Nigel and Jean's Wales Blog

Pressing in, Pressing on In our original planning, June 2008 was the end of our lease on the house in Llanelli and we wondered about taking some time to explore what God might want us to do in connecting with France from Wales. (For those of you who don't know our story the idea of  travelling from Wales to France came to us in January 2006 although the first celtic monks were doing it in the 5thC!)   The acceleration that has been evident over the last months has meant, however, that we have already been across the channel three times since we arrived here.   When we wrote our last update towards the end of May, we were about to leave for France, and we're off again on Thursday - travelling to Paris to take part in a weekend of praise, intercession and reconciliation led by our new-found friends in the city.   It has been so exciting for us to be, as we were in Toulouse, in a congregation where the pastor has said "we feel we need to be connecting with people from Wales" not even knowing that we were sitting there.   Our last trip was an adventure in itself. Manifestations (demos) by French fishermen in Cherbourg, thunderstorms, endless rain and floods in the Dordogne, four days at a prophetic conference in Toulouse with Martin Scott, and some R&R near Perpignan courtesy of a lady we met in Paris at Easter. The engine warning light came on 800 miles from home but went off again in response to  prayer, we visited Philippa Whyte (remember the Whytes?) stayed with an American couple near Montauban, prayed for more Fire to cross the channel at Dol de Bretagne and came home.   So, have we finished in Wales? As Paul says "by no means!"  There are some amazing signs of God's revival fire here but we want to see the nation ablaze. There is a lot to do. We now have a chain of contacts up the west coast, through Aberystwyth, to Robin and Fi in Caernarfon and on to the North coast and into Anglesey. We need wisdom as to how these connections should be encouraged  and strengthened.   Prayer for our local community in Llanelli continues too. Jean and I have a "faithful few" intercessors with whom we meet once a fortnight.  Amongst other things we have been praying for "the heart of the town" to be restored and only a couple of days ago a news item announced that a grant towards regeneration has been approved by the Welsh Assembly.   People continue to be inspired by events in Florida and, as in River, a number of folk have been or are planning to go. Todd and Lakeland certainly demonstrate that a window into the supernatural has been opened in the western church. In company with the leadership here in Antioch we are determined to press in for whatever God is pouring out.  We need the window to stay open!   Meanwhile, on the family front, we are looking forward to Benjamin and Sarah getting married in August and rejoicing with Paul who has successfully completed university! This means that we will be appearing in Marlow rather more frequently in the coming weeks and we are really looking forward to seeing loads of our friends.   Hopefully we will be able to impart some more Welsh wildfire!   With our love   Jean and Nigel Nigel Stock, 02/07/2008 1 Comment  |  Permalink After the Fest It seems incredible that, when we wrote last month, not that many people in the UK knew of Todd Bentley; and the church in Lakeland was even less well known over here!   The four days of Slosh Fest which we have just hosted in Llanelli were in some ways unique but also carried the hallmark of Florida with times of impartation from those who had been there. There have been some great testimonies of people healed from arthritis, deafness, back pain and so on. This week, as the baton passes to Cardiff, we are carrying on with healing meetings at Antioch with the same air of expectancy as there is in River at the moment. Fresh testimonies are coming out all the time. Check out www.antiochchurch.webeden.co.uk   It has also been so encouraging for us to see so many of our friends travel over to be in Wales this week. The carrying of the wildfire along the M4 corridor is very important to us.   In the first week of May, we were part of a group who went on retreat to Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli). The reputed burial place of up to 20,000 saints, it certainly is a beautiful and easy place to find God. We began by focussing on "the Resurrection Life of God" calling for Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England to wake up. It was a great preparation for what is happening now.   This Thursday, we are starting another trip to France. There is a holiday element this time although for four days at the end of May we will be part of a Sowing Seeds team in Toulouse with Martin Scott. After that we have not booked anything until we return to the UK on 9th June so we can adventure with Jesus. We are asking the church here to 'send us' because we want to carry the fire wherever we go regardless of why we are going. As people have been saying elsewhere on this website, we can't just go back to normality.   Keep going and don't look back!   With our love   Jean and Nigel Nigel Stock, 19/05/2008 1 Comment  |  Permalink   Stop press! So many of you have asked about the French experience we need another update.   