The recent men’s VIP night held at King’s House was an amazing experience. It was great to see so many members of the church community giving up their time and energy to make the event something special. The red carpet was rolled out in the foyer, the tables were festooned with balloons and laid out as if for a wedding party. Our guests were certainly in for a treat. Some of them were eagerly waiting outside in the cold long before the doors were opened at 6:30pm.

The catering team had laid on an excellent meal and there was no shortage of willing helpers both for serving food and cleaning up behind the scenes. The desserts in particular were a culinary delight, sweet and loaded with calories, just the way I like them.

The background music and singing provided by members of the worship team was low key and jazzy and gave a real cabaret feel to the event.

A moving testimony was given by Malcolm, now a member of King’s Church, who was himself a guest on a VIP night last year. He gave a humble account of how his encounter with Jesus had turned his life around. Then he wholeheartedly encouraged the listeners to make that same step of faith for themselves.

After the meal was served our guests were given the opportunity to make a few additions to their wardrobe. There was a great selection of clothing and shoes generously provided by members of the church and the King’s Church Barber Shop trio were in action for the rest of the evening providing the final trimmings.

All in all it was a fantastic evening and a wonderful opportunity to share the love of God in a real and practical way to some of the less advantaged members of our community.

Robert Herbert

We are having an El Nino season, an unusual drought, right now in the Philippines. El Niño is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon. The name El Niño comes from the Spanish name for “the little boy” and also refers to the Christ Child. The reason is because when the phenomenon of an El Niño happens, it is normally around Christmas time. It usually happens in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America and is characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

The last El Niño began in September 2006 and it lasted until early July of 2007. Since July 2007, El Niño has been a little quiet until now. In the US this will cause a crown year with the best crop ever (like 1997), while the Philippines, Indonesia and countries in our region experience a terrible drought and starvation for many people. Warm winds dry out the land.

The effects have been seen in the Philippines since Christmas and are now felt by the people in Mindoro. It is an unusual dry season and nothing grows without watering. The Mangyans normally just live off the things they harvest day by day in the mountains and have no money to buy food. This lifestyle causes a lot of problems when there is a drought. They will normally harvest cassava, sweet potatoes, burut, gabe, rice, bananas and name. Many villages have no more food and can only find some name. Name has a poison that must be washed away before they use it as food. The Mangyans know how to do this. The cassava and other crops don’t grow any more. Many of our Mangyan brothers don’t know what to eat from one day until the next.

When speaking to Santie two days ago, he started to cry when I asked about the situation. He said, “People have no food. But I am looking to God to help us through the next months. In their churches there are 300 families.”

I asked him to gather the other leaders and look at all possible solutions for their people. We sat down with him to make a plan on what can be done. In addition to some food given, we must find seeds of vegetables they can grow around their houses to help in the crises. They will not be back to normal harvest until September.

We are facing many problems in bringing food to the villages in the mountains. There is a conflict between the military groups of NPA living in the mountains and the government, making it difficult to bring out food and medicines in some areas. To illustrate the situation let me tell one story that happened not long ago.

David is a Mangyan living in one of the villages in the mountains. He has a little shop where he sells medicines for people in several villages. One time he went to the lowland to by more medicines. In the meantime there was a shooting between NPA and the military in his area and several soldiers got killed. On his way back with the medicine supplies, the military stopped him and asked many questions. He was killed because they thought he was bringing medicines into the mountains to help the NPA. These kinds of situations cause the Mangyans not to trust the government. Sometimes the guerilla groups take their food.

We have many considerations to make in distributing the help. We are coordinating with the police and making ID’s for the Mangyan bringing the food. They must walk in the mornings, not late afternoon, and we cannot do the distribution in the same pattern each time, but must change days and time to make it more difficult for bad elements to steal the food. Pray for the wisdom of God in all that is happening.

Noralv Askeland

“Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.” Matt 6:21.

When a person falls in love aspects of their behaviour will begin to change. For example they may find they enjoy doing things that they used to avoid doing. Perhaps they might display an extravagant generosity towards the person they love. They may even be prepared to make themselves look silly just so that they can please the person they are in love with. Love compels people to change.

To an extent God’s Church is like this. The Church is a community of people whose lives have been completely transformed by the love of Jesus. God has always sought after a people who would willingly surrender their lives to Him and gladly choose to trust Him in everything, so that the whole earth will be filled with His glory.

In the book of Joel, we discover that God’s people are living in total rebellion to Him yet in His abundant grace and mercy He urges them to turn back to Him. He calls them to give Him their hearts in order that He may forgive them and bless them and fulfil all the wonderful the plans He has for their lives (Joel 2:12).

I believe that God’s intention for His creation – which is to see the restoration of all things in heaven and earth brought together under the rule and authority of Christ (Eph 1:10) – will come about through a Church that is completely abandoned in heart to Jesus.

