The experience I’m about to share was life changing, encouraging and a confirmation of what I believed our Lord was asking me to do.
May I take you back to 22-24th February 1990 when I attended a PWM Team Ministry School of Prophecy at City Road Methodist Church Birmingham where Clifford Hill, Clifford Denton, David Noakes and Edmund Heddle gave teaching over three days.
For much of 1989 I sensed the Lord calling me out of the denominational system. As you can imagine I was met with much discouragement and condemnation.
I had been a member of the Anglican Church all of my life from early childhood at Sunday School to teaching young people in the churches wherever I lived. A member of the Outreach Committee and on the PCC, where I was living in Malvern, was a part of my service to our Lord together with teaching young people.
I loved the believing people in Malvern and enjoyed meeting with them from all the different denominations as we learned so much from one another.
I struggled much with what I sensed I was being asked to do and was greatly misunderstood.
To give some background. I am married with three children and had been born again on 18th April 1980 at the Anglican Convent of the Holy Name in Malvern when I was invited by one of the nuns to have a quiet day.
Subsequently I was baptised with our daughter in a full immersion service at the local Pentecostal church.
I was called to prayer, so became a member of the Lydia Prayer Fellowship and set up local interdenominational prayer groups in Malvern.
When I attended the PWM School of Prophecy in February 1990, I remember a conversation with Clifford Hill who suggested I might invite the PWM team to my church in Malvern.
I said that I had been called out of the denomination so it would be difficult for me to extend the invitation. I began to sense a rebuke about the direction to which I believed I had been called from Clifford. He then stopped and said, “I would like to pray with you.”
Having waited on the Lord he said, “I do believe the Lord is wanting to encourage you and to say that He has seen your faithfulness, and the time will come when you will receive the desires of your heart”.
I still have the letter that Clifford Hill wrote to me where he said, “Yes I do remember speaking with you and my surprise when I stopped to pray with you and to listen to the Lord”.
That reassurance enabled me to continue to listen and obey even when it didn’t make sense.
All I can say is a GREAT BIG thank you to Clifford for his humility and prayer as it transformed and strengthened me to continue on the path I was being led. I was ready to completely give up, but that encounter changed everything.
I went on to study at Bible College (Birmingham Bible Institute) for three years where I met Bob and Di Dunnett who I eventually served with in Pray for Revival, subsequently taking over the administration of the Swanwick conferences when Di stopped.
That was followed by being a part of a prayer support group for Ian and Pauline Cole at World Prayer Centre and continuing to administer their conferences at Swanwick.
It was in 1999 that I met a young Burundian man at Swanwick, who was in the UK to study. We took him into our family which led to a teaching ministry in Burundi and Rwanda and a long-term involvement in Burundi.
None of this would have happened if Clifford had not stopped to hear what the Lord was saying.
I am Celia Forsdike and am living just outside Malvern with my husband Alan. Our three children, a girl and two boys are all believers and are married with families. Our two eldest children, a daughter and son both live in the UK.
Our youngest son lives in the USA with his wife and two children who are being brought up in the Christian faith.
Our daughter was called to be a singer with the New English Orchestra with Nigel Swinford and is now bringing up her adopted son to have a deep faith in our Lord Jesus with her husband.
Our second child has been a great support to all our family through some difficult times, he too gave his life to the Lord.
So, the fruit of that February day in 1990 has been far reaching thanks to that prayer Clifford Hill prayed with me. I shall never forget the impact of that conversation.
I give thanks to our Lord for your faithful ministry over so many years. Thank you so very much.
A response from Cliff:
I am so glad to know that I stopped to pray with you. I know that if I was unsure in any of my conversations I made a practice of going into prayer and asking the Lord what I should say. It was obviously right for you and I am so glad to hear of your journey of faith since that day.
I cannot remember whether we ever took the team to Malvern but I personally have some very happy memories of Malvern when I was doing my National Service in the army from 1947 to 1949. I was serving in REME and I was selected to work on radar research – developing new electronic devices which incidentally led to the invention of television – I subsequently designed and built my own television set. For most of my time in the army I spent in Malvern at the (very secret) Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE) up in the hills above Malvern and I stayed in a private hotel in Malvern Links.
I had lots of spare time and I was studying for university entrance to read theology and to enter the Christian ministry for which I taught myself New Testament Greek. But I also went to an Anglican church in the town and enjoyed really lovely fellowship. I used to go to a midweek young people's discussion and prayer group where they were discussing the works of CS Lewis which was new to me at that time but was a great blessing. I have much to be thankful for in the lovely Christian fellowship I enjoyed in Malvern.
I am so glad to read your story and to hear news of your family. Monica and I also have a lovely family of believers which is a great joy to us. We also really enjoy hearing from people like you who have shared in our ministry and walked with us in the journey of faith. Clifford Hill