Saturday, July 11, 1998

We arrived at the airport Friday afternoon, July 10, in plenty of time, checked our luggage in and this "dream trip" to England was finally underway. It is clearly a miracle of sorts that we can start our trip with most of the estimated funds raised, and the arrangements made when it was only a "vision" less than a year ago. God surely has a great plan for us, and we step forward, not sure of what to expect, but confident He is guiding us. The trip was over ten hours on the plane, but we landed without any major difficulties, except we walked off the airport with an extra piece of luggage which somehow, we picked up along with ours. However, this was returned without too much difficulty.

After dinner, mid afternoon on Saturday, and meeting our hosts, we were finally able to hit the sack after being up for something like 30 hours (not counting the catnaps on the airplane).

We arrived at Emmanuel Centre (most of us anyway) for a sweet time of prayer an hour before the service at 9:30 AM. Then their worship service went 2-1/2 hours, including over an hour of worship singing, our two songs, and a 45 minutes sermon. The sermon was most encouraging, teaching on what it takes to be a good witness for the Lord. We were commissioned, along with a team of about ten members from Emmanuel Evangelical Church (EEC), our host church. Today is the first anniversary of their moving to this new building, a stone's throw from Parliament, seat of government in England. Suffering from jet lag, we then went home with our hosts after a late lunch at the Centre.

Today is a training day for us, as we listened and practiced how to do street evangelism and did a short prayer walk around the community we will be outreaching to later on. We spent a lot of time in prayer and worship as part of our preparation, but at the end of the day, after dinner, we walked down the street to visit Westminster Abbey, and walked along the road to Trafalgar Square. Most of us took the subway home from Trafalgar, but were interrupted by a false alram which caused the subway to be stopped, so we had to find alternate ways home (in London on really our first night by ourselves), but by walking or bus, we got home safely. One interesting incident happened to Becky and Leah who were staying at a place called Lewisham. By 11 PM, they found themselves at the Victoria Train Station but no trains were running. A man told them they had to go to London Bridge Station. They got there close to midnight. All the information booths were closed elsewhere and they were kind of panicky, but somehow, there was one lady in a single booth that knew as soon as they asked which platform to take. They ran and caught the last train just as it was pulling out so they were able to get safely home. In thinking back, they wondered how come there was someone there so late who knew even without looking at the computer screen which platform their train left from and enabled them to just catch the train home. Was that an angel God had sent just for them?

We went to a very busy market street during lunch hour to talk to people and to pass out invitations to come for prayer the next day. We were divided into three teams and we went all over Victoria Street, which is a busy area of Central London and we gave out more than 500 invitations. At first, people were very reluctant to take the invitations but we persevere and pray and the Lord opened doors for us. It was a positive experience for all of us. We also sang at the market street which drew a crowd. After dinner, we went to sightsee at Tower Bridge and sang along the streets. We were thanked by an American tourist family, and talked to a Muslim street sweeper and a black man who asked to be prayed for his alcoholism.

An amazing thing happened. In the past, the church only averaged about 5 people per week when they have this prayer hour from 1 to 2 PM on Wednesday. Today, the Lord brought more than 15 people from the streets and from the office buildings around here to come in for prayer. We were all elated as a result. Several of us from Vision had an opportunity to pray for all sorts of people. Some have come in for physical needs, some relationships, some jobs, some marriages. It is just fascinating to see people with all sorts of needs who are willing to come in for prayer. Those who did not pray for folks attended a Prayer Workshop in another part of Emmanuel Centre and were prayed for by powerful prayer warriors, an experience we all enjoyed. Later that day, we went to Piccadilly Circus, which is another very busy area of London to pass out invitations to young people for a youth group event this Friday night. It was a good experience for all of us and we are learning so much about relying on God's power and listening to the Spirit's prompting.

