Prayer request from Wale & Emma at Liberty City Church

Posted by Bill on December 4, 2012

Wale and Emma are founding pastors of the Liberty City Church in Bradford, UK. They are on the CCI team and the Lord is doing wonderful things through them and through LCC. Emma recently sent the following prayer request. She says …

“Wale and I have such peace in the ministry. On December 8th we are inviting our community to a Christmas coffee morning at the Life Centre with craft activities for children. We are doing a letter box drop of over 2,000 leaflets in the area. Statistically, according to the distributors, you get 3 responses per 1,000. But just one more person, with a desire to know the Lord, would be wonderful!

I would appreciate a prayer request to the CCI team and support network for this event, that it may draw in those who wouldn’t necessarily come to church and start the ball rolling to salvation, discipleship and leadership”

Love to you, Emma! Friends, please pray with me …

“Lord, You are the Saviour of the world! You have commissioned us in our time on earth to live as your ambassadors of peace and salvation. We are glad for this divine appointment, and we take this global commission seriously. Emma and Wale have stepped out by faith, making preparations to lead their church to engage with their surrounding community, extending invitations to them to ‘come and taste You’. Lord, You are the dominant partner is such exercises. As Liberty City Church lowers their net, draw those to Yourself the Spirit has prepared for salvation. Help LCC to engage in this event by faith and prayer … not by force or human effort, but by You Spirit. May the harvesters of LCC return from their labour of love with much fruit, for Your glory. We pray this in Your name. Amen.”

Liberty City Church – “energised by this journey of faith”

Posted by Bill on April 7, 2012

Only eight weeks since the launch date, Liberty City Church is pulsating with exciting news. Fantastic things are happening in this infant church! Pastor Wale Oladipo, and his wife, Emma report …

“It’s now eight weeks we have been running our Sunday morning service, and five weeks our cell group. Thank God for his faithfulness! Since sharing the vision with friends, a family of four have come alongside us and are supporting us wholeheartedly. This has been greatly encouraging for us.

Even more encouraging was the arrival of a young man by the name of Andy who responded to our leafleting in the local area. When Wale first met him, he gave his life to Christ on a park bench. Today, he attended our Sunday service and, most importantly, enjoyed it! It was refreshing to hear Wale being asked to stop and explain a couple of things mid-sermon!

We’re also delighted by the participation of Jill in our cell group. She is a colleague of Wale’s and openly tells us that she’s on the verge of committing herself wholeheartedly to God. We have been praying for her grown-up daughter who has been diagnosed with MS. Jill reports that since that first cell meeting, her daughter has been feeling much less tired and less in pain.

Personally, for us, it has been really refreshing to go back to the weekly outreach-style cell group, which we haven’t experienced since our time in Egypt. We’ve been reminded about just how powerful and uplifting these times are.

We are also encouraged by the online activity regarding the Liberty City Church website, Facebook page and Twitter. Wale regularly updates these with blogs, devotionals and tweets and has received responses in the forms of phone calls, emails and messages to thank him for it, many from people he doesn’t know.

For now, we are trusting God for strategies for promoting the church and what we stand for. We are trusting the Him for divine opportunities and appointments. We are truly energised by this journey of faith and, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your prayers and support.

With love, Wale and Emma.”

Friends, let’s get behind Wale and Emma … encouraging them, and praying for them, and Liberty City Church, as we have opportunity. LCC is a vibrant church plant that is worthy of your attention. Pray for them, and share in a mighty harvest!

Bill

Inauguration of Liberty City Church!

Posted by Bill on February 25, 2012

Praise the Lord for the birth of Liberty City Church! Praise the Lord for Wale and Emma, for their courageous step of faith! Last Sunday (19 Feb 2012) in the Leeds-Bradford locality in England, Liberty City Church was born and commissioned into service to the King of Kings. This is exciting stuff!

The following message was received from Wale and Emma:

Dear Bill and Beryl,

Good morning! We’d just like to give you some feedback on our first church service. Firstly, we’re so grateful to God that we’ve crossed the line from dream into reality. Hallelujah! Including ourselves we had a modest turn-up of 14 people, including a family of four, some of Emma’s family and a work colleague of Wale’s. We were excited because just this morning Wale had a revelation of four angels taking their places in the community centre for the church inauguration. Feedback was very positive from everyone who attended; the adults enjoyed the message and the kids enjoyed kids’ church. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem with the recording of the sermon, but this should be rectified for next week. Other than that, everything went very smoothly and we felt God’s peace and presence throughout.

We are very excited about what God is going to do and are trusting Him for great things. Thanks so much for your support and your prayers,

Love,
Wale and Emma

Wale and Emma are standing on water in their faith. Please uphold them with words of encouragement and ongoing prayers. Let’s adopt a spirit of great expectation that the Lord will do amazing things in the life, ministry and mission of Liberty City Church .

