Dear Friends,

Dear Friends, The preacher at our Anniversary Services this year is a young man called Philip Swann - what follows is part of his personal testimony. (Which can be found on his church website www.lfec.org).

"In the UK we are used to people speaking about having a privileged background. This usually refers to them having a wealthy back- ground or being born into high social status, such as royalty. Well mine has nothing to do with these things. My privilege was to have been brought up, with my brother, in a Christian home. It was a busy place as my Father was the Pastor of an Evangelical Congregational Church on the edge of London.

"Although I now regard my upbringing as being a privilege, it did not seem like that to me when I was growing up. I occasionally felt the challenge of the Christian message and even on times 'prayed the sinners prayer'. However, the first time that God really chal- lenged me was when I left home for college in Cardiff to train as a Remedial Gymnast and later a physiotherapist. I suppose out of habit I thought I should go to church. On that first Sunday it became clear that I was definitely not a Christian. From then on, God's gentle but firm pursuit of me seemed to step up a gear. I can see now that he had been pursuing me from day one of my life but at the time it felt that God had suddenly started to come after me.

"This all happened in the September of 1982 but it was not until the following August that I finally came to know Christ as my Saviour... Looking back the interesting thing about the time leading up to my conversion was the way God weaved in a concern about preaching... A year to the day of my conversion I was given my first opportunity to preach. It was a memorable experience and preaching seemed immediately to me like breathing air. I really did have a very clear sense that this is what I had been created for. Someone trusted Christ in that sermon and I have never ceased to be amazed at this expression of God's grace."

Best wishes, Phillip Swann.

With our prayers

Eddie Jones

Pastor