Birthday Poem June 18, 2008

Last week was my birthday, a fact which I advertised widely. On the day itself, I spent the evening at a poetry evening, organised by a guy in my church and involving an eclectic bunch of writers from across the borough.

Previously we have just read our work, but last week afforded us the opportunity to attempt writing something. We all wrote three lines each, and then passed it to the next person. At the end the poem was read aloud with aplomb, and we were all amazed at how cohesive it was, bearing in mind the only thing we knew was that our lines had to be about birthdays.

 

Birthday Poem 12/06/08

Gonna bust the blues
On birthday time
flies when you’re having fun
So we say come
Rejoice
The old day’s done
And God has sent His only Son.

The ultimate present
Unexpected and undeserved
Given with love to a hostile world.

For this is the hour for a rhythm that’s new
Goodbye to the repetitive drum beats of despair
Grace that’s encased in a melody of hope
And countless responding in true celebration.

A mighty occasion none would forget
Stories told through generations
Keeping the excitement, the enjoyment alive.

And now the birthday is over
But I will carry the memories forever
The joy of this day will carry me through
The times of grief and turmoil
All the year long I will remember
Until the time comes again
To celebrate the life you have given.

Revival? May 19, 2008

I can hear that thunder in the distance
Like a train on the edge of town
I can feel the brooding of Your Spirit
“Lay your burdens down, Lay your burdens down”.

Revive us, Revive us,
Revive us with your fire!

 Copyright © 1998 Daybreak Music Ltd.

 Everywhere I go at the moment there seems to be whisperings about revival. “Have you heard what is happening in Florida” seems to be a common topic of conversation in some of the circles I find myself in.

At this point I should admit to a penchant for cynicism. You are reading the musings of a girl who, in her teens, utterly shunned anything emitting a vaguely charismatic aroma. So much so that me and my best friend once walked out of a meeting because, wait for it, they dared to speak in tongues. (I imagine God had a good laughing fit three years later when me and the same friend began earnestly seeking the very same gift… ooops!).

Anyway, I was brought up believing that revivals don’t happen, the gifts of the spirit aren’t for now, this is all there is.

Thankfully God arrested me in my tracks and that view has completely changed. Now I find myself marvelling at the power of the Holy Spirit and praying for more of a breakout of it in the Salvation Army. But you understand when I say that I haven’t always been that open to stuff!!

So my internal response to news of supernatural healings aplenty was firstly reticence. (I probably shouldn’t admit that), but as more and more stories leak out, and as what is happening in Florida seems to be part of a whole host of other concurrent stuff, I have been challenged to stretch my view a little.

 Last night I heard a great sermon about the nature of revival, how the Acts 2:42-47 descritpion is a list of characteristics of a ‘normal’ church, and thus none of us have really experienced ‘normal’. The early church didn’t need revival because it was ‘vived’ enough. The speaker identified some things that are always present in a revival as follows:

• Passionate worship – Christians falling love with God all over again
• Demonstrations of God’s power – signs and wonders
• Salvations – people given the choice to respond to the gospel and choosing affirmatively.

He said that revival is something we can’t dredge up or put on, the Holy Spirit instigates it. But it is something that we can prepare for. We can do this by pursuing the folowing:

• Unity with other churches/Christians
• Courageous faith
• Sincere and heartfelt prayer

After all this, which was all good stuff, we had a time of response and prayer which turned into one of the most powerful outpourings of the Holy Spirit I’ve been in, in a long time. People were healed physically, people received new gifts, there was a sense of expectancy and presence in that room that left most of the congregation awed and silenced. Worship went on and on, every time they tried to stop people just stayed, silent and still in prayer. It was awesome.

 What I loved about last night was that this wasn’t happening in some far away country, replayed on the fuzzy screen of my laptop, I was watching the power of God at work in front of my eyes. He was doing big things, in my here and now, in a random corner of Wandsworth. I recognised the tug of God’s challenge on my heart as my cynicism further dissipated, and I began to believe that this stuff really could happen in my surroundings, in my lifetime.  

 What’s really exciting also is that I have heard repeated stories like this, from churches all over the UK, where expectancy seems to be rising and God’s power is at work. If I couple that with things like the Global day of Prayer, the response to Hope 2008 accross the country, the Pentecost festival here in London, the increase in Street Pastor teams throughout the country etc, I feel like this growing spark of excitement that these are important times. Like the words in the song above, it feels like something is close, you can hear the rumble of it like a ‘train on the edge of town’, and I really don’t want to miss out on what God is up to, through cynicism or self-centredness or plain apathy.

