Rock on Vancouver Island 3

Lunch in Victoria

Sea Planes in Victoria

The CMM team with Shirley

Ann, Trish and Joline

Mat and Bill

Hi Everyone,

Probably the penultimate Vancouver Island update!

We had a good day off visiting Victoria on Wednesday, although the weather wasn't great.  It's been cold and wet pretty much the whole time we've been here sadly.  In the evening we had dinner with Shirley again, and this time she cooked us chicken curry, which is Roger's all time favourite - she'd even made us some chapattis!  

Yesterday was a very busy day - and the first day of sunshine and we had to be indoors...  First thing in the morning we went to Deborah's church, St Peter's for the morning communion service.  The liturgy we had practiced on Tuesday didn't entirely go to plan, but everyone there still found it incredibly uplifting.  It seemed to have a big impact on people - they are still talking about it now, and planning on using it in future.  It isn't necessarily the liturgy they want to take on, but the way music is woven into it.

After the service, we went over to St. John's to meet with the clergy.  Sadly this was only the anglican clergy, but it still was a good session - there were 6 of them, and Roger led the 'Ways to Praise' teaching, which focuses on psalms, hymns and songs.  The aim was to encourage them to include all of these things on worship, and not overemphasising one.  We had a wonderful comment afterwards from Dale, who is a bit of a traditionalist.  He said that he feels comfortable and happy with hymns, and has really struggled with songs over the years, but after Roger had spoken he began to understand their place in worship and it was a 'revelation' for him.

Finally at the end of the day we had our final rehearsal for Rock. This time we rehearsed at the Christian Reform Church which is the performance venue.  It took a while to get set up, but the rehearsal was excellent - particularly helped by Margie, their wonderful sound technician.  She enabled everything to run incredibly smoothly.

Then today we had some spare time, but it was pouring with rain all day.  Devon, Ann, Bill and I got very wet wandering round a forest looking for geocaches - Roger was very sensible staying in.  This evening we had the first performance of Rock, and it went really well.  I forgot one line, and Mat forgot a few more, but apart from that it
was good, and very well received - I think there were about 150 there.  We got a standing ovation at the end, and many of the people say they are coming again on Sunday and with friends.  The auditorium holds 450, so let's see!

We've got a day off tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get some good weather!

Helen

Rock on Vancouver Island 2

The truck half way up a mountain

Here's the next update!

On Monday during the free day Bill, Devon, Ann and I went out for a bit of an explore, driving the truck up one of the local mountains until we hit snow and had to come down again.  After lunch at Deborah's house (she's bought in loads of wheat-related products like pizza which she can't eat herself, so we have to help), we all went to Cowichan Bay, and had a look around while finding a few geocaches. 

Geocaching in Cowichan Bay

The early evening rehearsal went pretty well - the choir are singing well, and they sound good.  We're joined by two soloists - Trish and Mat.  Trish is playing the part of Zillah, and is really good and confident.  Mat is playing the part of Jesus.  Roger got him having a go at the prophetic moment at the end of song 15, and he went for it, which was brilliant.  There is also a young girl called Joline, who filled in the solos for their rehearsals, and she is really good indeed, so we have managed to get her singing all kinds of bit parts - it's a shame there isn't more for her to do.

On a walk near Alison's House

Yesterday Ann, Bill and I went out for a lovely walk near where Ann and I are staying.  It is a fantastic bit of woodland - it isn't evergreen, so it is full of wildlife and wonderful moss-covered rocks. After lunch at Deborah's we had a bit of a rest, and then travelled to Deborah's church - St. Peter's.  Roger has brought with him a special communion liturgy devised for us by Peter Moger, who used to be the Archbishop of Canterbury's adviser on liturgy.  It intersperses the song 'Behold the Lamb' with a special liturgy, and the people at St. Peter's are very excited about having a liturgy with some music interspersed.  They have a wonderful grand piano, which Roger loved playing.  

Inside St. Peter's Church

After the time at St. Peter's we went to Sue's house for dinner.  Sue is the main organiser of this trip, and also the musical director at St. John's.  She's married to a man from Middlesbrough called Dave.  Roger loves talking football with him!

