And so it is. My trip has come to an end, as I now sit on the play, returning home. Obviously I am not able to post this until I return home, however, thought writing it on the plane seemed the prefect moment.
The last day and a half were relaxed, chilled and fun. I got to spend time with the pastor’s son, Jo, a good friend, we went to the movies, chatted and chilled. I also visited a house that uses 1 5th of the energy of a normal house. It has carpets which feel like normal carpets, yet are actually made from recycled plastic. It was a marvel of modern day architecture.
It was lovely sitting at dinner with my adopted family on both the Thursday night, and lunch today, people who feel like they are my family just as much as my family back home, and it is strange to be leaving them. God opened my eyes to so many things these last two weeks. I know more of my own destiny in Christ. I understand more of how God’s will works, even in the context of healing, particularly when connected with my own healing, which will manifest itself one day soon.
I feel the call of preacher and teacher on my life, and it has been amazing to say the least, to be able to be a part of what God is doing in the small Texan town of Azle. Perrianne and I both got extremely excited talking about where the future of these friendships may go, as I feel so at home there, and so released. We got talking about alsorts of crazy ideas, talking about conferences and challenging humanistic thought, looking at Christianity through post modern ideas.
I feel God has truly given me an experience that has affected my life and love deeply, and recognise the significance of this trip, as I move to Chichester, as part of a new church, part of a community that I have already been involved in. Just to add the challenges, I have just watched the film “Luther” on my laptop. It is all about Martin Luther, not Jr, who was the famous American, but the German, who gave birth the Lutheran Church. It was an incredible tale of one man, willing to change the ways of what he had been taught, recognising that there was more to the gospel then what had been taught by the Catholic Church. He was a history maker, who shook the world, and brought something new.
Myself, I am looking to shake up legalistic ideas, and know this is part of my call, but more on that another time, for it is 5:30 in the morning, and in two hours we will be landing, and I need some rest. God bless you all, Rich
PS> The pictures are my adopted Texas family, parents, brothers and sisters in Christ.
Well, Wednesday was a real mix of a day! Spent the afternoon serving around the Church building, sweeping rocks out of car park, re-fitting carpet, sorting out tables, and just being helpful where I can. Now you may think, where's the joy in this? Well the Bible says this in John 13
14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you alsoThis on its own gives me joy to know that I'm serving. Even if it's not the greatest jobs in the world. In the Evening, I had the chance to preach to the youth group. I spoke on the topic of choices. You see recently, God gave me a revelation of two very different lives I could have in him. One was a life where I went to Church on a Sunday morning, enjoyed the service, maybe prayed a little, then came home and got on with my everyday life. Within this life, I might have seen the odd miracle, but I would just plod along, go to the odd party, drink to much occasionally, and just lead a normal life, bringing money in, having a family and that would be it. Now don't get me wrong, there are good things in that lifestyle, and things like a family, I can't wait to have, but I know that my life isn't just that. You see God proceeded to paint a picture of the other choice. This was a life living on the edge, serving God in the mundane and the exciting. It was a life when miracles weren't an odd occurrence, but a life where they were an everyday thing. Where God reigned, and where people would know and feel the love of Christ poured out from myself. I presented these two lives to the young people, and talked about how God has a destiny, a plan and a purpose, beyond Sunday Church. That they could be in the world but not of it. I continued to speak, throwing scripture in here and there, (which is always good to have the backing of scripture!) and experiencing God using me and his glory shining out of me. At the end I did an altar call, and again, just like with kid's church, God used me to speak out prophetic words all over, and this excited me, knowing that God was using me in such a way, and confirmed to me again, that I don't choose the normal life, I choose the God life.
should wash one another's feet.
15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
Well as you can see, I haven't written about Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, so here's a run down on my days so far:
Sunday: Sunday was Church! I had been asked to do the Kid's church preach (kind of like Sunday school, but without the stigma!) and felt to do it on the Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. I wasn't sure, so ask that God would confirm this. It wasn't until I arrived, and Pastor Paul introduced the Sunday, that I realised it was Pentecost Sunday, making the topic even more right! The service before leaving for the Kid's church part was fun, I ended up playing drums for two songs as there resident drummer happened to be at home recovering from illness that week. Now for anyone who knows my drumming skills, they are terrible! But it turned out alright! Also played acoustic for two songs, which went down really well.
So then it was kid's church, and I preached to these kids and talked about England! Got to also pray for each one of them, and God really exercised my own personal gift of the prophetic, as I started praying for these kids, one fell over in the spirit, another cried, and one I felt God saying had healing hands. This was particularly exciting for me, as I haven't had a chance to fully exercise this gift for a while, and it was fantastic to be able to be active in it. Apparently, this was the first time anyone can remember Kid's Church going on longer then the main meeting, as I was still praying for kids at 12:50 whilst the adults were having teas and coffees! It was a marvelous time.
