The Best of Times; the Worst of Times – Open Heaven
A reflection on our time in Cornwall….
You may be surprised to hear that an orderly Br-exit has recently taken place: Yvette Br-itton (!) and I have left Cornwall and moved to Dorset after 12½ years residency in the land of the saints. Reflecting back now it feels most like we have been missionaries in a foreign land for so much of the time. This journey has been the most stretching thing we have ever done together. It has brought out greatness and exposed the bedrock in each of us, both the glorious and yucky spaces in me at least: it has taken us both to and beyond the end of ourselves at times, in every part of our lives. We feel like we have finally fulfilled at least the current part of Paul Manwaring’s enigmatic prophetic word to us 21 months ago: “Make it a God-story”! Well, we sure did that…..
When we started Open Heaven in 2012 we never realised what we were doing or what we were taking on. We gathered with friends at home and the only thing we were determined on was to allow God to do whatever He wanted and to worship Him unreservedly in a corporate setting. Those principles have been the lodestone and the bedrock of our church and ministry ever since, and always will be from now on until we meet Him in person face-to-face.
We have always sought (to use Heidi Baker's words) to “love the one in front of us” whenever we could, and we have enjoyed with others, times without number, of being completely wrecked by His wonderful Presence. Very foolish things have happened on our lounge carpet over the years! Perhaps surprisingly our lounge became a very safe place for Believers to come and crash, fall apart and be put back together by Papa and His love! Some came and cried for weeks leaving a soggy spot behind them; one or two slept through the tumult, others laughed without restraint (sometimes they were those who had sobbed only a few weeks before!). We came into possession of a carpet soaked in tears, snot, laughter, prophecy and on which were delivered many words of knowledge, healings, crazy prophetic acts and deliverances too over the years. Many danced until they dropped and week in week out there were times when it felt like a Holy Spirit gym workout! But above and overall has been God’s amazing fragrant Presence. We learnt that through all the crazy stuff Papa, Jesus and Holy Spirit were putting broken Believers back together and connecting them with Him in tangible new ways that have lasted ever since, so the astounding thing in all the craziness has been the changed lives as a result: we have received so many testimonies of how together we have impacted Believer’s lives – very humbling and a privilege that not many get to hear while still alive!
Away from home we attracted those who loved us, liked us and loathed us. We experienced honour, blessing, hostility, rejection, bitterness and intense spiritual opposition and that just from within the Body of Christ. Of course the enemy has sought to disrupt and bring his malign influence to bear wherever he could too, but as he just hates everyone we don’t like to talk much about him or pay him much attention: like Bill Johnson says “only long enough to get him in the cross hairs and pull the trigger”.
One priority had always been to bring in those from outside who carried something of God’s heart and His Kingdom in order to help try and break the isolation prevalent within Cornwall. Our connection with Bethel in particular (thank you Ruth and Steve Moore, Grace Golf, Steve and Wendy Backlund, Paul and Sue Manwaring, Joaquin Evans, Brian Nickens and many more who came to encourage the saints here), as well as Andrew Leakey, Dan and Nathalie Benson, Derek Brown, Andy and Sharron McClelland, Kate Jutsum, Andy Biddlecombe, Roy and Sarah Maguire, Ian Andrews, Kristina Collins, Paul Skelton, Ruth Wright, Giles and Ally Lascelle, Tim and Sue Eldridge, Paul Golf and many others (sorry if I forgot your name) from within the UK and the wider world, we shall forever be grateful for.
Our links have allowed us to pioneer our Life Transformation inner healing ministry where we have seen many long-standing embedded heart and emotional issues bow the knee to Jesus’s unfailing love. We really tried to teach the tools and techniques to the saints too but to our great sadness with very limited success as the take-up was not too healthy.
We have hosted local church as family, mainly in homes, and seen many encouraged. We have so loved those discipleship times with Leadership Development Programme, Foundational Cultures and Firestarters where many joined us from across the county to hear and learn more of God’s Goodness and the necessary culture we need to build for Kingdom-future here.
