Hey there!
I wanted to share more with you about how great my week in England was. I went over there to lead worship for the week long worship event called New Wine. Its the event that birthed Soul Survivor – SS originally began as the youth meeting at New Wine many years ago and gradually grew into its own youth conference and youth movement, producing worship leaders Matt Redman, Tim Hughes and others. So New Wine has been a very influential conference over the last decades, and it was a real blessing to be part of the team!
As you know, Joy Argow my Aussie friend came with me, and she and I had such a blast. God really met us both in the meetings, and we also loved drinking real British tea, and laughing at good old British humor!
Here are some photos from the trip! Above is a shot of me and my excellent UK musicians from the event – most of us had never met before we arrived at the conference for rehearsals, so they did an amazing job of learning my songs and going with the flow. I’m so glad to have made such great new friends!
Joy and all our gear, getting off the Heathrow Train at Paddington Station!
Classic british food – pie and chips! (not a low carb option!!)
Main stage worship session…
“ACTION!”… New Wine filmed an informal interview with me one afternoon…
This is the Vicar of my home church in the UK, Chris Pemberton, then one of the couples who ran my youth group at his church when I was 13-18yrs old. Alistair on the right is the guy who first encouraged me to start leading worship…he was there the first time I ever led and can testify that I was VERY nervous! It was great to see them all again!
This is me and my Dad. My parents came to the conference as my UK visit was literally zooming into the first night of the event, then flying straight out after the final session. So they came to the conference and hung out with me each day. One of the venues was holding a ‘hat party’ as a fun after hours activity, hence my Dad’s viking hat!
This was the brochure/poster for the event – “KIngdom Come” was the theme and I certainly felt like God’s kingdom was powerfully present at the conference… some of the meetings felt like heaven was invading earth, as we sang our hearts out in worship. In several ministry times we prayed for the sick and saw people truly experience healing in body and heart.. so I came away feeling like I’d seen God’s kingdom breaking in, and longing to see more of that over the coming weeks and years!
Right now I’m at Estes Park, and having a great time at GMA in the Rockies – an event run by the Gospel Music Association. Photos and Blog to follow from here!
On the subject of the Kingdom of God, lets have a theological chat here – as we love to do! “Why do you think some people get healed when we pray, and others don’t? Why do we sometimes see God’s kingdom break in with victory, and other times it feels like heaven is silent? Can we expect the fullness of God’s kingdom here on earth, or is that something we can only see in heaven, or when Jesus returns again?”
Love,
Vicky
