Sunday, 13 January 2008
Lots of exciting news to report as we begin another year. Just before Christmas we held the annual Miracle Street open-air Christmas event in the centre of Southampton in partnership with City Council. Despite downsizing from the Mainstage to the Mobilestage, we were able to draw big crowds of up to 500 to hear the Christmas story of God’s gift of Jesus. Jono and I worked alongside the Central Hall Community Gospel choir who added a great deal to the impact we were able to have.Emma is now back from Australia and taking most of the responsibility for the School Aid Roadshow project that we run in partnership with our friends at World Vision UK. She has just returned from a trip to the Wirral on Merseyside to set up a two-week project there at the end of February. The new Miracle Street Board has been meeting regularly ahead of us becoming a separate charity in April. Until now we have come under the umbrella of New Community in Southampton. Although the structure will be independent the relationships are strong. The team of Mark Markiewicz, Tom Frame, Phil Clarke and Neil Osborne are already adding a dimension of wisdom and oversight to the work.Last week the Core Team were together for 24 hours as we spent time praying and considering how to give effective leadership to Miracle Street. As friends, we have journeyed together for several years and seen God do some amazing things. We are all in positions of leadership in our churches and now spread across the UK geographically. Nevertheless we are focussed and committed to being together and although others are emerging all the time this is the group that I feel God has placed around me to spearhead the work.Hope08 has meant that invitations to run events and Festivals this summer have come in ahead of schedule. We were already at 50% capacity before the end of 2007 for this coming summer’s programme. We would love to visit churches where our supporters are so do consider if this is a possibility. Finally, please pray for us as we continue to seek God for directions and to remain faithful to his call on us as a team. Steve Lee