For those who like to keep up to date with Dennis' adventures this is being posted by Diane, Dennis' PA as Dennis has not been in the office very much of late!
This week Dennis has been out and about spending a couple of days at the National Christian Resource Exhibition, Sandown Park, Esher with various members of the Viz-A-Viz team. Envizage Theatre company have presented regular entertainment thoughout the 4 days presenting various amusing sketches. He has certainly enjoyed catching up with many old and new friends, but wished he had been able to talk with everyone he saw!
Members of our Optimum Gap year programme together with Beth and Lindsay (our Training Director and Optimum Project Manager) attended on Thursday, which is the Youth Day. They too had good conversations with many young people who are considering what to do in the next few years and may consider taking part in the Optimum year out programme.
Dennis has recently been speaking a number of Men's Breakfast meetings - last Saturday at a group near Cambridge and this week will be in Hildenborough, Kent. He has also been preaching several Sunday's at a local church and will over the Bank holiday weekend be leading a Church weekend in Eastbourne with the focus on Mission in the local church. If you would like Dennis to come to speak at an event or service, please contact us for more information!
You may have noticed various links on the left hand side - a new one has recently appeared - jumpDENjump - Dennis will be 50 later this year and will have been in ministry for 25 years and to celebrate these two momentous events he has decided to take part in a sponsored parachute jump. We still have to confirm the date but are asking for friends and supporters to sponsor him in this fundraising venture. If you would like to sponsor him please just click on the jumpDENjump link. All donations and amounts sponsored welcome!!
Den will no doubt be updating his blog shortly with more information on all of his adventures and happenings! Have a great weekend! Diane
Friday, 16 May 2008
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Seek Serve Follow - on the road
Last week I spoke at the first two of a seventeen date tour spreading throughout the rest of this year that will be raising awareness of Seek Serve Follow.
Seek Serve Follow is an exciting discipleship course that Viz-A-Viz Ministries has produced alongside Girls’ Brigade England and Wales. The purpose of Seek Serve Follow is to encourage and equip Girls’ Brigade leaders to become closer followers of Jesus thus enabling them to become more effective in reaching girls and young women with the gospel.
Both events were really encouraging with a really positive response and level of interest from leaders attending. Please pray that this initiative will play a significant role in helping many girls and young women to know Christ in the coming days.
http://www.girlsbrigade.org.uk/html/ssf.html
I also spoke recently on the east coast at Skegness at the Salvation Army East Midlands Area gathering. Several hundred attended the rally and I was able to speak about the power of changed lives in communicating the message of Jesus to people today.
The response was incredibly enthusiastic and I spoke with many regarding their commitment to take steps forward in making Jesus known.
As well as travelling and speaking, over the past few days I have been at meetings considering the development of Arise, our children’s ministry in partnership with Girl’s Brigade. It is our intention to begin 100 new ‘ALF’ clubs that will enable children with no knowledge of church to discover Jesus and become his followers. We are currently exploring partnerships with churches and denominations across the country to establish these clubs. Please pray that God opens the right doors!
http://www.ariseministries.org.uk/
This week I will be at Optimum training speaking to our first and second year students about such things as Hero’s of the Faith, The Spread of the Gospel by the Early Apostles, and even taking them out onto the streets to engage in personal evangelism!
http://www.optimumgapyear.org/
On Sunday I will be preaching locally in Billericay and then off to Northern Ireland for the second leg of the Seek Serve Follow tour and in the midst of all this there are some hugely exciting developments in the United States. I will keep you in touch!
Seek Serve Follow is an exciting discipleship course that Viz-A-Viz Ministries has produced alongside Girls’ Brigade England and Wales. The purpose of Seek Serve Follow is to encourage and equip Girls’ Brigade leaders to become closer followers of Jesus thus enabling them to become more effective in reaching girls and young women with the gospel.
