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t 2015 a year in the life of city temple church

CITYTEMPLECHURCH

CONTACT Email: info@citytemple.info Tel: 029 2038 7741 City Temple Church Cowbridge Road East Cardiff CF11 9AD

/cardiffcitytemple @citytemple /citytemple

www.citytemple.info City Temple Church is an Elim Pentecostal Church, a charity registered in England & Wales - No: 251549

Dear Friends,

3 First Word (Senior Pastor)

4 Message Wales Launch

6 Youth

8 Sunday Services

10 Good News Story

12 Community Groups

13 Serving Stories

14 Evangelism & Outreach

16 Children’s Ministry

18 Missions

20 Vale Village Church

22 Final Word (Church Secretary)

2015 was a special year as it marked the centenary of the Elim Pentecostal Churches of which City Temple Church is a part. On the 7th January 1915 in a hotel in Monaghan, Ireland seven young men including Elim’s founder, George Jeffreys met to discuss “the best means of reaching Ireland with the full Gospel on Pentecostal Lines.” This small, seemingly insignificant meeting would be the starting point of a movement that would, one hundred years later, number over 500 churches in the UK and many significant works around the globe. During the century of outreach and witness thousands and thousands would be saved, healed and baptised in the Holy Spirit and Elim would emerge as one of the most significant denominations in the nation.

Centenary Wales’ centenary celebrations centred on an evening of thanksgiving and praise at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff where John Glass, Elim’s General Superintendent was the keynote speaker. It was exciting to see many City Temple Church members attending and many serving in different ways to ensure the evening was a success. In addition, in July the church had the opportunity to host a special centenary worship service, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 to an audience of 1.6 million people. Encouraging reports were received of how the programme impacted individual lives and we thank God for this wonderful opportunity.

Mission As a church we used the centenary celebrations to launch a special year of mission and outreach. Between Easter 2015 and Easter 2016 we set ourselves the goal of seeing a minimum of: 100 – Attending Alpha 100 – Saved 100 – Baptised in water 100 – Serving on a mission It has been really exciting to see how the church has responded to this challenge and by the end of 2015 we had already succeeded in reaching two of those targets.

Army of Volunteers The following pages outline the great things that God is doing among us and I am sure that you will join me in giving thanks to our gracious God.

However, I am also aware that all these activities are only possible because of a dedicated army of committed people. There are far too many for me to name but may I take this opportunity to thank everyone for their service, prayers, financial giving and support. THANK YOU.

Pastoral Team Changes At the beginning of the year we welcomed Ricardo Erasmus to the church as our new Youth Pastor. Ricardo has had an excellent first year in the role and he and Naomi have proved a real blessing to our church family. Kathy Mathias also joined the pastoral team in January 2015. Working part-time she helps facilitate the smooth working of our Community Groups and the Accelerate Leadership Training programme. Kathy’s passion for God and enthusiasm for the task is a constant blessing. Towards the end of the year Arlette Frampton was accepted as a Minister in Training with Elim and appointed to the City Temple Church. We look forward to watching Arlette develop as a Minister as she pursues the call of God that is very evident on her life. During the summer we said goodbye to our Church Administrator, Suzanne Payne after 13 years of excellent service to the church. Gail Duffy who had been managing the Re:New Charity shop was appointed as Suzanne’s replacement with Helen Devereux and Peter Acreman taking over the management of the shop. All three have made

Steve

an excellent start in their new jobs and are already making their mark.

Students It has been exciting to see the number of students attending the church grow over the past few years. Encouraged by this development the church leadership decided to invite Jenna van der Spuy to become our first part-time student worker. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2015 Jenna had already been actively involved in the student life of the church. Her love for the students and dedication to see them flourish in God has given a massive boost to the work this past autumn.

Thank-you Finally I would like to give thanks to my colleagues on the Pastoral team, to the staff and to the Church Elders. Helen and I feel incredibly privileged to serve alongside you all, thank-you for your love and your support. But my biggest thanks is reserved for the City Temple Church congregation. It is a tremendous honour to lead such a wonderful, passionate and committed body of believers. I pray that 2016 will be a year of amazing blessing for each of us; for our families; our church; our city and our nation.

An amazing evening as City Temple Church hosted the launch of Message Wales, which has grown out of a coming together of Ignite and The Message, with a vision to impact the youth of Wales with the gospel of Christ. The evening had music from The Message’s own band Twelve24 and a powerful message from the movement’s leader, Andy Hawthorne along with our very own Gary Smith, who heads up Message Wales. From 2016, Ricardo Erasmus will be part of the Message Wales team, heading up the Eden Bus Youth Outreach for two days a week.

