Newsletter April 2025 : simplebooklet.com

Many attended Martyn’s presentation to the church on Monday 10th March, and some of this article will repeat some of what he said on that occasion. The backstory: How did Martyn come to participate in this trip? It was lead by Jonathan Conrathe, who lives in Thurlby. Jonathan became a Christian in his teens, and was very quickly convinced that his main purpose in life was to lead people to Christ. So, for the last 30 years, that is what he has been doing. He and his wife Elaine set up an organisation called Mission 24 – and over the years they have led missions to 56 different countries. Jonathan normally attends church at Kingsgate in Peterborough, but has found it difficult to attend the morning services there, partly because of the amount of national and international travel that he does. So he started coming to the evening service at St Georges, which is how Martyn and Jonathan started to get to know each other. Impact Training One of the objectives of Mission 24 is to use his Impact Training course to train up new evangelists in different churches in different parts of the UK. This is training in evangelism in the power of the Spirit, with practical experience on the streets in the places where the training happens. The people who have been trained do evangelism in both the UK and abroad. Within St Georges, the “Global Impact Group” decides how to allocate 10% of the church’s giving to deserving missionary causes. We have recently stopped giving to one such cause, and were seeking a new cause. One cause being considered was Mission 24. How better to evaluate it than participate in the training, and a mission trip! What is the state of the church in Rwanda? The church has similar denominational divisions as in Britain, but, because of its French colonial past, the Catholic church is one of the stronger denominations. There is great freedom to preach the good news and to believe. The current issue is that the government have put in stringent building regulations for churches so that they improve their meeting places. They were given 5 years to comply, which ended last August. Since then, 11,000 local churches have been closed because they were inadequate. Can’t afford changes Also, every local lead pastor is to have a degree in theology. Many don’t. In Gicumbi district where Martyn was, 90% of local churches are not allowed to meet. Many buildings that are closed are safe to meet in, but to reopen they must have a lightening conductor, a fully paved forecourt and parking area, tiled floor, proper sound system and sound insulation, and a well-cared for garden. This fits in with the general narrative of improvement you see everywhere. It is a clever way of controlling a growing and active church. Our mission provided the first opportunity to meet publicly in some places since last August. All denominations The mission events were open to all denominations, although they were mainly lead by Pentecostals, which had invited Jonathan and his team on this mission. Pastors from all the churches were present, and actively secured follow-up details from those who had committed their lives to Jesus for the first time. Training was also given to the local pastors, to encourage them, and help them disciple new believers. There was a large response to the mission meet-ings 6,500 committed their lives to Jesus for the first time. How different from the UK is peoples’ response to the gospel in Rwanda? This number responded during the five separate main events we staged in Rwanda. There seems to be a greater openness to the gospel. There is a greater sense of need. This may be because people have much less than we do. People seem to have more time on their hands, and they live more of their lives outdoors, so it’s easier to speak to people in the street. There seems to be a genuine openness to spiritual matters. Everyone is aware of the church – about 95% of Rwandans claim to be Christian. There is great need, so people are definitely open to miracles. After preaching the cross and calling people to repentance, Jonathan always ministered healing. Blind eyes, deaf ears, lame legs were healed at every meeting as a demonstration of the gospel. Deafness Martyn witnessed one particular healing of deafness in a woman standing next to him in the crowd. All those who had a problem with hearing were told to put their hand on the affected ear(s.) Jonathan prayed for hearing to be restored. Then he told the people to ask someone next to them to speak to the “deaf” ear. Martyn’s interpreter told him that the woman next to him asked the person behind her to speak. They whis-pered into her ear – and she heard. How did Rwanda compare with Uganda, which you obviously know well? Rwanda is the land of 1,000 hills. Very beautiful, green, and fertile. It is small compared to Uganda and has just one local unifying language, Kinyarwanda, which every-one speaks. English has been the main international language since the genocide. It is incredibly developed in terms of the road infrastructure, with beautiful tarmac main roads connecting all major towns. The roads are fully lit at night. People drive carefully and any lorries belching black smoke are taken off the road by the police. Off the main road, dirt roads access smaller communities just like Uganda, but the major difference is that everything is so clean. Community day each month There is real pride in place. The last Saturday of every month is a community day. All come together to work on a locally agreed project. I went to join in a community project day where we were moving mud bricks and wooden poles for the building