The Purposes of God
Some days you wake up expecting a normal day only to find that by the evening life has changed. Although we did not recognise it at the time this proved to be our experience in 1968 when Terry Virgo walked into our lives.
Janita and I had been married for one year and lived in a village, Scaynes Hill, in Sussex. Some newly weds, Phil and Agnes Ball, moved into the village and a bumper sticker revealed they were Christians. As we got to know them we decided to start a village Bible Study and they said they would invite their friend Terry to that first meeting. And so we first met. It was immediately obvious that Terry loved the word, was a worshipper and a pray-er.
The Baptism of the Spirit
The following year we stumbled across the baptism of the Spirit and wanted to know more. Janita was baptised in the Spirit at a meeting with Jean Darnell in London, but I was not convinced. Who could help me? I thought I would ask Terry. Although I was not baptised in the Spirit until later this was an important part of my personal journey as he shared the Biblical basis for the baptism.
Healing
‘What about healing?’ Janita asked me one day in 1973. ‘Its in the Bible but not our experience’, she said. Who could help us? Let’s ask Terry! This resulted in an evening of teaching and ‘demonstration’ as he prayed for people with back pain and their legs ‘grew’ accompanied by a loss of all pain.
Regular visits
At a weekend conference Janita and I attended a few days later, led by Barney Coombs of Salt and Light (who died recently – what a godly man!) we experienced ‘body ministry’ for the first time with the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. When Terry heard about this he offered to come regularly and teach into our Bible Study group, which rapidly grew as a result and necessitated a house extension to accommodate everyone. People were travelling to us from many towns and villages around Sussex and Terry was also helping three other similar groups; the start of his travelling ‘apostolic’ ministry.
By 1977 we were experiencing church life of a different order from the one we had grown up in and one day God spoke to us in a prayer meeting that we should plant a church – a mind-blowing direction for someone who had grown up in a traditional setting where ‘as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be…’! And so in August we started meeting in a newly built community hall in Haywards Heath, Terry’s first church plant.
Bible Weeks
By now we were attending Bible Weeks, first The Capel Bible Week in Surrey then The Dales in Yorkshire. In 1979 we launched the Downs Bible Week in Sussex after God had spoken to us a year earlier that we should complement the Dales in the south of England. At that Week in 1980 Bryn Jones, one of our speakers, urged Terry to form an apostolic team to complement his own gifting and to save him from burn-out. His travelling schedule had already become very intense. As this point Terry invited me to become his Administrator thus fulfilling a call I had carried from the age of nine.
By now he and Wendy had moved their family from Seaford to Hove as they helped with a newly planted church, The Brighton and Hove Christian Fellowship, later to become Clarendon Church > Church of Christ the King > Emmanuel Church.
Up to date
Much has happened since those early beginnings – Bible Weeks (Downs and Stoneleigh), Leadership Conferences at the Brighton Conference Centre (Together on a Mission), expansion to the nations as churches were planted and others joined the ‘family’ of Coastlands, later to become New Frontiers > New Frontiers International (NFI) > Newfrontiers, and much much more.
Reunion
Terry and I regularly speak on the phone but recently it was a joy to meet up at Terry’s and Wendy’s home in Sussex to recall God’s goodness, to share about what he is doing now and to anticipate the future. How precious it was to talk about the many friends across the nations who continue to walk faithfully with God and press forward in fulfilling their destinies.
We don’t know how extensive the Newfrontiers family now is – it is impossible to quantify. As we approached the final Stoneleigh Bible Week in 2001, following God’s prophetic direct to ‘Go’, there were 240 Newfrontiers churches in 22 nations. Now there are 22 apostolic leaders working into 70-80 nations helping an estimated 1500-2000 churches. Although that might appear impressive how much more there is to do. We do thank God for his favour on us over the decades and have such joy in watching those to whom the baton has passed running with endurance the race set before them. We ourselves continue to play our part. Terry and Wendy still travel widely blessing many leaders and churches (they are currently in South Africa), and Janita and I are part of a church plant, and support churches and ministries with the poor in and around our city of Bath and across the UK. We seek to maintain friendship with leaders in other nations through internet communication and when they visit the UK.
Above all at this time of reflection we thank God for friendship with Terry and Wendy! How much stronger and richer than just being work colleagues. We felt God join us those decades ago ‘until death do us part’ and we trust that this will be true to the end, whenever that might be.
Thank You Lord! To You be the glory.