Celebrating the birth of Liberty City Church!

Posted by Bill on January 22, 2012

A few days ago I received an email from Wale and Emma Oladipo – old team mates from Maadi Community Church in Cairo, saying …

“We are just so pleased to update you with the fact that our church location has been confirmed – a community centre very close to the University of Leeds – and that our first Sunday service will be on February 19. Wooo! And have you seen the fantastic job that Nick has done with the website? Check out www.libertycitychurch.org.uk. It’s mega!

You may not have known that Wale and Emma (CCI Teammates) received a vision from the Lord to plant a new church! Well, I am thrilled to share with you that the birth of Liberty City Church will be celebrated in Leeds, UK, on the 19^th of February. When I visited their website, I was greeted with …

“Welcome to Liberty City Church, a brand new church plant in Leeds, based within walking distance from Leeds University, we are a Bible-believing church who love Jesus and love people. Our commitment to every member, seeker or curious bystander is that you are welcomed and accepted as you are, and that you will hear and be taught the uncompromised wisdom of God which unleashes faith to live a life of victory. Our passion is to enable and empower others to become all that God has called them to be and to experience the love of Jesus through a deeper relationship with God and each other. In His presence is fullness of joy… so why not come and experience His joy at Liberty City Church. Wale & Emma.”

Wale & Emma Oladipo

Wale and Emma are totally motivated to play their part in fulfilling the Great Commission. Between them, they have a broad experience and knowledge of various Christian denominations and they are passionate about leading people of all backgrounds into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Wale is a qualified psychotherapist and treats private clients alongside his work with Anxiety UK and Greatvine. In his free time he loves to play football and spend time with his family. Emma is a secondary school English teacher. She is passionate about music and languages and loves to meet people from other cultures.

Let’s rally around Wale and Emma, and Liberty City Church, with prayers and encouragement. Let’s expect great things from our great God, for what He will do in and through Liberty City Church.

“Thank You, Lord, for Wale, Emma, and Liberty City Church. We stand with Wale and Emma in the dedication of this church on the 19^th of February. May the life and ministries of this church reflect your grace, love and mercy to its surrounding community. Lord, may You be honored and glorified through Liberty City Church. Amen.”

Bill J

Vision of Vision – a preview of 2012

Posted by Nick on December 3, 2011

Dear partners and friends,

Our wonder-filled “vision of visions” blossomed beautifully in 2011, and revealed new and exciting opportunities for us in Poland, Lithuania, and other places. I can understand the thrill the apostle Paul must have experienced as he returned to familiar places in Asia Minor to strengthen the work the Lord accomplished through him and Barnabus, and Titus, and other faithful servants (Acts, Chapters 13 -20).

With the encouraging outcomes of 2011 behind us, we eagerly look ahead to the opportunities that abound for CCI in 2012. Here’s a taste of the things we are believing the Lord wants to do through us next year:

Continue to coach and mentor small groups champions (Iza, Andrew, Maciej, and Vaclovas) in Warsaw, Gdynia, and Lithuania
Translate our new “Relational Evangelism” book into the Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Growing Up Into His Likeness” book (foundation-level discipleship for new and old believers) in Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Small Groups Development” manual into Greek, German, Sweedish, and Spanish languages (pushing steadily towards our goal of 40 translations)
Continuing to support Dave and Jess Quak in their “Living Temple” small groups church plant on the Gold Coast in Australia
Continuing to support Gary and Aline Douglas in their small groups consultancy work at Llanelli, Wales
Continuing to support Elijah Samuel in his small groups training and development work in Nigeria, and the rest of Africa
Support Wale and Emma Oladipo in their exciting vision to plant a small groups based church in England (look out for more news soon)
A return visit to Poland and Lithuania next April-May with a focus on developing small group skills in “evangelism” and “discipleship”
Ministry with an “interested to know more about small groups” church in Germany! – initial discussions are just starting!
Possible visit to Wale and Emma in England, Gary and Aline in Wales and Monica in Finland as part of our visit to Poland, Lithuania and perhaps Germany.

Nick Truscott, our Senior Associate Director, continues to do a cracker job from Abu Dhabi in the UAE in providing CCI with the finest communications support – without Nick, his technical expertise and firm friendship, CCI would only be a figment of my imagination.

Beryl and I continue to commit all that we are and have to building a universally accessible small groups, evangelism, and discipleship resource facility – that offers its resources in many languages to God’s global harvest workers at no charge.

Lastly, Beryl and I say to you … we could not have travelled this far without your love, encouragement, and kind support – “Thank You”. Do you have it in you to stay with us for one more year? I believe I have enough energy in me to reach out and seize the opportunities the Lord will grant us in 2012.

Wishing you and your family a blessing-filled Christmas and New Year.

Bill & Beryl