I started my first year on the 11 January 2015

and here are some thoughts.

Reality year 7-9

This is our Wednesday evening youth ministry.

For most of the year we have had 25-30 young

people with us. It's just amazing to work with

seven other leaders on a weekly basis.

We did teaching series like Soul Detox and

discipleship to get our youth grounded in the

faith.

Three of our young people got baptised and that

was one of my highlights.

In August we took our young people to Soul

Survivor and most of them encountered the Holy

Spirit in a fresh new way. After we got back I

started a discipleship group with a group of the

boys called Going Deeper, where we focus on

discipleship, leadership and mentoring. We are

also thinking of starting a Going Deeper group

with our girls.

In November '15 we went on a mission weekend

away with our youth to Weymouth and five of

our youth preached the gospel to youth older then

them. And two of them preached in a Sunday

morning service.

Some of our young people started a Christian

Union in their school and the group is going well

and they are growing in confidence sharing with

their friends and praying for them. They've seen

healing and encouragement.

Restore23/3

This is our Thursday evening group for young

people in school years 10-13. This group is small

in number but has some attending who are not

yet Christians. This provides us with an exciting

opportunity to build relationship with these

young people and tell them more about God’s

love.

Sunday Morning Youth

We have approximately 20-25 youth attending

each Sunday morning. We are often able to

marry what we are teaching with what is being

taught in the sermon in the main church. This

then provides opportunities for parents and

young people to discuss what has been taught.

It is really encouraging to see how our young

people love the Word of God and to see them

praying for each other and encouraging one

another.

Lastly I thank God for all the leaders. I really

appreciate all their support as we partner together

to extend the Kingdom in Wales.

Ricardo

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit

comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in

Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the

ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

As followers of Jesus, we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to be a witness to the city of Cardiff and beyond. When we meet together as a church, these gatherings provide opportunity to receive from God and to go out into our week having encountered his power and love afresh. We continue to hold 3 church services each Sunday at 9am, 11am and 6.30pm. On the first Sunday of each month, we hold an additional 4pm service. These services provide different opportunities for people to meet together and celebrate what God has done. Welcome

When people arrive at our front door, we want them to be welcomed and encouraged. This past year has seen some significant changes to our Welcome Team with a whole host of new volunteers and greater attention being given to our guests. We especially thank Sian & Martin Thomas for their hard work in enabling this to succeed. Worship

We believe that our services are a primary place for people to encounter God. We hope that through the encouragement of thanksgiving, Scripture declaration, prayer and songs of worship, people

will connect with God. We are thankful for the excellent musicians and singers who serve our church each week. It’s been especially encouraging to see our choir growing, many of whom took part in our centenary celebration at St David’s Hall in November. Preaching

We are blessed to have a Senior Pastor who releases our pastoral team to each bring their unique teaching ministry to the church. The main shift for 2015 involved creating preaching series that would be used across our 3 main services. The morning and evening messages are different but are part of the same series. Some of those series included Soul Detox, Seek God For The City, Everyone Everywhere, Parables of Jesus and The 12 (Minor Prophets). Church Family

We marked many important events in the lives of our church family including baby dedications, water baptisms, church membership, personal testimonies and sending people out. Some poignant moments from 2015 included the dedication of 11 Eritrean children and praying for James & Jo Martin, one of our young couples as they stepped into full time mission work in Rwanda. We are also thankful to God for a growing student ministry over this year which has seen dozens of students become involved in serving across ministries in our church gatherings.

“How awesome is this place! This is none o ther than the House of God;

this is the Ga te of Heaven”

Genesis 28:17

Over seven years ago, a Taxi Driver from Cardiff who was a Muslim, began to search for answers Islam could not give to him.

Disillusioned by his religion, Hani Shadad prayed to an “unknown God” in a bid to find an answer to his heart’s longing. After multiple appearances of Jesus Christ in his dreams, he later converted to Christianity.

His journey leading to Christianity begun when he started to feel more and more unsatisfied with Islam’s ways. And so his search for God emerged, convinced something special was missing from his life.

“I decided one day to pray to an unknown God. I said if there is a God out there, if you are real, then show me something. …Then I started to see Jesus

in my dreams and that caught my attention. I didn’t know what to make of them. When I googled it I found out that some Muslims in other parts [of the world] were also experiencing the same thing.

