Prayer Sunday - Bathed in Prayer

So we've got Chris speaking to us now, I think.

Yeah, it's wandered off. So I'll just pray for Chris as

we start. Lord, just thank you so much for

Chris. I pray that this morning you

would speak through him, you would take all the material that

He's prepared and breathe your life and Holy Spirit, you would

just speak to our hearts and our minds through what He says in

Jesus name, Amen. Thank you, Emma.

This is going to be quite brief, actually, maybe like 10 or 15

minutes because I want us to have time to worship and and

pray. But this is one of our prayer

Sundays and we'd like to share a bit of vision for prayer for us

as hope. So I'm going to going to do

that. Going to share a little bit

about the the prayer centre and the calling on us to be a a

place and the people of prayer for the city, the greater

Bristol area. And then so a bit of historic

and a bit through to the current on that.

And then I want to share just a story that I'm I've been

inspired by in the last few days.

And then I'm going to tell us about our prayer day coming up

for this Tuesday through to Wednesday.

And, and then off the back of that theme, we'll pray as we as

we worship. So that's the plan for the next,

the next few minutes. I thought the phrase that I've

had in my mind as a sort of theme for this is, is the sort

of what tag line or a catch line is like a life bathed in prayer

and thinking that nowadays modern society where we have

showers and baths and soap and stuff, the idea is that is that

we all smell decent, isn't it all the time.

And that's that, you know, it's not the case for everybody, but

that's the that's the ideal is that we smell fresh.

We're well bathed and I thought we could carry that image

through in terms of our life of prayer, you know, with like as

followers of Jesus, Our Calling is to live lives that are well

washed, you know, cleanse regularly bathed, bathed in

prayer. So maybe that have that as a

little strap line for for this message.

And so I'm going to start off with saying a bit about the

calling on Hope to be a prayer centre for the city.

Oh, and when we say that, when I say the city, I know there's

people in, in Hope who live in Nailsy, Backwell, Clevedon,

Portishead, you know, greater and, and, and further down the

different, different roads. And, and so I, I, I think I use

that phrase, but I think it's really the greater Bristol area.

And actually we had a Korean prayer team with us here in July

and they were saying they don't think Our Calling is just to be

a prayer centre for the city, but it's for the world as well.

So don't, don't think of that as an exclusive if you're not

within ABS 8 post code or BS, you know that doesn't, doesn't

count or something like that. But the, the, the calling on on

Hope Chapel. So this is a 250 old 4050 year

old church building that died out really as a church in the

1960s, was rescued by the local community in the 70s to prevent

it from being demolished. And then IN992000 Silas and

Annie Crawley and a group of others, we're looking for a

place to pray. They sensed a a calling to start

a prayer centre for the city. And we're basically offered this

building to host a prayer centre for Bristol.

And the church kind of grew alongside so that that that

really began in the year 2000. And this, this, this the prayer

centre up there, that whole the back end of the building is

designed to be available 24/7 to facilitate churches, Christians

in the city coming to pray. And so as members of Hope,

you're welcome to use this space anytime to come and pray.

That's the it's the resource for us for the for prayer.

And there was, it'd be worth recording actually some of the

stories that Silas has got about how people, people brought these

quite profound prophetic word saying there's a calling on you.

I think one time he was in the in, in prison and I think was it

a Ugandan man came to him and said, there's a calling on you

to build a 24/7 prayer centre for your city.

This man didn't know him at all. But there were a number of these

extraordinary, extraordinary moments that precipitated the

start of Hope Chapel being a, a prayer centre.

And then that calling was then recognised by other churches in

the city. Silas Nani went to other

churches and said are you happy for us to do this?

Do we have your blessing? And the answer was was a yes.

So, so over those years, over these past 25 years, a whole

range of things have happened in the life of the prayer centre

here and the city of Bristol, including seasons of hosting

ongoing prayer for, for periods of time, including some of the,

some of the notable things that I remember.

