BY DANIELLE EARLE
In October we were privileged to host the Pursuing His Presence team (Dave Fellingham, Jos and Jenni Wintermeyer, Nick Tasquier, Jo and Paul McCulloch, Irene and Keith Brooks, and Roshan and Jen Cheraghvandi) who came from the UK to encourage, equip and bless us. It was a wonderful whirlwind of prayer meetings, business breakfasts, youth hangouts, and the much anticipated Pursuing His Presence conference with Dave Fellingham. We are still enjoying the fruit of this time – God changed us!!
Just have a walk around the church and speak to anyone who was there – they may not have personally experienced healing, liberation, or had a personal revelation, but they will know someone who did. Many among us were healed, set free, and received prophetic words of encouragement and guidance, but even for those who did not, we are all the more encouraged to step out in faith and to be saturated with His Presence in our lives daily!
Here are a few testimonies from the PHP team visit:
Sam Verghese:
I was born with a condition called retinitis pigmentosa. This condition has left me with low peripheral vision, complete night blindness, and partial color blindness.
After the team from Horsham came – there were two people, particularly Nick and another guy – and they prayed for me and had some prophetic words about God restoring my vision in my eyes. As they prayed as a team and the whole church began to pray, I started to realise that spots in my eyes that had been there had started to disappear, and that I was able to see things in my periphery that I have never seen before. Although the healing has not been complete and although I am still praying that God will continue to heal, I am so grateful to God for what He has already done and I have faith for complete healing at a time to come!
Grace Coggan:
The week leading up to the conference, God had been speaking to me about my personal worship and stepping out in worship. He was speaking to me about growing that part of my life that gives me life and gives me freedom. I felt like for such a long time I had been trapped in that area, [but] I felt like now my personal worship at home was just exploding and I was having amazing times with God! This meant that when I went to church and it was corporate worship it was so easy to get into worship, even when the kids were running around beside me, because I already had that strong connection with God.
During the week the Horsham team were visiting I had been talking to Jos and Jen about how to bridge the gap in the stage I’m in, and they were just kinda praying for me, praying that God would speak… I felt I heard God speak, but you know you second guess it sometimes?? And so on the Saturday at the Pursuing His Presence Conference, Nick had a prophetic word for someone he called out as a “star”, and then as he was saying that he said that “the girl has star tattoos behind her left ear”, and there was no way he had seen that I had that and I knew this word was for me!! He basically said that my worship was special to God, and that it meant something and that He saw it.
It was just incredible for me, and it really solidified lots of things in my heart, and the awesome thing was that Jos and Jen and Sam were involved in the process and seen what was happening behind the scenes back at home, and so for that to happen on the Saturday was just an awesome thing! It reminded me that God is a personal God, and I was so encouraged thinking about how God knows our insecurities and the things we’re struggling with, and He also knows the things we are pressing forward with and trusting in Him for. I was so encouraged that He just wanted to reveal to me that He says: “I see everything you feel, and I’m pleased with it”, and it was just a confirmation to keep pushing forward in it, to keep seeking Him, because He has and is glorified through it.”
Liezl Vander Woude:
The Horsham visit was really a ‘reset’ for me spiritually. I had become quite discouraged and felt really far away from the things of the Lord: unexcited about church life and even my personal walk with Jesus. I had become quite negative and very self critical – even a little bit hopeless.
On the Saturday morning of the Pursuing His Presence conference, while Dave Fellingham was teaching from the Bible, I felt the Holy Spirit confirm over and over to me: “You know this, you love this, you know the Scriptures, you love Jesus. This Truth is what brought you to your knees in the first place. The first time you experienced the freedom that comes with knowing Jesus Christ was when you truly believed this and nothing has changed…” I can really say that as Dave spoke my first faith returned to me!!
Afterwards, as we were worshipping and prophetic words were coming, every word seemed relevant to me. Pointing me to Jesus! Every contribution seemed to take us farther down the road and finally ending in a complete love song towards the Lord. Thankfulness for His enduring love, for His steadfastness and for His faithfulness towards us.
At the very end, Nick pointed me out specifically amongst other people with a word of knowledge. It sealed what had already been happening in my heart. God saw me and was encouraging me to stay in the light: to believe that His Spirit was at work in my life and to avoid choosing dark unbelief over the light of His Spirit.
When I look back on all the different words that people had received from Nick, who didn’t know them at all (but I did!) it struck me that there was a common thread. Through words of knowledge God chose something true of each person, something that was particularly true of each individual and encouraged them in that. I found that so instructive and it revealed to me so much of the heart of God towards His children: there might be many things wrong in your life, but He focuses on a specific good thing in your life and He encourages you in that. He builds us up! I was so struck by God’s goodness to us as a church, and obviously to me personally, that I just thought: “My! Clearly the Lord is among us!!”
What a blessing Dave Fellingham and the Horsham team were to us, and I so hope their hearts were full and their bags were overflowing with gifts from the Lord as they went home because they blessed us so incredibly. I’m very thankful that they took the time and made the effort to come and be with us.
