Good afternoon! Those who regularly read my blog will realise that I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. My apologies! But I am back now and the blog has started back up again.
So the reason I didn't blog last week was because I was in France. It was our 5th training week and it was a real significant time. The three questions we focused on during our trip were; What is God doing? What is Man doing? What am I doing?. So we visited many places and were really challenged to think about these questions when we meet various people and places. So that is what I am going to focus the blog on, those three questions and what I think the answers to the questions are.
I'm going to begin with the question of; What is man doing? One of the days in France was spent in Normandy and specifically at Omaha beach, one of the sites for the D-Day landings. It was such a powerful and yet slightly strange time. Walking through all the crosses marking the graves and seeing a representation of how many people died in this area was incredible. To think that 9000 soldiers died in that place not 80 years ago. It is hard to comprehend that sort of number. The really strange part of the visit to the beach was actually how calm and peaceful it was. It was almost tranquil. The picture I saw of that beach is a horrible polar opposite to what it would have been like that day when the allied forces landed on the same beach. The really scary thought that I tried to prevent myself from thinking was actually the sand I was walking on is the place where thousands of young men were brutally killed all in the act of war. Man has made a mess of things, he has killed he fellow human being, not just in World War 2 but in modern day conflict, and Man is continuing to try and make the best out of a bad situation. Whether we think about War or just all the troubles in our own lives, we can see that we are broken and we need God to come heal the pain of the past.
So that leads us to the next question; What is God doing? I think the answer to that question is that we will never fully know! We may see and hear some of what God is doing but we will never understand the mystery of His will and purpose. However, what I do know is that God is a God who shows Love and Grace and He is a God that transforms. During the last part of our trip we visited Caen, now again Caen throughout History was a place that has been ravaged by war and as we stood up at the top of Caen castle looking out onto this war torn city, we could now see peace. People were living their everyday lives, businesses thriving and churches standing tall. This is what God is doing, not just in Caen but in other places and in the lives of people. He has the power to transform and none more so can we see this through the stories of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus was there to transform the lives of people He came into contact with, blind men were able to see again, Lepers were healed, the possessed became free and the condemned were pardoned. My God is a God of transformation and I believe, whether we can see it or not, this is what He is doing.
Now what am I doing? I need to be that agent of transformation. I need to be that person to show the Love of God to all people. That's what I must do. Scripture says "The Harvest is plentiful but the workers are few...". That's what I need to do, show Love and Grace to all people and allow God to transform the lives of people I come into contact with.
I hope you have a good week this week. Feel free to get in touch.
God Bless.
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Monday 10 March 2014
40 Acts of Lent
Good afternoon! How are we all? It's been quite a busy week this but a week full of blessings and challenges. Want to know more? See below!
So a real blessing this was Wednesday evening during our Hi-5 (kids club), for those that don't know we get around 30 kids a week. But this week, myself and my housemate were asked to lead Hi-5 for the first time. We focussed the evening on Prayer and I asked the kids what type of prayers does God like and how do we pray. They all came up with their own answers and they were good answers. We then went on to watch a prayer Jesus made at a time when He was struggling. We watched a clip from the miracle-maker (that alone took all the courage I have to watch it. I admit, I have a slight fear of the film) and the scene where Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and we all came to the conclusion that Jesus prayed a very real prayer and that actually although God does like the happy and joyful prayers we make, He also likes to hear the prayers where we are scared and are struggling. The thing that really blessed me about Hi-5 was one of the songs we sung at the start of the club. Some of you may know the song, "The Way it's gonna be". it's ultimately a Kid's song but I think that every person should sing it at least once in Church... with the actions! There's a lyric in their that says "I Just want to praise you..." and to see 20 to 30 kids singing that at the top of their voice really blessed me. I pray that that will be case for their lives, that they will just live their lives always praising Jesus.
The biggest challenge that came to me last week was once again the work Eston salvation Army does with the community in regards to the Emergency Food Parcels. We had many people come through the doors and just as I am writing this now we have had some more people come for help. More and more people are needing our help and not only are they needing help for food and utility bills but they are coming to us as broken people. We can do all we can in giving them a food parcel but actually they need to be spiritually healed and the way that can happen is for them to come into a knowledge of God and the love He has for each of us, no matter who we are or what we've done or where we have come from. I have had many God blessed moments with these people and I thank God for putting me in that place just at that time as I was able to minister Grace to these hurting people. I pray that God will continue to use me in whatever situation and with whoever I may come into contact with.
