continued with the Mount Pleasant Baptist outreach to the local schools – we had amazing times with the kids and strengthened our relationship with many of the teachers.

 

A busy but very fruitful 12 months by the grace of God.

Looking back at this past year, the world seems to be a darker place than when it began. This is to be expected, the God who gives us a hope and a future also said that He would shake all things in these last days. As we’ve looked at world events and sought the Lord’s counsel, He has quietly whispered to our hearts – ‘It’s no longer business as usual!’ We’re taking this seriously and are planning many changes for the coming year – not least will be, by His grace, a far more serious approach to devotional times, good reading, prayer and Bible study. The watchword for 2016 is – Discipline!

As usual we shall be beginning the year with a week in the Lord’s presence together with other HCF members from across the European region (this year with guests also from Israel and the Central Asian states). God willing we shall meet January 11^th – 16^th in Strasbourg, France. What a way to begin the year – in worship, fellowship and prayer.

 

If you have a quiet moment at the beginning of this new year, would you whisper a prayer for us that our walk with Him might be so close that He will be able to use us to bless others and further His glorious Kingdom here on earth.  God bless you and may our ‘verse for the year 2016’ strengthen and encourage you also –

Therefore my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. – 1 Cor 15:58

Knowing and being known.

An excerpt from Knowing God – JI Packer

“Knowing God is a matter of grace. It is a relationship in which the initiative throughout is with God as it must be, since God is so completely above us and we have so completely forfeited all claim on his favor by our sins. We do not make friends with God, God makes friends with us, bringing us to know him by making his love known to us. Paul expresses this thought of the priority of grace in our knowledge of God when he writes to the Galatians, ‘Now that you know God; or rather are known by God.’ What comes to the surface in this qualifying clause is the apostle’s sense that grace came first and remains fundamental in his readers’ salvation. Their knowing God was the consequence of God’s taking knowledge of them. They know him by faith because he first singled them out by grace. The word ‘know’ when used of God in this way is a sovereign grace word; pointing to God’s initiative in loving, choosing, redeeming, calling, and preserving. That God is fully aware of us, knowing us through and through, as we say, is certainly part of what is meant as it appears from the contrast between our imperfect knowledge of God and His perfect knowledge of us in 1 Corinthians 13:12, but it is not the main meaning. The main meaning comes out in passages like the following from Exodus 33:17 ‘and the Lord said to Moses ‘I am pleased with you and I know you by name’ and ‘before I formed you Jeremiah I knew you and set you apart.’ From John 10 ‘I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me, and I lay down my life for my sheep, my sheep listen to my voice, I know them they shall never perish.’ Here God’s knowledge of those who are his is associated with his whole purpose of saving mercy. It is a knowledge that implies personal affection, redeeming action, covenantal faithfulness and providential watchfulness toward those whom God knows. It implies, in other words, salvation now and forever as we hinted before.

Being known
What matters supremely therefore is not in the last analysis, the fact that I know God but the larger fact which underlies it, the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hand, I am never out of his mind, all my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me, I know him because he first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me and there is no moment when his eye is off me or his attention distracted from me and no moment therefore when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge. That is unspeakable comfort, the sort of comfort that energizes be it said not innervates in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself and quench his determination to bless me. There is certainly great cause for humility in the thought that he sees that all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see, and am I glad. And that he sees more corruption in me than I see in myself which in conscience is enough. And there is however equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that for some unfathomable reason that he wants me as his friend and desires to be my friend and has given his son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. We cannot work these thoughts out here but merely to mention them is enough to show how much it means to know not merely that we know god but that he knows us. KNOWING GOD, end of Chapter 4 by J. I. Packer.

If you are comfortable, then you are not

If you are comfortable, then you are not reaching far enough. – Unknown

De-coding Daesh https://www.freewordcent

De-coding Daesh https://www.freewordcentre.com/blog/2015/02/daesh-isis-media-alice-guthrie/