I Can't Get You Out Of My Head...

Friday 18th May 2012

Three of us (Charlotte - for the first time, Toni and Allan) set off from the Fraser's house, armed with the following clues that met with direct matches: near the Railway Museum, short blonde hair, age 31-41, steel (all for one person!)


We gave out many invites to King's Church (http://www.kingschurchdarlington.org/) and to Ignite (http://www.igniteyouthevent.co.uk/) before heading off to the railway museum area. We waited there for a few minutes before a piece of treasure came along who fitted all the clues above, which is either an incredible coincidence or God at work - we know what we believe!

We approached the young man (aged 31-41 approx) with short blonde hair, as he passed the railway museum, and struck up a conversation. We showed him the clue card and he said he worked in the steel industry, which was under the 'Unusual' heading.

After sharing our faith and that we firmly believed that God had sent us to meet him, his attitude changed from 'I don't think there is a God' to 'This is really weird, I'm not going to be able to get this out of my head', which we said is exactly what God wants! He asked more questions about God and Church, to which we were more than happy to provide answers.

We finished off by asking him if there was anything we could pray for. He said that all was well in life but that he and his partner are expecting a baby in two weeks and that could we pray for a healthy baby.

I don't think God has finished with him yet. In fact, I don't think he is going to be able to get Him out of his head!

Jesus is a Legend!

Friday 7^th April

8 of us set off from the Fraser’s house on a Friday night: Toni, Allan, Richard, James and four first-time Ultimate Treasure Hunters: Ruth, Sean, little Richard and Sami (and Riley the dog)!

We found the following clues tonight: Victoria Embankment; a daisy up high; M (name); a natural beard; west-end of town near the ‘balloon shop’; pray for something emotional and that God is with him and knows about it; shadowy figure possibly wearing a dark jacket walking down the path on the ramp up to the train station, seen from between the blue bridges; white jumper; white stripes on an anorak

That is ten clues matched in total.

·         We started by giving invites to Church to many people: including one who had a daisy in her hair and another wearing a white jumper.

·         In the west-end of town, just near a balloon shop we noticed a man with a natural beard but he headed to a cash machine so we waited, as we didn’t want to spook him out. As he turned around we introduced the treasure hunt and went straight in to the clues. He met the first three clues which included his name. We asked him if he had any emotional issues. He said he had some mild emotional issues: that his brother had just come back from Afghanistan. He suggested that was a fourth match. We asked him if we could pray with him. He said ‘No’ at first but later changed his mind when offered again. We prayed for peace and for God to make Himself known in his life and wished him the best for his future.

·         After a few good conversations and invites to Church with people who didn’t specifically match clues we split in to two groups to head off to location clues: one group going to Victoria Embankment and another group to the blue bridges near the railway station.

·         At Victoria Embankment we found a group of youths. We approached them and had a number of interesting, fun and challenging conversations! We found ourselves naturally split in to groups with different Hunters discussing with different youths. It started with one of them taking the mick, to us gaining their attention, to ending up with lots of respect between us all. They seemed to realise that we were just everyday people but with God in our lives. We talked a fair bit about Jesus and what He has done for us. We talked about suffering, that God can sort us out, and things like that. We had a lot of fun in with the serious stuff. The most noisy lad at the start was a little bit mocking, saying 'Jesus is a legend', but by the end of the conversation, when he heard about one person that filled a clue card he said 'Jesus is a legend' and he seemed to mean it this time!

·         We bumped into a load of young people on the edge of the Market place. One had some white stripes on his anorak. We chatted to him and he said he would appreciate being prayed for - to settle in to his new house and generally for his future. We had quite a bit of chat with a girl in the group and then we prayed for her.

·         We went down to station and as we cornered the road up to the station, we saw a shadowy figure wearing a dark jacket walking down the path on the ramp up to the train station, seen from between the blue bridges. He was quite affable, stopped and talked to us but did not want to be prayed for.

