Miracle Street News

English towns and German cities!

2009-07-01T11:04:00.007+01:00

Thank you so much for all the prayer support at this time as we seek to break into Mainland Europe whilst continuing to see fruit for the Gospel in the UK. Last Thursday I was with my close friend Francis Dognon in Paris to meet with the leadership committee of the Baptist Federation of France of which he is a member. We discussed working together next year for their two week national evangelistic campaign. We hope to hold events in Paris, Lille and Normandy. Closer to home we are working alongside churches in Salisbury and New Milton over the next two weeks to reach their communities with the love of God, please pray for us.

On July 16th the Mainstage leaves Dover for Dunkirk ahead of big events planned in Hamburg and Stuttgart. We are thrilled to be going and believing for a great harvest in these two huge cities. We are working alongside Werner Nachtigal and No Limit, a German evangelistic ministry based in Berlin. It is the long awaited first visit to Mainland Europe with the Mainstage and it feels like an historic moment for me and the team. Please pray for the budget and particularly that the interpretation of what I say gets across to the people. Despite the favour and opportunities, I feel nervous on days as we commit such a high level of resource to places where we are totally unknown. Please join with us in prayer as we seek to be faithful to the call of God on our lives to declare and demonstrate this great message of reconciliation and new life in Jesus.

Storms in the Channel!

2009-06-16T12:48:00.007+01:00

Over the last couple of weeks we have sailed into a storm of problems with several of our panned events in the Mainland of Europe falling through. We are now staring at closed doors into Brussels, Hamburg and Berlin. It seems that every kind of hitch has occurred including, local permission, budget shortfalls and local church conflict. It was particularly difficult to have the Brussels Festival cancelled with only a couple weeks to go. It has led me to wonder whether we are moving too fast and that we need more time to establish the partnerships in the Gospel in these key cities. Three weeks ago I sensed the Lord say to me that we would engage in ‘Pathfinder’ missions ahead of the Mainstage Tour.

A week ago last Saturday I was on the Normandy Beaches with a group French and English friends to pray on the 65thanniversary of the D-Day Landings. It was the event in 1944 that became known as the ‘Turning Point’ and the beginning of the battle that brought the curtain down on the most horrific conflict of all time. As I allowed the sand of Sword Beach to run through my fingers the Lord clarified again the call on us to take the Gospel to the ‘Killing Fields’ of Europe. I feel that some of this redirection we are going through is to focus us sharply on France as the beginning of this journey.

Next week I am going to Paris with my friend Francis Dognon to present the vision of Miracle Street to the leadership of the Baptist Federation of France. They want to explore partnering with us for a three week national evangelistic programme ending on the June 6th 2010. Please pray for me as I speak to the committee in Paris on Thursday 25th June.

It was fantastic to purchase the new Mainstage tractor unit last week with the £10,000 that has been so generously donated for that reason. It has all the whistles and bells that were sadly missing off the old one! And it does a remarkable 11 miles to the gallon!! Finally, with the cancellation of some of our big events at short notice we are in a difficult situation financially that we need the Lord to come through for us in, please pray for that also.

Love and Blessings

Steve Lee

Normandy, Brussels and 15,000 in the UK!

2009-06-01T20:32:00.013+01:00

This Saturday a group of us will be on the Normandy Beaches on the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Landings that ushered in the liberation of Europe and the end of WWII. Having been refused permission for the Mainstage, we are going to pray with some of our French friends and ask God to establish a 'bridgehead' for us there on the sands where the Marines came ashore all those years ago. It will be a very important moment for me personally ahead of our first event in Europe, a three day tour of Brussels in a couple of weeks time. We are also at the start of UK summer programme with Simon Thomas running an event in his home church with the Mobilestage and several other keys dates approaching fast.

