All this week our teaching has been from a lady called Patricia Bootsma and has been about prophetic evangelism. The whole idea of this is that we use prophecy (asking God what they want to say to someone and then telling them) as a tool in evangelism. If someone came up to you and knew something about you that no one else should know, you would probably want to know how wouldn't you? So sometimes God gives people what are called "words of knowledge" which are things that no stranger should ever know, this gets people attention and then gives you the opportunity to talk to them, tell them whatever it is that God wants to say to them and maybe pray with them and if they are ready even lead them to Jesus. It's all very cool, and when Patricia talks you get these images of these amazing bang, bang bang encounters where everyone one gets saved and everyone gets healed and it's all amazing. So on Thursday morning, we were given the opportunity to try it all out. Once again God taught me a lesson in my expectations- never expect God to do the same thing twice, to work the same way in two people or to say the same things to different people. Before we went out we prayed and asked God for words for the people he wanted us to speak to. I saw a lady with bright pink in her hair, others saw a yellow jacket, a certain type of hat etc. So then we went out to the border of the Chinese sector by Kensington market (yes Ontario has a London, Stratford, Kensington). We first started chatting to this homeless guy, got him some food and a couple from the group talked to him. I was with another student called Dan, and we started talking to another guy, funnily enough called Dhan (pronounced the same though), who was hanging around. This guy could have talked for Canada. He was on about Shakespeare, the English and the Irish not getting on (or leader was an Irish guy), loving Dan's accent, telling Dan he needed an English wife..... on and on. Occasionally we got to talk and he seemed to really like what we said, was well up for praying, but then got distracted again and again. It was really frustrating because from what he said, he knew stuff about Jesus and believed much of it, but didn't really know him as a friend. Eventually though Dan suggested that he pray with us. So we prayed and the guy repeated, and his attention was fixed rigidly on us and on God which was really cool. We prayed for a deeper relationship with God and for release from his alcohol addiction. Then he went off and we wandered on again. As we were walking along I suddenly saw her- the lady with the pink hair. She was sitting at a cafe on her phone. Not wanting to interrupt her phone conversation, we went and got a drink, sat down and waited. She was making call after call while we were getting our drinks, and so we ended up spending about 20/30 mins waiting for her to finish her call. After waiting that long, there was no way I wasn't going to talk to her, so as soon as she had finished on the phone I was there. "Hi, my name's Sarah. I'm from a school near here where we are learning to hear God's voice. I was praying before asking god who to talk to and he showed me a picture of you. I really feel that he want to tell you that you are not forgotten, that he really cares for you and has not forgotten you" Woman nods politely whole way through, "I was wondering if I could pray with you" So you ready for the amazing, life changing answer, with which I can rival Patricia in her amazing stories? "No, sorry I don't pray!" Well there's not much you can say to that is there? So I said that was cool, wished her a good day and turned back to Dan and my milk shake. l was a bit disappointed, but at the end of the day I did what God asked of me and, even though I didn't see it, I have no idea how much what I said might have actually affected her. Now I had approached one person (me doing the initial talk as appose to letting someone else start and me jump in) I was raring to go. So we went into the flower shop next door and chatted and prayed with the lady in there which was really cool. Then we wandered down the street and joined the others who were talking to two lads a bit older than me. One of them looked so down and quite ill really. Simon, the leader, was just chatting to them and as is his was he leads the conversation as the Holy Spirit leads. Patricia is very in your face direct about the fact she has words about you from God, Simon, however, is much more disarming. He strikes up conversation and then if God gives him a word of knowledge he just prompts them to talk about it, so for these guys he simply asked "What is your dream" and the guy just lit up totally and was talking about his dream of opening an eco-store selling solar panels and educating people about renewable energy sources. As he spoke I could see him doing it- it fitted so well with even the little I had seen of him. His friend was also interested in doing that, but much more in being an advocate for the cause. So we were able to pray with them that God would open doors for that dream and he would guide them through. Finally it was time to think about heading back to the van, but first I saw something that just made me laugh. When we had been praying for pictures of who to talk to, I saw a picture of someone on a bike. I remember telling God just how stupid that was because of course if they were on their bike I wasn't going to be able to talk to them- he was silly to even suggest it. So we are standing on the street corner and low and behold browsing the display outside the shop across the road was a lady and her bike! I didn't even question that I was supposed to talk to her, I dashed across and went and started explaining who I was, what I was doing and asked if I could pray with her. She looked rather shell shocked but agreed and suddenly I was stuck- I now had to say something, so I called Marta over and told her we were praying for this lady 'Sarah'. So we started praying and I got a picture of God holding her really close so I told her that God really wanted to draw her in close and tears started to fall down her cheeks. It turned out that she was a Christian and new God, but was just really blessed by the fact that we came and prayed with her. It was a lovely end to the morning :)
So although the morning didn't pan out the way I expected, it was amazing fun and I am just waiting for the next opportunity to go and do it again :)
Saturday, 26 April 2008
The heart of worship
My outreach group is amazing. When we were first put into outreach groups I really didn't know any of my group, however since being put into outreach groups we have spent a fair bit of time together, and now I love my team! We play silly games in outreach prep, all go to the same church each Sunday.
