The Levett Blog

As you’ve heard from us already, we have an exciting church building project underway here (recently named ‘The Sanctuary’) - converting a former shop in the town into a weekday church centre/drop-in and ‘prayer space’. Having had planning permission granted before Christmas, renovations are soon to begin!

As part of the project a number of fundraising initiatives are underway which we hope will also serve as opportunities to share the good news of what we’re up to. Next Saturday (25th Feb) is our ‘Auction of Promises’ evening at Knights Templar School here in Watchet.

Some of you live a bit far away to join us on the night but you can view the list of ‘promises’ online at www.watchetbaptist.org.uk and bid by email before the event, so it may still be something you’d like to take part in. There are lots of interesting lots to bid for – including the chance to drive around Castle Combe race track in a Mazda MX5; a day’s sailing aboard the 30 foot ketch Sea Lark and a weekend stay in a cottage in Lynmouth.  

If you are able to join us on the evening, bid online or advertise this with your friends/family/church it’d be much appreciated.

More information about ‘The Sanctuary’ project and the Auction of Promises can be found at www.watchetbaptist.org.uk

 Exciting times!

In these first few days of 2012 I’ve been struck again by these words from Hebrews chapter 12…

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12 v1-2a NIV)

Words that give me/us hope as we launch into a new year but also remind me that the choice lies with me to ‘run the race’ – not an easy race but a completely worthwhile one nonetheless.

They are also words that we’ve had the privilege of sharing in various places in these first few weeks of 2012… at our ’family gathering’ (most weeks 15-20 of us, adults + children of all ages cram into our house on Saturday teatime to eat and pray together); in assembly at Tom & Matt’s school here in Watchet (where one of teachers told me afterwards she is training for a marathon, and it was ‘just what she needed’ to hear!), at my old secondary school in Wellington (first visit there in a very long time – but we pray the first of many for the team from Wellington churches); and at ARISE, our monthly event for local 13-19 year olds (where the mood was very thoughtful following the death of a 17 year old girl in a tragic road accident that weekend).

Not sure how you celebrated ‘new year’ or whether you go in for new year’s resolutions? But it seems important to us to use it as one of those points to stop, take a little time and reflect – looking back on the year just ended, perhaps the disappointments as well as the achievements – and then to look forward to the year ahead, our hopes, even dreams for the coming 12 months and beyond.

That hope is embedded for us in the God of hope, God who thinks we all have huge potential, God who wants us to ‘go for it’, God who is there cheering on us on all the way as we run the race set before us.

Here at Watchet Baptist Church we are entering 2012 with a particular sense of anticipation, as later this year our new building (recently named ‘The Sanctuary’) will open here in Watchet, and be the base for much of our prayer, mission and serving in the local community. The answer to much prayer and the realisation of many peoples’ visions – not least the one we carried with us when we felt called back to Somerset almost 4 years ago.

As we wait for builders to move in and for renovations to begin, there is also a sense that this is a season of building up the body as we include new people into the church - some locals who have come to faith and some who are moving here from other places – a season of helping each other to find our place in the team so that we might be most effective in all that God has called us to do.

Please do pray with us at WBC as we ‘build’ with both people and a new building in 2012. More news soon…

After ‘Big Tent’ came ‘Prayer Tent’ at Watchet Music Festival…

Our local churches in Watchet & Williton were asked by the festival organisers if we’d be interested in running a ‘prayer tent’ at our local music festival which takes place in a field up the hill overlooking Watchet Harbour on August bank holiday weekend. We were of course very interested and got together a team of us from local churches (plus a couple of other willing volunteers: Ruth from Wellington + Gary from Coventry) to camp at the festival and pray! 

After a very damp start to the weekend, lots of wheel spinning cars and having to carry our equipment onto site on foot due to the mud (usual festival stuff!), we got set up in our ‘quiet’ corner of the festival site (right opposite the no.2 stage!) and wondered what might happen next. Or rather what God might do with us and our stripey prayer tent.

After watching the Friday night headline band, I wandered back to the tent and found 3 or 4 of the team just beginning ‘Midnight Prayers’ to kick off our weekend of continuous prayer. Having just minutes before been part of the festival and all that was going on outside it felt like a privilege, not only to there but to be involved in praying for the festival and all the people there. A profound moment for me, before turning in for the night (all the other Levetts were Zzzzz by then).

