Return to Stoneleigh
The recent end of May Bank Holiday Monday saw me returning to Stoneleigh, the site of eleven Newfrontiers Bible Weeks 1991-2001. It was a déjà vu experience but exciting to realise that in 2001 there were about 225 Newfrontiers churches worldwide and now there are probably in excess of 1500. We closed the Bible Week in 2001 with the prophetic word ‘Go’ ringing in our ears. The growth since that time seems to confirm the rightness of that decision.
Why was I visiting? One of the Newfrontiers apostolic spheres, Catalyst, were holding their biennial Festival on the site with about 5,000 attending and this included some of my West African friends: Momoh Sesay who leads a church in Sierra Leone and Nicolas Thebault who leads one in Guinea. Sadly others who were expected to be there could not be present due to visa problems.
I found it so encouraging to meet up with Momoh and Nicolas and to hear of their church planting endeavours in their two nations. Life in both places is not easy – poverty, political instability, corruption, ebola in recent months – but I found two faith-filled men who were determined to pursue God’s purposes in their generation. Well done!
David Devenish
I also had the chance to meet up with David who kindly took some time from his busy schedule to share on video about the purpose of the Catalyst Festival and also about the handover of the sphere to Simon Holley that has recently taken place. I think you will enjoy watching this short interview.