Hello Dear Friends and Family:

August has been blessed for us with having some time to go camping .  We never did that in the States, but really love it here !  We have a tiny tent, we bring our Bibles, some food, and go off for a few days of praying, praising God, and seeking to hear His voice.

We’ve been getting excited about the possibility of starting a different kind of church in Philmont, NY. We are also getting excited about being ordained in October at Randy Clark’s Global Awakening ministry.

Christine’s been looking to do some icons based on what she learned about the thirteenth century Italian School of Iconography and wants to give talks and slide shows about God in art to anyone who will listen!

We had a powerful House of Prayer meeting last week, with Brother Nicodemus from Uganda asking “Where are the watchmen of the City?”  With the Bristol Prayer Network, Bristol Networks, and Churches like Elim, Carmel, Woodlands and many others praying individually and collectively for Revival in Britain we are very encouraged by the obvious commitment to the power of prayer here.

We are planning on going to New York in October to be ordained and see about starting a community based non denominational church in Philmont. This will give us a chance to regroup financially, and at the same time sow into our local community. Since God seems intent on us keeping our house, we will explore what He might have in mind there, with a hope to coming back to Bristol in the Spring.

Bristol may well claim to be a leader in ‘Street Art’ on the world stage. Recently the city council supported a Street Art festival called, interestingly, ‘See no Evil’. Many artists came and painted buildings in one of the city center streets. As a whole the images were less demonic than the more underground grafiti which is done without official blessing but is certainly tolerated and centers around an area called Stokes Croft. Stokes Croft has been historically a place of strife going back hundreds of years and is where the Tesco riots broke out in May and in the recent riots across England was the center of the riots in Bristol. There is a spirit of rebellion and a mocking spirit in residence there with squatters and street artists proudly pushing an independent and demonic lifestyle. People come from across the country to visit Stokes Croft and admire the art and ambiance.

As our ministry is based on using art for the Lord we realize how powerful it can be for good or for bad. Certainly there were crowds of people admiring the ‘See no Evil’ street art festival as there is a constant flow of people going to Stokes Croft. The demonic images have become so normative in this society that people can not perceive there is a force for evil behind them. What does one do as a Christian when people do not realize they are playing with death? In fact the ‘skull’ image is so prevelent now it is used in main stream advertising. Well the answer to that question is to bring life and love back into art. To love and support the people who are creative to use their art for life and not death, whether that is on the street, in the movies, television, newspapers or where ever. If we live in a landscape of deathly images we will get drawn to riot as a natural response.

“I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous: Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord  your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

We love to pray for you so please email us with your prayer requests!

Lots of love, Christine and Michael     

Lots of love to you all! xxxoxox

Hello Friends and Family:

God is so good! This month we have both experienced a new freedom in being able to operate in our arts ministry in the world, not just in the Church. Yay! My month at the Florence Academy of Art was a real breakthrough for me in discovering Italian iconography from 1200-1450 and developing a method of drawing and painting portraits which is very beautiful, classic and powerful. I hope to have examples of what I can do now in future Blogs.

Also got very close to Michael Angelo, visiting his sculptures and reading his biographies.  He was God’s man for sure, showing a devotion and commitment to God that is rare.  His last work of art was a pieta which shows a large hooded figure holding the limp body of Christ, next to Mary.  That figure was Nicodemus, who took Christ down from the cross, and Michaelangelo identified himself with Nicodemus.  This was his last monument to his abiding maturity in his love for God.

My charcoal drawing of Michaelangelo from a plaster cast of him.

I have two opportunities to sell my work one this month and one next.  This month I will be volunteering at the Veritasse art booth at the New Wine Conference and presenting some of my icons for sale.

Next month I will have a store front in Bristol to exhibit and sell my paintings to raise money for our ministry here. Keep me in your prayers, please!

Michael has been active as usual while I was away!

Here’s his post:

Bristol is a key to this Nation turning back to God.

I believe that Bristol has been assigned by God as a gate to a revival in this nation, England. That is a word Christine and I received, and left our family, home and careers to come here to Bristol. Many others have as well, most recently Roy and Melanie Fields who have been at Carmel Centre for the last 5 weeks pushing into heaven and bringing people with them.

We were in a Spiritual Mapping prayer meeting praying over the map of Bristol some seven weeks ago and God spoke through Sheena Tranter, to ‘Watch Carmel, I will do a work there, watch Carmel.’