Yesterday evening we held a music and worship workshop at St. John's. There were 20-30 there, some of whom are involved in leading worship at their own church.  Roger led his planning and leading worship workshop, and also his structuring praise workshop.  Both of which added up to nearly 2 hours of Roger talking, plus some songs.  Our bottoms felt it on the pews, but otherwise everyone was really engaged.  A lot of what Roger had to share was new to people, and they seemed to really appreciate it.  The new version of 'O the deep deep love of Jesus' is really going down well.

Today is our day off, and we're planning to drive down to Victoria and have a look round.

Rock on Vancouver Island 1

On the morning after the Michael Card evening, Roger, Helen, Ann, Devon and Bill left the UK for Canada.  Here are Helen's emails back home to give you an idea of how it went:


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St. John's Church

The team at St. John's

The team at St. John's with Sue

Sarah's House

On the Ferry

Alison's house by the bay

The flight over was very smooth, and our bags were all there at the other end, which was a good start!  We found our way to the hotel in Vancouver without any problems, and all had a reasonable night's sleep - considering we'd been awake for nearly 24 hours.  Jet lag has taken a while to shake off, but I think we're all sleeping normally now - not waking up too early.

Sarah and Sue (the main organisers) met us at the hotel and drove us to the ferry port just outside Vancouver, and we had a lovely ferry ride in the sunshine over to the Island.  It was amazing to see the mountains on either side of the channel.  We went straight to Shirley's house - Shirley is one of the main characters of St. John's church, and is singing in the choir.  She's larger than life and great fun.  She fed us a lovely dinner and then we went to our hosts houses.  All of us are staying at Maple Bay, which is about a 10-15 minute drive from Duncan.  Roger, Devon and Bill are staying with Deborah, who is the vicar of St. Peter's church.  She lives in a lovely house right on top of a hill with a view down into the bay.  Ann and I are staying at Alison's house.  Alison is also a member of St. Peter's, although has a salvation army background.  She is very trusting and incredibly generous, as she only spent the first two evenings and mornings with us, and then has flown off to Florida, leaving us in charge of her house for the rest of the time.  The house is amazing - right on the waterfront.

On Friday we had a restful morning and then a team meeting over lunch.  Alison took Ann and I for a walk around her house in the morning, and we saw deer, bald eagles, robins the size of pigeons, woodpeckers, a humming bird, and her next door neighbour - 93 year old Laura.  We had a pot luck dinner with the choir, and then a rehearsal at night.  I don't know where Roger got the energy from to lead the rehearsal, but he did amazingly well.  We covered about half of the songs, and we have a rehearsal tonight.  The choir have been very well trained by Sue.  Devon seems to know everyone and is greeting each person like a long lost friend.  Amazing.

Saturday we held a Rock Roadshow at St. John's.  About 40 or so were there.  I led some worship to begin with, and they were all really up for it - it was hard to stop them at the end!  Roger then spoke about 'I will follow you' - really the basics about following Jesus.  After a break he led a creative/prophetic workshop, and got everyone improvising in worship.  I think they really enjoyed it.  After lunch I led a Holy Spirit workshop with everyone - the most basic one about receiving.  They were so open and receptive, and lots people shared about how they had received.  We also had at least one of the words we had received at EBRG claimed - the one about the broken collarbone.

On Saturday evening we went to Sarah's for dinner, and her husband Gary had cooked for us.  He had been fishing that morning and caught fresh salmon, huge prawns and crab.  Wonderful food, if very messy to eat!

Yesterday was another full day.  We took most of the morning service at St. John's.  Dale, the vicar, was very generous in giving us plenty of space to lead worship and for Roger to preach.  There were quite a lot of people there, which was encouraging for the church congregation.  Normally they have two services - a 9am traditional service, which is the most popular, and then a 10.30am more modern service which only gets 10-20 people.

In the evening they wouldn't normally have a service, but they deliberately organised a united service with the other churches of the area.  Roger began by explaining the tabernacle structure for a block of praise - enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise, and then entering the most holy place.  Ann then led a block of praise afterwards which followed that structure.  I think the block was a lot longer than they are used to, but most people went with it.  Then Roger spoke about the Transfiguration, and we ended the service with some more praise and a bit of ministry.