We gathered to pray at 6am, midday, 6pm and midnight, and in between we took it in turns to pray through the weekend. Members of the team expressed God’s word in different creative ways, from ‘spiritual readings’ to prophetic art.  

Thoughout Saturday we prayed and it continued to feel like such a massive privilege to be praying at the festival. Our little creative prayer community being just a small part of the whole event. “I guess this is where you want us to be Lord” I thought.

However, from Saturday teatime onwards things started to get busy. A steady stream of visitors came and went from the tent right through into the early hours of Sunday morning. Some came for a curious quick look and others stayed for longer. Some people were locals, friends and familiar faces, others were from all over the UK. Young people, families with small children, older people, spiritual seekers and those much more cynical about faith. Some returned later to post prayers on the prayer net having checked us out earlier on, some came to shelter from the rain and some came because they’d been ‘pegged’ by one of our ‘Prayer Tent’ clothes pegs earlier in the day…

Sunday morning proper came around quickly and I dragged myself out my sleeping bag for 6am morning prayers to find Bethan (part of the team and also our local vicar) sitting in the doorway of the Prayer Tent having watched the sun come up! As I prayed that morning I was struck by the familiar words from Lamentations: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him!” (Lamentations 3 v22-24 NLT).

There are lots of stories of prayers prayed, conversations had (most memorably with a guy in a salamander suit!) and hearts touched by the prophetic art and words shared from Scripture.  

Our prayer has been that all of this may be used somewehre in the journey to bless, encourage and lead people to hope in Him. As a friend of mine (who isn’t a Christian) said that weekend “It makes sense really, when people come to a festival like this they like to have a few drinks, listen to some good music and think about life a bit.”

Watchet Festival 2012? We’re looking to be be back again with a bigger tent!

After 3 weeks of family holiday chilling out at the seaside, in Cornwall and at home, it was back to work with two very different events in tents! First up was ‘The Big Tent’ in Wellington where Andy works with the Anglican churches…

After much planning, preparation and prayer, The Big Tent became reality in the last week of August! 100 primary school-aged children filled a large marquee on a school field for a 3-day event run by a fantastic team from local churches.

This was a brand new event for Wellington and like nothing we’d done before – not least because it was in a big tent in a school field, with all the equipment being brought in on the ‘set up day’ (even the loos arrived on the back of a lorry!) and all the power coming from a generator.

Even though the generator didn’t arrive until several hours before we opened the doors on Day 1 (and a wasps nest in one corner of the field needed sorting!) things came together amazingly well. Almost 40 volunteers from a variety of local churches (plus me and Dom from Watchet) worked together to run the action packed programme with a ‘Spy Kids’ theme.

The Big Tent has been a very exciting project from the outset – a dream really – which a group of us have been working on since November last year, and others have been praying about for years. When the tent actually went up things started to take shape. Then staging, PA, screen, tables, chairs, banners, props moved in; and in the evening the team gathered (a little apprehensive it seemed) to pray. However when the children packed it out on the first morning it suddenly got a whole lot more exciting!!

The programme running from 10am-3pm over the 3 days was the usual mix of crazy games, videos, songs and craft activities as we explored the story of God rescuing his people in the Bible book of Exodus. We were also able to take advantage of being in a field, and although the weather kept us on our toes, we spent a fair amount of time outside – the highlight being the ‘kidnap hunt’ in the afternoon of Day 3. 

Sadly there are no pictures of me being custard pied by arch-enemy The Phantom Flan Flinger (shame!) but there were many positives. The response of the children was great – some who have been part of regular church activities and many who haven’t. There was a real sense of potential and it got me thinking about who these young people were going to grow up to be in 15 or 20 years time? In a group of 100 children who knows? Perhaps there are teachers, doctors, inventors, shopkeepers, fire fighters, church leaders, politicians, maybe even future Prime Ministers in the room (or tent!). Quite an awesome thought – and it kind of adds to the sense of responsibility we have as youth & children’s workers eh? One thing is certain though: God brings hope and has a plan - hope and a plan for each and every one of us (Jeremiah 29 v11).

