Transcript

have the word. It's been hearing this weekend and reading online and the amazing things that are
happening. You know we talk about how bad the world is and how difficult things are getting
and how challenging they are and it's easy to get despondent but on the flip side we always,
in those moments, we've always got to look to see what God is doing and his power at work
is changing people and is doing amazing things and we do live in exciting times, challenging
times certainly and even as God moves more in power there'll be more challenges ahead
but we are seeing, you know, in our own lives, in our own community, in our own church what
God is doing and beginning and continuing to do and a few weeks ago, I'm going to take a break
today from our genesis journey and a few weeks or months ago at the edge on a Thursday morning
we had a visit from a whole team of people from Matasey Hall, Green Pastures, which is a community
of people. Some of you will remember Pete Kavanagh who came to preach here,
powerful word but funny guy, remember him? Yeah, but he's, I don't even know, maybe we'll find out
low, you know, he's involved in that. I don't know if he's in charge or whatever he is but he's,
and he brought a team over on a Thursday morning and we were just blown away by the life and the
faith and the energy and the excitement that these guys and girls had from very,
very difficult backgrounds and challenging situations and yet the power of God had changed
lives and they were just so full of the life and just, and you just see again, just renew, just the
gospel is a wonderful, wonderful thing that changes people's lives from the inside out.
And so what we said we'd do is we would invite some of the people from Matasey Hall to come and
speak on a Sunday morning and so that's what we've got. So I'm going to introduce them and leave them
to whatever they've got for us but we've got Darren and Wayne and Christina, that's right,
and I'm going to invite Darren to come and speak now. Darren is
one of the leaders of the whole setup and he'll be able to explain more clearly what he does
than I can and he's going to speak for a while and then Wayne and Christina are going to share
some of their story and trust that you're going to be really encouraged and blessed by what we
hear this morning. So thank you, now let me pray for you and we'll go. Father, we thank you that
your power at work is changing lives and we want to thank you for real life testimony and I want
to pray for Darren and now as he speaks, Lord God, I pray that you're filling with your Holy Spirit
for Wayne and Christina, give them confidence and boldness to speak all that is in their hearts,
all that they've seen you do, Lord God, and we just want to share with them in the celebration
of the power of God that changes and transforms lives, not just today but forever, in Jesus name,
Amen. Thank you so much.
So blessed. We have been so blessed this morning, just been lost in worship, it's just wonderful.
Something special happening here and you are so right, something is happening across the nation.
The Lord spoke to us prophetically through Isaiah 43 18, behold I'm doing a new thing,
can't you see the green shoots of revival happening, behold I'm going to bring life
into the wilderness and the hyenas are going to worship me. You are in revival,
we all think revival is you're going to turn up here and suddenly heaven's open,
but when winter turns to April, it's the green shoots that show you're in the new season,
look for the green shoots, that is the evidence you're in a new season, it is happening everywhere
I'm going, I'm seeing green shoots moves of the Holy Spirit, like nothing in history is seen,
behold I'm doing a new thing, it's going to move the spirit, I'm telling you that's going to
transform our nation, I'm telling you and I also have a word maybe, I've only got 10 minutes of me
which is absolutely fine, I'm going to let these the students speak, but I really have this word
that just kept coming about this church, unspoilt, you have something here that is so precious
and unspoilt, I mean you come here, I say this respectfully, it's not a place of great wealth
or grandeur, but you have a wealth that is far greater than material wealth, you have the
presence of the Holy Spirit here and I believe that God has kept you, whether that's in the
leadership or your decision making, because I kind of saw a tribe and you know when you go through
the Amazon rainforest and suddenly you come across a tribe that's been kept for years, almost unspoilt
culture values and I could see that, I really felt that word for the church, that the Lord
has kept you from certain things, he set you apart as a community because you have something
unspoilt here, something very precious and you know a beautiful time of worship, you feel the
presence of Jesus, gosh I might just sit down now and yeah I oversee Massey Hall training centers,
formerly Dissemblies of God Bible College, 50 years Dissemblies of God Bible College, we are not doing
anything new, we are just honoring the legacy, the heritage of the mighty men and women of God
that walked at that place, it was going to be bulldozed when the AOG moved over to Manchester
but God said no these grounds are precious to me, that was a place when I was there in 2004-2007,
gosh where people were trained up to go on missions around the world, well we are training
men and women up to go on missions but to our locality, we need to send missionaries to our
nation because I have never seen our nation so broken, so bankrupt in many ways, in Isaiah 60 it
says the darkness is upon the land but the thick darkness is on the people, there is a darkness
upon people now that is so thick but I don't get scared about that and I just sense revival is
imminent and Jesus, but didn't Jesus say we need some preparation, the harvest is plentiful and the