The most fun time I have had with them has to be leading worship. Some of the outreach teams have got fully formed bands from the worship school. We however don't have anybody from the worship school. Many of us don't have much, or any experience in playing in a worship band. However when we lead worship one Thursday in the school it was amazing! We were not a perfect band, we weren't always in time, we weren't always in the right key- but we worshipped! It was really cool because at one point everything pretty much fell apart musically, so we all gave up and just sang. However I have never seen everyone get into worship so much! Everyone was shouting and cheering and dancing and just having a great time with God. We then kept it together when we started the next song, and actually were pretty good- if I do say so myself :-P We had those members of the band who weren't playing, come forward and give hugs to anyone who wanted. We were singing "Arms of Love" and basically the idea is that although God shows himself to us in many different ways you can't reach out and touch him in the same way you can a person. So sometimes he asks people to be his physical arms. Our team was there to give a hug to anyone who felt they wanted or needed a hug. This is something we have done in the school a fair bit, but never during worship. People responded though and most of the school came forward- some a couple of times. I felt incredible privileged to have been part of that band as we just worshipped God regardless of what happened. Apparently the worship school all went into their class afterwards and said "See, that's how you let go of perfectionism and just worship". It was certainly a lesson I learnt, that God doesn't care how you sound, he cares where your heart is at.
After leading at the school, the next Sunday we lead worship again at our church. It was really occasion for God to teach us another lesson - "Never assume that God will work the same way twice". We used the same set of songs, but with a completely different group of people. The school are very really to jump and shout and really are open to doing anything as part of their worship. North's average age is a bit higher than the school's and some there find it hard to jump and shout, some just don’t feel comfortable and some might want to but just don't quite know what to do. So the reaction was very different, and the way that the Holy Spirit moved was different. We did the hug idea again, to see how that went down. Once Amber had explained that they were there to be God's arms of love and give a hug to anyone who wanted on, the others stood at the front. Apparently not everyone understood and this one lady came up to Amy and gave her a hug, thinking that she was there to receive one! Even so it was good and we had a chance to see what work with different groups of people, what looked like it had potential and what really wasn't so appropriate with the different groups. At the end of the day though, God showed up and really touched people- including us- so it was all good!
The most fun time I have had with them has to be leading worship. Some of the outreach teams have got fully formed bands from the worship school. We however don't have anybody from the worship school. Many of us don't have much, or any experience in playing in a worship band. However when we lead worship one Thursday in the school it was amazing! We were not a perfect band, we weren't always in time, we weren't always in the right key- but we worshipped! It was really cool because at one point everything pretty much fell apart musically, so we all gave up and just sang. However I have never seen everyone get into worship so much! Everyone was shouting and cheering and dancing and just having a great time with God. We then kept it together when we started the next song, and actually were pretty good- if I do say so myself :-P We had those members of the band who weren't playing, come forward and give hugs to anyone who wanted. We were singing "Arms of Love" and basically the idea is that although God shows himself to us in many different ways you can't reach out and touch him in the same way you can a person. So sometimes he asks people to be his physical arms. Our team was there to give a hug to anyone who felt they wanted or needed a hug. This is something we have done in the school a fair bit, but never during worship. People responded though and most of the school came forward- some a couple of times. I felt incredible privileged to have been part of that band as we just worshipped God regardless of what happened. Apparently the worship school all went into their class afterwards and said "See, that's how you let go of perfectionism and just worship". It was certainly a lesson I learnt, that God doesn't care how you sound, he cares where your heart is at.
After leading at the school, the next Sunday we lead worship again at our church. It was really occasion for God to teach us another lesson - "Never assume that God will work the same way twice". We used the same set of songs, but with a completely different group of people. The school are very really to jump and shout and really are open to doing anything as part of their worship. North's average age is a bit higher than the school's and some there find it hard to jump and shout, some just don’t feel comfortable and some might want to but just don't quite know what to do. So the reaction was very different, and the way that the Holy Spirit moved was different. We did the hug idea again, to see how that went down. Once Amber had explained that they were there to be God's arms of love and give a hug to anyone who wanted on, the others stood at the front. Apparently not everyone understood and this one lady came up to Amy and gave her a hug, thinking that she was there to receive one! Even so it was good and we had a chance to see what work with different groups of people, what looked like it had potential and what really wasn't so appropriate with the different groups. At the end of the day though, God showed up and really touched people- including us- so it was all good!
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Revival in Florida
Hey Guys
I am so sorry I have been so bad at keeping this upto date. I still don't have my own internet, though my laptop now has a new hard drive and is semi working (won't recognise my wireless card yet though). I don't have much time either, we have sermons to write and class and outreach prep and everything. I though this would be easy ish, this is called a school for a reason- they work us hard!
I am part way through an update, so hopefully should have something for you soon. However in the mean time I have to tell you about the revival that is happening in Florida. Google the great florida revival. Todd Bently is in Florida and there is a HUGE healing reval going on. We have been seeing this happen in africa and india etc, but we don't see this in 1st world contries. It is amazing. If we have the chance, some of us would love to go down and get some of that. The most exciting thing is that IT IS GOING TO ENGLAND!!!!!!! So guys keep your eye open and your ear to the news. If you hear where it is going on- then get there if you possibly can.
Wow, God is amazing!!!!
