2002 England and Wales

England, Wales and Ireland  

(click on the highlighted names to learn more about them)

From November 8th through the 20th 2002, ten of us from the Portland and Seattle areas visited England, Wales and Ireland to learn what God is doing in those countries and to join with local believers in seeking Him on their behalf.  What a joy is was to get to know many wonderful people across these nations whose passion for the Lord is every bit as great as our own.  

Our first stop was the city of Bedford, England, the home town of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress.  In the classic novel Christian seeks to be relieved of his burden by journeying to the Celestial City.  Bunyan's events were set in locations in and around Bedford.  We saw several of those sites and visited the Bunyan Museum.  

Later, we gathered for prayer and sang the great song, "Amazing Grace," in the very study where John Newton penned that famous hymn.  We visited the church were he served after his rescue from a life of slave trading and then we toured the museum to his ministry and that of his frequent colleague William Cowper.

The "Father of Modern Missions," William Carey preached in the Sutcliff Baptist Church in Olney, England, a community located in what is sometimes called "the Carey Patch."  This patch was the launching area of numerous outstanding ministries two centuries ago including the worldwide missions work of Carey.  We were privileged to visit the Sutcliff church and to receive a warm orientation to the church and to the ministries of Carey, Sutcliff and others by its current pastor who was kind enough to join us in prayer for his congregation and the community.  

On Sunday we participated twice in meetings at the Brickhill Baptist Church of Bedford.  The morning service was a revival meeting with Argentine pastor Marcelo Marioni.  Marcelo brought an impassioned word and the entire congregation was moved to respond to the altar call.  In the evening four local churches joined for an evening a interceding for the Bedfordshire area.  Marcelo spoke again and our team received prayer from local pastors and ministering elders.

During the afternoon break we enjoyed the first of two meals in the homes of local believers.  Members of Brickhill Baptist and Woodside Church invited pairs of our team members into their homes and blessed us with genuine English cooking and warm hospitality.  We were grateful for their love to us and we likely saw the beginnings of long term friendships established.

Monday saw us in the magnificent university city of Cambridge.  The colleges are among the oldest in the world and their beauty and grandeur takes your breath away.  Local pastor and good friend Andrew Lawrence of Cambridge City Church, set us up for a tour of the city with The Christian Heritage Tours.  A very special and entirely unexpected delight occurred when we discovered that our tour leader was Ranald Macaulay, the son-in-law of the great Christian thinker and writer, Francis Schaeffer.  Macaulay, himself a brilliant and articulate presenter of the Christian faith, was a fountain of information about the Christian heritage of Cambridge.  Even better, he is a man of spiritual vitality and personal warmth who yearns for revival in his land.  We loved spending time praying with him for his work with non-Christians who take the tours and for the desired outpouring of God's best in England. 

On Tuesday, our little band headed out for Wales.  In Swansea we were met by Rob Jones, an awesome man of God who is active across Wales stirring up the churches for the coming move of God.  Rob lead us to Moriah Chapel, the flashpoint of the world famous Welsh Revival of 1904-5 with Evan Roberts.  Elmer Towns, in his book, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever assesses the Welsh Revival, based on intensity and results, as the greatest revival ever.  He says, "few would dare dispute the conclusion of historian J. Edwin Orr:  This revival was indeed 'the most extensive evangelical awakening of all time.'"   At the Chapel, several "seasoned" saints who have cared faithfully for the chapel and persevered in prayer for decades for a new visit of the Holy Spirit welcomed us and served us tea and biscuits.  Rob began telling us about the legacy of the Chapel and as he did, a sense of the presence of God overwhelmed us.  With Rob's agreement, we all broke into spontaneous praise and worship, crying out for God's mercy and interceding for Wales.  Without a doubt, the anointing of a history of revivals still fills Moriah Chapel and His presence was stronger there than anywhere else we visited on our trip.  Those who seek to redig the old wells of revival would do well to spend time here in Loughor, Wales.

