It Is Time

We set out on Thursday 1 October 2026, Chidera from Winnipeg and Ekaba from Calgary, and this time we were joined by Brother Segun Olumoroti (Jnr), who came from Chicago.

The order of business was set. In London we were to sit with brethren and seek alignment on the work of the kingdom in the United Kingdom. Then we would drive to Derby, where an outreach and the planting of a church had been called for that Friday evening. After Derby we would drive through the night to Exeter for the marriage of James and Elouise on Saturday, then drive back to Derby, pick up Brother Segun, and go on to Heathrow to fly home on Sunday.

Chidera and Segun landed at Heathrow at about half past six or seven in the morning, and Ekaba at about half past eleven. At midday we sat with Brother Chukudi Nwokorie at the Starbucks at Heathrow North, in Hayes. Brother Jireh Ovwah could not come: his son was sick, and he was with him in the hospital. We prayed for the child's swift recovery.

We spoke plainly. We are not a faction, and the kingdom is not a denomination; but we cannot be part of Christ without His message, which is the kingdom. We read out to Chukudi what we had written among ourselves before we came: a strong commitment to planting kingdom churches, strengthening the churches and the brethren, bringing people together for holy worship, and seeing the word of the kingdom thrive in the United Kingdom and spread among the nation groups. He answered: “Everything you have written here, I think we have already gone through. I support the partnership and fellowship.” Then he prayed for us, and a strong kingdom partnership was established in London.

At half past two we took the road north, some two hundred kilometres, to Derby, and came to St Peter's Church on St Peter's Street, the only medieval church still standing in the city centre. For weeks the invitation had gone out across the city under one word: “It is time.” Shortly before the meeting our brother Emmanuel Akpet arrived with flyers, and for about forty-five minutes, almost an hour, we preached in the streets around St Peter's, inviting people to the meeting.

At seven we sat in a circle under the old arcades and began with worship. Ekaba opened John 4: “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Chidera spoke on the day of small things: many great things began with gatherings as simple as this one. Our host, Bill, sat with us to the end; before we parted he prayed over us, and we received it as a fatherly blessing and a key to the city. Josh Callan told us the invitation had come up in his feed: he had found his faith about six months before.

During the meeting Brother Segun saw a vision: great beings standing behind the circle, and a golden bridge carrying words from heaven into the mouths of those speaking, and out to the people, where the words took on a life of their own. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

At the end of that meeting, to the glory of God, a church was planted in the city of Derby: the Church of Christ, Derby. Josh gave himself to the Lord and to the work, and with Emmanuel and his wife Josephine will labour and fellowship together as brothers in a covenant communion. Segun stayed behind to confirm the church, and at about ten o'clock that night Chidera and Ekaba set out for the south.

We drove some three hundred and thirty kilometres through the night and came into Exeter at about two o'clock, half past two, on Saturday morning. It was the first time we had lain on a bed since we came to the United Kingdom. That morning James called us: he had had a small accident, broken his fingers, and been rushed to the hospital, on the morning of his wedding. We prayed with him on the telephone, spoke the word over him, and strengthened him in the Lord.

At three o'clock James Beaumont and Elouise Brooks-Herbert were married in the Parish Church of St John the Evangelist, Bovey Tracey, on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. James's father, Richard Beaumont, was his best man. We met Mark, who has begun to fellowship with James in the church at Exeter, and his wife Fiona. Ekaba took the Bible reading, from Psalm 91, and after the joining Chidera and Ekaba prayed over James and Elouise and ministered to them. We were there to co-officiate the wedding with the Church of England, and the whole event was to the glory of God.

James was marrying Elouise that day because he had opened his heart to the leading of Christ and received godly counsel, which he obeyed. And it was bringing joy to a whole community of people whom we had not known. Obeying Christ has consequences for individuals, for whole communities, and for generations unborn.

At four o'clock in Derby, Segun met Josh and Emmanuel in a coffee shop; Josephine had fallen ill. Josh brought a friend, Maddie, who is open to the gospel, and Segun spent the first half hour with her. Then he laid down the instructions for starting and running the church: the body must be built on love; love is the foundation; forgiveness; a new family of brothers and sisters in Christ. They found they live ten minutes' walk from each other, on the same street, and they will begin by meeting in their houses.

From the wedding we took the road north once more, back up the length of England to Derby, where we picked up Brother Segun, and from Derby to Heathrow. On Sunday 4 October we flew home: Ekaba to Calgary, Chidera to Winnipeg, and Segun to Chicago.

In three days we had sat with a brother in London and joined hands for the kingdom in the United Kingdom; we had preached on the streets of Derby and seen a church born there; and we had stood with a brother and sister in Devon as they were joined together before God. The Lord kept us on every road, by day and by night.