We hired at Ashton Gate Football Stadium and, and hope kind of

led the way in, in, in that happening as a, as a, and I

don't know, 5 or so thousand people Christians gathered on

the, in the Attie stand. Mostly, I think it was to pray

for the pray for the city and in the South stand as well.

It was that, that, that was a, that was a significant event.

And then other events in the centre of the city around Castle

Park, gathering Christians around Bristol to pray.

And then there's been multiple Korean teams that have been

hosted here as people coming to pray for the city of Bristol.

Then there was the Living Free course, which many of you will

have been part of. And that really was a

particularly the prayer of Original Design and freedom

prayer, particularly the prayer with the Living Free was a

significant contribution to the city.

And we had, we had students, it was quite embarrassing actually,

because there were students studying to be vicars at Trinity

College who would come and do living free and say, oh, this is

the best thing I've learnt in my 3 years at at Trinity College in

terms of equipping me to be a, a church leader.

But a lot of people in the city have experienced living free and

found freedom through, through prayer lifestyle that that's,

that's taught. Other other more more recent

events would be we spearheaded this day of prayer and fasting

for knife crime. I think that was that was in

2023. And again the city came

together, church and city came together and we saw this.

There'd been an escalating time and a real sort of higher level

of normal knife crime in the city, which which changed and

reduced. That hasn't gone completely.

But when the the Church of the city came together in a day of,

of prayer and fasting and and then a more recent event.

So we led the way in, in, in a Pentecost gathering of the

churches in the city and we prayed in in Cannon's house as

as a, as a gathered Church of Bristol this may.

So, so there's, this is, this is some of our, our life of prayer

as a, as a church. And I wanted to kind of pass on

some of what's going on with, with across churches in the

city. So there's a, a network called

Churches Together in Bristol or together for Bristol, which is

the kind of churches together network.

And it's probably got a bit tired over the last few years

and hasn't really been motoring along.

So, so they've actually asked me to kind of spearhead a bit of a

redesign of how churches in, in Bristol collaborate and partner

together. And so a couple of weeks ago,

Julia came with, with me as well, and eight of us as Bristol

church leaders and Andy Streets, you might know him as well, went

up to Liverpool to a conference working on how can we as a, as

a, as a church in the city, collaborate together to bring

the life and flourishing of Jesus to Bristol.

And, and we're working on, on redesigning together for Bristol

in these, in, in, in five areas. The idea is we have 5 kind of

teams made-up from across the Christian community in Bristol.

And, and those five areas are, are what was the first one or

the first one? The first one is citywide

prayer, establishing citywide prayer.

I'll come back to that in a minute.

Second one is, is serving the city.

So, so really sort of acts of justice, social justice

projects, Third one is disciple making disciples, 4th 1 is

church planting strategies, and the fifth one is leader health.

And what we're doing is we're basically restructuring how we

do things together as churches in Bristol around those five

areas, so that we have different teams, different churches

together leading in those different areas.

And we had a particular focus a couple of weeks ago on church

planting. It's not a particular strength

of ours or focus of ours at Hope.

So we're not particularly hands on with that.

But other churches that are big on church planting are starting

to collaborate around mapping the city of Bristol.

Where are there areas that have gaps haven't got, you know,

dynamic churches that are that people can go to within a within

a short walk and and then who is well positioned as a church to

plant a new church into that space.

So this is a a new level of collaboration.

And then, but what what we're leading on as hope is, is that

prayer arm and we've been asked to kind of to kind of spearhead

that citywide prayer initiatives.

And so recent events have been like I say, the Pentecost

gathering this last no, what are we in now?

We're in November 2025, aren't we?

That's where we are. January this year, we had a week

of prayer and fasting, didn't we?

Which which we found a really exciting experience as a church.