Last weekend the Mainstage was the youth stage at the BigChurchDayOut in West Sussex where 15,000 people gathered in the sunshine. I was on the main festival stage speaking to the vast crowd for a few minutes at the start of the event. I found myself asking God for crowds of that size who were not Christians coming to Miracle Street events across the UK and Europe in the coming months and years. I believe it will happen.

We are about to buy the new tractor unit for the Mainstage with the money that was so faithfully given to us having had a loan unit for last weekend's event. Thank you again for those who sowed into this soil for us. Budgets remain huge and very ambitious but miraculously on target, please continue to give if and when you can, it will be money well spent on reaching men and women and boys and girls for the Kingdom of Heaven. Thanks you all for sticking with me and the team! Steve Lee

150 plus respond the Gospel!

2009-05-05T09:58:00.008+01:00

This last weekend I was the speaker at a large evangelistic festival in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. On Saturday night I hosted a gigantic quiz night with 51 teams, brilliant fun! On Sunday many of the local churches suspended their normal services and we had over 1,000 in the tent. We had an absolute blast and I spoke on the Prodigal Son and around 150 people responded from all kinds of backgrounds and ages. The event closed with a live concert from the sensational London Community Gospel Choir to standing room only, an estimated crowd of 1,200! Again I spoke at the end and many people came to the front. It was a brilliantly organised and run event and so exciting to play a part in it.

Impossible dreams for Spain

2009-04-20T21:45:00.010+01:00

Last Friday I was up for 21 hours in order to go to Madrid and back in one day. It was a great privilege to spend time with Juan Carlos Escobar, his wife Fiona and the other leaders from the church there. Juan Carlos is the President of the Pentecostal movement across Spain and we really connected as we discussed possibilities for the Mainstage to go to Madrid in September and then possibly Alicante on the Mediterranean coast in October. It was brilliant to visit a number of potential sites in Madrid including the coach park outside Real Madrid FC's massive Bernabau Stadium. Please continue to pray as these unbelievable plans for Europe develop. Next week Jono and I are involved in a major two day evangelsitic event across Hemel Hempstead in Hertforfshire with around 20 churches, please pray for that too. Financial targets are huge now although miraculously we are broadly on target at the time of writing this. We owe so much to the many people are are generously and and sacrificially supporting Miracle Street and dreaming the dream with us, we need you!

Problems in Berlin but success in Bracknell!

2009-03-31T15:11:00.016+01:00

Please click here to donate to the Mainstage in Europe Appeal if you are able to

It was so good to be up in Bracknell over the weekend to speak at the Eternity youth congregation and then run InsideOut in the 11th century church in Warfield. Last week I was in Berlin and next week I visit some leaders in Madrid in Spain. We have a problem in Berlin due to the weight of the Mainstage, please pray! I'm still holding out for the opportunity to run an event on the Normandy Beaches on June 6th on the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Landings. It will be an historic moment if we make it and an awesome start to this ambitious plan to take see a breakthrough in Europe for the Gospel. Please pray for this too. The Appeal is going well and people have been so generous. Nearly 100 people have donated in the last month. We still have a way to go though, please help us if you can. Click the link at the top to give now by credit or debit card. Thanks!

Can you help us?

2009-03-21T17:07:00.004Z

Over the last few months I have personally visited many cities on the European Mainland and have been continually impacted by the need for the re-evangelisation of this vast spiritual wasteland. Europe was the cradle of world mission but it is now the forgotten harvest field. I’m responding to this awesome challenge by committing the resources of Miracle Street to this harvest field in a few weeks time.

Several years ago the Lord spoke to me through the story of Operation PLUTO (Pipeline Under The Ocean) in World War Two. It was a dangerously audacious but highly successful plan to sink a 100 mile long flexible petrol pipe under the English Channel to fuel the Allied effort to liberate Europe in 1944. The two ships that laid the pipeline in one night were named after Bishop Latimer and Bishop Ridley who burnt at the stake in Oxford in 1555. As they died for their faith in Christ, Latimer shouted over to Ridley “Today by God’s grace we will light a candle in England that will never be extinguished!” This graphic picture has become the prophetic mandate for us to raise the funds we need to pump into Mainland Europe for a mighty push forward for the Gospel with our giant portable Mainstage blazing a trail from city to city.

