Dear Friends,
We trust you are well and enjoying spring weather in your area! We currently are in Finland with about 40 cm of snow -although we now quite look forward to seeing green patches! We wanted to write to you about Wild Rest and where we are sensing Father is leading us and how you can partner with us in this next season. We have a growing conviction that the mission of Wild Rest is of absolute importance for the body of Christ in the coming years. We don’t mind who fulfils that mission but we press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. ‘Wild Rest must fly!’ (On one of our first retreats a guest wrote this in our book.)
A New & Growing Connection in England
We are delighted to have a growing connection to the Lighthouse Community Church (CN: 1050455) in the New Forest where we speak regularly on Sundays and are supporting the core leadership of the church. Our journey with them, continues to develop. As a church, they have given us and Wild Rest a church ‘home’ in England, and with this we are delighted to now be able to collect money through a designated Wild Rest bank account that sits within their charitable status. Should you wish to give towards our mission, please transfer money to account number: 02352305; sort code: 30-98-73; account name: Lighthouse Community Church; reference: Wild Rest. Please note that UK gift aid facility is not currently available.
What is our Mission?
Wild Rest has many beautiful facets -but our overarching passion and mandate is to encourage and invite people (the church) to find true expression out of true identity -the glorious freedom of being a child of God, that will impact the earth, communities with our Fathers kingdom.
How are we fulfilling our Mission?
One heart at a time! As you know our ministry has taken on different expressions but with the same mission throughout. We have strong value that “ministry” must be birthed out of who one is (John 7:38) and not through some external organised production. Ministry should and can grow and those pioneers who “make the way” impart a grace to others to settle peacefully and easily in pioneered lands. Wild Rest has pioneered a land that we invite others into (and of course there are many other ministries also finding their way into this new land). We have a growing community across Europe that we are very intentionally connected to at a heart level, this is the core of who we are.
Europe!
We have been involved for a number of years in the ministry and relationships that flow from Burn 24/7 Europe, and over the last 2 years Wild Rest has become more closely aligned. Burn 24/7 Europe is a beautiful European ministry, and is the offshoot from the global ministry of the same name. As a family, we have a close connection to the European director Deborah Wright and the core team that spread wide throughout Europe. Recently we initiated and co-led with Debbie a pan European day of worship focusing on business, aptly named the Business Burn! This was a powerful day filled with God’s presence as worship teams from every region between the Nordics and Israel poured out their heart as powerful prayers of blessing were released into the market place. We shall continue to grow the Business Burn with Debbie and the team.
There is a growing sense in our hearts to bless the enlarging worshiping community of Burn 24 7 Europe with the treasures we have found through Wild Rest, to be more involved, with a heart to encourage release and strengthen the family of Burn 24/7 Europe. God is moving powerfully in Europe -may the overflow reach many!
Communicating the Heart of God
Sarah has an amazing gift for articulating the heart of God in writing and through art. She has growing following for her writings which form a strong backbone to Wild Rest, she has been the scribe behind our retreat devotional, our blog and narrates our journey with insight. She has books and devotionals, written that one day will be release, and I know will be a blessing to many. She uses Instagram (wildrest.journey and sarah.l.day) and our website www.wildrest.org to communicate at this time.
Norman has recently launched a new website called:
www.wonderfulfather.com His desire is that this will be a portal for those who do not yet know the Wonderful Father to hear good news stories that lead them to Jesus. We long to see a multitude of the lost come into the Kingdom, know the heart of God, walk in their identity and, start journeys with their Father that go far beyond where we currently are.
Wild Rest Refuge
As you know we have been on quite a wild journey for the last few years but we consistently hold close to our hearts a dream to create refuge for hearts to go on Wild Rest journeys, an abiding place of excellence, where people can come in person to spend times "re-wilding" their hearts with Jesus, going on journeys with the Father and having powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit.
At this stage we remain uncertain as to where this place is and the timing of when God wants to release this to us, and yet, He asks us to stand firm in faith for the vision.
Central to everything we do is facilitating encounters with God and those living in the community or visiting will enjoy a daily rhythm of intimacy with God in the beautiful ‘House of Encounter’, much like David's Tabernacle of Exodus 25. Our prophetic history with God leads us to have faith that this House of Encounter will be a place of unusual manifestation of heaven on earth.
A high value of our hearts is to raise up, strengthen and release others in the dreams Father has out in their hearts. We want to continue to want to support people financially and otherwise to pursue the expressions Father has placed within their hearts. Including those who have, and those who want to spend a season of intentional time with ‘Wild Rest’.
We thank you for the support and courage you have given us over the last 10 years of Wild Rest! The journey has been hard and wonderful all at once sometimes, we continue to persevere believing that this year will be marked by significant favour as we continue to hold our hands open before our wonderful Father, may our lives ever be a sweet offering unto Him.
There is a huge awakening coming to the world, and millions will be ushered into the Kingdom, God’s presence poured out for his bride to shine, as the sons of God are revealed, possessing the inheritance and glorious liberty of sonship we have been given.
We are poised, ready and excited to be on this journey with you.
Love
Norman & Sarah,
Finland