"Operation Hope" is a mission organisation with a calling to take the Gospel to the nations. The vision was born out of Prayer and realised through the miraculous hand of God. We are interdenominational and have a team of people from different churches as well as others who join with us for individual missions.
In December 2008 God gave Stephen Pilkington the vision to start what is now known as "House of Prayer England", or Hope. It is based in Parr, St Helens. To start with a handful of people started to meet in one another’s homes. We were acting in faith based on a word that a few people had received whilst doing a 21 day Daniel Fast. Towards the end of that fast God spoke to Geoff Bates and said "Revival is coming". This word was confirmed by others and received as the word of the Lord.
As we began to pray, four hours a day, four days per week we found that God started to deal with us in a deeper way than we had ever known. He would regularly put His finger on parts of our lives that weren't right and Challenge us to go for Holiness in a new way. One scripture became very prominent to us, 2 Chronicles 7:14 "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land". We knew this scripture in a new way, If we would seek Him for Holiness and Righteousness in a new way with hunger that goes beyond anything we have seen before. He would set England on Fire and Revival would surely come.
You can read more about those early days in the about us page on the House of Prayer England website, if you would like to follow this link, and then click back to return to this page. http://www.houseofprayerengland.co.uk/abouthopefinal.html
As prayer continued for that first year God spoke and said concentrate on nothing except being established in Me through prayer. You see prayer is the secret to fruitfulness in the Kingdom of God. With becoming established in Prayer and Fasting you will never see the fullness of what God wants to do. We did nothing but pray and weep before the Lord for just over a year.
Around the start of the second year God gave us a new word. Of course we had to continue in prayer and that will never change. The House of Prayer is the engine room of this whole ministry. But God spoke and said "Now is the time for working". He gave us an absolute assurance that we were to start preaching the gospel and that many would be saved. Soon after a small team of four went on an evangelistic mission to India. we were preaching to small groups in small villages yet the power of God was unleashed. We saw hundreds of people saved and an even greater number healed from many different illnesses and diseases.
Our whole outlook changed We knew God was showing us what is possible, and challenging us to trust Him to do it in England. He led us to put on the first of our tent missions in the spring of that second year. We had just a handful of people and no money whatsoever. We didn't even have a church to support us in the area of the mission. It seemed that no one wanted to work with us except God. So we pressed on with confidence, we knew God had spoken and we knew where it was to be. As we stepped out all of a sudden provision started to come in. We were loaned the use of a marquee free of charge and all the equipment necessary. All we needed was a PA system and a generator. We tried to loan these from various places but God spoke clearly and said don't loan them because you will need them a lot, I will provide you with your own. Soon after we had everything we needed and the mission went ahead with great success, we saw great fruit. God was incredibly gracious to us and blessed all that we did.
God led us soon after to do another tent mission, and we arranged the loan of the marquee and equipment for a second time. We want ahead and planned the second mission as we had done with the first. With two weeks to go until the start of that mission everything changed. God told us that we were stepping into this ministry full time. He told us that we were to cancel the loan of the marquee and to trust Him to give us a bigger one. We stepped out in faith and God excelled our wildest expectations. He gave abundantly more than we thought to ask for. By the time of the mission we had a marquee 50% bigger than the last one and lots more equipment. God had confirmed to us that this was a new ministry being birthed. We did that mission and another one that summer, seeing wonderfully blessed times and even saw a new church planted in that area with the people who were saved at the three tent missions. Praise be to God, for His wonderful Grace.
Ray Wildman saw a vision of a field filled with trucks and tents etc. It looked like the circus had come to town. God spoke and said we were to trust Him to grow in this way. Except, instead of it being the greatest show on earth we would have the greatest story ever told.
The year following these three missions we have again doubled the size of the tent, and we also saw this new tent filled to capacity as we started the year with a mission in Newsham Park Liverpool. Later on that same summer we did our longest mission yet with a six week mission in Parr, St Helens.
Since then we have been given a heavy Goods vehicle which was transformed into a mobile home. We were able to use this as a resource and through the sale of it, we now have a truck suitable for transporting our tent missions anywhere God leads.
This is a very brief version of what God has been doing, but if you would like to have a more detailed account of the wonderful things God is doing and is going to do. Get in touch, why not come and pray with us at the House of Prayer and go back to your church group fired up about what God is going to do in our nation. If you believe God would have us come to your church or community to do a mission feel free to contact us using our contacts page.
God Bless You All
Stephen Pilkington
Operation Hope Founder Member
steve@operationhope.co.uk