“...But I still questioned myself because in Islam they believe in Jesus but not as the Christians do. So I asked myself is He [Jesus] trying to help me become a better Muslim or be a Christian and follow Him? What do I need to do,” recalls Hani.

The 41-year-old told how he was captivated by how humble and gentle Jesus appeared in his dreams, giving him the choice to follow Him without any pressure. Hani surrendered his life to Christ about a year ago after doing an Alpha course at the City Temple Church Cardiff, where some of his dreams literally came to life.

The father of three, attended the City Temple for the first time to watch his younger son perform in a Christmas singing group and he liked the overall atmosphere.

Today Hani is thriving and growing in his Christian faith whilst being part of City Temple and willingly getting involved in the life of the Church.

In a short time, Hani got saved, then baptised and

Hani competing in Judo at a national level

took part in Mission trips three times: twice he went with the City Temple’s Mission team to Macedonia and once to India. Believing that God spoke to him to go on a Mission trip, Hani came back home a different person.

“The first time I went on a mission I didn’t know what I was going to get out of it, but when I came back I felt like I’ve changed a lot, like I grew up more in a matter of a few days… Then I knew how to face things. …that’s when I told my family and everyone I know, that I have become a Christian, and I didn’t have the fear of what the consequence was going to be. That’s what the mission did for me,” he says, remembering the positive result of mission.

Hani moved to the UK at the age of 19. He was brought up in a strict Muslim family in Sudan where Islamic routines were just life as normal. His grandfather was an Imam, an Islamic minister, who built a mosque from scratch right next to his family house, making it inevitable for Hani as a seven-year-old boy, to wake up at 3am in the morning for the first of five daily prayer calls.

“I started to feel a bit detached from the Muslim religion around the age of 17 when I started to feel like I wasn’t getting anything out of it,” he recalls.

“I used to ask questions like is there a God? What’s going on? I felt lost. So I bought a collection of Quran’s series to find an answer to my questions, but I couldn’t find it there.”

In his searching season, Hani reached out to his Imam friend, a mosque leader from Cardiff, who gave him a number of Islamic books and CDs to consult, fearing that Hani’s questioning would lead him astray. However, every time Hani studied those materials something in his spirit did not sit right with the teachings. In the end Jesus Christ’s appearance in his dreams triggered his interest to Christianity all the more. Admitting to his “stubborn” character, Hani reckons it had to be Jesus Himself who could convince him of a drastic change of faith, just like He did repeatedly through dreams and occasional open visions.

Isn’t it amazing to know that sometimes the silent witness of a Christian’s faith and life carries a powerful impact onto unbelievers in our surroundings? When Hani was growing up, back in Sudan, the only Christian contact he ever had was a Christian mate who used to train with him at his Judo Club, when he was representing the national youth team of Soudan. Hani says he used to look

Hani and his son, ready to go to the mosque

Hani (second from right) on a recent mission trip to Macedonia

at him and admire his ways.

The transformation Hani has experienced since becoming a Christian is still overwhelming to his wife Gloria, 37, who was a Christian when they got married 12 years ago. “I’m amazed about what has happened to Hani. He really is now so passionate, a changed person. I am still in shock,” she says. “Before he was saved he used to embarrass me in shops… he had road rage, he was a very angry man, always raising up his voice in arguments with people. He was always mad about something. Nowadays he is so patient and calm.”

Gloria recalls how she used to pray persistently for her husband’s conversion for so many years. “For some reasons I didn’t lose hope. I was praying for Hani’s salvation for 10 years. It became my habit to pray for him every night in my son’s bedroom,” says the mother of three.

Fascinated by Scriptures and enjoying his new life in Christ, Hani says, “The Quran doesn’t give you clues of life nor what’s going to happen [in the future], but the Bible gives you lots of words of encouragements and wisdom. Islam never taught me who Jesus is. I now understand who He is and the reasons for our being here.”

2015 has been an exciting year for our Community Groups

- we are so thankful to God for all that he has done. The

vision of intentional discipleship and mission within the

context of community came into being more fully in the

life of our church during this past year.