Other positives of The Big Tent have certainly been the way the churches have worked together on this project, even some of the churches who don’t feel they can do children’s work have sent volunteers and offered invaluable prayer support. Amen to that! We also received some very encouraging support from local businesses as well as some denominational grants to help make it all happen.

The week ended with a ‘come and see what we’ve been doing’ evening followed by BBQ and inflatable assault course, and lots of mums, dads and other family members did.

Before it was all over we started talking about a bigger big tent for 2012! Mission Accomplished.

[Blog post for tent no.2 coming up shortly...]

There’s a fair bit of prayer happening here this summer and we’re really excited to be part of it, here’s an update…

We had a good time with our 24 hour prayer weekend at the beginning of July. This was the second weekend like this for our church this year: starting at 8am Saturday and running through until 10am Sunday with individuals/pairs signing up for an hour or two hour slot. It was good to see some people getting involved who hadn’t done previously and to hear positive feedback about the time spent there. (See pictures)

One person who spent an hour in the prayer room spoke afterwards of how excited she was when she arrived and went into the room. At our Sunday morning worship she shared that there was such an overwhelming sense of excitement and that she had felt God was ‘so excited’ about us spending time with Him there. Another person went for an hour at 5am and ended up staying for 3 hours(!), feeling that was just where God wanted them to be – ‘sitting in his presence’. Personally I too was in need of some time to stop and ‘spend time with the Father’ and the prayer room provided a definite framework for this.

 Our prayer room was divided into 3 areas – a place to sit or kneel and ‘spend time with the Father’ ; a world map with a focus on our need for water ; and a particular focus on ‘building’ – which included a large cardboard ‘building’ representing our church and new building project**. Lots of prayers were written on ‘bricks’ and stuck to the ‘building’ as people prayed for God’s kingdom and church to be built up in our community alongside specific prayers for the new building itself.

As I write school’s out for summer and we have some time out as a family over the first 3 weeks of the school hols – which we’re very much looking forward too, and in the midst of which we’ll be celebrating Evie’s first birthday!!

In the second half of August, Andy will be working with the churches in Wellington on ‘The Big Tent’ a 3-day town-wide holiday club in a large marquee (more on this in next month’s post…) and that will be closely followed by more tents and more prayer as we will be part of a team running ’Prayer Tent’ at Watchet Music Festival over the bank holiday weekend.

Following last year’s Christians Together venture to run a ’prayer tent’ at two local summer fetes, we were asked by the music festival organisers if we’d come and run a prayer tent throughout the weekend at their music festival (a growing ‘mini-Glastonbury’ that happens in a field just up the hill from our house - check out www.watchetfestival.co.uk). With very little hesitation we said ‘Yes please!’ and a team of us from various local churches – plus a couple of people joining us from other places - are planning to camp at the festival and run a prayer tent throughout the weekend, 24 hours. Working out what that should look like and ‘be’ has been interesting (we’ve all seen and even done things like this at ‘Christian festivals’ but this is a little different). We’re pretty excited about the potential though!

Here’s what we’ve written for the festival guide to give you a flavour: ‘Prayer Tent’ will be running throughout the weekend (day and night!) and will be a sacred space, a place to be quiet as well as a place to be inspired. A place to find God or peace away from the busy festival programme. A place to interact with a range of media and add your creativity and express your prayers as part of the festival. The venue will be run by ministers and volunteers from local churches.

 The Prayer Tent programme will also include Early Morning Prayer (6am), Midday, Evening (6pm) and Midnight Prayer: short gathered times for prayer and reflection, lasting about 15 minutes, on both Saturday and Sunday. In the afternoons (2pm-4pm) the team will also be running creative prayer activities for all the family. On Sunday morning (10am) the team will be leading the Sunday Morning Service. Look out for more details about what’s happening at Prayer Tent over the weekend…

We’d really appreciate your prayers for this and we’ll let you know how it went and post some pictures soon afterwards! (An added highlight of the weekend promises to be mid-90s rock band Dodgy who are playing at the festival on Sunday night – anyone remember them?!)

God bless.

