What a terrific day Sunday was! Initially we were only baptising five but three more felt they had procrastinated enough and wanted to be baptised also. On top of that we said “Hello” to our new pastor and his family and “goodbye for the summer” to some students with a Church Lunch and book stall. With sixteen baptisms in three months, I sense growing momentum among us. Exciting stuff.

Sunday 22nd June is Elim’s World Missions Sunday which is always the Sunday nearest to the anniversary of the Vumba Massacre which took place on 23rd June 1978 in Zimbabwe. On that day nine Elim Missionaries and four of their children were brutally attacked and killed. If you want to find out more, download the Vumba brochure from the Elim Missions Website. On World Missions Sunday please pray for the families of those who lost their lives. Pray too for all our missionaries and national workers that they will receive a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to enable them to reach people with the gospel.

NORTH KOREA

Please join Christians worldwide for a Global Week of Prayer for North Korea from 23rd-29th June to pray for change in this nation. North Korea is one of the most repressive and isolated countries in the world. Opposition to the gospel is extremely harsh and from a young age North Koreans are taught to worship their leader. Those who escape to China are forcibly returned to suffer torture and even execution. Pray that:

· the enforced idolatry will be broken and there will be religious freedom

· God will uphold believers living in this hostile environment and give them strength and protection

· Christians who do manage to escape will not be detected

· those seeking to take the gospel to North Korea will be protected and the Holy Spirit will guide them and give them wisdom in all they do

· the gospel will spread and the church grow

EAST AFRICA

Pray for Paul Hudson, West & East Africa Missions Director, who will be visiting East Africa 23rd-27th June. Pray for safe travelling and good meetings.

ELIM MISSIONS SHORT TERM TEAMS

A training day for those going to Romania and India takes place on 24th June in Manchester. Pray this will be a good time of fellowship and learning for those attending.

WEST ASIA

Pray for the K family who have returned from West Asia to settle back in the UK. Pray that all the good work they did in the country they were in will bear fruit in the days ahead. Pray for the family as they settle back in and that they will find the right accommodation, work and schools quickly.

SOUTH KOREA

Jonathan and Sungjoo Aird are the proud parents of a son, Lawrence Irenaeus, born 18th June, a brother for Elizabeth, Amethyst and Jesse. Continue to pray for Amethyst who has been diagnosed with scoliosis and may need surgery. There has been some improvement, pray this will continue.

HONDURAS

Some great news just received. Walter and Valerie Huezo have been holding youth meetings over three days and 30 young people have been saved and set free by the power of God. Pray that they will grow in their new faith. Walter and Valerie believe that God will move mightily through the youth of Honduras.

TURKEY

Thank you for your prayers for Phil’s mother. After two months of not been able to get out of bed and eating very little, she has recovered really well and is out of bed, eating and talking. Pray that this answer to prayer will bring Phil’s family to know Jesus as their Saviour.

ZIMBABWE

Only God can change the situation in Zimbabwe and together our prayers can make a difference. If you are able, please join with us at either 8 am, 1 pm or 8 pm each day for just one minute to pray for change in Zimbabwe. Thank you.

Members of our church were martyred in 1978 in Zimbabwe. The event is being remembered in an Early Day Motion. See below.

Simpson, David

That this House notes that 23rd June 2008 will mark the 30th anniversary of the Vumba Massacre of British missionaries by members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army in the former Rhodesia that resulted in the murder of nine missionaries and four children; further notes that all were associated with the Elim Pentecostal Church..

See the British Parliament website for the rest of the Early Day Motion

On Thursday the 5th June, at 12.00 noon, two mini buses full of students from churches all around the city of York set off for London. The event? Passion London. There would be a well known American Speaker/Pastor/Evangelist there, Louie Giglio but for most they just didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see three great musical acts for £5! Normally, it would cost at least three times as much to see Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin or Dave Crowder Band as individual acts but £5 for all three it was an unmissable opportunity.

Six hours later and we were there! There were huge queues outside the Apollo theatre in Hammersmith London, hundreds long. Some of us arrived a little later than the 7.00pm start time because we wanted to grab a bite to eat. It was an overwhelming experience walking into the theatre with nearly 3,000 people all worshiping with one of the best worship leaders around, Chris Tomlin.

Passion had requested that everyone bring a bath towel and three pairs of socks for man, woman and child. These were to be given to the needy in London. About 1300 towels (and three times as many socks) were collected! My favourite act of the evening was probably Dave Crowder Band. Even secular music critics rate his music highly. I really like the simple, yet beautiful, poetry of the following lyrics from “He Is Our King”:

“And what was said to the rose to make it unfold
Was said to me, here in my chest
So be quiet now, and rest
So be quiet now, and rest.”