Both events were really encouraging with a really positive response and level of interest from leaders attending. Please pray that this initiative will play a significant role in helping many girls and young women to know Christ in the coming days.
http://www.girlsbrigade.org.uk/html/ssf.html
I also spoke recently on the east coast at Skegness at the Salvation Army East Midlands Area gathering. Several hundred attended the rally and I was able to speak about the power of changed lives in communicating the message of Jesus to people today.
The response was incredibly enthusiastic and I spoke with many regarding their commitment to take steps forward in making Jesus known.
As well as travelling and speaking, over the past few days I have been at meetings considering the development of Arise, our children’s ministry in partnership with Girl’s Brigade. It is our intention to begin 100 new ‘ALF’ clubs that will enable children with no knowledge of church to discover Jesus and become his followers. We are currently exploring partnerships with churches and denominations across the country to establish these clubs. Please pray that God opens the right doors!
http://www.ariseministries.org.uk/
This week I will be at Optimum training speaking to our first and second year students about such things as Hero’s of the Faith, The Spread of the Gospel by the Early Apostles, and even taking them out onto the streets to engage in personal evangelism!
http://www.optimumgapyear.org/
On Sunday I will be preaching locally in Billericay and then off to Northern Ireland for the second leg of the Seek Serve Follow tour and in the midst of all this there are some hugely exciting developments in the United States. I will keep you in touch!
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Adventures in America
Somebody said to me recently that receiving my blog is a little like receiving an annual newsletter! I have to agree with them and apologise that once again it has been an age since I last blogged – I will try to get better at this!
I thought you might be interested to know about a few things I have been involved in recently.
A good chunk of my time over the past couple of months has been spent overseas. Back in February I was in Virginia at the 21C Evangelism conference.
It is a thrill to be working with the Baptist General Association of Virginia on ‘Causing Heaven to Celebrate’. A key aspect of this initiative is recruiting people who will engage in effective evangelism and 21C was a key part of this recruitment. The highlight of the conference for me was the evening when I had the privileged to speak to the conference regarding God’s passion for the lost. At the close of the evening the response was unquestionably God inspired. People were in the presence of God and kneeling, lying down, praying, rejoicing and weeping as they responded to God and connected more deeply with his heart for the lost.
Following a week back in England while I was able to spend some time with my wife Lynn and see something of Gregg, Scott and Amy, who are now pretty busy living their own lives, I then went back to the United States and on to South Africa where I was speaking at a number of Evangelism conferences.
Far too much happen for me to mention here but again some highlights:
at each conference I was speaking about how the church can reach out to people who have never been to church. The greatest memory for me from each of the conferences was the countless conversations I had with pastors and leaders following my sessions. It just seems like many of the people I spoke with actually got it and began to really understand the need for the church in the United States to do things differently in order to reach people outside of the church. I was also able to follow up on some exciting possibilities regarding long term partnerships.
An interesting development during the trip was a visit to ‘LifeWay’ (The publishing house for the Southern Baptist Convention). Of all the times for my suitcase not to arrive at the airport and for me to have to make a visit without being able to shave or even bring the resources that I had with me this was not the best one!
Further in spite of all this I had a great time at LifeWay and was able to speak at some length regarding ‘More to Life’, a combination of DVD training and an enquirer website that can help churches to reach out to the unchurched.
Following our meetings I submitted a proposal to LifeWay regarding their publishing ‘More to Life’ in the US. I should hear back from them by the end of April. This would be an exciting development and could be significant in helping many churches to reach out to the unchurched.
Following my time in the United States I then went straight on to South Africa to speak at the Baptist Union of South Africa National Evangelism Conference. Again my theme was helping Christians to reach the unchurched. As in the United States I spent much of my time speaking with pastors and leaders following my sessions.
My activities for the period since then will (hopefully) be in my next blog which will be posted soon!
I thought you might be interested to know about a few things I have been involved in recently.
A good chunk of my time over the past couple of months has been spent overseas. Back in February I was in Virginia at the 21C Evangelism conference.
