Second week of Rock Thurrock course underway
An amazing 600+ local Christians have now signed up to do the Christian Life & Witness Courses across the borough as the church of Thurrock mobilises ahead of the Rock Thurrock events in September.
The figures for last weeks' attendances are as follows:
- Monday 6 June: Gates of Praise, Grays - 143
- Tuesday 7 June: Fruitful Land Centre, Tilbury - 114
- Wednesday 8 June: Aveley Christian Centre - 92
- Thursday 9 June: Gateway People's Centre, Stanford -166
The first three nights of this week's CLWCs have seen numbers grow!
- Monday 13 June: Gates of Praise, Grays - 153
- Tuesday 14 June: Fruitful Land Centre, Tilbury -102
- Wednesday 15 June: Aveley Christian Centre - 95
There has been nothing like this in the history of Thurrock! (Certainly not since the Second World War.)
Imagine, if Gideon can take a nation back for God with 300 men armed only with vases, torches and trumpets, but full of faith-more-powerful-than-an-atomic-weapon, then what can we achieve - that is, the Lord achieve through us - in Thurrock?
Rock Thurrock Training Coordinator Andy Blakey believes that while in a time of worship at the Pentecost Festival at the O2 last weekend, God spoke to him about Thurrock:
Pure water, fill Thurrock with pure water, water from heaven, rain down, open the heavens and rain down.
For Thurrock is a dry and parched land - according to Met Office records Thurrock is a semi-desert with less rainfall the Beirut (Lebanon) in some years.
But God is going to make it a place of pure water, a garden of His love, starting at 'Pure Fleet'. Take a staff to Purfleet, strike the ground.
This word flows perfectly with the scripture for the borough given to local intercessor and sometime Lydia lady Pam Lane in 1996 at a Thurrock Schools' Christian Worker Group meeting:
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.
These verses speak not only of the arid geographical micro-climate of our area, but also the spiritual condition of its people. But God's promise is for the life-giving freshwater of the Holy Spirit to come, bringing refreshment to the land, redemption for lives lost, restoration of broken communities, and revival in the church - many types of trees, but all in one oasis! That means underground streams of grace and blessing, wells of healing and salvation...
As part of the Thames Gateway Prayernet's activities, a staff has been struck on the ground at Purfleet, right at the mouth of the River Mardyke as it empties into the Thames. This reflects the cautionary tale of 2 Kings 13:15-19, about the prophet Elisha and Jehoash king of Israel:
Elisha said, "Get a bow and some arrows", and he (Jehoash) did so.
"Take the bow in your hands," he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king's hands.
"Open the east window," he said, and he opened it. "Shoot!" Elisha said, and he shot. "The LORD's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!" Elisha declared. "You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek."
Then he said, "Take the arrows", and the king took them. Elisha told him, "Strike the ground". He struck it three times and stopped.
The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times".
 If we want victory in our land, if we want to drive out the invaders, we can't be half-hearted - we must persist and be emphatic, and strike the ground over and over until complete victory is won!
Tonight and next week, the CLWCs continue with Gary Cobb (left) from the BGEA office in Charlotte, North Carolina, bringing more absorbing, engaging, challenging, provoking and motivating teaching.
- Thursday 16 June: Gateway People's Centre, Stanford 7.45pm
- Monday 20 June: Gates of Praise, Grays 7.45pm
- Tuesday 21 June: Fruitful Land Centre, Tilbury 7.45pm
- Wednesday 22 June: Aveley Christian Centre 7.45pm
- Thursday 23 June: Gateway People's Centre, Stanford 7.45pm
Please go! Please be a part of this! The wave is coming and it's time to surf!
The CLWC venues...
Gates of Praise International Centre (GOPIC)
- Address: Curzon Drive, Grays RM17 6BG
- Pastor: Akin Laosun
- Website: www.gopic.org
- GOPIC's building used to be a dairy!
- Exodus 3:8 "... bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey..."
- 1 Peter 2:2-3 "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."
RCCG Fruitful Land Centre
- Address: The Anchor, Civic Square, Tilbury RM18 8AD
- Pastor: Abraham Bamgbose
- Website: http://rccgfruitfulland.webs.com/locateus.htm
- Fruitful Land used to be a pub!
- Genesis 26:18 "Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up..."
- John 4:13-14 "Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life'".
Aveley Christian Centre
- Address: Stifford Road, Aveley RM15 4AB
- Pastors: Alan & Lydia Field
- Website: www.aveleychurch.org.uk
- Aveley CC used to be a school!
- Deut. 11:18-19 "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds... Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
- Matthew 28:19-20 "... go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you..."
Gateway People's Centre
- Address: 2 High Street, Stanford-le-Hope RM15 4AB
- Pastor: Dave Puddle
- Website: www.gpconline.org.uk
- GPC used to be a Jobcentre and a Co-op!
- Matthew 9:37-38 "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field'".
- 3 John 1:8 "... work together for the truth."
ROCK THURROCK PRAYER THIS FRIDAY 17 JUNE NIGHT
The next Rock Thurrock Prayer is hosted by Pastor Sam Sao and the Open Door Christian Centre,
it will be at the Belmont Village Hall, Parker Road, Grays RM17 5YN (off the London Road, adjacent to Stifford Primary School).
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Tim Harrold, 16/06/2011 |
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| | | Colin Baker (Guest) | 16/06/2011 23:24 | Yes, great turnouts at each venue and although some haven't made it this week there have been several picking up the course for the first time this week. Don't miss week 3!
Gary has made it accessible for all combining his tremendous sense of humour with a talent to equip people with useful tools to share their faith. This has been anything but a 'trad' course. What is even more amazing is that we are seeing huge strands of the Christian church coming together = unity.
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