Today we have a free day, which is nice, and then a rehearsal with the choir at 5pm.

I hope you are all well.

Helen
x

An Evening with Michael Card

A couple of months ago while on the beach in Weston, Roger had a surprise phone call from a member of Michael Card's team to say that there was a spare date in his tour schedule, and would we like to host him.  Roger's instant answer was yes, and then the office staff got down to some seriously hard work getting it all off the ground!

Michael is a wonderful singer-songwriter, well known for songs such as El Shaddai and Immanuel.  He has many fans in Christ Church, and so they were delighted to have him come.

Annie gathered together an amazing string quartet made up of herself and three players from the CBSO - Libby, Heather and Corinne.  The strings added a huge amount to the concert and made it incredibly special.

Helen sorted out a close harmony group, which involved Miriam and Ann on soprano (some of which was incredibly high), Catherine and Amy on alto, Helen and Tim on tenor, and Paul and Richard on bass.  Richard is a massive fan of Michael Card, so it was great to have him singing with us - he worked incredibly hard to learn his part, which was fantastic.  We were also supported by Martin who did a wonderful job setting up the sound.

Michael brought with him Ron on sound, Gordon his tour organiser, and Scott his musical director.  Scott played piano for many of the songs, and Michael played guitar or piano, or just sang.  His guitar skills were mind-boggling as he plays a right-handed strung guitar left handed!

The evening was themed around Easter, beginning and ending with the song 'Only his wounds'.  There were a couple of really moving songs such as 'Ride on to die', 'Tears of the world' and 'Why', and a really special moment where the congregation joined in with the song 'Immanuel'.

Organising the concert was hard work, but very rewarding, and the almost sell-out audience were very appreciated.  Hopefully in future if we have another such event we will have longer to get the word out!

Two Sisters in Witney

A week after our exploits in Sheffield, we travelled south east from Birmingham to Witney, a town to the west of Oxford.  We have often visited Witney over the years as a group there led by Paul Herrington has often performed Roger's musicals.

The choir had been rehearsing for several weeks, although there were a few newcomers on the day.  A brilliant part of the day was that time had been left in the programme for Roger to be able to do some teaching on the theme of the musical, and to really invest in the choir.

Before and after lunch Helen and Annie took some sectionals - Helen with the ladies downstairs and Annie with the guys upstairs.  The soloists divided between the two rooms - this time we had Martin as Lazarus, Phil as Jesus, Caroline as Mary and Wendy as Martha.  In the performance we were joined by two local soloists who took the baddie parts, and Helen and Annie played their instruments.

After the sectionals, Roger led a creative workshop, which added an extra dimension to the day ahead of the runthrough in the afternoon.  We had a wonderful tea with the choir and then tried to make as much room as possible for the audience.  The room was absolutely packed, with standing room only, which was a fantastic end to the day.

Thanks so much to Paul and also to Shirley Enoch for all their work on the day and before.  The choir are learning Snakes and Ladders for Paul's swansong later in the year.  Hopefully we will be able to get the dates of their performances up on the blog before long.

Two Sisters in Sheffield

The end of a busy week saw a CMM team travelling to Sheffield for the fourth Two Sisters event in 8 days.  This Sheffield event was organised by John Mellor, ably assisted by his wife Margaret.  The church, St. Peter's Ellesmere, is an Anglican/Methodist partnership in a very poor area of Sheffield.  It stands like a beacon on the hillside, and it was wonderful to be able to take part in mission in the area.

John had held one rehearsal prior to the event, in which he and Muriel Stonehewer divided the choir up and took sectionals.  On the day itself the choir was supplemented by quite a few singers, but having the core of those that were already familiar with the material made a huge difference.

The CMM team for the day were Devon (Lazarus), Martin (Jesus), Helen (Martha), Ann (Mary), Richard (baddie), Pete (baddie) and Marilyn on flute.  We hadn't seen Marilyn since the Rock Symphony Hall finale, so it was wonderful to work with her again.  She had the chance to experiment with Annie's special instrumentalist arrangements, and it worked well.