I am so sorry I have been so bad at keeping this upto date. I still don't have my own internet, though my laptop now has a new hard drive and is semi working (won't recognise my wireless card yet though). I don't have much time either, we have sermons to write and class and outreach prep and everything. I though this would be easy ish, this is called a school for a reason- they work us hard!
I am part way through an update, so hopefully should have something for you soon. However in the mean time I have to tell you about the revival that is happening in Florida. Google the great florida revival. Todd Bently is in Florida and there is a HUGE healing reval going on. We have been seeing this happen in africa and india etc, but we don't see this in 1st world contries. It is amazing. If we have the chance, some of us would love to go down and get some of that. The most exciting thing is that IT IS GOING TO ENGLAND!!!!!!! So guys keep your eye open and your ear to the news. If you hear where it is going on- then get there if you possibly can.
Wow, God is amazing!!!!
Thursday, 10 April 2008
I miss my laptop
It is really hard when technology that you are relying on is taken away. I didn't realise just how much I used my laptop until I didn't have it anymore. It's been ages now and Í so want it back. However I was grumbling to God about it and he said he did it on purpose to teach me a lesson! nice isn't it. Well I hope I've learnt it now so I can have it back.
So I am going to have to give you a breif synopsis of what I've been upto since my last post, otherwise we are are all going to be here until Jesus comes back!
So since my last big post I have sung in a choir in the main church - that was hilarious fun. If anyone fancies paying the subscription to the TACF internet TV thing you can watch all the services they have recorded for the last... months, years dunno. But yeah you can see me on there- apparently a bit fuzzy, but it's me. (www.tagc.org and click on "revive TV")
I have as I mentioned, found out that I am going on outreach in Brazil. The outreach is on the last month and will be for 3 weeks. We are going to Porto Alegre. We will be going in their winter so it will be cooler than other times of the year, but still quite nice I think :) I am so excited. I have never been to South America before, or past the equator which I think is cool.
We went to our host church last sunday. Each of the outreach groups has a campus church that they go to each week. TACF has planted 6 churches in the greater Toronto area and so each outreach group goes to one of those churches from now on. Ours is TACF North. They were lovely and actually they got to tell us a bit about Brazil. I'm even more excited after that because it sounds like Brazil is all ready to hear about God and really receive him. It's going to be intence!
Teaching wise we have had prophecy, Intimacy and half or boundries. I will at some point give a more detailed look at those, but here is a breif look at what each of those week's looked like
Prophecy - Isabel and Ivan Allum gave us practical teaching on how to prophecy, what not to do when prophecying and how to give prophetic words. Prophecy is accessible to all christians because all it is, is repeating what God tell you and if you can hear God's voice then it's fine. It was really helpful practicle teaching. The two of them also prophecied over each student which was amazing. I'm so excited by all that God has planed for me. But the this with Prophecy is that it is an invitation from God. It is him saying "I want you to have this, will you step into it" It's not fortune telling. I liked God's offer so I want to step out into that and take all he wants me to have for my life. They talked about teaching (ties in very well with my current plans of a PGCE) and about doing some pastoring (which I had never concidered before). So it was both confirming and challenging which was exciting.
Intimacy - AJ and Allyn Jones gave, again, very practical advice on how to get closer in intimacy with God. God doesn't just want followers, he wants friends. Friends are people who spend time with him and know him, not just in their heads, but just in their hearts. I found this really useful and have taken a huge jump in my own intimacy with God after this week.
Boundries - Chip Judd has been teaching mostly on establishing healthy relationships where you know what you are responsible for and what you aren't responsible for. Learning to say no when you want to and we even got a free parenting class thrown in. We have just come out of the 'sex talk' where the guys and girls were split up and given the chance to hear from older more experienced christians about sex and your sexuality without pussyfooting around. The church is so good at skirting around key issues in our lives so many people feel they are the only one struggling, or they feel ashamed. It was so refreshing to hear people being open and honest for a change. It was very liberating. Not sure what we are learning in the last day of boundries tomorrow.
Getting closer to God has easily been the most exciting thing in the last three weeks. However the most eventful and the one I have the most photos of is easily the baseball. On the 4th April a load of us when out tothe baseball to see the Toronto Blue Jays vs the Boston Red Socks. It was so much fun. The stadium (in my eyes) was huge, and we, in the cheap seats, were very high up. I felt quite funny when I stepped out onto the stands. The game was a really good one because not much happened for the first 6 innings (in basebal there are 9) so I could enjoy my hotdog, the atmosphere, take pictures, talk to people etc. Then in the 7th inning the Blue Jays started to win!! In the end the Blue Jays won. I don't remember what the score was, but it was exciting. We were all getting really into it, screaming with everyone else, waving our free Blue Jays' towels. Once I have them off my camera I will post up some pictures. If you look at pictures of me on facebook you can see a few that other people took. We got a mirical bus on the way back too which was cool. We were waiting and my prayed for a bus, the the next second two buses turned up, neither of them ours. Now if you haven't come across this before I will let you into a secret - God has a real sence of humour (make sence concidereing he created ours). So we were aware of some of God's workings so tried to be a little more specific "Ok God, we would like our bus to turn up. And we want it to be a clean bus". The Toronto buses are really skanky and we didn't really want another of those buses. So three seconds later a 58 pulls up and it is the newest, cleanest, nicest bus I have seen since being here! we laughed so much! God is so good.
