Hannah Wilmshurst radiates encouragement. She bubbles over with the joy of the Lord. Originally from the UK, she now lives in Nelson with her husband and two children. She serves on the senior leadership team at Aspire Church and also works as a photographer.
She’s also the founder of The Flood Movement. You may have seen The Flood around – they’re a collective running projects and events across the motu, making an impact both through evangelism and practical acts of love. One of their key initiatives is the stadium event at Trafalgar Stadium in Nelson, a weekend of worship, teaching and prayer. Leading up to it, The Flood take to the streets in outreach, and afterwards they focus on connecting with and discipling those who responded.
With the most recent stadium gathering held just last month, I was keen to hear Hannah’s reflections – as well as learn more about the kaupapa of The Flood Movement. And with our diocese having focused on the subject of evangelism this year, I wanted to hear about what motivates her to spread the gospel.
We met at River Kitchen in Nelson, sharing loaded fries (which, for the record, we both agreed were phenomenal – and no, this article isn’t sponsored by River Kitchen).
Hannah: The Flood Movement is a team of all different people from different churches. I cast the vision, we seek the Lord together, and then we move as a team.
It came about from a vision I had, over 10 years ago, of a stadium filled with people worshipping God. Then things got started about six years ago with the help of friends.
We started building an intercessory team, setting up this ministry called “The Flood”, and met the lady who said, “we’ve got a barn called ‘The Ark’!” And we started having our prayer meetings there. We just started praying for the region, for local pastors. We’ve met pretty much every Wednesday for six years.
There are about 15 of us in the core team. We’ve got people from Aspire, Richmond New Life Church, Atawhai, Unite… It’s a multi-generational, multi-denominational team, it's beautiful.
And then we realised that God was doing something way bigger than my idea of the stadium.
Hannah: We’ve run a lot of things over the years. One of the first events was at Victory Community Hall. It was packed, and people got saved and healed. Then we did Victory Christmas – people got saved, healed, prophesied over, and everyone connected over free food.
At every event we've done, whether there's only been a handful of people turn up, or a whole room's been full, God's always moved really powerfully.
Then we did Coats for Kids. So we gathered a few churches together, The Warehouse jumped on board, and next minute our team was delivering warm coats to people who needed them. We just bought as many coats as we could from The Warehouse, and we had them going out to families, even all the way over in Golden Bay.
So we’ve always had the evangelism side, but we’ve also been really interested in blessing and investing into the community. It all goes together.
Hannah: It was amazing. It was wild. The whole weekend was off the charts.
The worship was amazing. There was this hunger in the room. We just saw people getting saved and healed. We didn't need to push through anything. We just worshipped, and it was beautiful.
Everything just built on that. On Saturday, during the day, we had a youth session, and we had youth give their lives to Jesus. We had people being radically set free by Jesus. It was wild.
We knew everything was leading up to a huge Saturday night. And that's exactly what it was. I don't know where all the people came from!
We had one girl from the stadium send a testimony of getting free from trauma. She got baptised. We've got other stories coming in – pastors’ kids getting saved, prodigals coming home. Someone who got saved at the stadium last year took a friend this year, and he got saved.
The leaders always have their own encounters with the Lord as well and get stretched and grown. Part of The Flood Movement is equipping and making a space to bring people in.
We basically rent venues for people to turn up and for God to move in.
Hannah: Yeah, we needed to do something with all the people that got saved! We've been calling and emailing everyone who responded.
I had a dream. God speaks to me a lot through dreams. "Discipleship, six weeks, and I want you to film it." My friend Chanel agreed to run this course. So it’s a six-week course, with these little video clips, and then there are questions and answers, and you get free dinner every week.
In October, we launched “Jesus School” for youth. One night a week, you jump online and join in on incredible speakers, discussion, and we just take them on a journey of theology and everything like that. Matt Lansdowne, me and Kristen Williams will be running that, for 12-25 year olds.
I'm excited to make sure that follow-up is done properly. It’s really important.
Hannah: We teamed up with YWAM. It used to be really tough ground. Then we had intercessors come out with us, pray, go on top of the cathedral steps, and just sit there and pray while we went out on the street.
