Dear Family and Friends:
Hello again from Bristol, UK. It’s always hard to say good bye to summer, but this year we celebrated with the annual Bristol Balloon Festival. Thousands of people went and it was a beautiful afternoon – apparently it’s the biggest balloon festival in Europe ( can’t say as I’ve ever heard of a balloon festival before!)
We’ve been reading some inspiring biographies on men of faith and the power of prayer, George Mueller and Rees Howells. George Muller was a minister in Bristol who God asked to start orphanages to take care of the homeless children in the UK. By faith, he started what eventually became five orphanages and cared for over 10,000 orphans. His legacy of faith inspires many people here and we talk about opening the ancient wells of spiritual heritage here from people like him, also John Wesley’s first chapel is in Bristol too.
While we wish we were more connected in our ministry by now, we do have some progress to report: We attended the Charismatic Anglican “New Wine” Conference http://www.new-wine.org/summer in August, and met many good ministries there, we connected with Andy Freeman of Britain’s 24-7 Prayer movement http://uk.24-7 prayer.com/ and are exploring setting up a 24-7 house of prayer here in Bristol. Here’s a link to the blog I’ve just started for it. http://revival4uk.wordpress.com/ We are praying about starting up a monthly calendar with one and two hour slots people can sign up for to pray either at their home, work place, or church. Eventually we hope to have a house of prayer space here in Bristol.
We visited Bath City Church this summer and it has lots of great things happening there- we hope to join in with them, too as the year progresses. http://www.bathcitychurch.org.uk/
Bath has lovely gardens and Roman Baths.
We have been attending
We have been attending Woodlands Community Church in Bristol http://www.woodlandschurch.net/ which has about 1000 people, mostly college age. We have been asked to host a pastorate- a home group in our home starting in September. We are so happy! It’s what we have been praying for – to be in a close community of Christians who we can pray with and transform our community. So, thanks for your prayers!!
Now we are getting ready to go to a conference called “Greenbelt” http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/ for 3 days of camping!!! Help! I’ve never camped before, but these Brits camp ALL THE TIME!! Good grief! AND the weather is supposed to be horrible! But these are Christian artists – of all kinds- and we have to go. This, however is our tent- where we will be living from Friday August 27 through Sunday:)
So, more prayers, please!!! Please pray that we will be warm, meet lots of great people, new friends, and see a place for our ministry here. Also, we request your prayers for God to bless us with finances to fund our work here. We are applying for jobs of all kinds, and any door the Lord opens will be a good one! Last week I was blessed to get my NI (like our social security number) so I can work now, Yipee! And Mike is working to get established as a photographer here, and also applying for jobs of any kind to keep us going through the winter.
Well, be well, and be sure to comment your thoughts and any prayer requests. We’re going to be trying to respond to each comment (I’ve learned that’s what you’re supposed to do :)) . So, keep your comments coming! We love you passionately and want to stay in touch,
Blessings,
Christine and Michael
19 Chatsworth Rd, Arnos Vale, Bristol, BS43EX UK
0117 904 8988
Kingdom Arts Ministry 