Following our stay at Moriah Chapel, Rob lead us to the Bible College of Wales, established by the world renown intercessor, Rees Howells.  His life story stands as a challenge to all Christians.  Howells lived a life of prayer that calls us to take seriously God's admonition to call on Him.  The Bible College continues to display his legacy by training students for world wide ministry.  One of their distinguished alums in Reinhard Bonnke, whose evangelistic ministry has brought hundreds of thousands into the Kingdom.  We were met by Christine, who arranged for us to visit the room where Brother and Mrs. Howells prayed God's interventions during World War II.  After touring the campus we attended a chapel service where students and faculty read scripture and prayed.  Jon Beutler of our team, himself a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators, shared with the professor that of the 7,000 languages in the world, the entire bible is available in only about 300 of them.  We followed the meeting with an enjoyable visit with several of the students and staff. 

We took the Irish Ferry to Rosslare in Ireland the next day.  Before our departure from Pembroke Dock we spent the morning at the famous Pembroke Castle and doing a bit of Welsh souvenir shopping.  The ruins of the castle were truly awesome and except for their gift shop, the castle hasn't been refurbished or modernized--it's the real thing!  And the views from the top were amazing.  

We arrived at our destination in Ireland at the Bible College at Carrig Eden in Greystones in County Wicklow, south of Dublin.  Bob and Gioia Mihuc are American missionaries who have spent 14 years reaching out to the Irish.  The going has been slow and Ireland is a hard place for evangelical ministry after centuries of Catholic domination.   In the recent years of a prospering high tech economy many Irish have moved away from their Catholic traditions opting for a more mystical, amoral life.  Church groups tend to be categorized and rejected so evangelism requires the patient building of relationships and the living out of integrity.  The Mihuc's are finally seeing their foundational work bearing fruit, with the bible college, a church and coordinated ministry to the local community.  

The staff and students of the college were wonderfully hospitable to us.  Heather was ever present with tea, snacks, advice and encouragement.  Kenny was an absolute delight.  He has that classic Irish gift of gab and a great sense of humor.  His heart for God and his devotion to his people is crystal clear.  We experienced the reknown friendliness of the Irish people both at the college as well as on the streets.  We fell in love with Ireland and our stay was not nearly long enough. 

Five of us grabbed some time and made a run to North Ireland.  Friends from Easthill Foursquare Church in Gresham, Oregon, were serving at Christian Renewal Centre in Rostrevor, near Newry.  The center welcomes both Protestants and Catholics and is a tool for healing in this torn nation.  We visited our friends, toured the center, and was thoroughly blessed by this ministry.  The hours we spent driving from Dublin to North Ireland were delightful.  We saw the famed beauty of Ireland and took lots of pictures.

Our final day in Ireland gave several of us another chance to check out Dublin.  Most of our team went immediately to Trinity College to see the world famous Book of Kells.  Created in the 800s, the Book of Kells is an artistically exquisite copy of the four gospels used by the early Celtic church in Ireland.  Our dear friend, Kenny, works at Trinity and gave us a tour of not only the Book of Kells exhibit but also the school's incredible library of 250,000 volumes of antiquity. 

Pastor Dale Foote and I visited the Chester Beatty exhibit at Dublin Castle to see the earliest manuscript fragments of the New Testament in existence.  One in particular dates back to about 150 AD while several others are dated as from 250 AD.  The Beatty collection would take many days to study in detail.  That evening Vickie, Michael, Cathy and I took in a bit o' the Irish with an night of traditional Irish music and dance.  We spent four hours or great dining, Irish singing and Riverdance style dancing at the highest pub in Ireland, Johnnie Fox's Pub.

The rest of the day consisted of travel, back to the ferry, four hours to Wales (with whatever nap we could catch on board), and several hours back to Bristol, England for a brief sleep at another Travel Inn, our home during our entire stay in England and Wales. I should say that my wife, Cathy and Dale were our drivers and they quickly mastered the UK roads and the opposite side stearing wheels.  Jon also gets raves for his service as navigator in the van and for getting us all to our destinations safely on the London underground.  