So just just wondering. And then there's also been these

gather events. There was one which we had at

Saint Nick's Church again, as a kind of city coming together to

pray. Was that maybe in was that in

March this year? Can't exactly remember what it

was, but there were probably 500 or so people, 4-5 hundred people

came to pray for the city. So thinking that that that what

does citywide prayer look like? It probably looks like

organising sort of punctuating a rhythm of events like that

gathering together as a city as a city to pray, wondering if

that week of prayer and fasting in January time already The

Woodlands group of churches do the do the similar thing at that

sort of time. And a lot of other churches have

that beginning of the year as a time of, of praying and fasting

to wonder whether we could, which suggests to churches that

this is a citywide thing we do. We have a season of praying and

fasting as a as, as the Church of, of Bristol.

So I really wanted to share these are fairly early stages,

but wanted to share with you that that is some of what's

going on. And we, as hope, you know, have

a significant role to play in that.

So, so that's it's, it's an exciting development for the

city. And one of the things that was

clear at this conference. And since in fact, as a pastor

team, we had some time with a wonderful lady called Liz Evans

a couple of weeks ago. She's a prophetic lady who came

and spent I greatly respect and have spent learnt a lot from.

She came and spent some time with Alice and myself and

Charlie and Micah and Meredith 2 Wednesdays ago.

And we asked her to bring some prophetic insight to Hope and to

us as individuals. And one of the things that she

said for Bristol was that was that because of the prayer in

the city, the land is fertile and, and, and ready and the, and

the, and the spiritual power from Hope is, is ready to go.

Now's the time for people to become established around the

city so that they get firmly established in this fertile,

fertile season. And I think what's clear is that

there's a really healthy level of friendship and collaboration

and partnership across the different churches in the city.

And we realise, you know, I'm, I'm only really in Bristol, I

don't really know what's going on in the rest of the country.

But apparently that's, it's unusual and it's an unusual

level of partnership and collaboration.

And it feels like actually we can get things done quite fast.

And, and so again, that that's, that's quite an exciting, an

exciting time, an exciting thing.

So a little bit there on on what's going on citywide.

I'm I'm really, you know, this is for us to to be part of as a

whole church and, and and and and exactly what that looks

like. Don't know the details really

just yet, but but want want, want to want to share that with

you. I'd like to flip a little bit

now into a an encouraging story. I've been reading this book,

Lead with Prayer by Ryan Skoog, Peter Greer, Cameron Doolittle,

interesting names these guys have got, but I've been finding

encouraging. And it's a story that I'd like

to read to us from here. Thinking going back to that

strapload of lives that are bathed in prayer, late lives

that are soaked in prayer, and what impact does that have?

So this is a story of from Rwanda, and it's a couple of

pages long, and I'm going to read it to us.

Financial institutions have played a pivotal role in

Rwanda's recovery from the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, in

which an estimated 10% of the population was brutally killed

over a span of 100 days. As the nation began to rebuild,

microfinance institutions helped restore trust among community

members and bought financial stability to more families.

But in 2017, Christine Bain Garner inherited an enviable

role when she took leadership of Awaygo, A microfinance

institution designed to provide investments to those typically

undeserved and unreached by undeserved and or unreached by

Rwanda's former financial sector.

Despite the bank's noble objectives, it was losing money,

facing legal challenges and confronting low staff morale.

Awaygo's leaders created a three-year plan to address these

challenges but faced one set back after another.

Then COVID hit and a five month countrywide lockdown

dramatically impacted all areas of Away Goes performance

operations. Rwandans were unable to work.

So many people were thrown back into extreme poverty amid this

pandemic. Christine lamented.

As families were impacted, the organisation was too.

Away. Go faced massive write offs as

borrowers who could not generate income could not repay their

loans. Losses mounted, challenges

escalated. They'd run out of ideas.

And at this moment of desperation, Christine shares

that's when the prayer warriors came.

Because financial institutions were essential services, awaygo

staff were still permitted to gather at the office.

