I have never experienced an event like this before
What an awesome weekend!
Going into Sent at New Year, I was feeling very excited. Looking forward to being by the beach, spending time with other young Christians, and most importantly enjoying time with Jesus! Having been to lots of Christian events and youth weekends before, I could pretty much predict how the weekend was going to go, but I can honestly say that I have never experienced an event like this before.
Wonderful times of worshiping together, sometimes unaccompanied by musicians
“God was clearly moving in the room, you could sense his presence. Someone received prayer and experienced a miraculous healing of pain in their knee that they had suffered with for years after being involved in a terrible car crash. Others experienced baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first time.”
Over the two days we had 5 main sessions, with worship, teaching, and lots of prayer. These meetings were transformative, the worship felt totally Spirit-led, with people across the room bringing songs, tongues, Bible verses and words of knowledge. In one session, we had no worship leader, no one playing an instrument at the front, so people had to bring songs, and they really did! I found it really powerful. God was clearly moving in the room, you could sense his presence. Someone received prayer and experienced a miraculous healing of pain in their knee that they had suffered with for years after being involved in a terrible car crash. Others experienced baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first time. I know of one young guy who received the gift of tongues, and I’m sure there are others who were the same. I was so encouraged by the weekend, it was empowering hearing stories of revival, from the Hebridean Revival in Scotland in 1949, and what took place on Azusa Street in America in 1906. I truly believe that what happened at SENT planted seeds in people to go away and pray. People were stirred up and equipped to then go out into the world in this new year.
Teaching: Leaning into topics such as revivial, fasting, prayer in the secret place, and preparing to go
Space was given for contributions, with many prayers, prophetic words and songs brought by young people
As well as having meetings all together, there was also plenty of time to enjoy one another’s presence; playing board games, walking along the beach and chatting to new people. For me, this was such a highlight of the weekend. I am so encouraged when spending time with other followers of Jesus who are of similar age to me; they motivate me in my own walk.
A new day, a new year
When it came to the arrival of the New Year, we counted down and prayed the new year in, and then broke our fast with pizza! We celebrated outside with sparklers and then a small group of us continued this on the beach, where we lit up a campfire and ate s’mores together. We had so much fun, it’s definitely one of my favourite memories from the weekend. Then, not much sleep was had before we were waking up again and beginning the 1st January with a sunrise walk along the beach; I even had a (very cold) paddle in the sea! We ate bacon rolls on the beach and then went into another meeting to continue worshipping Jesus and learning about Him.
Seeing in the New Year with sparklers and pizza
Spending the first morning of 2023 with breakfast the beach
In the final meeting, on Sunday afternoon, we spent time in prayer, with the men standing in the middle being prayed for by the ladies, and then the ladies in the middle, while the men surrounded us and prayed for us. It was a beautiful scene, watching us all battling in prayer, encouraging one another and preparing to leave the weekend.
New year, new expectations
I came away from Sent so encouraged, grinning with joy from what had gone on, but sad that the weekend was over, and pretty quickly trying to arrange plans with friends I had made there. I’m currently on an ID year, serving at Hope Church Ipswich, and after being home for Christmas, I went into the weekend feeling quite anxious about it coming to an end, knowing that afterwards I’d be going back. But amazingly, coming back from Sent, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace, and I found that I settled back into things here so quickly. Our God is so good!
So if you ever have the opportunity to go to an event like this, or if Sent runs again next year, I would strongly urge you to sign up. Do it. What have you got to lose, if you’re growing in your relationship with Jesus!
Grace
Grace is currently based in Ipswich, where she is doing an ID internship at Hope Church.