workers of you, so where are the workers of you coming from, God gave us Dissemblies of God Bible
College, a place where these men and women would never had a chance to sit on those grounds,
never had a chance to do a three-year degree but God has rose up a generation, I call them the King
Davids, who was one of the greatest leaders in the Bible, David, where did he come from, what happened
in his life, well he was overlooked, he wasn't first in line, he wasn't the first pick but
Samuel said no there's somebody else that's going to be a great leader, there's someone else that's
going to be the next pioneer, the next visionary, the next builder, the next creator, the next
support worker, the next whoever it may be, he's in the fields right now, he's
overlooked and God is rising up a generation that have been overlooked, a generation that have
gone through difficult circumstances, a generation perhaps like David that have been homeless,
being wrote off by life, being told that they'll never amount to anything but God is rising
that generation up and has called them to matters and they are being trained with theology,
NVQ health and social care level three, we're training them to be disciples before leaders,
you know, I say this so respectfully, all leaders are Christians but not all leaders are
disciples, you know, we've got to look at discipleship, servanthood, sacrifice, take up my cross
every single day, follow Jesus Christ and it's like God has brought these precious men and women
to the college where I am in awe, we have 45 of men and women wrote off by the the world that are
worshipping in the chapel every day for an hour, they're learning theology, Peter Kavana, the head
of theology and spiritual development and they're learning, they're growing, I said Lord why are you
bringing, why are you bringing this beautiful generation here to the grounds and the Lord
said their hearts have not yet been tainted by religion, you know, Jesus says, Jesus says in the
book of Revelation I stand at the door and knock, that's not a salvation message, it's Jesus trying
to speak to the church but we've become so busy, so trapped with all of the Sunday morning stuff
and Jesus says I'm going to rise up a remnant, I'm going to rise up a group of people, I'm going to
rise up and they may not be perfect and they may have been battling through some stuff but they're
teachable and they're like blank hammers where they're like sponges absorbing all of the stuff
we're teaching at Matheson, it's beautiful, they're growing, they're learning and it's a safe place to
take your mask off and stumble, we have to stumble safely, I have learned more through stumbling
than I ever have from success, you know, we live in a world now where the moment you stumble as a
Christian that's it, you're wrote off but we've got to walk and journey with each other
when we make mistakes, let's get up and grow and learn like David, the man after God's own heart,
so we can journey with our boys and now we're sending them out doing missions work
from the college, they do practical social care missions to the poor, the broken, the hurting,
the elderly, the widows, the orphans, the outcasts, the destitute, all of those that Jesus says go to
you, go to them, in fact Jesus says in Matthew 25 if you truly are a disciple of mine the evidence
of that is you'll have a heart to go to the widows, the orphans, the outcasts, the homeless
and those in hospitals and prisons, so they're going to work, they're going out serving,
Mathesi, the whole creation of Mathesi, the vision of Mathesi is not hey look at us what a great place
it is, it's to serve the local church, how can we serve you with the generation of workers that will
serve, that will love, that will commit themselves to the poor and just help the vision that's going
on on here, so my own little journey and just a few scriptures, I'll try and get off at 10 past
so give me a nudge when it's 10 past but I did love it when you said about your men's group,
if my wife was there she'd have give me a little nudge right there in the in the ridge you know
when you said about men don't listen to instruction you know she'd have just give me a little little
nudge one of those things but she'd have also said can you please bring it to the men's group
why they can't open cardboard boxes properly, I don't know about you but but have you ever tried
to open an apple juice box, it's got the little lines and I try and get my scissors and I'll cut
here and I'll cut here or I'll do this on any cardboard box and I don't know whether it's a man
thing or a darren thing but I'll go I'll follow it and then it sprouts out or shoots out like a
fountain all over the place, my wife will get some scissors like this she'll go and it's the most
beautiful flow, is that just me or or do men generally have an issue, a cardboard box, so I was
a royal marine commando, I was searching for many things in life, maybe like some people here,
I didn't want to know Jesus although I had a sense from birth that I was on this earth to do greater
things, you've all got that, you know I don't know where you are with the Lord but you're born with
a sense of eternity, purpose, destiny, I didn't want to know church, I always felt church was
boring, I didn't know this type of church, priests and dog collars and all of that stuff, boring
songs but I always had but I always, that was my negative view of church honestly and but I always
had a sense of more that there was a God and I was shot through both my legs and I remember in
my lowest moment and I just said I remembered the Jesus from my Sunday school, Jesus from
school assembly and I said Jesus if you're real will you heal my legs, one broken night just
crying out to the Lord, all my bravado gone just weeping and crying and to cut a long story short
four and a half inches of my femur bone just grew back, you know signs, wonders, miracles,
must follow those as well as love for the poor and the broken and the hurting.
