JUNE 2018
ISSUE 27
K I NGFI S H E R FAMILY Join us this June in changing the world! It has been said that, where we see four in Punjab, two in problems, God sees opportunities, Utarpradesh). and this has certainly proved to be • Twenty more families have been the case in Kingfisher International added to one Delhi Church. Family. The problem: how can we effectively connect thousands of • Seventy families were baptised. believers who are spread around the world from the UK to the Far • In all, Kingfisher Family churches have grown by 40%. East, enabling them to work together to see God's Kingdom come? How can we harness the power of synergy (literally 'together energy') and help everyone feel genuinely a part of something bigger, without physically getting everyone together - a task that would clearly not be feasible? This presented God, not with a problem, but with an opportunity; an opportunity to sow the seed of an idea that has, over the past few years had a profound impact. The opportunity was to launch, in 2013, our very first International Day of Prayer. This year, 2018, sees our fourth IDOP and it is set to be our biggest and most faith-filled ever. The vision remains the same: to unite thousands of Christians around the world to pray on one day for church, community, nation and our world. Since that first IDOP we have welcomed believers in the Philippines, in Macau and in Spain, as well as seen many new believers, particularly in Africa and India. In India over just the past five months, • Eight new churches have been planted (two in New Delhi,
“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of”
Growth is accelerating around the world, and at the heart of it is the focus of prayer - upholding one another, which is the focus of IDOP, and is God's heart for each and every one of us. “I want everyone everywhere to lift innocent hands towards heaven and pray, without being angry or arguing with each other.” (1 Timothy 2:8, CEV) Prayer is the most powerful weapon in the universe. As Alfred Lord Tennyson put it, 'More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.' When we pray we are not only bringing our
earthly situation to heaven, we are bringing heaven to earth - “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." (Matthew 6:10). We have seen the Dumagat children in the Philippines excelling at school, gaining awards and being accelerated through the education process. We have seen lives being saved from malaria and bibles being distributed in Mozambique as a tangible outworking of our support for each other in the International Family. How has all this come about? Through prayer. This year, as we launch our 4th IDOP, we are believing for even greater things... for spiritual breakthroughs where there is spiritual opposition, for more people than ever to come to faith in Jesus Christ, for there to be a shift in the spiritual atmosphere where there is spiritual heaviness. In a world that has never been closer to global extinction (the 'Doomsday clock' stands at two minutes to midnight), our world desperately needs the passionate believing prayer of God's people. “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!" (Isaiah 64:1, NIV). For some more information on the countries we are praying for and a short video, visit our web site or Facebook page. Sunday June 10th - join us and be part of changing the world!
News from Kingfisher Church An update from Pastor Ollie I came to Gloucester in 1988 as a young 19 year old. I’d just completed a year working with the London City Mission focused on the homeless, based in Covent Garden and I had encountered a lot of people with mental health issues and it was through this that I had decided to train as a mental health nurse. Gloucester was the School of Nursing that accepted me and I completed three years training, mostly at Coney Hill Hospital, to attain my registration. Throughout my nursing career I’d always had an interest in addiction and in 2002 I got a job as a Community Nurse working with those who had a dual diagnosis of psychosis and substance misuse. I didn’t know much at the time in terms of the drug field but I saw the devastation that drugs and alcohol caused, and the dilemma of people caught between services and not really getting the help they needed and I started to sense that this was something that God wanted me to get involved with. At the time I had a client on my caseload who had a diagnosis of Schizophrenia but was also using Heroin and Crack, amongst other things, and his life was chaos personified. We often had conversations where he had written himself off, he believed * there was no real help or hope for him, but he also implored me to not give up on him! Well, fifteen years ago on a beautiful spring morning I arrived at his flat to see him and discovered that he had been killed, there was no happy ending
for Rob. The guy who had stabbed him to death answered the door to me covered in his blood and it was a moment that changed the course of my life! I felt powerless, and yet God set alight in me something that day that has continued to burn in me ever since - this desire to make a difference to people like Rob - to not give up, like he asked, always hoping and believing that help and change is possible. It’s what drove me to do a degree in substance misuse though I had a fear of academia. It’s what took me out of my comfort zone to work for the specialist substance misuse service, and it’s what made me take up the mantel of manager when I didn’t really believe I was capable. It’s what has led me to be the Pastor of a church that welcomes those with real mental health and substance misuse issues, to start Celebrate Recovery here at Kingfisher, and to be a trustee at Gloucester City Mission. That desire is still there in me needing an outlet. Fifteen years ago I believe God gave me a vision of a place for rehabilitation, a Christian home for people like Rob, and in my mind I had a name for it - Xchange - that place where people could leave their old life, their old way of thinking and behaving and take up
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the new life that God promises, with new thinking and a new way of living. A place where people are literally loved back to life, believed in, supported to see this exchange, this transformation happen; a place of hope and help, everything that Rob didn’t believe existed for people like him! Xchange - I saw it literally as the change that comes after the cross, the change that is meant to be the natural outcome of encountering the love of God shown through the death and resurrection of Jesus. But I have to say that over the last fifteen years, despite the training and experience God has put me through I have lost hope at times that this will ever happen. Fifteen years is a long time to wait, and yet something continues to smoulder in me and last November that burning ember sparked into flame again. God challenged me to own the vision again, not as a wishful thought but by taking some action and I contacted some people I know and made some enquiries about a building that I believe God showed me, and the frustrating thing is that nothing seems to be happening still in terms of that place… yet, but in talking to people about this, something has changed. In many ways Kingfisher Treasure Seekers is already doing so much of what I saw back in 2003, a community where people are encouraged to be the best version of themselves, where people Continued on page 3
News from Kingfisher Church Congratulations all round!
