FEBRUARY 2013 ISSUE 6

So much is happening in the Kingfisher Network at the moment. The international work is gathering pace in Malawi, Mozambique and India. The Social Enterprise is growing, with the shop, Treasure Seekers, proving to be a popular and successful venue in Gloucester, enabling around 12 people to gain valuable work experience. Treasure Seekers Performing Arts now has around 100 people signed up for the various workshops that are on offer. This month sees the publication of James's latest book, "High Impact Christians in a low expectation world". This year is 'all systems go' in a number of different areas. So what are the focusses that Jesus Christ particularly has for us over the next twelve months? Here are three particular focusses that I believe are set before us:

Focus #1: International development. With the launch of the network in India, where 18 church leaders have been recognised and commissioned, a further development is being launched this month, in the shape of a new training centre for church leaders. Simon Haq, our new National Director, is renting a building in the region of Uttar Pradesh that will serve as a residential centre for leaders, at which the Kingfisher courses will be taught. In addition to this, looking ahead to 2014, plans are beginning to be formed for a large scale youth conference. If you would like to be part of this adventure, start saving now! In Mozambique, the

land for training centre has already been purchased. The team who are visiting this year will travel there and pray over and consecrate that land. The

next faith challenge is to work with the Christians in Mozambique to enable a building to be erected on that land, a training centre where future pastors and leaders can come and be trained . The next trip over there then will be to open and commission that building.

Focus #2: Changing the landscape through prayer. Our very first International Day of Prayer occurred on January 27th (see the article elsewhere in this Newsletter) signalling an increased focus on this vital aspect. In addition to this, each local church is encouraged to turn to prayer with increasing passion, with each church organising regular, church-wide prayer meetings. Pray for revival in our nations, in our communities, in our churches!

Focus #3: Three specific words that God is flagging up in this coming year. I believe God is saying three things in particular to us this year: HOPE, HOMECOMING, HARVEST.

HOPE: This is about moving from what God CAN do to what God IS GOING to do. What he CAN do is relatively easy to talk about and believe in. He can move mountains, he can heal the sick, he can raise the dead, and can cause miraculous provision, he can turn whole nations to himself. We would have no problem in agreeing to all of that. But a rather more faith-stretching question is: what is he GOING to do? What do we have faith for this year? To answer that question, where we need to start is with the promises that we believe he has made us, and we need to make a firm choice to believe them. God has made many prophetic promises to us over the years, but we have seen one particular promise he made to us nearly 20 years ago worked out in our lives over the years: Isaiah 54:11-17. This has proved to be an authentic word of God for us, that we have seen coming to pass over these 20

years, and, in the light of that promise, the challenge is to not just agree that yes, God CAN DO these things, but we are actually called to LIVE in the promise, to believe that he not only CAN DO these things, he WILL DO these things. So, the call is to live in and step out in the belief that he will. My belief is that God's default position is not one of getting us to dig in and soldier on through increasingly hard times. His default position is BLESSING. Weeping may remain for a night, but JOY comes in the morning.

HOMECOMING: This is the year for praying for prodigals to return. A survey commissioned by TEAR Fund has identified that there are around 16.2 million people in the UK who have wandered away from church. TEAR Fund refers to them as 'de churched', but the Bible would call them Prodigals. God's heart breaks when even one sheep wanders away (Luke 15:4) - so how must he feel when 16.2 million wander? He is calling his church, as a matter of urgency, to pray for the return of the prodigals. Who do you know who has wandered away? Will you commit to praying each day for their return?

HARVEST: Yes, in terms of people - Tredworth is having a large baptism service in February, which is a great statement of intent on this. But the theme of harvest is more than that; this is about the harvest of God's promises to us. Last year was a breakthrough year, with all the battles and trials that came with it, and this year is about reaping the harvest of that breakthrough. If God has promised then he will deliver, and I believe that 2013 is his time for delivering on them. That applies, not just for Kingfisher the network, but for individuals who call Kingfisher their home; so this is a great time to belong to a Kingfisher church!

Where are we headed in 2013?

