Ilkeston

Now, this opening statement mentioned all nine accused men, and so we'll take you through them one by one.

We start with David Graves, who's 59 and from Ilkeston in Derbyshire and is one of the alleged non-contact offenders.

There was quite a lot of detail about messages between him and the husband.

The court heard how in those messages, Graves was persistently and graphically encouraging him to record and share new abuse, often becoming impatient when he didn't.

I think it was a Christmas meeting.

And it was here at Ilkeston.

And afterwards, after we'd had the meeting, we went downstairs to have some food, as we normally do.

Christine and the team do a great job.

But I look forward to being with a young congregation down in Hockley this evening at seven.

And I always love being on what I call home territory, Ilkeston.

And thanking God for Tim and Helen and everybody that serves in this particular campus.

Another thing that just came to me just as we come to the ministry is that you've heard people say at times, oh, you go to one of them happy clappy churches, don't you? It's said derogatory.

You may feel a little emotional and that's just God and there's nothing wrong with that.

You may feel just how you normally do.

But Holy Spirit, we're so thankful that the Lord Jesus, the risen Jesus, by His Spirit is amongst us, amongst this ordinary group of people in Arena, Ilkeston on an October morning.

What a miracle.

I am thrilled to be the third speaker in this series of Mind Great Games and I want to encourage you to open up your Bibles, get your notepads ready, get your mobile phones at the ready because I really believe that God wants to speak to us.

Thanks to Tim and Helen who continue to lead the charge here in Ilkeston.

They too are doing a significant job and I really want to honour them for what they are doing here in this place and I want to encourage us with these selection boxes.

It's way more than just a simple selection box.

I've heard him say, it's the best campus.

We're going to really rock this.

Well, can I say, can Ilkeston be the best campus? Can you rock this? Can we really get literally thousands of selection boxes? Maybe a few hundred, but let's really bless.

the schools.