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Last night in Eastbourne at The Congress Theatre
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Last night in Eastbourne at The Congress Theatre

Adrian Holloway on May 6, 2013 with 0 Comments

Last night I spoke to around 1000 people at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne. I’ve been here all weekend with Julia and the girls at Bible by the Beach. Stuart Townend led worship. There was then a tremendously good interview hosted by The Rt Rev Wallace Benn, the recently retired Bishop of Lewes, who founded and leads the event. He interviewed Dr Helen Roseveare, legendry missionary to the Congo from 1953 to 1973. In 1964 she was taken prisoner by rebel forces and she endured beatings and terrible abuse during 5 months incarceration. It was remarkable to listen to this Cambridge University graduate, who is now in her late 80s telling us about having her teeth kicked out by her captors. Here is a woman who has suffered the worst abuse any woman can whilst taking the gospel of Christ to the heart of 1960s Africa. My own girls sat in the balcony listening as she talked in the most cheerful, delightful, upbeat terms. She was so positive and very funny. It was a great prelude to what I had to say.

I was interviewed by Dr Andy Johnston, who leads Christ Church, Hailsham, and then I preached on Paul in Athens (Acts 17:16-34). There was a feedback cards response, which as of right now, I don’t know the results of, but the message seemed to go well. I presented some new material about Arthur Eddington and his photographs of the total eclipse of 29 May 1919 and how that confirmed Einstein’s General Relativity and the discovery that the universe had a beginning. I also outlined the Kalam Cosmological Argument for the first time in an evangelistic talk.

If anyone is interested, I’ll just mention a few other interesting and inspiring people who are here in Eastbourne this weekend . . . Last night I met Emma Scrivener. She has written a fantastic book about anorexia called “A new name,” which my wife read in 2 days, and my older girls are now reading. Emma’s husband Glen is an evangelist in Eastbourne who I first met at a UCCF event two years ago.

On Friday night I heard Richard Coekin preach the opening session of the conference. He began with a recent story of the most appalling martyrdoms of Christians literally steam-rollered to death by the government in North Korea. Richard leads Dundonald Church in Raynes Park, which is the part of London where I grew up, and under his direction, the Co-Mission team he leads have planted numerous conservative evangelical churches, including one near us in Fulham. In fact it’s amazing that not only are Holy Trinity Brompton planting churches in London, but other Anglicans like Richard are too. Richard is also the driving force behind the London Mens’ and Womens’ Conventions, which take place at the Royal Albert Hall.

The bible readings are being done by Hugh Palmer, who is the Rector at All Souls, Langham Place. I met Hugh when we recorded a promotional piece for the event at Premier Radio in Pimlico.

And I was really pleased to chat to John Stevens, who is National Director of the Federation of Independent Evangelical Churches, a historically very conservative group. John did an excellent talk on an extremely difficult passage on Saturday night in Matthew 24 where it’s hard to tell whether Jesus is talking about the destruction of the Jewish temple or the end of the world or both. John’s also here with his wife and kids. Like Richard Coekin, he’s involved in an evangelistic initiative called “A Passion for Life” and John is also on the steering committee for New Word Alive, which is UCCF’s bible teaching event.

And I heard the Director of Operation Mobilization internationally Peter Maiden, do a great talk on World Mission. Peter told me that he lives in Carlisle and has a daughter at City Church, Newcastle, which is one of my favourite places to visit.

There’s also a great kids ministry here. There’s a South African guy who now lives in Kingston called Rory Bell, who we had lunch with on Saturday. Julia went to his seminar and is still raving about it.

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about the author

Adrian is married to Julia. They have four daughters. He is based at Everyday Church in Wimbledon, and has written two books, "The Shock of Your Life" and "Aftershock," which tackles the strongest objections to Christianity in the form of a novel.