When you’re out on the street, you're not going up to just anyone – you're looking for the Holy Spirit to highlight people. God's already done stuff, you’re just turning up. Normally, you're going up to someone who's like, "You know, I’ve just been thinking about that today."
I love ministering to strangers. It's pretty incredible when you think about it. The stories you come away from street ministry – you've just literally entered a stranger's space. I've been with a woman who just had this full encounter with God on the street. She was just bawling her eyes out. And you think, they might not ever step into a church. This is why street ministry is so important.
Hannah: We had to build trust. Pastors have been burned. So when you come in and want to form a relationship and see people transformed and saved, you come up against quite a lot of push back.
Bishop Steve has been so amazing. When I meet with him, he's so supportive. That has always encouraged me – sitting there with the guy God has appointed and anointed for this region, and I’m just thinking, “This dude gets it”.
But when you're breaking ground, and you're not a church, that's interesting.
“Who are you, what are you doing, what are you doing in our city? You're not from New Zealand.”
I just see life really simple. The Lord called me here. He saved me. He set me free. And now I'm doing what he's called me to do right now.
Hannah: It's all about the love of the Father. It's actually the importance of someone living a life knowing exactly who they're called to be, who the Son sets free as free indeed. So, you ask the Father for his heart and you'll understand evangelism. It's not guilt. It's grace. It's love.
We can train people in evangelism, but evangelism is really all about the intimacy of Jesus. Evangelism should be something that flows straight from your heart. And how it flows straight from your heart is intimacy with Jesus, sitting with him. What does he feel? What does he see? When you have those revelations from him about his people, his region, his nation, who you are as a person, and you understand all of that – that's what evangelism comes out of.
People can tell if you're not being genuine. They don't want all the other rubbish.
Hannah: Look, there's a hungry nation waiting to hear from Jesus. Every time we go out on the street or every time we do a bigger event, we just see God move and see how hungry people are.
If the Lord tells us to go, we go. That's our biggest thing, we go on the word of the Lord. We're never really quite sure what will happen.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
Hannah Wilmshurst radiates encouragement. She bubbles over with the joy of the Lord. Originally from the UK, she now lives in Nelson with her husband and two children. She serves on the senior leadership team at Aspire Church and also works as a photographer.
She’s also the founder of The Flood Movement. You may have seen The Flood around – they’re a collective running projects and events across the motu, making an impact both through evangelism and practical acts of love. One of their key initiatives is the stadium event at Trafalgar Stadium in Nelson, a weekend of worship, teaching and prayer. Leading up to it, The Flood take to the streets in outreach, and afterwards they focus on connecting with and discipling those who responded.
With the most recent stadium gathering held just last month, I was keen to hear Hannah’s reflections – as well as learn more about the kaupapa of The Flood Movement. And with our diocese having focused on the subject of evangelism this year, I wanted to hear about what motivates her to spread the gospel.
We met at River Kitchen in Nelson, sharing loaded fries (which, for the record, we both agreed were phenomenal – and no, this article isn’t sponsored by River Kitchen).
Hannah: The Flood Movement is a team of all different people from different churches. I cast the vision, we seek the Lord together, and then we move as a team.
It came about from a vision I had, over 10 years ago, of a stadium filled with people worshipping God. Then things got started about six years ago with the help of friends.
We started building an intercessory team, setting up this ministry called “The Flood”, and met the lady who said, “we’ve got a barn called ‘The Ark’!” And we started having our prayer meetings there. We just started praying for the region, for local pastors. We’ve met pretty much every Wednesday for six years.
There are about 15 of us in the core team. We’ve got people from Aspire, Richmond New Life Church, Atawhai, Unite… It’s a multi-generational, multi-denominational team, it's beautiful.
And then we realised that God was doing something way bigger than my idea of the stadium.
Hannah: We’ve run a lot of things over the years. One of the first events was at Victory Community Hall. It was packed, and people got saved and healed. Then we did Victory Christmas – people got saved, healed, prophesied over, and everyone connected over free food.
At every event we've done, whether there's only been a handful of people turn up, or a whole room's been full, God's always moved really powerfully.