Giving your heart to God is not about being sentimental or feeling emotional toward God. Neither is it about giving Him your full attention for a few hours a week when you attend a church meeting. When you give your heart to Jesus it means that you voluntarily relinquish or hand over all your authority over your life to Him. In this way He will have full reign in your life. You no longer call the shots, He does.

Jesus taught His disciples that “unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees you can’t enter the Kingdom of God at all.” (Matt 5:20) They would honour God with their lips but in reality their hearts were far away from Him. Of such people the prophet Isaiah said, “their worship amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote.” (Isaiah 29:13-14).

Although submitting to Christ expresses obedience, God is looking for a people that will obey Him with their hearts. We have an obligation to do as Jesus commands, but a people who are motivated by love will delight in doing so.

Jesus deserves to have a people who are continually living in the overflow of the Holy Spirit. He deserves to have a Church that is totally unashamed to proclaim the Gospel of His Kingdom. He deserves to have a radical people who no longer live for themselves but live to glorify the name of Jesus at any cost. He WILL have this people whom He desires and His Church will be established as Chief of the mountains (Isaiah 2:2-4).

Spend time with God. Give yourself to worshipping Him. Read His Word and pray to Him. Fellowship with the Church, preach the gospel, heal the sick, move in the authority and power of Christ to see signs, wonders and miracles. This is the Church. This is who we are and this is what we do. Give your heart to Jesus today and everyday. Amen.

Ben Matheson

Last week, about 150 young adults from King’s Church and related churches all over the country attended the Beyond weekend away in Cefn Lea, Wales. Ruth-Anne Burgher shares her experience on encountering God in a powerful way.

Our God is awesome – He is beyond what we can think of or even ask for. He meets and exceeds our expectations, and this is what God has shown us at the Beyond weekend away.

His love is never-ending and we should praise Him continuously. We should never be satisfied with the amount of praise we give to Him, but yearn for more each and every day of our lives.

It was great to be in the presence of other 18 to 25-year-olds from all over who hunger for God. It was great being able to fellowship with them and to have fun taking part in various activities like a walk to the top of a nearby mountain, which was a great experience.

For the first sessions Roger Aubrey brought a message about how we should live our lives in Christ. He shared that we should not live with a sinful conscience, a sense of unworthiness nor failure but live in the positioning of God.

This is because we are as He is – in position and in ability. We are God’s masterpiece and wherever He goes, we go. We live with the sense of His righteousness.

That same night, Richard Anniss brought a word about realising how awesome God really is and that we should present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. We should practise praising Him daily and living our lives obsessed with the word of God!

He also shared that redemption is what really reveals the glory of God. Romans 8:17 says “we share in his glory if we share in his suffering” and Luke 9:23 says “deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow me.”

He also talked about not being conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds. We need to allow God to change how we think, be dead to ourselves and live 100% for Christ.

It was an awesome and powerful weekend filled with the anointing of God. God has shown us that we should go Beyond our limitations and refuse to settle for less. Seeing Christ formed within us is a community project, for He has sent us into this world, so that we may know the power and the glory of God.

Ruth-Anne Burgher

Manchester has a huge number of homeless people. These can be men or women living on the streets, in hostels or shelters, or drifting from friend to friend. As a church, we long to reach these people, to show them the love of God, and His desire to see them restored. VIP Nights are an incredible opportunity to do just this.

Several times a year, we open up our church building for events aimed specifically at the homeless people of Manchester, providing food, music, clothes, toiletries and pamper rooms. Throughout the evenings, as well as blessing our guests with practical and material help, we also take time to get to know them, offering friendship, love and prayer, sharing testimonies of God’s faithfulness and ensuring our guests know how precious and valued they are.

We have some amazing testimonies from VIP Nights of salvation and answered prayer, and have seen several of our guests baptised in water, in the Holy Spirit and added to the church. We’re believing we’re going to see more salvation than ever before, and are excited to see our VIP guests being introduced to Jesus and committing to following him.

For this to happen, we need the body of Christ to work together to serve in many different areas – we need table hosts to talk with our guests on the nights and continue to build relationships with them after the events, people to welcome and steward, serve food and drinks, set up and clear up, and serve in the pamper rooms. We also need the usual donations of good quality clothes and unused toiletries to bless our guests with.

Our next VIP Nights are 11th February for men, and 24th February for ladies. Please be thinking and praying about how you’re able to serve, and get in touch ASAP!

Kate Hancock

Please contact Kate Hancock (for Ladies) or Mat Irwin (for Men’s) for more information.

‘But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.’ This is what the LORD says: ‘I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place. From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased; I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained. Their children will be as in days of old, and their community will be established before me; I will punish all who oppress them.’
(Jeremiah 30:17-20)

About two years ago, I attended School of the Word (SOTW) Bible college in Cardiff. A couple from the church promised to support me financially throughout the duration of my course, sending me a monthly allowance. This was such a blessing to me throughout my stay in Cardiff.

