The Dawn Breaking website of the Dawn Breaking Christian group
Andrew Jewell ~ youth leader
Brought up in a Christian home Andrew found the reality of the gospel in his teenage years. He began sharing his hunger for holiness and a deeper spiritual life with others during his time at university and began weekly meetings with a just a handful of interested students. These weekly gatherings continue in the form of the Dawn Breaking meetings which frequently attract up to 50 youth, college and career folk every Thursday night. Andrew remains passionately commited to taking the transforming message and power of the Gospel, accompanied by miracles of healing and deliverance, to this generation.
Mark Rodgers
It was evening when I awoke hallucinating in a hospital bed, a cardiac monitor attached to me. I had been on the brink of death for a number of hours. My life had become hopeless, and taking an overdose of drugs seemed the only way out. The early part of my childhood was spent in and out of children's homes and special schools, due to my mother’s alcoholism and my behavioural problems. By the time I reached eighteen, life had become a living hell. A regular drug user and addictive gambler, I had served two youth custody prison sentences, spent numerous times in psychiatric hospitals, was self-harming and had spiralled completely out of control. Rebelliousness gripped my young heart, and I despised any form of authority.
One night in November 1990, a few weeks after my mother had suddenly been killed, I cried out to God to help me. All of a sudden a miracle happened. I was aware that Jesus Christ was in the room. I couldn’t stop crying as He poured out His forgiveness on me. I will never forget the complete joy I felt that night. I saw the cross where He had died for my sin. It was a shattering experience that was to change the whole course of my life. A few weeks later I went into a Christian rehabilitation Centre called Teen Challenge. I spent just under two years there and came out changed and ablaze for God. Drugs, crime, smoking, gambling…it all went! I’m so passionate to tell others of the great things God has done – and there is so much to tell.
During the last seven years I have run a consultancy firm working with UK charities and God has blessed it. Opportunities have opened to speak in numerous places about the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a tremendous privilege to see others won for Christ. There is a zeal burning in my heart for the youth of our nation and a longing to see many snatched out of the fire. So what’s life about now? How can I put it simply…to pursue Him who pursued me and to see treasures brought out of darkness!
Nicola
I’ve been going to church since I was 5 weeks old. I became a Christian when I was very young, not older than 3. My mum prayed with me and I asked Jesus to come into my heart. It didn’t particularly affect my life until I was a bit older. At the age of 7 I received my Baptism in the Spirit. One Sunday morning at church I was prayed with and I started speaking in a strange language. It was just a few syllables at first but over the years God has brought me deeper into this baptism. I know that it’s something which strengthens me inside. I’m not a big spiritual giant – I’ve got a long way to go yet – but there’s people in the church who I look up to and whose example I can follow and by taking one small step at a time I know I’ll get there.
The verse which sums up best what God is teaching me is Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by free grace that you are saved. This is not of yourselves but it is the gift of God” God had done so much for me. He’s given me a wonderful life! I hope that this year many young people will find Him as Saviour. I want others to know what it’s like to feel God’s presence, and to realise that Jesus is the answer to all their needs.
Mark
One Friday night, at a youth meeting in a local community hall I responded to an appeal was made for anyone who wanted to become a Christian and I gave my life to God that Friday night. I didn't appreciate at that time how that one commitment as a young person would radically shape the rest of my life. I was baptised in the Holy Spirit Some time later - my church organised a weekend away and near the end of the final meeting my minister prayed with me, and, while we were praying I began to speak in tongues. This was not just a one-off experience of God - the power that I experienced then has grown stronger since and has had a very marked effect on my life.
As a young person growing up in a world which entertains filth and uncleanness, I found power and strength through the baptism in the Holy Spirit to stand for what I know to be right - I can lead a clean and pure life, free from the grip of sin, because of the experience of God that I had at that weekend. I also found a new desire and power to tell others about my faith - unashamed of what I believe in. One of the most influential meetings for me as a student has been the Thursday night student meeting. I can remember time after time leaving the student meeting with the absolute knowledge that I had met with God. God has spoken to me very clearly on a number of occasions through this meeting.