I don't feel I have done any of these stories justice, but I wanted to update you all and not post a world record on the blog post length, so I hope they give you a bit of an idea as to what I've been up to.
Prayer points:
So I am going to have to give you a breif synopsis of what I've been upto since my last post, otherwise we are are all going to be here until Jesus comes back!
So since my last big post I have sung in a choir in the main church - that was hilarious fun. If anyone fancies paying the subscription to the TACF internet TV thing you can watch all the services they have recorded for the last... months, years dunno. But yeah you can see me on there- apparently a bit fuzzy, but it's me. (www.tagc.org and click on "revive TV")
I have as I mentioned, found out that I am going on outreach in Brazil. The outreach is on the last month and will be for 3 weeks. We are going to Porto Alegre. We will be going in their winter so it will be cooler than other times of the year, but still quite nice I think :) I am so excited. I have never been to South America before, or past the equator which I think is cool.
We went to our host church last sunday. Each of the outreach groups has a campus church that they go to each week. TACF has planted 6 churches in the greater Toronto area and so each outreach group goes to one of those churches from now on. Ours is TACF North. They were lovely and actually they got to tell us a bit about Brazil. I'm even more excited after that because it sounds like Brazil is all ready to hear about God and really receive him. It's going to be intence!
Teaching wise we have had prophecy, Intimacy and half or boundries. I will at some point give a more detailed look at those, but here is a breif look at what each of those week's looked like
Prophecy - Isabel and Ivan Allum gave us practical teaching on how to prophecy, what not to do when prophecying and how to give prophetic words. Prophecy is accessible to all christians because all it is, is repeating what God tell you and if you can hear God's voice then it's fine. It was really helpful practicle teaching. The two of them also prophecied over each student which was amazing. I'm so excited by all that God has planed for me. But the this with Prophecy is that it is an invitation from God. It is him saying "I want you to have this, will you step into it" It's not fortune telling. I liked God's offer so I want to step out into that and take all he wants me to have for my life. They talked about teaching (ties in very well with my current plans of a PGCE) and about doing some pastoring (which I had never concidered before). So it was both confirming and challenging which was exciting.
Intimacy - AJ and Allyn Jones gave, again, very practical advice on how to get closer in intimacy with God. God doesn't just want followers, he wants friends. Friends are people who spend time with him and know him, not just in their heads, but just in their hearts. I found this really useful and have taken a huge jump in my own intimacy with God after this week.
Boundries - Chip Judd has been teaching mostly on establishing healthy relationships where you know what you are responsible for and what you aren't responsible for. Learning to say no when you want to and we even got a free parenting class thrown in. We have just come out of the 'sex talk' where the guys and girls were split up and given the chance to hear from older more experienced christians about sex and your sexuality without pussyfooting around. The church is so good at skirting around key issues in our lives so many people feel they are the only one struggling, or they feel ashamed. It was so refreshing to hear people being open and honest for a change. It was very liberating. Not sure what we are learning in the last day of boundries tomorrow.
Getting closer to God has easily been the most exciting thing in the last three weeks. However the most eventful and the one I have the most photos of is easily the baseball. On the 4th April a load of us when out tothe baseball to see the Toronto Blue Jays vs the Boston Red Socks. It was so much fun. The stadium (in my eyes) was huge, and we, in the cheap seats, were very high up. I felt quite funny when I stepped out onto the stands. The game was a really good one because not much happened for the first 6 innings (in basebal there are 9) so I could enjoy my hotdog, the atmosphere, take pictures, talk to people etc. Then in the 7th inning the Blue Jays started to win!! In the end the Blue Jays won. I don't remember what the score was, but it was exciting. We were all getting really into it, screaming with everyone else, waving our free Blue Jays' towels. Once I have them off my camera I will post up some pictures. If you look at pictures of me on facebook you can see a few that other people took. We got a mirical bus on the way back too which was cool. We were waiting and my prayed for a bus, the the next second two buses turned up, neither of them ours. Now if you haven't come across this before I will let you into a secret - God has a real sence of humour (make sence concidereing he created ours). So we were aware of some of God's workings so tried to be a little more specific "Ok God, we would like our bus to turn up. And we want it to be a clean bus". The Toronto buses are really skanky and we didn't really want another of those buses. So three seconds later a 58 pulls up and it is the newest, cleanest, nicest bus I have seen since being here! we laughed so much! God is so good.
I don't feel I have done any of these stories justice, but I wanted to update you all and not post a world record on the blog post length, so I hope they give you a bit of an idea as to what I've been up to.
Prayer points:
- My laptop- it is really hard not having it now and bugging me
- Home sickness - not having so much conact is making me even more homesick, I have spoken to charl about 3 times in the last week and a half which sucks big time (called him this morning though which was fun- made my day)
- Physical health- my knee and ankle are both playing up and I can't dance and jump in worship like I would like to.
- Continued word- God is doing stuff and I want him to carry on and do more
Sorry if there are lots of spelling mistakes, spell check isn't working!
Monday, 31 March 2008
Outreach
I´m going to BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!
we have just beentold our outreach groups and I am going to Brazil! I can´t beleive it. I am so excited!!! My team should be realy cool as well. I don´t know them as well as I know some people at the school, but they are all lovely. So anyone know any Portugues?