It is a thrill to be working with the Baptist General Association of Virginia on ‘Causing Heaven to Celebrate’. A key aspect of this initiative is recruiting people who will engage in effective evangelism and 21C was a key part of this recruitment. The highlight of the conference for me was the evening when I had the privileged to speak to the conference regarding God’s passion for the lost. At the close of the evening the response was unquestionably God inspired. People were in the presence of God and kneeling, lying down, praying, rejoicing and weeping as they responded to God and connected more deeply with his heart for the lost.
Following a week back in England while I was able to spend some time with my wife Lynn and see something of Gregg, Scott and Amy, who are now pretty busy living their own lives, I then went back to the United States and on to South Africa where I was speaking at a number of Evangelism conferences.
Far too much happen for me to mention here but again some highlights:
at each conference I was speaking about how the church can reach out to people who have never been to church. The greatest memory for me from each of the conferences was the countless conversations I had with pastors and leaders following my sessions. It just seems like many of the people I spoke with actually got it and began to really understand the need for the church in the United States to do things differently in order to reach people outside of the church. I was also able to follow up on some exciting possibilities regarding long term partnerships.
An interesting development during the trip was a visit to ‘LifeWay’ (The publishing house for the Southern Baptist Convention). Of all the times for my suitcase not to arrive at the airport and for me to have to make a visit without being able to shave or even bring the resources that I had with me this was not the best one!
Further in spite of all this I had a great time at LifeWay and was able to speak at some length regarding ‘More to Life’, a combination of DVD training and an enquirer website that can help churches to reach out to the unchurched.
Following our meetings I submitted a proposal to LifeWay regarding their publishing ‘More to Life’ in the US. I should hear back from them by the end of April. This would be an exciting development and could be significant in helping many churches to reach out to the unchurched.
Following my time in the United States I then went straight on to South Africa to speak at the Baptist Union of South Africa National Evangelism Conference. Again my theme was helping Christians to reach the unchurched. As in the United States I spent much of my time speaking with pastors and leaders following my sessions.
My activities for the period since then will (hopefully) be in my next blog which will be posted soon!
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Travelling, Meetings and Writing!
The past few months seem to have been filled with travelling, meetings and writing.
Travelling
I have just returned from two weeks in the United States visiting key evangelism leaders in the states of Alabama, Florida and Virginia. As a result of my meetings with Dr Sammy Gilbreath in Alabama and Dr David Burton in Florida we are now purusing partnerships with the Alabama and Florida Baptist Conventions. The partnerships are around More to Life and we will be exploring ways that we can equip and resource the leaders and Christians to engage in faith sharing through the More to Life programme.
I then went onto Virginia, where I am working with the Baptist General Association of Virginia on a programme called ‘670’. This again has More to Life as a key part of its outreach philosophy. It was great to be able speak at the annual meetings of the BGAV as well as to spend time with Wayne Faison, the team leader for Courageous Churches and develop some strategy for the next few years. I was also able to meet with the Courageous Churches team and to form some really good relationships with them.
As a result of this trip I will be returning to the United States in February speaking at Evangelism Conferences in Alabama, Florida, Virginia and also Pennsylvania.
Writing
Whilst travelling where possible and when not meeting much of my time over the past few months has been spent writing. The major things I am writing at the moment are:
Seek Serve Follow
‘Seek Serve Follow’ is a discipleship course that we have been commissioned to produce by Girls’ Brigade England & Wales. This 8 session pack is being produced to help leaders of Girls’ Brigade across the country to become closer followers of Jesus thus enabling them to encourage the girls and young women they minister to, to become closer followers of Jesus.
I have been writing the teaching material for the 8 sessions as well as working with our media team on the DVD and journal content.
More to Life Enquirers Site
As a result of the expanding ministry of More to Life we have decided to produce a website specifically designed for people who have been encouraged to begin to question whether they could know God but are not ready for church. The More to Life DVD and whole approach to evangelism results in there being many people who are in this position.