·         While we were waiting to meet the other group at the top of Victoria Rd we bumped into a couple and got talking. They asked us to pray for their relationship as they had only been together for a year and had nowhere to live. We prayed for them and gave them an invite to Church.

·         We gave out lots and lots more Church invites and had many other conversations about God and the Church (including with the young lady in the chip shop as we bought some chips on the way home).

·         Two birds killed with one stone: a brilliant Treasure Hunt and a really long walk for Riley!

The Lady in Red... Hair

Paul H, Richard S, Toni and I set out on a cold - and I mean COLD - Friday night (13th January 2012). There were very few people around but we still met one treasure, a lady with distinctive bright red hair near Greek-style pillars (red hair and Greek-style pillars being the clue). Richard and Toni shared a little with her about God and Jesus and she agreed for us to pray for her, although she did not want to be prayed for there and then.
We also found several doors with triangular structures above them, and with yellow stars stuck on the windows of some of them (triangles and stars being the clues). The doors were locked and there were clearly no people in side. We felt it right to leave Alpha invites through each of the doors.
We also handed out several Alpha invites and King's church information cards.
Seeds sown...

Black and yellow, black and yellow!

8 people split into 2 groups of 4, including Paul D for the first time. Welcome Paul!

The following clues were directly ticked off tonight (including some more than once): curved metal window bars, black and yellow, leg pain, Union Street, sporty, tennis, Diane, jet black, Tavern, blue, struggle, blonde-haired man

• Stan virtually literally bumped in to some curved metal window bars (his own clue!) as we walked along the dark street. After we had stopped laughing, we noticed on the other side an older man with a young girl. He was wearing black and yellow clothing, the yellow being a very noticeable high-visibility jacket. We approached him and struck up a good conversation. He was very open to what we had to say. It turns out he suffers from a lot of leg pain from years of cycling (sporty), although he wasn’t in any pain at the time. We prayed for him that his pain would not re-occur and left him with an invitation to the King’s Carol Concert and lots to think about!
• On the way to Union Street we started talking to a man dressed in black. We gave him a carol concert invitation and it turned out he picked up a lot of his furniture from the King’s Church Furniture Scheme. After a brief chat we said our goodbyes. As we waited briefly in Union Street the same guy came our way. We sensed that God had more He wanted to say to him. We shared about Jesus and we also had a word right then that he had a ‘struggle’ in his life, to which he responded that he had many. After a good conversation we again left him with plenty to think about as he went to catch his bus.
• Outside the Dolphin Centre we started chatting to a man dressed in sporty clothing. It turns out he is already a Christian. He asked us to pray for his farming family business to be more successful as it was struggling, which we did.
• We approached a lady dressed very noticeably in jet black. We chatted about what we were doing but all she would say is that we would not be able to convert her. She said she used to have a faith but was now an atheist. We asked if she happened to be called Diane, and she said she wasn't but she then reluctantly said that actually she was called Dianne and which of us knew her! Obviously she realised that we didn't know her. She didn’t want it to be God but knew that it couldn't be us. It was a real challenge to her. We had a very interesting conversation and our final words were ‘You may have given up on God but He clearly hasn't given up on you’. Later, when praying, God gave us a picture that it is like she is in a tennis match with God; that He hits the truth to her and she hits it back. Keep praying for God to win that match!
• We chatted to three men who were stood outside the Railway Tavern, which was surrounded on all sides by blue shops and lights. One of the guys was a blonde-haired man. We found out that he already knows several people at King’s and said that he might come along to the Carol Concert. One of the other men, who happened to be the bar manager/owner, said that his wife has been looking for a carol concert to go to that wasn't in a traditional church and said that they would come along. He also said he would put several of the invitations on his bar and at the tables!
• Many more Carol Concert invitations given out.

I want my sins forgiven!

