A welcome place for all nations
Dear Partners and Friends of Welcome Network,
A new book by Bob and Mary Bain (available on Amazon, price £8.00).
What do you see coming out of the 2020 lockdown?
Launching after Lockdown takes a fresh look at what God is doing at this time in our lives. Bob and Mary encourage us to step out with prophetic insights on what may be next. A really helpful and prophetic guide to moving out of lockdown
Dear Partners and Friends of Welcome Network,
Once again it’s that time of year to look back and be thankful for all that God has been doing in us and through us as Welcome Network!
This Autumn, Bob brought a teaching word about Breaking up the fallow ground, when speaking at a local church in Alnwick. After questioning a farming friend about the ins and outs of ploughing nowadays, Bob ended up on a tractor with the farmer later that week!! In the farming calendar, it is certain that the better the ground is prepared, the better the harvest you can expect to reap! Our prayer for each one of us, is that our hearts will be open and receptive to God’s preparing work, so that we can all be fruitful in our lives and work in 2020!
Prayer and Worship have been so important in fuelling our united hunger for God to move across Northumberland! We have hosted two gatherings of Open Wells, in Alnwick this Autumn, together with others in the local area. Both meetings were encouraging as we welcomed new people, and were able to build up one another, during worship, prayer and small group sharing.
We have had good feedback from the Northumberland Prayer Net event held in September. Eighteen pop-up prayer groups took part, and we are hoping to do it again in 2020. As a result of this event, we are now working with several church groups along the Northumberland coastline with a vision to hold outdoor prayer meetings at the beacons on the evening of Pentecost Sunday next year. We are picking up on the ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ vision – that many would come to know Jesus Christ personally in our nation.
People continue to come and use our home as a place to take a break – a quiet space to pray and seek God. Recently we hosted an Alpha away day for one of the local churches with whom we relate. If you would like to visit our Prayer Garden (Albafarne) yourself (see https://quietgarden.org/gardens/albafarne/).
In Northern Europe, we made our first visit to Finland in October. We connected with the Evangelical Alliance there, and with some of the church leaders in Helsinki. We met and chatted with one gentleman who has been organising prayer across the whole city of Helsinki for many years. We are returning at the end of January to attend a National Day of Prayer for Finland and to teach and share about Prayer Walking, with a group of church leaders.
Please pray for good things to come out of the bits of media work we do! This year we have contributed to local radio programmes on Spark FM in Sunderland and Lion heart radio in Alnwick.
Locally, Mary is enjoying being part of the Open the Book Team, going into schools in our area to tell and act out Bible stories.
We are appreciating being part of local village life in Shilbottle! This November we co-ordinated the civic Remembrance Day service, and over the Christmas period we hope to deliver a prayer card and HOPE magazine through every door in our village.
A BIG thank you to all of YOU for your encouragement, support and prayers for us! We would not be able to do it without you!
Please keep in touch, and let us know how we can pray for you!
Much Love and a very Happy Christmas!
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. 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
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.
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
