Gibbs, David and Jane - UK

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Prayer Letter November 2006 (for Acrobat pdf version click here)

“Bringing the great news of Jesus to Wanstead”

The Vision: “Our Vision is to glorify God by being a Bible centred, welcoming church family seeking to reach out with the gospel of Jesus in the Wanstead area.” Wanstead is in East London. Although relatively affluent financially it is a spiritually needy area of 25,000 people where less than 1% go to Bible centred churches in the area. We are a growing group of Christians seeking to bring the good news of Jesus to Wanstead and the surrounding area.

What’s been happening: 

More ‘firsts’ occur. Our First Lord’s Supper, Our first evangelism group meeting, our first small group Bible studies (We have one day time one, and one evening one) . Sunday Numbers seem to have settled down. We have a core of about 25 adults and 20 children and usually about forty (adults and kids) on any Sunday. About a dozen come to the Christian Discipleship Programme.

Praise Points

  • It has been great to be reminded in Acts about God’s desire to see the gospel spread and to see all sorts of different people saved.
  • For an enthusiastic group of folks who met to discuss an ‘evangelism strategy’ for the church.
  • For God’s on going hand upon us. Meeting week by week to encourage each other. The gifts and talents that God has given to his people and using them to strengthen the congregation.

For Prayer

Our Sunday Meetings:

  • We are looking at God’s dealings with Abraham in Genesis 12-25 in our main meeting, 
  • In the Christian Discipleship Programme we are looking at our Core Values of Bible, Prayer, Evangelism and Mutual Up building.
  • In our mid week Bible Studies groups we are studying Matthew 5-7 , the sermon on the Mount.
  • For our Sunday School that the children would keep learning more about you. For energy and perseverance for the teachers.
  • That our meetings would be accessible for outsiders.
  • For Unity. Pray that as a church we get to know each other better and encourage each other more as we seek to follow Christ.

Evangelism: 

  • One of the evangelism groups run in one lady’s home is aiming to restart at the beginning of November. Pray for the Gospel to be clearly presented and for fruit.
  • That we all pray and seek to share the good news with those around us. 
  • That there are opportunities to use the Two Ways To Live presentation with others.
  • There are two or three possible events in the pipe line for outreach.
  • A number of folk have indicated an interest in doing some door to door visiting. Pray about the plans for that.

Practical stuff:

  • Venue. Please keep praying. David is having discussions with one place that would be good. Initially they seemed enthusiastic, but now slightly seem to be dragging their feet and there is a change of management in the offing. Pray for patience and the Lord’s overruling
  • Music, creche, coffee, welcoming, PA, powerpoint, Finance, Website, gaining, charitable status, Child Protection – that all that would run smoothly and facilitate the spread of the gospel.
  • The Gibbs’ house buying process and building work would run smoothly. October has been a case of one step forward one back.

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