Tonight's Team: Paul, Stan, Shelley, Kath and Allan (and a clue from a friend: Stewart from King's Church Eden, Penrith)

Clues we found: Pease monument, older man with glasses, 3 girls, possibly young - teens, green window / door frame, old man, age 16, white van, pray for wrists, initially resilient to us before becoming more interested

• We were led to a young man stood in the middle of a road next to a white van. He had suffered on-and-off with painful wrists, which we prayed about. He was already a follower of Jesus and quite intrigued at the whole Ultimate Treasure Hunt concept.
• We were led to an older man with glasses (bizarrely known as Mr Dead-legs!) outside a shop with green window and door frames. He was initially resilient to us before becoming more interested in what we had to say about Jesus and God.
• We were led to three girls (around the age of 16 to 18) as they walked past Pease monument. They were Muslims and delighted that we took the time to speak to them and pray with them. We asked what they wanted prayer for. The first said that she wanted to be happy and for other people to be happy. As we were praying we felt God telling her that as she got to know God more so her happiness would increase! The second wanted prayer for a place at university to study forensic science. We prayed that this would happen but also that she would find out more about God and tell others about God. 
• The conversation with the third girl was quite amazing. She asked us that we would pray for her to be forgiven of her sins! We asked her if she knew Jesus. She said she knew He was a prophet. We told her that we believe He is a prophet but also the Son of God and the only way to have your sins forgiven. At the same time, one of the team had a prophetic word for her that she also needed to forgive herself, which seemed to have quite an impact on her as she became quite emotional at this point. We prayed for her to know Jesus as he fully is. 
• As the girls were Muslims we decided not to take this further out of respect for their beliefs and felt that the conversation had covered enough ground anyway. 
• As we left the three girls they were very thankful that we had spent time with them and we continued to pray later for Jesus to reveal Himself fully to this girl in particular.
• We also gave out lots of invitations to Ignite, the big youth event at King's Church.

Not bad for a wet, cold Thursday night in Darlington!

IMPACT! details

James, Richard, Allan and I set off for our treasure we went into town because 2 of the clues were for post house Wind and the other was H Samuels, so… off we went….  We soon encountered a group of Young people; we engaged with them and started to throw around questions around our clues.  

We talked around our clue cards seeing if we could find matches.

A Young Man Matched Name, Location, Hot of arms, horse riding, visits Darlington, Uni or College.

How: His name was J.  he met up with his friends near H Samuels today, Hot of arms turns out to be painful growing pains, horse riding = He used to go horse riding around a year ago and misses it, visits Darlington = He is in and out of Darlington every week day because his school is outside of Darlington, Uni or college = He is planning to go to Uni or College after this school yr. (he is 15) We prayed with this young man and thanked God for him and asked God to make himself known in his life.

Meanwhile, the rest of the youngsters were fascinated and asking lots of questions.  We (J, R A and T) offered all pray and all took prayer.  A young lady had a 10 month old baby and was emotional with motherhood, another young lady talked to me about her family being of ill health, Allan prayed with a young man saying he felt he would do well in life but he would only find what he is looking for in God.  We departed from the group feeling well worked!! J

Walking on, Allan felt drawn to a couple of lads fast approaching us.  I offered them an Explorer card to which the Cider lad said He was not interested.  We struck a conversation with the lads mostly Cider Man who explained that there was far too much going on in the world to think about to be bothered with God.  Allan felt that one of his clues ‘Pray for’ was directly for Cider man.  Allan let Cider man know that the Devil is in the detail and he knows that God wants to set him free.  Meanwhile James and Richard are meeting and greeting people in the town introducing themselves and offering help and support and checking if they fit clues. 

Cider man and his friend did not want any prayer but chatted quite openly around the specific details he needed to know before he could entertain the thought of God.  We left wishing them well and shook hands thanking them for their time. 

Passing a burger van that was a clue on a previous treasure hunt we popped our heads round to say hello and give the guy an Explorer Card.

We walked slowly towards Post House Wind passing Escapades we started to chat to 3 bouncer lads who worked there.  We sat on the wall chatting to them.  They asked us what we were doing so…. we told them! (Door opened thank you God you are greaaat!J)  James asked about the bouncer lads church back ground.  One confessed to being a left footer (lol he quickly told me that meant Catholic ;) the other used to be a Youth leader at St. Andrews and the other is a family man.  James prayed for Family man’s painful knee to be healed (J) Allan, Richard and I prayed for the other 2 guys thanking god for them and asking God to reveal himself to them and to bless them. 