Also I must appologise if I don´t write for a while. My computer has died- won´t boot up at all, so it might be a bit before I have good access to the net again.
But until then,
So long
we have just beentold our outreach groups and I am going to Brazil! I can´t beleive it. I am so excited!!! My team should be realy cool as well. I don´t know them as well as I know some people at the school, but they are all lovely. So anyone know any Portugues?
Also I must appologise if I don´t write for a while. My computer has died- won´t boot up at all, so it might be a bit before I have good access to the net again.
But until then,
So long
Friday, 28 March 2008
I have no breath to shout, I have no breath to sing, I have no breath to dance, but I will praise you
LONG POST ALERT!!!! (well it was a long weekend!)
Fresh wind is the youth conference that TACF puts on every year. It is aimed at teenagers and is always on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend. This year there were about 2 or 3 thousand people there at the peek, and it was… intense.
Each of the school of ministry students had a work duty assigned to them where they had a job for 4 hours each day. Some people were on security, some were car park attendants, some where serving the speakers in ‘Speaker’s lounge’ and some where on maintenance. I got kitchen duty!! I have to say that I was not particularly thrilled about this to start with, but Francis who runs the kitchen here is so lovely that you can’t help but enjoy yourself when you are with him.
So my shift started at 8 in the morning and we were supposed to work until 12 each day, but for the first two days we had a really light load. The kitchens were running a meal plan for delegates at the conference and it was to be served in one of the overflow rooms in the back of the church. So the first day we cut a few peppers, and arranged some pieces of chicken on trays (OK so over 400 pieces of chicken). Then we loaded up the trolleys with all the equipment we would need for the overflow room, set that up and that was about it. The second day we needed to check the overflow room, take over a few extra drinks, and that was about it for day two. Day three was more eventful as we had to take lots of new stuff over to the overflow room (crisp, bread rolls, a huge bucket of mayonnaise), then we had to pre-mayo about 300 of these bread rolls. It was disgusting! I am not a fan of mayonnaise in anything but tuna mayo, so having to dollop out this jelly like white gloop and then splatter it over some poor person’s lunch, was just not nice. However in all of that I learnt a lot about what is needed when catering for 500 people, and gained a new respect for the kitchen staff.
Apart from work duty all of the students were expected to be somewhere at all times. We had to be in the worship sessions (not that many of us would want to miss them) and attend on of the workshops, and in the evening we were part of the ministry team. Meal times were our only free time at all. I made full advantage of my first batch of free time by catching up with my beautiful friends, Becky and Lauren Ede. It was so nice to see more familiar faces and to be able to chat and catch up. We went out with Maretha to Boston Pizza,
where we had a lovely time and the other girls decided to stretch their prophetic wings and left messages on the napkins for our waitress, hee hee. After that though I spent each meal time in my room getting a bit of quiet and recovering a bit.
So the timetable for the day was as follows:
10:00 – 10:45 = Worship
10:45 – 12:30 = Workshop
12:30 – 14:00 = Lunch
14:00 – 14:45 = Worship
14:45 – 16:30 = Workshop
16:30 – 19:00 = Dinner
19:00 – 10:30 = Evening meeting
There were 4 streams in the workshops – Intersession, worship, prophecy & lifestyle. I went along to the worship ones (when I wasn’t working). They were so cool! One of the sessions was about using dance and art as a form of worship. The church for so long has taken sung worship as being the only type of worship that we have in church that the other creative arts are often overlooked. In the Freshwind band, who played for some of the worship sets, the group consists of about 15-20 people (all on stage at one time) and they include three dancers and two painters. It is so inspiring to see people giving their all in more than just their voice. This session gave us all the chance to stretch those dance and artistic muscles. So the room in which we were meeting (and it was filled to capacity) was dancing and stamping and marching around as they worshiped God and interceded for our generation. It was exhilarating, but so exhausting. At the end I just collapsed into a heap and wrote on my pad “I have no breath to shout, I have no breath to sing, I have no breath to dance, but I will praise you”. That is so how I felt. God was so real and so close and even though I had used up every ounce of my physical self I could to praise him, my whole being was still praising him. When I gathered enough breath and the meeting had finished I ran across to grab some lunch and headed back to have a shower. Worshiping God with all you are can turn into a rather hot and sweaty affair. Actually I discovered this many times over during Freshwind. Each day was at least two outfits, because in each time of worship I was jumping and dancing and shouting and just generally having fun, but when there are a couple of thousand people doing that in a confined space- well it gets a little hot.
The worship was great though. It was very much a concert where everyone was worshiping with the band, with house lights down, concert coloured lights going and speakers loud enough to make your ears ring (I had ear plugs in a couple of times :S what an old lady! But at least I can still hear!).
I know a photo doesn’t give it justice, but maybe it gives you an idea.
We had Starfield playing for some of the time, and the in house Freshwind band for some. The energy of all the youth was incredible and God’s presence was so tangible. It was so obvious to those who didn’t already know God, that many of them decided to give their life to him there and then (I know it was at least 200, because they did an alter call, where people are asked to come forward if they want to respond to a word spoken).