 In the meantime, I want to pursue the three points above – unity, faith and prayer. I don’t know what God is up to and I don’t know what this is all going to look like, but something in me is stirred.

Surely it’s not just me?

Global Day of Prayer 2008 May 11, 2008

The sun shone brightly down on Millwall Football stadium in South London, as thousands of Christians gathered there to mark the seventh Global Day of Prayer.

London joined over 60 other UK cities, and 210 countries across the world, praying on the theme, ‘Your Kingdom Come… on Earth as in Heaven.

The celebration began with resonating worship, led by Noel Richards, Geraldine Latty, Godfrey Birtil and Graham Kendrick. Children’s choirs, dancers and representatives from the local government of the area also led different sections of the programme.

Joining in agreement, the 20,000+ Christians prayed into a number of different areas:

• For the Street Pastors initiative, which sees Christians taking to the streets and offering a listening ear and practical assistance to those they meet.
• For projects dealing with youth crime and urban deprivation in London.
• For the Hope 2008 initiative.
• For those affected by knife and gun crime.
• For the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and his staff.
• For those affected by natural disaster, poverty and climate change throughout the world.

The father of Damilola Taylor, the schoolboy murdered in London in 2000, led a time of united prayer asking for forgiveness for the perpetrators of these crimes, and for peace and justice to reign in the capital. The congregation sang the words of the prayer of St Francis, ‘Make me a channel of your peace’, as a white dove appeared on the big screens signifying this peace and hope.

Representatives from different people groups living in London led Scripture readings in their native languages, including Hebrew, Tamil, Portuguese, Chinese and Spanish, and the congregation joined in a responsive version of Psalm 8, declaring the Majesty and Glory of God’s name.

The atmosphere in the stadium was electric as people stood worshipping in groups and kneeled in prayer on the pitch. Prayers flowed for repentance, blessing, salvation and transformation for the city of London and further afield.

The event ended with a responsive prayer which was prayed in each of the countries taking part in the Global Day of Prayer. It felt powerful and exciting to be praying words that millions of others would also be lifting to God across the world. We’re all waiting expectantly to see how God moves as a result of the faithful prayers of his people across the globe on this day.

Here are some pictures:

 The gang outside the stadium

 Waiting for the fun to start

 

 Sheltering from the sun!

 Crowds of merry pray-ers

Roots Prep April 27, 2008

Very many people ask me what it’s really like prepping for ROOTS, what we actually do in the days before hand, how it all comes together etc. So I thought I’d try and describe some of it in a bit more detail, with snippets from other years, and some funny photos (hopefully).

The first thing to assert is that I have remembered that I actually do enjoy doing this stuff! It may be a bit tiring, it may destroy my fingernails and necessitate lots of crawling around on my knees, it may mean spending hours fighting with recalcitrant duct tape, but I somewhere in it all, we have a good time.

There’s something about the general cameraderie that cheers you, even when you’ve been going for hours. Then there are the creative moments, when someone has a brainwave at 11.30pm on the night before we leave, and suddenly everyone is scurrying around looking for the most random components – like copper piping, or snow spray.

There’s the joy of the pre-roots shopping trip. We start in B&Q, manage to get half the list, and then head to Homebase. Invariably we are still missing something so then it is off to Wickes. This is scary because it is full of builders and we look quite out of place. We also get quite a few odd looks when asking for metres of polythene sheeting, or black netting etc. Sometimes there are ‘eureka moments’, when we find exactly what we need, or something better than we had thought of. Then there are the desperate moments when we have exhausted all the DIY shops and therefore find ourselves improvising manicly.

Once all the materials have been collected, the fun really starts. Everyone in their corner working on one display or another, and all swapping about helping each other, providing encouragement, and plying each other with hot beverages. Yesterday one of our illustrious team was spraying dust sheets black, another was delving for missing prayer tent items, while I was turning a cardboard box into a replica of a city. Yet another was on external photocopying and printing errands.

Some of my favourite moments included the year when the only time for a planning meeting was after a Tuesday night prayer meeting, so the three of us gathered with Cocoa and plotted to 1am. We had some cool ideas that year. Then there was the time when Jo lost her voice the week before Roots. We prepped with the use of sign language and by writing a lot of notes!! It’s at moments like this I miss our old hall, because the whole place used to transform into a ROOTS preparation zone at this time of year. Sawdust was ground into the carpet, corps programmes took place in the shadow of burgeoning piles of fabric, and we enjoyed the fun of throwing cushions off the balcony on to unsuspecting people below!

The challenges of this year have been how to prep without a large space in which to spread things out, remembering in which of our many storage locations things actually were, working out how to fit prep around a stacked Wandsworth programme, and some hectic work deadlines, and trying to fit everything into a smaller van. It’s been good to have to improvise and be flexible anyway!!

