Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS THE LORD TOOK HOLD OF BUGBROOKEThe Saturday evening group in the Manse began to explorethe supernatural gifts of the Spirit — tongues, prophecy, wisdom,knowledge, healing, and so forth. One evening DavidMills laid hands on them, and brought them all a word fromthe Lord. He also prophesied that one day the whole chapelwould be full of people — arms raised and praising God. Thatwas hard to believe!The Fountain Trust was a great encouragement, and therewas also input from leaders of the emerging ‘house churches’.Peter Lyne came from Bristol and led them into singing in theSpirit. Other young leaders like Graham Perrins, GeraldCoates and John MacLaughlin visited the group. Hugh Thompsonwas the first to demonstrate the word of knowledge.‘Someone has a toothache,’ Hugh announced. The someonerefused prayer, however.In July most of the group went off for a fortnight in Devon.The holiday helped them to get to know one another better. Itbrought a sense of family, and they began to refer to eachother as ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’. Three others from Northamptonturned up at this Devon retreat. John was a gentleyoung man seeking to lead a small group forward in the Spirit,Malcolm was a quiet sixth-former, studying music, and Philhad recently been converted. They quickly became part ofthe ‘family’, and Phil cremated a pile of his cigarettes in thegarden.John would often visit the manse group. When he spoke, hetrembled with fear, but his words carried power. His Northamptongroup often brought people along to the meetingsand gradually news spread around that ‘something interestingis going on at Bugbrooke’.38