I feel like I am staring in the face of the greatest opportunity of my ministry, bigger than all the others put together, to take Miracle Street to the cities of Europe to hold monthly evangelistic festivals. In the last three months we have received invitations to Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Vienna. As I write this we are in conversations about France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Sweden and Eastern Europe. In all of these locations we have the potential to reach many thousands of people for Christ. Sometimes I have wondered whether insanity was taking hold of me to even attempt this but the wind of God on my back is impossible to ignore. It will take Miracle Street to another level without doubt but the costs are huge in comparison to the journey so far.

Please would you consider supporting us financially at this crucial time? You can give a one off gift or become a regular supporter. However big or small it will make a massive difference to us at a time when the need it so great.

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God loves cities!

2009-03-11T12:34:00.006Z

The other day I stood on the beach and remembered the first day God called me as an evangelist. I imagined the Gospel going out across the sea to the ends of the earth. Many will know of my deep roots in the history of the liberation of Europe in 1944. The openings we are getting are in many ways following the timeline and the road map of what happened all those years ago. Could it be that God will do something new but with echoes of the past? Yesterday I was in Amsterdam to discuss a major event in Dam Square and progress was also made for several other locations. I take great comfort as we look at the enormity of the task that this is the work of God and it his plan, his Mainstage and his people we are just serving him in taking the message to the people. Thanks for all the support that so many are giving me at this time.

Brussels, Italy, Greece & Spain

2009-02-13T10:22:00.012Z

Yesterday I was in Brussels to meet with Daniel Costanza one of the leaders of the Pentecostal European Fellowship an organisation that works with the networks linking over 2 million Pentecostal Christians across the Mainland of Europe. It was yet another extraordinary connection that was completely God-inspired. We were able to confirm dates for a Mainstage Festival in Brussels, the political hub of Europe, but also discuss linkages into Italy, Greece and Spain through Daniel's networks. It creates the possibility for us to continue well into the autumn and winter months in these warmer regions of Europe. The many trips I am making into Europe will facilitate large Festivals that will reach many thousands of people, of that I'm sure. Closer to home I am beginning plans for a week long Festival in our home church at Central Hall, Southampton. It is the scene of many great in-gatherings in the past! I'm also visiting many churches at the moment to speak, Rayleigh in Essex and also St Toms in Fair Oak this Sunday. More soon!

The door swings off its hinges

2009-01-30T20:08:00.006Z

Last year I prayed for the door to open into Mainland Europe and the last couple of weeks it feels like it has swung off its hinges! I was unable to travel to Africa this week due to a problem I have had with my back since the New Year. First Class on British Airways and the Marriott Hotel may have been OK but nine hours on Kenya Airways Economy well have finished me off! I took the opportunity to visit Normandy for two days with day crossings that gave me valuable space to seek God for this year and do some preparation. We visited a site in Ouistreham, the port town near Caen, where I think we will launch the work of the Mainstage in Europe on the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings. The site is 100 metres from the British Beachhead. In two weeks time I go to Brussels for the day to meet with one of the guys from the Pentecostal European head office who wants to talk about partnership. We also heard that the Baptist Union of France are interested in linking up with us in 2010. We are in serious discussions about taking the Mainstage to seven cities in four different nations in 2009. In a couple of week’s time we are launching our appeal to raise the £60 to £70,000 that we will need this year in additional to our regular donations to make these plans a reality. Please continue to pray for me as these exciting plans to take the Gospel to the cities of Europe unfold.

