Some Important Things To Pray About – July 2023

Steve Petch

Jul 6

Hello lovely Welcome Church people! We would value your prayers this month for the following key things:

1. Buildings

We're keen to work out how to create more space for our growing kids and youth work. On Sunday mornings we're currently relying on The Annex (THE CUBE!) for extra space. The Annex is great, but we don't own it and it will be redeveloped at some point, so we need to either build or buy a more permanent solution.

Mike Deavin and I met with the architect of our current building recently, and he's looking at what's possible on our site. We want to find a solution that will serve the needs of our young people, and also serve the church and the wider community all week long.

We love and value our young people and want to serve them well, so please be praying for wisdom and a clear way forward. I'm excited to see what doors God will open for us.

2. Newday

At the end of July our youth will be heading off to the annual 'Newday Youth Festival' at the Norfolk Showground in Norwich . This year it runs from Monday 31st July to Friday 4th August. So far we have around 80 young people booked to attend. Each year Newday helps our youth to grow in their faith, building solid foundations for the future.

Please pray:

That our youth stay safe and have a great time
That they encounter God and grow in their faith
For the leaders and the many helpers who are taking them and serving them during the event (they need our prayers! )
For the practical arrangements (For example, just this week the coach company we booked announced that they've gone bankrupt ... ... we've got time to solve that problem, but we'd love to avoid any more last minute headaches or unforeseen problems)

3. Commission Festival

Commission Festival is on the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August

We'll be joining with Commission churches from around the UK for times of worship and teaching, and a whole lot of other fun and games too. This event helps build our togetherness as a church and as family of churches. It connects us to our Apostolic mission around the world, and it also serves our children and young people well.

We currently have around 370 people from Welcome Church booked in, which is more than we've ever taken to an event like this before. For us it's a bit like we're running a festival within the festival!

It's still not too late to book in and join us (click here for details) and don't forget you can get a 40% discount if you sign up to serve.

A LOT of people from Welcome Church are either serving at the Festival, or serving our church site at the Festival in a range of different ways. I can't possibly name them all, but each one is greatly appreciated.

Please pray:

For the event to go really well and for God to move powerfully
For the weather - we'd like lots of sunshine please
For Darren Forsdyke, our Ops Director, who is leading the delivery of this brand new Festival for Commission, working with their staff team and an event management company. It's been a massive undertaking and he's gone above and beyond to get this done
For Richard Field who, along with an awesome team from our church, is leading the operational delivery of our Welcome Church site at the Festival
For Jo Petch, who is leading the worship for the event (alongside Sean Theunissen from City Gate Church, Bournemouth)
For Harriet Code who is co-leading 'Unique', a ministry for children at the Festival who have additional needs
For Dub Everitt, Meg Ochieng, and Robin and Anna Willison who are all responsible for various seminars
For myself - I'm responsible for anchoring the adult meetings and I'm also preaching on the Saturday evening

If you have any questions about the festival, please do ask. One more thing:

Do you want to go to the Festival for free?

If so, Compassion UK are looking for some outgoing, faith filled and friendly volunteers to help on the Compassion stand at the Festival. In return they will provide a free ticket for the event along with your food and any travel expenses. All you need to bring is yourself, your camping equipment, and faith in what God can do.

If you want to know more about this opportunity please let us know in the church office and we will put you in touch, but please don't leave it too late!