London included visits to Windsor Castle, St Paul's Cathedral, the other sites of London and a great little pizza place near our Travel Inn by the airport.  We were really in the mood for a good meal when we finally found our motel and this little off-the-beaten-path restaurant filled the bill.  Sunday was about churches.  The morning service was at Holy Trinity Brompton, the Anglican church that created the amazing Alpha course.  Alpha has been used around the world to teach countless people the truths of the gospel and many scores of thousands have been won to Christ.  It is certainly one of the world's greatest evangelist tools today.  In the afternoon, following side trips to Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle and the site where John Wesley was saved, most of us met with Francesca Fleming, England's representative of the Sentinel Group.  Francesca was also a former staff member of Kensington Temple and had agreed to talk with us about KT, the largest church in Europe and especially about their commitment to becoming a G-12 style cell church.  KT's approximately 19,000 people already meet in over 130 locations across London in their effort to truly pastor the city.  They believe that God is positioning them for further growth and more effective ministry through a vision for church structure acquired while visiting the huge MCI (the International Charismatic Mission) of Bogata, Columbia.

Francesca was very helpful and escorted us to the evening church at the KT home church.  She has arranged for us to have great seats and the service was powerful!  Pastor Colin Dye preached and their young people helped create an energetic worship time.  The fellowship is amazingly diverse with people from every corner of the globe.  Following the service, Pastor Dye was so gracious as to invite our team to a back room for tea with him.  We ended with a time of prayer and we left genuinely touched by a man of God with a great heart and a great vision for his people.  

Our last day as a team in London was spent in recovering.  Nearly the whole team rested up, packed their luggage and prepped for the flight back early the next morning.  Dale spent the day in Oxford on a crusade to discover the trail of CS Lewis.  Jon and Vickie toured London.  Cathy and I visited with Sue James, a friend from England who had come in the night before.  We rode with Sue to a nearby train station, said our farewells, and enjoyed a delightful conversation with several locals on the train into London.  Once on the underground, we traveled to the John Wesley House and Museum where the museum director granted us permission to stay beyond closing to see more.  We ended our afternoon in London with a meal at the "Crypt" beneath St. Martins of the Fields near Trafalgar Square.

That evening we were welcomed into the home of Neal and Karen Leatherbarrow, the leaders of the Soho based Youth With a Mission team.  Neal had convened his team of 7 young people who told us of their outreach to the alternative people of London's theater district.  These young men and women frequent clubs for rockers, metal heads, goths, gays, witches, etc. to connect with the lost who are searching for something to fill their empty lives.  In time they establish relationships strong enough to be trusted and their new friends accompany them to meetings or their alternative church, The Asylum.  They have had amazing experiences seeing these troubled young people saved out of wierd, sometimes dangerous, lifestyles into the Kingdom of God.  One example was of a warlock who got saved and became an evangelist back into the witchcraft community.  Some of the YWAM team's most effective work is with prostitutes.  The female team members get surprising access into the lives of these wounded women.  Madams have even stopped prospective customers to let the YWAM women continue ministering to the ladies.  Jesus died for all people.  It's incredible to see how He chooses to let them hear it.

Our group returned to the US early the next day.  Cathy and I spent two more days, to have some quiet time with our English friends.  The whole trip was incredibly rich with learning, friendships, and divine appointments to pray for and minister to individuals.  Many of the best stories of this trip involve private encounters with a team member and a local person who needed a touch and a word of encouragement.  God was gracious to give us many chances to be His hands extended.

Several of the team members have let me know that it will take a long time to assess all that they experienced on this trip.  I am so pleased with what God did for us.  And I am sure that an impartation of the Holy Spirit occurred both toward us and through us to those we visited.  

Global Ministry