Unfortunately there is not a hunger for revival in this city. Yet. The meetings were not well attended. There is a complacency which is all rapt up in the spirit of stupor, spirit of unbelief, spirit of control, spirit of mockery and spirit of poverty but most significant is an overriding humanism even within the church. People are unable to break out of this blanket which is so familiar that many do not realize it exists. There is a powerful pride in the British stiff upper lip which is really a trap of the enemy. It stops movement in the spirit, the natural and maintains a tepid status quo just above bearable.

But Christ came to give us life and life in abundance, that’s why this country needs revival, it’s forgotten that Christ is a powerful living God who calls us to an abundant life.

So when a couple of evangelists come to a city to do a work of God there is an intellectual rejection and passive resistance, the pastors of the city do not rise up and join together with it but for whatever reason stay silent. For those who have attended the meetings it has been a strong move forward.  But as God said watch Carmel, it shows me that Bristol is not yet hungry for a work of God. It is warm under its blanket and happy to stay there.

We know that God is concerned with land as well as people. We know that where things good and bad have happened in the past that location takes on a spiritual force for good or bad to people in that place there after. This can be redeemed through prayer or left to continue to have an affect spiritually on the people in that place. The land gives out the spiritual forces that have been created and licensed to be here by the people of this nation, they have been accepted for generations and have a strong quiet hold.

There is a whole lot of redeeming that needs to take place in this city and this nation for it to have the fear of God on it again and people to recognize there is a desperate need for a turning back to God. There have been missionaries coming over here to Bristol from Africa, Korea, America, the Philipines since we moved here 15 months ago all calling out for Christians to awake. They recognize that God has more to do with this nation, another movement of the Holy Spirit that will spearhead a movement into Europe. The prophetic words are consistent from many different sources that there will be a move of God in this nation soon.

It will take God to cut through the blanket that lays over this nation. We need prayer houses, evangelists and a fire in the belly of latent Christians to beseech God and stand in the gap for the sins of this nation, past and present. We need the Christian community working together in a way which is real not just a lip service. The churches are like castles open to the heavens but closed to one another, with enthusiastic worship going up to heaven but very little lateral connection or working together. There are some who are working for this but it needs to be all the churches.

That being said there are signs of  change in Bristol. There are networking Christian movements underway, the different prayer groups are being identified and brought together under the Bristol Prayer Network. There is movement forward, more and more reports of healings are coming in and I have seen several myself in this last week. More people are praying for healing in and outside of church. But I yearn to see the fires of the Holy Spirit burn brighter and then come together as one. That will happen but I do not know how long it will take for that hunger for God to be ignited and the blanket torn off England. Sometimes it seems so far off yet our God works in mysterious ways, often suddenly. We are blessed.

Love to you guys! We are praying for you, too!

Christine and Michael

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

We send you all blessings and love from our post in Bristol.  More than ever, we are convinced of God’s goodness and faithfulness as we make our way along in this spiritual adventure. God has blessed us with some really good spiritual friends and companions here who provide the good food of the Gospel in our fellowship times together. We love that!!  It’s worth so much!

Our House of Prayer is continuing to bless this area of the UK on a monthly basis.  Michael feels led to develop  spiritual mapping and organize prayer walks in the different areas of Bristol to increase the prayer covering.  We are praying for an open heaven over Bristol, that God’s Kingdom will come in power.   We see signs of that all around, like our street is a much quieter, cleaner street than it used to be.  We know many of our neighbors and Michael brought tea to some brick layers last week who said they had never seen such a friendly street!   Further developments in teams of people praying in the streets are spreading out across the denominations all over Bristol .      People are uniting to pray for healing and God’s Presence everywhere!  Oh how good are the movements of God’s Holy Sprit amongst His people.  during a prayer session with Fr. Scott Evans when he was here, Michael heard God tell him to payer walk the streets for at least an hour a day, and he will take care of the rest.  Michael has been faithful to that and continues to have amazing experiences and is gaining a perspective of the hurting and lost in our area.  He walks miles all around Bristol declaring out loud ‘Jesus Christ is Lord of this nation’ and other prayers.  He now feels called to start picking up the work that has been done of spiritual mapping in Bristol and to take it to a place where we can initiate intercession into different areas of the past and present for the city. We feel God has been blessing us during this time in so many ways.    We’ve just returned from a two day trip to London, where Michael had been given a pass (worth £700!) to a two day workshop on the digital media revolution put on by the British Association of Film makers.  He feels that we as Christians need to know how fast technology is changing and the effects it is going to have on society. We need to have Christians speaking out and leading in these areas because the industry is going ahead as fast as it can often without thought of the direction and consequences of what is developing. He has gained quite a perspective which I’m sure will be put into practice in the days and weeks ahead.

