I have just got back from a great week at Easter People. I want to journal my thoughts and impressions from the week before I forget them. It would be most helpful for me to run through each day as it happened. I hope that it comes out clear for you.

Monday 12th
The day started early as we set off just after 8:00am. Our journey to Southport was fine and we arrive around 12:00. We went straight to the Royal Clifton Hotel where we were staying but were not able to check in as the rooms were not ready. So we went over to QV's which was to be our venue for the week. Just before 1:00 Jonathan Knight arrived and we started to take the equipment up. Over the next 4 hours various team members arrived and we got the venue sorted so that by 5:00pm it looked fairly ready. By then Helen and the kids
had checked in to the hotel and we had dinner there. Our first line managers meeting happened at 8:00pm and lasted 1 1/2 hours. It was largely dull with lots of discussion about details that did not concern me. After this Andy F and I met up with Chris F and some of our team and the band in a nearby pub. The team members were staying in a church some way away. Andy, Chris and I headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Tuesday 13th
Tuesday started with a great breakfast. We went to the venue at 9:00am and spent the day setting up. The band got themselves sorted and the venue was ready by lunchtime. We had our first team meeting at 1:00pm and I tried to set the scene as best I could. I told the team that I wanted us to be united behind the vision and goals of EP and build relationships between each other that would benefit us and the punters. The most important thing that happened in this meeting was the prayer. A precedent of loud, united, enthusiastic prayer was set and this stayed during the week. This was to play a key role in the life of the team and the venue. Mid afternoon Martin Scott phoned to say that he had arrived. We had dinner together in the hotel at 5:30 and went back to the venue for a team meeting at 6:30. The first evening celebration began at 7:00.The band were great, as they were all week (in fact I was very pleasantly surprised at how good they sounded all week) and the meeting went well. The only thing I was slightly disappointed in was the turn out, we had around 60-75 people and this number remained constant all week, however as the week went on we realised that the atmosphere and quality of the people was far more important than numbers. Martin spoke on the call of God and had the following three points: 1. Your call is personal 2. Your call is for a purpose and 3. Your call is risky (for you and God). He spoke really well and at the end began to prophesy. He ended the talk by speaking about his name (James Martin Scott) and then asked people with the same middle name as their parent’s first name to identify themselves. About 8 people put up their hands. Woody was the first one he picked out and his middle name was James. We all thought this was an interesting coincidence with Martin's name being James. So Martin began to prophesy over him and within about 20 seconds Woody was crying and being obviously impacted by the words. The things that Martin was saying were right and as far as i could tell very accurate. (I am in a prayer triplet with Woody so know him and his situations very well). Then Martin asked the next bloke his middle name, it was James!! Martin spoke into his life as well as his wife's who was sitting alongside him. Then Martin asked if anyone else had the middle name James (also sharing this name with the parent’s first name) and Chris Stone said he did!! After Martin had spoken to Chris (accurately again) he prayed with Tanya Pollard (again with accuracy and exciting stuff) we ended the meeting with some worship. Martin was held up for some time with people asking for prayer. We remarked afterward that it was so obvious that people were and are hungry for a word from God!! A lot of the team were prayed with. It was a great start to the week and although the response time has been not what I had expected and more of a "show" everyone had seen the effects of the accurate words and this was to set the standard for the rest of the week. The band that was playing for the fringe was set up as soon as we could and they played from 10-11pm. They were called Brief Absence and were good. The team got a lift back to the church by Dave Martin in a minibus, as they would from then on, they would walk in each morning and get a lift back. During the fringe I had a quick drink with Martin and Helen joined us. I felt great that the first day had gone smoothly and that there were no problems with the venue. Danny and Emma the managers of QV's were great all wee, very friendly and helpful and really nice!

Wednesday 14th
Started with a good morning meeting with prayer and worship and a short devotional. The first meeting of the day for the punters was the morning bible study in the main venue at 10:15 -11:15 After this the team and punters would come back to QV's to have a discussive style de-brief of the bible study. This session was lead by Elaine Youngman and Louise Morgan. They were both great all week and I was especially impressed with Louise who was confident and funny and generally superb. The bible study followed a chapter each day from 2Tim and Charles Price and Tom Greggs led this. The team had lunch provided and then the seminars commenced, each day at 2:30-3:30 and 4-5. The first seminar was by Andy F and looked at mobilisation and turning your vision into reality. The second seminar, which was fairly popular was led by Martin and was about prophecy. This was a good session and it was interesting to see how Martin related to the audience, starting as he did from the basics of the topic. At the end again he prophesied over a girl with obvious impact and then was held up a lot by the punters asking for prayer. They were hungry! During the afternoon the band for the evening had arrived and started to set up. They were to play in the fringe and were very cool and very good, Soul’s Rest. They are a hip hop band. So after diner and a team meeting at 6:30 the celebration began at 7. The worship was great and felt free and the 4 Frost men preached. Chris ended and was amazing. He spoke as I have never seen him speak before; he was on fire with passion! Brilliant. The response that he asked for was a response of risk, a good follow on from what Martin had said the previous night. So people were shouting as the band worshipped, or standing on their seats, Woody took a gospel and gave it to a bearded man called Geoff (or at least his friend). It was a great feeling to have such an atmosphere of freedom and worship. I really felt that the sheer amount of prayer that the team had put in during the day and the team meetings contributed to this atmosphere. In fact one of the main things that I got out of the week that after so much prayer and tongues (especially important) and worship by the team, the atmosphere and the tangible presence of God was great. I was trying to encourage the team to engage in prayer that was loud and free and in tongues and even said to them that if they weren’t used to it or not comfortable with it then they would only need to put up with it for a week and after that they could return to their own methods. My own feeling was that they were on my turf and we were going to do it as I wanted regardless of their experience and feeling of comfortability. Most team members, I believe, actually felt pushed and stretched in this prayer and as a result grew and experienced new things. I went to bed early as by this stage of the week I was already tired.