In short, we had a brilliant couple of days over Easter which included an opportunity for Nigel to preach in French on the Sunday morning. We had a great time at the various gatherings.There is also a report on www.emergewales.com The believers we met were incredibly hungry for God and the prayer and ministry was pretty much continuous. We have made lots of contacts which we will be following up in due course.   France is at a real crossroads at the moment. Even the political scene is changing for no obvious reason. Do keep praying for the movement of the Spirit in the nation.   Our connection with France through Freedom in Christ has also moved up a gear in the last few months and it seems clear that God is orchestrating a lot more than we can see.   Back in Wales we're looking forward to hosting people from around the world at Sloshfest in May, hopefully including some of our new French friends.     With our love   Jean and Nigel in the Grand Slam Nation Nigel Stock, 04/04/2008 2 Comments  |  Permalink Easter in Paris........ There's just time to write an Easter update before we need to pack for our trip to Paris as part of the Emerge Wales team. Exciting enough in itself but we have also just heard that we've been volunteered to speak at the church we will be visiting on Sunday morning. We'll let you know how the first French preach went when we return!   Anyway, we've had a pretty busy month since we last wrote and of course we had the opportunity of joining in the Big Gathering a couple of Sundays ago. It's always an encouragement to see just how wide the connections to River are spreading   The prophetic walk from Llanelli to Aberystwyth was great fun although the knees found the first day's stage to Carmarthen had rather too many hills. "Good job they're not in Nepal" we hear you say. There were lots of good conversations on the way and opportunities to pray for shopkeepers and cafe owners, chapel-goers, garage mechanics and the owner of an occult shop in Carmarthen! The next part of the walk is from Aberystwyth to Caernarfon while we are in France and Robin and Fi are involved in hosting arrangements there.   The prayer team at Antioch has started well but there are rather more health issues for us to pray for than there were. It was great to be able to share some prayer needs at the BG, particularly the situation with the youth suicides in Bridgend and also for one baby who has been seriously ill. Praise God she has made a good recovery having been flown to Great Ormond Street at only ten days old having at one stage stopped breathing. The testimonies from parents and nursing staff have been tremendous.   The aspiration for the prayer team is both to encourage more prayer within the church and also, as we pray for the community of Llanelli, to engage with a wider cross-section of churches. Having had a visit from Aloysius a Ugandan intercessor who led his group of pray-ers through a 90 (yes ninety!) day fast because they wanted to see breakthrough we are feeling mightily challenged. And yes they saw breakthrough with healings and people raised from the dead! How much do we want it?   We've continued to have people staying with us for the odd night here and there but the most auspicious visit was Nigel's Mum for her 88th birthday! Even the weather recognised that it had been too miserable of late and we had a lovely sunny day for a drive round and lunch at a hotel on Gower. Thanks to Margaret Buck for bringing her too.   After we get back from Paris we have a couple of days before we are off to the Freedom in Christ Team weekend and then we need to do some more travelling around our connections before the next major Emerge Wales event being hosted by Antioch in May.   And last but not least, we have spoken with our landlord about extending the lease on the house for another six months but we really need wisdom about whether that is the right course of action. Whatever we decide to do, we are committed to being based in Llanelli beyond the summer. Your prayers for us would be much appreciated.   With our love   Jean and Nigel Nigel Stock, 18/03/2008 2 Comments  |  Permalink On the Road again. Welcome to our first blog update of 2008. (We're still not sure what happened to our last effort in December, it never got published!)  So if you would like to read our summary of 2007 and our hopes for 2008 see below.   This year has already been eventful but not as we had anticipated. Jean's Mum died peacefully on 15th January with us and two of Jean's sisters at her bedside. Although she had been in a residential home for just over a year, the speed of her final decline in health was nevertheless quite a shock and that, together with the inevitable family business to be attended to, has certainly sapped emotional and physical energy.   However, we start February with renewed determination to host the presence of God wherever we are and with the prospect of a very busy time indeed.    