In the book of James it says religion that is pure and faultless is to keep ourselves polluted
from the world so we have to talk about purity, you can't just have a social gospel you know
we're either too far this way or too far this way but you know he's called us to be pure and
then to look after the widows and orphans in their distress so you have the the pure and the poor
and then you see the power of God come as well when you've got those three together I'm telling
you now and then I rose up from that hospital bed left the marines but my heart was burdened
for the poor and the broken and the hurting. I just had this compulsion came across David
Wilkerson's crossing the switchblade after only eight months as a Christian and sleeping homeless
had nowhere to live after the marines but had God's call upon my life stripped me down bare
all I had was Jesus and that's why we go for the poor and the needy and the broken and the hurting
because they they may not ever have a Ferrari may not ever have caviar but Jesus says I'll always
take care of their leads but I will be their treasure and all I had was Jesus Christ the
clothes on my back but I felt like the wealthiest person in the world and I learned some great
lessons that Christ is my treasure that I didn't need a great amount of money I didn't need even
a career then you know he was my everything the love the guidance the trust the faith that was
built every day he took care of my every need and he directed me overseas to work with David
Wilkerson amongst the broken crossing the switchblade then I hopped on to YWAM's
missions trip to China just wanting to know more about why the broken and the hurting poverty
injustice slavery and all of those things and then the Lord taught me to Massey Hall Bible
College in 2-4 and 2-7 and I just wouldn't shut up about the poor and the broken I felt like the
weeping prophet Jeremiah and I remember when I left there 2-7 the Lord put a calling upon my
life and we set up our first lighthouse hostel in in Rotherham and the songs that you played
today amazingly are songs that have journeyed with us all of our all of our life all of our
all the time setting up projects so we set up our first hostel and I hate the word hostel
and let's call them family homes a 15 bed in Rotherham but they were just a place where we
set the right culture the values it was never going to be a place where we just put men in there
and saw them on benefits in sickness and just stay there for the rest of their life God had more
for them and my hero is William Boo, Salvation Army hostels from very very early years where he
was able to put the social the supernatural and spiritual development under one roof
and that's what we did we just set a culture where Christ honored him made sure we were right
with ourselves purity and holiness we prayed constantly over these these hostels and we started
to see amazing changes and transformation broken men just rising to a destiny and a calling and
then over the next 15 years another one and another one we took over blocks of flats a
whole block of flats in Chesterfield notorious blocks of flats it's not hard once you've got
a culture protect your culture we grew and protected our culture we never compromised
the core values of why we saw growth no one got any glory every place we did we honored Jesus
we kept those simple values and we saw moves of the Holy Spirit a whole block of flats Jesus
Bible studies didn't make sense 15 years later but the Lord said this you know we're only touching
the surface here we need the next generation of workers our towns and cities are broken
God spoke to me through Nehemiah slavery is like no other time in history but we don't hear it
preach much in church you know it's not a calling to reach the poor it's a command
it's not a request by God it's a responsibility there are three thousand scriptures in the Bible
that tell us to reach the poor the destitute the outcast and when we do we honor God you know in
Jeremiah 22 16 my my favorite scripture in the Bible about King Josiah we all talk about this
man of God who was holy and and brought spiritual revival and reform like Nehemiah but he says this
in 22 16 he defended the cause of the poor and needy and so all went well is that not what it
means to know me declares the Lord three power points there he defended the cause of the poor
and needy defended in the Hebrew means to set a straight course no matter what I do no matter
what we do he's saying no matter how we are always going to defend the cause of the poor
and the needy it's going to be ingrained in our in our strategies our memorandums our vision of
the church whatever we do we're going to defend the cause of the poor and the needy the cause
you know their well-being their hopes their dreams their education opportunities
you know we can tick a box with an outreach we can tick a box with a with a coffee but that's
more about making us feel better you know God's called us to defend the cause and the rights of
the poor and the needy and he wraps it up under the word injustice and justice in Micah 6 8 it
says I've told your man what to do what does the Lord require of you to do justice to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God but the Jeremiah scriptures are finished now it's powerful he said
he defended the cause of the poor and the needy and all went well is that not what it means to
to know me declares the Lord if we go backwards on that one if we don't have a heart for the poor
and the needy and the broken the adult elderly the widows the outcast the destitute the oppressed and
those who are struggling with prejudice racism on all of those things that's wrapped under the
banner of injustice this isn't about homelessness this morning this isn't about drugs it's about