On the Saturday we all worked really hard - Roger and Helen led sectionals, and the choir were excellent.  It was interesting to meet some of the members of the choir, who came from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures.  John had been tirelessly inviting everyone he met to come and take part in the day, whether they were Christian or not.

The same was true for the audience in the evening - the church was absolutely packed out - standing room only. There were Muslims, a Buddhist, some non-Christians, a former president of the Methodist Conference, and lots of faces familiar to CMM such as the Hopkins clan, Sally Rhodes and Liz Tipple to name but a few.

It was a wonderful day - thanks so much to John for his tireless energy.  After the performance half of the CMM team went home, but Roger, Helen, Devon and Ann remained to take the service at the church the following morning.  It was a wonderful service - the congregation were so hungry and ready to worship.  Ann led a praise block, and as soon as we started the first song percussion instruments came out, as well as flags.  Roger spoke once again about the More Than God, with a focus on Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and quite a few people came for prayer.  People chatted after the service for a really long time.  It was wonderful to be part of it all.

Two Sisters in Coventry

Another event in a very busy week saw a team from CMM travelling to Coventry Methodist Central Hall.  The organising force behind the event was Olive Holtom, a long term supporter of CMM.  She was very sad that we were unable to come to Coventry with Rock, and so bullied us (nicely) over a number of months about Two Sisters.  She managed to book the Coventry Central Hall, and also its minister, Paul Wood, to train the choir.  Paul did a brilliant job - the choir sounded fantastic.  The choir were joined by a few extras from the East Birmingham CMM choir, but they weren't really needed.

The central hall is a wonderful venue, with loads of room for audience, wonderful tiering on the stage, and plenty of space for the cast.  Paul worked really hard to set up the sound system, especially when he was surprised by the addition of Annie on viola and Helen on flute and trumpet.  The rest of the CMM team was unchanged from the Leicester performance.

At the previsit Olive had been asked how tickets were going.  She said that she was sold out, and when asked how many she had sold, she said she didn't know as she kept printing more!  The turnout at the performance was wonderful - downstairs was nearly full, and upstairs held a decent number too - probably just under 350 in the audience, which was wonderful.  Well done Olive!  Thanks so much to both you and Paul for all your hard work.

Two Sisters in Leicester

On Ash Wednesday - 9th March, a Two Sisters and a Funeral team travelled to Leicester led by Roger.  This time the team were Emily (Mary), Amy (Martha), Martin (Jesus), Devon (Lazarus), Pete and Jonathan (baddies).  It was great for Emily and Amy to perform at their home venue, and I am sure they had plenty of home support.

The performance took place at Christ Church URC, Dumbleton Avenue - just across the road from CMM's normal rehearsal place in Leicester - Trinity Methodist.  Alan Baum, the choir trainer, was one of the first people to ask to be involved in the Two Sisters performances, and he had done a brilliant job training the choir again.  With the help of Sheila on tickets and other local folk, the venue was completely sold out, and over 200 people filled the venue.

It was great to see a lot of familiar faces in the choir - many have sung with CMM repeatedly over the years at the DeMontfort Hall in the tours.  The choir sang beautifully, and Roger was delighted with the performance.

Two Sisters at Rochdale

On Saturday 5^th March, Roger, Annie and Helen, along with Jonathan, Caroline, Ann, Devon and Martin travelled up to Bamford Chapel, a URC church in Rochdale, and the home church of Walter Brisk, conductor of the United Christian Singers.

UCS are a large choir from the Manchester area, and have been great supporters of CMM for over 20 years since they first began for the production of Mary Magdalene at the Free Trade Hall in the city.  Walter conducts the choir, and holds two rehearsals a week – one in the north of the city, and the other in the south, and there are about 100 choir members altogether.