This coming weekend, Andrew and Mavis are staying with us while they do some teaching and pastoral work with a group of Koreans at the Nations centre. Andrew and I had great fun praying with them last weekend too. Then, from Wednesday, we will be hosting some friends from Cardiff as we join in the next stage of the prayer walk across Wales. This time it is Llanelli to Aberystwyth.   Aberystwyth is an influential place in terms of Welsh language, education and the church. This month there is a 4 x 24/7 taking place there and Jean and I were at the start of that last week too.   A few people from Antioch go out each week "walking the land" perhaps giving out packets of food, always talking to folk and praying and prophecying over them. The aim is to take that initiative on the prophetic walk too! A bit scary perhaps but incredibly rewarding and increasingly fruitful.   Over the Easter weekend, we will be taking the wild-fire to Paris as part of a small team from Emerge Wales. God spoke to us a lot in 2006 about going to France from Wales so this is an exciting opportunity to let him speak some more whilst we are ministering there.   In the meantime we have finally started our local prayer group (hurrah!) The healing group want to meet with the prayers, the prayers want to meet with the prophecy group and the worship leaders love to be at it all.   Finally, it was great to see folk at River over Christmas and the New Year. As always not enough time to see everyone we had hoped to. You can always visit!   With our love   Jean and Nigel Nigel Stock, 08/02/2008 2 Comments  |  Permalink What a Year! This will probably be our last blog update of 2007 so it seems appropriate to look back over the year briefly as well as forward to 2008.   We started 2007 at a prayer meeting in Llanelli as a declaration of intent to make a move this year. It has been really exciting for us to spend the last four months here and to realise just how much God was ahead of us preparing the way. Our hope to be able to make and maintain connections across the nation and across the generations and traditions is beginning to be fulfilled and we are looking forward to much more in 2008.   A major area of blessing has been our ability to host people in our home here. So far we have had nine folk stay with us and only two of those from River!   We have helped to host Emerge Wales events, become involved in praying for people in church and on the streets in Wales and in England. Nigel has taken someone from the local Elim church through the Steps to Freedom and had invitations from two other leaders to explain what that involves. We have travelled to Llandrindod, Cwmystwyth and Aberystwyth to support others who are looking to see the Glory released in their areas and we have visited Robin and Fi in Gwynedd who are also beginning to gather people with a similar vision as well as integrating fantastically with their local community.    There is a growing number of other leaders and influencers who it has been suggested we should meet to encourage and pray with, and we have also been asked to lead a small group praying into the spiritual welfare of Llanelli.   It all points to a very busy but rewarding time next year.   Of course, we do miss being so closely involved in River as the vision continues to grow and in particular we miss seeing friends so regularly. It was great to visit Slough a few weeks ago and to be able to share some of what we have been experiencing.   This Christmas we will be in Marlow with Benjamin, Paul and Nigel's mum since that will be the last time before Benjamin is married   With our love   Jean and Nigel Nigel Stock, 13/12/2007 Add a comment  |  Permalink Onwards and Upwards Greetings from Wales.   Life has been full since our last update. We continue to enjoy being involved locally in Antioch, explore more connections in Wales, host people from Wales, River and beyond in the house, and have also enjoyed a great break in Scotland with Andy, Lina and co.  Our one disappointment has been the cancellation of our Welsh lessons, due to lack of numbers for our class.     Tomorrow, Tuesday, sees us heading to Leeds as part of a team from Wales in response to an invitation from Steve Lowton. Meetings with youth and children's workers have been planned, along with street work in both Bradford and Leeds and a couple of evening meetings. It is exciting for us to be part of a Welsh team carrying the wild fire to England. We are spending the following weekend in River, where we are due to speak in Slough on Sunday morning. Then, after Nigel has completed some work , we head back to Llanelli.   Following on from the fast and 24/7 prayer, we have been asked to draw together a team to pray prophetically in and around the community here in Llanelli. Some work has already been done on the history of the town which was very close to the centre of revival activity in 1904/5 so we are wanting to draw from that and to see God break out again!     Llanelli is a great sending place - home to World Horizons and Nations - and we have been learning to look for God connections wherever we go. Whilst in Scotland we were encouraged to find ourselves in a place where there was a long Christian heritage and a history of revival and miracles.  