Andy & Ruth, Hannah, Tom, Matt & Evie x

** New Building: Just thinking, some of you may not have heard that after much praying and searching we (WBC) have been able to purchase a shop right right in the centre of town – next to Lloyds bank - which once renovated will provide a base for our weekday activities in the local community here in Watchet and amongst other things will include a dedicated 24-7 Prayer Room upstairs. We are currently only at the plan drawing stage but hope to have the new venue up and running this time next year.  Will share more on this over the coming months… +

4 o’clock, Friday afternoon, in the Easter holidays. As the last chords of air-guitar ring out from the PA, a hall full of children sit down as it’s almost time to go home. An 8-yeard old lad in the front row says ‘This has been the best week ever!’ and I tend to agree with him.

This year’s Easter holiday club run by Watchet Baptist Church saw almost double the amount of children from the last few years attending over the 3 days (an answer to our prayers) and a diverse team ranging in age from 13 > 60+ including friends from Merseyside, Chippenham, Sheffield and Wellington alongside the locals (another answer to our prayers!).

We had a great 3 days with the 70 children who came, not to mention all the preparation that went on beforehand. Rocky’s Plaice saw us exploring stories of Jesus’ followers 2,000 years ago in Acts and how Jesus continues to bring hope into our lives today; through drama with the crazy chefs, action songs, mega-games, challenges, craft activities, chat-time, fishy jokes and with a superhero called Captain Ketchup!

On the Saturday we hosted a family fun event on the school field and were joined by lots of local families for a picnic in glorious sunshine plus inflatable assault course, face painting and Easter Egg Hunt. Sunday’s celebration was also a lot of fun as we shared with the rest of church what we’d been up to before going home for a well earned rest!

Please continue to pray for the church and community here in Watchet and the surrounding area. We pray that contacts made, stories shared and fun had with so many over Easter will be something we can build on in the coming months, and we do really appreciate so many of you partnering with us in the things God wants to do here in West Somerset.

God bless.

Saturday morning, 8am, and our 24hr prayer weekend was up and running. Opening up the prayer room, praying briefly with Meg who was first up in our 26-hour marathon, then walking outside into the spring sunshine (yes the sun was really out!) and walking along the pier – it was certainly a ‘holy day by the sea’ today.

This time our prayer room was set up in ‘The Annexe’ next to Watchet Methodist Church – it was a special place, tucked away from the world, and there was a strong sense that some of us really needed that time in the prayer room - getting away with God for an hour.

And of course the fact that there are so many people, nations and situations in our world that need praying for right now. Our world map was packed with pebbles marking the places we were lifting up to the Lord.

It is also an exciting time for us at WBC and this weekend was an important part of that, with many prayers for our community and the opportunities to share God’s hope here.

For some the experience of the prayer room was new and having wondered how they would fill an hour with prayer, found it flew past and are thinking of signing up for 2 hours next time!

Below are some pics from the prayer room and an anonymous post-it note which read:

“A Prayer Room Testimony

Being part of this experience in the way it has been organised as 1 hour at time has been like being a link in the chain. Like the relay race St Paul teaches – each one handing on the baton…

Not just for 24 hours but on – and on – and on.”

This Easter Watchet Baptist Church are running another children’s holiday club: Wed 13, Thu 14, Fri 15 April at Knights Templar School, for all those in current Reception Year > Year 7. 3 packed afternoons of fun, games, music, video, crafts & competitions set in Rocky’s Plaice – probably the wackiest chip shop on the planet - as we explore stories of Jesus’ followers 2,000 years ago. Plus – for all the family – a family fun event on Sat 16 April with mega Easter egg hunt, bouncy castle, picnic, face painting… finshing off the week with a Sunday morning celebration also at the school.

As in previous years we are offering the opportunity to older teens/young adults (16+) from other churches and other places to come and join us for the week – partly because we are a fairly small church with limited human resources and partly because we believe that getting people involved in mission is a brilliant way to grow faith!!

Fancy spending the week as part of our team? Working with the local church volunteers to help run the events, as well being part of daily prayer/worship times and lots of fun by the seaside! Accommodation will be with hosts from local churches and all meals are provided. We will also spend an evening at Spring Harvest in nearby Minehead.

 If you’re interested or know someone who might be then do get in touch…

That’s it for now, more news of what God is doing here in West Somerset soon.

God bless

Andy & Ruth

Andy & Ruth, Hannah, Tom, Matt & Evie Levett

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