We have just had a very fruitful and interesting time in the Czech Republic, where we had been asked to provide the worship music for a meeting of ICCOWE (International Charismatic Consultation on World Evangelisation), which was being held together with a meeting of the European Charismatic Conference (ECC) at a large Catholic Seminary and Pastoral Centre in Prague. It was quite challenging, mainly because of the wide backgrounds in churchmanship and spirituality amongst the participants. The theme of the conference was "East meets West" , so virtually every theological shade of opinion was represented – except liberal ones! This was the nub of the challenge, because all present had a real love for Jesus, and all wanted to worship and draw close to the Lord and to one another. Not, therefore, your average local church!

The team comprised Richard Williamson, Sally Thornton, Sarah Blamire, Francis Cummings, Mark Blackwell, David Howles, Jo Garcia, Chris Redgate, Alan Tokeley, David Coxon and Huw Humphreys. David Coxon, soon to be known universally as "Chunk", was a new addition to the team and proved an outstanding sound engineer, dealing with his Czech counterpart with tact and patience, and only once getting caught in the doors of a moving Prague Metro train!

Prague team (L-R): Alan Tokeley, David Howles, Huw Humphreys, Mark Blackwell, Sally Thornton, Sarah Blamire, Richard Williamson, Chris Redgate, Francis Cummings and Jo Garcia

We arrived after an early flight from Manchester (or a more civilised one for Chris and Jo from London), and were met by Martin Davidek, one of the team of seminarians who smoothed our way through the week. The seminary, formerly the offices of the Soviet Information Ministry before the Velvet Revolution in 1989, was large and spacious, and was a lovely place to stay. The beds were clearly designed for young, tough seminarians rather than comfortable western Christians approaching middle age, but the majority of us slept well on them! Lunch (which involved a 400 metre walk to the dining hall) was, and was to remain, a cultural experience all by itself. Day 1 saw pork and dumplings presented, a traditional Czech meal, and the remainder of the week brought food which I was not immediately familiar with. It was quite clear from the start that if you didn’t eat all the food on your plate, your plate was simply left near you, no matter how strenuously you disowned it, until you ate that last dumpling or the rest of the hard-boiled-egg and bean casserole. This isn’t meant to sound critical – the food was ample, tasty, and meant to be eaten – all of it! There were some lovely soups, lots of caraway bread and plenty of tea and coffee. The seminarians were paid 500 Kc each (about £10) to help for the five days – and did a great job. How many UK students would work so willingly for that pay?

The Theological Seminary in Prague

The first day (Tuesday) was mainly taken up in finding where everything was, and what we could expect in the way of PA and when! The answers were "not quite what we had expected" and "tomorrow". Having got that out of the way, we set off to explore Prague in the evening. I think all of us found the experience quite magical. We walked to the castle, Prazsky Hrád, which has magnificent views over the old Mediaeval and new (17^th century) towns across the River Vltava. Then down into Mala Strana, a collection of red-roofed houses that grew up below the castle, over Karluv Most, the oldest of Prague’s many bridges and into the old town, buzzing with (mainly tourist) life, where we had a meal opposite the astronomical clock in the old town square. Architecturally, Prague is completely stunning – words begin to fail you after a while, because there is so much that is eye-catching and gasp-inspiring! Like many European cities, it appears to come to life after the working day is done!

Prazsky Hrád Castle

The famous Karluv Most bridge in Prague

Because the seminary was so close to the end of the Metro line – a ridiculously cheap and marvellously clean and efficient means of transport – it was simple to get in and out of town. This meant that even a spare hour or two could be used to explore, enabling us to get even more from the trip than we had expected!

The famous clock in Prague city centre

The conference began on the Wednesday evening, and was opened by Cardinal Vlk of Prague, speaking Czech with an interpreter. (I felt it was a pity that this was the only real speaking contribution by a Czech in the conference; they gave so much to us in service, it would have been good to pray for the city and nation publicly or bless it as a conference). The main speaker on Wednesday evening was Fr Tom Forrest from Washington D.C., who preached on the hope that we have in Jesus, not just for the far-off future, but from day-to-day. The worship that we led was deliberately slower and quieter mainly due to the large number of Catholic and Orthodox Christians from eastern Europe who had not had the exposure to charismatic worship that the western contingent were more used to. However, after Tom Forrest’s talk, we sang "Jesus put this song into our hearts", which many folk really enjoyed, and gave us confidence that we could use more up-tempo material at later meetings.