We are also still looking to support our friends Tim and Monique as they seek to take the ministry of Freedom in Christ into France. Having also spent a few days in Brittany recently with Jon, Alison, Tom and Annette, we were thrilled to find a small fellowship in Quimper who had just finished a week of prayer and were encouraging one another to take the gospel out into their community too.   Back in Llanelli, Nigel has been asked by a member of one of the other churches to help start their own Freedom in Christ teaching programme.   With the opportunities for ministry, work and travel increasing, we would really value your prayers for wisdom and peace about what to accept and what to politely turn down. Our next task is to organise the trip to North Wales to make connections there, and, hopefully, meet up with Robin and Fi.     With our love   Jean and Nigel Nigel Stock, 12/11/2007 5 Comments  |  Permalink 24/7 Prayer Starting at 8 o'clock on Tuesday morning, there will be 24/7 prayer in the Upper Room here at  the Antioch Centre in Llanelli. Jean and I are coordinating this as part of a season of prayer and fasting over 40 days from September.   There are people around the nation (and even further afield in the USA for example) who are joining us in spirit as we seek to prepare for whatever God wants to do in the coming months. Jean and I spoke on prayer this morning and there was a good response from the congregation with a lot signing up for prayer slots.   It would be great to hear from you if you wanted to let us know you are praying too. We are going to have a "who's praying now" list to encourage the folks here. Just send an email, or simply leave a comment.   Since our last update, we have had the privilege of meeting and praying with folk who are seeing God at work in significant ways amongst the poor, those struggling with addictions, and in the local prison as well as key influencers in the Welsh Assembly.    It was also great to have Benjamin and Sarah with us last week!   Thanks again to all of you for supporting us in so many ways.   With our love   Nigel and Jean Nigel Stock, 07/10/2007 Add a comment  |  Permalink Making Connections One of the key things we have felt called to in our time here is the nurturing of connections between people of different church experiences and geographical location.   Well, we had a great time yesterday in Llandrindod with our friends there. They too are in a new phase of church life, gathering a small group around them who are committing themselves to dig deeper in their personal experience of God in order to take the kingdom into the streets homes and workplaces around them. They have opened an invitation to us to visit whenever we wish but also to bring whatever ministry and input we  feel led to.   Please pray that this will just be the first of many such invitations.   This weekend also sees a group of people from around England, some of whom have walked together from Leeds to Birmingham completing the walk from Birmingham to Cardiff. Jean and I will be at the border crossing into Wales on Saturday and also helping to welcome them into the city on Sunday afternoon.   The main aim of this walk is to make a prophetic connection between England and the wild fire of Wales. It has been amazing in recent months to see the Holy Spirit breaking out in places such as Gloucester and Bristol as folk have made the connection across the border.   Mae tan gwyllt yn dod!   Nigel and Jean   PS Welsh lessons start in a couple of weeks time!   Nigel Stock, 14/09/2007 2 Comments  |  Permalink Croeso I Gymru! Welcome to Wales! So say the signs and we certainly have been made to feel very welcome by our friends in Antioch Church.   Incredibly it is already three weeks since we hit the M4 with a van and the Volvo laden with furniture, clothes, mattresses etc. and of course we were back briefly after ten days for Mick and Ceri's wedding.   Then we were back here for another wedding! This time helping with the catering and importantly for us, hosting some of the visiting guests.   The wedding itself was a real prophetic sign of a joining between North and South Wales- Helen is a friend from Llanelli who has been our hostess on many of our visits and Dyfed is from Bangor and is someone with whom we have been on a number of prayer journeys before.   So many people we had hoped to reconnect with were at the wedding that it has saved us weeks of time and a fortune in phone calls getting in touch! This week however, we will be heading to central Wales to visit and pray with some good friends leading a small fellowship in Llandrindod Wells.   From the middle of September the church here is starting a 40day fast of consecration for what we are anticipating God is going to do in the coming months. Jean and I will be coordinating a 24/7 prayer within the fast and doing some of the background teaching.   Thanks to all of you for your prayers support and encouragement. Please pray that we quickly find the right rhythm for living day by day which will enable us to do all God has for us in this season.   We in turn are praying that the Wild Fire of the Spirit which is being released in this nation will also burn among you and that the Glory of God will be seen among you bringing many into the Kingdom of Jesus. Nigel Stock, 09/09/2007 13 Comments  |  Permalink