September 2010

In the Hot Seat

Diane Kot has kindly agreed to sit in the hot seat this month, so, Diane, would you like to share with us something about your life ……

AT HOME?
We have lived in Northumberland Heath since moving from Welling three years’ ago and as well as being Pete’s wife, I am a mother of two beautiful children, one aged 20, our daughter Victoria, and Aaron, aged 16. I am really blessed because as I work full time I am not a housewife! Pete does all the cooking, washing up, etc.! I am blessed, aren’t I?

AT WORK?
For just over two years I have been very happy working in Erith as a Workforce Support Manager, with adults who have learning disabilities and mental health problems. It is a sheltered workshop where they come to gain work experience to prepare them for employment. However, I have a real passion for the elderly, with whom I worked for 27 years, and this has been quite a change.

AT PLAY?
Worship is our life; as you know I am a part of the Heavenly Rain Ministries worship group. We love nothing more than to get together with Christian friends. We have an ever open house and are always entertaining and sharing meals. I don’t think a week goes by when someone is not popping in to share a meal and fellowship. And, of course, it’s great just being together as a family. In fact, I don’t get a lot of spare time really!

How long have you known Jesus as your Lord, Saviour and Friend?

I have always been a Christian; however, I don’t think I was born again until about ten years’ ago when I met a friend who was, and she really ignited my faith.

What difference do you find being a Christian makes in your life?

It has completely changed my life in every aspect. I look to the Lord for guidance and am guided by him. I believe my job was straight relationship and to know that He cares about me! Sometimes we feel so weak and insignificant and yet the Creator of the world, who has made all things, is interested in me! That blows me away!

Have you a favourite Bible verse?

More actually! One is Psalm 139, the theme of which is that God is all seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere present. That God knows us, God is with us and His greatest gift is to allow us to know him. And

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” - Isaiah 55:12.

And this is also my favourite song. It just thrills me to think that even the trees in the fields will praise God.

This is just a taster about Diane’s life and her walk with the Lord. She has a powerful testimony to tell us about her healing, which I hope to include in a future edition once she has shared it with us one Sunday!

A Chat with Pete Kot

Pete, thank you for agreeing to have this chat – I am sure it will be really interesting!

So, let’s start with the past! Would you tell us about your early years; where you were born, about your family, whether you were brought up in a Christian environment, about school, jobs, interests, (was this the beginning of your musical talents?) etc. up until the time you met and married Diane.

I was born in 1963 in Charlton. My father was Polish and was 22 years older than my mum, and I had a strained relationship with him. We went to church occasionally, which I found extremely boring! I started playing the guitar, classically, when I was about nine. I went to Crown Woods School in Eltham, and that is when I started my love for the guitar because I got a place in the Royal London College of Music. I also got into drink, drugs and heavy rock, so I dropped out of school halfway through A levels because I was going to go to the music school and got a couple of jobs in the meantime until the placement came up. My second job was at Plumstead Lodge Old People’s Home, which is where I met Diane, when she was only 16 and just starting out at work! Around that time I lost my love for music, I stopped playing the guitar and gave up my place at the College.

In 1984 my mum died at the age of 56 of a heart attack and this started the period which I call my Dark Years: when the fear of death consumed me and consumed my life, the time when I became a horrible person and decided I could not work with old people any more, and, in fact, went into the motor trade. But, for some reason, Diane had stuck with me and we got married in 1986.

About your life after you got married – how you earned a crust over the years. About bringing up the family. About the good times and if there were any bad times how the Lord helped – (did you know Jesus as your Lord, Saviour and Friend at this time?)

I was still working in the motor trade – buying and selling cars – although I have had loads of different jobs over the years, even working in the banana industry, but just for a day! The work was so physically hard and at the end of that day I never wanted to see another banana! My last job was a social worker at Darenth Valley Hospital, and I was there for four years, but had to leave because I had to cover the whole hospital by myself, and this became too stressful. I now spend my time buying and selling collectables, of which we have a garage full! Or “junk” if you are talking to Diane!

In 1989 Victoria was born and the fear of a cot death started to consume me. I used to lay awake at nights, constantly checking that she was breathing – it did not help that she was a sickly child as well. I remember one night when I was lying in bed worrying about her and I thought “I just can’t do this any more,” and I gave her life over to God. It was like a big weight being lifted from me! It took another 11 years for me to really know the Lord!