As the week went on, we found more and more freedom to worship in the meetings, although it was not always easy being under the leadership of people who had not worked with us before! In particular, the use of instruments in worship, both on stage and amongst the congregation, had a profound impact on many people, but especially on the eastern Europeans, who have a much greater respect for classical culture. The group of Russian and Romanian Orthodox Christians found the use of instruments a very new – and welcome – addition to their understanding of worship, while we found the use of Orthodox chants and unaccompanied singing very moving – the sense of God’s deep compassion for Romania in particular was very obvious. However, one important lesson was re-iterated towards the end of the week – God has given us a fairly unique ministry, and we are to discharge it. Where there was pressure to choose songs within a particular tradition or from a certain nationality, we found a greater effectiveness when we simply led worship as led by the Spirit, even if that was unusual for some of those present. And if we felt like unworthy servants (and we are!), the Father loves his servants and provides everything for them.

Morning meetings were Bible studies from John 1, kicking off with a wonderful exposition of the incarnation by David Pawson who challenged theological positions held by most people present! Following mornings were led by Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia who also held an Orthodox eucharist – the first that many Wellspringers had been to – and Mel Robeck from Fuller Theological Seminary. Because of the multitude of events (there was a theological conference running alongside the main conference) and the broad range of theological experience, many of us felt that the conference didn’t hang together in the way that more focussed meetings might have done – perhaps too many targets trying to be hit by the organisers. Nevertheless, the benefit for us was that at mealtimes especially, we met a huge range of people from across Europe and became aware of the breadth of what God is doing in Europe. Exciting reports of a renewal amongst young Italian Catholics and a deep move of the Spirit in Romania were perhaps the most obvious, but to meet people from Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Russia, Spain, Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic who were testifying to the ways that God had begun to move in and around their lives was great.

One interesting meeting began as a presentation of confessional statements from a catholic (Charles Whitehead) and a Pentecostal pastor from Italy (Giovanni Traettino), aiming to repair some of the damage done between these two denominations, particularly in Latin America. It was deliberately theological, but soon turned into a time of confession and unity amongst those present, with many kneeling around a crucifix placed in front of the stage. In this meeting, as in many others, our role was simply to provide music for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, acting through the instrumental worship and improvisation.

On the last evening, as well as being a celebration of the vision for ICCOWE in the future, we also got involved with Kryzstow, a Polish mime-artist from Krakow, who acted as a conductor, violinist, drummer, oboist and cellist in a mime about working together in unity, and in the process turned the Mozart Oboe Quartet into something truly horrible. It was a very funny mime, almost cartoon-like, and taught the need for submission to the Holy Spirit in a very direct and hilarious way.

Some useful contacts were made. Richard, Chris and Sally spent a hectic Thursday afternoon with Mike Bickle from Kansas City. Many of you will remember the name from the days of the Kansas City prophets, but Mike has moved on into the realisation of a vision of his for a 24-hour continuous intercession ministry in which music and worship plays a central part. His passion for this was quite obvious, and he was enthusiastic about the way which we use instruments and worship to support and invigorate intercession.

Mike Bickle, Sally Thornton, Richard Williamson & Chris Redgate

The travel arrangements were simple and straightforward, and nothing like the US experience was visited on us again. At Prague airport, while waiting to check in, we gained a new respect for Francis’ ability to get a fully laden baggage trolley to a vacant check-in desk – 15 metres in under 3 seconds, I reckon! The only dodgy moment was back at Manchester Airport where the luggage carousel stopped mid-cycle before Mark had retrieved his suitcase – all a bit too familiar. However, a judicious kick from an airport attendant brought the carousel back into life, and all of us were reunited with the possessions we began with – actually quite a few more, given the amount of tourist goods we collectively accumulated!

Thank you to all of those who prayed for the trip. We really valued it, and needed it. The difference between the ease of ministry on this trip and the one in the USA was quite interesting. During the Asheville conference we had the support of a continuous prayer team, interceding and acting on our behalf throughout the time we were there. The central prayer focus of the Prague conference was not as obvious, but in these days when God is moving so much in response to the prayers of his believing people, it perhaps should have been more prominent. A lesson to us all is that God commonly speaks to us corporately when we seek him together, and as we press on to fulfil the calling God has on Wellspring, time spent in corporate prayer is never wasted.

- Huw Humphreys