injustice that banner that we operate under it's unjust that people are struggling with addictions
it's unjust that people don't have the right access to education because they live in a certain
area it's unjust that that that people are battling with with mental health issues and
they struggle with this lonely in their home isolated it's unjust that there are 60 000
children in our nation in care homes and we've got empty rooms to foster and adopt these children
religion that is pure and faultless is to look after the widows and orphans in distress
it's our responsibility as the church of Jesus Christ it will challenge us it will take us to
that point of I foster me and my wife foster we look after a 12 year old boy did I do it hop
skipping and jumping no because that's my home but when God says I'll be a father to the fatherless
it's when he puts his spirit in you men and you start to become a father to those kids now
on the estates in youth clubs who don't have dads that's all about injustice reaching out to
the broken the fatherless the lost the widows the orphans and all of those things and you know
it's glorious the blessings and the power of the holy spirit fall upon those who give themselves
to the poor and the broken you know the blessings are through the bible those who give themselves to
the poor lack nothing proverbs 1917 he was gracious to a poor man lends to the lord and he will repay
him for his good deeds and finally isaiah 58 10 if you give yourself not just do a small measure
but if you give yourself to the hungry satisfy the desire of the afflicted
then your light will rise in darkness your gloom will become like midday the lord will continually
guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places and give strength to your bones and you
will be like a water garden and like a sprinter of water whose waters do not do not fall what
incredible blessings promises of god move to the spirit you're like nothing and what does it seem
of the conditions for those that gives themselves to the poor and the needy and the broker and the
impressed supernatural blessings of the holy spirit you know we can all pray for revival
but i want to suggest that we all need to look at what are our hearts like towards the afflicted
and the broken are we filling these 3 000 scriptures in the bible to help the lonely
the affirmed the elderly the widows and the orphans and i think this church is doing it
very nicely by the way okay so that's the remit of the college god gave it back to us
after 15 years miraculously the aog moved out and the lord said the harvest is plentiful the training
the workers are few so god gave us the assemblies of god bible college the very place where the
vision was birthed 15 years before and now it's a bible college that's training up men and women
to go and reach the poor and the broken and the hurting and isiah 58 to go and rebuild our broken
walls our infrastructure the education system the school system the political system everything that
pushed jesus christ out now i'm telling you that revival will permeate every area of life and
that's all that we're doing at the college the same thing that's been going 50 years these men
and women are heroes their courage is remarkable they love jesus and they're out there in the world
serving him every single day wayne do you want to go and share uh seven or eight minutes your
testimony young man and then christina
new crowd so i'm a bit nervous um so yeah my name is wayne i'm 39 years old um i'm from wales
originally um so i'm gonna start off from the age of 11 because i lost my dad when i was 11 years
old he died in my arms literally in my arms he had a heart attack on his birthday and that's where
my journey really began because i was broken i was lost and i was really angry with god
taking my dad away from me died on his birthday at age 44 and it led me to getting in with the
wrong crowd i started drinking with him at age 11 taking cannabis getting into trouble
arguing with my mum all the time me and my mum didn't get on because she got into another
relationship and i was quite angry with my mum as well because it was only a month after my dad died
and i thought why are you doing this it's a broken family as it is but you're making it worse so um
we were arguing and arguing all the time and the age of uh 13 14 my mum started to have enough of
me because i was rebelling from her so and when i got to 15 and she was like i can't have you
she kicked me out at the age of 15 i started living on the streets i started taking heroin
i started taking speed um and i was just going around in circles i was homeless for three years
living under branches park park bridges and that and then my daughter come along so i was quite
proud of that i got clean for a little bit um but then our relationship with her mum fell and
that's when i started using again um and then my daughter got taken off me so my my addiction went
worse um i lost my house i lost everything and i was living in the horse's stable for a bit
and i stayed at the friend's house one night because he wanted to get me off the street for
the night and i had a phone call at three o'clock in the morning wayne where are you
you're okay i says why what's the matter the stables you're staying in someone's lit
put it on fire we thought you were dead so you can see god was there then protecting me from that
and then um i got to got to a point where i was like i need to move away from the area i lived
so i moved to a place called clanathley in wales um i got clean again i was doing really well
and they moved me into another place in camarban and i got into the wrong crowd again i started
taking all sorts of stuff um i lost hope and that and then i owing money and my dealers was getting
