Christmas @ wccbournemouth

Well it is Christmas time right now and here at the Wessex Christian Centre we are having a great time celebrating this season. We began our festivities by sharing together our annual Christmas meal. It was held at the Premier Inn hotel and was a time of great fellowship and good food, as well as a wonderful message from Ian Coffey, Faculty member of Moorlands Bible College.

We continued the celebrations on Sunday evening by holding our Carol Service, during which our W.C.C kids performed their Christmas Production. A presentation that taught us who Christmas is all about, Jesus. It including songs which were written and recorded by Julian Downward and Keeley Morgan, which coincided with the release of our NEW Kids Praise CD, "Keez & Jooz Kidz praize adventure no.1". You can purchase one online at wccbournemouth.co.uk for just £5.00. (or 3 for £10) This coming Sunday, December 27th, we will be having a repeat of the production as well as singing more carols. We would love for you to join us and invite your friends and family, starting at 6:30pm.

Over the last few weeks, our Pastor and his family all underwent surgery. Jose had a Parathryroid Gland removed, whilst Pastor Brian, Julian and Cerian each had investigative procedures. We thank God that all were giving clean bills of health and we praise Him for Jose’s quick recovery. We also say thanks to all you who prayed for them.

This New Year we are looking forward to A Time of Refreshing 2010, which will be held here from May 31st - June 6th. We are very excited and trust it will be a great week. For more information or to register for free, go to wccbournemouth.co.uk and click on T.O.R 2010.

A quick update on St Peter’s hall. The news is that we have been out bid at this moment, but this was expected as The Lord told us it would happen before we even made our bid, however, we firmly believe that the building will be ours for the kingdom of God and so for now, we are waiting.

For any further information, please don't hesitate to contact us. Email:- info@wccbournemouth.co.uk or contact us through 'Facebook' search for Wessex Christian Centre

WCC latest

Hi everyone..
Again, we've a great few weeks here at WCC. We've just come through the summer holz and a whole bunch of Kids activities such as day trips and summer specials including a magnificent week of Kid's club (Paradise Island) every night 6-8pm.

We had a FAB time! We believe, and always have, that kid's and young people deserve the best we can give them and this year's summer activities were nothing short of that.

In other news:-

'OH MY DAYS'

One of our oldest members at WCC - Colleen - just turned 80! we had a fantastic party for her where she treated the entire church to Domino's Pizza! You rock Col ! congratulations on this milestone, we love and appreciate you!

'OPERATION:PASTOR BRIAN'

Just recently, our Pastor, Brian, has had to undergo more surgery on his heart and at this time we thank God for bringing him through safely although only time will tell how successful the procedure has been.We believe in the provision of our God in this matter, for He is good!

'MISSION:INDIA'

The Malan family, who are our resident missionaries in INDIA have had an exceedingly difficult time in the last couple of months, but in a nutshell, Abi, the oldest girl, is at present in South Africa undergoing a specialised physiotherapy course which will last 6 weeks to see if they do anything to help with a serious curvature of the spine problem. If not, Abi will have to have metal bars fused to her spine to straighten her up. Without this operation, further complications will ensue. At the same time, Geoff and the family have had terrible unforeseen visa issues which, thank God, have been resolved! We give God all praise for this family and the work they are doing and we are so proud to have them as members of WCC. You can read more on these and other news subjects on the mission India website at: http://www.mission-india.org/ hit 'latest news' tab. Feel free to send the Malans an email anytime at geoff@mission-india.org . If you would like to support Mission-India financially, you can also find info on the M-I site on this.

'BABY BABY'

Two couples in the church are expecting their next baby! Julian & Sarah, Elliott & Millie Downward are 4 and half months pregnant and Ricahrd, Abi & Precious Jones are 6 weeks gone! we give all praise to God for His gracious gifts to us!