This is now live!! If you would like to see it visit http://www.more-to-life.org/
As well as the meetings in the United States I have been involved in a number of key meetings in the UK. I recently met with Roger Batt, the Children’s Specialist for the Salvation Army to talk through the possibilities of Arise Ministries partnering with the Salvation Army to pioneer new children’s work across the UK. We had a very encouraging meeting and I plan to go back soon to meet with his team and explore possibilities.
I have also been involved in exciting meetings looking at the development of Solid a youth festival that Viz-A-Viz ministries runs in partnership with other key organisations in Essex (I am the spiritual director for this event). I have been involved in similar meetings regarding Leading Edge, the Baptist Union Summer bible week which is delivered in partnership with Viz-A-Viz ministries.
If I were to summarise what I have been doing in the last few months it feels as if God is up to something and I am just trying to keep up with it. I would appreciate your prayers
for wisdom as we explore partnerships and developments in all kinds of areas.
for patience, as even though God moves quickly I sometimes still want to rush ahead!
for my family, as I am spending time away and out of the country, please pray especially for my wife Lynn.
Travelling
I have just returned from two weeks in the United States visiting key evangelism leaders in the states of Alabama, Florida and Virginia. As a result of my meetings with Dr Sammy Gilbreath in Alabama and Dr David Burton in Florida we are now purusing partnerships with the Alabama and Florida Baptist Conventions. The partnerships are around More to Life and we will be exploring ways that we can equip and resource the leaders and Christians to engage in faith sharing through the More to Life programme.
I then went onto Virginia, where I am working with the Baptist General Association of Virginia on a programme called ‘670’. This again has More to Life as a key part of its outreach philosophy. It was great to be able speak at the annual meetings of the BGAV as well as to spend time with Wayne Faison, the team leader for Courageous Churches and develop some strategy for the next few years. I was also able to meet with the Courageous Churches team and to form some really good relationships with them.
As a result of this trip I will be returning to the United States in February speaking at Evangelism Conferences in Alabama, Florida, Virginia and also Pennsylvania.
Writing
Whilst travelling where possible and when not meeting much of my time over the past few months has been spent writing. The major things I am writing at the moment are:
Seek Serve Follow
‘Seek Serve Follow’ is a discipleship course that we have been commissioned to produce by Girls’ Brigade England & Wales. This 8 session pack is being produced to help leaders of Girls’ Brigade across the country to become closer followers of Jesus thus enabling them to encourage the girls and young women they minister to, to become closer followers of Jesus.
I have been writing the teaching material for the 8 sessions as well as working with our media team on the DVD and journal content.
More to Life Enquirers Site
As a result of the expanding ministry of More to Life we have decided to produce a website specifically designed for people who have been encouraged to begin to question whether they could know God but are not ready for church. The More to Life DVD and whole approach to evangelism results in there being many people who are in this position.
This is now live!! If you would like to see it visit http://www.more-to-life.org/
As well as the meetings in the United States I have been involved in a number of key meetings in the UK. I recently met with Roger Batt, the Children’s Specialist for the Salvation Army to talk through the possibilities of Arise Ministries partnering with the Salvation Army to pioneer new children’s work across the UK. We had a very encouraging meeting and I plan to go back soon to meet with his team and explore possibilities.
I have also been involved in exciting meetings looking at the development of Solid a youth festival that Viz-A-Viz ministries runs in partnership with other key organisations in Essex (I am the spiritual director for this event). I have been involved in similar meetings regarding Leading Edge, the Baptist Union Summer bible week which is delivered in partnership with Viz-A-Viz ministries.
If I were to summarise what I have been doing in the last few months it feels as if God is up to something and I am just trying to keep up with it. I would appreciate your prayers
for wisdom as we explore partnerships and developments in all kinds of areas.
for patience, as even though God moves quickly I sometimes still want to rush ahead!
for my family, as I am spending time away and out of the country, please pray especially for my wife Lynn.
