Dear Partners and Friends of Welcome Network ,
Mary and I have found it a real joy to be involved in organising, and participating in several worship and prayer initiatives this Summer, as well as hosting friends, groups and family members in our home. A busy and encouraging season, which also included our Ruby wedding anniversary and the marriage of our son, Matthew to the lovely Sharmila!
Our vision has always been that every person might experience the love and power of God, and know that they are accepted and belong, and we are excited that Welcome Network has now released us to be Village Chaplains in our local community of Shilbottle. This is on a part-time basis for a few hours each week. It gives a more formal framework for what we have already been doing here, as a presence and point of contact in the village.
We are continuing to help bring together an Open Wells worship gathering in Alnwick, every two months. It has been great to see this develop over the last year, with a core team in place and different ones getting involved. Our aim is to encourage and nurture the revival of our nation through the bringing together of the prayers, the worshippers and the prophetic.
We have also been spending a lot of time building relationships across the area; this has enabled us to set up a major prayer event this month, called the Northumberland Prayer Net – Eighteen pop-up prayer groups lifted up the county in prayer, in and around one weekend; specifically praying for healthy church relationships and mission.
Earlier in the year we facilitated two prayer groups in Sunderland and on Holy Island, as part of an event called Europeswells . People prayed across the whole of Europe at places where there was a history of revival. We chose these two places because of their significance over the years, in bringing spiritual blessing and change to our nation.
Various groups and individuals have visited our home and prayer garden, Albafarne, this year, to pray and draw near to God. It has been a joy to receive them. You are also very welcome to come! Bob met up with our local MP for the second time, at the annual National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast in June this year.
Helping churches – We continue to provide wide-ranging input and advice to ongoing or new, ministries and churches. We don’t charge for what we do, but support towards our work is always welcome.
This year, in Leicester and Wakefield, we delivered workshops on how to reach our culturally diverse communities with the gospel, and in November, we will be doing something similar at a revival conference in London. We have had the opportunity as well to do some workshops and talks, and a few radio programmes locally in the North East.
In our wider networking role, we have been grateful for the input of Christen Forster, as one of our charity’s directors (see jesuscentred.org). Also our long-term team members, Steve and Gemma Carder have recently returned from an exploratory mission trip to Columbia. We, ourselves, will be going to Finland in October, and hope to relate with various ministries there who have a passion for seeing unity in mission among the churches.
Last, but not least, we want to thank God for all of you, our Welcome Network team and supporters – you have been a great blessing in enabling us to develop this work together. Thank you for your prayers and financial giving. It has all helped, and we appreciate so much, your input into our lives! Let us know how you are doing.
Much Love from
Bob and Mary Bain XXX
Welcome Network, 29 Grange Road, Shilbottle, Alnwick NE66 2XN Mob:07988564299; e-mail: bobbain@hotmail.co.uk See our website blog for ministry news & info : welcomenetwork.org To support our work, please send gifts to Welcome Network, HSBC sort code 40-16-11 A/C no. 22141965 or use our giving link, https://www.give.net/welcomenetwork/oneoff
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