2009 Archived News
September 2009
ICF 21st Anniversary
On Sunday 6th September ICF celebrated its 21st anniversary. The day began with a wonderful celebration service where we heard inspiring, faith building stories about what God has done over the course of the years; lives transformed, God speaking in remarkable ways, bodies healed. Video greetings were conveyed from Emmanuel Mbakwe (National Leader, Apostolic Church GB) and ICF's previous pastor, Eric, along with his wife Rena, and members of the congregation, young and more mature (!), took part in different ways.
We were thrilled to have Pastor David Hamilton as our guest speaker. David has a remarkable testimony of how God through Christ transformed him from being a terrorist to a fully devoted follower of Jesus. He challenged the church about living in a new level of faith.
On the Sunday evening there was a Sunday Night Live event. The foyer area of Millburn Academy was transformed into a large cafe. Aknor light performed some Gospel music. They are a band made up of folks from ICF and are the 'house band' at the Coffee Affair Live Music event every Saturday Night in the town centre. After Aknor Light, David shared his story. You can see a video of the evening above. It was great to see the foyer area full both downstairs and upstairs, and to see so many folks who are not from ICF. Altogether there were 5 responses to the Gospel.
Praise the Lord for a truly great day, and we can't wait for what else God is going to do in the days and years ahead!
August 2009
Six Baptised in River Ness
Six ICFers were baptised in the River Ness on Sunday 16th August in a public declaration of their faith in Christ. Danyal, Louise, Luke, James, Maria and Raymond were all fully immersed in the cold waters.
A service had already taken place at Millburn Academy where over 150 people gathered to hear the stories of how each of the candidates had come to faith in Christ, and their reason for wanting to be baptised. Three of the candidates are in their teens, and it was great to see them publicly declare that they want to live their lives following Jesus. Another candidate, James, related to the congregation just how amazed he was to even be standing in front of them as only a matter of months ago he would have confessed to being a 'virtual atheist'. Maria and Raymond also commented on how warm and welcoming the church had been to them.
At the river the gathered crowd sang the hymn, Amazing Grace, before one by one the candidates went into the river to join Ian who baptised each of them assisted by Tim, and then David. The river was a bit cold, and the current was flowing quite fast, but nothing could take away from the joy of the moment. Afterwards, one of the candidates remarked, 'I never imagined it would be so good'.
The Inverness Courier sent a photographer to film the baptisms and get photographs. Ian explained to a newspaper reporter that our faith in Christ is not something private, but is for the public domain, and that along with millions of Christians around the world we were declaring that Jesus changes lives. [We want to thank the Inverness Courier for their interest in the event, and for the article published in Tuesday 18th August 09's edition of the Paper.]
If you are reading this article and want to find out more about following Jesus, and baptism, please get in contact with us. We'd love to hear from you!
This was the second ICF baptismal service in under a year at the River Ness. After the baptisms it was back to the Balloch Hall to party!
June 2009
Luis Palau Festival - a weekend to remember!
19th & 20th June will be a weekend many of us will remember. The weekend that the Luis Palau Festival came to Bught Park in Inverness at the culmination of the Highland Festival. Many ICFers got involved as 'orange shirted' festival friends, and a number more as volunteers. It was great - here are a few of our experiences.
Action Sports Area: Just before the start on Friday afternoon we had heavy rain and even though the rain only fell for a short 
time the boards at the action sports area became wet. There were some of the best skate boarders and stunt bikers in the world, and these guys were not going to perform on wet boards. It was decided to hire in some blowers to try and dry the surface and some guys went off to get them, but even before they came back a sudden strong wind picked up and it dried the surface of the boards within minutes. It was as though God said, 'I'm in control...even of the weather". The God who gave us the rain, also brought the wind... and we were good to go! There wasn't a drop of rain again after that point for the remainder of the festival.
On Saturday very large crowds watched the skaters in action, and all of them stayed around to hear the Gospel preached. The crowd was made up of mainly of non-believers, but they all bowed their heads in prayer at the end of the message. Many young people responded to the message. We were in fact totally swamped with responses on the Saturday afternoon - praise God!