After Diane became born again – she was different. I looked at her as though she had grown two heads! – she wanted to go to a healing meeting so I went with her (a bit off putting because everyone was screaming in tongues) and afterwards the Pastor came over and spoke to me. I told him that I just did not get church and found them to be dead places! He said he had once felt the same and that if I did not feel God in a church then I needed to go a find a church where God was. I was sitting in front of my computer, pondering on what he had said and whether to go to Diane’s church, when the words “What’s Holding You Back?” flashed up on the screen. I had decided to go with Diane but I also started listening to and watching Christian programmes, and the Pastor’s words came back to me, and I knew I had to find a church were God was, and that is how I ended up at Wellspring Pentecostal Church, in Welling, in December 2000. At that time we were about £4,000-£5,000 in debt, and come the following year God had sorted it out. I got baptised in the March of 2001. Sadly, on the day of my baptism my sister freaked and we still have not spoken since. Also, the day after, I came under heavy spiritual attack and I had never felt the presence of evil before!

Because Diane and I were going to different churches we were seeing things differently and it started to affect our marriage. But the Lord is good! I remember one evening when I was out doing street evangelism and a lady said to me that Diane would be joining my church, and three weeks’ later she did! I met Del and Carol the day I joined Wellspring, and also started playing the guitar again, and eventually joined the worship team. Not long after becoming a Christian, I had a fortnight where every time I prayed I kept crying about the lost, which resulted in my first song being written! So, Del and I got together to write songs, which we are still doing.

So, you have arrived at a time when you and Diane are worshipping together, you have met Del and Carol and are writing songs, so would you tell us how Heavenly Rain Ministries come about and how you came to be worshipping with us at BBC?

The congregation at Wellspring encouraged us to make an album and with a lot of large donations from them, as well as a lot of money saving support from the industry, we were able to do this “on the cheap” and a CD was made. But at this time Del felt called to leave Wellspring and although I had started feeling unsettled prior to this, Diane did not feel the same so we stayed. Whilst discussing the album we realised we had more to give than just music, including testimonies and ministering to those who did not know the Lord, and this led to the start of Heavenly Rain Ministries with Del and Carol.

It has been a tough two years, trying to get churches to understand what we are doing but during this time we did one of the worship evenings at BBC and we both felt immediately at home here. It was like being in our church – a lovely feeling. I tried to put it to the back of my mind but it just stayed and when God finally called us out of Welling this was the first church which we thought we would try, after which we planned to work our way around the churches to see where the Lord wished us to be.
Just prior to leaving Wellspring, we went to a Worship Conference in London. We felt so burdened at the prospect of leaving, we asked a young guy to pray for us. He prayed right into our situation and our ministry. Then the first time we came to BBC, Frank’s prayer for us was exactly the same as this young guy’s! And on the same Sunday we had more confirmation with the scripture - Isaiah 61, which Andrew brought to the church that evening. This was the same scripture God had given me when I was searching for direction for our worship ministry once we had left Wellspring. We knew than that our search was over and that God wanted us at BBC! Such a confirmation! The vision Frank has for the church matches our vision, and the foundation of this vision is praise and worship. God was answering everybody’s prayer at the same time!

I know our futures are in the Lord’s hands, but would you like to share any hopes and prayers which you have for the future?

I want to see all the churches working together as one. God has put this on my heart.

Do you have a favourite Bible verse?

Proverbs 3 speaks to me, especially verse 5 –“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

I often use Psalm 23 during my prayer time, and Luke 10:21 speaks to me a lot on worship level.

Thanks, Pete, for the lovely time I spent with you and Diane whilst “interviewing” you both. Also, thank you for the complimentary CD – I loved it and look forward to hearing some of the songs during our worship times. I was astounded that the making of this CD cost in the region of £7,000, even “on the cheap!”

The Final Curtain

Well here we are again, Café Church and the end of the summer (did we actually have one this year?); it’s been dry but we don’t seem to have had much sunshine. Not very good for those of you who are keen gardeners and don’t have a lot of time to water. What has happened since I last wrote? Well it seems that I will now have to work until I drop as the Government has decided that we will no longer be able to retire at 65 and will be allowed to go on working as long as someone is willing to employ us. Good news for many people but it won’t make it any easier for older (over 50) workers to change jobs or get a new one as there still appears to be a lot of discrimination in employment. John Ross tells me that we will be able to retire from 55, as long as we have enough pension to live on, but who knows if we will or even at what age the Government is going to start paying the diminished State Pension as this seems to be changing. Still I guess it means that the Church members’ decision over Frank’s retirement has almost been taken away from us as the new rules are due to start from April next year, but will not be final until October. A great believer in working whilst I have the opportunity will see me taking advantage of the new rules just as long as my employer wants me, if I’m still in a job when I reach whatever retirement age will be when I reach it.

Have you been enjoying Café Church? I think our Summer Programme is a real blessing not only to our Church but also to the community. It brings Church to where it should be, in the open and available to all. I really feel that so many people just walk past the church on a ‘normal’ Sunday and all they see are open doors, but no people. They must wonder what goes on in there or perhaps more likely they don’t really take any notice, which makes it all important that we can take Church to them through events like Café Church and special celebrations in the open such as at Easter and Christmas. Lets try for more so we can really reach out to people and meet their need. The Communion service in the Car Park was particularly moving, and full of the Spirit.

