Thanking God that 10 people, who told us they are not part of any church, prayed the salvation response prayer, when I spoke at Gateway Church, Basingstoke last night. And one other, also not church, didn’t pray the prayer, but did say they want to know more about Christianity. Not so long ago, this church was just an idea. Then Andy Le Roux, who is based in Odiham, began to gather a group in Basingstoke. Then about 7 years ago (?) Martin & Rebecca Flood moved from CityGate Church Bournemouth to Basingstoke and the church has gone from strength to strength. They now have a dream team including an evangelist friend of mine, Ed Mellish, and Tom Williams, for whom I did an Alpha launch four years ago, when he was leading Beaconsfield Baptist Church. And they’ve now bought a warehouse to use as a permanent Sunday venue, which is due to be ready summer 2022 I think. So it was the ‘last Christmas’ for Gateway in the hall we were in last night at Queen Mary College. I first met Martin during a series of amazing youth outreach meetings in Bournemouth years ago. He and his Dad Paul, ran a youth event in called Provenance. I was invited down to speak at Provenance four times during 2003-05. These were fantastic nights. I remember that one time Tim Hughes led worship and after I preached and there was a big salvation response, I went out the side door of the St Swithun’s building (which is now used by LoveChurch – and that’s a brilliant story by the way. Tim Mathews, book about it is one of the most encouraging books I’ve read in recent years). Anyway, I went out the side door and found a group of teenagers from Swanage in Dorset, becoming Christians in the churchyard in the pitch dark! Another night when we had another huge response was when I partnered with the original Phatfish lineup. Seems ages ago now, but I remember young people gathered from all round the area, and there were some huge responses. So, it was great to see Martin again last night, and lovely to partner with Gateway.