In the Eve, we went to this event called a Kitzayara, which I'm sure I've spelt wrong. It's a Spanish coming of age ceremony, the age being 15, which seemed a bit odd to me, but hey. It was interesting, though also a bit long and monotonous. Two of the youth out here had to wear tuxedo's for the event, and they were burning up, with one of them sending a text message reading: "Jesus wasn't this hot when he went to hell and took the key to death!" This was a particular highlight of mine! It was an interesting event, although very alien to me, particularly as I didn't know the individuals involved, but they all looked like they enjoyed it to a point. This brings me to Monday.
Monday
Well, Monday, I had lunch with Pastor Paul and his wife, Perrianne, and the youth pastors Rae and Naomi Bannon, oh and P and P's son, Noel, whose 8, was there! We had a nice lunch, they talked a lot about youth, and where they saw it going, and it was interesting to be a part of those discussions.
The afternoon I served by helping Paul with the accounts in the office, and was blessed to find the Church had raised some money for me as a thank you gift. This was a huge blessing, and will pay for at least half of my fair over here.
The evening, Pastor Paul cooked us steaks, that were absolutely gorgeous! If your even in Texas, find him, and ask for them! They were awesome.
The late evening, I got to spend some time with the Children's Pastor, Jerry, who produces an all night radio show. I sat with him for the whole night, doing the behind the scenes, but also hearing him talk to people in need on the phone, and saw that he was truly a blessing for these people. Our conversations went from intense to comedy, and each one was a blessing, however the next day I felt not having any sleep and had a quick nap!
Tuesday:
This was my recovery day, although first I attended a meeting between Perrianne and the other Children's pastor, Rose, Jerry's wife. It was a good time of talking and sharing ideas, inputting into their ideas things that work in English culture, and also taking from American Culture things that work in children's work, and would be good to bring back to the UK.
The afternoon was sleep time, followed by a trip to Walmart to do some shopping, since I hadn't had the chance yet! The evening was a time of relaxing, eating fried Cat fish, that had been caught by Rae and Naomi last year, and spending time with people who I would consider extended family. It was a joyous time, and lovely to be together. Well, that sums up the last 3 days!
God truly has blessed this trip, revealing things to me everyday, and showing me His grace, His love, just Him, is all that I need in this world.
Blessings, Rich
Sunday: Sunday was Church! I had been asked to do the Kid's church preach (kind of like Sunday school, but without the stigma!) and felt to do it on the Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. I wasn't sure, so ask that God would confirm this. It wasn't until I arrived, and Pastor Paul introduced the Sunday, that I realised it was Pentecost Sunday, making the topic even more right! The service before leaving for the Kid's church part was fun, I ended up playing drums for two songs as there resident drummer happened to be at home recovering from illness that week. Now for anyone who knows my drumming skills, they are terrible! But it turned out alright! Also played acoustic for two songs, which went down really well.
So then it was kid's church, and I preached to these kids and talked about England! Got to also pray for each one of them, and God really exercised my own personal gift of the prophetic, as I started praying for these kids, one fell over in the spirit, another cried, and one I felt God saying had healing hands. This was particularly exciting for me, as I haven't had a chance to fully exercise this gift for a while, and it was fantastic to be able to be active in it. Apparently, this was the first time anyone can remember Kid's Church going on longer then the main meeting, as I was still praying for kids at 12:50 whilst the adults were having teas and coffees! It was a marvelous time.
In the Eve, we went to this event called a Kitzayara, which I'm sure I've spelt wrong. It's a Spanish coming of age ceremony, the age being 15, which seemed a bit odd to me, but hey. It was interesting, though also a bit long and monotonous. Two of the youth out here had to wear tuxedo's for the event, and they were burning up, with one of them sending a text message reading: "Jesus wasn't this hot when he went to hell and took the key to death!" This was a particular highlight of mine! It was an interesting event, although very alien to me, particularly as I didn't know the individuals involved, but they all looked like they enjoyed it to a point. This brings me to Monday.
Monday
Well, Monday, I had lunch with Pastor Paul and his wife, Perrianne, and the youth pastors Rae and Naomi Bannon, oh and P and P's son, Noel, whose 8, was there! We had a nice lunch, they talked a lot about youth, and where they saw it going, and it was interesting to be a part of those discussions.
The afternoon I served by helping Paul with the accounts in the office, and was blessed to find the Church had raised some money for me as a thank you gift. This was a huge blessing, and will pay for at least half of my fair over here.
The evening, Pastor Paul cooked us steaks, that were absolutely gorgeous! If your even in Texas, find him, and ask for them! They were awesome.
