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TT & ET Prayer Utd!
 On Sunday night (16 May), people gathered at St Margaret's (left) in Stanford for their monthly East Thurrock United Service, which this month was itself united with Transformation Thurrock Prayer.
 The service was opening by Rev John Guest and then there was a brief introduction by Tim Harrold. He told everyone present to be expectant of what God was going to do amongst them and to listen to what he was going to say to them. Then Gareth Marsh led us in a time of 'unplugged' worship (right).
Led by the Lord, Tim briefly explained about the ancient two 'hundreds' that Thurrock was split into in Medieval times. These were the Barstable Hundred (East Thurrock, Basildon and Pitsea area) and the Chafford Hundred (not be confused with the area of the same name today - it used to cover Grays, Rainham, Upminster, Hornchurch and Brentwood).
 Tim asked all those from the East of the borough to stand on one side of the aisle, and all those from the West of the borough to stand on the other side. He then asked all from both sides to hurl prayer-blessings across the 'divide' onto the other side - so East blessed West, and West blessed East. (See left.)
Then Tim urged everyone to come together in the middle to pray with each other - the East outnumbered the West by about 2 to 1, so the East came away with twice the blessing!
There was a definite sense of God being in this as the barrier imposed by history - well documented elsewhere on this website - was breached in the spiritual realms. As this section finished, he read through 2 Chronicles 7:14 three times, and on the third continued in verse 15:
... if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
From this scripture, Tim then gave a background to Transformation Thurrock and the principles of unity that it strives to promote and bring into reality, citing Psalm 133 (where there's unity, God's eternal blessing is released) and John 17:20-23 (when Jesus prayed 'that they may have complete unity'). He emphasised the command to act in unity - and the consequential fact that (as the late Ethel Jones of Grays Pentecostal Church used to say) OBEDIENCE LIBERATES DIVINE POWER.
Tim also read out the scripture over Thurrock that came to local intercessor Pam Lane at a meeting of the long-defunct Thurrock Schools' Christian Worker Group in about 1996, and which has become a bit of a motivational manifesto for Transformation Thurrock, Isaiah 41:17-20:
The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the LORD will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
and the parched ground into springs.
I will put in the desert
the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set pines in the wasteland,
the fir and the cypress together,
so that people may see and know,
may consider and understand,
that the hand of the LORD has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Tim asked the folk to imagine the denominations as the trees; the churches as the trees; and each of us as individuals as the trees - abiding together in a miraculous arboretum of variety, yet all drawing from the same underground river of life. This unity of diversity is a clear sign - a serendipitous moment of revelation - to the unbeliever of the existence of God and salvation of Jesus Christ.
"Blimey guv'nor - the churches are united! There must be a God!"
What follows is community transformation and societal change - and a healed land! That's why we must seek out unity, we must make unity happen, we must make unity our mindset and out lifestyle - it's the Father heart of God, the prayer of Jesus, the nature of the Holy Spirit. It's our vertical relationship with God manifested in the horizontal - our relationships with each other.
Jesus refers to this total all-out vertical-horizontal love in Matthew 27:37-39:
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'"
As the Meerkat says, "Simples!"
 Following on from this, Tim interviewed Lara Akinola (right) of Prayer4Thurrock about her vision for a community outreach at Blackshots this summer. Through this interview, Lara was able to speak out what she believes the Lord has said to her and her take on churches working together to release the blessing of God throughout the borough of Thurrock. (Please see her article elsewhere on the TT website.)
 Tim then invited four ladies to come and pray with Lara - Rev. Janice White, Wendy Jupp, Lilian Barton and Morag Waterman. Lara was brought the reminder from the scriptures of the story of Deborah. It was a powerful moment - one which spoke powerfully about cross-cultural unity, inter-tradition unity, and the release of women into ministry.
Finally, Gareth led us in singing that great Celtic masterpiece of St Patrick, Be Thou My Vision.
>>> Transformation Thurrock Prayer and the East Thurrock United Service will be combining again on Sunday 21 November at 6.30pm. Venue to be confirmed!
>>> The next East Thurrock United Service is on Sunday 20 June at the New Covenant Church in Abbots Hall School, Abbots Drive, Stanford-le-Hope. (The July United Service is at Corringham Evangelical.)
>>> The next Transformation Thurrock Prayer gathering will be on Saturday 26 June starting at 8.30am. Venue to be announced.
>>> The Thurrock Day of Prayer 2010 is at Hassenbrook School on Saturday 16 October. Please keep your diary free for this important landmark day for our borough. This is for all praying Christians, for all church ministers, for all intercessors, for all denominations, for all traditions, for all churches, for all cultural backgrounds, for all abilities, for all ages. It's for all, for the the Father who is All in All.
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Tim Harrold, 18/05/2010 |
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