Manchester: A Chat with Mitch Bruneski

Meet Mitch Bruneski -- one of our Manchester & Newcastle outreach team members! I got the chance to meet up with Mitch between some of our ministry times to ask him about our outreach and have him explain what sort of ministries we've been involved in here in Manchester.

"The first day, we went to Leeds," he began, "we led worship with a Portuguese-speaking church there. I got to give my testimony at another Portuguese-speaking church in Manchester the next day. We've been involved this week in lots of football ministry, many prayer walks, and a full English breakfast for a community in Manchester. It was great to get a chance to know the community and then pray for them and their needs."

A lot of our work in our first week happened in a student-dominated community name Fallowfield. Mitch continued: "We helped host a football tournament for university students as well and were able to give a summary to them what the church is really all about. The same evening, we did a prayer walk, handed out tonnes of energy drinks to the students and did some prayer questionnaires with people in the area."

"I was involved in the prayer walk and that was the most powerful thing I've experienced so far. We did a big circle around the university campus and we prayed powerfully against the work that the enemy was doing. My prayer life has completely changed since the beginning of this school -- I felt at first that I wasn't really making an impact by praying. I've learnt that whatever happens in the physical must first take place in the spiritual realm. Before, I thought praying was just praying and I thought that my words couldn't possibly make a difference but I've learnt that I'm taking back authority with my prayers and now I have a whole new understanding of how the spiritual world works and how it will always affect the physical. I realise we made a huge impact on this community whether or not I got to see it immediately."

"God gave me a picture that led me to these two cities," the young Canadian explained. "I saw three distinct lights flickering on a silhouetted map of the United Kingdom, each in different locations. I learned later that these three locations were Newcastle, Manchester and London! I got this picture before we knew which cities we were going to on outreach, so when it was announced that Newcastle and Manchester were going to be the same outreach, I knew God was calling me there."

When asked what supporters could pray for during our time here, Mitch asked "that ministry doors would be opened and that the team would be able to remain healthy."

10 Days in Cardiff

On May 1st, the entirety of our DTS (35 in all) got on a bus and travelled to Cardiff, Wales. Wales is one of the countries in the United Kingdom and Cardiff is its capitol city -- a metropolitan area of around 800,000 people. Our first ten days of outreach were spent here, partnering with a massive youth event called Ignite Hope 2012. Ignite Hope has an annual aim to "[raise] up a generation of young people who are sold out for the gospel and ready to step out into South Wales to see a difference made in the lives of individuals, streets and communities."

The bulk of our time was spent setting up and setting down the event site. We had a large section of the city's main park to build the event on, but it was much too muddy to get any work done for the first little while -- wheel-barrowing wood chips and sand to help absorb the wet ground dominated the many hours of our work days. Ultimately though, we were able to set up a number of bouncy castles, three trampolines, three large café marquees, an outdoor stage and an absolutely gargantuan central marquee that housed our nightly worship/teaching sessions during the event. 

Our outreach team members had plenty of roles during the event itself: doing gate security, facilitating the fun (bouncy castles, football cages), being part of the prayer team during sessions, performing on the outdoor stage, going with the youth to daytime outreaches, providing meals (1000+ sandwiches made!) and more. The flurry of activity was made all the more exciting when we found out that over one hundred young people dedicated their lives to Christ during the long weekend event. Wow. 

It was a privilege to be involved with the Ignite guys to help get the event going. The set-up was fantastically practical, the event itself was spiritually inspiring and the set down was unavoidably muddy -- all of it was a joy to be a part of. Special thanks to the Desperation Leadership Academy guys from Colorado Springs for coming alongside our team and getting the big tents up! 

We spent 10 days in Cardiff total -- on May 10th, our team of 35 split up and dispersed all across the UK. Right now (in this very instant), we're serving in Coventry, Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester... more on those last two cities to come!

thanks to Bronwyn Fairchild and Katie Decker for the photos

Welcome!

Welcome to the Newcastle + Manchester outreach blog! We're glad you've found your way here -- whether you're family, friend or an internet-meandering YWAMer, this blog is for you. While we're serving and loving communities up here in the north of England, we want you - as parents, supporters and loved ones - to know what we're getting up to! It's our way of keeping in touch during this undoubtedly busy season. 

The two cities we are serving/living in are Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Manchester, both located in the northern half of England. At the moment, 7 of us are in Manchester (Mitch, Vianney, Sharen, Amir, Caleb, Kellie and Tom) and 5 of us are in Newcastle (Jordan, Yannick, Nicola, Phil and Josiah). We will be separated like this until the 5 team-members in Newcastle return to us in Manchester on May 26th. 

We've only just begun this outreach and are excited to keep you updated on our adventures. Please tune in often or send this page to people you think might find this helpful!