'...MADE IN HEAVEN'

And finally, Tom & Kalee are newly married and loving it. We give God the praise for His blessings to this special couple who waited for God's partner for them. Mr & Mrs Rothwell are both studying at Moorlands Bible college and active members of WCC. We pray for God's blessing upon their marriage and future together! we love you guys!

Oh yeah...thought we were done didn't you?..well, for those who are wondering about St.Peter's hall, the jury is still out on that. We are waiting for a decision to be made by the receivers. We'll keep you posted.

Hey, something else, then we're done - We can confirm that 'A time of Refreshing 2010' will take place from Sunday May 3oth - Sunday June 6th...and we think that's news worth spreading. Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJOYJQxQods for some great highlights from 2009 TOR and please plan to join us next year. Contact us for more info anytime.

Any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact us at any time!

info@wccbournemouth.co.uk
God bless,
Team WCC

It's been an exciting 2 weeks!

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest WCC blog. A lot to get through so I'll attempt to make it short.

On Sunday morning of the 26th,

we had a 'focus on Children' service. Visiting us was a team from AOG that just do children's work. They entertained the kids and the adults alike and brought an important message about following Christ! The previous day they held a workshop for 4 hours about children's work which was very helpful to our kids work team members.

Then...on Sunday evening, the Brazilian Church that has been meeting in our venue for 10 years, moved out to the their brand new venue!

What an amazing celebration we had as we thanked God for what He has done with that Church!

We started out by marching from WCC down Hinton Road, accross Old Christchurch road and up to the Church. They have leased an ex-nightclub and have renovated it to make it a great venue to meet as a Church. As we arrived, Pastor Renato asked Pastor Brian & Jose to be the first to cross the threshold. Climbing the stairs we entered at the top to find a fantastic venue just waiting to be filled with the praises of God, and it was! Since leaving WCC on Hinton road, the whole church was led by a procession of dancers and singers!

Pastor Renato then said some very complimentary words about Pastor Brian and asked him to pray a prayer of dedication over the building and the church body. The volume in that place was amazing as with one heart we joined together and called upon God to fill that place!

It was a great, great

experience which we will not soon forget. We pray God's blessing on the Brazilian people as they start down this road of a new faith venture! Watch this church folks and see what will happen through them in this town.

And finally...

concerning our vision for St.Peter's hall (you can read about this in previous blogs if you don't know about it already)...firstly, I would like to answer a valid question posed by an anonymous visitor. He/she asked, "why do you need to buy St.Peter's hall when you have such a big venue at the top of the road?"..Well the answer to that is both simple and complex..but in a nut shell - first of all, one important word:- 'VISION'. This church has been claiming back that building for the kingdom of God for some 15 years and we have been praying against some of the things that have gone on there over the years. Not one night club has succeeded there in more than 20 years! (even during the boom period!). We believe it's God's land and God's building. It was consecrated to Him when it was built. It still IS His!. But that aside, when it comes to vision, it comes down to this:- The building we have at the top of the hill is simply not big enough and will not be able to accommodate the plans we have for St.Peter's hall. The 2 venues are completely different. St.Peter's could host 3 children's and young people's groups simultaneously, Run a coffee shop, old folks group and kids play group in the day, run a Christian 'Night club' (for want of a better term) every friday and saturday with facility for 30- 400 kids. It has twice the office space of wcc and can function as all of the above without hardly changing a thing around between events....something WCC can never do. WCC is primarily a Church, with, in one case, fixed seating and the venue we have downstairs will only host around 150 people at its max! On top of all of this, we want to turn it into an evangelistic centre and for that, a change of venue and its position is crucial. To sum up on that score, there is literally 50 times the pedestrian traffic at the bottom of Hinton road as at the top (even in the middle of the day...never mind friday night) and approx 15 times the vehicle traffic too. This says a great deal. Finally, in answer to the question posed...I say this....why? because God told us to!