Mainstage Festivals in 5 European cities

2009-01-14T11:48:00.017Z

Yesterday I was in Berlin for the second time in four weeks to spend the day with Werner Nachtigal who leads No Limit a powerful evangelisitc ministry that reaches across Germany, Europe an other parts of the world. Through this growing partnership we are laying down plans together to run Mainstage Festivals in Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart as part of No Limit's Summer2Go event that draws hundreds of Christian young people together from across Germany to present the Gospel on the streets. We are also looking at possibilities together in Nuremberg, Vienna and Amsterdam. Normandy remains the key focus for the launch of the Mainstage in Europe and several possibilities exist for June and July.

In the next few weeks we will be launching our annual appeal that many faithfully gave into last year to refit the Mainstage and Mobilestage. 2009's appeal will be focused on Mainland Europe and our plan to reach many thousands of people in several of Europe's biggest cites.

Christmas on the streets

2008-12-20T20:50:00.012Z

It's been exhilarating to be on the streets declaring the Gospel this week. People were incredibly open this year as the credit crunch bites hard. So many have been willing to stand in the cold listening to us talk about Jesus, the Hope of the whole World! Today in Southampton was brilliant. We were 20 feet from where Miracle Street started all those years ago with my dodgy tricks and few crazy mates! We're still pressing in for breakthrough. I want to say thank you so much for standing with me this year in prayer and financially as we have reach over 30 towns and seen over 30,000 people. 2009 is the launch of Turning Point across Mainland Europe and a lot of opportunities in the UK too. We are going to need your support in prayer and finance to see these plans fulfilled. I need you. Have a wonderful Christmas, with much love, Steve

Huge encouragement in Berlin

2008-12-12T11:01:00.007Z

I have just returned from a very fruitful and moving trip to Berlin. While we were there we had two meetings. The first was with a guy called Axel who is one of the six Fathers of Berlin a group of wonderful men who link 120 churches together across this great city. The meeting was such an encouragement to me and I felt the weight of prayer support that I knew was going on. In the afternoon we met with Werner Nachtigal, a powerful evangelist who leads an international ministry called No Limit. We talked together about linking up next July with the Mainstage and working into a number of Germany's main cities. His vision for Europe is the same as mine and I wonder whether this will prove to be one of those very strategic linkages. Watch the clip and be encouraged that your prayers were answered!

Berlin beckons

2008-12-04T10:35:00.008Z

Over the last few days an opportunity has presented itself to go to Berlin for a day of meetings next Tuesday. It’s the opening I have prayed for and the chance to meet some if the key leaders across the city. Berlin is a city that the Lord showed me very clearly back in January and I'm excited at the chance to get over there this side of Christmas. I'm going with Gary Stupple and also Neil Collin from Bracknell who is about to retire for the Metropolitan Police and is keen to give some time to work alongside me. Please pray for the connections and the relationships as we fly over there on Monday evening next week.

Further steps into Normandy

2008-12-01T16:02:00.002Z

Normandy is a place that is in my blood now and it ignites me every time I'm there. 64 years after a battle that destroyed its towns I feel like it is crying out for liberation once more. Our plans for Turning point in 2009 will begin with a series of events across this region of France. Last weekend Ian Mayhew and I hosted a Miracle Street gathering day at New Community Church's base in Vire. It was an exciting day that gave us an opportunity to present the vision for our plans for 2009. We then went onto Caen on Sunday morning where I spoke at the church in Bretteville. It was a powerful morning where we saw the Lord move in some wonderful ways among the people. We had the chance to connect with an English couple called Jimmy and Meryl who I think are key players to the plans for Normandy next year. It’s awesome to meet new people who want to be friends with us and partner in the Gospel.

The Leap of Faith

2008-11-19T14:22:00.002Z

Last Friday I sensed God challenged me to make the decision to commit the Mainstage to Mainland Europe on a permanent basis from June 2009. Over these last few weeks I have wrestled with it a great deal. There is some sense perhaps in going backwards and forwards but I've had to face the fact that this really doesn't reflect what I felt God had said to me in January about committing the Mainstage to a non stop journey beyond these shores. We will need many miracles but we will see them happen if we are obedient to the call of God, I know that's the truth!

