13 Nov 2024, 16:03Darell J. PhilipLondon
83 Empowered for Mission at Willesden and Holloway SDA Churches' Prayer Retreat in Milton Keynes
Back to the Upper Room: Connecting to the Power Source
Over 80 attendees joined a prayer retreat in Milton Keynes, hosted by Willesden and Holloway SDA Churches, for a weekend of inspiring messages, workshops, and an anointing service to empower prayer intercessors for mission.
83 individuals attended a power-packed prayer retreat collaboratively organised by the Willesden and Holloway SDA Churches. The retreat, which took place at the Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes, during the weekend of Friday 1st November to Sunday 3rd November 2024, empowered prayer intercessors for mission within the home, community, and church. There were even activities prepared for the children also in attendance during the weekend. As well as a spirit-filled praise and worship led by the youth, there were also power-packed messages during the morning and evening sessions presented by four dynamic speakers: Dr Mario Phillip (Pastor, Holloway SDA Church), Jumoul Sancho (Pastor, Willesden SDA Church), Mark Baptiste (Elder, Cambridge SDA Church) and Itamar James (Pastor, Luton Central and Luton North SDA Churches).
In his message, Focus on the Family, Elder Mark Baptiste delivered an interactive session which offered some practical tips which helped in fostering a positive and Christ-centred presence in the home. In one of the PowerPoint slides, revered humanitarian, Mother Teresa was shown, saying, “If you want to change the world then go home and love your family,” while on the point of parents making it a priority in spending quality time with their children it was said, “To the world, you may be just one person, but to one person, you might just be the world.”
Dr Mario Phillip’s message – House Churches of Prayer: Taking Prayer Back Where It Started – challenged prayer intercessors to revisit and implement the house churches of prayer model, which were a common feature of the New Testament Church. The early church made prayer an integral part of their meetings, resulting in the expansion of the Christian faith. “Prayer builds a platform for success. The early church not only placed a great emphasis on having a Holy Spirit-filled and prayerful life but also saw the prayer gathering as one of the most celebrated occasions,” said Dr Phillip. “Prayer was the engine room that drove the machinery of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. Our modern-day church will accomplish more when prayer is made central to all that we do.”
In his message, It’s Nice to be Nice: Empowered by the Spirit for Personal Witnessing, Pastor Jumoul Sancho provided ten principles of personal witnessing which were as follows:
Meet and mingle with people (John 4:4)
Put aside prejudices and engage prospects (John 4:7)
Expect resistance (John 4:9)
Offer something that will meet a need (John 4:10)
Concentrate on meeting that need (John 4:11-14)
Be persistent. You will break down resistance (John 4:15)
Go for the family (John 4:16)
Encourage worship of God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24)
Teach the truth when the prospect is ready for it (John 4:25-26)
Prioritise personal witnessing – it is the best preparation for public evangelism (John 4:39-42)
Pastor Sancho then also referred the prayer intercessors to three key testimonies given to the Church by Ellen G. White:
“The strongest argument in favour of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian. To live such a life, to exert such an influence, costs at every step – effort, self-sacrifice and discipline.”
“If Christians were more kind and tenderhearted, there would be a hundred conversions to the truth where there is now only one.”
“We have nothing to fear for the future, except we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”
Just as in a relay race, the baton is passed from one runner to the next, Pastor Itamar James took the final baton, setting the room ablaze with a dynamic word admonishing prayer intercessors to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit in order to receive their own upper room experience which empowers them to serve their homes, community, and church. “When God is in your life, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and when you are drunk on the Spirit of God you move not with stagger but a swagger,” Pastor James declared to the jubilation of those receiving the message.
Many testimonies were shared which highlighted the goodness of God during challenging times, including a member who, clutching to stinging nettles, escaped a fall into a river after mistiming a step into the passenger seat of her daughter’s car, while another member, Marva Hyatt, spoke of some of the adversities she and her children had faced and overcome which have now been documented in her recently published book: Defying Odds: Empowered through Adversities – From a Teenage Single Mother of Two to a Thriving Career Woman.
The proceeds of a gift sale (£356) were donated to the I Care Share project led by Dr Mario Phillip, which assists in the rebuilding of vulnerable community groups in Pakistan as well as in other regions within the Asian and African continents.