THE NETWORK

SIMON HAQ

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heave." (Matthew 18:19, NIV)

Prayer is a powerful thing. Agreeing together in prayer brings an added dimension of power. So, when thousands of people from three different continents, representing five different nations, come together in agreement on the same day to pray for God's intervention in this world, you can be sure something powerful and profound is going to happen.

This is the belief behind the International Day of Prayer that happened on Sunday, January 27th 2013. Believers from the UK, Spain, Malawi, Mozambique and India joined together in spirit to pray for our nations, in the belief that, as Alfred Tennyson put it, 'More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.'

We love and serve the God "...who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." (Ephesians 3:20 NIV). And so, on Sunday, January 27th, we came together to cry out to him for change in our nations, for breakthrough, for mercy...and for Revival!

The Lord once said to Moses, "Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!" (Numbers 11:23, NLT). The answer to that question remains the same today as it was then - he is still all-powerful, all-merciful and completely committed to answering the prayers that we agree upon and lift to him.

International Day of Prayer

Twins Christmas PartyThe Twins and Multiples group had a

Christmas party with a difference in 2012, with a lunchtime barbecue, hot soup and mince

pies. Around 25 families came to celebrate and enjoyed a special visit from Father Christmas.

Twins group meets every Wednesday, 10-11.30am during term time, at Kingfisher Tredworth so if you know anyone who has young twins (or multiples!) please tell them

about our group.

Sunday, January 27th - the day when thousands came together in agreement and prayed for him to move mightily once more in this world! So what was being prayed for?

SPAIN

Number one need for Spain - God’s solution for the economic crisis. Unemployment is running at 30% and the country has gone from boom to bust in just 5 years.

Number one spiritual need in Spain - Unity in the Holy Spirit. There are historical division between protestants which leads to a divided church and a negative witness. To reach a new generation of lost people.

Number one need for the church in Spain - More Spanish leaders with finding, gifting and theological training to lead the church forward, rather than just maintain it.

INDIA

Number one need for India - A breakthrough regarding spiritual blindness. Christianity has increased from less than 2% to 5% in just a few short years, but the majority are Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

Number one spiritual need in India - Church unity and that Christians may grow in love together.

Number one need for the church in India - Resources to reach the unreached. A new training centre for new church leaders to be trained, equipped and sent out to plant new churches.

MALAWI

Number one need for Malawi - A good harvest with rain at the right time. There is great hunger because of lack of rain during the planting season.

Number one spiritual need in Malawi - Training for Christians to increase spiritual depth and understanding. Church unity.

Number one need for the church in Malawi - Funding for construction of accommodation block for training college and for roofing for many Kingfisher churches. Continued blessing of Aids Orphan project. Financial blessing so that the church in Malawi can contribute to running Kingfisher mission work worldwide.

MOZAMBIQUE

Number one need for Mozambique - Pray for economic revival - there is huge poverty in this country.

Number one spiritual need in Mozambique - Growth in understanding of the Gospel and effective discipleship.

Number one need for the church in Mozambique - Training of church leadership. There is very little theological knowledge amongst christian leaders in Mozambique. God’s provision to enable teachers to continue to travel from Malawi. Funds to build a leadership training centre - the college is already up-and-running and achieving great things. Bibles in the local language.

UK

Number one need for the UK - For healing for our broken society... broken in terms of family breakdown, relationship breakdown, economic breakdown and community breakdown.

Number one spiritual need in the UK - A turning to Jesus Christ to provide the moral and spiritual lead this country so needs.

Number one need for the church in the UK - That the church would find its true place at the centre of society, leading the way in terms of societal reform, bringing hope and direction to those who are spiritually lost. For a belief in the transforming, supernatural power of God, as revealed in the Bible, to once again be at the centre of the way the church lives and acts. For Godly leaders to be raised up, equipped and released to lead the church forward in this nation.

And above all, for revival in each nation! The power of agreement (Matthew 18:19) is such that we can have confidence that great things were set in motion as a result of this day. And of course, these prayers are ongoing. Let's use this Day of Prayer as a springboard to passionate prayer for the nations, believing God's promise: “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. (Habakkuk 1:5 NLT)

International Day of Prayer

Kingfisher Network in Africa - Opportunities in 2013

Amazing as it may seem, the Kingfisher Malawi AIDS Orphan Appeal has been running now for over two years. This project began in 2010 following a trip some folks from Kingfisher in the UK made to visit our friends in Africa. Many hundreds of people attend Kingfisher Network churches in Malawi each week.