Main stage: The bands that performed on the main stage were simply fantastic. Every single act put heart and soul into every performance and the crowd loved it! What was fantastic to see was open worship to God as bands like Hillsongs London and Delirious? played and lifted up the name of Jesus. Luis Palau brought a very practical message on what Jesus can do for people irrespective of what situation of life they find themselves and on Saturday a very powerful message on the reality of death, heaven and hell.
Central to the whole event was the gospel - the power of God unto salvation to those who believe.
Due to a hiccup at an earlier Highland Festival event in Golspie, our youth band Riptide were let down at playing at that event, so our pastor had a wee chat with Jose Zayas, who was at ICF in May, so see if they could get to meet Delirious? So on the Saturday evening after Delirious? had rocked the park, Riptide were 
'lingering'. Again a wee reminder to Jose and in they went, although only the Riptide band members (not sure when Ian joined Riptide though...). One of the Riptide members was overcome, and said their hand would never be washed again - but it was on Sunday morning. :-)
Some facts about the Highland Festival: 20,000 people from across the Highlands heard the Gospel at more than 60 outreach events over 13 days that was the Highland Festival! Hundreds have come to faith, many have rededicated their lives to Christ, and others have begun a journey to learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus.
May 2009
Quiz Night 2009
Maybe not quite on the same scale as Britain's Got Talent, but all the same there are some people out there with some impressive knowledge.... Six teams came together on Friday 22nd May to compete for the now annual ICF Quiz Night and what a quiz it was!
Rounds included Mystery Objects, Name the Year, Flags of the World, Andrew Lloyd Webber Musicals, Sport (no one got any of these right), General Knowlege and Bonus Puzzles to name but a few. It was a close contest with the top 3 teams all coming within 4 points of each other. However even more impressive was that a record was set. The team who received the wooden spoon got the lowest score in the history of ICF Quiz Nights - a pathetic 7 (seven) points. However, we won't embarrass them by mentioning their names - they know who they are :-).
Want to know who the winners were then? It was 5 girls who called themselves "Queen Beez". Well done girls!
ICF Youth Team Up With Jose Zayas
With the Highland Festival fast approaching the Luis Palau organisation sent in evangelist, Jose Zayas, from Portland Oregon to speak at a city wide pre-festival youth event on Saturday, and ICF youth band, Riptide, were invited to lead worship.
Young people came from many different churches and filled the CYC hall. The meeting kicked off with an introduction from CYC youth worker Tommie MacKay who handed over to Riptide.
It was the first time the new band had played in public but their nerves didn't show. They were fantastic! Musically it was great, but what was even more great was the way they worshipped God, and inspired a crowd of their peers to do the same. A special mention needs to go to Riptide drummer, Connor, who played in public for the first time - Connor, you were awesome!
After a timeof worship, Tiffany Stewart, Highland Festival Director, announced the line up of bands for the Bught Park event on 19th-20th June - among the line up announced were Superhero and Hillsongs London, and then there was huge excitement when the final band's name was announced... Delirious! Once things calmed down Jose Zayas brought an inspiring and challenging message encouraging the young people to bring their friends to Jesus much like Andrew brought Peter to Jesus in the Bible. After a time of prayer, Riptide played the meeting out. The place was rocking. It was a great evening.
The following morning the youth lead the ICF Sunday morning service. Marcus and Moses brought a 'mini-sermon' each (guys, you both did really well!). It was the first time for both of them. Later on Jose commented that he preached his first sermon in a youth service when he was 15, and he thought it was great that these guys (allbeit a couple of years older) were doing the same. Riptide lead the church in worship, and once again did really well. Timmy read, Danyal prayed (Danyal - it was 'awesome'!) at the end of the service followed by a rendition of 'Highland Cathedral' on the bagpipes!
Jose Zayas spoke on the handover from Moses to Joshua, and related it to the relationship between the generations in a healthy church. He also challenged the church about what they are handing on to the young people and to release the young people in all God has for them.
It was a really great morning, and a great weekend!
April 2009
Still singing the gospel
On Saturday 4th April, as usual with Highland weather, the sun disappeared for the day and rain and cold came back to greet us. But no matter what the weather outside, it was warm inside Coffee Affair.
