Students Let Holy Spirit Lead in UK

CBC students, Lisa and Chris Cree minister to a gentleman in the United Kingdom. (Click to enlarge)Last month a team from Charis Bible College in Colorado hopped the pond for a short-term mission trip to the United Kingdom. The 11 member team led by CBC's Intern Coordinator, Carlie Terradez and third-year intern, David Carter, ministered in England, Scotland and Ireland.

With their schedules packed as tightly as their luggage, the team began their overseas ministry experience on the evening of their arrival in England. They shared a refreshing time of worship and fellowship with the students and staff from CBC's West Midlands' campus.

For CBC-Colorado student, Drewrome (Drew) Williams, the casual setting of the first evening allowed him to get acclimated and also provided him the opportunity to share a word of knowledge with a CBC-England student. Both men were encouraged by the accuracy of Drew's word as the man confirmed that the things Drew spoke were the same things the man had been carrying in his heart.CBC-Colorado student, Drew Williams, open-air preaching in Scotland. (Click to enlarge)

Throughout the trip the Holy Spirit continued to work through Drew. In Scotland, he had the opportunity to minister from a platform in a city shopping mall. He remembered praying, before it was his turn to share, that he would have boldness and enough vocal volume to minister effectively. Drew said, "When it was my turn to speak, I sensed the power of the Holy Spirit, and my voice was unusually loud. I felt like I was watching myself speak. It was as though the Holy Spirit had taken over and I was along for the ride."

While still in Scotland, the team attended a service held at Glen Aros Church in Dumfries. There, Drew prayed with a woman for healing in her ankle. This opportunity had a particular significance for Drew because before leaving Colorado, a classmate had told him he would minister to someone with an ankle problem. After his prayer, the woman's broken CBC-Colorado students, Vern and Kathy Raney and Georgia Boudreau, pray for a student from the Walsall campus. (Click to enlarge)ankle was completely healed.

More than a year before this Colorado team had their chance to go to the UK, the Lord had awakened a love for the region in Lisa Cree's heart. She and her husband Chris, who also traveled with the team, went with optimistic and expectant hearts. The two know they are called to encourage and disciple other believers, and the Lord brought many such opportunities on this journey.

While visiting Dumfries, Lisa and Chris prayed with a married couple, Margie and Joe. Margie was battling a life-threatening Lisa and Chris Cree prayed for and encouraged this couple, Joe and Margie. (Click to enlarge)illness and the couple simply asked the Cree's to agree with them that Margie would be healed. Lisa and Chris agreed, and boldly cursed the sickness. They commanded the sickness to leave Margie's body in Jesus' name and spoke a blessing of health and healing over her. There wasn't any visible sign that the healing had manifested, but the Cree's reminded Margie and Joe that God is faithful.

Lisa said, "As we prayed with them we saw God connect our hearts. As I prayed, I thought, 'If praying with this couple is the one thing you have sent us on this trip for, it is so worth it, just for them. You love each of us so much Father.'"

Chris (at right) practices the ministry of listening as John shares his aviation stories. (Click to enlarge)Chris recalled his own impactful moments from the trip to Scotland. He shared that in addition to Joe and Margie, he met a man named John. John had come up from England to attend the outreach the team held on Friday night. As Chris and John spoke, John indicated that he worked as a commercial pilot. Because Chris had flown off aircraft carriers in the US Navy, he found he had common ground (or air) with John. Chris said, "Of all the people there, I was the one who spoke his language."

Chris was able to encourage John simply by listening to his aviation stories and truly being able to understand them. Chris said The Colorado team in Belfast with staff and students from CBC-Ireland. (Click to enlarge)of their conversations, "There wasn't anything super spiritual, perhaps, but it was valuable.

It had been John's intention to return home to England Saturday morning, but he decided to stay and go to church Sunday morning. Then he decided to stick around for the Sunday evening service. As Chris and John were talking Sunday evening, Chris could see and hear a change in John. He said, "John kept saying, 'I didn't expect this.'"

"Sure, we saw miracle healings and salvations while on our trip to the UK. I think all CBC mission trips do. They are awesome, no doubt. But the biggest thing I learned on this trip is how important encouragement is to the body of believers," said Chris.

