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Day 28 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Vienna, Austria

March 4, 2016

In recent years I have enjoyed good health – seldom having as much as a cold. There was that one time though – three years back – when a case of food poisoning took me out of commission completely for the better part of a week. Unhappily, this illness coincided with a trip Frances and I had planned to the Black Forest in Germany where I was speaking at a residential conference on church planting. I insisted up until 24 hours before the conference began that I would be well enough to make it. I wasn’t.

Day 27 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Llandeilo, Wales

March 3, 2016

When Grace Baptist Partnership was formed in 2010, we were asked to specify our area of operation. We said England and Wales. In reality it would take several years before we would have any tangible involvement in the work of the gospel in Wales. That involvement, when it came, would be in the form of a monthly grant to Grace Rural Wales Partnership for the work of Simon Bowkett.

Day 26 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Frankfurt, Germany

March 2, 2016

Andre Bay was persistent. As pastor of a local church in Wetzlar, Germany he had a desire not only to see his church strengthened but to see new churches planted. He requested help. Our work in England was really just beginning. Even though we had a desire to help, time and money were in short supply. Andre, though, as I may have mentioned, was persistent.

Day 25 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Elbasan, Albania

March 1, 2016

Grace Baptist Church, Epsom. Grace Baptist Mission. Grace Baptist Partnership. Grace Baptist Assembly. Euro Evangelism. Illyrian Gospel Trust. Harry S. Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” That’s a good word for all of us.

Day 24 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Workington, Cumbria

February 29, 2016

I’m not an apostle. I didn’t see the resurrected Lord. I didn’t receive the apostolic commission. I haven’t been given the ability to perform miraculous signs and wonders. Jack Jenner is not from Macedonia. As far as I know he has never even been there. But be sure of this one thing, Jack has been saying come over and help us in Cumbria as long as I have known him.

Day 23 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Wood Green, Haringey

February 29, 2016

I will never forget the day Ben Cunningham handed me a tract as I walked down Wood Green High Street with my family. Who could have dreamed that a tract and a brief conversation would set in motion a chain of gospel events that continues till this day?

Day 22 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Wigan, Manchester

February 26, 2016

I’ve always had a lot of time for Matthew Gray. When I first met him he was a deacon at Grace Baptist Church in Southport. He then signed up for our training group at Radcliffe Road Baptist Church in Bury, Greater Manchester. Though Bury is not just around the corner from Southport, he faithfully attended the sessions month by month. In time he would take up the pastorate of Jireh Baptist Church in Wigan. He continued – despite the demands of a new pastorate – to meet with us in Bury. In fact, when we finished the two-year training cycle it was at Matthew’s request that we continued with additional studies for well over a year more.

Day 21 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Walthamstow, Waltham Forest

February 26, 2016

London’s oldest Baptist church closed in late 2014. The closure of the church once served by luminaries such as William Kiffin, Abraham Booth and Ernest Kevan deeply saddened many people. The closure of the historic church, however, was more than a blow to ‘denominational’ hubris. It was a dent to efforts to evangelise one of London’s most diverse and rapidly growing towns.

Day 20 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Thamesmead, Greenwich

February 24, 2016

A work needed to be done. But surely there was someone else better suited to do it. The Lord would have to help me if I was going to be of any use at Thamesmead. He did. But he used people. Let me introduce you to some of them.

Day 19 – 29 Days of Prayer and Giving – Southall, Ealing

February 19, 2016

Jeff Noblit, long time pastor of Grace Life Church of the Shoals in the United States, was preaching to his congregation in Alabama. What he didn’t realise was that his extended audience included a group of young men in Southall, West London who were viewing the sermon via the internet. As he gave an illustration he made mention of a church planter in London, England. That piqued the curiosity of these young men. Was there someone else in their city that believed the same doctrines they had recently embraced? Would that person be able to help them plant a church in Southall? One of them contacted the church in America to see who Pastor Noblit was talking about. That’s when they learned my name and received my details.