When we arrived we managed to attract a 'roadie' who did not quite understand that we were doing this for free and that we were singing the Gospel. After set up the evening started with a time of prayer which set a relaxed theme to the rest of the night. It was quiet to start with but we soon had people coming in off the street and then we were into full swing.
We had a lady dancer dance in the door while Tom was on, ending with her shouting at Tom, "You're Gorgeous", then danced out the door again! Tom was quite impressive, he held it together to finish his song without too much laughter... :-)
Overall it went well, especially Garry and Toni, who were on for the first time. We were encouraged by a well dressed gentleman who came in towards the end with his wife and daughter. They said that they were delighted at what we were doing, and that they had heard us down the street. He had spoken to the owner of Coffee Affair to ask how all this had come about. The owner then told him how he had been approached to open up the shop.
Thank You Lord for all that was seen and all that was unseen on Saturday night.
From Easter 2009, these events started taking place EVERY Saturday evening from 9pm-11pm
February 2009
An evening to remember
It was a very special evening on Sunday 1st February 2009 when Brora Christian Fellowship became part of the Highland Network of Apostolic Churches.
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The evening was led by Ps Samuel McKibben, founder of ICF and pioneer of the Highland Network. An anointed time of worship was led by Michael - all present felt the tangible presence of God confirming to the fellowship in Brora that God is with them and beside them as they enter this new chapter in their journey.
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Following worship, a number of people from other fellowships in the Highland Network gave testimony to what being part of the network means to them. During these testimonies, Brora Christian Fellowship were told of the prophecy that was given many years ago regarding the Highland Network: it was a picture of a net spread across the Highlands of Scotland and at each knot in the net there would be a group of God's people there. Testimony was also given of the fact that each church in the network works it's own patch but in the knowledge that they want to be involved in something bigger across the Highlands; for we serve a great big God! Also encouragement came that the network allows a church to have a focus outside of itself, because the Highland Network is a family. The scripture that underpinned the testimonies was that as you refresh others so you will be refreshed. We pray this will be true of Brora Christian Fellowship to the glory of God.
A wonderful letter of greeting and enouragement was read out from Ps Ian Ross from Inverness Christian Fellowship who recalled sitting in a home in Brora 5 years ago sharing with Gina her desire to have a prayer meeting in Brora. How wonderful to see how God has led and developed the work in Brora to now seeing them take this step of standing on their own two feet as part of the Highland Network of Apostolic Churches. Praise be to our God!
Ps Samuel McKibben then gave a message on Unity, in which he described the 2 types of unity: Unity with God and Unity with each other. He went onto explain that unity with God started at conversion - we are no longer separated from God by sin! It's a unity that needs to be worked on - a personal responsibility to stay united with Christ. A unity that is spiritual and one that submits to Him. Our unity with each other has purpose - that the world may know that God sent Jesus - the strongest body is one that stays united in what they believe; and their interests such as wanting others to know Christ, in our worship of Him, in bible teaching, and in prayer.
Overall a superb evening and one that will be remembered for some time to come.
January 2009
Prophetic word given to ICF on Sunday 25th Jan
We believe God spoke to us, Inverness Christian Fellowship, through a prophetic word on Sunday 25th Jan. It has been transcribed below for you to read and consider.
