Testimony from Margie from Freedom Church.
Greeting,
I just have to tell someone - God is alive in the provinces!!
Since our conference 2 weeks ago there has been reason to rejoice. Since then there has been 5 recommitments or first time salvations, as well as several deliverances. One first timer the Sunday of the conference, and last Sunday a backslider who used to be in church. Today the service was pretty normal until the end. Jason preached first so we ended with worship, and as that tailed out the Presence God just fell on us all ( His Presence had already been evident to many), so for 20 minutes nobody moved even though I had given people permission to go for morning tea. The immediate result was that 2 people came back to Jesus, and one gave their life to Christ for the first time. I am sure this week will we will hear of other direct results from encountering Him. Not only was one of our men under the power of the Holy Spirit weeping before Him, but as another led him back to Jesus gold dust began to fall on his face and arms! Now that is something for little ol’ us!!
Added to that there have been some healings, some of them unbelievers. God IS good!!
Please rejoice with us. I feel like leaping and dancing for joy along with the angels. It is this stuff that makes church worth getting up for.
I am sure it is this stuff that makes all your years of encouragement and labour worthwhile. God bless you.
Blessing
Margie
.
Shoes for Africa!
Taking about 100 pairs of shoes to impoverished children in Mozambique is just one small task that a team from Bridges Church will be setting about undertaking when they leave for Africa next month.
Michelle Smith purchased the shoes on sale locally.
“I’m excited about being there to serve, and seeing the faces of children who literally have nothing in life, as they receive these items – along with other useful and practical gifts we plan to take. Murray was there in 2007 on a previous team trip, and was deeply impacted by what he saw… that’s partly why a team is heading back again”
The team from Bridges Church is made up of a group of eleven adults and children (the youngest of which is the Smith’s three year old son), and they will be based at an orphanage run by Iris Ministries in Pemba. Mozambique is probably one of the poorest and most desperately needy nations on the planet; a country that until the mid ‘90s had been ravaged by civil war, and has been trying to recover in more recent years. Tragically, the victims have mostly been children. Abandonment, hunger, ravaging disease, homelessness, and corruption are just a few of the problems this country has been battling with.
Under the incredible leadership of Rolland and Heidi Baker, Iris Ministries has made significant inroads seeing the Kingdom of God advance with supernatural attestations to the power and love of Jesus for the broken and lost. With well over 8,000 churches planted in a few years it is truly an inspiring place. The Bakers have taken in thousands of homeless, sick children, who had only known a life of begging, or living in squalor in disease-ridden rubbish dumps. They have been given hope and a new chance at life. Every day thousands of hungry children are fed, clothed, and given shelter and a basic education in the orphanage schools. Poor village people receive medical help and food on a regular basis.
To assist in breaking the poverty cycle, boys learn carpentry skills, and the girls are taught sewing skills to provide themselves with a possible income.
“While it’s a costly financial commitment for our family, we prefer to see it as an investment in our own children’s lives that is impossible to put a price tag on. We are traveling with five of our six children and we know it will be an incredibly impactive, life changing experience for them. Teaching kids the value of service to others, and being free from enslavement to material things is something that matters to us” says Murray.
The prayers of the LinkNZ family would be really appreciated by this team.
Testimony from Margie Malcolm of Freedom Church in Porirua
There are some really good things happening here, with new people in the house most weeks, a baptism this Sunday for 3 new Christians, and healings happening regularly. There is one particular testimony I want to share with you.
Sara is a 4 year old who comes to church with grandma, so has been in our preschool programme where they are taught to pray for each other and expect Jesus to help or heal whatever the problem.
Last Friday she was fooling around in a shop so that she banged her head badly on a shelf and then had the whole shelving system fall on her. The result was a reasonable size cut to her head, a very large bump on the back of the head and possible concussion. After watching her for 3 hours they settled her to sleep to recover from the trauma, but before doing so she insisted unbelieving mum and her unbelieving partner pray for her. She was adamant that Jesus would heal. Both were reluctant to do so but gave in, saying later that neither had an ounce of belief in what they were doing they were just shutting her up. In the morning, much to the parents surprise there is no lump, no sign of the cut that had bled so profusely, and no bruising to be seen, except for a patch the size of a 10 cent piece on her ear!
Additional testimony
Sundays have been a ‘bomb’ here over the last few weeks. We had a baptism on Sunday which was preceded by great anticipation and excitement, especially by the two girls getting baptised. Immediately after they were baptised the power of the Holy Spirit came on them and they went down in the Spirit while still in the pool. Some hasty ‘fishing’ had to take place!! We have not experienced a baptism like it here before.
Many thanks once again and heaps of blessing
Margie