coming to my door kicking it in i got beat up i got stabbed um and i just lost all hope in myself
so i decided to move back to clanathley closest to one of my sisters and um i just started going
really bad with the drugs and i was walking around town at three o'clock in the morning
and i just felt something because my friend said to me you need to go to rehab you need to go to
a place called battalion i was like no i'm okay i don't want that and i was walking around this
town and i felt someone say what have you got to lose and i thought i'm hallucinating here what's
going on so i went back to my flat and it just played on my mind and i didn't know this at the
time but i truly do know and it was god speaking to me so i went to my friend i said yeah get me to
this place and he goes it is a christian place i'm not going to become a christian i just need to get
clean so i went to batal and i felt the peace in there soon as soon as i went through the gates
i just seen everyone happy and full of joy and i was like you're all nuts what are you doing
but it was a nice feeling when i got in there because you feel the love and then within a month
we were in a service and um i was in the middle row and we were worshiping and then all of a
sudden i started crying i thought what's this why am i crying and i said to my friend why why am i
crying he said you've just been hit by the holy spirit i was like wow and at the end of the preach
the preacher goes whoever wants to come to the front of the thing to give their life come through
and next minute i was at the front on my knees hands up saying lord please i need this and that's
when i gave my life to the lord and then the journey got it even more interesting because i
couldn't do the work because it was a work in rehab and i couldn't do the work because i had
arthritis in both legs i couldn't walk so they had to carry me up and down the stairs so they
said they said we need to ask you to leave but we're going to put you somewhere else
so and this is when they said we're going to send you to the lighthouse and i was like oh another
place and that i was like i don't know i'm going to pray on it so i went up to the bottom of the
field i started praying on it and then again god said what have you got to lose i was like come on
lord come on so i moved to rothram um i started doing amazing there i got connected in the church
i uh got i got my life back um i got my own place um i got a job as a chef i was doing amazing
and then i relapsed again two years two and a half years ago got in the wrong crowd and my head was
just wasn't in the right place i lost connection with god um and my the pastor from liberty church
said wayne we're gonna um you need to go to matisy or somewhere you you've lost everything
so i was like okay so um we got in contact with darren and that and um i turned up and i was in
a mess when i turned up um they had to put me in a hotel for five days because i turned up
off my face i didn't even tell him about it um and they they'd love they gave me when i got there
they put me in hotel they come and see me every day they've um they fed me every day and then
they brought me back and this is where i truly surrendered was on the friday in the chapel i
walked through the doors and i just broke down i was like lord i am fully surrendering to you now
i says i need a difference in my life and matisy has completely changed my life
i i've just finished an intern in the kitchen i'm going into support work i've done my health and
social care people don't think there's a god look at the difference in me i was in a right mess and
some god god's just amazing i've got my daughter back in my life i'm i am just thriving i've got
the most confidence back in me again i feel the love i feel the joy and someone gave me this
when i was uh in riaban this is a song that everyone should keep with them psalm 91 whoever
dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the almighty i will say of the
lord he is my refuge and my fortune my god in whom i trust and i trusted god all the way through this
and look at the difference matisy is just amazing place and our god's just there every day so yeah
and thank you for listening
go on wayne um hi guys so i'm christina um um i've got a really similar story to wayne's not
not exactly similar but um so i'm from mansfield and i grew up with three brothers and i grew up in
a very dysfunctional family my dad was an alcoholic and we grew up with domestic violence
um as a child i always knew there was something different about me but i just didn't know what
and i never really felt part of my family i felt like the outcast i was always being picked on
bullied and beat up by my brothers um which for me in them days i just thought it was normal
um we grew up in an estate where our family was absolutely hated and i could never really make
any friends or be accepted um so that really you know had an impact on my self-worth and my
confidence and you know i never really knew what unconditional love was because we never had it in
our family um i remember i've always believed in god from a very young age so it started at sunday
school and it was my older brother he took us to sunday school because they gave out sweets it was
the only way we were going to get there so unbeknown to me though i did learn about someone who really
loves me and cares about me and is watching over me and and i took that i took that as gold that
that i held on to that because i had nothing else to hold on to and growing up for me was
really difficult you know i struggled academically at school and stuff um and i struggled to fit in
i could never make friends so you know i grew up feeling really lonely um and i remember one summer