It was a tremendous privilege to provide a safe place for Church leaders to gather together too. Nearly 70 gathered to hear Steve Backlund at Kingsley Village. We connected with Yinka Oyekan to try to bring The Turning outreach and discipleship programme to Cornwall: very sadly and despite some amazing packed gatherings beforehand only Falmouth and Penryn decided to go for it where the fruit both in terms of leadership relationships and new birth continues to grow. We also had a chance to discuss bringing a non-governmental apostolic relational Church network to Cornwall; to my personal sadness this initiative was one of the few not to get off the ground at all while it continues to flourish amazingly in other places, particularly in Wales. Still our conscience is clear: we tried our best but Cornwall was not then ready: we hope and pray it will be one day. The parable of the sower applies….
Our legacy? Seeds sown and scattered the length and breadth of Cornwall and the wider south-west. Only history will reveal the fruit but we are very cool with that. We trust Holy Spirit to water and feed where She wills. Certainly in our opinion the Kingdom of God is very different now from when we started, and we believe we have at least had a part to play in that.
Our future? Yvette and I above all are passionate and obedient followers of Jesus. We believe He is always on the move; that’s why we are called followers! The pillar of smoke and fire moves on to Dorset and we will look to start whatever fires we can there and join in with the work of extending God’s Kingdom in that part of the world. We have always said we did not want to get to the end of our lives and look back with regret; no “if only’s….”
For me I am determined to write my book if I can weave a story out of all that has happened to us. While events might seem (in the main) ordinary to us, I suspect they will bring encouragement to many others on their journeys. Open Heaven will continue in some form yet to be revealed by Papa. Yvette and I are in deep need of healing, restoration and recuperation particularly after the last 2 years. But God is faithful and will continue to see us through we know.
So watch this space!
To quote Doc Emmett Brown (Back To The Future): “It’s your future – make it a good one”!
To quote Paul Manwaring: “Make it a God-story”.
To quote Jenn Johnson: “Your life was always meant to be a wild crazy adventure”.
Go for it God’s people in Cornwall – your County needs you as never before!
More to follow…
Jeremy and Yvette
A reflection on our time in Cornwall….
You may be surprised to hear that an orderly Br-exit has recently taken place: Yvette Br-itton (!) and I have left Cornwall and moved to Dorset after 12½ years residency in the land of the saints. Reflecting back now it feels most like we have been missionaries in a foreign land for so much of the time. This journey has been the most stretching thing we have ever done together. It has brought out greatness and exposed the bedrock in each of us, both the glorious and yucky spaces in me at least: it has taken us both to and beyond the end of ourselves at times, in every part of our lives. We feel like we have finally fulfilled at least the current part of Paul Manwaring’s enigmatic prophetic word to us 21 months ago: “Make it a God-story”! Well, we sure did that…..
When we started Open Heaven in 2012 we never realised what we were doing or what we were taking on. We gathered with friends at home and the only thing we were determined on was to allow God to do whatever He wanted and to worship Him unreservedly in a corporate setting. Those principles have been the lodestone and the bedrock of our church and ministry ever since, and always will be from now on until we meet Him in person face-to-face.
We have always sought (to use Heidi Baker's words) to “love the one in front of us” whenever we could, and we have enjoyed with others, times without number, of being completely wrecked by His wonderful Presence. Very foolish things have happened on our lounge carpet over the years! Perhaps surprisingly our lounge became a very safe place for Believers to come and crash, fall apart and be put back together by Papa and His love! Some came and cried for weeks leaving a soggy spot behind them; one or two slept through the tumult, others laughed without restraint (sometimes they were those who had sobbed only a few weeks before!). We came into possession of a carpet soaked in tears, snot, laughter, prophecy and on which were delivered many words of knowledge, healings, crazy prophetic acts and deliverances too over the years. Many danced until they dropped and week in week out there were times when it felt like a Holy Spirit gym workout! But above and overall has been God’s amazing fragrant Presence. We learnt that through all the crazy stuff Papa, Jesus and Holy Spirit were putting broken Believers back together and connecting them with Him in tangible new ways that have lasted ever since, so the astounding thing in all the craziness has been the changed lives as a result: we have received so many testimonies of how together we have impacted Believer’s lives – very humbling and a privilege that not many get to hear while still alive!