On a particular occasion, the couple sent me two months’ worth of allowance in one go. However, I somehow managed to misplace the money. I searched for it everywhere; I turned my room upside down and the right way round, but could not find it anywhere. Finally, I gave up and considered the money lost.

Recently, two years after I completed SOTW, another couple who were on the same course contacted me on Facebook. They had found an envelope in the middle of a book I had borrowed from them, and in the envelope was the money I had considered lost. They sent it to me through a friend who happened to be in Wales at the time.

I was obviously excited and in my joy, God spoke to me, saying: “I am a God of Restoration and I will restore to you what you have considered lost and given up on. I would resurrect my promises in your life that you may have given up on. In my restoration, I will also bring new things from my heart of love to you.”

God told me one of the ways he intends to do this is through relationships. He said: “It is through the relationships you have made amongst the community of my people that I will restore these things to you. These relationships would be a channel through which my grace would flow to you.”

My purpose in writing this testimony is to encourage you to give yourself to building relationships with God’s people. As we have been encouraged in recent months, one of the ways to do this is by being part of Church in the Homes.

God restored something I thought was lost, using two relationships in my life:
• The couple who found the money in the book
• The friend who happened to be in Wales at the time

I believe the relationships we make as we give ourselves to Church in the Homes will become a channel through which God’s grace would flow to us. It will, as in Jeremiah 30:17-20:
• Restore our individual tents
• Increase us and make us significant
• Restore our children

Oladapo Owo

We have recently got some new projectors from China, they are not yet in sale and so small you can carry them in your pocket. These are small projectors with 8 GB memory that can work detached from computers. We can load in the Jesus film or other presentations and show it in the mountains where there is no electrical power. The battery lasts for 4 hours and can be charged with a solar charger.

There are great joys in the villages, both in Mindoro and in Mindanao, when they see a film for the first time in their lives. We are using the Jesus film from the gospel of Luke.

I got this report from Santie that works among the Mangyans in Mindoro: “People are so moved when seeing the Jesus film. They were crying and giving thanks to the Lord for his marvelous love for them. Sometimes I stopped the film and explained to them the gospel and the way of salvation. It is the first time for many of them to even see a movie. This is a wonderful help to our Mangyan brethrens.”

Joel sent me this report from Mindanao yesterday: “Praise the Lord! I did my first film showing yesterday! We went to the village of Sinawaran to show it to the church there. I give thanks to the Lord because it really helped the people, especially the new believers, to understand more the love and passion Christ have for the world.

“After the showing I spent time to explain to them the importance of understanding and receiving the message. Then we praised the Lord together before we left for home. All the people in the community are really happy, since this is the first time they have a film showing in their village. I have scheduled two other communities next Friday. To God be the glory!”

The cost for each unit (projector, loudspeaker and charger) is $300. We are excited about this new tool to share the gospel to even more remote areas.

Noralv Askeland

Mim Hemp shares her testimony on how she came to know Jesus at the Christmas concert in 2008. Here she encourages us to invite our friends and families to the upcoming Alive! Easter concert at The Bridgewater Hall.

I grew up in a Christian family and being the ‘minister’s daughter’ meant that the Christian lifestyle was the norm for me. I didn’t have a personal relationship with God and it all seemed like a lot of rules for how to live my life. As I grew up, I questioned my faith and rebelled against these rules. I felt they were constraining me and I inevitably turned away from God.

I moved to Manchester in September 2007 to start university. I met people from King’s Church through my sister Naomi and really noticed the kindness and love they showed each other. I was glad Naomi invited me to the Christmas concert in December 2008 as I was excited to go to the Palace Theatre. The music and singing at the concert were captivating and I could feel a presence in the room I never felt before.

Andrew Hughes spoke of how Jesus gives you life and religious rules are not a part of the personal relationship you have with God. This really hit me and I realised I needed a bit of this ‘life’!

I asked Jesus to come into my life but didn’t stand up when everyone was asked to, as I was really nervous and shy at the time. But as we sang “Trading my sorrows” I stood up, sang and danced along. I was filled with a joy I had never experienced before and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face! I love Jesus and thank him so much for what he has done in my life and continues to do.

I would really encourage us as the Church to invite anyone we can to the Alive! Easter Concert – whether that be friends, family or other people we meet. It is such a great event to invite people to as Church in the Home or Sunday meetings may seem daunting to some.

Jesus is alive and will be there with us at the concert, so people who are not yet saved will feel his presence there just as I did. Even if they don’t ask God into their lives at the concert, the love and kindness of the Church will impact them and a seed will be planted. If we truly believe this in our hearts we will see it with our eyes!

Mim Hemp

Flyers are available for the Easter Concert at the reception and on the Help Desk at King’s House. Tickets can be purchased via the Bridgewater Hall Box Office at www.bridgewater-hall.co.uk or by ringing 0161 907 9000.