You can hear the whole of “He Is Our King” on the Dave Crowder Band myspace page. For the What? Who? Where? And Why? of the Passion Conferences, it’d would be best just to direct you to their website, here. It was an unforgettable night, I got home to York at 5.00am! There’s a few pictures below and a youtube video of Dave Crowder band here. I shot the video with my phone so it won’t win any oscars for cinematography, considering this it’s pretty decent anyway.

Radio York have informed us that our next programme will be broadcast Sunday 25th May 7am & 7pm.

We have heard of three Club / Club Classic Apartments available for the Elim Bible Week 2008.  Details are as follows:

Apt 1 sleeps 6 people (Club).  Deposit of £100.00 already paid - remainder to pay is £585.00

Apt 2 sleeps 5 people (Club).  Deposit of £100.00 already paid - remainder to pay is £495.00

Apt 3 sleeps 5 people (Club Classic).  Deposit of £100.00 already paid - remainder to pay is £555.00

Please note the parties concerned do not require the £100.00 deposit to be returned to them.

Anyone interested in one or more of the above chalets should contact us at: “mailREMOVE@york-epc.org.uk”.  Please act quickly if you are interested.

Thank you all of you who have been praying.

Many in our church locally, including friends now scattered in various nations, have known about our efforts to enlarge our ministry team to cope with the rapid growth in our church. We have talked with a few people over the past two years but each time it ended up without an appointment.

I am delighted to announce that Matthew Parkins will be joining us from the beginning of June. Matthew and his wife Joanne have worked in Sheffield at St Thomas’s, then more recently in a church in Australia. They arrive with their daughter Scarlett.

Matthew has his own blog (click here) where you can see a video of Scarlett dancing.

House-hunting will be occupying them over the next few weeks, so you if you know of anywhere nice to rent let us know. Probably not the one advertised on my blog!

Again, thank you to all who have been praying about this appointment. I am so relieved. I think they will fit very well.

A great crowd gathered in York Minster on Sunday May 11th for the Global Day of Prayer.

We were called together to pray by a great trumpet blast then we prayed in various formats, led by various people through the evening.

There was a joint ‘act of turning’ as we forgave, confessed our personal sin and that of our nation.

The church leaders of the city and surrounding areas were called out into the great aisle of the Nave of York Minster as we prayed for them, releasing a blessing and calling for the spirit of Jesus to form the fruits of Galatians 5 in their lives.

We called out for revival, then began a ‘prayer parade’ as we walked around a 12 part display in the minster, past prayer points for our council, education and health services, police, churches and the many facets of greater York.

We prayed for our world, with the nations of Burma and Zimbabwe very much on our hearts. After focusing on some youth issues we all joined together for the world prayer and declarations. Representatives of various nations from our church led the closing world prayer.

At the close the Lord Mayor and her party lead us out of the building with flaming torches. Outside church leaders and those from Elim who had led the world prayer, had already formed a huge semi-circle with flaming torches held high, surrounding the crowds with fire as Graham led the final prayer on the steps of the Minster.

Another great act of unity has taken place in our city. We must continue to call upon God for revival in our city and nation.

See the report on the One Voice York website.

It was great to hear what George Critchley is planning once he leaves us at the end of his time at uni.

He told the church on Sunday that he is going to work as an intern for a Christian charity called Damaris that produces teaching resources to schools and churches.

Their vision is to create people that are both biblically informed, and culturally informed, with the ability to relate the two. With this in mind, they do a thing called ‘CultureWatch’ which looks through secular films for an underlying message that asks questions about life, as well as seeing what answers the Bible and a life with God provide.

This interests us as our church likes to be aware of contemporary culture, having an occasional “culture watch” small group, discussing books and films.

George will be involved in shooting, directing, and editing the short films that do this kind of work. See the short he made while he was down there

See another example of their approach here.

Damaris be working on an account for Disney, producing resources about the Narnia film, Prince Caspian.

George’s internship is unpaid, though they will provide money to cover bed and board for the three/four months he is working there. Our church leadership has decided to make a small contribution from our mission fund.

We were recorded for BBC Radio York on the Wednesday evening. Church members come together specially and the musicians did a great job.

However, the day afterwards it became apparent that the sound quality was not good enough. So on Sunday 4th May we were recorded during our main Sunday morning meeting. It was broadcast on Julia Booth’s programme yesterday.

You can hear it by going to Julia’s programme and we are on about three minutes after the start of the show.

This link should get you there.

A big “Thank you” to all who helped.