An accelerating car, and some orange fish

Well, that title hopefully grabbed your attention - all will become clearer further down this blog!

Recently we shared on a Sunday that our latest Gift Days raised £27,962, taking our building fund total to £189,213 - what an amazing amount of money we have already collectively given! That’s all from our personal giving, before any success with grant applications and before we embark on fundraising events (more on that very soon!).

I want to say another thank you to every single person who has given financially to this so far - we really do have a generous community. There will be further gift days in the summer and autumn, but of course we can give to the fund at any time.

Over the past weeks we have had some prophetic words shared around our building project, which I’d love to share with you all here. I’d ask that you ponder and pray about them. As Jacqui shared the other Sunday in her message on ‘How to hear God through prophecy’, prophetic words and pictures are like sparks that jump from person to person. So as you read and prayerfully consider what God might be saying - please do get in touch with us if you sense God saying anything further to you.

At a conference some of our trustees recently attended, a couple shared this with our team;

It’s like you are in a car and have been trawling through traffic to get to a roundabout. You know where you want to go, but its really slow moving. But, there’s going to be a gap in the traffic soon, where you can pull out and speed ahead on our journey. Prayer is really key to this, and you need to really believe God will make it happen.

Some of our team have been weighing this message and we sense that it is around our building project. We believe that soon we will see an acceleration in finances coming in, whether that’s through our own giving or through external means. As it is being weighed, it sparked something in one of our Kerith Bracknell congregation;

One way to speed up the traffic is to have a clear bit of road. Another way, is that when crawling in traffic, if a set of cars gradually accelerates, then the others all go with it. The gaps could be large releases of finance, but could also be an acceleration along the road. One person gives, and inspires another and another...an acceleration (increase) in giving.

So that’s the car - what about the orange fish?! Well recently Debs, one of our church family, shared this on a Sunday morning in Farnborough;

I saw a large school of dull, grey fish all swimming en masse in one direction. There was then the appearance of much smaller group of bright orange fish which stood out by their colour, but also because they were swimming against the flow of the grey fish, going much slower as they tried to weave inbetween the grey fish and avoid colliding with them. But they were focused on their path. I saw a few grey fish slowly start to notice and turn and join the back of the orange group. I felt like it was a representation of how we're being counter cultural in our approach to finances and priorities (putting the group above the individual) - and that may slow us down at first, but our statement will be noticed and we keep being focused.

 So - are the above words sparking anything in you? Please do get touch with us if so, we would love to hear your reflections.

1 Corinthians 12: 7- 11
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Each month we meet to pray as a church community, and we often include praying for our building project as part of this time together. Our next prayer meeting is Thursday 3rd April 7-8pm at church. There is also a weekly finance prayer meeting on zoom on Monday’s 8-8.30pm. Email info@kerith.church if you wish to join it.

In the meantime - please join us in prayer wherever you are reading this right now, as we ask God for a change in speed and direction, believing He will breakthrough and provide in huge and miraculous ways for us!