of a new local government administrative centre in a village. Everyone was there, women and men and local leaders. At the end of the morning, the local elected leader welcomes guests and give notices as everyone sits on the grass and listens. It was also an opportunity to preach the gospel, and people responded. What 3 things did you learn whilst in Rwanda - about yourself, about God, about the bible? About me: It was wonderful to be part of a team on fire for reaching people who don’t know Jesus, who believe in the great commission and who used their gifting and personality to step out in faith, share the good news, pray for the sick and engage in the local mercy minis-tries. It was wonderful to see a mature Ephesian 4 evangelist in action and learn from Jonathan’s 30 years of experience of leading overseas evangelistic mis-sions. It confirmed my own thinking that I am a gifted apostolic leader and teacher, and I was able to use those gifts to bless local pastors and leaders in conver-sation, as well as many of the mission 24 team, some were in their 20’s and others relatively new believers, clearly called as evangelists, with wonderful testimo-nies and on fire for the Lord. About God: The good news of Jesus is God’s power to save people. It was amazing to see time and time again the clear proclamation of the cross and resurrec-tion and the call to repentance and faith having the power to save, because it is God’s gospel. My own personal highlight was a morning outreach to the town where the crusade was happening in the evening. I went with a local pastor as a translator. I asked a group of young men if I could share my story. They listened to my testimony and a group of 10 people gathered. At the end of it I asked the question “who do you say Jesus is?... would anyone like to turn to Christ for the first time?” One young man called Joseph, stepped forward. Child of God He smelt of drink so I asked him what he wanted to repent of as he turned to Christ. He dropped to his knees and confessed drink and drug taking and asked to be forgiven. I gave him an assurance that his sins were indeed forgiven and prayed for the filling of the Spirit. He then told me that the reason for his lifestyle was that he was an orphan. I told him he was no long-er an orphan but a child of God, adopted by the Spirit into God’s family. His face lit up with a beautiful smile and he started to sing a spontaneous song, that he made up on the spot, which was full of joy. Others gathered around as they witnessed what was happening. I spent the next hour praying for the crowd as they each came to ask for prayer. Jean Claude, Joseph’s friend, was first. He confessed to being a habitual liar and thief and wanted to change and so it went on for an hour. The gospel is the gospel and has great power to save! Joseph then followed the pastor and me down the road and joined us as I shared with the next group. He ended up praying with us for that group. Haircut Joseph asked for two things: A Bible and a haircut. The pastor said he would get a Bible to him, and we took him to the barber. When I saw him at the evening meeting he looked completely different, just as Paul writes, when we come to Christ, we are new creations! About the Bible: When Jonathan preached, he simply took a gospel story of an encounter with Jesus, ex-plained it to the crowd, and told them “Jesus is here.” The gospels are essentially full of evangelistic material for preaching Jesus. The same Jesus who met with people then, is the same Jesus who meets with people as we re-tell his story today. As Jonathan would say in his appeal… “Jesus is alive, Jesus is here, come to Jesus.” And they did, praise God. If there were another trip proposed to Rwanda (or other African country - or West Bengal) would you consider taking a group from St Georges with you? I would certainly be interested in partnering with Mis-sion24 and need to explore this more fully with both the Global Impact Group and Mission24. The trip was or-ganised brilliantly both from the UK end and from the Rwandan end where Life Link Rwanda provided all the

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Message Many attended Martyn’s presentation to the church on Monday 10th March, and some of this article will repeat some of what he said on that occasion. The backstory: How did Martyn come to participate in this trip? It was lead by Jonathan Conrathe, who lives in Thurlby. Jonathan became a Christian in his teens, and was very quickly convinced that his main purpose in life was to lead people to Christ. So, for the last 30 years, that is what he has been doing. He and his wife Elaine set up an organisation called Mission 24 – and over the years they have led missions to 56 different countries. Jonathan normally attends church at Kingsgate in Peterborough, but has found it difficult to attend the morning services there, partly because of the amount of national and international travel that he does. So he started coming to the evening service at St Georges, which is how Martyn and Jonathan started to get to know each other. Impact Training One of the objectives of Mission 24 is to use his Impact Training course to train up new evangelists in different churches in different parts of the UK. This is training in evangelism in the power of the Spirit, with practical experience on the streets in the places where the training happens. The people who have been trained do evangelism in both the UK and abroad. Within St Georges, the “Global Impact Group” decides how to allocate 10% of the church’s giving to deserving missionary causes. We have recently stopped giving to one such cause, and were