Now then, the main reason for writing again about St.Peter's today was to inform you if you didn't already know, that we have now made a formal offer on St.Peter's Hall on Friday the 24th of last month. We will see where it takes us but we truly believe after seeking God about this for a month, that this is His plan. Where's the money coming from? well certainly not the lottery, but rather, we are waiting for a miracle, yes! But we are also giving ourselves! This Sunday, £8,000 came in for the VISION and we will wait for the rest as God challenges and provides.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support.

Julian and Team WCC.

The Giorgiani's depart

Sadly, this Sunday evening was the last for the Giorgiani family!
Cerian is one of the founding members of WCC being part of the Downward family and she has headed up the children's ministry for years as well as setting up and leading 'mum's unite'. Marcos has been a key player in the worship team with unrivalled skill on the bass guitar. They have 2 kids - Joel (4) & Gabriella (2). They will be greatly missed, not just because of their work output and ministry but also for their presence at the meetings.

They are responding to the will of God and joining the Brazilian Church which have, just this week, moved out of WCC and are leasing a redundant night club in the town. We wish them all the best for God's kingdom and pray that God will truly bless this move.

Marcos and Cez will be joining them for at least 6 months and then moving on to wherever God specifically leads them. . and that could be anywhere in the world...but what they do know is that they are being led by God to make this first move and that He will make the other things clear as they walk out in faith.

If you'd like to contact Cez or Marcos, you can do so on 'facebook' or by emailing them at cerian@wccbournemouth.co.uk

In the meantime, Sarah Downward has now taken on leadership of 'Mum's unite' and the children's work is about to enter a new and exciting phase..but more about that some other time.

Thank you Marcos & Cez for all you've done for this church and for the Lord.

We love you and will miss you. Go with God!

Prayer points for St.Peter's for Jesus

Good morning everybody...hope you're all well and full of faith today!

Just a quick email today to ask for your prayers.
firstly, please continue to pray for the points that I raised in the previous email. specifically, making offers etc.. we need to hear from God.

If you didn't get that email and you want it, please just send a request to julian@wccbournemouth.co.uk

As for today...please fall on God and pray against negative thoughts regarding St.P. Please pray that the devil will not be permitted to, or given an opening to steal the vision!
Keep your eyes on Him...everyone..because He is our only hope! we need a miracle and we don't want to be bypassed in favour of God's 2nd or 3rd choice just because we weren't ready or had doubt in our hearts do we?!

No! Let's be ready...please stand together with us and call on God and keep the vision burning and see Jesus name be made awesome in Bournemouth!...HIS town.
Praise God!! because He can do exceedingly above and beyond all we can ask or think!
Bless you for your support...please, let's dig deep this week!

Jules :-)

St. Peter's for Jesus???

A BLOG directly from Julian Downward's desk.

Ok, for those of you who know and those of you who don't....THIS is what I believe God may have been preparing me for for the last decade! This place right here! >>>>>

After watching St.Peter's hall go from one lease holder to another...and go from one failed venture to another, I believe that 12 years of claiming that building back for God may have just come to a head! It's for sale!

It's for sale for offers in excess of £750,000

I'm so excited about this place I can't put it into words!

My whole life I have witnessed the most incredible acts of faith ...and they were undertaken by my own parents. This, however, is different, because this time that faith has to be my own. Yes of course, it has to be the faith of the Wessex Christian Centre people too, that's essential! but there always has to be one person who spear heads the venture...receives the initial vision and is given a 'gift of faith' by God to carry out His word.

On Tuesday night, we had our 4th evangelism course module. Myself and the band sang 'Here I am send me' a song by the mighty and prophetic Delirious? It got deeper into my spirit than ever before...but following that, we watched a film lasting around 25 minutes from Reinhard Bonnke...which was all about faith. No-one knew what had been surging through my heart and mind for the previous few days except my parents & wife - Sarah...yet the film we saw that night, was all about faith!

