Hope Church, Cardiff

By Roy Godwin and Dave Roberts

I recently picked up a copy of The Grace Outpouring from someone’s coffee table. I started reading it over a cup of tea, and couldn’t put it down until I had read it right through later that evening.

I was blown away by the story it told of the Christian retreat centre at Ffald-y-Brenin on the slopes of Carn Ingli in the Gwaun Valley near Fishguard. It was so impacting that as soon as we got home I ordered a copy of my own, and when it arrived I read it through again – that’s twice through the same book in a week – a record for me. So much of it was in line with what we have been seeking for ourselves of the transformational breaking in of the Kingdom of God.

Roy and his wife Daphne arrived to take on leading the conference centre at Ffald y Brenin about 15 years ago - the Welsh name means ‘Sheepfold of the King’. They were dedicated to seeking and knowing intimately the presence of God in and through their lives, and the result was an overflow of God’s presence into the life of the centre itself, which began when Roy, an evangelist at heart, prayed that God would start sending unbelievers to the place. The next day they simply started turning up, curious to know what kind of place Ffald-y-Brenin was.

When Roy and Daphne showed the first couple around, they finished up in the chapel at the centre, where Roy offered to pray a prayer of blessing over the visitors. They agreed, and as Roy very simply prayed that God would bless them, they were immediately overcome by the presence of God, which left them on the floor, weeping, as they encountered the God who made them and loved them. Similar things happened many times over the coming weeks and months as other visitors simply showed up, in some cases irresistibly and inexplicably drawn up the driveway.

On other occasions, people walking along the footpath that skirts the edge of the centre have found themselves walking into the heavy presence of God which has overwhelmed them, in some cases knocking them to the ground and leaving them laughing with joy as they experienced God’s love for the first time.

The book goes on to explain how may people came to find physical, emotional and mental healing in the centre as they encountered the presence of God there. In addition the small farming community living in the Gwaun valley found amazing and supernatural abundance coming to them as the people at Ffald-y-Brenin gave themselves to pray for God’s blessing on the surrounding area.

These events led Roy and Daphne to realise that what God wanted them to do was to establish the centre as a House of Prayer, and to seek to give away what they have been learning to others, so that their model of hosting the presence of God so that communities are transformed as heaven comes down to earth can be replicated elsewhere. Gradually, more and more people around the world are catching their vision for transformational Houses of Prayer.

I found it a deeply challenging book, and on the strength of it, have booked a few days at Ffald-y-Brenin. So I am going there shortly,  to spend some time seeking God for myself and for Hope Church, Cardiff in the expectation of learning more about hosting the presence of God and being a blessing to others.

I strongly recommend you read this book!