seeking a new cause. One cause being considered was Mission 24. How better to evaluate it than participate in the training, and a mission trip! What is the state of the church in Rwanda? The church has similar denominational divisions as in Britain, but, because of its French colonial past, the Catholic church is one of the stronger denominations. There is great freedom to preach the good news and to believe. The current issue is that the government have put in stringent building regulations for churches so that they improve their meeting places. They were given 5 years to comply, which ended last August. Since then, 11,000 local churches have been closed because they were inadequate. Can’t afford changes Also, every local lead pastor is to have a degree in theology. Many don’t. In Gicumbi district where Martyn was, 90% of local churches are not allowed to meet. Many buildings that are closed are safe to meet in, but to reopen they must have a lightening conductor, a fully paved forecourt and parking area, tiled floor, proper sound system and sound insulation, and a well-cared for garden. This fits in with the general narrative of improvement you see everywhere. It is a clever way of controlling a growing and active church. Our mission provided the first opportunity to meet publicly in some places since last August. All denominations The mission events were open to all denominations, although they were mainly lead by Pentecostals, which had invited Jonathan and his team on this mission. Pastors from all the churches were present, and actively secured follow-up details from those who had committed their lives to Jesus for the first time. Training was also given to the local pastors, to encourage them, and help them disciple new believers. There was a large response to the mission meet-ings 6,500 committed their lives to Jesus for the first time. How different from the UK is peoples’ response to the gospel in Rwanda? This number responded during the five separate main events we staged in Rwanda. There seems to be a greater openness to the gospel. There is a greater sense of need. This may be because people have much less than we do. People seem to have more time on their hands, and they live more of their lives outdoors, so it’s easier to speak to people in the street. There seems to be a genuine openness to spiritual matters. Everyone is aware of the church – about 95% of Rwandans claim to be Christian. There is great need, so people are definitely open to miracles. After preaching the cross and calling people to repentance, Jonathan always ministered healing. Blind eyes, deaf ears, lame legs were healed at every meeting as a demonstration of the gospel. Deafness Martyn witnessed one particular healing of deafness in a woman standing next to him in the crowd. All those who had a problem with hearing were told to put their hand on the affected ear(s.) Jonathan prayed for hearing to be restored. Then he told the people to ask someone next to them to speak to the “deaf” ear. Martyn’s interpreter told him that the woman next to him asked the person behind her to speak. They whis-pered into her ear – and she heard. How did Rwanda compare with Uganda, which you obviously know well? Rwanda is the land of 1,000 hills. Very beautiful, green, and fertile. It is small compared to Uganda and has just one local unifying language, Kinyarwanda, which every-one speaks. English has been the main international language since the genocide. It is incredibly developed in terms of the road infrastructure, with beautiful tarmac main roads connecting all major towns. The roads are fully lit at night. People drive carefully and any lorries belching black smoke are taken off the road by the police. Off the main road, dirt roads access smaller communities just like Uganda, but the major difference is that everything is so clean. Community day each month There is real pride in place. The last Saturday of every month is a community day. All come together to work on a locally agreed project. I went to join in a community project day where we were moving mud bricks and wooden poles for the building of a new local government administrative centre in a village. Everyone was there, women and men and local leaders. At the end of the morning, the local elected leader welcomes guests and give notices as everyone sits on the grass and listens. It was also an opportunity to preach the gospel, and people responded. What 3 things did you learn whilst in Rwanda - about yourself, about God, about the bible? About me: It was wonderful to be part of a team on fire for reaching people who don’t know Jesus, who believe in the great commission and who used their gifting and personality to step out in faith, share the good news, pray for the sick and engage in the local mercy minis-tries. It was wonderful to see a mature Ephesian 4 evangelist in action and learn from Jonathan’s 30 years of experience of leading overseas evangelistic mis-sions. It confirmed my own thinking that I am a gifted apostolic leader and teacher, and I was able to use those gifts to bless local pastors and leaders in conver-sation, as well as many of the mission 24 team, some were in their 20’s and others relatively new believers, clearly called as evangelists, with wonderful testimo-nies and on fire for the Lord. About God: The good news of Jesus is God’s power to save people. It was amazing to see time and time again the clear proclamation of the cross and resurrec-tion and the call to repentance and faith having the power to save, because it is God’s gospel. My own personal highlight was a morning outreach to the town where the crusade was happening in