Kingfisher Family Newsletter September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019

ISSUE 23

K I NGFI S H E R FAMILY The amazing power of prayer What a summer this has been! The past few months have seen God on the move, drawing people to Himself, orchestrating breakthroughs around the world, opening new opportunities in hardto-reach places.

The International Day of Prayer on June 30th is still causing Kingdom changes around the world.

Thousands of believers gathered in their homes, their churches and in their fellowship groups to pray ‘Your Kingdom Come!’ for this world. New countries such as Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe and China were prayed for, as well as countries that have participated in IDOP since its start, five years ago.

There are new church planting initiatives happening in the Philippines, people coming to Christ in Zimbabwe, and as one prophetic figure in Spain noted: ‘It is a new time and a new season for Kingfisher Family.The LORD will give all, that is needed.’

The leadership team in Spain experienced fresh freedom and joy in the various churches there, and various countries reported people coming to faith in Christ.

This is what can happen when people doing together in prayer on just one day! Imagine the levels of blessing and anointing we would experience if the International Day of Prayer was in reality an International Way of Prayer - an ongoing ‘normal’ way of living our lives in this Family.

It’s great to be part of a local church, but it’s inspiring to be part also of something bigger, something that is impacting people around the world • Imagine feeling the waves of

prayer flowing over you and your church and ministry, not just on one day of the year, but as an ongoing, everyday reality!

• Imagine the satisfaction and

fulfilment of knowing that your prayers are truly making an ongoing, actual, practical difference in countries around the world!

also of something bigger, something that is impacting people around the world; to know that one prayer prayed in your country causes a spiritual tremor in another country - and you can get to hear about that.

We are working to increase the ease with which all of that can happen in the Kingfisher Family.

Coming soon:

• A new website

(kingfisherfamily.org) that will bring you up-to-date information, news, answered prayer and teaching videos from around the world

• An enhanced social media

presence, making it easier and quicker for people to communicate and stay in touch with all that is going on in the Family

• An opportunity to be a Giving

Partner in this, to enable resources and teaching opportunities to expand around the world, so that the Kingfisher Family can fulfil God’s calling for it to truly ‘support, equip and connect believers around the world to reach lost people and see them transformed into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.’

The new Kingfisher Family

• Imagine praying for a situation the initiative will be launched other side of the world and actually getting to hear about the results of that prayer!

It’s great to be part of a local church, but it’s inspiring to be part

within the next few months - we will let you know about how you can be part of this exciting adventure!

News from Kingfisher Church Into the Stretch Zone “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NLT In order to build that kind of strength and resilience in anything, including faith, there needs to be some stretching! In a stressful world where everyone is trying to destress, why is stretching good for us? Karl Rohnke developed the Comfort, Stretch, Panic zone model, which says that peak performance occurs when people experience a moderate level of pressure. When there’s too much or too little pressure, performance declines. If you want to change and grow in any area of your life — health, fitness, career, personal development, spiritual growth, among others — you need to know where your own zones begin and end, and how to optimise them.

The new Autumn term always feels like a relaunch at the start of the school year and I believe it’s time to really put into practice what we have already been learning this year. It’s time to get active and move into the stretch zone! So starting on September 15th in our morning services at Kingfisher Tredworth, we’ll be exploring this on a personal level, with the challenge for us all to move, wherever we are in our journey of faith right now, from * where we might have become too comfortable, or where we are feeling overwhelmed, to that place of healthy growth in the stretch zone.

It’s also worth thinking about what this means for us as a local church?

At the start of this year James outlined in our vision Sunday that God was calling us to reclaim the ground in terms of connection, purpose and promised land. We have had a real emphasis on connection with God and with each other in our sermon series’ already this year (‘Connect,’ ‘Close Encounters,’ ‘Family Rules OK!,’ and ‘Pray like this…’). Following the Vision talk we also looked at the need to, ‘Be Bold.’