Connie was sick when she came in this morning so we prayed for her. After training, we went to 3 low cost housing estates which are walking distances away from the church to conduct what they call community survey. It is actually a tool to find out what people believe around the area and an opportunity to share Christ with the local community. It is interesting to note that at the first and third houses (over a hundred families per housing complex), we sang before we went and that seemed to open more doors. At some homes, we met some Christians, even one invalid who normally does not open her door bell, but she said God told her to open her door to us. We also met many Muslims, who are very strong in their beliefs. Two people accepted Christ during this time, both led to the Lord by Mark Marx, one of the EEC staff Pastors and one of our trainers. Amazing things happened when we sang at these housing estates. A Filipino construction worker was so happy to talk to Anna Yutan and Remy Chu in Tagalog. Willy and Christy got invited into a home of an Irish Catholic lady who was divorced and unemployed and some physical illness. They prayed for her and sensed the power of the Spirit upon the room during the prayer time. We found out we need to be more bold in leading people to Christ. When we went back to the church, we found Connie all well, like she was never sick, an answer to our morning's prayer for her.

We had a free morning to wash our clothes and continued surveying two more housing complexes in the afternoon. Again, we sang, which seemed to open more doors and generally had a warmer reception than the day before, although no one came to the Lord. In the evening, we listened to their Millennium Generation outreach to non-Christian youths, with three rock bands and testimonies from a weight lifting group. The music was loud and very much youth oriented. We did not sing as we planned since we felt our music does not fit in at all.

We were going to sight see St. Paul's Cathedral after lunch before the Chinatown healing street meeting, but when we got together, we felt the need to spend the time reconciling with each other and praying for God's strength and protection. We heard that another Chinese church had tried open air meetings in Chinatown before and everyone who went had fallen sick, so we had a wonderful time sharing among each other and praying before we went. There, we saw many come for healing, among them a lame man who had one leg shorter by two inches healed before our eyes. Willy Tan prayed for a man who also had his leg row longer to match the other leg. There where asthmatics who were healed, a lady with back problems, and countless (at least 20) others healed before our eyes and we praise God for what we saw. We saw the need for signs and miracles in the marketplace to attract people and show them that our God is alive and real. We have a lot to learn, so continue to pray for us.

We joined the prayer and worship service in the morning and then went to the healing meeting in the afternoon. We heard a testimony from a teenager named Alexander who was healed of asthma the night before in Chinatown when we did the healing service there. Alexander had asthma all his life and he testified how he felt a tingling, first in his hand and throughout his body and how he was able to breathe deeply for the first time. He also accepted Christ last night and brought his Dutch grandmother to church today. She also accepted Christ along with 4 other people during today's meeting. Praise God, we could count 8 people who accepted Christ between the two healing meetings. The healings are a wonderful way to get people's attention and bring them to Christ.

Today is an off day so we went to the British museum. Among the things we saw was the Rosetta Stone, and many statues from the Parthenon. This was a nice rest day for us.

We asked for and received some basic learning about Islam today from a brother in England. It was a good time of learning and opened our eyes to how deceiving Satan can be. We then went to do more survey at the estates, but were generally met with closed doors today. It could be because we had not prayed for this estate before. The battle is clearly a spiritual one, so continue to pray for us.

This morning, sixteen of us (due to space limitations) had the opportunity to get a special private tour of House of Parliament, led by Francis Pym, an assistant to Lord Ashbourne. In the evening, a critical vote by the Lords on passing or rejecting a House of Commons passed bill to lower the age of homosexual consent to 16 from 18 would be taken and of course as Christians we were against it. When we toured the debating chambers, we prayed (and also sang in the chapel), and then before the vote, about 20 of us from EEC and Vision went to pray some more. Later that night, the vote, expected to be very close was 290 to 122 rejecting this bill, so praise God, we can influence the government with our prayers. EEC then next day received a special phone call from Baroness Young, who led the vote to reject this bill, thanking us for praying for her and her team.

In the afternoon, we went to more of the estates surrounding the church to do surveys and talk to any one who will talk to us. As before, we sang before broke into mixed pairs as we did the surveys. Most of the flats were unoccupied, but a few of us did meet some folks. An old lady who was very lonely invited one pair in. Others talked to some families. We then went back to the church for their weekly prayer hour, when people just came in to ask for prayers. Because Emmanuel Centre was rented out for the week, we prayed only in the offices so we did not pass out leaflets like we did last week, but 14 people came for prayer, including one young man we met in Chinatown who the kids prayed for. He came to tell us after prayer, he found a job the next day, and showed interest in Christianity. That night, we went to the Salvation Army hostel, just a few feet from Emmanuel Centre, where we sang for the homeless and staff of the church. Although only a few men were there, we had a good time talking to them after the concert.