This new structure (introduced in October 2014) became embedded in City Temple. Nineteen groups ran regularly – that’s over 450 adults, young people and youth meeting right across the city. That’s good news! Indeed, we praise God for each and every group and for the quality of leadership. Thank you to all of our Community leaders who have served his people faithfully and competently. There were a few changes in 2015 as new communities were launched and two were disbanded. Every group was visited by a member of the core team at least once over the year and we were also busy training new leaders to enable the formation of new groups as God wills. Thus, our Accelerate Training Programme continued and last September we saw 23 students enrolled. Nigel James joined our team and complemented the training with his excellent leadership modules. In addition to this, we gathered Community group leaders together for fellowship, encouragement and teaching across the year. It has been a joy to see our groups functioning in the 3 strands of our core rationale: -

Up (towards God)

In (towards fellow Christians)

Out (towards the lost and the least)

Up

Groups have been experiencing times of dynamic, intimate and reflective worship as the Spirit leads. Bible

study, deeper discussions from the word that is preached on Sundays and visiting speakers all served to increase our knowledge of and faith in Jesus.

In

Groups have become places where support is given, gifts are practised, friendship is shared and love is shown. Prayer is an important part, as well as food and fellowship. In 2015, some Community Groups started to incorporate small groups (of 4-7 people) into their programme, using our teaching notes to help people go even deeper in their faith. This has been transformational for many. One member said, “It's incredible to see how different and unique everyone's life can be. And through sharing life stories and learning God's words, I find it so enjoyable and satisfying to be in this small group and with no doubts, these people are some of my most treasured ones.”

Out

Groups have certainly been creative in this area! We have been thrilled by the reports we have received. Great social events such as an evening of songs in a coffee shop and a firework party have enabled members of the Creative Community to invite their not yet Christian friends to join them. Flame enjoyed an evening of “Treasure Hunting” taking words of encouragement from God out onto the streets of Cardiff. Individuals from Anchor, Students and other groups helped Myra Harris with pamper evenings as part of the Riverside Festival and visited refugees at the Oasis centre. Refresh has a wonderful connection with Women’s Aid and has blessed them so much with a plethora of gifts, ranging from toiletries to car seats for infants. The youth did litter picking in the area around the church. And we have certainly been very encouraged by the number of people that have become Christians through the loving, caring outreach work of our Berhan Community. Thank you Jesus.

Kaleigh Mills, a 19-year-old Cardiff University English Language student, serves on our Welcome team. “The feeling of elation when you come out of water knowing you’ve been born again into an incredible family is like no other,” she says, remembering when she was baptised at her home church, Skylark, in May 2015. “I initially joined the welcome team because I felt a call on my heart to dig deeper into community. I hadn’t served at my previous church but it was always something I had wanted to do. I love serving because you get to meet so many new people. I’ve built some great friendships through doing this.” Kaleigh believes it makes a difference being part of a vibrant church. “City Temple is such an amazing epicentre of God’s love within our city. It’s home to a diverse range of people, who combined create a rich and vibrant atmosphere in our church. The desire to praise, worship, thank and love God is at the core of the church. …I love CT, it’s a place you can be comfortable in and a home away from my home! “Being a Christian at Uni is a challenge. …I think people have a lot of preconceived ideas of how Christians are meant to be (self-righteous and condemning) so it’s really good to try and break down those stereotypes. I try to live with the qualities of Jesus so that people can encounter and experience his love through actions and not just through the word.”

Kate, a Civil Servant who is married to Josh Jones, and mother of two, Rebecca, 24, and Emily,21, is passionate about serving God in various teams. She is on the Welcome, Ministry teams and helps out in Alpha courses as well. “Josh and I started to attend City Temple just over a year ago and quickly realised that in such a large church we needed to do two things: join a Community Group, which I absolutely love, and get involved in church life. I volunteered to help out at the 11am Welcome team every other Sunday. Although my main responsibility is in the welcome cafe after the service, I can be greeting people, giving out bulletins, helping take the offering or serving communion, depending on where the need is. I enjoy the variety of my role,” she says. “I have a passion for prayer - it really does work! I feel that it’s such a privilege to be able to pray for others. … “A member of the Alpha group that Josh and I were leading was baptised at the last baptism service. Just knowing that I was a small part of their journey of faith is the best feeling! It’s a joy to see someone I spoke to in the welcome cafe on their first morning now is attending regularly and involved in ministry themselves! “…The best thing about being a part of more than one team is that I get to see God at work in so many different ways,” says Kate.

Kaleigh Mills

Kate Jones

Alpha 2015

Jesus said: "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.” Luke 14:23

2015 was a year in which we decided to take an extended step of faith regarding our Alpha course. We started the year with relatively small course in January in Torre Coffee shop and had a great time with a relatively small group of people. Then in May we launched our biggest Alpha so far with a large celebration event with the cricketer Henry Olonga as our guest speaker. The challenge was to see if we could invite over 100 non-church guests to an event in the Angel Hotel. We actually saw over 190 people attend this event with over 100 visitors and and then continued the course in the Holiday Inn. We had 90 people including leaders attend the course and over 40 of our guests completed the course.