On Saturday UCS hosted CMM, but advertised it as a workshop day open to everyone, so there were about 80 UCS members, but also more than 40 others present – a wonderful choir.  UCS had had some rehearsals, so they formed the backbone of the choir, but there were quite a few singers who were new  so we treated it as a scratch choir day.  Roger led the first rehearsal, and then Annie took the ladies and Helen the men for the second rehearsal.  Finally we put it all together before stopping for a wonderful faith tea, and then the performance at 7pm.  (I must not forget that the team were treated to a wonderful lunch before the workshops began!)

The performance went really well – the choir remained in the congregation pews and the audience sat around them and up in the gallery.  Caroline and Ann were Martha and Mary respectively, Devon and Martin were Lazarus and Jesus, and then Jonathan managed to be both ‘baddie’ parts all on his own!  Annie and Helen played their instruments, ably assisted by local techie Gareth who was in charge of the backing track and microphones.

The following day the team split up to cover two services – Roger preached at Bamford Chapel, and Helen preached at Brimrod Methodist Church.  This is an exciting development in CMM’s ministry, and it is wonderful to be able to meet with folk who aren’t usually part of the choir.  People often see CMM as just musicals, but in the local church situation we are able to bring in far more – teaching on worship and life in the Spirit particularly.

 

After lunch with our wonderful hosts we travelled home.  Thanks to Walter, Tony and all of UCS for hosting us – it was a wonderful day.

John Pye has added some photos and a writeup to the local deanery website: http://heywoodandmiddletondeanery.org.uk/homepage

Roger at Derby

On Thursday 3^rd March, Roger took a team up to a meeting of the Derby Crusade Choir in Mickleover.  The choir are shortly to hold a production of the Torn Curtain, and the choir leader invited Roger to come up and envision them about music and worship and using musicals in evangelism ahead of their performance.  Roger had a wonderful team – Ann, Carolynn, Yvette and Andrew.  The start was a bit hectic as Roger had left the beautifully printed running orders at home, but the team managed to make things happen!  It was great to have Carolynn and Yvette involved, and we hope to see them much more in future.

Previsit Time!

As we are not touring with Two Sisters and a Funeral in the same way as in the past, the call for previsits has been lessened.  But this week Roger had chance to take two of them – Leicester and Coventry.  As these venues are fairly local, we have been able to fit them in with mid-week performances, but that does mean we cannot spend an afternoon rehearsing with the choirs.  The Leicester performance has been organised and the choir trained by Alan Baum, and the Coventry performance has been organised by Olive Holtom and the choir trained by Paul Wood.  Previsits are always great fun – time to rehearse, but also time to share with the choirs some of the vision behind the musical.

A Weekend (not quite) off

When we’re not involved with any CMM events there is no let off!  On Saturday 26^th Feb there weren’t any official CMM gigs, but Roger was still busy.  He had a day at his own church, Christ Church, where the worship team gathered together, led by Pat.  Roger had been asked to speak to them about worship and structuring and leading praise.  Since Roger and Mary moved house, Pat has taken over the responsibility of worship pastor at Christ Church, so we pray for her in her new role – she’ll be great!

And then on Sunday Helen was busy preaching in her own circuit, Annie was involved in leading worship at her church, and Roger was preaching at Christ Church.  Roger particularly had a pressurised morning, as a local Imam was due to attend the service and find out what Christianity was all about.

Finally on Sunday evening we held the next in our series of renewal meetings in conjunction with Christ Church.  The speakers were Rosie and Tim Bunn, from a church in Norwich, but also heavily involved with New Wine.  They were there to talk about ‘Treasure Hunting’.  This is an exercise where a team would meet in a town centre, and pray together, before filling in a ‘treasure map’.  This map is really just a series of questions such as:

1. A location

2. A person’s name

3. A defining characteristic such as article of clothing

There were 6 or 7 questions on the sheet, and after waiting on God for 3 minutes, the team each would answer them – and then go out into the town looking for their treasure.    God has done some amazing things through this ministry, and a team of people from the renewal evening were due to be going out the following Saturday.

Before and after Rosie and Tim spoke, CMM led worship – we had a huge group: Roger on keyboard, Tim on drums, Annie on viola, Sarah on violin, Christine on flute, Amy on clarinet, James on guitar, Helen on trumpet and horn, and Martin, Katie and Pat on vocals.  It was great to worship and minister together.

