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Thanking God For Revival - Andy Pilcher
May 29, 2002
We first sensed God working in new ways a few years ago when he changed our attitude to financial giving.
We had decided to redevelop our church to make it accessible for disabled people. This would cost £75,000. People started to say "where will we get the money from?" but I felt led to say, "that is not the right question. The question is "Is this what God wants?" As we prayed we all sensed that this was indeed what God wanted. It is quite common in the UK to take out loans for redevelopment work but I felt strongly that God was saying "No loans, Andy."
Within nine months the work was completed and paid for. Our attitude to giving had been changed - if something was God's will then he will touch people's haerts and release the necessary resources.
The next thing to happen was that God clearly led us to twin our church with a small independent church in Uganda (this is a separate testimony!) And as I made an initial visit from the UK to Uganda God said "The things you see in Uganda you will also see in Wales and the things you see in Wales, you will also see in Uganda."
I preached at a crusade in Uganda and saw over 100 people become Christians and many people healed. I saw much poverty and God very much laid the Ugandan people on my heart. This visit to Uganda was in January 1999. The membership of the church in Uganda stood at around 100 at this time.
We invited Pastor Fred Kasule to come from this church in Uganda for a visit to our church (Jerusalem Baptist Church, Briton Ferry, Wales) and we held some meetings 'Preparing for revival' I had become convinced that God was saying that revival was indeed coming to Wales. Many people's lives were touched by these meetings and God took us deeper into the things of the Holy Spirit.
A small team of 4 then went to Uganda to hold a Bible club for children (they had never had anything like this in Uganda!) 50 kids turned up and God did many mighty things among them.
We also held youth meetings and a crusade. Over 200 people became Christians.
We felt God leading us to start a child sponsorship Programme to help poor children get an education and get help with food, clothing and medical care - we took on the first 2 children.
Back in Wales we felt God saying "Revival will start today" and God started to move particularly touching the children and it was extremely moving to hear youg children calling out to God in prayer and laying their hands on adults and praying for them.
For the past 18 months we have seen God leading these children deeper and deeper into the things of God. This is having a knock-on effect with the adults.
Meanwhile we continue with our missions to Uganda. By January 2001 the church in Uganda (Cornerstone Christian Fellowship) had grown to 350.
We had over 300 children come to the Bible Club and we saw over 350 people become Christians during our two week mission.Again many people were healed and a number of people were delivered from demon possession.
The Child Sponsorship programme had grown to around 40.
We then felt God leading us to set up a Primary School, so the first two classrooms were built and the Cornerstone Parent's School was launched with 70 pupils.
In January of this year, 10 of us went to Uganda for the two-week mission.
Cornerstone Christian Fellowship has now grown to 850 (that is from 100 to 850 in three years!)We had over 650 children in the Bible Club, we saw over 550 people become Christians and we physically saw the proof of blind and deaf people healed.
We saw a big increase in the manifestations of demonically oppressed and possessed people but time and again we saw them being delivered as in the name of Jesus we have the victory.
Things in Wales continue to grow, although not yet at anywhere near the same speed as things in Uganda. But we are seeing people becoming Christians, we have seen more baptisms in the last few months. Many people are very open to the Holy Spirit and we continue to thank God that we are in the early days of revival.
Not everything has been easy. We have made mistakes and, no doubt, will continue to make mistakes! We have seen many good manifestations of the Spirit and some manifestations that have obviously not been of God! Our honest desire though is to be open to whatever God wants us to do and give all the glory to Him.
This is only a brief summary of what God has been doing over the past three years. Maybe I will write a fuller account someday!
Andy Pilcher - May 2002
Location: Briton Ferry, Wales, UK, United Kingdom
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