The late evening, I got to spend some time with the Children's Pastor, Jerry, who produces an all night radio show. I sat with him for the whole night, doing the behind the scenes, but also hearing him talk to people in need on the phone, and saw that he was truly a blessing for these people. Our conversations went from intense to comedy, and each one was a blessing, however the next day I felt not having any sleep and had a quick nap!
Tuesday:
This was my recovery day, although first I attended a meeting between Perrianne and the other Children's pastor, Rose, Jerry's wife. It was a good time of talking and sharing ideas, inputting into their ideas things that work in English culture, and also taking from American Culture things that work in children's work, and would be good to bring back to the UK.
The afternoon was sleep time, followed by a trip to Walmart to do some shopping, since I hadn't had the chance yet! The evening was a time of relaxing, eating fried Cat fish, that had been caught by Rae and Naomi last year, and spending time with people who I would consider extended family. It was a joyous time, and lovely to be together. Well, that sums up the last 3 days!
God truly has blessed this trip, revealing things to me everyday, and showing me His grace, His love, just Him, is all that I need in this world.
Blessings, Rich
So here's part two briefly:
Comedy! I love America, like, it's fantastic, however, sometimes, I wonder if a few of them maybe leave a bit too sheltered lives? For example, I had one person say when playing guitar :
"ooh you guys play the same chords as us!"
Anothere comment was from one girl asking if we rapped in England, and I said yeah, there were some kewl black guys who did it at soul survivor (big Christian Youth event) and she asked
"You have black people in England?"
A young lad asked me first:
"Do you have sandwiches in England"
then asked me
"Do you all play soccer in England"
I refused to answer, and told him to go ask someone else as I was deeply hurt! hehe.
So yeah, they brought a smile to my face! Hope they bring the same to you!
On a different note, we got to have some great fun at camp, including rope swing! Some pictures below:
It was great fun! That's me straight above!
So yeah, over all, the kids camp was awesome, and well worth it! God really showed me eyes to my destiny, and talked to me a lot about many different things.
One of these things would be choices. Every day we make choices about how we live our lives. These choices, include the choice to worship God in all things, or to become worked up and stressed, or to do work, or not do work.
I know in my own life I have made some bad choices, however, I also know I have made some good ones. And I intend to make sure every decision I make, is of God, and will be him leading me.
God bless all,
Richieboy x
Comedy! I love America, like, it's fantastic, however, sometimes, I wonder if a few of them maybe leave a bit too sheltered lives? For example, I had one person say when playing guitar :
"ooh you guys play the same chords as us!"
Anothere comment was from one girl asking if we rapped in England, and I said yeah, there were some kewl black guys who did it at soul survivor (big Christian Youth event) and she asked
"You have black people in England?"
A young lad asked me first:
"Do you have sandwiches in England"
then asked me
"Do you all play soccer in England"
I refused to answer, and told him to go ask someone else as I was deeply hurt! hehe.
So yeah, they brought a smile to my face! Hope they bring the same to you!
On a different note, we got to have some great fun at camp, including rope swing! Some pictures below:
It was great fun! That's me straight above!
So yeah, over all, the kids camp was awesome, and well worth it! God really showed me eyes to my destiny, and talked to me a lot about many different things.
One of these things would be choices. Every day we make choices about how we live our lives. These choices, include the choice to worship God in all things, or to become worked up and stressed, or to do work, or not do work.
I know in my own life I have made some bad choices, however, I also know I have made some good ones. And I intend to make sure every decision I make, is of God, and will be him leading me.
God bless all,
Richieboy x
Well I have just returned from "Kid's Camp" and I was utterly blown away. Isn't it funny how God can take something that you really didn't have any expectations for and suddenly you find God is laying out things in your heart in and your spirit that you hadn't even realised.
See the basic thing of the camp was not to approach the kids in a patronising way, but engage them in full on worship. Each night we would have a service, that would last around 3 hours! The kids would love it! And it wasn't that there were loads of comedy scetches involved. It wasn't because of loads of songs featuring actions. This was pure worship and teaching, something I admit I never thought would work with such a diverse age group, the youngest generally being 7 (with the odd exception, there was one 4 year old!!!) and the oldest punter being 14, though I know that many of the leaders learnt something, including myself, but I will explain that more in a minute.
From the first night, we had kids praising God, jumping around, hands in the air, bowing down, crying, being touched in the spirit, and God just doing awesome things. We saw people being broken of depression, young kids lives being touched, and changed, darkness lifting from faces!
It was an amazing time. Pastor Jo, would preach for 40 minutes at these kids, and they would just listen, silently, with no problems! How mad is that, that these kids would just listen, willingly, wanting to know the gospel truth.