In case you haven't already realised. We have entered into our time of lent, now I can honestly say that I have never given up anything for lent and I haven't really ever taken it seriously. But this year I am making a commitment throughout lent and it's not to give something up but it is to simply give. The 40 Acts of Lent is an incentive created by the Christian charity- Stewardship. It focuses on being generous over this Lent period, what happens is that an email is sent to you at the start of the day with a task to do. I think it tries to get us to reflect on how privileged we are and being grateful for that and in turn then give to others out of that gratitude. Lent is a time when we aim to focus our hearts and minds towards Easter and the sacrifice Jesus made for us. I hope in this small way that I will be able to give and show Love to those I come into contact with and somehow through my life show how grateful I am for what Jesus did for me on that cross on Calvary.
Have a great week.
God Bless
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
So a real blessing this was Wednesday evening during our Hi-5 (kids club), for those that don't know we get around 30 kids a week. But this week, myself and my housemate were asked to lead Hi-5 for the first time. We focussed the evening on Prayer and I asked the kids what type of prayers does God like and how do we pray. They all came up with their own answers and they were good answers. We then went on to watch a prayer Jesus made at a time when He was struggling. We watched a clip from the miracle-maker (that alone took all the courage I have to watch it. I admit, I have a slight fear of the film) and the scene where Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and we all came to the conclusion that Jesus prayed a very real prayer and that actually although God does like the happy and joyful prayers we make, He also likes to hear the prayers where we are scared and are struggling. The thing that really blessed me about Hi-5 was one of the songs we sung at the start of the club. Some of you may know the song, "The Way it's gonna be". it's ultimately a Kid's song but I think that every person should sing it at least once in Church... with the actions! There's a lyric in their that says "I Just want to praise you..." and to see 20 to 30 kids singing that at the top of their voice really blessed me. I pray that that will be case for their lives, that they will just live their lives always praising Jesus.
The biggest challenge that came to me last week was once again the work Eston salvation Army does with the community in regards to the Emergency Food Parcels. We had many people come through the doors and just as I am writing this now we have had some more people come for help. More and more people are needing our help and not only are they needing help for food and utility bills but they are coming to us as broken people. We can do all we can in giving them a food parcel but actually they need to be spiritually healed and the way that can happen is for them to come into a knowledge of God and the love He has for each of us, no matter who we are or what we've done or where we have come from. I have had many God blessed moments with these people and I thank God for putting me in that place just at that time as I was able to minister Grace to these hurting people. I pray that God will continue to use me in whatever situation and with whoever I may come into contact with.
In case you haven't already realised. We have entered into our time of lent, now I can honestly say that I have never given up anything for lent and I haven't really ever taken it seriously. But this year I am making a commitment throughout lent and it's not to give something up but it is to simply give. The 40 Acts of Lent is an incentive created by the Christian charity- Stewardship. It focuses on being generous over this Lent period, what happens is that an email is sent to you at the start of the day with a task to do. I think it tries to get us to reflect on how privileged we are and being grateful for that and in turn then give to others out of that gratitude. Lent is a time when we aim to focus our hearts and minds towards Easter and the sacrifice Jesus made for us. I hope in this small way that I will be able to give and show Love to those I come into contact with and somehow through my life show how grateful I am for what Jesus did for me on that cross on Calvary.
Have a great week.
God Bless
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
Monday 3 March 2014
To know your face, to know your place
Good evening. Another week has come and gone and so another blog is here, enjoy!
It was a good first week back at Eston after half term and another busy one at that. We began the week with our prize-giving meeting for our kids who are connected to the Salvation Army. Eston are so blessed to have such a big ministry focussed on Children. I have said before that on a Wednesday night we get roughly around 25-30 kids come to kids club and it is such a blessing to see them want to come to the Salvation Army, these kids want to come to Church and that's what they do every Wednesday. They may not realise it but Eston Salvation Army is their Church, this is where they come to meet God, even though they may not realise it.
On Friday we went to Crewe for the weekend for FORGE, which basically was a conference for anyone who works in the Salvation Army with youth and it was such a good weekend. The worship was fantastic, the seminars that were offered were interesting and the company was great. Although the weekend focussed on youth, some of the lectures did speak broadly about youth work and included children's ministry and what they had to say was fascinating. A session led by Professor David Voas focussed on the numerical decline of the church in regards to young people and basically the message from the talk was that young people are essential for the Church, I quote "The Church must retain it's young people if it is to survive" (Professor David Voas). That is such a challenge and maybe for some churches such a reality check, the church needs kids. There are even statistics that there is far more significant church growth when there are children in the congregation, in a study conducted by professor Voas he found that if there are more than 2 children to every 10 adults then the church growth is up by 25%. We need to focus on Children, the other lecture I went to was led by Reverend. Doctor Steve Emery-Wright and he says that "Youth and Children ministry must be at the heart of the vision..." It's such a challenge and the weekend definitely allowed me to focus on that challenge for the coming months, here at Eston.