Two Sisters in Staines

It was a delight for CMM to travel back to Staines in February.  Two years ago we had visited the Methodist Church in Staines for a Rock weekend, performing the musical, but also including some Holy Spirit workshops.  This time they invited us to bring our own soloists, and they had fewer rehearsals in advance.

The CMM team was Bill Carpenter - Lazarus, Phil Griffith - Jesus, Alyson Ottaway - Martha, Helen - Mary and Kaye Cooke - various solo bits.

Despite the fewer rehearsals, Roz Sendorek had done a wonderful job with the choir, and they sounded absolutely brilliant.  We had a wonderful time rehearsing with the group.  Helen and Roger took sectionals - Helen spent a lot of time with the men working on the two 'baddie' songs.  One of the baddies was John Izzard, the minister of the church, and that led to a lot of laughs!

On the Sunday morning CMM led the morning service alongside John.  It was a lovely morning, and God really blessed us.  Helen led some worship and Roger spoke about the 'More than' God.  It was great to have Phil jamming away on the organ in the worship!  At the service we were amazed to be joined by a young man who had flown in to Heathrow from Zambia that morning.  He had looked online for the nearest church, and walked all the way from the airport to Staines.  After the service he walked back again, and got on his flight home to Helsinki.

The performance went really well in the evening, and there was a really large audience, which was great.

A fantastic weekend - thanks to all at Staines for inviting us!

Jerusalem Joy at Arddleen

The Saturday after Lindors, Annie took a team to Arddleen right on the Welsh border for Jerusalem Joy in a day.  Annie has travelled to this village several times over the years and led a series of musicals in a day.  Her team consisted of Andrew Lockwood (Jesus), Barrie Renwick (Pilate and assorted others), Helen (Herod and assorted others).

There were a lot of people gathered when we arrived ready for what Annie had put in her programme as 'Team Meeting'.  Once it had been explained, they all understood that it meant just the CMM team!  There was a lovely buzz and vibe around the place though, so people had a hot drink and enjoyed chatting.  A large group had come up the road from Welshpool for the day, deliberately for a taster ahead of their Greater than Gold day with Annie in September.

The choir were excellent, as they should be in Wales, and we were also joined by an oboeist and a guitarist, which really added to the performance.  Helen played a little bit of flute and french horn too.

In the week before, EBRG had prayed about this event, and had some interesting words of knowledge and pictures.  Annie was very brave in her talk to the choir, and shared the words with them.  One of them in particular was claimed, and it was a real Spiritual high-point in a wonderful day.

Andrew and Barrie sang really well - and particularly Barrie, who managed to lay to rest a bad experience of singing the part of Herod at Rhos on Sea a few years ago!

A Week in the Wye Valley

In February we had our first music week of the year.  This time it was a music in worship week, similar to the week at Whitby last year, and it was at Lindors Hotel, near St. Briavel's on the Welsh border.


The team for the week was Roger, Mike and Barbara Rowarth, Helen, and in a real treat for Helen, her two sisters Deb and Miriam, with some wonderful support from Deb's husband Jon and their daughter 18 month old Bethan.  We had no phone signal for the week, so Helen sent email updates to EBRG each night to let them know how it was going.  Here are some edited highlights:


Day 1:
The journey down to Lindors was fine - only an hour and a half.  There's about 20 here for the week.  This evening Roger got them all to share about what they do worship-wise, and what they are expecting from the week.  There aren't any who are just here for a holiday - they are here to learn, and to experience more of God, which is fantastic.  We have several musicians, several who are trained worship leaders in the Methodist Church (which basically means they are trained to lead the rest of a service apart from the sermon), we have a group from a parish in the Lakes (Roger led their weekend away two years ago, and last summer Annie went with Martin Cavendar to lead it - they are really hoping to learn about leaving space in worship for the Holy Spirit), and then we have three Welsh pentecostals who love worshipping.


Day 2:

Had another good day at Lindors. 

 

One of the members of staff has her mum living nearby, who has been to a couple of our Lee Abbey weeks.  She rang her mum, who after being assured she would be allowed, has come to every session today!

