The Master has need of you
The established churches kept their doors shut. Three days after a gathering in a Northumberland drawing room, a church met in a sitting room in Bamburgh.
In the air over the Atlantic the word of the Lord came for Northumberland: the Holy Spirit had already been stirring hearts there; we were to be bold to rake in the harvest, not shying away from speaking and asking; and we were to say to the people that the Master demands to ride donkeys in Bamburgh: “The Master has need of you.”
On the first Sunday the Pentecostal church at Wooler did not receive us. That evening Ralph gathered the gentry of the county in his drawing room at Budle Hall, and we gave them an account of the gospel. When the formal part ended, Andrea and Derek came to us. They said they were no longer young, but they wished to see a church of His purpose planted in Bamburgh. Their devotional had told them that very morning that they would have a divine visitation that day.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.
On Wednesday 18 February the first gathering of the church at Bamburgh met in their sitting room. Andy and Anna came from Holy Island ahead of the tide, and Carol came from her farm. The night before, Andrea had dreamed of donkeys lined up on Bamburgh beach, “ready and willing, waiting for work”. Chidera read Acts 2:42 and asked them to meet at least once a week.
On Saturday night at Carol's house the church was confirmed. The next morning Andrea stood in her church at Alnwick and told the congregation that God's people must meet together regularly, that fear must be put away, and that we must build Him an altar.
“Go your way into the village opposite you … And if anyone asks you, “Why are you loosing it?” thus you shall say to him, “Because the Lord has need of it.”” Luke 19:30-31
