The Lord's Leading Through England

Ministering at Hollybush in North Yorkshire, England

We have seen the Lord do amazing things as we continued on traveling and ministering our way through England. We just recently passed the date where we have been in England over one whole month already. We came to the Island nation just open to whatever God might want to do, thinking we would be here maybe only a few days or so. However, the Lord has been opening doors all over and continued to lead our steps so we have just stayed here and ministered as He has led us.

Just a couple of days ago we preached at a very powerful meeting at Hollybush Christian Fellowship, a church in North Yorkshire. God moved in awesome power as we saw many renewed and empowered with a fresh wave of the Holy Spirit that swept through the fellowship. Many were filled with the Spirit and ministered to as God’s presence moved gloriously upon the meeting. We saw a number of people ministered to very powerfully who came forward for prayer and healing power was released. In fact, Patrick and a few other young guys prayed for each other and each were ministered to by one another and some healing took place there.

How God set this up is equally incredible. We had been ministering in Darlington in the Durham area and having some powerful spontaneous meetings there. Before that we had been in Newcastle in Northumberland as well as having a powerful time in the city of Southport over by Liverpool. Our friend Heidi in Southport is an old pal through meetings Lonnie Frisbee used to do; Lonnie’s name and heritage keeps ringing the bell for revival in so many places.

Well, our friend in Darlington had talked to the pastor in North Yorkshire and found out that he hadn’t heard from the scheduled preacher for that evening’s meeting. He thus wanted us to come over to the church that very night and be ready for anything that God might want us to do. The other preacher never showed up and so we ended up doing all the preaching and ministering in a church of a couple hundred people where we had a very powerful time as God poured out His power with mighty manifestations following—truly a glorious and blessed time. We both shared different Holy Ghost Stories and passages from the Word and saw a double impact as God poured out His presence in double portion! We also had a woman share what a unique experience it was for us to pray for her, this was just in a casual setting at a lunch at our friends’ home, as she had only been prayed for once before; she really experienced God’s touch and wind and fire and healing as we laid hands on her.

Visiting Lindisfarne, early center of Celtic Christianity in Britain.

We had a chance to visit the island of Lindisfarne, center of Celtic Christianity as well as the location of the first Viking invasions. We have also been blessed with fun surf all over the place. In fact, a Polish pastor who was ministered to when we prayed for him in a home meeting asked us to come fishing with him, but the waves were too big for the boats to go out or to even fish from shore. I had the boards with us so we went surfing instead and happened to get 4 to 6 foot bowls with offshore winds with only about 6 other guys out or so, all on the East Coast of England! Waves like this anywhere else in the world, even in Cornwall or California, would have been packed with the typical ten thousand other surfers fighting for each wave. Since it happened on the East Coast, there just weren’t that many surfers around to catch it—even on a Saturday—Glory.

After a month in England with plenty of ministry in so many places we are over to France now for some ministry there. Our friend arranged a complimentary travel passage for us across the English Channel, which is a huge blessing as all this transportation expenses do run up the bills. We were blessed to see the famed White Cliffs of Dover as we pulled out of the Channel crossing over to France. In fact, we will be preaching this Sunday in Tours in two different church services, as well as a bit later in Paris at a church there. We appreciate your prayers as we continue carrying out the work God has called us to do here in Europe.

Twists and Turns on the Road

Scenic views along the English Coast in Cornwall

We just had a powerful move of God in a spontaneous meeting in Newcastle, in the north of England. We connected through a mutual friend with a sister in the area who set up a meeting that turned into a powerful Holy Ghost time. God moved in great power with lots of manifestations and demonstrations of His power, grace, and love with a lot of prophetic encouragement coming through for all there including ourselves, we were able to give and receive! We were repeatedly encouraged with just how “brilliant” God’s timing and connection was with our coming there at this time – truly divinely orchestrated! Every last person in that meeting was touched powerfully by God including children!! Those willing to listen to the Holy Spirit and respond receive blessings beyond measure – those too busy, pre-occupied, and averse to any risk – well they just miss out because as John Wimber used to say “Faith is spelled R. I. S. K.”