One day a small a small group of long serving staff members came

to Christine declaring we have something to say.

They were aware of the seemingly unsurmountable plan for

Christine. That's unsurmountable challenges

facing the organisation and in response, they presented a plan

for Christine's consideration. They wanted the entire staff to

come together for three days of prayer and fasting.

Christine agreed. As the team began praying, they

did so on their knees. We got our mats out.

Christina remembers kneeling is not the place for casual prayers

and they knew their desperation. Together they spent three days

fasting and praying. They prayed over every meeting,

decision and activity, surrendering every action to

God. As Christine and the team

invited God to work in the away goes day-to-day operations, the

impact was was dramatic. They felt God's confirmation of

the challenge of the work that they were pursuing and his

encouragement to press on. Still, the challenges continued

as Rwanda reinstated lockdowns. Encouraged and emboldened by the

impact of their collective fasting and prayer, the group of

colleagues returned to Christine.

We prayed for three days. We were profitable for five

months. How about we pray for a month?

Beginning in February 2021, a department, branch or team

fasted and prayed each of the 28 days of the month.

In July, they decided to incorporate praise and

Thanksgiving even though they were once again facing lock

downs. Orega set aside the 31 days of

August to praise and to thank God.

Each day, a branch, A-Team or department led the charge, with

Orega's executive team beginning on the first day of the month

and closing on the last day of the month.

Prayer has become Ouego's North Star and kneeling prayer has

become a part of Ouego's story and their and their regular

rhythm of operations. Every February, they've

committed to a month of prayer and fasting, followed by a month

of Thanksgiving each August. Christine shared when we prayed

and we waited upon the Lord. When we listened, God showed up.

God showed us gaps, brought the right people to our team, showed

us which products to stop and which to introduce.

Ouego's turn around was so significant that Christine was

recognised as one of top ten female bankers in Africa.

The momentum she had LED carried Ouego through the most

challenging operating environment in recent history,

wrote Kenyan Wall Street. But Christine humbly credits

something else God's faithful response to Ouego's prayers.

The turn around didn't come out of strategy.

God did it, especially during the pandemic.

I learned how to be fervent and persistent in prayer and how to

trust God, Christine says. As a leader, you don't expect,

you don't depend on your own understanding.

You trust in the Lord in all your ways and you depend on him.

I am one of those students of prayer.

Christine and the team she leads to Dewego encountered God in

prayer and the realities of his presence left them longing for

more. For OUEGO, prayer continues, but

also as a member of the Hope International network, they're

making a global impact. The practises and posture of

prayer modelled by Christine and the OUEGO team have been adopted

by the entities and institutions throughout Africa, Asia, Latin

America and Eastern Europe. Paradoxically, as the OUEGO

staff drew near to the Father in humble, desperate dependence, it

was falling to their knees in prayer that brought the team to

their feet. I think that's a cool story and

it, and it resonates with my my own experience of prayer is this

prayer is this lifestyle of bathing ourselves in God in such

a way that we smell good and that life works, that, that

there's a that there's a fluency and a, and a fruitfulness to, to

our lives. So my final section now before

we come to worship is I'd love to just tell us about this

coming prayer day. So our current, our current

rhythm as a Church of praying together is that we have the

first Tuesday of each month. We have a a day of prayer as a

church expected to have a season of a week of prayer and fasting

in in January time again as per last year.

I'm always wondering how else can we build and bake more

prayer into our into our rhythms.

I'm keen that our Sunday evening church meetings when we have

those, there's quite a lot of prayer built into those.

I'm I'm personally just looking to looking to bathe more prayer

into into throughout my day and the interactions that that that

that I have. But the first Tuesday of of the

month is a, is a, is a is a sort of main calendar for us and so.

This this coming Tuesday, this is our theme for the month.

The the verse is from Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10.

Ephesians 2:10

We're God's workmanship, Christed in Christ Jesus and to

do good works that God has prepared for us to do.