Believe and be Baptised

2008-10-30T21:04:00.008Z

Last Sunday I preached the Gospel at the New Community baptismal service at Central Hall. It was an electrifying atmosphere as several were baptised in front of the church and many visitors. The stories were incredibly moving as most had come from very challenging backgrounds. As I stood up to speak I was still very emotional having heard the testimonies of those courageous folks. I felt great liberty in preaching the Gospel in my home church and several came to Christ at the end. It's what it's all about!

London to Lisieux

2008-10-24T13:35:00.014+01:00

Last Sunday I was speaking at Grace Assembly in Croydon, South London. What a debt we owe to the black majority churches in this country for their passion, energy and fervour to see the nation reached with the message of Jesus. It was an absolute honour and privilege to be among them all. Somehow I feel a partnership was begun last Sunday that will last.

I left London for Normandy to spend three days in Lisiuex laying down further plans for Turning Point We shot a video in the town square just off Avenue de juin 6 1944 where the Mainstage will be located next July if we are granted permission by the French authorities.

We'll be making two trips next summer, the first in early June and the second in late July. We hope to see a 'Bridgehead' established in Normandy ahead of Miracle Street Turning Point Festivals in Paris and Berlin. The PLUTO (Pipeline Under The Ocean) Fund is growing all the time. Even £1 a month will make a difference. Click here Donate online if you want to partner with us in this way. Please pray for the success of the Turning Point plans, we need you!

A little bridge

2008-10-13T14:03:00.007+01:00

Last night I was over in Chichester speaking at their monthly joint churches gathering. The events were born out of a desire in the people to connect with God in a deeper way following the Florida Outpouring that went across the world in the summer. It was a privilege to be invited and to re-connect with many people who I go back 20 years with. One of them was Steve Flashman who was the first person to pray for me 27 years ago. I had never seen him since. Even though my journey took some twists and turns in my teens the seed sown in me in the summer of 1981 proved immensely significant in my eventual call as an evangelist. It was great to pray for many people last night who walked over my little wooden bridge that has accompanied around the UK over these last few years. This Sunday I'm speaking at Grace Assembly in South London and then off to Normandy next week for a three days to talk Mainstage Turning Point 2009!

Hibernating tortoise

2008-10-07T13:04:00.006+01:00

I'm encouraged and relieved by the take up among our link churches for the Christmas Mobilestage Tour and also the InsideOut School of evangelism which I'm launching over the winter. We've decided to be much more intentional this year in getting 'out there' beyond the summer months seizing the opportunities to get the message of Jesus on the streets. Sometimes I feel a bit like a tortoise, pretty visible from April to September and then hidden in a cardboard box in the winter! I don't mind the management and planning stuff but I come alive when I'm out there declaring Jesus and having fun with the crowds.

Tomorrow I visit the Normandy Beaches with my mate Si Bates. We'll spend a few hours on Omaha Beach considering the terrifying sacrifice that was made to liberate Europe. We'll dream and reflect there I'm sure. Of course for me this is something I do regularly as we plan for Turning Point next year and the crazy dream to take the Mainstage across Europe.

We're forming a partnership at the moment with a guy called Roy Fields who is touring the UK and drawing big crowds in different places. Roy was the main worship leader in Lakeland, Florida over the last few months. He's a great guy with a huge heart for God. We'll see what God does between us over the next few weeks but its all fascinating stuff as, like me, he has a passion to see people turn to Jesus in the UK and Europe.

Turning Point

2008-09-20T19:16:00.014+01:00

We are now seriously planning for the Turning Point project to take the Mainstage across the Channel to Mainland Europe from next summer. The ambitious plan is to follow what I felt the Lord showed me in a dream to re-establish a bridgehead on the coast of Normandy following the paradigm of the D-Day Landings that ended the Second World War in 1944 but at a terrible price.