Following on from this success, we decided to repeat the launch event in the Angel Hotel for the Autumn course with the rugby player Chris Jones as guest speaker. Again we saw about 150 attend the event and then nearly 60 people including leaders attend this course held in City Temple main church. Over 25 of our guests completed the course.

One of our big challenges in throwing our net wider to people who have little or no connection to any of our church services, is to encourage them to start attending services on completion of the course. Although this is a

big challenge, it has been great to see many not only attending regularly but coming to faith and growing in their Christian lives as a result of the Alpha course. On one of our courses someone from church invited her mother, her two daughters and a friend who all attended the same course!

Alpha is always a group effort and could not be delivered without a wonderful team of helpers and table leaders. Thank you also to all those who invited friends, brought friends and gave financially to make Alpha a great success.

Outreach and Evangelism 2015

1000 to give away!

Much of our outreach and evangelism happens through our regular activities like Alpha, Impact Outreach and youth and children’s work and the day to day sharing of our faith as we live our lives. As a church we also enjoy getting out on to the streets and into our local community and over the last few years we have created some great opportunities. At least twice a year, we have been going out into Cardiff’s Queen Street to give away hot cross buns at Easter and mince pies at Christmas to remind the people of Cardiff what Easter and Christmas mean to us. This involved producing 1,000 packs with a pie or bun, a leaflet and a church invitation. Often as many as 50-60 from church have been part of this with music, dance and presentations as part of the couple of hours on the streets, all enjoying the shared experience as we reach out to people in our city.

One of my favourite parts is visiting a local supermarket and buying 1,000 of the required pies or buns to give away!

Riverside Festival

Over the last few years, the Church has been building stronger links with our local community and this has meant that we have been providing support and help with the local Riverside Festival held in the month of August. Last year we were involved in a number of events in the run up to the festival including cricket coaching, a film making day, a Riverside’s Got Talent night and a very successful Ladies Pamper Night.

This provided lots of great opportunities for us to be salt and light in our local community and share Jesus’ love in practical ways with those who live close to the church but who otherwise may not have any contact with us. Another Pamper Night was held at the end of November as a follow up to the contacts made in August.

Impact Outreach Team 2015

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” (Mark 6:34)

I don't know what you do on a Saturday night. Perhaps you catch up with friends or family or relax watching Strictly or Match of the Day. Well whilst some of us are relaxing or getting ready for Sunday, others are bringing hope and love to some of those in our society who may have been forgotten by most.

Each Saturday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, the Impact Outreach team are opening the doors of City Temple to any who need a place to meet, eat and hear some good news! Some of our guests struggle with addiction, others have lost a job or gone through a broken relationship; others are drifting from town to town or are refugees and asylum seekers. Some are highly educated while other may have learning difficulties, but all are warmly welcomed!

The team is led by Antonio Cavalho and Brenda Wee who are often on site a few hours before and a few hours after the event. They are supported by a large team of helpers who set up, serve, cook, provide support, clothing and encouragement to those who attend each week and pastoral support is provided to the team by Steve Harris.

What happens?

All are welcome and there are men and women, old and young, and a number of nationalities attending. There is tea and coffee as people arrive and a chance to catch up with friends and team members. Each week there is short testimony, a word of encouragement or challenge and then always a hot meal. But most of all this is a place of Love and Acceptance.

Sleep Over

The team also work with churches from across Cardiff, on a rota system, to provide overnight accommodation for up to 12 people. This year’s “Sleep Over” team is headed up by Mandy Powell and Declan Duffy and they are doing an amazing job each week. This year the Sleep Over ran from December to March. They have also formed links with other churches working with the homeless and disadvantaged to try and maximise the impact of the work done across the churches.

Special Events!

Every few months the team organise a special event with a visiting speaker or special meal and music. This has included an annual Christmas meal which this year was supported by our students working alongside our regular helpers. Key team members try and support those who request help by meeting with them, praying with them, helping them get on their feet and find houses and jobs and move forward but most important of all help them discover Jesus.

You can be very proud of this team, some of whom know what it is to be homeless or have struggled with addiction themselves in the past. We thank God for their commitment to those in this city who have fallen on hard times and thank God for lives changed and people coming to know Jesus.