Away from home we attracted those who loved us, liked us and loathed us. We experienced honour, blessing, hostility, rejection, bitterness and intense spiritual opposition and that just from within the Body of Christ. Of course the enemy has sought to disrupt and bring his malign influence to bear wherever he could too, but as he just hates everyone we don’t like to talk much about him or pay him much attention: like Bill Johnson says “only long enough to get him in the cross hairs and pull the trigger”.
One priority had always been to bring in those from outside who carried something of God’s heart and His Kingdom in order to help try and break the isolation prevalent within Cornwall. Our connection with Bethel in particular (thank you Ruth and Steve Moore, Grace Golf, Steve and Wendy Backlund, Paul and Sue Manwaring, Joaquin Evans, Brian Nickens and many more who came to encourage the saints here), as well as Andrew Leakey, Dan and Nathalie Benson, Derek Brown, Andy and Sharron McClelland, Kate Jutsum, Andy Biddlecombe, Roy and Sarah Maguire, Ian Andrews, Kristina Collins, Paul Skelton, Ruth Wright, Giles and Ally Lascelle, Tim and Sue Eldridge, Paul Golf and many others (sorry if I forgot your name) from within the UK and the wider world, we shall forever be grateful for.
Our links have allowed us to pioneer our Life Transformation inner healing ministry where we have seen many long-standing embedded heart and emotional issues bow the knee to Jesus’s unfailing love. We really tried to teach the tools and techniques to the saints too but to our great sadness with very limited success as the take-up was not too healthy.
We have hosted local church as family, mainly in homes, and seen many encouraged. We have so loved those discipleship times with Leadership Development Programme, Foundational Cultures and Firestarters where many joined us from across the county to hear and learn more of God’s Goodness and the necessary culture we need to build for Kingdom-future here.
It was a tremendous privilege to provide a safe place for Church leaders to gather together too. Nearly 70 gathered to hear Steve Backlund at Kingsley Village. We connected with Yinka Oyekan to try to bring The Turning outreach and discipleship programme to Cornwall: very sadly and despite some amazing packed gatherings beforehand only Falmouth and Penryn decided to go for it where the fruit both in terms of leadership relationships and new birth continues to grow. We also had a chance to discuss bringing a non-governmental apostolic relational Church network to Cornwall; to my personal sadness this initiative was one of the few not to get off the ground at all while it continues to flourish amazingly in other places, particularly in Wales. Still our conscience is clear: we tried our best but Cornwall was not then ready: we hope and pray it will be one day. The parable of the sower applies….
Our legacy? Seeds sown and scattered the length and breadth of Cornwall and the wider south-west. Only history will reveal the fruit but we are very cool with that. We trust Holy Spirit to water and feed where She wills. Certainly in our opinion the Kingdom of God is very different now from when we started, and we believe we have at least had a part to play in that.
Our future? Yvette and I above all are passionate and obedient followers of Jesus. We believe He is always on the move; that’s why we are called followers! The pillar of smoke and fire moves on to Dorset and we will look to start whatever fires we can there and join in with the work of extending God’s Kingdom in that part of the world. We have always said we did not want to get to the end of our lives and look back with regret; no “if only’s….”
For me I am determined to write my book if I can weave a story out of all that has happened to us. While events might seem (in the main) ordinary to us, I suspect they will bring encouragement to many others on their journeys. Open Heaven will continue in some form yet to be revealed by Papa. Yvette and I are in deep need of healing, restoration and recuperation particularly after the last 2 years. But God is faithful and will continue to see us through we know.
So watch this space!
To quote Doc Emmett Brown (Back To The Future): “It’s your future – make it a good one”!
To quote Paul Manwaring: “Make it a God-story”.
To quote Jenn Johnson: “Your life was always meant to be a wild crazy adventure”.
Go for it God’s people in Cornwall – your County needs you as never before!
More to follow…
Jeremy and Yvette