The Refresh Centre is going to be open soon, and I must just say a few words about the hard work that has gone in to setting everything up and organising (or even re-organising) all the various ‘organisations’ that use the church to enable us to continue to serve the community through the Centre and all the activities currently held and many more that will be set up in the future. Well done everybody, particularly Mark & Hannah who have been able to overcome many obstacles and have worked very hard to ensure that people have been kept up to date with developments and consulted during the change process.

Do you get a lot of these really silly and annoying marketing phone calls? I’ve just had one in the middle of writing this short article and it seems to me that nobody takes any notice when you ask them not to call again. I’ve put my name on the CTPS list which may have stopped some calls but we continue to receive unwanted calls. I have yet to find a double glazing company able to provide self cleaning windows or someone who claims ‘not to be selling’ something and then tries to sell you a service. I tell them to write to me, but haven’t had a single letter from any of them. What is our world coming to? The internet, telephone sales, mobile phones, e-mails, all made to give the impression that you must reply NOW. What is wrong with writing to people and sending a reply by letter, is it too polite, or just ‘too slow for the modern age’. It seems to me we are close to mourning the art of letter writing as that of a bygone era; how very sad that people rarely take the time to actually write. Why not write a letter to someone? It doesn’t need to be long, just handwritten and sent with love.

On a lighter note I thought you’d be interested in a few new definitions of words in the English language as mentioned in a recent recording of one of my favourite Radio4 programmes, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. These were given by the panel when asked to provide words and alternative meanings for them.

Demonic: Her Majesty the Queen; Trampoline: liquid for cleaning vagrants; Bidet: two days before D day; Tarka Dahl: one of the ‘otter’ curries; psychedelia: mental cook; agog: a half finished Jewish Temple. There were a few more but not suitable for this publication.

On a more serious note I have decided to take a break and this will be the final article from the anon computer (there even I’ve succumbed to the new technology) for some time. I may make a return for the occasional piece but that will depend on our illustrious Editor being able to persuade me to fill up some space in the newsletter on special occasions like Christmas, Easter and Freda’s birthday. Love to all my readers in the name of Christ. ANON

Thank you so much (Oops! I nearly typed your name!!) I have really enjoyed receiving your articles and I look forward to approaching you nearer Christmas for a piece in the December edition and nearer Easter but NOT for my birthday!!! Editor

BMS News

Jenny Riddell is a BMS World Mission legal worker in Uganda. She was recently able to help a young man out of a frightening legal situation and also became the answer to a mother’s prayer.

Agabus was only 18 when the police picked him up in Kasese town one evening on his way to a friend’s house. They found that he had 60,000 shillings (£20) in his pockets and decided that he must have stolen the money. He was remanded in custody and charged with a theft that had taken place that evening in another village. Agabus’ mother and father tried in vain to find out why he was imprisoned but were told there was nothing they could do. Jenny met Agabus when she went to the local prison in Kasese to teach prisoners on how they could represent themselves in court. With many people uneducated and unable to answer the technical legal questions they are asked, they are often falsely sentenced for crimes they haven’t committed. Agabus (who had been studying at secondary school at the time of his arrest) immediately stood out from the other prisoners as a polite, well educated and inquisitive man and volunteered to act as a translator.

During the afternoon he shared his story with Jenny and asked if she could look into his case file as he had no idea why he had been arrested. When Jenny followed Agabus’ file up at the court she found he had been accused of a crime that had taken place on the day before Palm Sunday. When she returned to the prison she was able to pin-point exactly where Agabus had been on that special weekend – with his uncle in another village. When Agabus’ case was brought to court he was able to represent himself and provide an alibi now that he knew where he was on the date he had been accused. The case was dismissed. Despite spending three months in prison for a crime he didn’t commit Agabus is now back at school. Agabus’ mother, who met Jenny a few weeks later explained how she had stopped eating and cried herself to sleep for weeks during Agabus’ arrest. She had not known what to do to help him and had simply prayed that somehow God would open a door for him to be released.

Excerpts From the Calles' News LetterNEWS LETTER

“Thank you for your prayers and financial support which frees us from worries for our daily needs while we work full time for the church in our own area. On 3rd October there will be the local mayors and regional president elections. There are many people from different denominations going as candidates, which is good on one side but the problem is that some of them, because of pressure and spiritual weakness, end up being part of the corruption, which is a bad testimony for the church. The church building project continues going ahead but the continuing road works in the surrounding streets are making it more difficult with the transport of materials. Despite this, the work on the roof has started. Please pray for work safety and completion of the roof, for the elections, for the Home for the Elderly, the pastoral work and for our family life and ministry and thank God that Oliver’s health has been good and he is doing the second term of this year at university.”