Good afternoon! Thankyou for clicking on that link and reading my blog, it is very much appreciated! I hear snow is on the way? I am not happy about that whatsoever, I bet I sound like a right old man but I don't like snow. I do hope the forecast is wrong...
Well I think this week in particular there have been individual specific moments that have spoke to me. Sometimes it has been God shouting at me and really obviously blessing me and then there has been times where it's been a very small whisper of God working but yet it has been so powerful.
We were out on Friday night going round the pubs and working men's clubs when we arrived at our fourth working men's club and to meet us outside was three girls around the age of 12-14, we stopped and we had a chat with them. What an incredible experience, even though we began just chatting about trivial things like school and Doctor Who, of all things. But then the youngest girl asked what is the Salvation Army and it was an utter priviledge to talk to this girl about the Salvation Army. I explained that we are a church and that we are christians and we do a lot of work all over the country and all over the world, working with the poor and the homeless. We gave them all a Kids Alive and one of them, bless her heart, said in a way only a young child of that age can. "Nah, the Salvation Army is sound." I thank God for that experience, he put us right where he needed us to talk to these girls. To tell them about who we are and maybe just plant that first seed of, I so hope and pray, the beginning of a a relationship with Jesus Christ. Although as we walked into the club, one of the girls shouted at us telling us to enjoy our pints (we didn't get round to the Army's principle of abstinence from alcohol), we were able to tell her who we are, what we do and who we stand for. Praise God!
So that was a real obvious moment where God used us and really did His work. But a particular time this week I couldn't really see where God was untill I took a step back, looked at the programme and thought this is incredible! Eston Corps offer a programme called the CAP money course designed by the Christians Against Poverty organisation. I took part in the course and it basically goes through your finances and helps you build a budget and it helps you understand what is going on with your finances. Now because I am on this programme with the Salvation Army, there is little going on with my personal finances and so trying to work out what is going to happen for the whole year was a bit difficult and I got caught up on all the figures and the numbers. I went home and remembered that Lorraine told us some facts about finances around the country some like that every 5mins someone is declared bankrupt, it costs £28 a day to raise a child til the age of 21 and that every 17 minutes a home is repossessed. These are very real facts and they are effecting real people and actually these facts may effect us all one way or the other. But it is incredible that the Salvation Army is doing something to combat this, we are trying to make a difference in this world. There are so many references to money in scripture but the thing that really stood out to me was that we know and believe that "God is Love", He loves us and wants us to be happy and when this awful thing of finance causes us trouble and pain, I think He hurts too. He doesn't want to see us suffer! So as God's people it is amazing that Eston corps have seen this need and are really doing something about it. Although it took it's time God really spoke to me about the relevance of the CAP money course, albeit a quiet whisper of how incredible this work is and how it is all done in His name.
I think it is important that as Christians we keep our ears open. God has shown throughout scripture his willingness to talk to his servants and I don't think that has changed, He still wants to speak to us. Are you listening?
So there we are, I'm going home this friday for the weekend and I am really excited for it. It is Wellingborough Salvation Army's 140th anniversary, what a celebration of God's faithfulness. So I wish you a good week and untill next monday, goodbye!
God Bless.
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
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