Thursday 15th
The day began as usual with the line managers meeting at 8am, then the team meeting at 9. During these team meetings I also tried to encourage team unity and relationships as well as the intimacy with God that is so important. In fact one of the first things that I said to the whole team was that they must protect their intimacy with the Father above all else. The team meetings I think were the key to a successful week. These are the times when powerful things can be said and prayed. The morning passed without incident and the seminars were the destiny team and Brian Barber. The destiny team spoke about personal calling, and used their experiences to illustrate. It was good and Lisa Clements ended the tag team style seminar very well. I was very pleasantly surprised how good a speaker she was. Brian Barber was fairly dull and I was not really listening to his talk, but it was about his experiences of youth ministry. Some of what he said seemed useful. The speaker for that evening was Justin Blake and we met for dinner in the hotel. He had brought up a friend called Alex. The evening celebration was again good, the numbers remaining fairly constant at 60-70. The worship was great, as usual and Justin spoke about the Amazing Father. At the end he asked for people called John or Joanne (or variations) to come out for him to prophesy over. Lisa Clements and Stewart also joined as their middle names were John and Jo. Then we lined up facing the front and Justin made his way down the line prophesying over each one. What he said over me was recorded and seemed exciting as well as accurate. Alex did a practical thing to get us all moving and we carried on worshipping. The fringe tonight was the extended worship and prayer night. So we just carried on worshipping and tried to get the flow of worship and prophetic stuff and intercession just right. Nikki Calvert was great; Justin and Alex chipped in and prayed with individuals. For my part I felt that God had led me to say something about people not being able to run with the thing that God had lain on their heart and that tonight he was calling them into the freedom of running with that. I felt this as all throughout the day I had been noticing people on crutches or people limping or even lane people who walk funny. Then as Justin started speaking the first thing he talked about was the bloke from Chariots of Fire who said that when he ran he felt God’s pleasure. So Jonny ran up and down for me and even ran around the block in the rain. One of the responses that we had that evening was the jigsaw. We had a 100 piece puzzle of the world and the destiny team had written encouraging verses on the back of each piece. The response was to take a piece of the puzzle to recognise that even though we may feel insignificant in our call we are indispensable in the kingdom of God. If just one piece of the puzzle was missing then the whole thing would be ruined. A little later I lead the people in Korean style prayer and they really went for it, it was amazing and very loud, I was screaming and shouting and I could not hear myself. At one point I let go with two massive roars and I felt my whole body shake with what felt like shock waves. It was very weird and unusual! The freedom in prayer again was great and even though this style was new for a lot of the people there they all enjoyed it and got a lot from it. It felt good that I was leading people outside their usual experiences and comfort zones. I guess this ma be part of who I am. In another blog I will have to explore the whole area of my calling. Over the last few months a few separate people have spoken the word apostle over me? I am not sure what an apostle is or what one does? If it is setting up teams and leading and encouraging them, as I have done this week then I know that this is a major area of my gifting. I was tired when I got to bed.


Friday 14th
The usual start to the morning. The seminars today were Justin Blake, which I had plugged at the line managers meeting and in the daily wave, and then Elaine. Justin’s seminar was absolutely packed! He spoke on what he see as being the plans of God for the Methodist movement and other traditional movements (including the Sally Army). He gave an excellent account of how God works his way though history and showed how these threads came together. He ended by saying that a prayer movement will be restored to the Methodist Church (like 24-7) and that on July 10th in Blackpool the Holy Spirit would come like at Pentecost. Later I spoke to Andy F (now elsewhere in the EP world) and he said that he was at this event called Breakout and that he was even leading some prayer there!!! Justin and I are definitely going to go to it! The only down side to this seminar was a lady who spoke to Justin at the end and was very angry with him for the things that he had said about the Methodist Church, he had used the Ezekiel dry bones image but was actually saying that the dry bones will live!!! However this lady was full of a religious spirit and was very angry. Elaine’s seminar was good and I know that she herself got a lot out of doing it. That evening Tim Rose spoke about listening to God every day in order to follow His call. He was really good and the atmosphere of the whole event was excellent. Again I put this down in large part to the prayers of the team. The band that night was Replenish. Earlier in the week I had had a difficult conversation with their manager about how much time they needed for setting up and taking down. However when they arrived and for the whole evening I was just so impressed by their humility and kindness and enjoyment at simply worshipping God. We prayed before the gig and after as they left. I hope that I meet them again as they were very good and very nice. Praise God that the one band I was not looking forward to was in fact the band that reflected Jesus the most!