Europe Trip 2012: Grace & Faith Conference

Andrew addresses the crowd at the International Centre, Telford, England. (Click to enlarge)

Andrew ministers the message of grace and faith. (Click to enlarge)The European version of the Summer Family Bible Conference is the annual Grace and Faith Conference held in England. This year the event moved to a larger venue in the International Centre in Telford, England. Even though the holiday weekend shared its time with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee—with a million people gathering on the banks of the Thames River to watch a parade of 1000 ships—still the room in Telford filled with people drawn by the sheer power of the word of God to change lives.

Will Graham says farewell.
(Click to enlarge)At this event, Will Graham said farewell to the event he helped establish. He is moving on to other ministry opportunities and felt the bitter-sweet emotions of leaving behind such a significant era of ministry. Wendell Parr and Duane Sherriff filled out the speaking schedule with Andrew. The sessions continued from Friday evening through Monday midday, with special ministry supplied for the children and teenagers.

Duane Sherriff was a new face on the conference stage, very well received. (Click to enlarge)The praise and worship with Charlie and Jill seemed especially intimate and powerful. Photographer, Mark Theisinger, who has on occasion worked with Reinhard Bonnke crusades, volunteered his services to the Grace & Faith event. A few of the images he captured, using a Nikon D3s camera and a 300mm 2.8 lens, are included here with captions. As the pictures show, the ministry seemed especially powerful. Wherever one travelled in the room, the atmosphere of praise and worship was omnipresent, sweeping people into a zone of intimacy with the Lord. Someone described it like swimming in a river of pure life.

Charlie and Jill minister in song. (Click to enlarge) Entering into a praise & worship. (Click to enlarge)

Photographer Mark Theisinger captures an intimate moment. (Click to enlarge) God is completely intimate with everyone at the same time—don’t limit God. (Click to enlarge)

God is spirit and those who worship Him, worship in spirit and truth. (Click to enlarge) No one is left out …
(Click to enlarge)

During the conference, Andrew was pleased to announce that his American TV production team had come to England to capture two new Healing Journeys stories; the stories of Richard Waller and Deborah McDermott.

Charlie is blessed to see and hear the results of his prayer 5 years ago. (Click to enlarge)He first called Richard Waller to the podium, who told of being healed of irreparable damage to his spine, plus severe heart arrhythmia. Ironically, 5 years ago he had come to a meeting in the Imperial Hotel, London to have Andrew pray for him, but Andrew passed him off to Charlie LeBlanc. On that night Andrew had taught that any believer can pray effectively for the sick. When Richard told Charlie all that was wrong with him—Charlie replied, “Healing you won’t dim the lights in Heaven.” Charlie’s prayer of agreement started a process of healing that night for Richard. Today, Richard is a new man. He and his wife Jacqueline spent two days with Andrew’s TV crew testifying and demonstrating his healing by frolicking with his 12-year-old daughter and doing stunts on a mountain bike—which he rides competitively across the British Isles. Those exciting images will have to wait for the full video production. They show that healing his prolapsed discs and heart arrhythmia, while continuing to protect him in his sports adventures—as Charlie promised—has not dimmed the lights in Heaven.

Deborah holds in her hand the proof of her sons’ healing from autism. (Click to enlarge)Andrew also introduced Deborah McDermott, who brought the audience to tears with her description of receiving healing for her two sons, who suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism. A 2006 study published in The Lancet, Britain’s leading medical journal, stated that in England, autism affects one in one hundred children. It is labeled as a very serious disorder, and it is officially incurable. Deborah McDermott would not accept that, and in Andrew’s teaching she found a minister who agreed with her. She seized upon the power of the living word of God and came with her family to Andrew’s conference at Charis Bible College in Walsall. She described Andrew’s simple prayer for her boys, and his words to her afterward—“You are now the parents of two normal children.” She embraced those words completely as the miracle unfolded. Standing at the conference in Telford, she read aloud the doctor’s assessment of her 16 year old Tim, completed on May 4, 2011: “Timothy is a neurodevelopmentally typical young man, and the label of Asperger syndrome is not applicable. He has been discharged from my care.” The crowd shouted praise to God. Then she announced that only the day before she had received in the mail the assessment of her 8 year old son, James. She read; “… the label Autism Spectrum Disorder is no longer appropriate for James and should be removed from any documentation in the future that relates to him.” There was hardly a dry eye in the room. Deborah’s Healing Journey story was filmed during the conference and will be perhaps the most anticipated miracle story every produced by Andrew Wommack Ministries. So many suffer worldwide from the hell of Aspergers Syndrome and Autism. So many believe that it is incurable and lifelong. Deborah’s story will challenge those beliefs, and ask the question: “Is God a good God who loves you and wants the best for you? Or is He a God who sometimes heals and sometimes wants you to suffer? Deborah’s testimony reveals that it is a choice you must make for yourself between life or death. You can reach out and choose to receive whatever God has provided by His grace. Nothing is incurable.

