We invite mission organisations and mission agencies to come and participate in this forum focused on the BTJ vision and the role of UK organisations and churches in this vision. After the forum, a special time will be set aside (16:00 - 17:30) for a "question & answers" session where Brother Yun will answer any questions that are related to the recent accusations against him. If you want to participate, please email info@btj.org.uk
During two days, Brother Yun and his interpreter, Brother Ren, visited Belfast in Northern Ireland. The venues were packed with people listening to the story of "The Heavenly Man" and what God has done in his life, but as Brother Yun always points out; there is only one true Heavenly Man and His name is Jesus.
This year Brother Yun visited the Mission Without Borders conference in Staffordshire for two days. Together with his team, he shared the BTJ vision and his testimony. After Staffordshire, the team travelled to the southern English coast and the summer conference of Christian Outreach Centre, "European World Changers Conference".
This meeting was the first one where representatives from different countries in the BTJ network gathered to network, pray and share about different initiatives to support the Chinese house church regarding the BTJ vision. The main focus followed the same line as from the meeting the previous day, see below, which was training and equipping missionaries before sending them out on the mission field. Representatives came from UK, USA, Australia, Singapore, Hongkong, Middle East, Netherlands, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
About 30 people met together for the third UK Forum meeting at Haven House in Hemel Hempstead, where representatives from many UK based mission organisations got together for prayer and networking around the BTJ vision and mission initiatives from the UK. The main focus on the agenda was training and how we best can support this key issue in the BTJ movement. If you are based in the UK and are involved in mission, please feel free to contact us on: info@btj.org.uk if you want an invitation to the next meeting.
WEC (World Evangelisation for Christ) in Bulstrode experienced a massive increase in attendance when 3,000 people showed up for their yearly Mayday event, this year with the title "Look at the Nations". Stewart Moulds, WEC's UK director opened the event and was followed by Michel Ross-Watson, London director of WEC and a trustee in The BTJ Foundation, as he presented the background of the Back To Jerusalem vision. The main invited speakers were Brother Yun and Peter Xu, who shared their testimonies and vision for world mission within the framework of the BTJ vision.
For more info on WEC, see www.wec-int.org.uk
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In Folkestone, people from many nations gathered for the "Christ for the World" mission conference, hosted by New Life Church and C4W (Christ for the World) organisation headed by Robert Maasbach. Main speakers were Brother Yun and Peter Xu, both focusing on what God has done and is doing in China and the mission calling of the Chinese church within the vision of Back To Jerusalem. For more info about the work of C4W, see www.c4w.org
The BTJ Foundation UK has received the formal documents that approves our status as a registered charity no: 1103565.
2004
Brother Yun and Peter Xu spoke in Barnsley, the town where Hudson Taylor was born, at the 150th anniversary of the famous missionary arriving in China. They see the UK as the motherland for Christians in China and expressed their gratitude to the British people for sending missionaries to their beloved China.
2004
Brother Yun and Peter Xu, both leaders within the Chinese House Church network visited the UK and Norfolk in cooperation with Living Waters. This last trip around the eastern Home counties seemed to have uncapped a deep spiritual hunger where ever we went. The Living Waters staff with Stephen Mawditt has arranged a whistlestop tour around five counties: Kettering, Southend, Brentwood, Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich. The first night over 1000 people packed into the Fuller Baptist church and hundreds had not been able to get tickets. The same in Brentwood with almost 2000 packed into the Brentwood centre. Cambridge packed 1800 into a 1200 seater venue, and hundreds were not able to get tickets...and so it went on in each venue.
The importance of this time was the fact that Bro Yun was travelling with his spiritual father, Peter Xu, who is 64 years old and was the founder of one of the largest House Church movements (the Born Again), which now numbers about 25 million. Peter Xu was also in the same prison as Yun in 1997 when the Holy Spirit told him it was time for Yun to escape. Amazingly Xu's door opened and he was able to walk to Yun's cell, give him a direct command that he should get up and walk out of prison, then he locked Yun's door and ran back to his own cell praying desparately for Yun.
It was so good for people to hear an eye witness of the miraculous escape of the Heavenly Man. As Yun said, he didn't even register that he was a cripple (both legs smashed so he couldn't walk)...but he just got up , walked to the door and all the doors opened in front of him one by one, till he escaped the prison, and a taxi pulled up to take him away.
This week has been a very emotional week as Xu's sister Deborah Xu, (one of the leaders of the Born Again after Peter left China) had been arrested three weeks before and none knew where she had been taken. Every venue prayer in earnest for
her and others who have been arrested, one of them being a mission leader of
the BTJ movement.
The tour ended in Barnsley when these two men drove up to the very
church which had sent out Hudson Taylor, and arrived on the 150th
anniversary of Hudson Taylors arrival in China...(March 1st 1854) They were
able to speak to not only all the Churches, but also to the Mayor and many
of the local authorities, before completing this tour in Leeds in a packed
hall of 800 people (again hundreds turned away). There is a new uncapping of
a desparate spiritual hunger in all the
denominations. Yun and Xu spoke to hundreds of leaders every day before they
addressed open meetings, and we saw such unity amongst the Churches.
If you want to know more about Living waters and their
upcoming yearly summer conference in Norfolk, please visit their website
www.living-water.org
2004
The BTJ Forum in the UK
One important objective for people and organisations involved in the BTJ vision, is to network and find ways to strategise, cooperate and support each others initiatives and in the area covered by the BTJ vision, mainly all nations between China and Jerusalem, but also other areas within the 10/40 window, e.g. North Africa.
With this in mind, the second meeting of the BTJ UK Network (the first was in November 2003) was held in Haven House in Hemel Hempstead, just north of London. Approx. 25 people representing more than ten different mission organisations were present and shared information and ideas with each other as well as a simple English lunch, everything packed in to one day between 09:30 and 15:30.
All types of competence were represented, e.g. producing Christian radio and TV, writers and researchers, teachers, missionaries, pastors, business people with different backgrounds and people working within the government.
There were many items on the agenda, too many to go into details, but one of the objectives with this network is to facilitate and encourage the body of Christ in Britain to renew their mission calling again and to participate in taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem.
The meeting closed with everybody praying for China and other nations, kneeling on the floor with their hands on the maps, asking God to bless the nations and to send His workers to all unreached people groups.
The next meeting will be on May 24th at the same location and. If you are involved in mission, are based in the UK and are interested to be part of this exciting movement, please send us an email on the following address: info@btj.org.uk
2004
Brother Yun visits London
As Brother Yun was invited to speak at a 24/7 prayer conference in London on the 24th, he managed to visit a few more churches during the weekend. A leaders meeting in Holy Trinity Church in Redhill during the afternoon was followed by a public meeting at Harlequin Theatre in the evening on Friday 23rd.
The following day was focused on the 24/7 prayer conference and the auditorium was packed with approx. 600 young people, worshipping the Lord and praying for the nations. Brother Ren shared about the history of the Chinese church, the Back To Jerusalem vision and the present situation for Christians in China today. Brother Yun shared his testimony and challenged young people to give it all for God later in the evening.
On Sunday, it was time to visit the River Centre in Tonbridge, Kent where many people have met Brother Yun and Brother Ren before and many of them support the BTJ vision. The weekend ended in the Wembley area and New Life Christian Centre at Stonebridge Park where, unfortunately, not everybody could come in the place was packed with people, all worshipping the Lord together.