Little twists and turns can turn into unexpected blessings when you’re following the Lord. After ministering in London and seeing some of its historical sights we had headed out on the road:

We stopped at a little side of the road food store while traveling through the English countryside and while taking a moment to read some Scripture a woman asked what we were reading. Turned out she was a fellow believer who herself was on a small journey wondering what God’s purpose was for her on this little travel she was on. We talked a bit and then we ended up praying for her right at the gas station and she received a revelation from the Holy Spirit that this moment now with us was a divine appointment and then she realized a chance meeting she had with someone earlier who had a death in the family that she comforted was also a divine appointment. “Yes! Divine appointments! That is why God led me out, I didn’t get it before, now I do!” So we were mutually encouraged by the presence of God and for us another divine appointment along the way—we had one earlier with a Korean girl we spoke to as well. John wrote in his third letter that the brothers who went out were faithful in serving the Lord even though the people they ministered to were complete strangers, 3 John V.5.

Newcastle was the northernmost border of the Roman Empire

with many historic Roman ruins still intact

We took a quick turn off the road to look closer at some directions and found a beautiful medieval English castle in the rolling green hills. A little tour through it led us to find that the early Protestant Charismatic founder of the Quakers, George Fox, had been jailed there for evangelizing in the area. The Quakers were a radical group formed out of the Reformation who sought to fully follow the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit. They would meet and simply wait on the Spirit and when someone had a leading, that person be it a man or woman, would share a short message or verse or prophecy or song depending what the Lord was leading. They didn't follow regular church structures or systems and for this reason they were heavily persecuted and eventually fled to the New World of the American colonies like the Puritans. Being jailed was a danger they lived with as George Fox experienced in this castle. Interestingly enough John Wimber was a Quaker and came into the reality of Quaker history when he came into the fullness of the Spirit. It can surely be quite an endeavor to find places like this castle, so it was such a blessing to just “stumble” upon it by the leading of God and get to see up close a place that reflects the price others have paid for the Gospel.

We ended up at the coast later and found not only a beautiful sunny day—quite rare in England—but also a nice swell running with glassy, fun conditions. We grabbed the boards and headed out for a fun unexpected surf session on the English waves. Traveling with a board can be a pain for sure—at times I thought why not just throw it in the Thames and be done with the burden—however when you come across some fun waves in these little nooks and crannies you are glad you have your own equipment, even though not on a surf trip, a few waves here and there refreshes and gives chances to witness to others who will never come in to a church. Furthermore God’s little rewards make all the enduring you’ve gone through worthwhile—which is very illustrative of the rest of the journey of the cross as well. You endure so much when you travel and seek to serve the Lord—long lines and travel hassles are common and it is not all endless fun and frolicking—however God blesses and rewards us with all kinds of little and big blessings as we follow his leading!

We also had a radical day in the glory and grace of God with Davey “Grace” Vaughn in Wales. The presence of God was so manifest in overflowing glory and joy as we reveled in the revelation of the incredible mercy of God. We also had opportunities to share the love of Christ with others spontaneously, as people regularly come up to him as he was featured on UK big brother. After being flooded with the love of Jesus all day we headed out and got lost in Wales and while trying to find our way back to the right road we somehow, by the sheer grace of God, ended up at a great surfing pointbreak which had waves similar to San Miguel in Mexico and grabbed a few fun Welsh pointbreak zippers--a real gift after getting lost and it topped off being in the glory all day long!

Grabbing some waves along the English Coast gives us a

chance to witness to people who would never come to a church.

Patrick

Bryan

Euro Update--London

We had a very powerful move of God when we preached in London, England this week. In fact one of the elders of the church had three of his sons get powerfully baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time as well as some other kids who got powerfully empowered by the Holy Spirit too. One of the elder's sons had been quite far from God and was brought into a new relationship through God's touch.

We had absolutely no jet lag at all even though we had just arrived--thanks for your prayers! We did have some intense spiritual warfare just trying to get into Europe. For the first time in over 10 trips to Europe we were held for some time and questioned--more like grilled--extensively and basically had some accusations that had no application to us leveled at us for no reason, until they came to their senses and realized we were Americans and not trying to emigrate to Europe.

We have a more extensive update with lots of miracles, divine appointments, and lots of other stuff that God has been doing, check it out by clicking here: http://www.graceworldmission.org/news/pr_summer_2011.html

May God's richest blessings be upon your life!

Bryan, Mercedes and Patrick Marleaux