What an incredible day. I’m exhausted so I’ll just hit the
bullet point here and post pics with a little more detail later. Red Hills is
located a short walk from the village of Snitterfield. We walked the 15 minutes there this morning
and held our worship time in St James the Great Cathedral, “The villagers who
established this Church more than 900 years ago built it in the faith that it
would stand through the succeeding centuries as a witness to the unchanging
truths of Christian belief.” Some of the parishioners joined us, They were very
welcoming and seemed hungry for the presence of the Lord. We had an incredible
time of ancient –future worship and intercessory prayer. Truly one of the
highlights of my worship leading experiences. Can’t wait to see the pics.
After lunch my co-leader, Ollie and I assembled the worship
team folks and progressed through over three hours of rehearsal and
set-up. Multi-national,
multi-cultural, and multi-generational. Did I mention it rained? It rained all
day (this is an outdoor event). It rained before, it rained during, it rained
afterwards. Fortunately our positive attitudes, as well as the marquee (tent in
American) held up pretty good and the stage stayed mostly dry, just a few drips
here and there.
The opening ceremony began at 7pm with the loudest downpour
of the entire time. Yet the tent was full, our hearts were overflowing and we
had an incredible evening as this gathering of nations poured their hearts out
to God in praise, adoration and intercession. We then heard testimonies from
many people of how God had touched their lives. The highlight for me was Levi’s
story (our drummer from Romania).
He shared how he became a Christian after missionaries showed him the love of
Jesus and how Sozo (and Randall) had impacted his life. “Sozo teaches you how
to be sensitive to people who are not like you.” God has not given up on Europe
and He is raising up good people with a passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The two oldest of Levi & Lili’s children played with us
on the worship team, Anna (13) played violin. David (9) is very talented on the
piano and played hand drums with us tonight, What a joy, they are the next
generation of Sozo nation.
After this amazing time (all outdoors in the pouring rain)
we had Café Sozo in “The Barn”. The Blackham family band (from England)
performed as did Nashvillian Tammy
Rochele who just happened to be in England. We ended at 11. A very long but
glorious day, even if the weather was foul, there was sunshine in our hearts
and it shined very bright.
With any luck I’ll post pics later. Appreciate your prayers.