Flames
of Fire 2001
Some
observations from Vice Chairman Michael Bennett.
I
felt that we were especially blessed this year in a number of ways.
The weather was good until the Thursday, so it made life better for us
all, especially those camping; we
didn’t have the floods of last year.
It was good to see so many young people, well over a hundred with both
Big Ideas and with the Messengers, so we had over two hundred young people, a
sign that bodes well for the future.
I
was conscious this year of more people attending with deep spiritual needs.
It is always a privilege to minister and the Ministry Team, under the
leadership of Nick Jones, exercised a wonderful ministry.
It was wonderful to see people set free to serve the Lord in a deeper
way. We had a
goodly number of Day-Visitors including some people I had met at the Roman
Catholic Renewal Conference in Carmarthen the week before.
It
is my privilege to arrange the early morning worship which I know is greatly
valued by those who attend. As
always, Chris Daniel provided the music with great sensitivity and I and many
others are very grateful to him for his ministry.
I am also very grateful to Joan Hardie for her help as sacristan.
One
of my tasks is to keep a spiritual eye on the staff, many of whom find it
difficult to come to worship because of their duties.
We would meet at the end of each day for prayer, and the Wednesday night
was most memorable for the strength and depth of worship as we prayed against
the darkness that was affecting some of the young people on the camp-site.
Our
speakers gave us all food for thought.
Some points were made that did not please everyone, but no-one could say
that any of the speakers were dull as they provoked different reactions in
different people. In
fact, considering that we had nearly a thousand people through the doors of the
conference, it would have been surprising if we all agreed with every word.
What
was very evident was a wonderful spirit of prayer and praise.
As usual we had fine music from Bob Pitcher and his group, and people I
have spoken to since the conference have remarked on how uplifting the music
ministry was.
The
speakers were well balanced from the homeliness of Jennifer Rees-Larcombe to the
theological issues raised by Christina Baxter, and from the sound biblical
theology of Gerry Angel and Stuart Bell to the challenging prophetic issues
raised by Roger and Sue Mitchell.
It was good to meet Joel Edwards and see the new openness which has
emerged in the Evangelical Alliance under his leadership.
The
night of All-Age worship was truly memorable with the puppets (how the adults
loved them too) and the young people ministering alongside the adults.
Truly a most blessed time
and much credit must go to Dick Shenton, Val Rowlands, Roger Waggett and all who worked with them.
We hope that there was something for everybody who came, to build them up
in faith. One high point for me was blessing the
children at the Sunday morning Eucharist.
To me it was a true Eucharist in that all were one at the Lord’s table
regardless of tradition and denomination.
When God’s Spirit moves wonderful things happen and it was a privilege
to pray with people and see the Lord move.
It was good to see Mike Endicott with Yates and to experience
Mike’s very special ministry.
It was good also to see Tony and Shirley Nam and we pray that Shirley may
make a good recovery.
I believe that the Lord touched many lives during the week, there were traumatic moments but when God’s Spirit moves it is like a steel-making furnace that I once worked on in Sheffield. The metal is heated and the impurities float to the top of the molten metal. However when that happens they can be raked off as we used to do with a long tool called a ravel. God has been busy with His ravel removing the impurities and making fine steel out of his people. His Flames of Fire have melted stony hearts and raised up new people for Him. I hope and pray that this may continue and that Flames of Fire will grow more and more, and go from strength to strength in the Lord