the evening. I went with a local pastor as a translator. I asked a group of young men if I could share my story. They listened to my testimony and a group of 10 people gathered. At the end of it I asked the question “who do you say Jesus is?... would anyone like to turn to Christ for the first time?” One young man called Joseph, stepped forward. Child of God He smelt of drink so I asked him what he wanted to repent of as he turned to Christ. He dropped to his knees and confessed drink and drug taking and asked to be forgiven. I gave him an assurance that his sins were indeed forgiven and prayed for the filling of the Spirit. He then told me that the reason for his lifestyle was that he was an orphan. I told him he was no long-er an orphan but a child of God, adopted by the Spirit into God’s family. His face lit up with a beautiful smile and he started to sing a spontaneous song, that he made up on the spot, which was full of joy. Others gathered around as they witnessed what was happening. I spent the next hour praying for the crowd as they each came to ask for prayer. Jean Claude, Joseph’s friend, was first. He confessed to being a habitual liar and thief and wanted to change and so it went on for an hour. The gospel is the gospel and has great power to save! Joseph then followed the pastor and me down the road and joined us as I shared with the next group. He ended up praying with us for that group. Haircut Joseph asked for two things: A Bible and a haircut. The pastor said he would get a Bible to him, and we took him to the barber. When I saw him at the evening meeting he looked completely different, just as Paul writes, when we come to Christ, we are new creations! About the Bible: When Jonathan preached, he simply took a gospel story of an encounter with Jesus, ex-plained it to the crowd, and told them “Jesus is here.” The gospels are essentially full of evangelistic material for preaching Jesus. The same Jesus who met with people then, is the same Jesus who meets with people as we re-tell his story today. As Jonathan would say in his appeal… “Jesus is alive, Jesus is here, come to Jesus.” And they did, praise God. If there were another trip proposed to Rwanda (or other African country - or West Bengal) would you consider taking a group from St Georges with you? I would certainly be interested in partnering with Mis-sion24 and need to explore this more fully with both the Global Impact Group and Mission24. The trip was or-ganised brilliantly both from the UK end and from the Rwandan end where Life Link Rwanda provided all the

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local logistics. Mission 24 recruit their teams from those who have been involved in their training, so that is the route we would take, and I would fully support this as an option as it will also bless our local evangelistic efforts. There is nothing to stop any of us signing up to the Mission 24 training and applying to join any of their missions overseas. Jonathan travels extensively in Afri-ca, South America and Asia. Graham Turnbull It is good for us to re-connect with Rwanda again in memory of Graham Turnbull who was killed there in 1997 pursuing justice in post-genocide Rwanda, and who left his house on Bentley St to St George’s. At the time, the PCC agreed to give up to £2,500 a year in addition to the GiG budget for young people who were interested in doing mission in Rwanda and East Africa. I know I hold the corporate memory here, but it is good to remind the church of this commitment to Rwanda, so clearly modelled in Graham’s life and supported by the PCC. Alongside the outreach work, there was also the oppor-tunity to engage with the mercy ministries of Life Link Rwanda, which included teaching and working in the nursery which they sponsor for children from poor families, the widow’s group and young single mothers. ********** Summer holiday meetings This is a quick guide to summer holiday opportunities with a Christian focus. It’s not attempting to be compre-hensive, and relies heavily on thoughts from Dan Petrie, who has attended all of them other than the Focus holiday at Newark Showgrounds. So if you wanted to talk about any of them in more detail, Dan’s your man. In no particular order, they are: Keswick convention. https://keswickministries.org/about-keswick-convention/ Funnily enough it’s in Kes-wick – the Lake District The 2025 Convention dates: Week 1: Saturday 12th – Friday 18th July 2025 Week 2: Saturday 19th – Friday 25th July 2025 Week 3: Saturday 26th July – Friday 1st August 2025 There’s generally a contingent from St Georges attend-ing one or other of the weeks. It’s FREE to attend. You have to organise your own accommodation. St Anne’s Grantham will probably be sending quite a large contin-gent, because Andy & Kate have been heavily engaged with the convention for a few years. Wildfires Festival. https://wildfiresfestival.com/ 24th – 27th July. Wiston Estate, West Sussex. This is a rela-tively new festival, started and headlined by Pete Greig, of 24/7 fame, and “God on Mute” etc. Quite heavy em-phasis on worship. Camping accommodation is availa-ble onsite. New Wine. https://www.new-wine.org/events/new-wine-festival-2025/ 30th July – 4th August. Shepton Mallet – Bath & West showground. Generally quite a large con-tingent from St Georges. Camping accommodation available onsite, and there’s usually a St Georges area where people are all together. ONLY ONE WEEK THIS YEAR. Big Church Festival. https://www.bigchurchfestival.com/ 22nd – 24th August. Again, Wiston Estate, West Sussex. So if you go to the Wild-fires festival in July, you’ll definitely know how to get there for the Big