Celebration for the Nations
July 2010

We are finally in the Celebration month! All of us in Llanelli are preparing and praying for those of you who are coming. We so look forward to being together in worship before our King!

Thank you so much, those of you who joined us in a special time of prayer and fasting 23rd - 25th June. It was a precious time waiting on the Lord. I just want to share a few things that came to different people in that time.

HOLY GROUND was very much emphasised again. The Lord is inviting us to meet him where he is. So often we cry 'come to me Lord', and he is very gracious, but he also says 'come into my life'. Joshua had to change his mindset from 'Are you for us?' to 'We are for you!'. Let's take off
our sandals and wait in his holy presence. For Moses and for Joshua, because they waited on holy ground, they were able to see great deliverance and great victory for a nation. Isn't that what we long for? He is the Lord of the Celebration. He wants to purify us and prepare us. Read below how the Lord has been leading the French team:

From Nantes: France

Here is some news about preparation of the French team for C4N. 1 week ago we began 21 days of consecration, based on Daniel 10. During the time dedicated to the Lord, we agreed to spend more time praying, worshipping, setting ourselves apart from things of the world. We also had on our hearts that this time will be a time of repentance and forgiving. Also we agreed to keep encouraging and communicating together.

We have a Bible reading plan, and we pray for a different nation everyday (starting with Wales, ending with France). We know that during this time, there is a spiritual warfare that belongs to Jesus and his army of angels!

We are amazed about the things God has been doing since we started last Tuesday ! He is acting deeply in the life of each one of us. This is sometimes a tough moment to be profoundly changed by God, but this is necessary to come onto the "holy ground".

Some of us had hard struggles in their minds, with their jobs, or with their bodies, but it has always been about something the Lord wanted to clean up, sometimes sins that had been there for years, or even things with which the enemy has used to try to keep us away from God.
And we rejoice to see how we are standing all together in the peace of the Lord as he changes us with His tender hands.
We have also been receiving words from God, even if for the moment, it looks like puzzle pieces of a puzzle that are not yet assembled. We do not see the whole picture yet, but we know the Lord is confirming that we are in His plans, so we keep praying, worshipping, and being in unity, with a great hope in our hearts.

Some key things received up till now :
- The Lord is teaching us to listen to Him, and seek his face in any decision (2 Samuel 6). There is something in C4N about listening to God and his Holy Spirit. As we come onto the holy ground, we may hear the Lord speak, and we need to have spiritual ears prepared and wide open. We will have to listen carefully, because things will be important. Just as He spoke to Moses at the burning bush, to reveal His important plans for His people.
- He wants us to repent and to forgive, and to have deeper roots in Him (Matt. 13)
- We need to take care about unity, and let Him fill us with adoration.
- We are a small group, but very strong in Him, looking with His eyes. 
- We believe that children who come with us are very important as representatives for their generation. May be as happened in Wales during the Revival, they will teach us about God.

I hope this is understandable, because this kind of thing is hard to describe.

We keep on praying for the C4N team, to keep being connected to God in everything.


Blessings in His name
Karel

Unity and Celebration Sunday

The Lord has also been speaking to us about humility and unity. In the story of the prodigal son, when he returned, there was music and dancing. In Greek, the word used for music is 'symphonia' from which we get our word symphony. May we be a symphony to the Lord, looking to our great conductor, and may many prodigals return! (Thank you, Allan, for the insight!).
It has been encouraging to see how the Lord is opening doors to work with the local churches. We will have a joint service with some of the churches on Sunday 25th July, and then all eat a packed lunch together. After that we plan to split into teams with as many churches as possible, and go to the areas of their churches, to prayer-walk, to put leaflets through doors and to litter pick. We will be cleaning the town physically and spiritually.

Pray for the worship teams

The Lord has blessed us this year with 8 worship teams from 6 different nations. Pray for them as they prepare.

Turkish Pastor's Request: Calling Artists!

One of our placement teams this year is going to Turkey. There seems to be a special link developing between Celebration and Turkey (see Gail's report on Turkey on the website). See below for a request from a Turkish Pastor:
I am writing lessons for evangelical out-reach using a slide-show. They are meant to be shared with non-Christians to give them a chance to understand our faith better. We have found that these evangelical bible studies are even more effective when done with a slide-show.
Some of these lessons are bible stories with characters in them. For example, I am talking about Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night. Or there is the story of the Pharisee and tax collector in the temple. In other more abstract demonstrations we can use pictures from nature etc. but for the characters we need drawings.

We hope to not only show these slides when trying to share our faith with our neighbours but also have them on the internet with explanations. Do you know of people who would enjoy making drawings for these stories/slide-shows? We can not pay anyone and will not be making money on it, so it would need to be someone who is willing to just volunteer his/her talents. They need to be really led by the Holy Spirit and have a strong talent for drawing/painting.

If you are able to help with this please contact us, and we will put you in touch with the pastor. Thank you!

Financial breakthrough

Please pray for all of those coming from Korea. Airfares have risen sharply this year, and most coming are having to pay around £1000 or more! Pray this will not hinder those who should come.

Chinese Celebration

An underground church we know in China is praying for a revival like the Welsh Revival in their city. They are really excited about our vision, and would love to be with us at the Celebration. However as that is not practical, they have organised a youth worship event for the same week, asking us to pray for them, as they will pray for us. To hear one of their home written worship songs (in English) based on Evan Roberts prayer, 'Bend me' go to follow this link http://www.celebrationforthenations.org/newsite/ko/media/category/15-audio-2010
We will see many of you in Llanelli soon! Those of you who can't come this year, please worship with us in your hearts and pray with us for the living waters to break out!

The Lord bless you richly
Gail and the Celebration Team.