I was in awe of this. I realised, that in my heart I had been longing for this for chidren. I know when I was a kid, I never enjoyed actions, I remember being told off for not doing them to a song, but here, they weren't having to do patronising songs, they were the songs that we would sing in every day Church and worship, from How great is our God to Blessed be to the entire Hillsong United collection. The kids engaged in this, and it was awesome to see, it broke my heart in fact. I was blown away by all that God was doing. I realised I had hidden much of my passion for childrens work away, trying to gear myself towards adult ministry, believing that kids couldn't engage like a teenager or adult, because that was the mentality I had been following. I was soo wrong! I found myself relearning things I'd forgotten, and realised some of the calling God has on my life. I have a call for children and youth work/pastoring, in the celcular and the church. I believe that I am destined for this, and that God is shaping me for this task.
Jeremiah 1: 9 says: "Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
I have been appointed to destroy and tear down strong holds in the lives of children and young people that the devil has tried to take and steel from their true potential.
This is just one of the many things I have learnt in myself this week.
Another thing I realised, is that I often long for healing, believing that if God would reveal the healing in my life, that would be an amazing testiment to people around me, and it would be. However, I realised, that the true testiment, is worshipping God, even in the hard times, when my bowel syndrome is at its most extreme, and I truely suffer, to still worship and praise God, who is blessed in all sitautions, who is truely great in all worlds.
That is true testiment, and if I am never healed, even though I believe God has promised it on my life, then at least people would see the joy of my Father upon me, even in my suffering.
There are other things I have to say, funny stories, fun things, but I will post those in the next few days, as I reflect.
This Sunday, I am preaching at the kid's church for the Church I am out here with (Family Christian Centre), and on Wednesday, I am preaching to their youth Group. These are both God appointments. Please pray that I would speak only the word of God, and none of my own ideas.
In Christ,
Rich x
Servant in the Making.
See the basic thing of the camp was not to approach the kids in a patronising way, but engage them in full on worship. Each night we would have a service, that would last around 3 hours! The kids would love it! And it wasn't that there were loads of comedy scetches involved. It wasn't because of loads of songs featuring actions. This was pure worship and teaching, something I admit I never thought would work with such a diverse age group, the youngest generally being 7 (with the odd exception, there was one 4 year old!!!) and the oldest punter being 14, though I know that many of the leaders learnt something, including myself, but I will explain that more in a minute.
From the first night, we had kids praising God, jumping around, hands in the air, bowing down, crying, being touched in the spirit, and God just doing awesome things. We saw people being broken of depression, young kids lives being touched, and changed, darkness lifting from faces!
It was an amazing time. Pastor Jo, would preach for 40 minutes at these kids, and they would just listen, silently, with no problems! How mad is that, that these kids would just listen, willingly, wanting to know the gospel truth.
I was in awe of this. I realised, that in my heart I had been longing for this for chidren. I know when I was a kid, I never enjoyed actions, I remember being told off for not doing them to a song, but here, they weren't having to do patronising songs, they were the songs that we would sing in every day Church and worship, from How great is our God to Blessed be to the entire Hillsong United collection. The kids engaged in this, and it was awesome to see, it broke my heart in fact. I was blown away by all that God was doing. I realised I had hidden much of my passion for childrens work away, trying to gear myself towards adult ministry, believing that kids couldn't engage like a teenager or adult, because that was the mentality I had been following. I was soo wrong! I found myself relearning things I'd forgotten, and realised some of the calling God has on my life. I have a call for children and youth work/pastoring, in the celcular and the church. I believe that I am destined for this, and that God is shaping me for this task.
Jeremiah 1: 9 says: "Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
I have been appointed to destroy and tear down strong holds in the lives of children and young people that the devil has tried to take and steel from their true potential.
This is just one of the many things I have learnt in myself this week.
Another thing I realised, is that I often long for healing, believing that if God would reveal the healing in my life, that would be an amazing testiment to people around me, and it would be. However, I realised, that the true testiment, is worshipping God, even in the hard times, when my bowel syndrome is at its most extreme, and I truely suffer, to still worship and praise God, who is blessed in all sitautions, who is truely great in all worlds.
That is true testiment, and if I am never healed, even though I believe God has promised it on my life, then at least people would see the joy of my Father upon me, even in my suffering.
There are other things I have to say, funny stories, fun things, but I will post those in the next few days, as I reflect.
This Sunday, I am preaching at the kid's church for the Church I am out here with (Family Christian Centre), and on Wednesday, I am preaching to their youth Group. These are both God appointments. Please pray that I would speak only the word of God, and none of my own ideas.
In Christ,
Rich x
Servant in the Making.
