Blog

Written by Lisa Mason
on 7th June 2025

I’ve had the privilege of watching a video of Mary Peckham speaking (and singing) about her experience of living in the Hebrides during an incredible Holy Spirit revival that took place there in 1949. Mary was not from a christian family but she recalls how nearly all people who lived on the island where she grew up were taught to memorise scripture from a young age in school and Sunday school. She describes how these scriptures came alive and burnt in her heart and mind when revival came, saying that when fire fell ‘there was fuel to burn.’

This simple practice that we engage in every week of reading and retelling stories from the bible then sharing them with people we meet can sometimes feel like it is having very little effect on the communities around us, but I find Mary’s words deeply encouraging as we pray and yearn for the Spirit to fall on our city. I think of all the words of God that we have shared in cafes, parks, shops, streets, sports stadiums, school playgrounds, houses and doorsteps and I imagine each one as a small piece of tinder, laid down and waiting for the lighting of a match.

Isaiah 55:11-12 tells us that “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

We know that the word of God has power to change hearts and lives. Let's keep sharing it with those that we meet, trusting this Pentecost that as the Spirit moves in our city, he will find people that are ready and prepared to burn for him.