Newday 2006

By Luke Davydaitis

Brickhill, Bedford

UK

The sound of rain falling. Reminders of the promises of God. It could only be Newday! And yet this was a new Newday: we were in a massive tent at Uttoxeter Racecourse having moved on from Newark so that we could impact other cities. Was it inconvenient to move site? Yes, but that’s part of the deal when you’ve accepted God’s call to be a people who are responsive to His promptings.

The Newday management team deserve great thanks for the tremendous job they did in making life as comfortable as possible for all the delegates. On that first night, one of Simon Brading’s new songs stirred our faith for the week to come: ‘For all that You’ll do, I will praise you.’

Our times of worship, led by Simon Brading and Paul Oakley (Brighton, UK), and Siyoli Lusaseni and Evan Rogers (Cape Town, South Africa), were defined by moments of great celebration and powerful prophecies. As now seems traditional, there were African stage invasions and new dance moves, as well as new songs. Our rejoicing was based firmly on Biblical truth as the teaching throughout the week was Christ-exalting. The leadership team desired that our understanding of the gospel would not be on the scale of a small, black and white TV but multicoloured, high-definition, wide-screen! The morning meetings for
12–14s looked at the life of Joseph, and the 15–19s considered the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ’.

Changing history

There were also many helpful seminars looking at everything from heroes of church history to how we can play our part in making history. A particular highlight was the visit of Baroness Caroline Cox, deputy speaker of the House of Lords and ‘voice for the voiceless’. Many were deeply impacted by her stories of previously-unknown suffering around the world and the call for justice that rings so clearly from Scripture.

Another aspect of being passionate about the nations was highlighted: Newday Global. Led by Stef Liston and Jaz Potter (London, UK), Newday Global took thirteen young people from the UK to Maastricht, Holland in June to give the local church an explosive start. Three more projects like this are planned for 2007 and a special seminar was put on for those who were interested in taking part in this adventure.

Changed lives

The work we did last year was remembered as Nick Sharp (Nottingham, UK) visited us with two guys who had become Christians as a result of Newday 2005. Nigel and Eddie both testified to how Jesus had turned their lives around. Stirred by this, hundreds of young people went into the nearby cities of Stoke and Derby, proclaiming the gospel in word and deed. Social action projects were warmly received by local residents, and evangelistic outreach in the city centres also saw great success. Jubilee Church Derby had scores of requests for more information about their next Alpha course and some people gave their lives to Jesus there and then!

Changed perspectives

On Friday we were given a perspective of our camp that none of us had previously seen: from the cockpit of an RAF Harrier jet! It flew over the racecourse several times and we were shown photos taken from it that evening. But a greater perspective was about to be revealed; God’s perspective. That night, Sibs Sibanda, (Harare, Zimbabwe) preached. Uncharacteristically, he spoke to us slowly and with hardly any animation, believing that what God had to impart was of such startling importance that it needed no hype. His prophetic message was simple, ‘It’s time.’ Why did God give us a picture of a bathtub being filled rather than something larger such as a lake? Because a bathtub doesn’t take long to fill! The amazing words that God had spoken over us were to be fulfilled swiftly.

Dyslexia healed

The next three nights brought confirmation of this. On Saturday, David Devenish (Bedford, UK) spoke about God’s heart for unreached people groups and Sibs taught on the Holy Spirit. A response time of incredible power followed as God met with thousands of us and put nations on the hearts of many. To add to the water prophecies, God now gave us fire. David saw flaming torches coming down from the roof of the tent and invited us to grab hold of them. Like Olympic torches, we were to carry these for the glory of God. The following night Adrian Holloway (London, UK) prayed for healing and 211 people testified to being healed! Scores of young people, who moments before had been restricted in their movement, came onto the stage and jumped for joy to show that they had been healed. There were also testimonies of dyslexia, heart conditions, hearing problems and broken bones being healed. Adrian then preached the gospel with great power, urging us to ‘follow the Liberator’. 257 young people made a first-time commitment to Jesus and over 200 recommitted their lives to Him. There was a real sense of God’s authority and sovereignty at work among us; we were left in no doubt that God is doing something phenomenal with this generation. For the only other time that week, the rain hammered down. Further confirmation of what God had said came on the last day when an offering of £91,760 was given. There were reports of angels being seen and we had a beautiful time in worship as thousands sang in tongues together. As Stuart Gibbs (Bristol, UK) said, ‘Things are happening!’

Newday is not so much about an event as it is about a generation. Joel Virgo (Brighton, UK) had urged us to ‘get into every sphere of society and influence the world for Jesus’, and David Stroud (London, UK) spoke in the final meeting about leaving Newday with a renewed sense of acceptance, confidence and significance. David told us that what we had seen this week were ‘tokens’ of what God is going to do all over the nation. Inspired and equipped by God over the course of this week, thousands committed themselves to advancing the kingdom. This generation is emerging, the time is now.

Dates for next year: 2–7 August 2007

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