It's an extraordinary thing that God has prepared for each of us

good works to do in advance. And so one of the things I'd

love us to be doing as we worship shortly is asking God,

what are the good works that you've got for me?

It might be that you know what they are in your daily life.

And it's a, and it's a case of praying into praying into those

areas. Also, what are the good works

that you've got for us to do as a as a whole church together, as

as community. So that's our theme for the for

the for the day. And I'd love to just take us

through this. Emma mentioned these briefly,

but I'd love to mention that that the kind of gathered prayer

time. So, you know, this is a theme

that we can be praying on through the day.

And I'll come on to the next page shortly where we've got

some specific prayer points, but I wanted to just sketch out the

different prayer times that we have.

So we start at 6:30. Simon and Becca host a prayer

for youth that's on that's on Zoom.

You'll be pleased to know 630 till 7:15 and then 7:15 to 7:45.

I'm hosting a time which is really praying into this theme.

It's half an hour. I think it was just me on my own

last month. So these aren't always big

numbers of people, you know, but but please ask God, what is it?

What is it that you can be part of this, this time?

So that's really sort of praying the theme for the day.

And then Alice Emma, host of Praying for the World and then

Silas host from 2:50 here with lunch as well.

Wonderful time of gathered, extended time of worship,

wonderful time of worship and a time of prayer.

They meet every every Tuesday on on Zoom.

Maryland's part of that group as well.

And but once a month on this Tuesday, they come and are in

person here. Esther is going to be walking

around the harbour praying for our boats. 12:00 Ruth, are you

on this Thursday, this Tuesday? What time are you going to go

for? Great.

So 4 till 5. Ruth is praying for his now

words. If you have any specific

requests of for, for, for Ruth, do speak to her and ask her to

be praying specifically for you. We have a community supper here

at 5:30. We have a lovely long table out

and we have it's often about 20 or so people.

It's great to spend time in food together and I again I'm quite

keen that we bake some more prayer into that around the

table time. And then Malcolm hosts renew

happens to every Tuesday at his house in Westbury and then

particularly prays into the theme for the day on these and

then the next day. So this is on the Wednesday

organic worship from 7 till 9 hosted by Julia and team.

And that's been going now for many years as really a, a sort

of the time of worshipping and praying over over the city.

So these are the, these are the lead slots that we have the

hosted prayer times through prayer day.

So I encourage you to look at those times and just sort of

prayerfully consider what can it look like for me to press into

into this day of prayer? Are there any of these that you

can join and be part of and, and go for it?

And our prayer points. I've, I've, I've put in these,

put together these prayer points.

First one, praying for our own good works, asking God what he

has for us to do and praying into those areas.

So we really recognise the design, the purpose, the calling

on individuals and on communities within hope to, to

bring God's life to the city in different ways.

So that's a that's, that's the prayer point there is praying

into those, those specific things.

What have you got for us as individuals, as small

communities? And then two prayer points here

for us as a whole church, a particular focus for us is this

stitching the city together, overcoming the, the division of

racism class in Bristol and our, our partnership with God's House

Church is a strategic part of that.

We're going to have a joint service together with them

actually 1st Sunday in December. We're all going to go over to

God's house for church on the Sunday morning, first Sunday in

December. And then we're also talking with

them and planning a trip to Botswana next year.

So looking at that in August. So these are all things lovely

to be praying about and considering strategic

partnership as part of overcoming the some of the

barriers of racing class in Bristol.

And then we're also on this journey with the with the

Trinitarian faith course that Paul and grace are taking us

through asking the questions of what more can I understand and

how more can I come to know Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

And that would that would change change change the way we live as

we experience that the fuller love and knowledge of God.

So there's, there's some prayer points for us for.

So I wanted to share that with you ready for this, this coming

Tuesday. And we're going to move now for

the last 20 minutes or so into a time of worship.

And really great to have Judea and Sam leading us.