In the evenings we were on the ministry team which was very exciting. Each night at 6:15 we had a time of soaking and prayer- such a good idea for a ministry team!! It was very cool that on the first night we also got to pray for the speaker and the band, which for that night were Starfield. So yeah we all got to pray for Starfield, which was really strange because at the back of your mind you were thinking “These guys are internationally famous, and I get to pray for them!! AAAHHHHH” but they were just regular worship leaders who needed prayer for the work they were about to do. I actually felt that it was a huge privilege to be given the opportunity to minister to them.
Then we were on call for any of the alter calls that I mentioned earlier. And if people were called to go forwards then one of the teams would go to the front and pray for them, or if they were just asked to stand then the other teams would pray for those in their sections. The speakers were all really good and talked about the revival generation that we have called to be. It’s so exciting. It was really nice, and again a great privilege to be able to pray for people during those meetings.
The last night was a special one though. At the end we did fire tunnels for everyone! For those of you who can’t remember what that is (or are new to this blog and don’t know), a fire tunnel is when the ministry team stands in two long lines and prays for everyone as they walk through between the lines. They are so much fun and most people end up being really drunk on the Holy Spirit at the end. They went on for ages and ages, but we were all having such a good time, praying and being prayed for as well, that no one cared!
Eventually the conference was over, the tunnels had dissolved and it was time to start the clean up. The task of encouraging people to leave was given, in part, to me. So I wandered round firmly telling the groups of people lazing around that they really did need to go home. It was nice doing it in a Christian environment where everyone was so understanding and agreed at once to move. Like any other crowd though they promptly forgot and had to be re-reminded in Sarah’s “I am going to impress this thing on you so strongly but kindly that you are just going to be compelled to do it right now” attitude (those from LINKS will know the one I mean). Eventually the room was pretty much clear and we could hoover, pick up litter, put away the rope barriers and put out the 1500 chairs that were needed for Sunday church. By the end of clean up it was about 2 in the morning and I was tired enough that I literally had difficulty staying on my feet, so despite the promise of pizza in 10 mins for those who had helped with clean up, I headed back to my room. I had a quick shower before bed. Though my shower was a little strange, it started off fine- like any normal shower, but after a bit the who room went rather foggy. No people, don’t worry I was not passing out, I was so tired that I had forgotten to take off my glasses before getting in the shower! So I was giggling at myself as I crashed into bed, where I slept long and deep, well until I had to get up for the Easter morning service at church of course!!!
Fresh wind is the youth conference that TACF puts on every year. It is aimed at teenagers and is always on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend. This year there were about 2 or 3 thousand people there at the peek, and it was… intense.
Each of the school of ministry students had a work duty assigned to them where they had a job for 4 hours each day. Some people were on security, some were car park attendants, some where serving the speakers in ‘Speaker’s lounge’ and some where on maintenance. I got kitchen duty!! I have to say that I was not particularly thrilled about this to start with, but Francis who runs the kitchen here is so lovely that you can’t help but enjoy yourself when you are with him.
So my shift started at 8 in the morning and we were supposed to work until 12 each day, but for the first two days we had a really light load. The kitchens were running a meal plan for delegates at the conference and it was to be served in one of the overflow rooms in the back of the church. So the first day we cut a few peppers, and arranged some pieces of chicken on trays (OK so over 400 pieces of chicken). Then we loaded up the trolleys with all the equipment we would need for the overflow room, set that up and that was about it. The second day we needed to check the overflow room, take over a few extra drinks, and that was about it for day two. Day three was more eventful as we had to take lots of new stuff over to the overflow room (crisp, bread rolls, a huge bucket of mayonnaise), then we had to pre-mayo about 300 of these bread rolls. It was disgusting! I am not a fan of mayonnaise in anything but tuna mayo, so having to dollop out this jelly like white gloop and then splatter it over some poor person’s lunch, was just not nice. However in all of that I learnt a lot about what is needed when catering for 500 people, and gained a new respect for the kitchen staff.
Apart from work duty all of the students were expected to be somewhere at all times. We had to be in the worship sessions (not that many of us would want to miss them) and attend on of the workshops, and in the evening we were part of the ministry team. Meal times were our only free time at all. I made full advantage of my first batch of free time by catching up with my beautiful friends, Becky and Lauren Ede. It was so nice to see more familiar faces and to be able to chat and catch up. We went out with Maretha to Boston Pizza,
where we had a lovely time and the other girls decided to stretch their prophetic wings and left messages on the napkins for our waitress, hee hee. After that though I spent each meal time in my room getting a bit of quiet and recovering a bit.