Moving on to Post House Wind Allan and I encountered some jealously!  Passers-by were merrily tipsy with slurred speech.  We gave out Explorer cards and laughed along with them realising it probably wasn’t a good idea to start deep conversations with them at that point. 

Walking up to high row and around towards an amusement arcade we spotted various people J. Giving out Explorer cards and inviting them to jump into our treasure hunt cards! We stopped to briefly re-cap what had already happened that night.  All 4 of us were feeling very lifted and full of beans at how fruitful the night had been.

Gazing over we spotted 3 young ladies sat on a bench chatting.  Richard felt the pull to go over I accompanied him we started a conversation relating to T.Hunt.  One of the girls was loud and intrigued by what she was hearing.  Saying that her friend next to her was who we were looking for (she wasn’t like!).  We talked with the girls and they told us they had gone to a catholic school prior to the one they were at.  They all confessed to being Christians already having attended a Catholic school already. 

A young lady ‘Miss Bubbly’ was asking a lot of questions around God and wanted to know the ins and outs of all things we were doing and have ever done.  The other 2 girls were starting to get interested by the answers to Miss Bubbly questions also when we explained how the treasure hunt worked and our first encounter of the night.  They offered information about each other and wanted to see if they fit any clues.  Miss Bubby said that she was a Gypsy which shocked me because after the town Allan and I were going to a sight in Darlo where Gypsy’s were based as that was one of my clues! As time went on the girls and us realised that they were fitting my clues:

Location = gypsy – miss bubbly

Name = no match

Appearance = casual checked shirts and  shiny earrings – all 3 girls looked at each other at this point realising they all had casual checked girly shirts on! J Ha ha God you are good!

Unusual – broken down car/ broken down spiritually = one of the girls mum had a faith but lost is and the other girls brother’s car had broken down the day before.  The atmosphere got more and more celebrationary as we were realising the extent of the night.

Pray for- gossip is untrue – the girls in amazement said they had all been arguing because of rumour that had been going around and tonight was the night they decided to lay it to rest and get on with their friendship. 

As this was going on Richard had an encountered a match to his clue and started a conversation off with that guy. 

One of Richards’s clues was Twin Towers which matched for Miss bubbly and the 2 girls as they had been studying the twin towers at school. (wow wee!!!!!!)

We prayed for the girls individually telling them truths about how God sees them that they are beautiful young ladies and are children of God’, I asked God to relight beliefs/faiths they had before and asked God to reveal himself to them in a special way.  All 3 girls said they would come to Explorer Sunday.

WHAT A NIGHT! TOTALLY BLESSED AND INSPRIED BY GOD AS USUAL – HE IS GOOD!

IMPACT DARLINGTON!

Allan, Toni, Richard, James and Kath

Tonight while praying I felt the word of the night was ‘Impact’, now at the end of the night I am left feeling well…… soooooooooooooo chuffed at the privilege God has let us and the team be a part of.  It is a huge blessing and honour to have God use us to bring his lost into a place where He is known.

Ok, here are the facts, 21 out of 25 clues were matched tonight!! WOW WEE J God has touched many of his lost tonight and called back a few that have drifted from him.

All in all we had conversations with at least 8 people who fitted multiple direct clues and chatted to at least 40 more!  

To find out more ask us about it or….. you could join us next time!?

Toni and Allan

The growing seed...

It was a cold Thursday night when Allan and Paul set off for the town centre of Darlington. This was Paul's first full Ultimate Treasure Hunt.

Several contacts were made, with a variety of responses. One couple seemed to fit a few clues from both Allan's and Paul's cards, but although the gentleman was willing to stop and see what we were all about, the lady whisked him away saying that they were in a rush. Frustrating when that happens but I feel that at least he showed he was open and his chance may well come again. 