And we're going to just just start as a, as a, as a time just

to worship Jesus. But then as but then as we go

through, I encourage you to be asking God, what are the what

are the good works that you have for me to for me to do?

Maybe you're already really clear what they are.

You know, you're really clear what that is, in which case just

ask God to speak into it some more.

What do you say about this? What my my day job or my

ministry or my and then also to be asking God about that same

question for us as a as a church.

And we'd love to share Emma's going to host showing some of

those on the microphone words that God has for us about the

good works that God has for us as a church.

So I'm going to pray and then let's let's move into let's move

into worship together. Jesus, it's an amazing privilege

to know you. It's the most wonderful.

It's the most wonderful and life transforming thing to know you,

to know your love, to hear your voice.

And we find hope and purpose and fulfilments and in you.

I'm really grateful for the work in our lives.

Love you. Alice was quoting from having

read me Christianity last week by CS Lewis.

There's a bit he quotes George MacDonald in there and I can't

remember the exact words, but but in essence says something to

the effects of when we give our life over to God and invite him

to come and have control and and lead us.

We notice that he we expect an upgrade in certain areas that we

knew were dysfunctional. We need some there's some leaky

plumbing or some faulty electrics and we're we're aware

of that dysfunction in our lives and we see him attending to

those. But then we also over time

notice that he seems to be knocking down structural walls

and, and doing much more fundamental works on the House

that is our lives. And, and the quote goes on to

say that he's not just patching up a a little cottage, but he's

building us into a palace that is fit to be the home for the

King. And so, Jesus, I want to say

that on behalf of us as individuals and on behalf of us

as the church, we welcome you into our lives, Build us into

people that are palaces fit for you as the King of the universe

to live and dwell and be seen. And likewise for us as Hope

Chapel, as a community, as a church, we invite you in.

We want you to build us into this palace that hosts the

presence of God and brings the life of Jesus to the city.

That's what we're all about. Everything is is for that Aim

for that purpose. So we worship you now.

We give you our lives. Come and speak to us.

Come and build your Kingdom. Build your palace.

Amen. Just as we're we're in an

attitude of worship in in God's presence.

Just take a minute to ask him. Lord, is there anything that you

want to share with us about Hope's role in the city moving

forward? And you may have sent something

as we're worshipping, or you may send something just now in this

time. And and if you do, it'd be great

if you could come and share it for our encouragement.

I just had this image of a paper clip.

It's just like getting the sense that it's like created the whole

things together, but it's like just about barely doing it.

But then somehow like by the power of God, this paper clip,

it's like it's being stretched open and it becomes a lock pick

and it just it's just the right size.

It's not something that you'd expect, but it picks open a lock

and it opens something. Was just wasn't looking at this

picture, but was just having the image of water flowing from this

place and just thinking with the journey we're all on the course

we're doing together. That that spirit, that that

water, that life, the the dynamic spirit moves to to

displace anything that is rigid and holding us back, holding the

city back. I just sense that the journey

we're on in, it's the ITTFI haven't got any brain at the

moment, but that that we have a part in unleashing that water,

that spirit to the city and the IT gently dislodges things that

are obstacles. So I yeah, bless us in that.

This is a real encouragement that So Hope's newsletter maybe

a few weeks ago had something called Table UK on which is what

they do is they just invite any anyone Gen Z18 to 30s to a table

in a restaurant and there's a Christian host and people just

talk about people of faith, no faith, just talk about things

spiritual and and and this has been planted in many cities and

they've got some resources to plant it in Bristol.

But I think what's really encouraging, and if anyone wants

to talk to me about it, an 18 or 30 year old, what's really

encouraging is they've got 250 people lined up to do it, want

to do it. But the, the, The thing is

they're looking for, what do you call it, workers in the harvest?

But the, the harvest, he said he's got people there.

So it's really encouraging. Oh, and there's one on Friday at

7 O clock in Gloucester Road already.

I just felt I'm just going to sing a little songs.

