Two very different blizzards…
The last two weeks Den and Rich have been in the United States and Canada. The first week was spent in Richmond, Virginia and whilst Den is a well seasoned traveller, this was only Rich’s second time to the USA and so he was very excited about the adventure that they were embarking on!
The first part of the seven days in Richmond was spent at an evangelism conference called 21C. Den and Rich were hosting some workshops about More to Life which was very well received by people, again showing how God is just opening up new avenues all the time for More to Life in America.
The trip then got disrupted by the snow, at least 10 inches fell overnight and so they were forced to stay in the hotel! However, God really used this time to show them how He wanted the cluster idea to develop into what we are calling ‘The Rooftop’ gatherings. The clusters which Den is setting up, will come together for a 36 hour period and on the middle evening the group will be taken up to a rooftop over-looking the city. This whole idea came from reading Acts 10 : 1 – Acts 11: 18. When Peter goes up onto the roof to pray, God gives him a new vision and therefore he goes to the gentile house and tells them the gospel. Please pray that during these rooftop moments, the church leaders and church planters involved will be open and allow God to give them a new vision for their cities, one where everyone deserves to know about Jesus!
By Monday, the snow was manageable and they had their first meetings, when we portrayed the rooftop idea to leaders they said they got “spiritual goose bumps” which was very inspiring because it showed that this idea really was from God and not us! All of these meetings were extremely successful and there will now be four ‘Rooftops’ happening in Virginia State this year, one of which will involve 21 people rather than 7.
They also met an incredibly inspiring couple from Chorleywood called Bob and Mary Hopkins, they are church planters and Virginia State are looking to work with them, a great evening was had sharing stories!
After a very effective and successful week in Richmond, they then flew up to Toronto in Canada, after some fun and games at immigration – they did not want to let them in! – they were met by Alvin Lau from the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ) and he took them to their hotel for their first sleep in Canada. On Thursday they had breakfast with Gary Nelson, who is General Secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM) and he then took them to the offices of CBM where they led Chapel, presenting about Viz-A-Viz Ministries and focussing on More to Life. Please pray that God directs Den correctly as he looks to see how More to Life could work in Canada to help Gods Kingdom grow!
Following on from this, they were met by Tim McCoy who is Director of Youth Ministries within CBOQ and then the three of them travelled two and a half hours north to Muskoka Wood, Ontario which was the venue for Blizzard 2010. Muskoka Woods ‘was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, full of God’s amazingness and peace – seriously it was incredible to be there’, (Rich Powney). Rich was particularly amazed, as people would normally pay thousands of pounds to see places like Muskoka Woods, and he has not got a penny yet got to see it. As Den said, “God is generous!”
Blizzard conference is mainly for church youth groups; this was the biggest attendance on record, around 700 14+ came and it was an incredible three days. Den and Rich were the speakers for the entire conference and God really spoke powerfully over the entire weekend. It was amazing to see Him inspire and challenge so many young people to go out and love His world and make a real difference living authentic, faith driven lives for Jesus! Everyone kept saying they loved the authenticity, realness, rawness and passion and so many youth leaders kept telling us how much conversations the talks were causing amongst the young people. One of many stories we heard was of a 16 year old girl called Tabatha waking up her youth leader called April at 5am Sunday morning to say she wanted to start following Jesus. Incredibe!! There were many other stories of kids either starting to follow Jesus, having their eyes open to the radical nature of following Jesus and also youth leaders being encouraged and challenged.
God is always amazing and at Blizzard He really did some amazing things! Please pray that all involved with Blizzard won’t just have enjoyed the spiritual retreat but will actually start to walk with Jesus everyday, seriously trying to live life His way in His world!’
Rich has now returned home and Den comes back next week, before heading back out to the US on the 25th. Check back soon for news…