New Community Church Conference 2009 - WOW

Wow, thats the way to start the report on the New Community Church's yearly conference that definately started and finished with a bang, entitled 'Turning The Church Inside Out'

FRIDAY 16th October, this was the start with an opening time of celebration with our eleven piece band, this included celebration of colour with a word given from two years previous, pictorials, dancers and pyrotechnics. The culmination of the evening was our two guest speakers knelt in place to confess the shortcomings of those in the past in relation to the church. The meeting ended up in a further time of celebration and ministry

SATURDAY 17th October AM, an early start being at Central Hall for 0745hrs to open up and prepare the visuals for the start of the session. After a short time of Celebration Mark Stibbe from 'The Fathers House Trust' spoke on the subject of 'Healed for the Harvest' with scripture from John chapter 4 and three stages of healing:- 1) - IN - The Healing of our wounded hearts : 2) - UP - Falling in love with Abba Father : 3) - OUT - Witnessing out of Love not Law. The final point of the presentation was this, 'Hurting People end up Hurting People BUT Free People set People Free.

SATURDAY 17th October PM, This session started after a time of fellowship and lunch with praise and worship and then into the word bought by our second guest speaker Marc Dupont of Mantle of Praise Ministries who spoke on different aspects of some of the parables and how they related to our current situation as a church and ended with a time of personal ministry relating to the different things we had heard. It was also an oportunity to pray for Mark Stibbe and the work he's doing in the UK. During this time a sacrificial offering was taken up for Marks Ministy and the only coin I had was a 10p, that went into that offering and turned out to be significant as you will find out later in this report. After a while the afternoon session was bought to an end, and so the times of ministry came to an end, all that was left was the social evening after a time of getting the stage ready for the live stage act.

SATURDAY 17th October PM Party, an event not to forget with the Chichester based tribute band 'The Delorians' set to perform two sets of music from the Fifties to current day.
Well they arrived and were quickly set up and as quickly sound checked and were soon ready to go. At 2000hrs the band start up and it's not long before the floor is filled with dancers and that is the way it was for the whole evening. At the end of the first set there was a break when food was served and people could top up their drinks. Half an hour of break time and then it was back to the dance floor for the rest of the evening. But soon enough the second set is soon over and the day draws to an end and again it's get the hall ready for the Sunday morning meeting, although there were things that should have been done that didnt get done until the before the evening meeting, oh well I'm sure God was not worried.

That was the happenings off the 2009 New Community Church Conference, but things spilled over into the Sunday meetings and was very much the case of the Central Evening meeting where ministry was a very big part of the meeting and Marc Dupont spoke again.

After this weekend I ask the question of "How do we trust God for our financial needs?" and it's about time I shared part of my testimony. Since I've lived in Southampton I have never been as financially well off as when I lived in Essex, but have always felt I was in the place God has wanted me to be. Over the time there have been periods when my income has not been enough to cover my outgoings and so Ive not known how to make ends meet. But God in his infinite wisdom has given me just enough to cover the outgoings when I've looked to him for his guidence and help. The most recent example of this happened last Saturday at the church conference. During the afternoon there was a chance for some sacrificial giving of money to one of our guest speakers. All the money I had on me was one 10p coin and I went out and put that in the pool of money that was collecting on the stage, not having any worry about where the next lot was going to come from and the need to get my car taxed and MOT'd. Anyway as the day progressed the answer came. It was during the party on Saturday evening that I had a phone call from my sister, with the news that the cheque that was due to arrive from my brother had done so was £300.00 more than previously thought to be and so it was only by Gods doing that this was a bigger sum. So this was one of the ways I see God helping me in my time of need and will help anyone who trusts God, so thank you God for this assistance and thank you for such a blessing over the weekend.