Even in England - Jesus is Risen!

Well we have just had our first Easter in England. And what a weekend it was. I preached in the main service for the first time (the 11am service was a ‘family service’ which means the kids, youth and adults were all there. I love the Easter weekend because it gets back to just the pure Gospel message. It was a great service and that evening we had a very moving baptism service with 7 people being baptized.

We have had a great couple of months since my last post. We have started to bring some change to the kid’s ministry and are already starting to see some of the fruit from that. We are starting to get to know the team and have been blessed to have some great teenagers join the team. We have also started getting into the schools for assemblies. The schools have assemblies almost every day and so people are invited to come in and share. I am hoping to get the opportunity to go into more school in the next school term.

Ali and I have been out on some ‘Road Trips’ which have been very much fun. We have driven to Swansea (in Wales) to hear Rob Bell on his ‘Drops Like Stars’ tour. Have been to Bristol (the George Muller House and the Wesley Chapel), Taunton, Glastonbury, Birmingham (got to see the awesome Kirk and Tracee McAtear), Salisbury, Wells, Cheddar and since we have been blessed with our first Aussie invader - Ali’s mum has arrived, we have started planning some great trips to Scotland, Wales, Devon and Cornwell and of course London!

We are really enjoying it here. We are finding the pace of life really refreshing and are starting to see a lot of holes in the busyness we used to live in – there is a real lot to be said when you weigh up the whole ‘busyness vs. fruitfulness’. I would much rather prefer fruitfulness. It has also been great to see God in a different culture and the state of the church here. Although, like Australia, there are a lot of ‘challenges’ to the Church, the Church stills moves forward and does good in the world. The Church is still the answer and the greatest change agent when led prayerfully and with the passion and focus to bring Heaven to Earth.

A quick note for all the Aussies, daylight savings have started here and finished there, so we are now just 9 hours behind, so please feel free to Skype (brian.champness) when you get time.

Love to you all!

Bless ya!
b.

P.S. I will try to be more regular in my updates! Sorry…