 

Wholeness Through Christ Visual Aid

The first session this morning seemed to be well received - it didn't really lead into any ministry, but was just a kind of overview about being a worshipper.  Roger will get down to some of the nitty gritty from tomorrow onwards.  The workshop was fun - people were very happy calling out answers, and even though Roger went very off topic and ended up missing out half of the session, it was a good (God) digression and I think people received a lot.

 

Mike and Barbara led a Wholeness Through Christ introductory evening, which seemed to strike a chord in quite a few people, so hopefully it has set the tone for the week and they will follow up by asking for prayer.

 

Day 3:

A quick email tonight as I'm typing on my phone...


Miriam led worship really well, which was great. It isn't a tough job though as everyone here is up for it!

Deb and Bethan

Roger's session on Mary went down really well- he majored on the bit about being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. In the workshop that followed  stuck to his plan :-) and got them all thinking about how they would lead a praise block. They are all very willing to join in.


Mike and Barbara had 3 prayer ministry appointments this afternoon, and also had one very deep one yesterday. Pray for stamina and strength for them.


This evening was good fun. I got them all singing delirious songs and thinking about evangelism. Deb and Jon did a really funny sketch too.

And Miriam!

Day 4:

Another late night email from my phone.

This morning was an interesting session. Roger spoke clearly and uncompromisingly about demons and the power of praise and worship in demolishing strongholds. The tricky thing was that some people who were day visitors and new to us picked this session to turn up. Roger could easily have softened the message, but he didn't, and God really blessed the session. Not many are receiving prayer at the end of the morning sessions, but plenty are seeking out private prayer ministry at other times which is good.

Mike, Barbara and Roger all were involved with prayer ministry this afternoon. 

This evening was very special. Roger led the evening and shared quite a bit of his story, which included some hard things about grieving. A lot of people were really touched.

Day 5:

Last update!

Had an excellent final day.  Roger spoke about Peter and the mount of transfiguration - we have to allow God to take us up the mountain in worship, and then allow him to take us down again ready to minister wherever he puts us.  Obviously there was a lot more to it than that, but you get the gist.  At the end we simply spent time in God's
presence - again, not a lot of ministry needed, but people were very open to receiving.

The Holy Spirit workshop went well - everyone got into groups and had a go.  There was even a spot of healing, so praise God for that.

The evening was very special. We had a long time of worship, and then Roger spoke about worship that transforms.  We shared bread and wine, and then Mike and Barbara prayed for everyone and anointed them
with oil.  There was a tremendous sense of love and unity within the group.

Christian Dance Ministries

A new and exciting venture has been brewing for some time - Christian Dance Ministries.  Sally Taylor (formerly Jones!) has gathered together a wonderful group of dancers from various places, including the Wildfire and Rock tours, and some girls from Sally's gap year with Springs.

Over the past few months they have been meeting regularly, and putting together a presentation of a number of dances to take to different churches.  They have also included a couple of workshops with local dancers to encourage them.

So far they have held three presentations in aid of cancer research - one at Christ Church Burney Lane, another at Nuthall Methodist in Nottingham, and one at St. Andrew's in Barnt Green.  There is one more to come on Saturday 26th March at Selly Oak Methodist.  Call CMM if you would like more details.

The presentations have been wonderful, with a mixture of comedic and poignant dances, and a few songs and instrumental links interspersed between them.

Please pray for Sally and all of the dancers as they begin to think about their future and seek God for what he has in store.  They are a wonderful group, and their performances are both spectacular and thought-provoking.

Lunch in King's Heath

On a Friday back in January, Roger, Mary, Devon and Helen went to a church in King's Heath.  They had invited Roger to come and speak at their regular lunch meeting.  There were quite a number of people there, and the lunch was wonderful - lovely soup and bread followed by various puddings and cheese and biscuits.  This lunch meeting is for anyone who happened to be available, so there was a big mix of people present, including the son of the organiser, who was off school having hurt his foot.

Roger shared about using musicals in evangelism, which gives plenty of opportunity to share CMM's vision and aims, and sing lots of songs.  Devon was well known to the group, so it was lovely for him to sing and share with them.