As a conclusion to the weekend we had Lt.Col Alan Burns lead the final session. He focussed his message on John Chapter 1 and how Jesus was in the community, "the word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us...", if we are going to be effective in mission and bringing Jesus into the everyday lives of people in our communities we minister to, we need to be there. It was such a powerful message and really got me thinking, am I myself, individually, fit for mission? Alan Burns went on to say that we need to "be", we need to be who Jesus wants us to be, to take up our identity in Christ. We need to be like Jesus and let Him do what it says in John Chapter 1, let Him "in dwell in us". I personally need to be more like Jesus, for it was Jesus that made transformation happen and it was Jesus who ultimately changed lives. If I am not like Him, showing the love and compassion to all people like he did then I am not going to be effective or "fit for mission". The colonel went on to preach about being "there". Jesus knew exactly where his place was, it was with those who were suffering. He didn't stay in the temple, He was out there with the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. We as a church need to know where we should be and that is not in the church. Mission is about being sent and to quote what Alan Burns was saying, "the here (inside the church) to 'there' journey is the biggest journey." Do I know my place? Am I personally placing myself out there, am I meeting people who need me to tell them of God's love rather than the people who I feel comfortable with being around? I need to be more like Jesus and "Be there", I need to know who I am in Christ and then go out and spread that message to those who are suffering.
I hope you have a good week this week and don't hesitate to ask any questions about the blog. Do get in touch!
God Bless.
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
It was a good first week back at Eston after half term and another busy one at that. We began the week with our prize-giving meeting for our kids who are connected to the Salvation Army. Eston are so blessed to have such a big ministry focussed on Children. I have said before that on a Wednesday night we get roughly around 25-30 kids come to kids club and it is such a blessing to see them want to come to the Salvation Army, these kids want to come to Church and that's what they do every Wednesday. They may not realise it but Eston Salvation Army is their Church, this is where they come to meet God, even though they may not realise it.
On Friday we went to Crewe for the weekend for FORGE, which basically was a conference for anyone who works in the Salvation Army with youth and it was such a good weekend. The worship was fantastic, the seminars that were offered were interesting and the company was great. Although the weekend focussed on youth, some of the lectures did speak broadly about youth work and included children's ministry and what they had to say was fascinating. A session led by Professor David Voas focussed on the numerical decline of the church in regards to young people and basically the message from the talk was that young people are essential for the Church, I quote "The Church must retain it's young people if it is to survive" (Professor David Voas). That is such a challenge and maybe for some churches such a reality check, the church needs kids. There are even statistics that there is far more significant church growth when there are children in the congregation, in a study conducted by professor Voas he found that if there are more than 2 children to every 10 adults then the church growth is up by 25%. We need to focus on Children, the other lecture I went to was led by Reverend. Doctor Steve Emery-Wright and he says that "Youth and Children ministry must be at the heart of the vision..." It's such a challenge and the weekend definitely allowed me to focus on that challenge for the coming months, here at Eston.
As a conclusion to the weekend we had Lt.Col Alan Burns lead the final session. He focussed his message on John Chapter 1 and how Jesus was in the community, "the word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us...", if we are going to be effective in mission and bringing Jesus into the everyday lives of people in our communities we minister to, we need to be there. It was such a powerful message and really got me thinking, am I myself, individually, fit for mission? Alan Burns went on to say that we need to "be", we need to be who Jesus wants us to be, to take up our identity in Christ. We need to be like Jesus and let Him do what it says in John Chapter 1, let Him "in dwell in us". I personally need to be more like Jesus, for it was Jesus that made transformation happen and it was Jesus who ultimately changed lives. If I am not like Him, showing the love and compassion to all people like he did then I am not going to be effective or "fit for mission". The colonel went on to preach about being "there". Jesus knew exactly where his place was, it was with those who were suffering. He didn't stay in the temple, He was out there with the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. We as a church need to know where we should be and that is not in the church. Mission is about being sent and to quote what Alan Burns was saying, "the here (inside the church) to 'there' journey is the biggest journey." Do I know my place? Am I personally placing myself out there, am I meeting people who need me to tell them of God's love rather than the people who I feel comfortable with being around? I need to be more like Jesus and "Be there", I need to know who I am in Christ and then go out and spread that message to those who are suffering.
I hope you have a good week this week and don't hesitate to ask any questions about the blog. Do get in touch!
God Bless.
@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk
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