So the timetable for the day was as follows:
10:00 – 10:45 = Worship
10:45 – 12:30 = Workshop
12:30 – 14:00 = Lunch
14:00 – 14:45 = Worship
14:45 – 16:30 = Workshop
16:30 – 19:00 = Dinner
19:00 – 10:30 = Evening meeting
There were 4 streams in the workshops – Intersession, worship, prophecy & lifestyle. I went along to the worship ones (when I wasn’t working). They were so cool! One of the sessions was about using dance and art as a form of worship. The church for so long has taken sung worship as being the only type of worship that we have in church that the other creative arts are often overlooked. In the Freshwind band, who played for some of the worship sets, the group consists of about 15-20 people (all on stage at one time) and they include three dancers and two painters. It is so inspiring to see people giving their all in more than just their voice. This session gave us all the chance to stretch those dance and artistic muscles. So the room in which we were meeting (and it was filled to capacity) was dancing and stamping and marching around as they worshiped God and interceded for our generation. It was exhilarating, but so exhausting. At the end I just collapsed into a heap and wrote on my pad “I have no breath to shout, I have no breath to sing, I have no breath to dance, but I will praise you”. That is so how I felt. God was so real and so close and even though I had used up every ounce of my physical self I could to praise him, my whole being was still praising him. When I gathered enough breath and the meeting had finished I ran across to grab some lunch and headed back to have a shower. Worshiping God with all you are can turn into a rather hot and sweaty affair. Actually I discovered this many times over during Freshwind. Each day was at least two outfits, because in each time of worship I was jumping and dancing and shouting and just generally having fun, but when there are a couple of thousand people doing that in a confined space- well it gets a little hot.
The worship was great though. It was very much a concert where everyone was worshiping with the band, with house lights down, concert coloured lights going and speakers loud enough to make your ears ring (I had ear plugs in a couple of times :S what an old lady! But at least I can still hear!).
I know a photo doesn’t give it justice, but maybe it gives you an idea.
We had Starfield playing for some of the time, and the in house Freshwind band for some. The energy of all the youth was incredible and God’s presence was so tangible. It was so obvious to those who didn’t already know God, that many of them decided to give their life to him there and then (I know it was at least 200, because they did an alter call, where people are asked to come forward if they want to respond to a word spoken).
In the evenings we were on the ministry team which was very exciting. Each night at 6:15 we had a time of soaking and prayer- such a good idea for a ministry team!! It was very cool that on the first night we also got to pray for the speaker and the band, which for that night were Starfield. So yeah we all got to pray for Starfield, which was really strange because at the back of your mind you were thinking “These guys are internationally famous, and I get to pray for them!! AAAHHHHH” but they were just regular worship leaders who needed prayer for the work they were about to do. I actually felt that it was a huge privilege to be given the opportunity to minister to them.
Then we were on call for any of the alter calls that I mentioned earlier. And if people were called to go forwards then one of the teams would go to the front and pray for them, or if they were just asked to stand then the other teams would pray for those in their sections. The speakers were all really good and talked about the revival generation that we have called to be. It’s so exciting. It was really nice, and again a great privilege to be able to pray for people during those meetings.
The last night was a special one though. At the end we did fire tunnels for everyone! For those of you who can’t remember what that is (or are new to this blog and don’t know), a fire tunnel is when the ministry team stands in two long lines and prays for everyone as they walk through between the lines. They are so much fun and most people end up being really drunk on the Holy Spirit at the end. They went on for ages and ages, but we were all having such a good time, praying and being prayed for as well, that no one cared!
Eventually the conference was over, the tunnels had dissolved and it was time to start the clean up. The task of encouraging people to leave was given, in part, to me. So I wandered round firmly telling the groups of people lazing around that they really did need to go home. It was nice doing it in a Christian environment where everyone was so understanding and agreed at once to move. Like any other crowd though they promptly forgot and had to be re-reminded in Sarah’s “I am going to impress this thing on you so strongly but kindly that you are just going to be compelled to do it right now” attitude (those from LINKS will know the one I mean). Eventually the room was pretty much clear and we could hoover, pick up litter, put away the rope barriers and put out the 1500 chairs that were needed for Sunday church. By the end of clean up it was about 2 in the morning and I was tired enough that I literally had difficulty staying on my feet, so despite the promise of pizza in 10 mins for those who had helped with clean up, I headed back to my room. I had a quick shower before bed. Though my shower was a little strange, it started off fine- like any normal shower, but after a bit the who room went rather foggy. No people, don’t worry I was not passing out, I was so tired that I had forgotten to take off my glasses before getting in the shower! So I was giggling at myself as I crashed into bed, where I slept long and deep, well until I had to get up for the Easter morning service at church of course!!!
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Week 3 - Healing Life's hurts
Ultimately this week has been about Forgiveness and repentance. It has been about forgiving others for the hurts that they have done to us, forgiving ourselves for the things that we have done or not done, and forgiving God for anything we hold against him for the situations we have been in.
Forgiveness is not excusing what people have done. It is not saying what they have done doesn’t matter or that it hasn’t affected you. It is merely choosing to give them grace, just as God gave to us.
For each of the following sections we were taught about what they are and then given a chance to ask God to come and work in us with regards to that issue. As with everything I am only giving a very brief overview of each one. If any of these speak particularly to you, you feel that what I have described fits you, they I would suggest that you talk to God about it. Even if talking to God is not something you normally do. Ask him about it and see what he does. If you are brave enough invite him to sort out some of it. I can also try to give you more information if you want.
Heart of Stone:
Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your hearts of stone and give you a heart of flesh”
A heart of stone can’t feel God or know him. Our aim to know God to the full, so we need to get God to remove the hard places in our hearts.
A heart of stone (or stony places in our hearts) is a defence mechanism, built up inner walls which we have put up to stop our selves from becoming vulnerable. They are often formed as small children, though you can of course develop hardened hearts later on in life too.
Checklist for a hidden heart of stone
Any of these can be an indication of a stoney heart, you don’t need to have all of these.