Church Festival. This definitely has a very heavy orientation towards worship, with some pret-ty big names headlining. Camping available onsite. Focus. https://focus.htb.org/focus - 24th – 27th July 2025 Newark Showground. Well, you’ll need to choose between Wildfires and Focus, ‘cos they’re on simultaneously. Focus is the festival organised by the Holy Trinity Brompton outfit, but they do accept others that are not members of the HTB network of churches. Quite local to us. Camping available onsite (but maybe not necessarily required as it’s just a 45 minute drive up the A1 from Stamford.) ********** Fresh Hope—Chris Inman’s Story If it wasn’t for Fresh Hope, I wouldn’t be here today. I arrived in Stamford post lockdown in 2022 having spent the good part of 10 years moving from town to town with my teenage step-son avoiding the gangs, drug cartels and aggressive violence that followed us wher-ever we went. I had reached the end of the road follow-ing my marriage breakdown in 2013, and the loss of our first baby in pregnancy. My drug addiction was all con-suming. I was desperate, I saw no hope. Led to St George’s God led me into St George’s church. If I hadn’t encoun-tered God’s love through Louise, I would not be here today, I was days away from taking my own life. As I spoke to Louise at Friday Connect, I knew I was opening my heart revealing the deep pain in my life. It felt like I was opening the lid of all I had chosen to keep hidden. The tears poured down my face, as Louise faithfully listened to my story, I felt overcome with a sense of peace, love and belonging. Through Ben’s faithful instruction and gentle prayer, he led me to Jesus. As I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life, saying sorry for my past sins, I felt like a waterfall washed through me starting from the top of my head, through my body, down to my toes. It wasn’t a gently trickle, more like the Niagara Falls! I was overcome with joy, I knew a spiritual blessing had taken place, my beaming smile was apparent to everyone. I couldn’t help but tell the folk in Friday Connect that I’d just become a Christian! Forgive myself I knew I had been forgiven for my past sins; my chal-lenge now was being able to forgive myself. Even though I had encountered the risen Lord Jesus I was still taking cocaine. One evening in 2023 I clearly heard God say to me “Why? Why are you doing this to yourself?” From hearing God’s voice, I have not taken drugs again! God in his goodness also took away any withdrawal symptoms. I’ve also, through lots of prayer, stopped smoking! I know it’s only though the power of God that I can confidently say I’m drug and nicotine Date Time Event Venue 2nd April 12 noon Midweek Communion Church 4-6th April Ladies at Launde Launde Abbey—day places available booking required 12th April 9.30am Contemplative Prayer Morning Church 16th April 12 noon Midweek Communion Church 17th April 7.30pm Maundy Thursday Communion Church 18th April 10.30am Good Friday All Age Service Church 18th April 2pm Good Friday: An Hour at the Cross Church 20th April 9.15am & 11am All Age Communion for Easter Sunday Church 1st May 7.30pm Ladies Supper Club The Tobie Norris (booking re-quired) 3rd May 8.30am Men’s Breakfast Cheyne Lane (Booking required) Sunday Morning Services at 9.15am, 11am with All Age on the 1st Sunday and Holy Communion on the 2nd Sunday. Sunday Evening Services at 6.30pm with Holy Communion on the 4th Sunday Events & Services APRIL /may 2025 free! My faith journey has been exciting, a bit like a roller coaster ride. I’ve led an alpha group which I regarded as a real privilege. The chair project was empowering, taking the lead to ensure the chairs were refurbished to the best of our ability. Help others Through the power of the holy Spirit in my life I’ve gone from wanting to hurt others to wanting to help others. I know I’m a work in progress. I’m on an amazing journey from wanting to take my own life to wanting to truly live through serving others in St Georges. St Georges is my safe and happy place. God has given me a family I’ve always wanted but never had, a family that cares and loves each other. More information about Fresh Hope is available on the Church Website. ********** 24/7 Prayer Room in April There will be a 24/7 Prayer Room running in 1 Cheyne Lane again this year for the week running up to Easter. The room will open on Sunday 13th April at 8:00 p.m. and finish with a service of Holy Communion at 7:00 a.m. on Easter Sunday, 20th April. Our 24/7 room will be themed around the Road to Emmaus. The Prayer Room will be located in the Engine Room at St George's Church Place, Cheyne Lane. You can book one of the slots by visiting the 24/7 Prayer website here: https://signup.24-7prayer.com/signup/ffc14a/ PLEASE only book 1 daytime slot at this point, to give more people a chance to book. Book as many night slots as you wish! Every edition of this newsletter will carry an interview-style item about someone in the church. We’re a large church, and none of us can know the life-story of every person – and there are some amazing stories hidden amongst us. Stories that will encourage, excite, and perhaps humble us. it will be available in printed format for those who prefer reading from paper, and online as well. I’d be very happy to hear from anyone about people / stories they’d like to suggest. Also anyone who has some experience of writing / journalism / layout, who’d like to support me in this venture. My email address is sbburnett54@gmail.com. Stephen Burnett

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Newsletter April 2025

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