Long overdue Catch-up! and our new church, etc.

Dear friends, I'm so sorry that since I started up our Prayer for Breconshire Facebook page, I have been neglecting the original BlogSpot page here.  Thank you for all your faithful prayers which we are totally undeserved, yet our gracious Lord has been responding to.  God has been doing so much that it has been hard to keep both sites going.
So that those of you who do not follow the Facebook page do not miss out, I shall now post some of the more significant ones on here for you:

27th Sept 2017
Our friend whom Ifor and Anne baptised in the river only two years ago has now started a Messy Church in Talgarth. She has just run her second session and is getting good numbers of enthusiastic children and parents. She has also just started a Bible Study group and a Mother and Toddlers' group. She doesn't hang about!


From 28th Sept 2017 to June 2018     Our new church, Kensington Baptist Church, Brecon




Ifor has been Superintendent of Kensington Baptist Church, Brecon for the last 18 months and only now has God lifted His word to us on not starting a church nor leading one. We feel God is saying Now is the time and he was inducted as part time Minister for the church,  giving half of each week to Kensington, and the other half focusing more on encouraging the little chapels in the Association than we have been as we continue working around the county. It has a great website with photos that is kept up to date, but not by me!
Since September, numbers have been quietly growing in faith, numbers and love.  Numbers are now 20 to 30 on Sundays. We have a monthly "All-In Thing" for all the different age ranges and personality types, which involves drama, puppets, modern and traditional worship, and opportunities to break up into smaller groups to learn through discussion, games, craft, and quiet reflection... oh and Welsh cakes.

This is bringing in new people and families and the church is generally responding positively to it.
We have also started a regular Tuesday evening meal altogether followed by Alpha, Bible Study, Prayer Meetings or whatever else, sometimes with two events going on simultaneously in different rooms in this new building.  These rooms are let out to many different groups during the week which has resulted in a huge ready-made fringe, as well as bringing in income.  The church is also involved with Open the Book in two schools, taking simple services at a residential home for the elderly, and midweek Sparklers for young children.

For a few Tuesdays I have been teaching the church how to hear God more easily and this picture shows them in small groups prophesying over each other.



We have run two Alpha Courses and a Christianity Explored course at the church so far. The first attracted large numbers and grew the church in understanding and faith.  The second was held at the same time as a Bible Study series, and resulted in one person, Misha, being baptised in May, attracting around seventy people from around the county. This was the first baptism in Kensington chapel in 20 years.  God first called her into the Ministry when she was 14, but the trauma of this call being utterly squashed by the leaders of her church in her country resulted in her realistically losing 20 years of her life.  She has now felt this calling strongly once again now she has come back to her adored Jesus. Already she is showing much wisdom with all age groups and a very strong faith.

At the beginning of June, Peter Gladwyn, author of his amazing autobiography 'Out of the Ashes', spoke at Watergate in Brecon of his start to life being snatched out of his burning house as a baby with horrific burns, followed by continuously getting into serious trouble as a result of a life of drink and drugs, etc before he met Jesus.  Four people gave their lives to Jesus that evening.  I am discipling one of them who also has had a horrific life but is now radiant. Another, Luke, is homeless and came to our next Tuesday meal and bible study, bringing three homeless new friends of his. One of these has been housed, another taken in by a church member. Luke came again the following Tuesday with two of them, plus a new one who is not homeless but from a difficult background. This week Ifor and Misha took them for a separate Bible study which resulted in one of them giving their life to the Lord as well.

The Black Mountains Filling Station is going well, meeting the thirst of many Christians in the county and neighbouring counties. A new one has now started in South Hereford which made it easier for nearly twenty people who were coming from right over there.  But our numbers have already increased to compensate.  We've had some great times of worship, and good speakers.  At the May Filling Station last month, one of the worship leaders was excited to be healed of the pain and restricted movement caused by arthritis in her knee, back and shoulder and bounced around the place.  A young mum who seemed to have already inherited her mother's blindness, with vision of less than 1 out of 10 in her left eye. After 15 minutes, with her right eye covered, she was shocked to be able to see the minute marks around the clock at the far end of the hall. Another young woman, who had been born with less than 1 out of 10 vision in her left eye, also asked for prayer. After 12 minutes she could read the tiny type on her phone clearly from just that eye. Exciting healings.  Hopefully more this coming Friday.

The midweek training and equipping group I lead at our home has been growing in confidence in living a Supernatural Lifestyle.  A small group of us went out Treasure Hunting in Builth Wells recently. Prophecy is now beginning to flow easily.  Two weeks ago a woman being prophesied over by the group mentioned that she had no functioning eardrum in her left ear due to a burst abscess as a child.  We prayed for a new one for her.  She had a really strange sensation in her ear then and now hears fingers clicking accurately with her finger firmly stuck in her 'good' ear!  Another person that evening had an excruciatingly painful finger joint that was preventing her sleeping well.  The pain left completely and she is working the finger to get the rest of the mobility back.

Two of this group have started and are leading a new work in Llanwrtyd Wells in the old vestry left oddly standing when the chapel was demolished. Ifor is overseeing.  They meet fortnightly for a service which is attracting up to a dozen people, led by two of the Filling Station worship leaders. Then they meet for prayer in the alternate weeks. Very exciting.

I have had a great time showing slides of our time in Kenya and Uganda to a nearby Primary School. The children have had a great time trying to do the African dancing whilst balancing a book on their heads, instead of a tower of clay pots! Many of them also experienced Jesus's touch as they prayed blessing over each other as they'd seen the African children do.  One child said, "my head was all itchy and now its not"!  The infants are basing the whole term on Africa as a result of what they'd learnt from these slideshows.  The juniors are writing penpal letters to the children of one of the schools we are involved with over there.

Thank you again for praying for the work in Breconshire.  I shall try to keep this prayerforbreconshire.blogspot.co.uk page more up to date in future, to keep up with our Prayer For Breconshire Facebook page.