Thursday, 18 October 2007
My first (but not last) blog.
This is my first ever blog because at last I have caught up the technology.
From now on I will be writing regular updates of what I have been up to and other things that may be of interest. If you are interested, and would like to pray for me in an informed way then please watch this space.
What's been happening?
Back in March I travelled to the United States visiting Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Alabama to pursue an exciting partnership around the More to Life project that we have developed in the UK.
I was able to meet with key leaders in these states and to speak to gatherings of Church leaders and church planters to explore ways ahead.
As part of my visit I also attended the Baptist World Alliance Annual meetings. Last year I was invited to join the BWA Evangelism and Education Executive and this was my first attendance at one of their meetings. It was fascinating to meet with so many key leaders from across the world.
In April I was invited to South Africa by the Baptist Union of South Africa to speak at two conferences and a crusade. The first conference was a National Youth Conference exploring ways that churches could reach out to the emerging generations of young people. The second conference was a National Evangelism Conference which was again exploring ways of communicating Christ in the 21st Century. I really enjoyed having significant input into both of these conferences and many appreciated the emphasis I was able to place on being relevant to people today who are not accustomed to attending church.
As well as the conferences I also spoke at a ‘Crusade’. It was great to have the opportunity to preach Christ to people and see a response to the gospel.
In many ways this was the beginning of what could be ongoing ministry in South Africa.
As well as ministry overseas during the period before summer I was involved in a number of things in the UK.
I travelled to a number of venues with our theatre company Envizage and our tech team to deliver an event called ‘More to Easter’. This event is used by churches to clearly communicate the message of Easter to people who are not familiar with Jesus or church.
I have also been involved in speaking at a national festival Firm Foundations. This festival is hosted by Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade and attracts over a 1000 adults and young people. I spoke at one of the main celebrations and challenged people to see themselves as Jesus sees them and then to commit or recommit their lives to him. Even in the pouring rain the response was both moving and significant.
Soon after this I spoke at the Salvation Army National conference ‘Generate’. This conference was held at the Swanwick Conference Centre and attended by Salvation Army people from across the country who are keen on evangelism.
I spoke at the plenary sessions at this conference as well as a number of the seminars. It was really exciting to challenge and encourage such a significant group of people to more effective evangelism.
As well as the input into conferences and evangelistic events I have spoken at church weekends where the focus has been on evangelism.
There is something quite special about speaking at a weekend where a church has gone away together and therefore has the time to consider what it really is doing and how its weekly programme helps it to achieve that vision. I was able to speak challengingly and hopefully encouragingly to these churches.
Just before the summer I, along with Mike Simmonds, our Director of Evangelism, and Envizage Theatre Company took part in a week long mission in the North of England in partnership with the Northern Baptist Association. During this week I spoke at a number of evangelistic events that local churches had arranged. My most special memory of these evangelistic events was in Newcastle. Envizage Theatre Company had performed a piece of theatre based on the prodigal son, I then spoke about how God welcomes home those who want to be put right with him. I heard afterwards that two women who had been involved in lifestyles that were not unlike the character in the Envizage sketch rushed to our display table to find out how they could be put right with God.
As well as the evangelistic events for adults we presented an evening for young people at which many responded to the gospel. I also spent much of my time speaking at gatherings of pastors and church leaders encouraging them in ways they can reach people today with the Good News of Jesus.
Following this mission came the summer and with it my wife Lynn and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we went for a very special holiday with our family Gregg, Scott and Amy to California. It was a great time just to relax and be refreshed. During our time in California we were able to visit Saddleback Community Church which was an interesting experience.
Following our holiday the next thing for me was Leading Edge. This is a summer bible week that we deliver in partnership with Baptist Union of Great Britain. Around 1300 people attended. My involvement is overseeing the adult programme and speaking into that. In addition our theatre company, Mike Simmonds our Director of Evangelism, our band Taste, our technical crew as well as numerous people that are involved with and have been involved with Viz-A-Viz serve as volunteers.