Bold in faith, courage, obedience and

faithfulness, if we are going to be fruitful in the land that God has promised us.

I’m hoping you can see how far you’ve already come this year, but let’s get really bold about reclaiming the ground when it comes to our purpose. It’s embedded in our mission statement ‘To reach…’

There will always be a stretch involved in reaching the lost and seeing people transformed into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ!

But what is it actually going to take and who are we trying to reach here at Kingfisher Tredworth? This year especially we are seeing a growing number of people with additional needs (Interactive service/National Star Bible group), an increase in families with young children, and an increase in youth. So we need to build resilient teams with a strong sense of mission and purpose, with a passion and the resources to see this develop. But how do we build that?

In this series we’ll be looking at some Biblical characters and seeing how God took them from their comfort zones into the stretch zone to grow them in faith and accomplish His purposes; people like Jacob, Gideon, Job; and also exploring how Jesus stretched His disciples to become the world changers who refused to give up?

The difficult things we go through don’t have to limit us, disqualify us or take us out. It’s amazing where God can take us and how He can use us when we start to view everything we go through as training.

Remember that, “…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 NLT There will be stretch challenges along the way if you choose to accept them, in terms of exploring faith, getting support, growing in confidence, connecting into church

life, joining teams and financial giving. This will also set us up to hear from James on October 13th as he shares our vision review for 2019 and the direction of travel for us as Kingfisher family next year, and from Neal Parkinson (Chair of Trustees ) as he sets out the churches financial situation and fundraising strategy for things we would like to invest in and develop here in Gloucester and Internationally.

Baptism service Our latest baptism service, on 21st July, saw Antonia Ashenford and Joe Evans getting baptised. Please pray for Antonia and Joe as they continue their journey with God.

News from Kingfisher Church On the road to Emmaus Thoughts from my journey with Jesus - by Sandra Ashenford Sandra Ashenford is a member of the Kingfisher Church family at Tredworth. She was introduced to Jesus at primary school but has spent most of her adult life in the company of sceptics and nonbelievers. This is a series of lighthearted blogs in which she reflects on the challenges of growing in faith and sharing the Good News amidst the pressures of a modern life.

and I have been left floundering, trying to rely on my own resources instead of placing my problems in God’s hands.

evenings a week sub-editing a Bristol newspaper. I was trying so hard to hold everything together and I failed to give God a thought.

As a child and young adult, my faith was strong, but in my early 20s a series of terrible events left me reeling. I was a mum of two daughters under the age of five, happily married to a man who was running his own successful electrical contracting business, we had our own home, and I was working as a journalist, a job I loved.

Yet when I look back now I can see that during all those years I was in the wilderness God was with me, even though I wasn’t aware of it.

Some people see Christians as a rather smug bunch, with a “holier than thou” attitude and the idea that they have all the answers.

Within three years my husband’s business had collapsed under the weight of the building recession of the early 1990s, he had been struck down by a life-threatening illness and had to undergo major surgery, and we were bankrupt and homeless.

I have met one or two like that, usually holding some position in their local church, feeling secure and superior within a framework of rituals, rites and responses.

But it is one thing to know the format of a church service, quite another to try to apply what you have heard and what you truly believe to real life.

I am aware that in my life, when my faith has been tested it has faltered

Then my older sister suffered a brain illness which left her with severe mental and physical damage and unable to look after herself, and two of my daughters’ godmothers died, one in childbirth and the other of ovarian cancer at the age of just 26.

I was working five days a week in a newspaper office, and two or three

Through a bizarre set of circumstances, surely guided by God’s hand, my family ended up living in a beautiful old bridge keeper’s house which proved to be a place of immense peace and healing.

And I was granted the gift of two more daughters born almost ten years apart, both instrumental in bringing me back to a closer relationship with God. So it is perhaps not surprising that one of my favourite stories in the Bible can be found in Matthew 14: 22-34, in which Peter walks on water alongside Jesus until his faith fails and he begins to sink.