The retreat was then brought to an end with a special anointing service where all prayer intercessors, children, and youth were consecrated to God for the purpose of mission in homes, schools, community, and the Church in preparation for the Lord’s soon return.
Over 80 attendees joined a prayer retreat in Milton Keynes, hosted by Willesden and Holloway SDA Churches, for a weekend of inspiring messages, workshops, and an anointing service to empower prayer intercessors for mission.
83 individuals attended a power-packed prayer retreat collaboratively organised by the Willesden and Holloway SDA Churches. The retreat, which took place at the Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes, during the weekend of Friday 1st November to Sunday 3rd November 2024, empowered prayer intercessors for mission within the home, community, and church. There were even activities prepared for the children also in attendance during the weekend. As well as a spirit-filled praise and worship led by the youth, there were also power-packed messages during the morning and evening sessions presented by four dynamic speakers: Dr Mario Phillip (Pastor, Holloway SDA Church), Jumoul Sancho (Pastor, Willesden SDA Church), Mark Baptiste (Elder, Cambridge SDA Church) and Itamar James (Pastor, Luton Central and Luton North SDA Churches).
In his message, Focus on the Family, Elder Mark Baptiste delivered an interactive session which offered some practical tips which helped in fostering a positive and Christ-centred presence in the home. In one of the PowerPoint slides, revered humanitarian, Mother Teresa was shown, saying, “If you want to change the world then go home and love your family,” while on the point of parents making it a priority in spending quality time with their children it was said, “To the world, you may be just one person, but to one person, you might just be the world.”
Dr Mario Phillip’s message – House Churches of Prayer: Taking Prayer Back Where It Started – challenged prayer intercessors to revisit and implement the house churches of prayer model, which were a common feature of the New Testament Church. The early church made prayer an integral part of their meetings, resulting in the expansion of the Christian faith. “Prayer builds a platform for success. The early church not only placed a great emphasis on having a Holy Spirit-filled and prayerful life but also saw the prayer gathering as one of the most celebrated occasions,” said Dr Phillip. “Prayer was the engine room that drove the machinery of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. Our modern-day church will accomplish more when prayer is made central to all that we do.”
In his message, It’s Nice to be Nice: Empowered by the Spirit for Personal Witnessing, Pastor Jumoul Sancho provided ten principles of personal witnessing which were as follows:
Meet and mingle with people (John 4:4)
Put aside prejudices and engage prospects (John 4:7)
Expect resistance (John 4:9)
Offer something that will meet a need (John 4:10)
Concentrate on meeting that need (John 4:11-14)
Be persistent. You will break down resistance (John 4:15)
Go for the family (John 4:16)
Encourage worship of God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24)
Teach the truth when the prospect is ready for it (John 4:25-26)
Prioritise personal witnessing – it is the best preparation for public evangelism (John 4:39-42)
Pastor Sancho then also referred the prayer intercessors to three key testimonies given to the Church by Ellen G. White:
“The strongest argument in favour of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian. To live such a life, to exert such an influence, costs at every step – effort, self-sacrifice and discipline.”
“If Christians were more kind and tenderhearted, there would be a hundred conversions to the truth where there is now only one.”
“We have nothing to fear for the future, except we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”
Just as in a relay race, the baton is passed from one runner to the next, Pastor Itamar James took the final baton, setting the room ablaze with a dynamic word admonishing prayer intercessors to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit in order to receive their own upper room experience which empowers them to serve their homes, community, and church. “When God is in your life, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and when you are drunk on the Spirit of God you move not with stagger but a swagger,” Pastor James declared to the jubilation of those receiving the message.
Many testimonies were shared which highlighted the goodness of God during challenging times, including a member who, clutching to stinging nettles, escaped a fall into a river after mistiming a step into the passenger seat of her daughter’s car, while another member, Marva Hyatt, spoke of some of the adversities she and her children had faced and overcome which have now been documented in her recently published book: Defying Odds: Empowered through Adversities – From a Teenage Single Mother of Two to a Thriving Career Woman.
The proceeds of a gift sale (£356) were donated to the I Care Share project led by Dr Mario Phillip, which assists in the rebuilding of vulnerable community groups in Pakistan as well as in other regions within the Asian and African continents.
The retreat was then brought to an end with a special anointing service where all prayer intercessors, children, and youth were consecrated to God for the purpose of mission in homes, schools, community, and the Church in preparation for the Lord’s soon return.