God always does amazing things at Leading Edge and this year the most exciting thing for me was when two children shared in the adult celebration how God was changing their lives and how he was always with them. The result of this was that two adults were so challenged by these children that they gave their lives to Christ!
Straight after Leading Edge I travelled, with my wife Lynn, to Argentina to speak at a national conference in a city just south of Buenos Aires called Mar del Plata. Around 600 -700 young adults attended the conference and I spoke at the main plenary sessions. I had a wonderful interpreter called Phoebe and God really used the conference to speak into the lives of many of those who attended. There was a great response in the lives of so many that attended. My greatest memory is one young lady standing at the front of the auditorium holding my hand and the hand of my interpreter and just saying repeatedly ‘Gracias, gracias, gracias’. I am not sure exactly what God did in her life but it was significant.
In addition to these events I have also been very busy writing a whole number of things.
Earlier this year I was able to complete the ALF Year of Outreach programme which is the first major initiative of Arise. (For more details about Arise please click here) It is my prayer that this Year of Outreach material will help churches to pioneer exciting new ministry amongst children across the United Kingdom.
I am now in the middle of writing a resource for Girls Brigade called ‘Seek, Serve, Follow’. This discipleship course is aimed at helping Girls Brigade leaders across the country, and potentially in many different parts of the world, to become closer followers of Jesus thus enabling them to help the girls and the young women they reach out to, to become followers of Jesus as well.
I also have a deadline of just a few weeks to complete the writing of a web site for people who are interested in finding out more about the Christian faith but are not attending church.
We have started the ‘new year’ with our new group of Optimum Volunteers and I have taken part in their training sessions at St Mark’s, Saffron Walden with an overview of the Bible for the first years and an in depth study of Bible characters for the 2nd years.
So that’s what I have been up to, coming up are a whole number of opportunities and I will be posting regular updates on this blog.
I will keep you posted!!
In Christ
Dennis
From now on I will be writing regular updates of what I have been up to and other things that may be of interest. If you are interested, and would like to pray for me in an informed way then please watch this space.
What's been happening?
Back in March I travelled to the United States visiting Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Alabama to pursue an exciting partnership around the More to Life project that we have developed in the UK.
I was able to meet with key leaders in these states and to speak to gatherings of Church leaders and church planters to explore ways ahead.
As part of my visit I also attended the Baptist World Alliance Annual meetings. Last year I was invited to join the BWA Evangelism and Education Executive and this was my first attendance at one of their meetings. It was fascinating to meet with so many key leaders from across the world.
In April I was invited to South Africa by the Baptist Union of South Africa to speak at two conferences and a crusade. The first conference was a National Youth Conference exploring ways that churches could reach out to the emerging generations of young people. The second conference was a National Evangelism Conference which was again exploring ways of communicating Christ in the 21st Century. I really enjoyed having significant input into both of these conferences and many appreciated the emphasis I was able to place on being relevant to people today who are not accustomed to attending church.
As well as the conferences I also spoke at a ‘Crusade’. It was great to have the opportunity to preach Christ to people and see a response to the gospel.
In many ways this was the beginning of what could be ongoing ministry in South Africa.
As well as ministry overseas during the period before summer I was involved in a number of things in the UK.
I travelled to a number of venues with our theatre company Envizage and our tech team to deliver an event called ‘More to Easter’. This event is used by churches to clearly communicate the message of Easter to people who are not familiar with Jesus or church.
I have also been involved in speaking at a national festival Firm Foundations. This festival is hosted by Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade and attracts over a 1000 adults and young people. I spoke at one of the main celebrations and challenged people to see themselves as Jesus sees them and then to commit or recommit their lives to him. Even in the pouring rain the response was both moving and significant.