i was grinding for six-week holidays and i remember pasting up and down my bedroom and it
was a really nice summer as well it was really hot i remember it and i remember pacing up and down
my bedroom and i must have been speaking to god i must have been um asking him why me lord why
this family you know um had a lot of questions um there only there was only two things i ever
really wanted to be in life um first one was a christian and the second one was a social worker
um i joined the brownies and the girl guides so i loved helping people i loved you know helping
people um and that's probably because you know no one ever cared about me no one wanted to help me
and i just had a big heart for that and i still have um i left home at 16 years old and that was
it i went straight into addiction started on on speed and it gave me a confidence i'd never had
before um so i continued taking it you know i lived a life of partying and drugs and drinking
um and i did that for 24 years um you know rolling around the same mountain
um i have two children um my oldest is 22 my name's alexi but she was actually born
paris but she changed her own name to alexi by depol and i have a son who's 17 now when dylan
his name's dylan when he was um nine seven months old he was taken from me by social services um
and you know that devastated me that that had a massive impact on me and but you know i just knew
god was in that because he went to a really good family i got to meet his parents i was asked if
i wanted to meet his parents and i did and i'm so glad i did because i knew he was going to be safe
and i knew he was going to be happy and usually what they usually do when they get adopted is
change their names um but i asked them to keep his original name apart from his last name obviously
and and they did that they honored me so i knew i just knew god was in that and we have letterbox
contact um so my daughter uh wasn't in my life for a long time so the last time i was a mum to her
properly she was eight years old um the last time i saw her before we got she came back in my life
was at the age of 16 and she came back into my life in 2022 in october and i knew god was all
over that i just knew it and we're on a journey of finding out who we are you know mum and daughter
building a relationship and i can only really give god the glory for that um you know it's
been so faithful to me throughout my life there's been times when i've shouldn't even be here i'm
honest um i should have been dead but you know god's grace you know he was watching over me and
i know he's all over my family he's definitely over my daughter um so uh yeah so i had a flat
and i lost it and this was in 2016 and that's that's where my life just spiraled i was in
the darkest place ever i ended up homeless on the streets nine months every door shut in my
face nobody wanted to help me um and i had no hope but one day i went to the beacon project
in mansfield um the night a couple of nights before that i was beaten up and had everything
taken off me drugs wise um by a couple of males and i remember walking the streets um
feeling really scared and i went into the beacon project and i just sat in the corner and a woman
came over to me can i pray for you and i just looked at her clutching me i'm back to get um
so she prayed for me and within days i went to a different church and there it was god had sent
three people from the freedom project in shybrook and within that i filled out forms to go to the
lighthouse which is what darren was just talking about he set up lighthouse homes and his wife
then i started on a journey of um of being loved back to life finding who i was finding an identity
i got clean at the lighthouse um i had to do treatment before before i decided to go to rehab
um but i did a teen challenge program and i went there in july 2018 um it was the hardest thing
that i've ever done but i'm so glad i did it because it was the most rewarding it's where i
got my foundations um in the lord you know and while i was on the program i always struggled
with identity and you know self-worth and when i was on the program a we have what we call advisors
and i remember talking to her about my family situation and she gave me a scripture and it's
equal 16. um you'll have to forgive me because i'm a little bit blind um on the day you were born
your cord was not caught nor were you washed with water to make you clean nor were you with
salt or wrapped in clothes no one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of
these things for you rather you were thrown out into the open field for on the day you were born
you were despised then i passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood and as you lay there
in your blood i said to you live i made you grow like a plant in the field when i got that script
scripture my life just made sense i knew who i belonged to i was meant to be a child of god
like we all are but i actually literally got that revelation all my walls of jericho just came
tumbling down you know finally i knew why god placed me within that family and it's for a
greater purpose than what i could have seen at the time and so i was quite thankful for that after i
did the tc program and i went back to the lighthouse to do an intern um no i didn't i went to tcla um
leadership academy and then i went back to the lighthouse to do an intern um and then i got a
job i left the lighthouse i got my own flat i got a job did everything in my own strength you know
at this point like i was just like focused on what i wanted but god was still faithful he gave me a job
provided um a bed one bedroom house for me um in war and i fell back into addiction and i was in
a job where i was working with broken people and i really struggled to not be allowed to talk about
