Archive for the ‘General News’ Category

Matt became a Christian on Good News Camp in August 2012 – Matt was baptised today (21/10/12) @ Duncan Road Church, Southampton – a great day – and a great privilege to take the service!

Matt comments on Facebok:
“Well that was a bizarre and amazing day. What I’m feeling right now is very very surreal but happy. Thank you to everyone who came to support me from outside the church today today and thank you to my new family at Duncan Road Church. Looking forward to starting a brand new life with Jesus Christ. Massive thank you to everyone :)”

The Bible: Deuteronomy Chapter 31 Verse 6:
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forfake you.”

The ‘LIFE Expo’ recently visited (October 1st-5th) Swanfield Chapel, Chichester.
The ‘LIFE Expo’ is a ‘hands-on, interactive experience’. using Ipad tablet technology with text, graphics, DVD and sound. The exhibition tells of the life of Jesus, it picks up on his Jewish roots, his teaching and miracles, and his death, burial and resurrection.
Seven hundred primary school children visited the ‘expo’ during its five day visit and spent an hour and fiteen minutes focussing on Jesus Christ!

Please pray for Swanfield Chapel as they follow up the visit of the ‘Life Expo’ with school assemblies for the five schools who attended.

FirstServe is a gap year programme designed to give young adults (18-25) a taste of service in the UK and overseas. Not only will they have the chance to help, support and encourage others but ‘FirstServe’ (www.first-serve.org.uk ) also includes a discipleship and missions training programme.
Gordon is part of the steering group and believes that it is a valuable investment of his time.

Please pray for 4 young people who started their FirstServe Gap Year last week. They are currently at the GLO Centre for 2 weeks, then they will move on to their UK church placement. Please pray that this year will be a time for them to draw closer to God and that wherever they are on placement, both in the UK and overseas, God will use them for His glory.

New recruits to FirstServe – Jan, Seren, Deborah and Nicole from Germany, Aberdeen, London and Northern Ireland

Check out Nicole’s blog: http://nicolefinlayson92.wordpress.com

This time of year provides some great opportunities linked to Harvest, I will be taking Harvest Services both morning and evening for the next three Sundays and several other Harvest opportunities in-between.

The Harvest Service creates opportunities for people of all ages to:

*Rejoice in God’s provision at Harvest time.
*Remember God’s great acts of salvation in history,
*Rely on God for his continued blessing and protection,

Please pray that these Harvest Service opportunities will help congregations celebrate the temporary good things that God gives to us each year, but also that many might discover the eternal blessings which are ours in Jesus Christ as we discover him to be Saviour & Lord!

Harvest Trivia Quiz

Questions on Food – Ideal for an All-Age Service.

Note: The file is in a compressed (zipped) format for easy download. Once downloaded you will need to unzip the file – free tool available to unzip the file at: 7-zip.org or contact me if you prefer the quiz in another format – gcurley@gcurley.info )

An afternoon in Townhill Junior School Southampton, for a ‘Grill A Christian’ session.
Three classes (year 4) fired question after question after question relating to God, the Bible and what Christians believe and practice.
What a great opportunity to share a little of the Christian message and help bring understanding to these young enquiring minds!

The Alresford show is a traditional one day agricultural show which combines farm livestock, horses, modern and vintage tractors & machinery, horticulture, local produce, poultry, bees, a companion dog show and many more attractions to give an entertaining day out for all the family.

It was great to join with the fellowship from New Farm Chapel, Alresford who each year provide a Christian witness to the visitors and stall holders at the show.
New Farm Chapel set up a small marquee and tea area, where Penny & Naomi Burden were able to offer face painting to the children (and teenagers!) while I was able to provide a second hand bookstall selling a mixture of Christian and secular books.
Good conversations were had, lots of literature was taken and hundreds of books were purchased including a number of Bibles. Please pray that the tracts taken, the books sold or conversations enjoyed will prompt the start of many people’s journey.

One of the leaders from New Farm chapel mentioned in an email: “There were quite a number of meaningful encounters reported afterwards and we did see one new lady in our Service this morning as a result. The other contacts that Dave (Church worker) will be following up in the coming days, so all in all there’s a lot to Praise the Lord for – including the good weather”

Great time at Good News Camp 2012. Our biggest Camp ever (75 Campers and 40 Leaders) lots of sunshine, lots of laughter and lots of spiritual blessing!

GNC 2012 from Gordon Curley on Vimeo.

Quote: “I just wanted to write a quick note to thank you and all your wonderful leaders for providing such a superb camp this week. Lucy (and James and Jemimah!) had such a great time and they are already talking about going again next year!”

Quote: “just to say a big thank you for the camp this year ‘S.C.’ had a wonderful time she said the food was great and people were very kind and she would love to come back next year and also the biggest and the best news is both her and ‘A.W.’ gave there heart to Jesus please pass on to your team what a wonderful job they did and our grateful thanks forlooking after them so well”

Great time at Oasis Christian Holidays in West Runton, Norfolk, UK with young people from Churches from the West Midlands.

Great weather, great food, great company and of course a great God blessed us real good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RE: Good News Camps 2012:

Praise for:

*Praise for a full Camp – We are literally overflowing with kids – 32 boys & 44 girl Campers! With an additional 38 Leaders, 6 Workers Kids, giving us a grand total of 120 on site.

*A great Camp site – each year Lockerley Water Farm gets better & better and this year no leaky tents as we are all in huts/units!

*Praise for a varied team of helpers,(different experiences, ages and Church backgrounds) which will provide a great opportunity to work together (Psalm 133 – The Message: “How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along…Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing”).

Pray for:

*Pray for 3 male assistant hut leaders (our biggest need!)

*Pray forHealth & safety – accidents do happen – pray with us that any accident/health issue will be insignificant!

*Pray forUnity & balancing the team – we have a variety of helpers – pray that we will all compliment each other in our various roles.

*Pray forFor Gordon as he prepares talks for this year’s Camp.

*Pray forFor a good time spiritually– that the week will be marked with conversions and spiritual growth.

Thanks for your prayers & support!

Great family holiday in Turkey – but what a challenge for Prayer!
Turkey’s transformation from guardian of Christendom to unevangelized nation has been almost comprehensive. For over 1,000 years the region was a bastion of Christendom, but it later became a strong propagator of Islam. The Christian population has declined from 22% to 0.21% since 1900. Only 0.008% of people in Turkey are evangelical; many are ethnic Turks and Kurds, but others are expatriate or from historically Christian minorities. Few of the 73 million Muslims have ever truly heard the gospel. Turkey’s location along the ancient Silk Road routes connected it deeply to Islam for centuries; pray that it might also be used as a bridge between Europe and Asia for the transmission of a revitalized Christianity.
Would you take some time to pray for this country of 72,000,000 people with less than 4,000 believers? Please pray for Pastor Ramazan Arkah and the Evangelical Church in Antalya – http://www.antalyaevangelicalchurch.com