Jesus gently chastises him for doubting, but saves him anyway; it’s a very reassuring thought.

Summer weddings at Kingfisher church This summer we have had the privelege of celebrating the weddings of David and Rose Burn, Sophie and Chayce Parslow and Jordan and Amy

Rimmer. We wish all three couples God’s blessings for the future.

News from Kingfisher Church Reclaiming the ground - our challenge for 2019 The overall challenge for 2019 that God set before us, particularly here in the UK, was that of ‘reclaiming the ground’. As St Paul put it: “But we must hold onto the progress we have already made.” (Philippians 3:16, NLT) In the 26 years that Kingfisher has been in existence, so much has changed, and there is a danger of losing our sense of direction and a clarity of focus in our mission because of that. So we have been challenged in three specific areas to regain that focus - to reclaim the ground that we have been given.

Although so much has changed and is changing around us, our God does not change and neither to His promises and purposes for us. The three areas are: Community In a world of increasing antagonism and isolation and fear and suspicion, connection through small groups (‘Connect Groups’) becomes more and more important. We have always known that at Kingfisher, but we need to reclaim this and relaunch this ministry. To enable that to happen, we have created a new role - that of Community Leader. A Community Leader has the responsibility to support, pray for, encourage and oversee a number of Connect Group leaders.During this year, we appointed two Community pressers - David Burn and Gill Parkinson - who have begun meeting regularly with the Connect Group leaders they have been assigned.

Connection has been a major focus this year, whether that is at the local church level, or encouraging pastors and leaders to meet together for prayer and encouragement in the wider Kingfisher family. Honestly, if you are not yet in a Connect group, you are almost certainly missing out on a golden opportunity to move forward significantly in your Christian life.

Purpose You are saved for a purpose. Now, the ultimate purpose is that you get to spend eternity in heaven with

God and with everyone else who has been saved. It’s the purpose along the way that a lot of Christians miss out on, but that brings real satisfaction and fulfilment in life.

Unfortunately, we tend to let the busyness of life squeeze out that sense of purpose, and so all we have left is the routine of going to church, attending church meetings, just living the routine Christian life.

But that is not how life is supposed to be lived! God is challenging us to reclaim this ground as He challenges us to reconnect with our purpose!

Or to be more precise, reconnect with God’s purpose that he has given us.

Promised Land What I mean by promised land is to say that this church, this International Family, is in existence for a reason. It is heading somewhere. There is an overall purpose about it all. When we were smaller, before we started church planting and the international element of Kingfisher was just a small thing in Malawi, that ‘promised land’ was more obvious. As we have grown and added churches and added countries and diversified with the launch of the Social Enterprise and so on, it ironically becomes less

obvious where we are now headed, because everything is more complex. But do you know what the point of this church is? What it was in the beginning and what it will continue to be? ‘Reclaim that ground!’ You are still a pioneering church.You are still a church with a purpose.You are still people who have a purpose.Your mandate is still to change the world. ‘I am the Lord, I do not change’ - and neither does His calling upon Kingfisher. Whether He said it to one individual congregation or whether He is now saying it to a hundred congregations around the world, He is still saying the same thing. We need to connect because we are not effective on our own. We need to find our purpose and give our all to it. We need to move forward into the promised land to which He is calling us.

How is this going for you in 2019?

Are you reclaiming the ground?

Moving forward with purpose in every step? “…one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14, ESV)

News from Kingfisher Church African Adventure holiday club was a great success!

During the first week of August, 140 children attended our holiday club, African Advenutre, which was based on the Lion King.

With themes of identity and ‘Hukuna Matata’ (no worries) running throughout the week, many games were played, strange things were eaten (fish eyes and snake poo pancakes amongst other things) and the children, and volunteers, had a fantastic time.

The children loved watching the live drama where Park Ranger Pete was trying to keep Pants and Pecs under control while there was a lion on the loose!

