Barbados

Here’s the first instalment of our blog from Barbados. Please can you also include the video that can be found here https://www.dropbox.com/s/8d6f8s4oy5i0m0a/Barbados%201.mp4?dl=0

Many thanks,

David

Aldersgate Renewal Ministries-UK (ARM-UK) http://aldersgaterenewal.org.uk has been operating since 2012. The nature of our ministry is to run team-led renewal weekends at local churches teaching, giving testimony to and experiencing the work and ministries of the Holy Spirit. Our friends in ARM in the US have been ministering in this way for nearly 40 years and they helped us a great deal when we were establishing the ARM ministry in the UK.

One person who in the US who has become a very good friend to ARM-UK is Rev Dr Frank Billman who wrote a book called The Supernatural Thread in Methodism https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18113637-the-supernatural-thread-in-methodism. This book was picked up by Rev Derick Richards who was the Superintendent of Barbados and is now the Bishop of the Southern Caribbean and he invited Frank to come and teach at the seminary in Barbados. As they got to know one-another the idea of developing the Aldersgate Renewal Ministry in Barbados began to grow and since the Methodist Church in Barbados has very strong links culturally and from a heritage point of view with British Methodism it was decided that a team from ARM-UK would be invited to come to Barbados to run two ‘Life in the Spirit Experience’ (LISE) events.

The World Church Relationships office have been very supportive of this trip and we hope that as you read some of our experiences over the next ten days you and your church will hold the Methodist Church throughout the world in your prayers and consider partnering with a church so that you can grow together as you learn from one-another. If you want to know more about this then contact the WRC.

So now we are here and most of us feel a mixture of excitement and bewilderment! Excitement, because there is a real sense that God has had his hand on all of the planning and arrangements. Excitement too because the church here is full of great anticipation and feel that this could be the beginning of a time of renewal for them. There is also bewilderment – how is it that a group of ordinary Methodists from ordinary Methodist Churches in the UK can be called by God to be a part of this great adventure?

So who are these ordinary folk?

David & Julie Winstanley
Ian & Sue Worrall
Paul Strange
Alison Paling
Mark Tennyson
David Watson
Louise Patrick
Andrew Whysall
Anna Sims
Charlotte Winstanley
Rosie Goddon
Bradley Smith
Kaupo Kant (Estonian Methodist Church)

Please pray for those who are serving on this team.
Pray for the churches and people we will be ministering with, especially the two churches where the LISE events will be held – James Street and Vauxhall.
Pray that God will pour out his Holy Spirit on all those who gather in his name in Barbados in the coming days.

Peace & Blessings
David Winstanley