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Hello, my name is Robert Stone and this is my story. Just like most “normal” people I was quite happy going along in my life with not too many problems and not much time, or thought, of why I was here, or in which direction my life should go. I had from an early age an awareness of god, but it was very vague and I never went to church in any way or form. It wasn’t that I wasn’t allowed or stopped; it’s just that nobody in my family went. Fast forward to my 30’s and through a set of circumstances I found myself working with a young born again Christian. Over a period of 18 months I was shaped and moulded by my God, and brought to a point where I gave my life over to him. I was worshipping in a good solid evangelical church in my hometown of Port Talbot. The church had a long history and was in many ways very traditional, but had good teaching. I was (and still am) full of energy, and ideas to help the people in my church reach out to the local community so that they too could have the relationship with God that I had. Over the period of 9 years I spent there, I felt that through the preaching, and my own studies, that I wanted to really make a difference in the lives of the people I meet. I began to pray the Lord would use me in my area of gifting music technology and recording. I started to write words, which were set to music, and turned into modern praise and worship songs. Still I felt that there was more I should be doing. It was when I shared this with another brother in the church that it became evident that we shared the same common vision of making the church service more accessible to this modern generation. So we began to try and present the church with new ideas for reaching out into the community. Overall these were more or less tried but eventually rejected for various reasons. I also found myself in April 2000 in the West Indies Island of st Lucia for two weeks helping on an evangelical out reach. This time was very special as I felt that God was showing me how a modern approach taken by like minded Christians could have a huge impact on a local community. When I returned I spent sometime praying and confirming with my brother, and after a period of 18 months we, along with our wives and another couple, felt confident that the Lord was showing us that we should leave our fellowship and start a fresh work in the Baglan area. We set out from the beginning to put our God in the very centre of all that we did and still do. It is still early days for us as a church but already we have seen great blessings and peoples lives changed both forever and for the good. So what of the future? Well God himself has started this work and I am confident in my Lord that he will finish it. May all the glory and honour of all that’s yet come belong to him and I thank him for the honour of working for him -----are you doing the same where you are? May God himself bless any work that you do in his name, and that people will be saved because you worked for the one and only living God.
Rob. |
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