This week, we are meeting at St. James the Less church, an Anglican Church down the street from Emmanuel Centre, a beautiful old traditional building. Today, we had a chance to do some rehearsals in the church. We also went to the park close by and sang to scores of passerby during their lunch hour. We sang for maybe 30 minutes and spent another hour talking to people and praying for them on the street. We then went and did some more surveys in the estates. After dinner, as we returned to St. James for some debriefing, we sang to a group of homeless people who were being fed by some members from St. James.

Today is a free day so we went to have fish and chips at an EEC member's place that owns a fish and chip store, some miles south of the city center. Then about 2/3 of us went to view the National Gallery of Arts where we saw hundreds of famous paintings. In the evening, we split up and attended different cell meetings, since EEC is a Cell Church. Their cells are quite similar to our fellowship groups except they are divided up geographically instead of demographically. They emphasize 4-W's. Welcome, Worship, Word (study from Bible based on the message the previous Sunday), and Work (application and prayer of what we studied). The group I went to was quite diverse in terms of nationality and status, a Doctor, a single mother with two children, a young widow, etc. totaling 12 of us.

We visited the estates again, hoping to catch more people at home. We sang to attract a crowd and did the religious attitude survey. Although no one accepted the Lord on the spot, we realize we are sowing seeds on hard grounds and we thank the Lord for the Christians we met, the Muslims, and agnostics. Two-third of us then went and to visit St. Paul's Cathedral. We were dismayed at the commercialism of the place. We felt much of what Jesus would have felt at turning God's house into a place of business, because even though there were signs inviting people to worship, we could only stay at the side to pray without paying, and the basement crypt was turned into a tourist shop and a cafeteria. We then went to Rev. Chua wee Hian's home to have dinner as a group and fellowship.

It should be obvious by now that EEC is quite charismatic, and believes in a balance of Word and Spirit. One of their staff is named Mark Marx, very anointed in healing and a man of strong faith. We have been training with Mark and he has taught us how to pray for healing. Mostly, we go and sing, and pray with Mark, although Willy Tan has prayed for some healing and we have seen miracles. Leah has also prayed and people have been healed, but for the most part, until today, we have been more onlookers as well as talking to people about Christ, but our faith is becoming stronger so maybe when we go to Chinatown on Sunday, we will be brave enough to lead in prayer for healing ourselves.

We attended All Soul's church this morning for their 9:30 service to listen to John Stott himself preach. This is a much more traditional Anglican (but very evangelical) church and we all enjoyed the hymns and Stott's message on what makes us human, based on Genesis 1 and 2. John also gave us updates on the Lambeth conference, the once in ten years meeting of Episcopal and Anglican Bishops and clash between third world conservatives and American and European liberals who want to ordain homosexual priests. We then attended EEC's service where Pastor Chua preached on Philip's outreach to the Samaritans and we will be studying this further in the cell groups on Friday. Then we went to Chinatown for our second outreach there. This time we were Accompanied by about 30 of the EEC members. What a difference a large team makes, able to follow up everyone who was prayed for and converting many to Christ after their healing. Again, we saw miraculous healing led by Mark Marx, but some of us also got to pray for individuals. We saw an older Chinese man's shorter leg grow 4 inches and his hearing in one ear restored. He came to accept the Lord after this. We also saw a young black boy's hearing improved in his left ear and some movement of his upper body healed. As we walked around the corner, we could see him jumping up and down for joy, pumping his arms and saying "YES". Best of all, we know of at least six who received the Lord, including a Pakistani lady with her entire family watching. We met an Italian, who was an ex-Catholic priest who had converted to Islam but as we prayed, he experienced healing in his body and was amazed to see God working. We pray this is only a first step toward his conversion back to Jesus, who he never really knew personally.

Today is an off day and we (most of us) decided to take a day trip to visit Oxford University. We say many old buildings, grounds, and even visited the Wesley Memorial Methodist church. It was closed but the caretaker let us in to visit and we sang in the church and prayed God to use that church for His glory. Tonight, several of the people went to see musicals (Les Miserable, Beauty and the Beast, etc.) at a discount price.

