Dear Friends

Newsletters always provide a good opportunity to press the pause button and take stock. It is with wonder and profound gratitude that we look back on all that the last months have held, marvel at where we now find ourselves and look forward to what God has for us in the season ahead.

“Christianity remakes our dreams before fulfilling them.” L Crabb - “The Safest Place on Earth”

You’ve heard much of our journey of “re-making” – dashed hopes, disappointment, finding God in the dark places of being misunderstood, not always having understanding ourselves, trusting despite
circumstances. So it is with joy that we come now to share with you perhaps just a little of the “fulfilling” of our dreams. It feels like a small foretaste of all that God has in store.

A Look Back

Following on from our Prayer Day back in February, we held a conference, led 2 retreats and gathered together 12 people for a month long 2/20 Encounter. How special each of those events proved to be.

Into the Wilderness: This was the first retreat that we have held at West Watch and as it fell during Lent, it seemed appropriate to invite our participants to be ‘drawn into the desert’ (Hosea 2) as Jesus
was himself. Much of what we shared during this time was born out of our own encounter with the Father in the place of wilderness and challenge through the journey of Transformational Leadership Centre – never easy or pleasant, but deeply transforming.

2/20 Conference: It is always thrilling to be able to introduce the truths of the exchanged life to those who have not fully heard or understood all that the Cross of Christ has achieved. Once again we
were able to make use of West Watch to host these 3 days. Our participants came from many different walks of life and it was wonderful to see them explore together what life in Christ really looks like.

2/20 Encounter: Our month together at the Holmsted Manor coach house was truly an extraordinary time, where God did far more than we could have asked or imagined. We hoped for a maximum of 12 participants and that was indeed what we got. They came from a cross section of backgrounds, some from the local church, some returning from the mission field and some on their way out there. They formed a wonderful group who were hungry for God and prepared to be honest, vulnerable and open in sharing their lives in brokenness and humility. What a joy to see God at work in their lives.

It was a huge privilege for Liz and I to be joined by Charlotte, Shirley, Jeane, Dean and Jason who came from the States to help staff the school. They poured out their lives unstintingly and added a
quality and dimension to the Encounter which was beyond all expectation. (We look forward to next year!) 

The Present

So, having dreamt for so long of a central location, where we could all gather in one place, suddenly here we now are in Sussex. Both myself and Liz have remarkable stories of how God has provided homes for us. Sue and Pete have also moved down to the area, and now have all four of their children settled in a new school. After years of team meetings involving long hours of travel round the M25, we are now within minutes of each other, and have to keep pinching ourselves to believe it has really happened. In addition, one of the result of the Encounter is that a young man called Christof, from South Africa has joined us on a two year secondment from YWAM, so it is great to see how God is growing our team.

The Look Forward

In looking forward to what God is unfolding before us, we realise that the heart of Transformational Leadership Centre has never been a matter of running courses or putting on events. Rather it is about
the creation of a safe place, a staging post where leaders from every walk of life may come in whatever state they find themselves, to find sustenance for their journey. Surely the core of this lies in the invitation to explore and encounter the mystery of our treasure within—Christ himself.

What does that look like? I think that in the different expressions of ministry outlined above, we have had a taste. It comes not in the midst of brilliant teaching and inspired preaching but rather in
glimpses of shared life, where Jesus somehow allows himself to be encountered by a bunch of ragamuffin, ordinary people. It comes in instances like the following:

• A thirty year old and a sixty year old deep in conversation about their faith journeys.
• A staff team who have seen the bankruptcy of their own lives and are not afraid to own it because they knew that it no longer defines them. 
• A group who are discovering that true life lies beyond success, popularity, achievement or possessions.
• A gathering of people who are committed to journeying together in brokenness, honestly facing up to areas of failure, shame, inadequacy and insecurity, yet celebrating in the midst of that, the life that we have been given in Christ Jesus.

These things we have watched take place before us and we have been thrilled to see our wonderful God bringing glory to His Son in the lives of His children.

In our next update we will share more with you how we see this developing, but in the mean time we thank you for sharing our journey and invite you to continue to with us as we encounter God in the unfolding of His purposes.

We value your prayers especially in the following:

• The forming of team as we establish ourselves in Sussex
• Wisdom as we discover a rhythm for ministry
• Pete and Sue as they search for a permanent home
• The growing need for central office space to work together as well as meeting individuals.