We have much to tell...mostly things of an internal nature- God speaking to us about our future-things that we just have to wait and see about as well as continually yielding our agenda to God. One thing we know for sure, and that is that God is sovereign and had a whole other plan about us coming all this way besides the course! How do we put into words all th things that are stirring in us, and the new vision we have...? All I know is that God can raise up all the things we have lain down, and can enable us to do those way out there type dreams...This is such an environment of faith and of possibiblity, and passion for God's truth and healing to be spread all over the world. How can we not dream in this place?
Its taken a month to be able to upload photos so its hard to choose out of the gazzillion we have taken so far. this place is so gorgeous, and especially in autumn with all the trees changing colour...we are very grateful to be here.
Just a short walk from Pierrepont is the Little Pond, one of the 'areas of outstanding beauty' in Surrey. It is gorgeous. We are lucky to be able to go walking around it and its a very restful place. A little further on is the Great Pond which is bigger, and has a restaurant where you can watch the swans frolic. Squirrels is a new thing for us...we're pretty pumped with squirrels. They are the cutest things...
Here is our room for our stay at Pierrepont. Its just one room, but we are trying to make it nice. The roses were from Tim for our 4 year anniversary, and the cards are from you precious people...Thats Tims elbow in the corner. Living in community is a new thing, and so far we are doing well...Being able to take a car out to have dinner on our anniversary was nice and we had the next day off to go exploring and have a Bakker vision day with our journals out over a pub lunch. So far we have packed the next few years....we'll see where God leads...
Here we are in the beautiful city of Bath where we went for Ellel's 20th Anniversary conference. It was amazing. I have such a respect for the leaders of this ministry. Such humble people and so loving towards one another. It was a full on schedule but we managed one hour of sight seeing and ate lunch where Charles wesley preached from...no spiritual vibes... we really needed more than a few days to appreciate Bath. I felt like i was in a period film the whole time and eventually we would step out into the real world. Some of Sense and Sensibility was filmed there as well as Oliver Twist. Aside from those trivialities, Ellel spent some time looking back over what God has done over the last 20 years and launching into adulthood with new vision. It was pretty amazing to see the way each of the centres was established...all have a miracle story that is worth its own book. Ellel Netherlands was pretty exciting..to see how a centre could be acquired supernaturally, without money, but with the favour of God...I met up with the Netherlands director and he is a really great guy with a big vision for seeing Gods healing come to holland and raising up the young people who have already been through a healing retreat at the centre to be the ministry team... Exciting developments.
This is the back view of the Main House at Pierrepont. Its a huge place. I havent seen it all yet, but i think tim may have. Its very green as you can see, and at the moment its getting very cold! We have to say that so far we have had exceptional weather...its been balmy and lovely, just chilly in the evenings, but today my teeth hurt. I think we skipped Autumn and went straight to Winter! They laugh at us...THIS is not cold...You wait til you see cold...yeah yeah...Im from AUSTRALIA. Its not this cold in my fridge.
Here we are on our walk by the pond on our day off. We are very happy to be here, and very happy to be experiencing this together. We have double the experiences really, because tim has one perspective being on staff, and i have the students point of view. Tim has been welcomed very much into the heart of the students though, cause we come as a set, and he is even leading them tomorrow night for a worship night. they have been asking and asking when is he going to lead and so its going to be so nice...we have never heard so many of the songs they sing here, which is kind of cool, but we miss...something. Its great to see how everyone else praises God though, and some of the songs have become precious to us.
As for my course, and what I am learning...well thats been incredible. i knew that when I came it would be a case of being ministered to, in order to effectively minister to others, and i knew that i was willingly opening up my heart for God to change it. Well, He is doing that, and at times i feel wobbly, but i know that lies are being exchanged for the truth and that is very freeing and healing. As yet i havent quite figured out how to process all this amazing teaching , but i am trusting that God is speaking spirit to spirit, and He will bring it to my mind when i need it. I am also being taught how to minister practically by observing and interceding during actual ministry situations like at Bath, and that is a steep learning curve. Its very exciting though, and humbling. I want to have a heart like the people here...and i guess thats why i came.
Here's a course overview for first term...its been changed a bit, but is essentially the same. I'll try to put in words what Im learning for the next blog, and maybe Tim can tell you about his experiences on team.
TERM ONE-
Foundations of Christian Truth
Gospel Imperatives
Foundations of Christian Truth
The power of the Blood & the Name of Jesus
The realities of living in the Kingdom
The work of the Cross
The person & work of the Holy Spirit
Receiving & using spiritual gifts
Kingdom Living
Prayer & Intercession
Spiritual Warfare & claiming the ground
Standing on God's promises
Introduction to Evangelism
Hearing the voice of God & knowing His will
The Biblical Basis for the Healing Ministry
The Father heart of God
The healing ministry of Jesus
Understanding spirit, soul and body
The spiritual realm
Foundations of acceptance
Principles & practice of deliverence ministry
Inner healing & wholeness
Right relationships & Godly boundaries
satans objectives & strategies
Domination, manipulation & intimidation
Keys to Ministering God's Healing Love
Generational iniquity
Blessings & curses
Healing through forgiveness
Bitter root judgements
Belief systems and mindsets
Understanding rejection
The sinful, wounded and Godly heart
Soul ties & ungodly links
Understanding deception & discernment
Understanding prophecy
Idolatry
Pronouncements & inner vows
Creative arts in the healing ministry
Practice of Care, Counselling and Prayer Ministry
Principles & methods of Christian counselling & prayer ministry
Listening skills
Qualities & requirements of a prayer minister
Making an assessment & developing a ministry plan
And that is just ten weeks of study! Ellel use the SEE, HEAR, DO model, so when they are teaching a subject, they will also practice it and we can watch real or role played ministry take place.
So there you go. I will post term 2 later on sometime. My hand hurts!
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