The best contact was with a chap called David. Without going to details, we are praying he will be at King's soon! He had heard of King's before, without ever actually attending, and was persuaded a little more tonight! The seed within him is growing, it seems.

Fifth Gear

TREASURE HUNT FOR 14^TH OCT

Fifth Gear

Treasure hunter: Toni, Allan, Stan, James and Paul

WOW treasure hunt tonight was fab.  We did ask god to kick it into fast forward and show us some real life changing seed sowing moments while we were out walking the dog!  Lol… Guess what,  he did!!!  Wow God you’ve shown me how to do Treasure Hunt tonight I feel more equipped and inspired than ever before.

Tonight I can inform all you reading this that we between us have sown around 30 seeds.  By that I mean we have approached spoken to and or prayed for around 30 people!  People aren’t so against God as we may think.  Most of these people that were approached were open to being prayed for apart from some train station taxi drivers they weren’t so keen! lol did that stop us? No! ;)

Both Allan  and I felt we were looking for a lady in her 30’s blond hair brushed back well,  we approached a fair few that matched that description and I managed to offend one of them by telling her she match my description of being blond pretty and 30 ish !! She was not impressed and was so disgusted in me she walked off.  Turns out she was 18! My mistake oopps I have a big mouth.

I have to say James was a big big star for tonight.  He was straight in with the clues just went with the flow and approached multiple of people including groups  offering himself to pray and be part of the Treasure Hunt.  He has become our inspiration! 

Here are a few people we approached/prayed for:

1 John

John

Iranian man called David

Michael with puppy called Rooney

Kia

David

Paul

Kelly

Lindsey

Garry

Alex

Christian couple and their daughter who said they’d pray for us on our rounds.

Wahey what a night!

Toni and Allan

p.s hope your leg is better Stan soon! 

The next Ultimate Treasure Hunt is this Friday, September 16th, meeting at Allan and Toni Fraser's house at 7.30pm.

A Book to Read

For those interested in Ultimate Treasure Hunting, or those who simply want to see how God can work through ordinary people who are willing to be obedient to Him, get a copy of  The Ultimate Treasure Hunt by Kevin Dedmon. It really is a great read!

See details at http://www.amazon.co.uk/ULTIMATE-TREASURE-HUNT-DEDMON-KEVIN/dp/0768426022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314899458&sr=8-1

UTH Night 4 - All Denim Counts

On Thursday, August 18th, Toni, Allan, Stan and Jo were joined by John and Gem for the first time.

We set off to town via John Street, which was one of Toni's location clues. We ordinarily would walk to town through the nearest park so we felt this could be significant. We continued from John Street and approached a  lady that had one of John's appearance clues. John spoke to the lady and soon realised that he had met her before through the King's Church Furniture Scheme. She didn't match any other clues and had little interest in discussing things further. Toni asked the two men who were with this lady about her clues. They didn't match any but were interested in what was happening. Toni said they could pretend to fit the clues as they seemed disappointed that they didn't! John briefly mentioned King's Church and the hunt continued.

After a few uneventful approaches we headed back. We felt that it was right to go back via John Street, again not the quickest or most obvious way, but to continue to search in Toni's location.

On the way, Stan prompted Toni to approach a man who fitted a denim appearance clue. The man appeared 'foreign' to Toni and Stan as he was gesturing pushing them away. Realising that he was English, Toni started a conversation about her clues but it wasn't going anywhere at this point so Stan followed it up with a general conversation about where the man was off too. This opened up a very fruitful conversation which led to the man (called K) being prayed for right there in the street. K had been hitch-hiking and walking a considerable distance, from the South of England to the Scottish highlands. Throughout the conversation, K kept adding to the list of things he wanted prayer for. He described himself as 'was born again' but had slipped back in his walk with God. Allan joined the conversation and prayer and we continued up North Road where we were all heading. As we reached John Street we parted from K, who was continuing his journey north. Stan blessed him with some kindness for his journey,  we all wished him farewell and recommended that he re-connects with a church and that God is there and he is not on his own. We re-assured him that we would continue to pray for his list. This included a man named C, who was he was on the way to visit. K was concerned for C's lifestyle.
As Toni and Allan were praying later, they felt that although they would probably not see what happens to K and C here, they would see the results of this encounter in Heaven!