This year has been another busy and exciting one for our children’s ministry. Numbers have gradually increased over the year with around 30 0-11s at our 9am service, and in our 11am service: 15 0-3s, 40 3-7s and 25 7-11s! Our Let’s Go Kids Club on a Wednesday hosts around 15 5-11s some of whom do not go to church regularly. We have a dedicated team of leaders and helpers who, each week, teach our children the amazing love of God and the relationship they can have with him as his children.

We have continued with an exciting teaching series this year called’ Powerpack’ with 6 week sessions on ‘Holy Spirit Come’, Training up Prayer Warriors, Filled with Power, and The Father’s House. We also learnt so much from our 9 week series on the Fruit of the Spirit, and at the same time had great fun tasting different fruits from around the world! Our series now is called ‘just 10 for kids’ and teaches the children the 10 commandments in a way that they can understand and relate to.

The children took a big part in our Mother’s day service with songs, prayers, poems and wonderful paintings showing their mum’s, and this was followed by a challenging message from one of our mum’s Arlette Frampton.

Our Bible Holiday Club in July was ‘Mega Makers’ and each day 60-70 children came along to the crazy inventors workshop with our amazing Mega machine! By the end of the week the children had learnt ’How broad and long, and high and deep, is Christ’s love for us!’ Our memory verse song was sung over and over again as our theme song of the week, which we all loved and knew very well by Friday! Again, we had a fantastic team of dedicated and enthusiastic leaders who were able to share God’s love and make such an impact in the lives of the children. Our daily exercise and dance warm-ups were not to be missed!!

Many of our autumn/winter Sunday’s leading up to Christmas were taken up with rehearsals for our ‘Straw and Order’ Christmas nativity which the children performed on the last Sunday before Christmas and excelled themselves as ever!

I believe we have an exciting year ahead of us! We have a great children’s team who love Jesus and want to see our children go on to become great young people of God! We want to see growth not just in numbers but in the lives of the children and in their walk with God. Please pray for us as a team and for the children’s ministry as a whole. We DO need new leaders and helpers, and I would ask that you come and see what we do each week and consider being part of the kid’s team. It’s a great ministry to be part of – you won’t regret it and God will bless you in the process!!

Our overseas mission focus in 2015 kicked off with a regular trip to Macedonia, led by pastors Steve Harris and Nigel James, to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas season with our Elim churches in Stip and Skopje. As always, our Love in Action fundraising helped us deliver Christmas gifts to the Roma gypsy community and to poorer families in Stip. Later in the year, Gary Smith led a team to Rajahmundry, India to work alongside Pastor Prasad and his wife Sunnee, in Gateway Ministries and at the Gateway School-during the year we continued to send funds to build a central Gateway church in the city of Rajahmundry.

Perhaps the most positive aspect of both of these mission trips was the number of people stepping out into the overseas mission field for the first time! This emphasis was continued from Easter 2015 onwards, when the ‘mission’ portion of our Mission 100 project was willingly embraced by over 100 folk from City Temple stepping out into mission and evangelism projects locally, national and internationally. We saw teams get involved in the local Riverside festival (including a popular ‘pamper evening’ for ladies), in the Shine Swansea outreach festival, in a weekend mission to the Elim church in Holyhead, as well as our regular

international teams. One particularly significant development was the willingness of several of our members to begin to serve as community governors in schools across the city of Cardiff.

Several young adults from the church served overseas for a season during 2015- we thank God for Millie Booth, Jade Jordan, Joel Redman, Ellen Redman, Sophie Ball, Serena Barry, and Hannah Davies. Only a few weeks after getting married, we said goodbye to James and Jo Martin as they set off as Elim missionaries to Rwanda. A highlight of our Christmas Day service 2015 was a live Skype interview with them both. As a church that regularly gathers around 50 nationalities on a Sunday, it is thrilling to see young adults responding to the Lord’s call to the nations! Chris and Nicola Tiltman continue to serve the nations through the ministry of Operation Mobilisation, based at the HQ near Oswestry.

As well as financially supporting the projects and individuals already mentioned, City Temple was able to provide simple education for children at a brick factory near Lahore, Pakistan, as a result of pastor Nigel’s trip in 2014, and our charity shop sowed generously into local needs and into overseas relief and outreach projects.

If you would like to support James & Jo or other Elim Missionaries visit …

www.elimmissions.co.uk

? Join us on a local, national or international

mission this year and experience the adventure

of a lifetime as you step out with God.

Speak to your Community Group Leader or Pastor Nigel about the options available in 2016

There have been so many highlights this year but limited

space to record them all so we have chosen a few

highlights.