Read more about the background and how to get involved here... Miracle Street beyond the UK

We're then aiming to hold Mainstage Festivals in Paris, Berlin, Rome and Athens over the next couple of years ahead of the biggest step of all. We will load the giant Mainstage trailer onto a container ship for a sea passage down the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal and down the Red Sea into Mombasa, Kenya. We'll then connect with my friend Simon Guillebaud who leads Great Lakes Outreach in Burundi and other national connections we have in Kenya and Uganda particularly. Clearly at that stage it is highly unlikely that the Mainstage will return but I feel it is somehow in the destiny of this great resource to move across countries and continents carrying the fire of the Gospel. In mid October I'm going to Africa with Gary Stupple from here and also Francis Dognon my great friend in Normandy who we will work closely with for the European side of things. We'll spend a week with Simon and others to dream and plan together for Miracle Street in Africa! Watch this clip and catch the vision! Oh and turn the sound up!!

Big and small on the same day

2008-09-02T15:16:00.004+01:00

The Bracknell Mainstage Festival this last weekend was one of the best run and the biggest crowds we have seen in five years of running Mainstage events. The weekend opened up with a giant Family Funday with upwards of 5,000 going through the event. I hosted the programme with Simon Thomas and there were many opportunities to present the Gospel. In the evening around 1,000 young people attended a Battle of the Bands event and then another 750 or so for the Church in the Park gathering on Sunday morning.

On Saturday Jono also led a Miracle Street team to Shanklin on the Isle of Wight for a Parklife event. Jono reports "It was great to be back for our tenth event on the island of the summer! The weather was scorching and we had a good crowd turn up. A rather warm straitjacket escape got the message across as we looked to build a foundation for the evening event. We often find that without a big budget band for the evening it's hard to get people to stay around for ‘church’ if they have been around all afternoon. Shanklin was no exception. Maybe we need to explore ways of making the evening work by merit rather than piggy-backing it with a Funday? But we know that several hundred people came along, enjoyed the day, saw the church in a new light and were challenged to think about faith in a new light too?

Amazing time in Bridgend

2008-08-25T11:56:00.003+01:00

Jono and the team are back from a successful and from all accounts very moving trip serving one of the churches in Bridgend. Jono report's "We had a great day on Saturday. The community were blown away that we would want to support their carnival. The evening was unfortunately rained off but we got some food with 8 of the young people that were still on the green and got to pray with 4 of them.

Visit to Bridgend

2008-08-18T15:33:00.004+01:00

This weekend Jono is leading a large team to the Welsh town of Bridgend. Many will have heard on the news of the tragic number of young people who have committed suicide there over recent months. One of the ladies in St Thomas' Church Fair Oak decided to go to the town to meet Mum's on the street and seek to be a blessing to them in whatever way God led. She felt that we should be open to visit if an opportunity presented itself. In response I felt that we should underwrite the cost of any trip from within our own funds if an opportunity presented itself. Well it did and that's what we are going to do. Please pray for Jono and the team this weekend as they visit Bridgend and seek to be carriers of hope to this devastated town.

Many respond to the Gospel

2008-08-05T10:56:00.011+01:00

We have just returned from the Re:Act Mainstage Tour across six towns along the M25 in partnership with several other national organisations and hosted by Urban Saints, formally Crusaders. Throughout the week we worked with a fabulous team of young people who had just returned from a residential training weekend and were fired up to make a difference for Jesus.

It was particularly exciting to reconnect with students from the year long training and discipleship programme I was a part of 20 years ago and see new layers of young people coming though who are dedicated to making their lives count for the Gospel. Each day we held a large Funday that drew thousands and then led into 'Church Outdoors' where I presented the Gospel. In all we saw 59 people make a clear response at those events, the majority being followed up by the many local churches who were all deeply committed to the project.