Claire
I became a Christian as a very young child. One night I
simply knelt down beside my bed and prayed for Jesus to come
into my life. That was the beginning of what has gone on to
be a life dedicated to God. For me, a real turning point came
in February 2007 at a Youth Weekend I attended. For the first
time I realised that I had a responsibility for the younger
generation in my church and that my Christian life
wasn’t just ‘my life’ but theirs too. I
want God to use me in whatever way He chooses in the future
and I want to press on and find as much of Him as I can.
I try to live my life in such a way that those growing up in
the church will see the power of God in my life and be
inspired to let Him work in theirs too. For me, seeing people
slightly older than me being used and anointed by God has
been inspirational and has spurred me on to greater things in
God.
The Thursday night student meeting is fantastic! It’s
full of young people who want to know more of God and for me
it’s always been a meeting where I feel the power of
God personally.
Zander
Having been born and brought up in a Christian home I committed my life to Jesus at an early age. Around 10 years old I received my Baptism in the Holy Spirit. At the time I’d have to say I didn’t notice any major difference in my life. However, several years on the power of it is strong and helps me get victory over sin in my life as well as a greater access to the presence of God.
Growing up in the church I always accepted the Bible stories and teachings at a mind level. In recent years I have found more of the reality of the God I was taught about at Sunday school. Jesus Christ is very real to me and influences every decision I make in life. Nothing is as important to me as trying to find more of the depths of God for myself and for that to flow out to others. One of the meetings I attend regularly and I always get a lot out of is the Thursday night student meeting. The presence of God is so powerful and many times I’ve had a real encounter with God in those meetings.
Nma
“This is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes.” Psalm 118:23
I have always been a firm believer in the reality of God in our present day but after the 1st of March 2001 this truth hit me like never before. On that day I was suddenly gripped by an increasing pain in my chest and back, very quickly I could no longer breathe, every breath was more painful. I was examined by health professionals who found my pulse was 130 bpm (it is normally 60) and that my right lung had no breath sounds-I had suffered a collapsed lung! By this time I was in utter agony, unable to breath with the pain.
This condition is a medical emergency and I would have to go to hospital for immediate treatment to avoid a fatal outcome. But before leaving, Andrew, who had been leading the meeting I was attending, came and prayed with me and-as surely as you are reading this now-Jesus Christ Himself drew near to me and brought me down from the top of a ladder of pain and distress and healed me there where I lay. From being in tears and utter agony I was now bathed in such peace I felt I could fall asleep. I was re-examined and both lungs now had normal breath sounds, my pulse was below 80 (normal) and I could speak and breath easily as before.
Glory to God as I am a living testimony to His very real and powerful presence in these days!
I had been brought up in the Catholic church but had found no spiritual reality and didn’t know Jesus as my Saviour. I became a Christian shortly before my 16th birthday. Prior to this I didn’t really know whether God was real. I had begun to live a typical teenage life, getting into all the same stuff as friends at school – there was a whole social group I was getting into of which drinking and soft drugs were a big part.
Without a doubt the most significant experience in my Christian life was when I was Baptised in the Holy Spirit. I went to the University of Glasgow and started going to the Dawn Breaking meeting. I had read about the Baptism and knew that at that stage I needed it badly if I was to continue in my life as a Christian and be changed from my old ways. One night at the meeting, after I had been praying to God for this experience but was ready to give up, I heard people praying in tongues for the first time. I closed my eyes and prayed to God that if it was His will He would send someone to lay hands on me - He did! I was flooded with power like I could never have imagined - it felt like it was flowing through me. There was a deep joy which filled me and I praised God in a new language. Since then that power which flowed into me has brought me victory over the sins in my life which had bound me.
I have a deep desire to know God more and to follow Him whatever the cost. There is nothing in this world which holds any attraction for me. My goal is to know God and there is a burning desire to see people saved and brought into a deep and vital relationship with Him.