Amen to that one!

Update from Friday, July 1st (see that date's blog entry)

Since that time with K and E, Toni met up with K as she requested to discuss what exactly had God been saying and why did he send us to find her?  Toni explained about the treasure hunt and gave her information and opportunity to come to church and find out just what God was ‘on about!’

K later ceased all contact with us because she felt we knew too much and was spooked out and started to distrust us.  Meanwhile, one of K’s friends was having her hair cut and brought up the story of her friend (meaning K) having a bizarre experience with some born again Christians.  As K’s friend was talking our friend realised she was talking about the UTH and assured her that it was legitimate and very real and God has definitely got his hand on her and also her friends, intriguing them enough to talk about it.

To be continued…

King's Church Darlington

Our Ultimate Treasure Hunting group is made up of people from Darlington King's Church. Find out what else we do at
http://www.kingschurchdarlington.org/

Spreading the Vision!

On Wednesday, August 17th, Toni and I attended John and Gem's Connect Group to share the Ultimate Treasure Hunt vision with them. The group are already doing great evangelistic work in the Rise Carr area of Darlington (where King's Church is based) and the whole group were very welcoming to hear what we are doing and where we are going. They had some good questions and some interesting points for how we can make the UTH experience even better.
Thanks to John and Gem and the group for giving us the platform to speak at length and share our vision for UTH.
Toni and I were chatting on the way home and both agreed that John and Gem's is an excellent group and it is great to be around people who have such evangelistic zeal.
Maybe we will some of you at the next Ultimate Treasure Hunt!

UTH Night 3

On Wednesday, July 13th, five of us set off for Ultimate Treasure Hunting Night 3, namely Stan, Toni, me and - joining us for the first time - Jo and Julia.
It was a strange night in some ways: many location and unusual clues came to pass but... no people anywhere! Some of the clues included:

• a vision of standing at Pease statue and looking down towards McDonald's
• several clues that pointed to a clown
• Buckton's Yard and a sail boat
• Grange Road
• cup cakes (again!)
• The name Deborah/Debbie

As we walked down towards McDonald's from Pease statue we found a poster for the circus with a large clown on the front. Right opposite Buckton's Yard was a sail boat in a shop display. Upon leaving Grange Road was a shop that had ceramic cup cakes in the window and the name Debbie was written on one.

There were other experiences similar to this. We all felt greatly encouraged that we seemed to clearly be hearing God's voice and yet some frustration that we had no people fitting the clues. I spoke to two people who seemed to fit, but neither were interested in what we had to say.

We are learning, learning, learning...! To be obedient, to believe that God really does speak to us, and to persevere!

Intrepid

Remember to check out Leeds Mosaic Church Treasure Hunters at http://somethingpersonal.typepad.com/treasure_hunters_journal/

UTH Night 3

The next Ultimate Treasure Hunt will be next Wednesday, 7pm at Allan and Toni's.

Connect Group - Opening Night

On Thursday, 7th July, the Ultimate Treasure Hunting team held its first Connect Group. Joining Allan and Toni were Fiona, Julia and Charlotte. Julia and Charlotte were joining us for the first time as they dipped their toes in to the idea of UTH.
We had a pleasant night, setting out more of the vision of the group.
What Toni and I are finding is that words alone are not sufficient enough to describe UTH - as seeing is believing in this case. You really do have to just get out there and do it!

As Forrest might say, Ultimate Treasure Hunting is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get.

Connect Group Opening Night

This Thursday will be the opening night of the Ultimate Treasure Hunting Connect Group. We will be meeting at 7.30pm for an hour or so, at our house (Allan and Toni's). Please feel free to come along, or contact us if you need more information about it.