Inner vows
These are things that we have made promising our selves that we will never, or we will always. There are some inner vows that are totally right and godly (such as marriage vows) but may other vows, even if they are constructive on the face of it, can be ungodly and destructive.
“I will never let anyone hurt me like that again”- You stop letting people close, close of your heart and so keep God at a distance as well
“I will never get angry”- This can result in people shying away from even a good debate or discussion, because it ‘might’ end in people getting angry.
Soul Ties
A soul ties is a joining of peoples spirits so that they have a bond with each other.
As with inner vows, there are good soul ties. Us and God, Good friends (David and Jonathan – 1 Sam 18:1) family. These soul ties will lead to wholeness and good things will come out of them.
But soul ties can be warped and created wrongly.
Ungodly beliefs
Ungodly beliefs are as they say on the tin, beliefs that we have formed due to experience, lack of understanding, or misinterpretation of events.
The thing with ungodly beliefs are that often they aren’t obvious until someone points them out to you. To break out of it you write down your Ungodly beliefs.
“I am not important because my dad never had time for me”
“My life is a mistake”
“God loves other people more than me”
Then write down godly beliefs that counteract that (not necessarily the opposite, because sometimes ungodly beliefs are warped versions of the truth)
“I believe I am important, and my heavenly father will always have time for me”
If it is too hard to say “I believe” then write that you choose to believe (you’re not there yet, but you are working towards that)
“I choose to believe that I am not a mistake. God planned me. He chose for me to be born when I was and where I was”
“I chose to believe that God loves me just as much as anyone else”
It’s always good to find scriptures from the bible to match up to your godly belief.
Then read these each day until you start to believe. It’s not easy and it’s not quick but with God’s help, it’s perfectly doable.
Forgiveness is not excusing what people have done. It is not saying what they have done doesn’t matter or that it hasn’t affected you. It is merely choosing to give them grace, just as God gave to us.
For each of the following sections we were taught about what they are and then given a chance to ask God to come and work in us with regards to that issue. As with everything I am only giving a very brief overview of each one. If any of these speak particularly to you, you feel that what I have described fits you, they I would suggest that you talk to God about it. Even if talking to God is not something you normally do. Ask him about it and see what he does. If you are brave enough invite him to sort out some of it. I can also try to give you more information if you want.
Heart of Stone:
Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your hearts of stone and give you a heart of flesh”
A heart of stone can’t feel God or know him. Our aim to know God to the full, so we need to get God to remove the hard places in our hearts.
A heart of stone (or stony places in our hearts) is a defence mechanism, built up inner walls which we have put up to stop our selves from becoming vulnerable. They are often formed as small children, though you can of course develop hardened hearts later on in life too.
Checklist for a hidden heart of stone
- Keep people at a distance
- Protect yourself
- Keep up a good front but have trouble being real
- Find it hard to show emotions in front of others
- Stuff your emotions down
- Or maybe you can’t feel emotions
- Live life “Keeping it all together”
- Have the role of “the strong one”
- Find it difficult to ask for help
- Minister to others but can’t be ministered to
- Wish other people would/could keep it all together like you do
- Look down on those who express emotions as being immature or weak.
Any of these can be an indication of a stoney heart, you don’t need to have all of these.
Inner vows
These are things that we have made promising our selves that we will never, or we will always. There are some inner vows that are totally right and godly (such as marriage vows) but may other vows, even if they are constructive on the face of it, can be ungodly and destructive.
“I will never let anyone hurt me like that again”- You stop letting people close, close of your heart and so keep God at a distance as well
“I will never get angry”- This can result in people shying away from even a good debate or discussion, because it ‘might’ end in people getting angry.
Soul Ties
A soul ties is a joining of peoples spirits so that they have a bond with each other.
As with inner vows, there are good soul ties. Us and God, Good friends (David and Jonathan – 1 Sam 18:1) family. These soul ties will lead to wholeness and good things will come out of them.
But soul ties can be warped and created wrongly.
- Parents and children – When the parent doesn’t allow the child to individuate and become a mature adult independent of their control and domination.
- Child and parent- when an undisciplined child manipulates and controls the parents
- All abusive relationships which are or have become manipulation
- With sexual partners other than one’s spouse
- People who use occult power to exercise control over you.
- Two people who share amounts of personal information more than is appropriate for the relationship.
Ungodly beliefs
Ungodly beliefs are as they say on the tin, beliefs that we have formed due to experience, lack of understanding, or misinterpretation of events.
The thing with ungodly beliefs are that often they aren’t obvious until someone points them out to you. To break out of it you write down your Ungodly beliefs.
“I am not important because my dad never had time for me”
“My life is a mistake”
“God loves other people more than me”
Then write down godly beliefs that counteract that (not necessarily the opposite, because sometimes ungodly beliefs are warped versions of the truth)
“I believe I am important, and my heavenly father will always have time for me”
If it is too hard to say “I believe” then write that you choose to believe (you’re not there yet, but you are working towards that)
“I choose to believe that I am not a mistake. God planned me. He chose for me to be born when I was and where I was”
“I chose to believe that God loves me just as much as anyone else”
It’s always good to find scriptures from the bible to match up to your godly belief.
Then read these each day until you start to believe. It’s not easy and it’s not quick but with God’s help, it’s perfectly doable.
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