A Process of Healing

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Over the last couple of years Christy and I have spent time praying each week for her healing as she suffers from a number of different food intolerances. Over the last couple of months we have seen a significant change in her ability to tolerate and digest certain food without the pain that she once suffered, which is incredible. When we started we felt God say it would be a gradual process of faithful and perseverant prayer, not an instant fix. This is why we set aside a time each week to pray. We are not all the way there yet, but God has been so faithful to his word during this time. I am so amazed at what has changed over the last couple of years; the journey God has taken us on in this, and what he has taught us. I am so grateful for this, and look forward to what God is continuing to and going to do.

Finale

Some friends of ours here at YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Harpenden started a ministry as a rock band a few years ago. Just before Christmas they played their last gig together before moving into other things they have felt God talk to them about. Over this time thy have been going into pubs and clubs and playing gigs alongside other bands. Very much witnessing to those who may not normally meet other Christians, such as the other bands, people going to the gigs, sound guys etc. Christy and me have both had the pleasure of helping these guys periodically over this time. Christy with her voice, especially when they were starting off, and me with transport, driving the van for them.

They have really challenged me a lot over this time and the journey they have gone through. Especially the way they have been right in the centre of things and made such an impact on people’s lives. They have just been themselves in those places they have gone too and had fun.

The final gig was pretty awesome. Christy even got the chance to sing with them one last time. A lot of the people they had met over the last few years came down and packed out the venue. For all these guys it was a real bittersweet experience, with tears shed by the most unlikely people.

 Having watched them over the last few years, and seen what they have done, it has really challenged me in the way I see how we live as Christians. What it means to actually have a real relationship with those God calls you to impact, to treat them as people, not just as a project or numbers. Which is really how Jesus treated people, he gave them value and treated each and every person he met as an individual. I know that this is very much a journey and I really look forward to seeing where God leads Christy and me.

A light read...

As a YWAM (youth with a mission) community here in Harpenden we thought that it would be a good idea to kick of the new year with a little light reading. So we set aside 4 days and started to read the bible out loud! We started as the new year started, at midnight, and took hour shifts as both individuals and small groups.

Me and Christy got to get the ball rolling, with Christy leading some worship for about 30 minutes before the new year started. We were joined by two others at about 23:30, before settling into Genesis at midnight. Me and Christy read together quite a few times over the few days, which was great as we got to talk about what we had read after we finished each session.

I think we were both overwhelmed and very thankful for Jesus and what he did after reading big sections of the old testament, especially the sacrifices, regulations about clean and unclean and just how hard it was to be in a relationship with God, before his incarnation, death and resurrection.

It was a really great time to reflect on what has happened since creation and also where we are now and what is to come. Such a great way to start off the year, both very encouraging and challenging.

The Provision of God

I have seen a much greater level of God's care and provision over the Christmas period in the form of a car.

Me and Christy have been praying for a car or the means to purchase a car for the last few months knowing that we will need one for what we feel God is calling us onto. Just before Christmas we were offered a car by a member of my family who was upgrading his. So, on January 3rd, we became the owners of a 5 door Ford Focus.

It is amazing as it is everything we had been praying for, with a few little extras! It will give us the flexibility needed to engage in new ministry and to be able to see family more easily. More amazing still is that we were not only given a car, but we had someone else write to us with a desire to support us monthly, which will greatly help with the running cost of a vehicle. Completely blew me away.

When we first started praying I was not sure if I really expected to receive a car, I have heard of it happening to others, but did not think that it would happen to us. But as we prayed and we started to dream of what we would need and why, I started to get excited about it happening. God is amazing, and I think I know him a little better though this experience. I am so happy that we kept praying, and so in awe of God for his provision of exactly what we were in need of.

Teaching a Passion

I was given the opportunity to teach a few days on one of the schools that we run here in YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Harpenden. The Foundations in Community Development (FCD) school looks at all aspects of how to equip and enable community's to develop in a positive way, both those in developing nations and developed nations.

My Passion revolves around conservation and environmental stewardship and sustainability, so this is what I got to teach on, focusing on environmental stewardship. It was a really fun few of days, with lots of discussions and exploring together what it means to be a steward of this earth and looking at why as Christians we are called to do this.

This is the second time I have been asked to teach on this subject and it has really challenged the way I think about the way I live, especially the way we look after our environment. We live in such an incredible world, such a gift from God, and I for one want to see it flourish.

A New Chapter

It is always exciting to be able to start a new chapter in a book, especially when the last one was so exciting. I feel the same way about getting married, and what God has spoken to me and my beautiful wife Christy about.

The last couple of years have been incredible, God has touched my life in a way that has left me changed forever, and I have had the privilege in being apart of God touching so many other lives around me also. I have witnessed people healed physically, spiritually, emotionally. I have witnessed God provide in some pretty crazy ways, when nothing seemed possible. I have never felt so full of Joy and Hope as I do now and feel more alive and more real than ever. This last chapter has kept me of the edge of my seat!

So I am really excited about this next one, especially with the way it has started. We got married on the 6th October in the states, in a town called Hudson which is where Christy's home church is. After everything that we were involved in we had about a month together in the states to organise everything that needed sorting. All the doors just seemed to open for us when we needed them too, every little detail fell into place. We spent much time praying together also, for the day and for what it would look like next. Our photographer fell into our lap, a woman of strong faith, and only an hour away, we were her last booking of the season. The flowers worked perfectly, and the food was amazing, and family on my side who were thinking they would be unable to make it happened to get time to be able to join us.

A small example of God's faithfulness in the day, we prayed and felt we should marry on the 6th, even though we wanted to marry earlier (looking back this would not have been possible). We wanted to get married outside in Christy's backyard, but that door closed very quickly. So we prayed and felt like we should do everything, ceremony and reception at her home church. We are so glad we listened and submitted to this as the temperature dropped and we even got light snow on our wedding day!

Our biggest prayer for the day was that it would be a God focused ceremony. We were so blessed by what people said after. "How you really know God was present", "that it felt like a real wedding, not just a show/ceremony", "how full of Joy it was".

We are both so thankful for what God did and has done since, how he has brought us together. We are both really keen on continuing to write this chapter with him and see where we end up.

January DTS 2012 Graduate

The last 8 months have really been amazing, with 20 trainees from 12 different nations, it has been a real mix of ideas and experience. Such a privilege to spend this time with them, going through teaching and leading a team on outreach. To be a part of what God has done in and through them and to look back on it with them makes what I do so worth it.

This is the second School that I have staffed, and I really enjoy the graduations, they are full of both excitement over what has happened and also over what is too come. One of the greatest joys about staffing a DTS (discipleship training school) is watching how much people change and grow over the time, and also to hear what they are planing to go to next, where they feel God is taking them. Which is why we not only give our trainees a certificate of graduation, but also commission them into what God is calling them too by praying for them.

The evening itself was simple yet full of joy. As each of our trainees came up to collect their certificate they marked on a map of the UK where they had been with a thumb print. as the evening went on the board was filled with lots of colour. We had worship and a time of reflecting on some of the ways which we have all seen God impact our lives and the lives of those we met over this school. We finished by presenting the certificates and then spent the rest of the evening in a mixture of joy and sadness as we spent time together for the last time before people started to head back home.

The school was called Impact UK, and these guys certainly left a mark everywhere they went. As well as being greatly impacted themselves. God has really done so much over these last 8 months in and through all these guys, and I am excited to hear what they go on to do.