I felt like God was singing out over the city.

I feel like there's a sound that's rising up that's age-old.

Yeah, keep. Playing song.

There's a rumbling sound. There's a rumbling sound.

There's a rumbling sound. Can you hear it?

There's an. Age-old noise, hear it rising.

Now it's the Father's pausing. Oh, I want to redeem it.

I want to redeem it. There's a rumbling sound.

There's a rumbling sound. There's a rumbling sound.

Oh, can you hear it? It's.

An ancient noise here rising. Now it's the Father's heart

saying, oh, I want to redeem it. Yeah, if you want to redeem it,

bring all your messes on. Oh Bristol light, don't care if

you'll messy, I want to. Redeem.

It I want to redeem it. There's.

A rumbling sound. There's a rumbling sound.

There's a rumbling sound. Oh.

Can you hear it? Yeah, I got to.

Thank you for all the noises that have gone before us, all

the sounds of people crying out in this city.

And I thank you that you're still listening to their

prayers. You're still listening to people

that have gone before us, and you still care about every

single prayer that was prayed over the city.

And I thank you that we can join our voices with hundreds and

thousands of people that have gone before in this place.

And our heart cries the same. God redeem it.

Redeem all the mess and all the crap that's in this city.

Thank you God that you see it. And you're not a blind father.

You care. So I pray that Bristol would

learn to bring all their all their messiness to you because

you're a Father who who runs and you, you listen.

That hope is to work out through its life and ministry of

reconciliation in all areas, wherever that reconciliation

needs to be in Bristol, between families, friends, people and

their idea of God, people and their experience of God, church,

past experiences of religion, past pain and experience that we

are too encourage, facilitate reconciliation.

Thank you for those words and I felt as we were worshipping Lord

remind me of the words in Joel 2 about dreaming dreams and seeing

visions and conscious that I I see in myself a tendency to be

sceptical towards visions and and that I dream as much as I

used to when I was younger. And maybe you haven't got time

the same way, but but dreams and visions can seem quite you can

easily be cynical about them, can't you?

And they can they can be dismissed as woolly, slightly

vague things. But I feel like God's

encouraging us to dream of what Bristol could be and have

visions listen to visions about what the what what it could look

like and conscious of over time. The power of a life lived with

Jesus is is massive and it happens like Louis was saying in

the small moments of reconciliation in a workplace in

one relationship. This is the power of the church,

the salt, the yeast, the working of God.

It's in everyday just a kind interaction with someone can be

a moment of of reconciliation right through to more dramatic

moments of Alice has been invited to number 10 to speak

into along with Marvin in a few weeks time.

It's like these bigger moments of being involved in in

strategic nationwide conversations.

This is the this is the opportunity.

This is the power of the church. It's the both in the everyday

micro moments and in the big. So I want to encourage you as

hope to have dreams to have visions.

What could maybe, let's start up, I might start up a board up

in the prayer centre of what Bristol could be.

And you know, let's write up there.

What, what, what, what could Bristol be?

What could the, the future be? Let's ask God to prophetically

give us inspiration of, of what, of what a redeemed Bristol could

look like. So as we close and, and in, in,

in a minute's time, parents will need to go and collect children.

But again, want to pray. Lord, again, we're just grateful

for for that you've placed us here in such a time as this says

in Raymond's that you've designed the exact times and

places where people should live. You've chosen the time you've

chosen that we would be here now, in this place now.

And we have the extraordinary privilege of knowing you and

having you in us now. So we, we say, use us, use us in

those moments of reconciliation. Use us in, in the in the big

picture, give us dreams and give us visions of what could be,

what can be in Christ. And may we see those come to

pass in our city. May your Kingdom come on earth,

Lord Jesus in Bristol, in greater Bristol area as it is in

heaven. We love you and we worship you.

Again, we say build your house, Build this palace that's fit for

the King of Kings to live in.