What a year it has been!  As I settle in to spend focussed time with the kids and wider family, I have grabbed some time to reflect on the last 12 months.

For me the highlights have been spending more time ministering in Australia both in New South Wales and up among Aboriginal Communities of the Northern Territory. 

It was great to see progress on the Worldwide Banner Matrix with our second leaders summit and our first international workshop, both held in Dallas, TX USA, and some strong bonds developing between international banner leaders. 

It was wonderful to connect again with established friends and meet new ones in the USA this year in Spokane, Grants Pass, and Peoria as well as Toulon and Paris in France and across seven cities in Switzerland.  It has also been a great joy to be recieving more personal reinforcements than ever from people who support this ministry!

Things are shifting, and the Kingdom is expanding... and banners are playing a crucial role in this growth.

Earlier in November I was wending my way down a steep mountainside above St. Maurice in Switzerland.  Passing through a few tunnels cut through the solid rock,  I was reminded  of advice a good friend and mentor of mine gave me when when I was travelling through a difficult part of my journey. 

He said, "David, when you are going through a dark tunnel, it is never a good time to make a sharp turn." Wise words!!

So I have continued to move forward with the ministry which I believe God has called me to in encouraging and drawing banner leaders together globally, and this year I have seen a great consolidation.

I've written an invitation below for banner wavers from across the globe to prepare to come to Switzerland to help clean out one of the most ancient wells of perpetual worship in the history of the Kingdom.  Sometime in the next 4 years, an army or worshipping warriors will descend on the hamlet of St. Maurice to shift the course of worship in Europe.  Ask the Lord to show you if you should be one of them!

We also have a report from Franca, who flew from the USA to the UK to join in another powerful "new thing" that is emerging from Andy and Kirsty's "Stepping Beyond" worship experience!

As we draw to a close for this year, Nikki, Robyn, Joan, Sheelagh, and I and all of the team here at Out of Our Minds Banners wish you the very best for the Christmas Season and a wonderfuly fruitful entry into 2011.

David S

May the will of the Lord prosper in your hands!

Four Years to Turn Worship in Europe

David Stanfield

I believe that the next 4 years are pivotal to restore strong Kingdom worship in Europe.

Will you help?

I think there is a VERY IMPORTANT opportunity arising over worship in Europe.   I believe that the Lord is saying Christians have about 4 years to clean out an ancient well of worship and purify it, before it erupts and spreads it's contents all over Europe.

If the well has been cleaned out, then God-focussed, Kingdom worship will be sent all over Europe and a HUGE release will come for the Kingdom.

If the well is not cleaned out, then compromised worship, contaminated by deceit, idolatry and pagan worship will be spread all over Europe.

Let me tell you what I have seen and heard

In about 200 BC a Scandinavian tribe moved down into Europe; they split and formed the Burgundian Kingdom.  They survived Roman domination by establishing a contract to guard all important borders and mountain passes (warriors and watchmen!).

The Romans brought soldiers in from all over the world to keep the "Pax Romana" throughout the Empire. In about 286 AD, Maurice, an Egyptian from Thebes in Egypt and some other Coptic Christian soldiers (how many is the stuff of legend) refused to kill innocent Christian civilians when ordered to do so by a Roman commander.  He and many others were killed as a result.  They became known as "The Theban Legion" or the "Martyrs of Agaunum".

 

Two hundred and thirty years later, in 516, Prince Sigismund was crowned King of the Burgundians in Carouge (Geneva) and his kingdom expanded east to cover Switzerland and parts of France. He added Catholicism to his Germanic gods, laws and scriptures.

 

The Abbey of St. Maurice.

At the beginning of his rule he built a monastery at St. Maurice in Vallis (near modern day Lausanne). He ordered the monastery to hold a perpetual 24/7 singing of psalms FOR THE THEBAN LEGION.  This practice has been carried on in various forms for one thousand four hundred and ninety-five years (1495 years)!  It is practiced today in the form of the reading of the "Lau Perennis" during every 6 p.m. mass at the Abbey.

 

His thrones were in Geneva, Switzerland and Lyon, France. His sceptre was said to be the holy lance, the oldest national treasure of the Roman Kings and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

 

This altar became a place where the martyrs were venerated (worshipped). There are many other places across Europe (including about 23 in France) where this worship continues today.

 

My Story

Worshipping and prophesying over St. Maurice in 2007

Three years ago I travelled to St. Maurice in Vallis.  That first year, we tried to go into the Abbey to interceed and I was nearly forced back by the sense of evil and death in the place.   Instead we went up onto the mountainside above the Abbey and worshipped.  I began to prophesy very strong things about St. Maurice and what would happen there to restore Godly worship in Europe. I was surprised by the intensity, boldness and seriousness of the prophetic words coming from my mouth. I do not remember all the content, but I do remember saying that international worship events would happen in St. Maurice in the build-up to the 1500 anniversary.

  

Covering the Canton Flag of St. Maurice 2010.

I have returned now on two occasions and we have worshipped in St. Maurice with banners.  The visit last month was particularly strong as we lifted up the names of God over the canton flag of St Maurice.  The sense of enormity of the significance and the urgent need for action is getting stronger with each visit. 

 

 However, they will need support from across Switzerland, Europe and the world.

 

I believe we will gather in the next 4 years.Will you ask the Lord if He wants you to come to St. Maurice?

 

This last time, while I was in Mex, a picturesque village clinging to the mountainside above St. Maurice, we prayed that the Lord would confirm His call and purpose for St. Maurice and send people with the gifts the team needed to undertake the process.  The next evening, two young ladies from Zurich (3 1/2 hours north) came to the workshop, because it was being held in St. Maurice.  One of them had been led to do spiritual mapping of Zurich, and this led her to a deep spiritual root that led back to St. Maurice that affected all of Switzerland. She has begun the spiritual mapping of St. Maurice! 

  

Meet you at the sign!

I have been urging Christians across Europe and beyond to heed any calls to come and worship in St. Maurice. We need to join together in unity to clean out this well.  I urge you therefore to ask God to show you if you have a part to play in this opportunity to release clean, Godly worship over Europe, and what that role might be. 

 

Please feel free to send this out to people you feel might also have a strategic part to play in seeing this happen! 

  

There is a small group established, meeting together to strategically host whatever strategy the Lord reveals. 

Maryland, USA

It was my first trip to England and it was a magnificent time in the Lord. It started in May 2010 when I attended the International Banner Leaders Summit in Dallas, Texas hosted by David Stanfield of Australia.

During our awesome time there I met several wonderful banner leaders, some I had me before and others who I met for the first time.  And a blessed time it was!

Since I had the pleasure of ministering with other banner  leaders from around the globe here in the United States,  I hoped God's followup plan was to allow me to worship with them again in their own countries. Andy Au's (England) event, "Stepping Beyond," was coming up in November 2010.

Thus I and my friend, Nancy Duckett, embarked upon our journey towards 24 hours of continuous worship with various types of instruments, painting, drumming, flags, staffs, dancing, playing, eating, and enjoying the spoken word!

The "Stepping Beyond" worship experience in England was phenomenal. I didn't sleep the entire 24 hours because I did not want to miss one move of God! The people were fantastic and the hall was decorated so perfectly for worship. The food was fit for a king (and the king's kids)!

Lord, thank you for creating such creative worshipers throughout the world!

Share your banner story and photos with the world!

 Send to NikkiP@worshipbanners.org