Hello Everyone!

Hope a joyous Easter was had by all.  We were blessed to be able to spend Easter with three of Michael’s cousins in Sturminster Newton.  These are special folks we had visited five years ago when we first started hearing about our calling to come here.  It was especially wonderful to share Easter and our hopes, plans and dreams with them at this time.

Above are some of the Easter treats – The blue bowl holds Michael’s favorite clotted cream! His smile at seeing that was amazing!! Friends and family are truly some of God’s greatest blessings – you are all daily in our prayers!!

We held our Spiritual Mapping /House of Prayer on April 25.  Different people contributed from a historical understanding of Bristol as well as from a spiritual knowledge and Michael gave a good Scriptural reference list of how territory and land are important to God, and we are stewards spiritually as well as physically.   He will be coordinating another meeting in May with people going out to specific areas not only to pray to free the land from past sins, but to pray blessings too.

You may have been reading about the Bristol riots – first on April 22, then another Friday morning, April 29. They began as a protest against a Tesco’s supermarket opening in the area, but ended by being a melee of violence involving about 400 people and 200 police officers on Friday.  This has been happening in an area of the city which is a difficult area due to clubs, drugs and alcohol, and poverty. We have several good friends who live there and they are praying while actively being a positive Christian presence in the midst of it all.

 Quite oddly, a graffiti mural has gone up near our home in Arnos Vale (a neighborhood of the City of Bristol) in March which depicts the Bristol riots of 1831 and shows military on horseback fighting back the people.  It’s quite a large mural, and either it is prophetic or these apparently spontaneous riots have been planned for awhile.

Here’s Michael:

Well England continues to be a very complex mixture of poverty and wealth, great gardens and litter abounding in the streets, royal weddings and spiritual malaise.  In Bristol there is a strong sense that God is working here. There is going to be a movement of God here because it so desperately needs it. There is an overt anti establishment movement.  As we progress with our ministry here we find there is a real need for more  spiritual awakening. The daily prayer walks, the prayer house and other elements of our work here are all  born out of a yearning to see a movement of God increase in this city and then the nation.

Thank you all for your prayers and support – we so much appreciate your love and help.  We will be in New York in June for our daughter’s wedding and in Boston for a job for Michael and a chance to visit with our son and daughter in law who are expecting their first child in June. We look forward to hearing your feedback, comments, and ideas as we join together to bring God’s Kingdom here on earth.

 Love and Prayer, Michael and Christine