During their trip, the UK team saw the work that many church families were doing by fostering, helping and supporting children left homeless and destitute by AIDS. On returning from Malawi, we asked…”even though we live far away, what can we do practically to help these foster families and the orphans they are caring for?” And so, the plan to financially enable a school education for the orphans was born.

Before 2010 drew to a close, we had gathered a willing group of sponsors to help these Malawian foster parents who simply could not afford to pay the ongoing school fees themselves.

Fast forward to today. For the second year in a row, over seventy sponsors (most from Kingfisher in the UK but including some international sponsors from Canada and Austria) have received a Report on their child’s academic progress. This year, we have added a recent photograph to the School

Report. It is marvelous to see how the kids have changed in the two years we have been supporting them. It is wonderful too to see that they are healthy…and thriving.

A new UK Kingfisher team will return to Malawi in May 2013. This will be a time to visit the local Kingfisher churches in and around the city of Blantyre, to bring our love and encouragement to them there.

This upcoming trip will also present an opportunity to visit the neighboring country of Mozambique. A small group of Kingfisher churches have already launched there and have been running for a few years. Our visit will be our opportunity to launch and commission Kingfisher Network in this nation!

One of the Kingfisher leaders in Mozambique, Fuloresi Dempster, has been at the center of what God is doing there. Our visit in 2013 will be an opportunity to recognize her as apprentice Kingfisher National Director overseeing the work in Mozambique. Fuloresi will be coached and mentored by Charles Mithowa, who has acted as Kingfisher National

Director in Malawi for the last 10 years.

In 2011, Kingfisher Network purchased a plot of land in Mozambique with a view to build our first Leadership Training Center there. We already have two such centers in Malawi. We plan to meet with the Kingfisher churches to commission this land to be used in the training of Christian Leaders to build the Kingdom of God in that nation.

God has great plans to reach and transform the lives of many Africans thru the ministry of Kingfisher Network. We have watched this happening in Malawi over the last ten years. We look forward to seeing what God will do through our friends in Mozambique in the years to come!

ABOVE: SOME OF THE CHILDREN’S SCHOOL REPORTS

News from Kingfisher Brockworth

EMMA RIMMER

Emma comes from Brockworth and is a devoted and loving mother of 5 children and has been a part of the Kingfisher Brockworth family from the beginning (October 2011). Emma was interviewed by Mike and shared how parts of her life have been tough, but knowing that God loves her and is her saviour carried her through and as a result she wanted to let the world know how much she loves Him - such a great testimony!

JOEL PERRY

Joel is 11 years old and has been part of the Kingfisher family since he was a wee young man. If you’ve ever met Joel, you’ll know he is a very outgoing, friendly kid who is always planning and creating stuff. Many of us feel he has great leadership potential, but I can’t say too much or he might get a swell head!! And wow, how many people did he invite; we were literally bursting at the seams - so many of Joel’s friends and family heard his great testimony, which he executed with a maturity beyond his years. Well done Joel!

The Big Plunge! Baptisms, December 2012

Last month on a freezing cold Sunday morning, two of our congregation took the plunge and got baptised. They both decided to publicly nail their colours to Jesus’ mast and draw a line in the sand to show their commitment to God.

Despite it being a cold December morning, the sun did make a welcomed appearance and so it was Pastor Mike and Ian who had the privilege of baptising them both in our specially prepared heated paddling pool (thanks to Dave Parry)! I’m pleased to say they both survived the dunk (Joel did take a bit of extra persuading!!) but obviously got a little bit wet so whilst they got towelled off, the rest of us worshipped God and finished off with everyone praying for both Joel and Emma - what a great day!

This year after making some great relationships with three of the local Churches in Brockworth, we came together as one body to pray and to seek the Lord for how we could help families in need in the community over Christmas time and the new year.