We were blessed with a wonderful visit from our son Mark who came here on business.  We had such a good visit, with a day in London at the British Museum – his primary desire was to see the Rosetta Stone!     We also visited Assyrian and Egyptian art which took place during the time of the old testament – so fascinating to see the art that was created in those times.

God’s been giving me revelation about art, and the icons, which I need to process now in the studio.  I am being asked to re define with more clarity what my mission for the Kingdom is in art.  Part of that is a call to excellence so I am visiting museums, seeing old and contemporary art.  I will be studying at the Florence academy of Art in July classical portraiture.  I’m very excited.  I’m also volunteering next week to help sell Christian art at a major Christian conference called Spring Harvest.  I’m continuing to teach two watercolor classes each week and want to have a more full on teaching job for the fall.  We may be commuting to London on a weekly basis to get work.

Here are our prayer requests for the next month:

• that God will give us clear discernment about whether to stay here or return to NY where our house is.
• Financial breakthrough, in jobs, sales of paintings, and any other income stream the Lord wants to open up for us to finance our endeavors.  This is high priority!
• Successful resolution of our house in NY – either a good sale or a good rental.
• Spiritual Protection – particularly on financial and health issues.
• Prayer for the Christian community to play a part in the digital revolution which is underway, in healthcare, education, music, video and interactive games.
• Spiritual mapping of Bristol can come together through many people working together on it.
• That Christian videographers in Bristol would start working together to witness what God is doing here.

We continue to be blessed by serving as chaplains at Frenchay Hospital with a dedicated group from Woodlands Church.

So, we love you, value your prayers, and love to hear from you.  Blessings and love, Christine and Michael

We write to you to keep in touch, let you know what we’re doing, and we do this  with great joy because God is continuing to bless us on this amazing journey He has us on!  Below is a picture of the beautiful Bath Abbey which recently began selling Christine’s icon cards in their gift shop – praise God!

The City of Bath is  a few miles from Bristol and the most beautiful city to visit.

We’ve been blessed with new art teaching jobs for Christine and an opportunity to present our work at a city wide Church event. Michael will be able to outline his vision of “As One” a website which lists Christian events and news across the denominations, as well as having a page of  24-7 Prayer Slot sign up also interdenominational.  We’re looking for key people to connect and work with as well as for funding.     This would also support our House

of Prayer which is gaining ground too.  Our vision is to support prayer in every way that we can as we know this is key to Revival sweeping the land. And we see sprouts of it happening! We want more Lord!

Michael is enjoying his volunteering at the Crisis Center – a Christian run organization which feeds and supports the homeless in Bristol. He recently heard God ask him to go out into the streets and pray for one hour every day.  His daily journey to so many different parts of Bristol have shown him a broken world of people who are laid low by poverty,drugs, alcohol, or a culture which doesn’t support Godly principles. He is able to pray with people at times, and always he is praying his way through the streets. He wants our house of prayer to start doing spiritual mapping so we know what to pray into in each area.   

Christine has been blessed by joining the British Iconographers’ Association and they have run a notice of her teaching iconography at her Paintworks Studio.

Another fun thing this past month – we were blessed with two visits from great

friends in God’s world and ours!  First, our good friend from Randy Clark’s School, Chad Cromer came with his new fiance.  They were guests at our February House of Prayer meeting, met the minister of the church we are attending,  and gave some powerful healing prayer which resulted in at least two healings that night!     Our next visitor was Fr. Scott Evans from upstate New York who came for the London Alpha conference. We were blessed by a wonderful night of prayer and fellowship before he headed to London.   (You’ve got to love my icon of  “Christ in Glory” behind them in the photograph.  It looks like they are right in God’s embrace, as indeed they are!)

We celebrated our wedding anniversary this month with a trip to the ballet in Bristol and saw Romeo and Juliette – very romantic!

And now for the really exciting news:  our son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Kristi are expecting their first child! AND our daughter Micah will be marrying her wonderful Tor Knos in New York in June!  How’s that for an amazing God!

So, we will be spending a good bit of June in New York.  We would love to come to give a talk at your church and share our vision.   We want to hear from you because it strengthens us so

much to know we are not alone.   We’re praying for changed lives, healed bodies, renewed minds and open hearts -AND a Revival! Do you have a heart to see the UK  filled once again to overflowing  with God’s love and Holy Spirit?  Won’t you join us?

