Foundations 9 : a short report

I had stopped writing reports of our Foundations (we don’t call them ‘conferences’ any more), as I am prone to lapsing into hype, especially when the paint has barely dried since returning home. Yet I am compelled to write a short piece about Foundations 9 … because it was such a wonderful occasion. In the words of our beloved “pastor” David Andrew, it was one of the few times in his ministry when ‘all the things that Christians are meant to do when meeting up, were all done, in that one place, at that one time’.

It wasn’t just the teaching, or the worship, or the fellowship, or the freedom, or the workshops, or the hotel hospitality, or the lives changed and challenged, even healed … it was all of these. Bearing in mind the unprecedented spiritual warfare leading up to the Foundations, it now becomes clear that God had the victory in every way and blessings flowed abundantly. Only time will tell what effect this has had in the lives of all the attendees, including the team.

As I described in my summing up on the final day, the three general things that impacted me most were the consistency and excellence of the teaching, with a single theme threading its way through the week; the variety and depth of the worship, featuring a variety of styles and formats; the selflessness of our prayer and counselling team, kept quite busy throughout. This was all a massive jump from earlier Foundations (when they were just ‘conferences’)!

Here is a short list of things that caught my attention, piqued my interest etc.: David Andrew’s eight word ‘dangerous’ prayer; David and I dancing in public!; Agnes’ healing and the joy on her face when she announced it; Lynn’s storytelling workshop that could be heard at the other end of the corridor; Jackie’s hilarious ‘show & tell’, Ginnie exhorting us to confront our fears (leading to me dancing in the streets!); the ‘timeline’ stretching the length of the conference room; the angelic Stevenson brood; ‘Professor’ Serle’s selfless attitude despite being quite ill all week; the goldfish bowl in plain sight; the wonderful acapella singing …

Were you there? If so, what are your abiding memories? (Feel free to comment below if you are a subscriber)

The countdown begins for Foundations 10 in October …