We had two visits by Heartland Church from Fort Wayne, Indiana. The first trip delegation had Ron Allen, the Lead Pastor and the support Pastor Dave Frincke. Ron was one of the founders of the Vineyard and we benefitted very much from the coaching he gave us. Dave has visited with us before and has a passion for Wales. He has written a musical about the Welsh revival that has been performed in the US to critical acclaim. Indeed a number of the actors who performed the show became Christians! The second visit was with a team of 10 who ministered throughout South Wales including with us at one of our Sunday Services. After a group of the ladies from the congregation had an inspiring trip to the Hillsong Colour Conference, we also took the opportunity whilst the Heartland were over to run our first women’s conference, SHINE. The speakers included Lesley, Natalie Stanton a prisons worker from Manchester (and Elim chaplain) Carolyn Allen from Heartland and Linda Murray. The conference was very well received and we the ladies seemed to appreciate having the men doing all the catering! We are planning a second conference on Saturday June 25th 2016. We partnered with the local Anglican Church to run

Messy Church, designed for families that would not normally come to church. It runs twice a term on Saturday afternoon and consists of arts, crafts, activities, worship & then a meal for everyone. It has been really well received with more than 50 in attendance at each one. We have seen a number of people come to faith during the year and this has been such a blessing. The baptism saw three people sharing powerful testimonies before being “dunked!” Gary Gibbs, head of evangelism for Elim was the preacher at the service. A key date in the Wenvoe village calendar is now the Vale Village Fun Day. At this the church put on a free fun day for all in the village and surrounding areas. In addition to bouncy castles, face painting, BBQ, ice creams, drinks, games, music, puppets we had donkey rides that were really well received. Over the course of the afternoon we had over 500 people in attendance! It was so good that so many from City Temple came to help put up marquees and man stalls. We ran our second Alpha course in the local pub and it was a great success with around 15 people with us each week. We had a mix of Christians, “prodigals” and “not yet Christians.” It was well received by all those attended and not because of the excellent desserts!

We are blessed by key partnerships we have developed with Eden church and Vineyard, Cardiff who regularly supply worship leaders for our gatherings. We have also had some excellent visiting ministries including the new Elim General Superintendent elect, Chris Cartwright on Easter Sunday. Simon Barrington from Samaritan’s Purse/Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was with us in the autumn. His visit was well received for two reasons. BGEA had donated hundreds of the Billy Graham DVD “My Hope” which ensured that every home in the village were given a clear explanation of the gospel by the world’s most popular evangelist. In addition, with the migration crisis, it was amazing to hear what Samaritans Purse were doing to help these desperate people.

Christmas was a busy time. Christmas Messy Church, carols in the pub and our carol service, Vale Village Christmas. We invited children from the local primary school perform a couple of songs and Ben Smith performed a sketch whilst Izzy Hendrickson sang a solo. Many from the village joined us ensuring again that this was our most popular service of the year. Our heart is to reach people in the Vale of Glamorgan, the county with the lowest church attendance of any in the UK with the good news of Jesus. If you would like to join us on the adventure or just visit one Sunday, you would be most welcome. Gary & Lesley Smith

Our heart is to reach people

in the Vale of Glamorgan, the

county with the lowest

church attendance of any in

the UK

God in control and is working out His plans and purposes just as He did when the first disciples of Jesus were persecuted.

As in the book of Acts, the Vumba story is still ongoing and it is glorious. The Elim pastor who led the funeral service of those killed martyrs prayed for the men guilty of their murders and offered them forgiveness. During the following few years many of these men came to Christ and ended up in Bible School. The work in Zimbabwe flourished rather than diminished. 16 new churches were planted between 1993 and 2003. The church continues to flourish and services are full to over flowing.

We also read in the Elim archives “what happened in Zimbabwe is not something that any of us would ever wish to see again, but heaven must have rejoiced at the dedication, faithfulness and loyalty of the devoted missionaries. In the plan and purposes of God, He saw it to take these workers home to Himself.”

Just as God has promised never to leave or forsake

I’m once again privileged to be making the final

comments and I thank God for this opportunity. 2015

was certainly a year full of much celebration and

thanksgiving for the Elim movement. At the St

David’s Hall service, we enjoyed looking back at 100

years of Elim’s history and then proceeded to look

forward to a great future finished by prophetically

singing Elim Sound’s song “The Best Is Yet To

Come” in the closing minutes of the event.

But even in the midst of celebrating our rich spiritual heritage we were painfully reminded of the depths of suffering that can come most unexpectedly and painfully. The Defining Moments Centenary DVD and book both sensitively but truthfully told of the tragic massacre at the Elim Mission Centre in Vumba, Zimbabwe on June 23rd, 1978 where 13 Elim Missionaries and their children were brutally killed.