jesus um so but i was suffering with a condition um and it embedded me for months or weeks you know
depending on how painful and how severe it was and i ended up losing my job um but before that i
remember going to a friend's wedding and seeing julie and julie said to me have you thought about
coming to madison well the year previous i'd already applied to come to madison and then i
took back the application and decided to go and do my own thing um and i was like no not really
um but when i went back after that wedding within a week i'd lost my job and i just knew god had
opened the door for me to go to madison and i'm so glad i did because i've just embarked on a
beautiful journey and i think first and foremost we we need to be mindful that we live for the
benefit of others you know um and that that's a process there is there is a time of healing
there was time of growing learning to be educated and i'm really thankful for madison you know what
comes to mind really is you know i'm thankful that our leaders are first and foremost led by the
spirit and obedient to god because if it wasn't for the obedience we wouldn't get um the things
that we get the blessings that we get and madison is truly wholly sacred ground it's a very very
special place to be and it's that special i don't even really want to leave so um i really don't it's
beautiful grounds and um so i've completed my health and social care um well the class side of
it anyway and um i was put in to an intern in resettlement and now i've just been moved into
an intern in support work which is truly my real calling this i really want to help people but i
remember being at madison and god said to me dream dream big so i have dream big um i only came to
madison with a desire of wanting to be a support worker but now you know it's in my heart that
i want to manage and run my own center to help vulnerable women to empower them to be mighty
women of god and to make firm decisions and find their worth and their truth and identity in god
um and i know god will make that happen i've just got to remain faithful be obedient and allow him
to do what he does so um i'm still on a journey and i'm happy about it so i hope it's really
encouraged you all you know god is on the move um all the time and god is good
you
guys oh for that um just uh just the openness honesty the passion
it's just so exciting to hear what god can do as wayne said people think there's no god but look
just come and see what the lord has done and uh it's just amazing just amazing to hear and uh
just thinking about it the wayne and christina darren were talking about the journey of life
that they've been on in discovering what they were born for what they were made for and by god's
grace they're tapping into that but we're all in that position aren't we and whether it's as
individuals or whether as a church what are we here for what are we here for this is the whole
thing and i believe that you know darren and the guys have just opened up our eyes to see again
just what it's all about what what we have one there's a and i think the same impact of the visit
that we had on the thursday morning to this morning just the excitement again of the gospel
of what it's about um mentioned about not being tainted by religion i trust that we're not tainted
by religion but we can get into the routines can't we we can get into the routines of life
and i think the fire of god uh needs to touch our hearts again and to remind us what it's all about
and in response let's consecrate ourselves set ourselves to do actually not split our minds but
actually god this is what you've called us to do this is what you've called us to be a place of
refuge a place of safety a place of security a place of justice that's the word that we on a
thursday morning and and and through other things that we do one word that keeps coming up is
justice and i was really encouraged when darren emphasized that over and over but we need to be
a place of justice that we need to have it in our heart in our dna that uh that these things matter
that this is our center of gravity that it's not about a project that we do like i said not
an outreach but it's actually it's in our hearts it's it's it's it's what it's what you meet when
you actually come and you and you're part of this community and i know across this room we've got
people from every different imaginable background but yet the opportunity for us all to consecrate
ourselves to that command what does the lord require of you to act justly to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your god and we can apply that in any and every circumstance whatever you're
going to be doing tomorrow morning we can apply that in our hearts and so i just want us to
to respond in our hearts just ask the worship team maybe if they could come and i would love us to
uh to begin just by praying for mattasy um for darren away increase maybe you could join me again
at the front here darren and wayne and christina is that possible and i'd love us just to to just
as a worship team prepare just to stand together if we can and let's pray for them and then i'll
ask them to pray for us as well okay so we're going to pray let's let's stand let's reach out
our hands let's pray god the the richest they've experienced so much of the richness of god's grace
and we just pray for more and more and more that you haven't actually uh i think wait you've only
just scratched the surface and i believe that you only just scratched the surface even in the
wonderful things that you've seen and the wonderful things that you're doing and the
wonderful things that you've experienced there is still more there are unsearchable riches
of christ and he has called you to discover them and to and to spend the rest of your lives just
