AGWM Personnel, Joanne Blackwell, ministers in Cardiff, Wales. She is involved in university student ministry associated with a new church plant there. Contacts she has made either are on their journey to a relationship with Jesus or those whom she is desirous with whom she can share Christ. Joanne tells of a few of these contacts.“There's girl in my small group named Jessie. She’s one of those people that make the room brighter when they walk in. But you can tell when you talk to her that she has more than one heavy burden that she's carrying. She doesn't know the Lord but she's been coming to church and to small group anyway, just ’cause we're her friends. But in our last small group I was impressed with the questions she was asking. They were all about faith and trust and ‘how do you know what God's will is?’ It just makes me so happy because it means that, whether or not she's put her trust in the Lord yet, she's thinking about it. It means she sees something in us that she wants for herself.” Joanne is praying that Jessie will take a leap of faith to taste and see that the Lord is good. Joanne is also part of a writing group and she says that it is going really well…not because she has actually written ‘a jot’, but because of the friends she has made. She says, “I was praying for one of the girls recently and felt that the Lord wanted me to tell her how beautiful she is to Him. I was nervous about how she would react to my praying for her but this was the encouraging reply I got. ‘I am quite impressed and flattered that God thinks I am beautiful…I find it really comforting that somebody is actually praying for me. I don’t know what to say…!’“ Joanne is praying that this friend would see how much God loves her by looking at the cross. Joanne and the ministry team have been praying for the opportunity to build relationships with the small business there in Cardiff and to be a blessing to the owners. She says that this prayer was answered in Stag Coffee, a shop which opened a few weeks back. Joanne said, “I’ve met the owner and staff and have started to build friendships with them. As soon as I met them, it was like God speaking into my heart saying, ‘Yeah, these guys are important.’ “ Joanne is asking the Lord to provide good spiritual conversations with them.

“This month we got out of the box with our outreach. We took our Go25 Team to a health services convention in nearby Bayreuth. The convention hall was expecting 8,000 visitors over the weekend, and was packed with vendors selling everything from prosthetic enhancements, to herbal teas, to “healing talismans”. We were the only booth in the whole convention which didn’t bring anything to sell. We went to give people the simple message that Jesus still heals today, and to offer to pray for them.

“On Saturday afternoon 3 of our Go25 Team members and a teenager from our church took time to pray for a woman in a wheel chair. She had survived 3 strokes in the past year, and as a result had lost all feeling in her right leg. As the four of them prayed for her in Jesus name she regained all feeling in her leg. Then she got up out of the wheel chair! Her excitement was evident to everyone around. All the sales people from the other booths near ours and many convention visitors saw the whole thing. That in itself is pretty exciting but what’s even more exciting was seeing how this one miraculous healing opened up the door for hundreds of great conversations in which our team got the chance to share the Gospel over and over again!

It’s amazing to see what God does when we step out and take risks for his glory!”

AGWM Personnel, Joanne Blackwell, ministers in Cardiff, Wales.  She is involved in university student ministry associated with a new church plant there.  Contacts she has made either are on their journey to a relationship with Jesus or those whom she is desirous with whom she can share Christ.  Joanne tells of a few of these contacts.

“There's girl in my small group named Jessie. She’s one of those people that make the room brighter when they walk in. But you can tell when you talk to her that she has more than one heavy burden that she's carrying. She doesn't know the Lord but she's been coming to church and to small group anyway, just ’cause we're her friends. But in our last small group I was impressed with the questions she was asking. They were all about faith and trust and ‘how do you know what God's will is?’ It just makes me so happy because it means that, whether or not she's put her trust in the Lord yet, she's thinking about it. It means she sees something in us that she wants for herself.”  Joanne is praying that Jessie will take a leap of faith to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Joanne is also part of a writing group and she says that it is going really well…not because she has actually written ‘a jot’, but because of the friends she has made.  She says, “I was praying for one of the girls recently and felt that the Lord wanted me to tell her how beautiful she is to Him.  I was nervous about how she would react to my praying for her but this was the encouraging reply I got.  ‘I am quite impressed and flattered that God thinks I am beautiful…I find it really comforting that somebody is actually praying for me.  I don’t know what to say…!’“  Joanne is praying that this friend would see how much God loves her by looking at the cross.

Joanne and the ministry team have been praying for the opportunity to build relationships with the small business there in Cardiff and to be a blessing to the owners.  She says that this prayer was answered in Stag Coffee, a shop which opened a few weeks back.  Joanne said, “I’ve met the owner and staff and have started to build friendships with them.  As soon as I met them, it was like God speaking into my heart saying, ‘Yeah, these guys are important.’ “  Joanne is asking the Lord to provide good spiritual conversations with them.