I imagine the scene: a choppy sea, the waves would have been high and rocking the boat, hindering its progress. It was eerily dark and the disciples would have been tired after slogging hard at ministry with Jesus. The wind was whipping up and the sails would have been slapping making them hard to control and the noise removing conversation. Panic goes through the group of hardened fisherman as they observe what they think is a ghost…. but it turns out to be Jesus!
Peter calls out and thinks he hears the voice of the master respond telling him to get out of the boat. So he jumps overboard leaving the relative safety of the boat for the adventure of walking with Jesus.
I know this seems dramatic but this story has been hugely provocative as I move my family to Perth, Australia.
For many years I have had in my heart that one day we would go to that continent. Nicky and I have prayed lots about this and we have received numerous encouraging words and wisdom from godly men and women. There have been many ‘God-incidences’ along the way and we always believed that if the door opened we would step through it.
In August 2009 we took our 3 children, Josh (14), Lois (12) and Isaac (11) to visit those folk on the ground in Perth. Our hearts felt knitted to the great bunch and so after obtaining a visa we announced to The Crown Church (which we planted in West London eight years ago) that we believed it to be right to move on. James and the new leadership team have been great in supporting our relocation.
Perth a city of 1.6 million has been nicknamed the ‘city of lights’ and we believe that many churches will be planted there. There has been a prophetic picture of a plane over a map of Australia with one wing touching Sydney and the other wing touching Perth: the plane is flying up into Asia. We would love to play our part in the pioneering situation with Peter Brooks and others in seeing that area of the world impacted for Jesus.
For the moment it can seem scary. We are selling our house; pulling our kids out of school, leaving London, which we love, and can only see the wind and the waves!
Please can you pray:
For the family to settle quickly, make new friends and for the three kids at new schoolsFor the lost to get saved
For other Newfrontiers folk to join us
For a powerful overflow of the Holy Spirit
For the church to rapidly grow and multiply