We met to rededicate ourselves for the last week of our mission. Joshua 4 and 5 reminded us to set up stones of remembrance to help us not forget what God has done these three weeks and to circumcise ourselves spiritually, cut off those things which hinder God working through us. We have 8 guys living in one house which EEC rented for us, and they prayed and confessed their resentment built-up over the two weeks between each other. We also prayed for healing among us, I prayed for Emily's leg, which was about a half-inch shorter, and it grew. Leah and Connie prayed for my leg which was also slightly mismatched and that grew. This miracle just helped us see how much God loves us and is concerned for us, but we prayed for Hamilton's cough and he is sleeping better but still coughing. We then went to sing at the park at lunch time, passing out leaflets inviting people to come Wednesday for prayer, and then went back to two estates to sing and do survey, which by now seems routine. We did not have a chance to lead anyone to Christ, but did talk to and pray for some people and plant many seeds.

We went once again to sing at lunch time at a nearby park where a lot of business people stop to eat lunch. We also passed out tracts and invited people to the prayer meeting at 1 PM, and talked to those willing to talk. We actually met for the third time a homeless person who we first met at the Salvation Army home, and he greeted us as old friends. We had the hour of power prayer session where we invite people off the streets to come for prayer as we had done the last two weeks. Something like 14 people came for prayer, including a young lady who first rejected our invitation, but because of (I think it was Peggy's) persistence, walked off a few yards, but returned and said, "why not, it can't hurt", and we saw how we need to be persistent in telling people about Christ. We went to two estates after that to do singing and surveying. As in past surveys, we divided up into many teams of two people each to take the different floors of the building and met with a variety of responses - mostly people not home, but we also met some wonderful Christians who thanked us for singing and a lot of rejection from people who don't want to spend time with us. Some of us got a chance to pray for people we met.

For the last time this tour, we went to another three estates to sing and do surveys, again with mixed results. One of the highlights was Richard and Anna knocking on a door of a Greek lady who had moved there only a few months ago and was delighted to see them. She had been looking for a church home and in fact came to EEC on Sunday, August 2. As we gathered in the courtyard after the survey, she opened her window on the third floor and we sand a couple of songs to her. We then went to Leichester Square, one of the most popular and crowded spots in London to do an open air. We did attract quite a crowd, singing on four different times for about 15 minutes each. We met other Christians also doing evangelism there, but we also met strong opposition, including a uniformed security guard who told us we could not sing there (but two uniformed policemen had earlier stop to listen to us and told us nothing, so we surmised this man was a Muslim (he looked Arabic) who had no authority to tell us not to sing, so we sang some more. Several of us had time to talk meaningfully to strangers.

We spent almost the entire two days debriefing. The testimonies and feedback will be posted on the web page when we finish collecting and editing them so they sound coherent. We did attend cell group meetings Friday night and took time off to visit the British Library where we saw two of the three most important early Bible documents, the Codex Sinaticus and Codex Alexandria. We also saw the Magna Carta, hand written original manuscripts of Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, and Gustav Holst's The Planets.

We attended the worship service and witnessed 7 people from 6 countries being baptized. We sang and some of us gave our testimonies on what we learned this tour. We then attended the afternoon healing service. The highlight was Willy Tan's natural mother coming two hours to the meeting and being instantly healed. This caused her to weep and thank God and resolve to return to Christianity. Willy's step sister also received healing and was clearly touched. Anna met a young man from Fookian, and during the healing meeting shared the 4-laws with him and he prayed to receive Christ. Several of us prayed for the sick as they queued up to be prayed for and there were not enough prayer warriors from EEC. To our amazement, many we prayed for were also healed on the spot, or as one elderly lady said, "received instant relief from her pain". Praise God for He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and the same works He did when He walked in Galilee, He said we can do and even greater works shall we do because He has sent us His Holy Spirit!

We all got to the church in time to leave on the couch they hired for us. We all made it back to LA, happy, tired, and grateful to God. The major lesson we learned was to pray with authority, Christ's authority which He gave us and expect Him to do the rest. We will share many of these lessons with you during Home Concert, August 21 in FEC Cerritos and August 22 in FEC Glendale.