I began to pray..I found myself saying over and over and over..."You can do it Lord, you can do it Lord, You can do it Lord..."As I was praying, I felt the anointing of God coming upon me, over me and certainly THROUGH me. How do I know it was that? well, if I could describe it, I would be able to tell you how I know....I just know, because it's not the first time. By the time Ian was on his feet and speaking, I was being pulled apart by the gentle Spirit of God and literally streaming tears for the entire message! when we got back up to worship at the end of the Word, I could hardly hold a note...God was on me!

I did something else after that meeting that I will not divulge just now, but safe to say, I was calling on God for a word. A 'Yes', a 'NO', a 'WAIT'.... whatever the word, I would act. guess what He said:- absolutely nothing! Nothing at all! He remained silent!

Praise God!

what? Praise God?

YES! Praise God

why?

Because He didn't say NO yet, that's why!

It is so important for me to express something to you:- I have tested myself and my motives for wanting this place for weeks! I have asked myself over and over and over -

"why do you want it?...

why Downward?"

"what's your motive boy??

tell me...and be honest!"

well I can say with true honesty, I want it for the Kingdom of Light! and the Light of life! PERIOD!

Pride has no place in this picture!...and, to repeat yet more D lyrics:- (thanks to my prayer & fasting partner) "All this time, since the day that I was born (Lord) I've never known a time like this...I don't wanna let You down"

and I don't!

I remember many mornings parking my car on the cliff-top, looking over the sea and battling with The Lord over my calling and future....and God has very slowly granted clarity...although there is still some frosting on the window I'm peering through...but back at the cliff-top 3 years ago, I asked The Lord for one thing ......................The land! The land of Bournemouth!

Yes there are giants, yes, there are walls...but have you seen the grapes? they take 2 men to lift them! And the grapes are not for us...NO NO, they are the fruit of sould, for the fruit bowl of God almighty.

I'm decided! I'm not gonna get to 65 and say, "Oh man, why didn't I have a go at this or that for God...I have too many regrets.." Let me tell you - the grave yard is full of dreams never lived (Yes Ian?)....By God's grace, I'm not gonna be that! "He shall not, be forgotten!" God's name will be raised in Bournemouth beyond anything seen before...."I've been down the road where they angels have been....where the kids are seeing things that we have never seen!"

Come Lord Jesus, take Your place...You've earned it. You deserve it and we're opening up a dusty throne room just for YOU! Come take back that tiny little box they call St.Peter's hall. After all, it's Yours anyway, so why don't You come and kick the squatters out. Humbly, I ask it!

If you're with us, send a link to this BLOG to as many WCC folks as you can...let's inform, enthuse and build faith together!

Jules ;-)

WCC bournemouth...coming up very soon!

Hey there...thanks for coming over today...come on in!

We're very excited just now to be running up to 'A time of refreshing 09' at WCC Bournemouth! Last year it was an awesome time and if you weren't there you missed out, yes, but hey, there's always this year!!

From May 24th -31st, we will be having a great great time in the presence of God right here @ WCC Bournemouth and YOU are welcome!....more than that, we would LOVE you to be there!

It's completely FREE for anyone to attend and that includes you, your friends and your family!

Just imagine, 8 days of fellowship, worship and the Word of God! 7 speakers, including :-

Pastor Bruno Kondabeka from Chichester,
Tim Leech from Cheshire,
Pastor Robert Baldwin, missionary to Wales,
Our own Pastor - Brian Downward,
Steve Brady, Principal of Moorlands Bible College,
Geoff Malan, missionary to India
and Bob Smith, Pastor in Basingstoke at the Wessex Christian fellowship there.

Come and have a great week with us! we'd be thrilled to welcome you.

Check out wccbournemouth.co.uk and look at the 'ministry week' page for full info and to register free of charge

Want a sneak preview of TOR09? watch this...

.........

Hey...

Were you there last year??
How was it for you?
Tell everyone else what you thought or how it affected your life....BLOG it right HERE!
..

we'd love to hear from you.
..

Bless you
Team WCC