During our prayer time we sensed the Lord speak to us about one specific family whom we had heard about through the local media. At the time, finding a way to sensitively contact the family seemed a challenge but we continued to pray. Within the week our prayers were answered and the door had opened for us to find out the specific needs of the family and to provide them with a much needed gift of food vouchers and a beautiful Christmas cake baked by Tanya Judd.

The family, who are not involved with a Church and had recently moved to the area, were overwhelmed by the generous gifts and made immediate contact with us at Kingfisher to thank everyone in all the Churches who had contributed to the gift.

It was so wonderful to have heard God’s voice through prayer and then to watch him open doors to meet their needs and to see his love reach the lives of people who are struggling. We are continuing to pray for the family and continue to seek God’s voice as to how we can support them and encourage them both practically & spiritually.

It was also very encouraging and moving to see our Church family actively wanting to give of their money during such an expensive season and using their gifts to bless those within our own Church and the local community. You could see on their faces how happy it made them to serve others by shopping for Christmas food & goodies, wrapping hampers and baking cakes.

We are very much looking forward to all the Lord has in store for us all, both his Church and the Brockworth Community, in 2013.

Churches in Brockworth serving

together

COMING UP AT KINGSWAY

This year sees some change for Kingfisher Church Kingsway. Our Pastor, Katie Tucker, is going on maternity leave in March and so Kingfisher Kingsway are delighted to announce the appointment of Shaun Russell as assistant Pastor of the church. He will become Acting Pastor in March and we are excited that at a time of transition God has provided someone called and gifted for this role. We look forward to seeing all that God will do through him and through the church in this coming year.

Kingfisher Kingsway had a wonderful Christmas this year with a fantastic nativity service, where we were treated to the nativity story with a modern twist, including mobile phones and three extremely smart geeks/wise men! The week after we had an absolutely jam packed Christingle service, where children and adults alike enjoyed making christingles. We delivered leaflets to the whole community, had carol afternoons at CoCo, the local coffee shop and were delighted to welcome many visitors to these great services.

Before that we had our Little Fishes Christmas Party. This was held in the local community centre as our usual room at the Children’s Centre simply wasn’t big enough for all the families from both Little Fishes groups!!

Christmas at Kingsway

We have been talking and praying a lot about our vision for the coming year and we feel that God is still calling us to be wholeheartedly following Him, and being wholehearted in 3 areas: Community, Discipleship and Giving. As a response we are going to be focusing much on next steps - believing that no matter what stage of their Christian walk, everyone has a next step to take in becoming more like Jesus. This year we will focusing on running foundations courses, Shaped for Significance courses, encouraging people into small groups and engaging with serving. As a response to the call to build community we will holding an exciting event over Easter! As part of our Easter Celebration Weekend we will be holding ‘Easter in the Park’ - a community event designed to showcase different ministries and provide the opportunity to invite people to our Easter Sunday service. With Kingsway Residents Association and QUVL (the owners of the park) behind the event and support from the local Children’s Centre in opening up their toilet facilities to us and the local coffee shop providing refreshments it is set to be a great community event. Please join with us in praying for good weather and great opportunities to invite people to Church.

Resources

2012 was a year of great growth for Kingfisher Resources. In the past 12 months we have:

✦ Registered as a publishing house

✦ Published ‘I’m Still Standing’

✦ Published ‘Called to Leadership’ and ‘Level 1’ of the leadership training course

✦ Are almost ready to publish ‘Level 2’

✦ Developed and launched an app for iphone and android

✦ Saw the continuation of ‘The Network’

✦ Have seen our leadership training course been used in the UK, Spain and India

and that’s on top of our growing Resources website that has had orders from as far away as the USA.

So what next for Kingfisher Resources?

Well 2013 sees the release of James Burn’s next book - ‘High Impact Christians in a low expectation world’.

This book is available from the Resources Website (www.resources.kingfisher.org.uk), church, or Amazon.co.uk as a Kindle ebook.

We will also soon see the launch of the leadership training level 2 workbook and check out the next newsletter for details of our plans for an event in October!

www.resources.kingfisher.org.uk

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Hope you enjoy hearing all that is happening across the Kingfisher Network!

Kingfisher NetworkKingfisher ChurchMoor StreetTredwothGloucesterGL1 4NJ

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© Kingfisher Church, 2012