Saturday 15th
Usual start. There were no seminars on the Saturday as there is always a large event. This year there were activities all down the pier and a kite flying competition on the beach. I was busy in the afternoon looking after Esther, preparing for my talk the next day and watching Sale vs Newcastle Powergen cup final. That evening Carolyn Skinner from a church in Wimbledon called Kairos came and spoke. She was very nice and the talk was good. I had to do the offering talk in the main venue with 1500people ther! On the way I bumped in to Ken from Y Friday and he and Danny came over for a quick interview. They timed it just right as we were having some testimony at the time from Matt Hill and Emma and Ken spoke of some amazing healings that the band had recently seen at their gigs. After the worship we had some more testimony of what God had done that week from 2 of the punters and Sarah Stewart. For the response that evening we offered everyone the chance to come out to the front to pick up a key. The key represented Isaiah 22:22 and Rev 3:7. I felt that some people would have the key to ask Jesus to open and shut doors to guide their path, and that others would need Him to unlock parts of their giftings in order to further their call. 2 blokes came up to me afterwards and said that they found this really useful. One of them was homeless and said that he found it very helpful!!! The band that night and the last fringe of the week was Crimson Scarlet. They were good, but not really my thing.


Sunday 16th
On the Sunday we were only having a final meeting 10:30 til 12:00. During the team meeting we went round and said a few things about the week. Everyone had had a great time and God had been working in all their lives. They all, especially Jonathan, had kind words for me! Which was nice! I was doing the talk that day and spoke on obedience to God’s call, using Deuteronomy 28. It went OK but I was not totally happy. The worship was the best all week as we were all so into it. At the end people really prayed and worshipped together for 30 mins longer than scheduled, a great end to a great week.

The whole week was great. I know that I have surely missed out loads of detail and things that God did. However, I want to learn lessons from the week, about prayer and about intimacy with Father.

Thanks
John

I have just got a few moments before we leave for Easter People.
I have been away over the weekend at SJI in Raynes Park. They were holding a International Leadership Institute Weekend. It was great. The teaching was not revelatory as I have heard most of it before but the timing of the weekend, with EP looming and Cornwall in our minds, was spot on. It really helped to focus me in the right places and reminded me about the basic good stuff!!!!
When I return from EP I will need to journal about...
1. Tithing
2. Surrender
3. Vision
4. Goals
Pray for us that we have a great week at EP
John

We went to see "The Passion of the Christ" with our cell group last night. However when we got there it was already sold out!!! I guess it was the fact that Tuesday night is cheap night and lots of people come out. The cinema is so expensive usually that Tuesday becomes very busy. So instead of seeing the Passion we saw Starsky and Hutch. This was absolutely hilarious. Not the sort of film that I was expecting to see, but I enjoyed it just as much. I still can't wait to see the Passion but I guess i will have to wait a bit longer.
Easter People is fast approaching. I am looking forward to this very much. I have begun to pray for it and I feel good at the moment. I want to fast and pray before the event as well.
Talking of fasting, I want to remind myself via this blog that I believe that part of my calling is fasting and prayer. I feel a connection with the life of John the Baptist and feel called to emulate something of the Nazirite lifestyle of fasting. However I find it increasingly difficult to fast. I guess this must be some resistance to me becoming more fully who I am called to be. I need to break the physical thing of fasting.
So I am going to fast tomorrow (Thursday) and pray for EP.
I will let you know how I get on!!

I played rugby again yesterday for Hertford 6th team. They are a really good bunch of lads and as the standard is not too high I find that I can fit in and contribute even though i am still rusty and not fully match fit. We lost though!
I have almost finished the book that I have been reading over the last month, "Church beyond the congreagation" by Jim Thwaites. I feel that if I can begin to form strong relationships with some of the boys at rugby then I can emulate the central theme of the book which as I see it is the saints being christ in the world and the spheres of creation rather than in the buildings and meetings of sunday christianity.
Easter People is now only one week away!
I am excited but at the same time nervous about thetechnical details and the many things that could go wrong.
I dont feel that I am in the greatest place in terms of my relationship with God. I have been slightly slack in terms of reading my bible and my prayer life has been a struggle in the last few weeks. Having said that however, last week at the Company of Prophets with Sharon Stone was really quite good and I was accurate in amny of the things that I spoke over people.
It does take a bit of effort to get into the flow of the Spirit in order to begin to see things and prophesy.
I am beginning to pray desperately for the coming week at Easter People.
May God bless us and turn His face toward us!
J