Andrew greeted each graduate of Charis Bible College. (Click to enlarge)In between conference sessions, Andrew was blessed to participate in the graduation ceremonies of Charis Bible College, Walsall. In the meetings to follow, he delivered the Gospel Truth in the same simple and clear way that has become his signature, allowing the Holy Spirit to honor God’s word with signs following. He trusts the Holy Spirit to do the work in the hearts of his hearers and does not resort to trickery or emotional appeals to move his audience.

For any graduate of Charis Bible Colleges worldwide, this surely is an example to follow.

And so, we depart England, and turn for home. Colorado Springs, sunshine, and a sense that the message of grace and faith is worth everything we put into it around the world.

Andrew delivered the almost-too-good-to-be-true-news of the Gospel… once more. (Click to enlarge)

Filed June 7, by AWM Media Operation Manager, Stephen Bransford.

CBC-Colorado Students Encourage Believers in the UK

Charis Bible College-Colorado's team stands with Allan Bruce, Director of CBC-Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Click to enlarge)In late February, Charis Bible College's Missions Coordinator, Michelle Patterson, and a team of eight second-year CBC-Colorado students ventured across the pond to minister in the United Kingdom. The annual trip to the UK, which includes stops in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, is unlike the majority of the mission trips CBC offers. The students' primary audience for ministry in the UK is other believers, rather than the lost people of un-churched third-world nations. While the mission field is different, the impact is still powerful as this type of ministry mirrors the Apostle Paul's journeys to encourage and edify those already established in the Kingdom.CBC-Colorado and CBC-UK students in Walsall, England. (Click to enlarge)

The students had the opportunity to teach at CBC extension campuses in Walsall, England and in Belfast as well as minister at Glen Aros Church in Dumfries, Scotland. The team also participated in several evangelistic outreaches as they toured the UK.

One Colorado student, Lorin Guilkey, set his expectations for the trip on witnessing the miraculous; he wanted to see God work through him—and he did. He was standing outside the school in Belfast when a woman, who could barely walk, approached him. CBC-Colorado student, Lorin Guilkey ministers from the pulpit. Lorin wanted to God to use him and He did. (Click to enlarge)The woman hobbled across the street and asked Lorin if he could pray for healing in her back. Lorin prayed, and the woman instantly received relief from her pain.

The Lord used another CBC-Colorado student, Michael Lee, to share a word of encouragement with the students attending CBC-Belfast. Michael challenged them to begin to utilize the gifts the Lord had given each one for the benefit of the school and the body of Christ as a whole. Evidently, it was the right word at exactly the right time because several students approached Michael and others on the Colorado team, and shared that Michael Lee, ministering at CBC-Belfast, where he encouraged the Belfast students to step out in their faith and utilize their God-given gifts. (Click to enlarge) they had been struggling to know if they should step out and use their talents. The next day, a student with musical talent, got up to assist the school's director, Allan Bruce, by singing and playing the piano during praise and worship—something Allan usually did by himself. This experience was also an encouragement for Michael. "I learned that God could even use me, a middle-aged man, who had lived most of my life being self-centered, but when I truly surrendered my life and future to Christ, God was free to do amazing things through me," said Michael joyfully.CBC-Colorado students during a time of prayer ministry at Glen Aros Church in Dumfries, Scotland. (Click to enlarge)

Pastor John Donnelly, of Glen Aros Church in Scotland, offered these encouraging words of thanks to the team after their time in Scotland, "We can't quite find the words to say thank you to you and the team that have just been with us. We have been impacted as a church in a way that maybe I didn't think possible, and all of it for the good. Please do pass our love and thanks on to all of the team; they have left us with a legacy that will go on forever. As we gathered at church this morning we really felt that things had changed and that we had been strengthened and galvanized as we prepare to move on to the next level. Thank you all."