Each day the teams gained points for games won, crafts made, cheering on their team-mates etc and the winners at the end of the week were the Legendary Lions for the infants and the Might Meercats for the juniors.

Thank you to Rach Bennet for leading the week, despite badly injuring her knee a few days before, and for the 50 volunteers who showed up each day to lead, encourage, and cheer on their teams. It was another very successful holiday club week!

The Bean Baker Band closed the last ever Soul Survivor!

At the end of August this year around 30 of our youth, leaders and helpers joined thousands of other young people at the very last Soul Survivor.

Youth from Kingfisher church have been going to Soul Survivor since 1998, five years after it started.

This year, the Bean Baker Band, including our very own Bean Baker

and David Burn, closed the weekend with an open air concert and fireworks. What an amazing way to end the very last Soul Survivor!

News from Kingfisher Treasure Seekers Treasure Seekers runners completed their 12 hour race!

Our Treasure Seekers on the Run team raised £580 for Treasure Seekers during their running challenge on Saturday 3rd August.

Between them, Craig, Katie M, Jonny, Jake and Kirsty ran 19 9k laps around Alney Island in 12 hours.

They ran 106.4 miles in total which is the equivelent of running from Gloucester to Birmingham and back!

Congratulations team and thank you to everyone who sponsored them.

It’s ok to talk about mental health!

Treasure Seekers is helping deliver Glos Talks - a new county wide campaign to address stigma around mental health.

Treasure Seekers have partnered with Gloucestershire Tackling Stigma Steering Group, Suicide Prevention and Gloucestershire County Council.

Glos Talks is spreading a simple message: it is ok to talk about mental health! Every time you share your mental health story, you are helping to fight stigma. For more information on how to share your story go to Glostalks.co.uk

We are expanding and looking to hire these positions: • • • •

Cavern Manager Cavern Deputy Manager Cavern Tots lead (toddler group) Disco Manager

To find out more or to apply visit the Treasure Seekers website: kftseekers.org.uk

News from the Kingfisher Family Dumagat Education Program update The Dumagat Education Program was set up to sponsor some of the children from the Dumagat Tribe in the Philippines to attend school. The program pays for food and school supplies for children to attend their local school, Bulak, and for mid week accommodation, food and supplies for those attending Sibug school at the foot of the mountains.

Bulak school

Bulak primary school and Sigbug elementary school both held a Recognition Day earlier this year. All the DEP pupils at Bulak were recognised because of their hard work and eagerness to learn and seven Sibug DEP students received honours and awards. There were lots of very proud students, parents and teachers at both schools as they

celebrated another succesful school year. The children have now moved up to the next grade with some of the students moving up several grades.

If you would like to be invoved in the Dumagat Education Program please email kirstydalley@kingfisher.org.uk

Left (standing left to right): Nick, Garry, Monique, Rexie, Lalet, Jay, Matet, Teresa and Monica. (sitting from left): Martan, Darwin, Rene and Bubot.

Sibug school

Left (from left to right): Jerick, Jay-Anne, Alessa, Mark Nathan, Mary Grace, Monica and Angel

Every month the children on the program come to collect their food and school supplies. During that time the children’s whole family are given food.

GET INVOLVED WITH THE NEWSLETTER! In order for this newsletter to grow and develop, we need your help! If you go to any Kingfisher event and have taken a great photo, then please post it on our Facebook page or email it to Kirsty at kirstydalley@kingfisher.org.uk. The copy deadline for the next issue (due out in December 2019) is 20th November.

If you would like to get involved in the production of the next newsletter then email us with your particular area of interest.

Hope you enjoy hearing all that is happening across the Kingfisher Family!

Kingfisher Church Moor Street Tredworth Gloucester GL1 4NJ www.kingfisher.org.uk info@kingfisher.org.uk +441452 304339 Š Kingfisher Church, 2013