Your prayers are an important part of our effort and we know we can’t do this without others. If you feel called to be part of our intercessory prayer team let us know.

We pray that God will bless you richly throughout 2011.     Love and Prayers,  Michael and Christine

Dear Friends and Family:

We hope you are all well and surviving the winter storms.  We’ve had really cold weather here, and have heard about the snowstorms in New York and Boston.  Yes, another winter is upon us!  But we know Spring is coming!!!

We’ve had quite the stormy last few months – some major progress and some heavy costs and wanted to share some of our process with you.  We believe God’s Glory will be revealed and established by sharing our struggles and victories.  We hope what God does in and through us will give you inspiration and hope!

Our second meeting of the House of Prayer was on January 21, the same night Woodlands Church had their half night of prayer.   We had a blessed meeting with the Presence of God moving so beautifully with us as we read and prayed into John Mulinde’s Prophetic Word for the UK.  We prayed for Bristol, for marriages, and children to be blessed, and for Revival in the UK.  Then we went on to pray at Woodlands until about 1am, then back early Sat am to pray for healing, then Sat night we had our prayer slot in the 24-7 Prayer room at Woodlands which had been set up for the week of prayer.  I had lent my icon of Jesus and a prophetic painting to the prayer room.  So many people expressed that they helped to bring the Presence of God into the room and we felt that too.  So, I was encouraged :).

We are still praying for God to bring another couple to share leadership with us of the House of Prayer and we are praying for a larger place to hold it.  Our next meeting will be Feb 8 which will coincide with a visit from our friend Chad from Randy Clark’s ministry. We are excited for that!

We have been blessed to be taking some free courses on entrepreneurship which are helping us understand how to earn a living over here.  So far, Michael has been working very hard to make our income with little results.  I have been blessed with a friend from Woodie’s who has helped me find a job teaching watercolor, and now both Michael and I will be teaching in that program starting in Feb.  It is only a small part of the picture but we see it as a breakthrough and we thank God for it.  I have also been blessed by Elim Church with the opportunity to teach a class in Prophetic art this month.  So we see signs of God moving in our lives and we thank Him and thank all of you for your prayers.

Elim Church is committed to Revival, and was originally started by the Jeffrey brothers from the Welsh Revival.  Pastor Simon is shown in this picture.  We are members of Woodlands Church where we feel very blessed, too.  The one thing we did not have in Philmont, NY was a good place to worship and we feel abundantly blessed with that here in Bristol.  Thank you Lord!!

My studio at Paintworks is a wonderful place for me to be in God’s Presence while I paint.  I will be moving into a slightly larger studio next month so that I can teach iconography classes there.  There’s no heat in the building (!) but I have a couple of small heaters to warm up the room.  Will be glad for warmer weather though :).

Financially we’ve had some setbacks- our investment we had set up three years ago to fund our mission went bad. Our inexperience with investing allowed us to put our trust in something which was not viable so we lost a large amount of money.  We are asking God to restore it somehow!! Nothing is impossible for God!  On a more positive note, we received two significant donations to our ministry for December and January.  One was from St. Michael’s Church in Colonie, NY, and one was from my son, Mark and his wife Kristi.  We felt so encouraged and supported and they have made a big difference to our hope and confidence and finances!   

That’s me at the Tate Modern in London.   Very happy with all the art I get to enjoy here!  Regarding our house in Philmont – we waited three months for some buyers who were interested, but  now need to move on and see if we can find a good renter.

As always, we appreciate your prayers very much.  You are all in our prayers, too.  I love praying for people!!

Here’s Michael:   Over Christmas I was able to spend some time editing some of the video work that I have recorded and sent out one on the Healing Love of God to You Tube. I am sure that as we see God healing people it encourages us to push further in our own prayers. Also as we see people testify of their healing and how God worked in them we realize what an important part testimony is in keeping the healing and also passing the vision on that God heals even in diseases which a person may have lived with for twenty years. This is very important especially in cultures which have become comfortable with a concept of a passive God. A God that is doing wonderful works in far off places but not healing my neighbors next door. We know God is very powerful and able to do far more than we can possibly imagine and it is vital that we hold that in our hearts as we pray for healing. Here is the site for the video if you have not seen it yet, please pass it on to anyone who it might encourage.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIrUh-Qw1eo

To that end I have been given a larger vision to use videography to communicate what God is doing in this city through as many different expressions of Christianity there are. I am also praying for another person who has this on their hearts to work with me in this arena. This year is going to see big steps forward as we start to build momentum to pooling the different resources across Bristol to pray for a revival here.  Here are links to my Memorial Photography site and website:  www.memorialphotography.com   http://www.mickhales.net

We are blessed to be part of Bob & Marge Morrison’s Charity called “Unto Life”.  Your donation to our ministry will be tax deductible if you make the check out to “Unto Life”, put our names in the memo line, and send it to:  Bob & Marge Morrison, 411 Gettysburg Pike , Mechanicsburg, PA,   17055.  