"For even my people as you have sought to glorify me and as you have allowed your voices to bring me praise, so I the Lord your God would speak unto you and cause your sights to be lifted higher. For there has been a doom and a gloom and a blackness like a depression over my people, but I the Lord your God am willing even now to raise you from this place to a place of blessing and a place of re-assurance; a place where you have long since departed from; a place where you will feel the moving of My Spirit, where you will be led by the Lord your God and not by your own feelings of inability and ineffectualness. For I desire, my people, that you should know the moving of the Lord your God; that you should know My voice, that you would be led by Me and Me alone. You are mine and I am jealous over you and I have a work for you to do, but at this present time I would that you would pray with each other, that you would reach out with one another in order that the blessing I impart to you may be imparted to one another, thereby bringing unity and love amongst you. For there is not one amongst you that is higher than the other, and there is not one amongst you that is too low to be lifted: for I the Lord your God have PURPOSE amongst you and in this year that lies ahead of you , you will see Me moving, you will see that cloud being lifted from you and you will arise. You WILL arise says the Lord your God. You WILL arise. Are you hearing me? Are you receiving me? Are you catching the vision that your Lord is about His business? The time is short, the darkness outside is great, but you dwell in light and it is that light that you need to shed abroad. It is that light that you need to carry: not disappointments, not heartaches, not things that you have become disillusioned with, but I desire that you fall in love with me afresh, that you seek first the Kingdom of God, for all else will be added unto you as you put me first says the Lord your God. You will not lack any good thing. This is my promise to you and I am a covenant keeping God, saith the Lord your God."
Liz Syred from ICF shared this on 4th January 2009 - A HEART AFTER GOD
As it says in Psalm 42 “As the Deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God” and just as the life of the deer depends on the water so our lives depend on God.
My overriding desire is to get to know God better. I am tired of my Christian life being made up of traditions, religiosity, structures, and going to church. I want the reality of knowing and living in God to be my life not just a part of it.
A few weeks ago George Normington (also from ICF) said the bottom line is you want a revelation of Father God’s love. I said yes exactly. I do believe if we have that as the fabric of who we are then everything else fits into place.
So how do we get this revelation?
A lot has been said about resolutions. However, the date a resolution is set is not as important as the moment in time when you decide to change your behaviour, actions, attitude, set plans, goals.
It really struck me how serious resolutions are actually intended to be and yet we trivialize them. As Christians we can do the same.
We can make resolutions sincerely but as life kicks in it can be difficult to maintain. So we give up; but should we, or does it mean we need to change the focus?
I believe we need to change the focus. When we became Christians we made a firm decision to follow Jesus. An outworking of that is as we allow God’s love to flow in and out of our lives we accept our responsibility to help and be involved in the lives of those around us both Christian and non Christians introducing them to the father’s love. What is important is that we introduce and influence our world with the love of the Father not rules, doctrines, structures, not religion. It is about letting people see God and his love.
If we are resolute in having a heart after God our priority will be getting to know him and how much he loves us. Everything else becomes secondary. Then we will actually find ourselves getting more involved in people’s lives and helping them in practical ways.
So how do we practically make this happen?
In James 1:6 it says: “But when you ask God, be sure that your faith is in him alone. Do not waiver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.”
I believe there are three ingredients: Desire, Discipline and Delight.
Desire – what is it you really want? What is in the core of your being that drives you? When you are on your own what is it that matters most? What is your fundamental motive for doing things? What do you come to church for? What difference does it make in your life? . Like many of our resolutions we can have the desire and start of ok but then become disillusioned that is where the discipline kicks in.
Discipline – We need to be resolute – having a fixed purpose and a determination to pursue it regardless of what happens. When you were first in love nothing was more important than meeting or talking to that person, so it should be with God. God is more interested in strength and stability. We want the quick fix or an experience that will instantly resolve all problems. But real maturity is never the result of a single experience, no matter how powerful. Growth is gradual. The Bible says “Our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters –and we become like him.” 2 Cor: 3:18 Yes discipline includes reading and meditating on the word of God; praising and thanking God; allowing the Holy Spirit to move but it also includes spending time just chatting, laughing, listening to God. Being involved with people, Christian and non Christian not telling them how they should behave but being a friend sharing who you are not what you have become. That is when we get to the position of delight.
Delight – living in his presence, knowing that you know him and even if times are hard, and he seems far away you know he is watching over you. The more you grow to trust God’s love, the freer you will be. Often we find his love in the most broken places of our lives. As your desire grows, and the discipline is in place you will find that it is easier not to sin because you trust his love and intentions for your life which will motivate your behaviour.
God’s purpose for us to be here is to be His friend to live knowing Father God’s love every day of our lives so we can influence the world in which we live and so find our purpose, value, worth and fulfill our destiny. We don’t know what this year will bring, but we do know God is with us. It depends on us as to how well we know him.