Sunday Morning
Gayle has been very well received at our church across the board. She ministered at both our Sunday morning services on 2Corinthians 4:16-18 under the title Never Give Up. The take away for many of these about 450 people was Gayle’s comment that although prayer may not be her first passion it is her first discipline. I had comments from several people, including some of our leaders, who resonated with this sentiment and it helped renew their determination to not give up in prayer endeavours.
Sunday Evening
Our Sunday evening saw about 80 people turn out – which is what I had hoped for. Gayle brought some inspirational thoughts from Psalms and from Isaiah 56:7 – my house will become a house of prayer for all nations – which motivated our people to pray passionately together. Her style of praying in short bursts around specific topics helped our people engage well with prayer and there was a real sense of God’s Presence and faith in the prayer concert. I’m confident that this set up the next day for the prayer school. The short video she showed as part of the programme, together with her powerful stories of answers to prayer from her own journey and adventures in God were well received and helped increase the faith level of our people when it came to praying.
Monday Prayer School
Taking the story of the healing of Bartimaus as a starting point, Gayle brought some excellent teaching on prayer needing to have determination, to carry authority, to have direction, be specific and filled with faith. These have become memorable teaching points that we have revisited in our week of prayer several times during the rest of our week of prayer.
People attended, not just from our own church, but from across London and once again, Gayle’s teaching and directed prayer connected extremely well with the audience. Witness the fact that I received many requests for recordings of the teaching. Significantly, the notorious drop off in attendance immediately after lunch at such events never happened. People remained to the end of the school to absorb as much of the teaching as possible.
Monday Evening
Our final event with Gayle was on Monday evening which hosted around 90 people – a great turn out for a midweek prayer event. Gayle taught on the importance of worship in prayer, basing her teaching on Abraham’s call to sacrifice Isaac. She then led the congregation in a season of prayer and praise – again helping to establish a helpful pattern for prayer around worship which our people thoroughly appreciated. We have continued to use this model through the week. Gayle has been really well received by our church. I’m already being asked to plan a return visit! We have a strong DNA for prayer in our church so to connect so well with our people is significant and I believe she has helped raise the profile yet further of prayer in our church.
I would wholeheartedly recommend the team to any church wanting to take prayer more seriously and wanting to receive practical teaching on how to develop personal and corporate prayer.
Thank you so much VITC, for investing in us
Nick Hughes
Senior Pastor
Emmanuel Church, Lee, London