We love you all and couldn’t do this without knowing you love and support us in your prayers.  Thank YOU!!

“The people who are walking in great darkness have seen a great light…”Isaiah 9:2

Hello Everyone:  We missed you all especially at Thanksgiving this year.  That is such a great holiday to celebrate – giving thanks to God for all that He’s given us.  We had fun explaining it to our friends here – everyone seemed surprised that we don’t give gifts at Thanksgiving, but that it’s  a time for feasting with our families and loved ones.

Poking out of my head in this recent rare photo of the two of us together is our tiny Christmas tree.  It sits on our mantle and is just the right size for us this year.

We have some sad news – our sweet little Dylan dog died on Dec 1 of a hereditary disease. She was the sweetest and most beautiful dog and we are missing her greatly.   I believe that I’ll see her in heaven.  May not be perfect Theology, but it works for me!

Thanks to all of you who prayed for our first “House of Prayer and Creativity” meeting on December 10.  Our house was filled to capacity with some really wonderful people who are committed to praying on a regular basis.  We will be following a Celtic model of keeping more of a rhythm of prayer rather than a 24-7 prayer watch.  That means we have Morning, Noon, Evening and Night Prayer – simple liturgies which all can follow when they can.  We have a prayer focus for Bristol, the Nation, and more personal concerns as well.  We have a blessing sheet, too, which speaks out blessing to artists and families in our area.  If any of you would like to see more, I can email those to you as an attachment.  The blessings are a wonderful way of speaking forth God’s best for us and proclaiming His goodness in every situation.  Our next meeting is Fri, Jan 21, also here at our house.  Our house is becoming a House of Prayer – Yay!     But we are praying for a bigger space to house the House of Prayer as well as for another couple to be core members with us.

To the right is a snap of my new painting studio at Paintworks – an art community of creatives who work in several buildings very near where we live.  There’s no heat – so it’s been very cold, but I love it there.  It’s becoming a special place of prayer and creativity for me.  I’m still teaching watercolor classes and will start looking into teaching iconography this spring.

This is the “Angel of Repentance” which God showed me to paint last week at Church.  God told me to release this angel in Bristol and in the UK, and that it is an honor to be considered worthy to receive this angel because it is so beautiful in His sight.

I feel more and more convinced that God has brought us here for a purpose, and that what we’ve given to be here is a treasure to Him.  I feel blessed with His inspiration more and more every day, and we keep meeting amazing people here in Bristol who have been faithfully serving and praying over many years.  It’s a joy to begin to be a part of what God is doing here and I hope as time goes on we can share it with all of you in many different ways.     Here’s Michael:  

Here is a picture of Christine painting at Bristol Interfaith Festival, which was a festival of many different religions which are represented in Bristol. For me, Michael, this has been a very interesting experience returning to live in my own country after being away for 29 years. I have to say that it has not been an easy transition so far and we knew from before coming to live here that it would be difficult. However, perhaps what is the hardest aspect of being in England is seeing how much this country needs a revival. There are many wonderful works of God going on here and there are some wonderful churches but the country as a whole appears to be moving further away from a God fearing nation at a rapid rate. There seems to be a spirit of numbness over the country, it is as though we need to shout Awake, Awake even in the Christian community. We strongly believe there is a revival coming to this nation and we can see God positioning people in various different ways and we believe Bristol is going to be one of the break out ports of the Holy Spirit.

So the vision God has placed on my heart is to create a website which has three main elements. This vision was for Bristol but it could be for any city or region. Its purpose is to create a prayer covering, a notice board of all that is going on in the body of Christ by date in the city and then to proactively equip, train people in the churches to video what God is doing and quickly post it for the city to see. The three elements are separate but also interwoven. The prayer covering is a timetable where people make a spiritual commitment to pray, The Notice Board is by date so one can see for each day what Christians are doing each day. The video forum is the testimony page where what God is doing does not get lost but is established and raises the faith of the community. I believe one of the most important parts we can play to bring a revival into being is to have the different parts of the church body working together As One. This often means getting the church leaders of a city to work together purposefully. So please keep this vision in your prayers as I approach different leaders in this city to become proactive in this vision.

