New nations and new seasons

'’Spirit and Truth'

It was at this Father’s heart conference too that I was able to partner with our friend Scott McDermott from Washington Crossing United Methodist Church near to Philadelpia. We were to share on a number of occasions over these few years, firstly on a trip with Andrew Bauguley and Paul Wilson in 2005 and again on a visit where Scott hosted the International prayer conference in his church in 2009. On each occasion I was blessed to lead teams and join together welcoming more God’s presence and Kingdom. Paul and Andrew had been an important part of our ‘Approaching/Church Revival’ years and later again in Headway/MET Conferences where we shared and minstered together. In March 2006 we were involved for another season of Á time for healing. This time after 6 nights back in the marquee in Trentham we took the meetings to Kidsgrove Town Hall and to The Queen’s theatre in Burlsem. We had Craig with us again during this time and I, Tracy and the team were blessed to open the door to what the Holy Spirit was doing. More significant nights of encounter for many in our City. After 4 weeks ‘ on the road’ we relocated these meetings to our 2C7 home venue of The Bethel Church. Craig joined us for some of this time but many evenings we worked together as a local team and gave ourselves to welcoming what God was doing with us in our City. On Sunday May 21st 2006 (Just happened to be my birthday!) We held our final Time For Healing Meeting. This had been a 45 day adventure with Jesus. Seeing amazing realities of His presence and welcoming the light of His Glory into our City. Without doubt, this was one of the reasons out of His kindness that God had reminded me through Tracy’s wisdom to wait and ask ‘ I belonged to Stoke’ Swiftly on the heels of the final healing meeting at Bethel church came the UK’s turn to host the International Prayer Conference. Our team from Ignite Revival organised the gathering at the Potteries Museum and art gallery. We had particularly wanted to encourage ministers from some of the Eastern European Churches and India to come and had managed to raise some sponsorship. This was a blessed time of worship and prayer with the title '’Glory in the Nations ' . There was such a strong sense of unity. A welcoming of His kingdom plans and deep sense of the Holy Spirit at work. There was more fruit still to come following this time of blessing together in our City, but more about that later.

New nations andnew seasons

In the Easter of 2007 we had the opportunity to travel once again as a family, but this time we felt that we should take a team. Our destination this time was the USA and Canada. We had been invited by a connection from my previous trip to Seattle, Loyal Ritter, to lead worship for a conference in Leavenworth, Washington State with the writer of the book ‘God’s Generals’ Roberts Liardon. We took Phil and Max Nakivell plus Ste along, all who’d been involved in leading and recording with us over previous years. After a week’s conference we headed through Seattle into Cloverdale to meet up and share with our Candadian friends. These 2 weeks were a wonderful mix of learning how to operate in grace together and carrying a unity of heart from our City of Stoke on Trent into the nations. It has been a continual source of amazement to me that God would take us ‘hidden Stokies’ and make a way for us to be a blessing to others.

Throughout these years of travelling and learning with God, we’d continued to serve at our local church, Swan Bank Mission and had been very grateful for friends in our home group who’d prayed us through the road we were travelling. This had been our Spiritual home right through youth group days (where we met as teenagers) and the place where I had begun to spread my wings into the call of worship. Leading and training a number of bands and musicians. It had been a very important foundational place for us both, a place where we’d developed lifelong friendships with the likes of John and Dil Naylor, Katie and Kev Britton, who we still serve alongside today.. However, Tracy and I had felt there was still something more, something new for us to be a part of. Not being sure what it was, we remembered the lesson of letting go of the old to embrace the new. We spent time chatting with our leaders John and Val Hibberts and though some of it felt hard and there were some tears about the decision, we moved on from Swan Bank and took a seat on the back row of New Life Church in Congleton. Being just over the border from our home town, this was a place where less people knew us and we were able to sit and receive for a season. We were so grateful to Pastor Steve Hodgkinson who welcomed us in with no pressure to do anything. So that’s what we did, worshipped, recieved and sat with others, pausing and waiting for God’s direction. This pausing and waiting was to be another important part of our story not just for us but for friends on the journey. I mentioned earlier that the healing mission had come to an end that May. We had been chatting to the Porters and we’d all felt that we should oer a space for a season where other Christians in the City could gather to sit in God’s presence

for a while. A place just to be, just to sit with Jesus reflecting and worshipping. It felt like a place where we could allow God to settle something in our hearts of all He’d done in the previous season and listen for what He might want to say into the next. We approached UCB in Burslem and asked if there might be a room we could use once a week for a while, sharing our heart and purpose. They kindly agreed and Dave Isherwood (who is now doing amazing mission work with His wife Jan, in South Africa) opened up for us each week and spent time with us. We and a small number of guests were able to come and have some time together. ‘It’s fair to say that these nights were definitiey more about ‘being’ than ‘doing’ . We were all learning more about the beautiful place of drawing near to and ministering to God, just because He’s worth it!

So much seemed to be happening this year! It was during our time of helping to host the UK' s International Prayer Conference that we met, for the first time, a Slovakian lady minister by the name of 'Kornelia Francisity. ' She was so blessed by what God was doing in our gatherings and so hungry for her nation to encounter more that, following the conclusion of the conference, she asked if we 'd consider facilitating a European gathering the following year. After more conversations, prayer William Porter headed East in the November of 2006 to meet Kornelia, her husband Michael and there daughters (amazing translators!) looking at where and how we could host a gathering together. After successfully finding a beautiful old concert hall and some local accommodation we went on to organise and hold ‘Look to the heavens ' European Prayer Conference in Piestany, Bratislava in November of 2007. We ran worship in Slovak and English simultaneously on 2 screens, with the help of Kev Britton. We had visitors from a number of European nations including Russia, Hungary, Poland and the UK. We had our Ignite friends from the USA there and some ministers again from Singapore. Once more we were all able to share in teaching, prayer and ministry. (We particularly remember our Singapore friends being extremly excited one morning as it snowed heavily and some had never seen real snow before!!) In the midst of this time we were really just trying to move with what we felt God called us to do and not try to rush into anything. It was during this new phase of our lives, watching and waiting for direction that we had a visitor at our regular city leaders gathering at The Bethel Church. Martin Scott, a UK prophet was with us on one of our regular Monthly leader’s gatherings. It was on that morning that he spoke a word over William and Karen, declaring a raising up of Houses of Prayer. It was a powerful time and one which sparked conversation with The Porters and