Continued from page 2
are accepted with all their issues and loved into transformation. We are seeing people helped who don’t fit neatly into treatment boxes. Support at the Cavern has been running now for almost two years, open every evening between 6 and 11pm, that safe place of acceptance and belonging. There have been so many stories of how people have found a place of safety and support and it has been great for me to play a small part in that, but what has emerged is that there are a lot of people accessing support with drug and alcohol issues, not necessarily engaged in treatment, maybe not even thinking about change and we have an opportunity to make a difference here.
Congratulations to Becky and Charlie on the birth of Rory James Tyndall on 7th March and to Charlotte and Mike on the birth of Ruby Charlotte McGlynn on 6th April. On Sunday 20th May we welcomed Elijah Arthur Stokes to the Kingfisher family at his dedication service. Congratulations to Sharon and Tony Yelland who got married on 26th May and well done to Evie Howie, Ricci Harvey, Brad Dale, Evie Williams and Diane Harris who got baptised on 25th March.
Clockwise from top: Charlotte, Mike and Ruby McGlynn; Evie Williams getting baptised; Elijah Stokes and his family at his dedication service; Rory Tyndall; Tony and Sharon Yelland on their wedding day.
Following discussions with Jan Burn and Craig Tucker, we are now starting a group every Wednesday evening for that cohort of people, and we’re calling it Xchange, and I am so excited about this! It’s a safe place for people to start exploring change, to build relationship and hope that change is possible even when it comes to issues like addiction. I don’t know where this is leading yet but ‘Xchange’ is happening and what’s great is that it is within the wrap around services and support that is already in place at Treasure Seekers and here at Church. The vision of Kingfisher, set out over 25 years ago, was always for it to be a home for the most broken and hurting and I can see God’s hand in Xchange needing to be part of the bigger thing that has been established here over those years. Do we need an actual home for rehabilitation? Well I believe so but that is in God’s hands and in His timing. In the meantime we’ll do what we can do and leave the rest to Him. But can you join me in praying for this new work that is developing through Kingfisher? I would very much appreciate it!
News from Kingfisher Treasure Seekers Treasure Seekers themed discos are a hit! What time is it? It’s the end of the month. ‘And what does that mean?’ I hear you ask. It means.... Treasure Seekers themed discos! Running every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, our discos are fantastic, filled with karaoke, DJ’ing, tuck, and partying. However, during the last week of every month, we take our discos to a new level and theme it up! Our past themes have included a valentine’s ball, a Disney disco and a night at the Oscars and our most recent theme was Rock Night which was a big hit. We also announced that because of his dedication, hard work and willingness to go the extra mile, the amazing Carl was May’s volunteer of the month! Come and join us at the Treasure Seekers disco one day... what’s your song request?
News from Kingfisher Treasure Seekers The Lighthouse is open for clients The Lighthouse is Kingfisher Treasure Seekers new Day Opportunities Service. It has been designed to help adults with support needs access the community in a safe and enjoyable way as well as to support them to develop new skills or enhance existing ones.
In house learning activities can include cooking, computer/tablet skills, safety awareness, art, science projects and anything else that peaks your interest! Community activities include things such as sailing, all disability bike riding, going to the cinema, healthy walks and performing arts. We are open to all new ideas so if you want to try something different just let us know!
News from the Kingfisher Family Dumagat Education Program update On May 14th some of the Dumagat Tribe tribe came down from the village to participate and practice their right to vote in the last local election. Our DEP students were very instrumental in the voting process as they were given the privilege of writing down the candidate that their illiterate parents and other family members wanted to vote for, thereby minimising the chance of the locals taking advantage of them as minorities. The Dumagat children and their families stayed with Norlie and his family and with Nelia (our DEP treasurer in the Philippines) for two days while they were voting. As well as being fed while they were there, they were sent back up the mountain with sacks of rice, sugar and groceries to share with the rest of the families in the village.
Graduation and Recognition Day - 28th March Schools in the Philippines generally hold a graduation day at the end of the school year where they give recognition to all children who are graduating from primary to secondary school. At the same time they announce the honour students (those who are top of their class) to acknowledge their hard work for the whole year. In addition to the honour students there were four DEP pupils who are being accelerated 2/3 years ahead which is
a real testament to what can be achieved when children are given the opportunities they deserve.
Below left: The children enjoying lunch at the Graduation Day. Below: The four accelerated students: Mayit, Sofia, Eyyan and Monica with their mothers (except one).
News from the Kingfisher Family Youth Camp fun in the Philippines On Friday 18th May, Pastor Noels’ church in the Philippines held a youth camp. The Dumagat Education Program sponsored eight of the Dumagat youth so they were able to join the church youth activity.
Sunday 10th June 2018
GET INVOLVED WITH THE NEWSLETTER! In order for this newsletter to grow and develop, we need your help! If you go to any Kingfisher event and have taken a great photo, then please post it on our Facebook page or email it to Kirsty at info@kingfisher.org.uk. The copy deadline for the next issue (due out in September 2018) is 20th August. If you would like to get involved in the production of the next newsletter then email us with your particular area of interest. Hope you enjoy hearing all that is happening across the Kingfisher Family!
Kingfisher Church Moor Street Tredworth Gloucester GL1 4NJ
www.kingfisher.org.uk info@kingfisher.org.uk +441452 304339 Š Kingfisher Church, 2013