The photograph above is of  Ffald-y-Brenin a House of Prayer in Pembrokshire, Wales and the sky picture is from there. It is known as a thin place and God’s presence is strongly felt there. The picture of the sky is  above Ffald-y-Brenin and there are many vapor trails from planes heading West from England to America. We live in such an incredible world that we can physically fly from one place to another by plane and we also live in a spiritual world where we can travel in the spirit. Our cries go out for these two countries England and America to travel in the Holy Spirit out of the wilderness we so often see around us.

“Verily the sky is riven with angels voices singing:

Gloria, Gloria, excelsis in the Highest!”

To make a donation to the Hales’ ministry, Kingdom Arts Ministry, Make check out to “Unto Life”  with our name in the Memo line, and send to:

Bob & Marge Morrison, 411 Gettysburg Pike, Mechaniccsburg,PA  17055

Hello Dearest Friends and Family:

This past month has marked some satisfying breakthroughs for us in so many ways.  Most importantly is the revelation that we are resting in God’s Presence first, then from that we are moving out to do something for the Kingdom.  We recently went on a retreat in Wales for the purpose of learning how to start a House of Payer.  This is a grass roots kind of prayer meeting with a core group of committed people who meet on a regular basis to pray and worship together.  God has put it on our hearts to start a house of prayer and creativity – a place where artists (and other people!) can come and worship for hours while painting, playing their musical instrument and resting in God’s Presence.  We will use a rhythmic prayer schedule, similar to the Celtic model of morning, midday and evening prayers.  Michael and I have started already and are praying for the right couple to form a core group with us, and we are also praying for a space which can be permanently dedicated to prayer.  We want people who need to be in God’s Presence to have access to it 24-7, and be able to pray when in need.

We are planning on renting a space in a building where Christine and other artists will have studios.  We feel that by renting the space in a creative setting we will attract other creatives who might not otherwise go to a church to pray.

We are beginning to understand more our calling as Cultural Revivalists, who want to bring God’s Kingdom through the arts.  Christine has started teaching painting in a secular setting to a group of older adults and she is also teaching Prophetic Art at a really great church in Bristol called Elim, as part of their evening school of transformation.  She’s continuing volunteering at the Wellspring Center, drawing young mothers and their babies, as well as assisting Michael in Chaplaincy times.

This is a view of Chrst Church in Bristol’s art walk celebration with one of Christine’s icons of the Crucifixion hanging on a column amidst brightly colored leaf shapes.  These leaves had prayers written on each one and were heartfelt testimonies to their hope  in restoration and healing.

What’s not immediately obvious here is Michael’s beautiful photography making it all possible.  He has one more trip back to NY for work this month.  We’re praying that God will place him in some good work situations here in the UK, but we are also grateful for answered prayers of work in NY.  Michael is getting more excited and experienced in videography and is making some short documentaries of how God is working in our midst.  We will post them on the blog when they’re ready!

This is a detail of an 8ft x8ft  prophetic painting Christine did for Elim Church’s One Thing Celebration.  The Scripture reference was Psalm 24:8  “Who is this King of Glory?  the Lord God Almighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.”  It was an awesome night or prayer and worship, and we prayed for Bristol to be full of God’s blessings.  I believe that Revival is coming in to the UK like the ocean tide – slowly, almost imperceptibly at times, but steadily inching forward.

Our friends the Morrisons have completed the 501-3c application for the charity “Unto Life” which we are blessed to be part of.  Now, if God moves any of you to contribute financially to what we’re doing, it will be tax deductible if you: make the check payable to Unto Life and write on the memo “For Michael and Christine Hales”.  You can send it to: Unto Life, 411 Gettysburg Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA  17055. If you have a purpose you would like it applied to, just send us a note or email and we will earmark it for that purpose.  We want to do a lot of outreach once we have the prayer house established so that we can bring God’s love to people who are hurting and in need in various ways. The retreat we went to about the House of Prayer was a Trans Med Vision – houses of prayer spriging up in nations around the Mediterranean.  We asked if Bristol could be considered as being on the Med 🙂  and God’s favor on us charmed them into it!  So we are now part of a team of English and Welsh people with a vision for establishing Houses of Prayer in England and Europe.  Very Fun!

We send you our love and prayers – we are praying several times a day now, so if there’s anything specific you want us to pray for let us know!  Love,   Michael and Christine