From George - Arks, Faith and Rewards

By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. . . .

As a result, Noah became intimate with God. Hebrews 11:7 (MSG)

There is a feeling at the moment that we are not sure what we are building, however we know we are building. We are being called by God and we step out with that spirit firmly in our sails. Tonight saw the addition to the team of Rachel from St Johns church, also one of the foundations of the Tuesday night group Marcelle has moved on to fresh pastures. I am also going to allow the devil to get a big mention tonight as for me there is a strong sense at the moment that he is trying to disrupt and divide, normally I take all my encouragement from the Lord, however I want to thank the devil for his encouragement it means we are in the right place. He is often the easy target and if I'm honest I think we blame him for too much, however his prowl is noticeable and it is tough to ignore. Please pray for protection for all involved.

The plan for this evening (Tuesday) was for Phil and me to try and find one of the key figures in the Gloster Road project, a young lad with a history of trouble with the police and a bleak future without Christ. The other half of the group, Helen, Nancy and Rae were to go to the main rec and reach out to the group there. We thought it was going to be an evening of walking as the young lad can be hard to track down, last week he was on the run from the police. On walking up to his house he was just walking out the door, perfect timing. We had a brief chat outside before he challenged me to a game of snooker, he has a full size table in a shed out back. Amongst other things that were misspent in my youth was time on a snooker table, I kept that quiet for the time being. He wanted to play for a £10, so I said if you win I'll give you a tenner if I win I get to explain the gospel and what Christ has done for you, game on, he was up for that!!

He gave me a twenty point head start and I managed to win the first game (I've not played for a while and I think the Holy Spirit had a big part), he offered double or quits, so Phil said "if he wins again I get to pray for you afterwards", genius. Thankfully the Holy Spirit won 3 games, we explained the Gospel to him and were able to reference it to his own court appearance the next day. Phil prayed with him and it had great power. We couldn't give him a tract, he can't read so agreed to give him a DVD next week.

It was for me a great experience, two things I really love, telling people about Christ and playing snooker! (Heb 11:6 believe God rewards!!)

PLEASE pray for him. We met up with a few others on our walk back to meet the rest of the team and then returned to the church for a de-brief. It appeared Helen, Nancy and Rae had not had as positive a time and what this is down to we are not sure. As I alluded to earlier, we are stomping on Satan's ground and he has a habit of getting upset, a prowling lion. We need your prayers. They had some good conversations and Helen had an opportunity to have some in-depth chat with a group of girls. This is what church is all about for me, taking Christ to people letting him meet their needs and warning them of their danger without him. Although we may look silly out there sometimes, like building a boat in the middle of a desert, we act in faith and know that there is something happening that we cannot see.

What is better than becoming intimate with God, you can almost touch him in some of these moments? We felt a little thinly spread tonight with two of us doing one on one, is God telling you to GO and build a boat somewhere, maybe down Gloster road, maybe in Knaphill.....maybe somewhere entirely different?

George

[John: I'm almost lost for words. Thanks for this report, George. Had to get my hankie out for this one.

I find myself more and more wanting to go out; instead, last night I chaired a meeting but my thoughts and heart were in Old Woking.

Marcelle (who is moving on to another dynamic Christian movement [remembering Noah building a boat on dry land - well, Marcelle's ministry is with Christian Surfers]), Helen, Nancy, Catherine, George, Rae, Nick and Phil, your utter devotion, obedience and faith, and that of the Knaphill team, is an inspiration to me and it will be to others. What's becoming clear is that God is putting together teams who bring different strengths and gifts - all with one purpose but each person an individual with their own God-given approach and style. One person's good at one thing, another is good at something else. This hopefully will be encouraging to anyone reading who thinks they're not able to go out, for one reason or another, because they don't have the 'right' gifts or skills or lack confidence. I'd encourage you to pray about this, if that's a description of you. You can't be any more dense than me or have less sensitivity or be more unconfident. I'm certainly no better than you (these are not just words, I really used to dislike myself) and doubtless there are things you will be better at than anyone else. Is it perhaps that you're at the moment unable to recognise your own gifts? Ask God to show them to you.

It's by Faith and Grace that His plans will bring a rich harvest and I can truly say that I've never felt closer to Him than now. Love you all. Pray for our snooker-playing friend. JD]