Similarly, persecution against Christians all around the world is reported in the media almost on a daily basis and as we watch and listen it’s hard not to be fearful or anxious. But we need not despair and we mustn’t allow fear to take root because

Catch up on the messages by

listening to them online on our

website

citytemple.info

Plus, find out about upcoming events

and even give your tithes and

offerings online.

Here at Your feet I lay my past down

My wanderings, all my mistakes down

And I am free

Here at Your feet I lay this day down

Not in my strength but in Yours I've found

All I need, You're all I need

Here at Your feet I lay my future down

All of my dreams I give to You now

And I find peace, I find peace

Here at Your feet I lay my life down

For You my King, You're all I want now

And my soul sings

'Cause I am free here at Your feet

All I need is at Your feet

And I find peace, we're at Your feet

We're at Your feet

Songwriters: John Mark Hall & Jason Ingram

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Richard

us, we can have confidence that He is with us whatever circumstances we find ourselves in – especially when things don’t go the way we’d expected or hoped for. David the Psalmist tells us that “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”. (Psalm 139:16b)

Every New Years’ Eve most of us will look back and reflect on the events of the year just closing and express our hopes for the next, often making resolutions to help us on our way. Are you able to recall what your thoughts and feelings were this past New Year’s Eve? Were you celebrating a great year personally and praying that 2016 is even better? Were you just glad that 2015 was over and you hope that things might just get a little better this year? Or were you full of regret or pain, still mourning negative experiences that happened and you can’t see any hope that things will be better in the coming days?

I pray that you will be motivated, encouraged and be able to leave the past behind and not be chained to events long gone, however much the memories may hurt. I’m sure there were many in Elim in 1978 mourning the Vumba tragedy and for some the pain might still be there today but I rejoice that they didn’t give up but continued on, faithfully serving Him who gave himself for us for the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, let me urge you to look deep into the Word of God and by faith leaving the past behind, to keep going and live life to the full in the promise that He is faithful in keeping us to the very end of our days.

You and I are part of a great church movement, full of people with grace-filled hearts who are sold out for Jesus and who look out for the needs of others in all sorts of ways. It’s such a blessing to see so many acts of love and kindness in our own church which truly reflect the Lord’s command to “love one another”. This is a great spiritual barometer of the work Christ has done in us and our thankfulness to Him is demonstrated by serving others in whatever way we are able.

Casting Crowns wrote a song a number of years ago called “Here At Your Feet” and I love it

because it simply expresses the truth that at the feet of Jesus (which is a place of surrender and humility on our part) we find strength and peace to press on knowing that He is everything we need and that in Him we are free.

The Apostle Paul tells us that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1) but we have to take hold of this promise by submitting to Him and living according to His Word. This is my prayer and desire for us all. May the Lord bless you and keep you as you trust in Him.

A 12 month focus at City Temple Church Cardiff from Easter 2015 to Easter 2016, seizing the momentum from

Elim’s Centenary Celebrations and challenging the church to achieve specific outreach and evangelism goals:

- 100 people on alpha - 100 people saved - 100 people baptised - 100 people on missions

More specifically:

100 new contacts on the celebration Alpha course

Believing that the Alpha courses this year will be our biggest and most fruitful yet. Check out the website,

bulletin and Sunday notices for more information.

Encouraging and challenging Church members and community groups to invite family, neighbours, friends, work

colleagues, to the Alpha course in key venues.

Invite individuals who have come into Sunday services as ‘enquirers’ to the Alpha course.

100 new believers

Believing that we will see a consistent soul harvest over the next 12 months.

Some from the Alpha course!

Some from our regular church services and our youth ministry through consistently offering people an

opportunity to respond to the Gospel message.

Encouraging our community group leaders to be aware of people in their groups who haven’t yet given their

lives to Christ.

100 Baptisms

Believing for 100 baptismal candidates to come forward.

Many through the process of Alpha and the focus on 100 new believers.

Others from within our existing congregations, community groups and youth ministry.

100 people mobilised for Mission

Believing for 100 people across the age ranges sharing the good news of Jesus by word or deed outside the

walls of the church- in Cardiff, Wales or other nations.

Opportunities include

Outreach events in Wenvoe

Street Pastors

Riverside Festival

Weekend outreach with other churches in Wales

Ongoing trips to India & Macedonia

Joining a mission focussed church ministry (e.g. Foodbank or Impact Outreach)