Restoration

The September 2012 Discipleship Training School (DTS) Graduated last week. The trainees all successfully made it through both their lecture and outreach phases. I have had the pleasure of spending time with these guys as they have helped in the maintenance here at YWAM Harpenden. To see the difference that a few months can make to someone as they go to share the Love of God in both practical ways as well as verbal is inspiring. They are all so much more alive then when they arrived. To see God challenge them and take them through past hurt into a place of great healing is so very precious.

It is when we let God into our hurt and brokenness that real deep restoration happens. To see these guys so excited for what God is doing in this world at the moment, and really wanting to be apart of it is great. Only by His grace do we see people transformed and released to transform others. It is such a privilege to be able to be a part of the process and to know that God is being made known.

Latte Art

Christy and I have been apart of the Oval Café team here in Harpenden since November of last year. Our time has been a lot of fun so far, learning how to make and serve many different types of coffee, tea, smoothies and other blended drinks. We have also been able to learn a lot about the management and running of a business such as a café, which is one of the main reasons for us joining the team.

One of the skills that I have been trying to learn during this time is how to make good latte art, just to add that little flair to drinks for the customers. I discovered that it is a more involved process than you may first think. You have to steam the milk in a certain way, pour it into the coffee shot with at least two different pour techniques for each drink. My efforts over the last couple of months have been varied, but I am finally managing to get the hang of them (see picture below).

 It has been such a joy to be able to work in this ministry, and to also help train others. The vision of the couple who manage the café is to be able to invest in others so that they can go and establish a community café where they can meet the people who live in the local area and build relationships with them. To give people a space where they can come and ask questions about faith and life, but not to pressure anyone into anything, a neutral place. It has been great to see how the regulars here have engaged and stated to ask some really deep questions of life.

Knowing that God and his kingdom values are at the core of what we do in the café, and having people around whom can both encourage and challenge us in our own faith is such a valuable environment to be able to work in.

A Quiet Night

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I had the privilege of taking a group to Batchwood part way through February. This is the local club to where we are in Harpenden and a place we do regular ministry at. We try to go at least once every two weeks with bottles of water and lollipops, we also take blankets etc in the colder months, and spend time chatting to and give out the water etc to the people who are coming out of the club, before they head home.

This particular night was one of the quieter ones I have been to, but we still had a good time. It meant we got to spend quite a bit more time talking to the bouncers about faith and why they do what they do, and what they believe. One of them in particular wanted to know more about the church we partnered with and about what it would mean to start coming along.

It is really encouraging to have been doing this over the last couple of years, being consistent, and getting to talk to these guys each time. I really enjoy getting to spend a bit of time with them, giving them something to think about other than when the next fight may be, and to have them ask me questions which gets me thinking a lot about who I am and why I am doing what I do. I have really seen God’s faithfulness over this time, and how valuable individuals really are to him. It is such a blessing to be able to honour the people we meet and show and tell them this.