Soon after this I spoke at the Salvation Army National conference ‘Generate’. This conference was held at the Swanwick Conference Centre and attended by Salvation Army people from across the country who are keen on evangelism.
I spoke at the plenary sessions at this conference as well as a number of the seminars. It was really exciting to challenge and encourage such a significant group of people to more effective evangelism.
As well as the input into conferences and evangelistic events I have spoken at church weekends where the focus has been on evangelism.
There is something quite special about speaking at a weekend where a church has gone away together and therefore has the time to consider what it really is doing and how its weekly programme helps it to achieve that vision. I was able to speak challengingly and hopefully encouragingly to these churches.
Just before the summer I, along with Mike Simmonds, our Director of Evangelism, and Envizage Theatre Company took part in a week long mission in the North of England in partnership with the Northern Baptist Association. During this week I spoke at a number of evangelistic events that local churches had arranged. My most special memory of these evangelistic events was in Newcastle. Envizage Theatre Company had performed a piece of theatre based on the prodigal son, I then spoke about how God welcomes home those who want to be put right with him. I heard afterwards that two women who had been involved in lifestyles that were not unlike the character in the Envizage sketch rushed to our display table to find out how they could be put right with God.
As well as the evangelistic events for adults we presented an evening for young people at which many responded to the gospel. I also spent much of my time speaking at gatherings of pastors and church leaders encouraging them in ways they can reach people today with the Good News of Jesus.
Following this mission came the summer and with it my wife Lynn and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we went for a very special holiday with our family Gregg, Scott and Amy to California. It was a great time just to relax and be refreshed. During our time in California we were able to visit Saddleback Community Church which was an interesting experience.
Following our holiday the next thing for me was Leading Edge. This is a summer bible week that we deliver in partnership with Baptist Union of Great Britain. Around 1300 people attended. My involvement is overseeing the adult programme and speaking into that. In addition our theatre company, Mike Simmonds our Director of Evangelism, our band Taste, our technical crew as well as numerous people that are involved with and have been involved with Viz-A-Viz serve as volunteers.
God always does amazing things at Leading Edge and this year the most exciting thing for me was when two children shared in the adult celebration how God was changing their lives and how he was always with them. The result of this was that two adults were so challenged by these children that they gave their lives to Christ!
Straight after Leading Edge I travelled, with my wife Lynn, to Argentina to speak at a national conference in a city just south of Buenos Aires called Mar del Plata. Around 600 -700 young adults attended the conference and I spoke at the main plenary sessions. I had a wonderful interpreter called Phoebe and God really used the conference to speak into the lives of many of those who attended. There was a great response in the lives of so many that attended. My greatest memory is one young lady standing at the front of the auditorium holding my hand and the hand of my interpreter and just saying repeatedly ‘Gracias, gracias, gracias’. I am not sure exactly what God did in her life but it was significant.
In addition to these events I have also been very busy writing a whole number of things.
Earlier this year I was able to complete the ALF Year of Outreach programme which is the first major initiative of Arise. (For more details about Arise please click here) It is my prayer that this Year of Outreach material will help churches to pioneer exciting new ministry amongst children across the United Kingdom.
I am now in the middle of writing a resource for Girls Brigade called ‘Seek, Serve, Follow’. This discipleship course is aimed at helping Girls Brigade leaders across the country, and potentially in many different parts of the world, to become closer followers of Jesus thus enabling them to help the girls and the young women they reach out to, to become followers of Jesus as well.
I also have a deadline of just a few weeks to complete the writing of a web site for people who are interested in finding out more about the Christian faith but are not attending church.
We have started the ‘new year’ with our new group of Optimum Volunteers and I have taken part in their training sessions at St Mark’s, Saffron Walden with an overview of the Bible for the first years and an in depth study of Bible characters for the 2nd years.
So that’s what I have been up to, coming up are a whole number of opportunities and I will be posting regular updates on this blog.
I will keep you posted!!
In Christ
Dennis
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