Then we did Coats for Kids. So we gathered a few churches together, The Warehouse jumped on board, and next minute our team was delivering warm coats to people who needed them. We just bought as many coats as we could from The Warehouse, and we had them going out to families, even all the way over in Golden Bay.
So we’ve always had the evangelism side, but we’ve also been really interested in blessing and investing into the community. It all goes together.
Hannah: It was amazing. It was wild. The whole weekend was off the charts.
The worship was amazing. There was this hunger in the room. We just saw people getting saved and healed. We didn't need to push through anything. We just worshipped, and it was beautiful.
Everything just built on that. On Saturday, during the day, we had a youth session, and we had youth give their lives to Jesus. We had people being radically set free by Jesus. It was wild.
We knew everything was leading up to a huge Saturday night. And that's exactly what it was. I don't know where all the people came from!
We had one girl from the stadium send a testimony of getting free from trauma. She got baptised. We've got other stories coming in – pastors’ kids getting saved, prodigals coming home. Someone who got saved at the stadium last year took a friend this year, and he got saved.
The leaders always have their own encounters with the Lord as well and get stretched and grown. Part of The Flood Movement is equipping and making a space to bring people in.
We basically rent venues for people to turn up and for God to move in.
Hannah: Yeah, we needed to do something with all the people that got saved! We've been calling and emailing everyone who responded.
I had a dream. God speaks to me a lot through dreams. "Discipleship, six weeks, and I want you to film it." My friend Chanel agreed to run this course. So it’s a six-week course, with these little video clips, and then there are questions and answers, and you get free dinner every week.
In October, we launched “Jesus School” for youth. One night a week, you jump online and join in on incredible speakers, discussion, and we just take them on a journey of theology and everything like that. Matt Lansdowne, me and Kristen Williams will be running that, for 12-25 year olds.
I'm excited to make sure that follow-up is done properly. It’s really important.
Hannah: We teamed up with YWAM. It used to be really tough ground. Then we had intercessors come out with us, pray, go on top of the cathedral steps, and just sit there and pray while we went out on the street.
When you’re out on the street, you're not going up to just anyone – you're looking for the Holy Spirit to highlight people. God's already done stuff, you’re just turning up. Normally, you're going up to someone who's like, "You know, I’ve just been thinking about that today."
I love ministering to strangers. It's pretty incredible when you think about it. The stories you come away from street ministry – you've just literally entered a stranger's space. I've been with a woman who just had this full encounter with God on the street. She was just bawling her eyes out. And you think, they might not ever step into a church. This is why street ministry is so important.
Hannah: We had to build trust. Pastors have been burned. So when you come in and want to form a relationship and see people transformed and saved, you come up against quite a lot of push back.
Bishop Steve has been so amazing. When I meet with him, he's so supportive. That has always encouraged me – sitting there with the guy God has appointed and anointed for this region, and I’m just thinking, “This dude gets it”.
But when you're breaking ground, and you're not a church, that's interesting.
“Who are you, what are you doing, what are you doing in our city? You're not from New Zealand.”
I just see life really simple. The Lord called me here. He saved me. He set me free. And now I'm doing what he's called me to do right now.
Hannah: It's all about the love of the Father. It's actually the importance of someone living a life knowing exactly who they're called to be, who the Son sets free as free indeed. So, you ask the Father for his heart and you'll understand evangelism. It's not guilt. It's grace. It's love.
We can train people in evangelism, but evangelism is really all about the intimacy of Jesus. Evangelism should be something that flows straight from your heart. And how it flows straight from your heart is intimacy with Jesus, sitting with him. What does he feel? What does he see? When you have those revelations from him about his people, his region, his nation, who you are as a person, and you understand all of that – that's what evangelism comes out of.
People can tell if you're not being genuine. They don't want all the other rubbish.
Hannah: Look, there's a hungry nation waiting to hear from Jesus. Every time we go out on the street or every time we do a bigger event, we just see God move and see how hungry people are.
If the Lord tells us to go, we go. That's our biggest thing, we go on the word of the Lord. We're never really quite sure what will happen.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
