Surrounded by brothers and sisters from 53 countries, worshipping the Lord with all our hearts and being fed deeply from His word – it is hard to know where to begin…

But I will start on a really personal note…

I am a vicar’s daughter and can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God. Aged 12, I suddenly had a moment of clarity where I realised that I was selfish; everything I did, even the good things, had a selfish motivation. That was enough to start me looking for God… I thought the way to do it was to read my Bible every day and pray and go to church – all good things – but in my case really this was works-based ritual: 50 sit-ups, bible reading, prayer and bed – and God would be happy enough with me…

By the time I was 18 I had read the Bible 3 times cover to cover – although I hadn’t really understood it.. But then I had another moment of clear thought: “If this is Christianity, there has to be more to life”. So I started a quite rebellion – undercover rebellion – I still running the school Christian group – but it was enough for me to realise that I wasn’t perfect…

First Saturday of the summer term, there was a compulsory concert in Sherborne Abbey. Our school had a link with Gayaza High School in Uganda and some of the girls were over on a singing tour. I didn’t want to go, but went with arms folded… I was blown away by it – far from being the stuffy concert I had anticipated, these girls were singing wonderful praise songs to God – but their faces were what struck me – they had a joy and a radiance about them which I had not seen before – and it was deeply attractive.

The following day they came to our Christian group and as they left they said: “Do you have the Holy Spirit here?” – “What’s that?” we answered, “We’ve heard of the Holy Ghost, but never heard of the Holy Spirit”. So the girls said: “We’ll pray you get the Holy Spirit”.

Two weeks later, Pentecost Sunday, one of the boys from the Boys School came to speak – he spoke about how the disciples, who had run away and deserted Jesus, were transformed when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost – after that they were not afraid to live and die for the name of Jesus. I was gripped by his words, but even more by his face – he had the same joy and radiance as the Ugandan Girls had had. So that afternoon, a friend and I went to find him: “Whatever it is you’ve got, we want”! The surprising response back was: “Just face it Jane, you are a sinner”. I had not expected that – but he explained that Jesus had died for me and that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t earn my way to God. So he led me in a prayer of confession and asking Jesus to be Lord of my life and then he left me with the words – and ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit.

Over the next few days, I became hungrier and hungrier for God – I was becoming desperate for him… Then on the Thursday, whilst kneeling quietly in the Boys’ School chapel at the weekly Communion service, I had a tangible sense of being washed completely clean – it was like I had been given a deeply cleansing and deluging shower of water. In that moment, I knew that Jesus had died for me, that He loved me and had rescued me and wouldn’t leave me alone… I fell in love with Him – the Bible suddenly became alive – it was like it had been written just for me… And it wasn’t just me – we had a mini revival in which many boys and girls came to faith in Jesus.

For years I have wanted to tell someone somehow in Uganda and get a thank you message to the girls from Gayaza. I had looked on their school website and also the Church of Uganda website but I couldn’t see how to do it. So when I heard that about 200 delegates from Uganda were coming to Gafcon IV, I was really excited and prayed that if it was possible, please could I meet someone to get a message through.

So on the very first lunchtime, I picked up my packed lunchbox and was wandering around, asking the Lord to show me where to sit – 1302 delegates – spread all around the grounds and premises of the Kigali Convention Centre. I saw a lady that I recognised sitting with someone else and went to join. We chatted about various topics, and then seeing that one was from Uganda, I asked if by any chance she knew of anyone who had been at Gayaza High School 40 years ago… “Yes” she replied – she had been. So I asked if by any chance she had been in the singing group that sang at Sherborne Abbey – “Yes” … And had she come to our Christian group and asked us about the Holy Spirit? “Yes” – she had… .! This for me was such a demonstration of the goodness and faithfulness of God… 40 years later – he allows me to meet one of the girls who had such an impact on my Christian life… So we have exchanged details and I look forward to renewed friendship and fellowship…

I will sing of the Goodness of God….