going from room to room to room seeing all that god is able to do and not only in your life but
in all those that will come christina you said the vision that god has given you for the center for
for vulnerable women there are there are so many women that are going to be touched by the fire
that god has put in your heart so many that are going to be reached so many that are going to be
changed god is going to give you the fulfillment of your dreams and your visions we believe that
wayne god has called you for a purpose he's called you for a purpose he's seen you even
before he didn't discover you when you reached out to him but he as you know he came after you
he pursued you and it's for a purpose and every step forward every step back and everything he's
been drawing you to himself like a magnet and you're going to be a blessing to so many and we're
just going to pray for you and pray for darren and the team at matter c just pray for the an
outpouring of god's spirit that this revival that we're beginning to see
this will be a center of it we pray and so we let's let's just let's just lift our hands and
our voices to god father we pray for matter c we thank you for this morning we thank you for darren
and wayne and christina we thank you for the whole community the 45 men and women that are
there lord god that they are called from every different background come and see what the lord
has done it is just amazing what you can do it is just incredible there is no limits to what you
can do in the lives of men and women and so we pray for them we pray for them as they put
themselves into your hands we pray for them as they consecrate themselves to you that you will
pour your fire onto them lord god just as they are like an offering on the altar and the fire
comes down from heaven i pray your fire will come down from heaven and burn up everything that is
that has been uh considered worthless and you will replace it with the treasure and the jewel and the
precious metal that you put into their hearts i thank you for their lives and i thank you for
their calling and i thank you that you're going to fulfill what each and every one of them has
on their hearts individually and as an organization lord god may the fire of god fall and and and
burn in that place and go from there to many many places and for everything that you you've put in
their hearts it represents people and for those 45 people we know that that represents thousands
upon thousands of people that are going to be touched by the same fire we thank you for them
and we pray your blessing upon them in jesus name amen amen and um we uh as you say as you know this
is in our hearts we feel like we started you know there's all sorts of things that we a bit like you
said you know we don't know which way to go sometimes we go forward we go back with all sorts
of stuff but it's in our hearts we want to do it want to consecrate ourselves to this calling of
god on our lives so i just want to ask you as people that have gone ahead of us if you would
pray for us as a church and and all that god is going to do here father your word is there for us
to draw from to learn how you interact with your people uh lord it's not complicated there there
was an a man nehemiah who looked at the mess looked at the ruins there was a group of people
who lived in that ruins and he never affected their consciousness and maybe we've become like
that as christians we've just accepted that this is the norm or we've took our eyes off the ball
but nehemiah was a man who said hey this is not right and he wept over the ruins the the political
system the education system a society that turned it back spiritually on god and i prayed lord god
that god that this would be a church and a people that are like nehemiah that says we need to do
something about it that you will break their hearts for what breaks yours that they would
be a set apart holy remnant you don't need a whole denomination society and history is changed
by just a small group of people of a certain type may this be a church and nehemiah just thought i
need to do something about it he did not have a clue as to how this would unravel he was almost
led like a spiritual compass and i pray that this that would be for the leadership lord that they
will be led by an overwhelming sense every day of what needs to be done where they need to go
where they need to be built and i pray like nehemiah lord that you will use this church
to bring others inspire others motivate others to join together in the rebuilding of the walls
and lord nehemiah lord he didn't have the qualifications he wasn't an architect but in
record time he rebuilt uh the jerusalem socially and spiritually so god we ask that you will use
this church to rebuild the social walls and the brokenness and all that that means within our
schools again within every area of life but i also pray that you will use this church to bring
spiritual revival upon our nation starting with our locality this locality god that you will take
this church just like nehemiah before he did the work he prayed and it's that simple he sought your
presence before he moved and i pray you'll ignite in this church in the leaders that hunger and fresh
passion that fresh desire for prayer and your presence and for the word that this will be a
holy remnant first and foremost who love the word who love purity who love your presence and also
love the poor and i pray you'll do mighty things in this church there will be such a move of god
that these four walls can't contain it in your precious name amen thank you thank you i'm just
going to ask the worship team will lead us i think the thing will go up if you want to go and collect
children that would be great but i just want to yeah thanks