I think what I love most of all is the knowledge that what started as a scribbled idea in a notebook, or a bullet point on one of our many lists, will become something physical and slot into part of the bigger picture that is the prayer tent. When it’s all in place it makes all the hard work worthwhile, and it’s a joy to see people engaging with God in that place.

I love the fact that my job mixes together prayer, people and creativity, and I guess in the preparation for ROOTS I see that all the more starkly! I am very thankful, and very excited about the conference itself!!

So, a couple of snaps from the last couple of days:

 Beautiful ROOTS Prayer guides

 

 Marking out the Labryinth

 Drying spraypainted dustsheets!!

Blogging Backlogs… April 25, 2008

So, I seem to be suffering from a similar ailment to certain friends of mine, who neglect their blog for a couple of weeks and then have a million things to fit in one entry! I have only been neglecting for 9 days, but even still lots has been going on, and so in an attempt to be organised I am going for some categorisation

Work – Work has been very cool over the last couple of weeks. We wrote a resource to help people get to grips with praying for their communities. It basically has 28 questions you work through, which then gives you a workable foundation to build a prayer strategy on afterwards. So that was much fun. I enjoyed canvassing opinions to work out the best colour scheme for it, and spent days agonising between green and purple (all the while secretly adoring shocking pink). Purple won out in the end. I spent this week despatching said resources to lovely praying people, so that’s nearly all done. Have some other writing stuff to do but having got around to that yet.

ROOTS – (I’m cheating because the work paragraph was getting too long!!) ROOTS is the SA’s annual renewal conference, held in Southport. To cut a long story short, we get a huge tent, pack it with prayer stations and a glorious prayer team, and then 4000 people descend (There are loads of other top quality venues too).  It’s the first bank holiday weekend in May, so a week today we will be there (argh!). So this week has passed in a flurry of packing boxes, losing gazebos, purchasing silk flames, compiling endless lists, misplacing vital components, driving round South London and squeezing stuff into mini-buses. I can’t wait for ROOTS this year, it feels like God has some exciting things up his sleeve!!

Wandsworth – Wandsworth is great and wondrous. Good things are happening here. Last Saturday we held a Civic Service, with the Mayor, Head of the Council, Police and MP’s etc. We also lauched the Wandswoth Street Pastors team, which was very exciting. 170 people came and we chatted, prayed, networked and generally had a fab time. There was a cool gospel choir too! The next few weeks look exciting too, as we have a couple of specific days set aside for prayer and prophetic intercession for the borough. So I am really looking forward to those. I’m heading up a lovely team of ‘Prayer Pastors’, which is great experience. Oh, and the corps hall is nearly built. It’s looking very swish and it’s all feeling a bit more real! We should be in the new building by September. Apart from that, life at the Boiler Room is exciting. Oh, I’m speaking this weekend there and haven’t written my sermon yet – this is not so good!!

Life – Life has been an intriguing old thing the last few days. Along with a host of other joys, I was ill last week, so was looking forward to a nice week before the madness that next week will be. But my life has resembled an Eastenders script over the last few days, with one late night drunken admirer turning up at the door, and then a couple of nights later the police!! It’s ok, I do not have a secret criminal past… they just wanted me to help them with some stuff. (I’d have been wholly more appreciative had it not been 12.15am!!! )Think it’s all sorted now though. Although I think my housemates probably think I’m mad!! Hasn’t been much space for much else, what with ROOTS prep. Oh, I went to Costa on Monday and debated the issue of grace… that was a highlight!

Misc  – I can’t think of much else but I love the word miscellaneous. So must think of something interesting to say!! Oh, that’ll do. I’m looking forward to May 12th, because me and an esteemed Wandsworthian colleague are off to Sweden to teach on prayer for a week… So that will be fab.

Also, I want to recommend that you all read ‘A Certain Rumour’, by Russell Rook. It’s all about Cleopas and the journey along the Emmaus road, but it’s about so much more than that. It’s about the Kingdom of God, hope, lots of exciting things like that… a top read.

Philip Pullman is another of my favourite authors, and he’e just published a book called ‘Once Upon A Time In The North’. I am very very excited about Monday, when I will be able to buy and read this.

Now, I need a new book to read after that. (I am behind on my target of 100 this year)… anyone have any suggestions?

Dave January 28, 2008

On the way home from church yesterday, we exuberantly piled onto a bus heading towards Tooting. It was busy with tired shoppers, fractious infants and us, a group of 6 Salvationists plus one pushchair-bound (and also semi-fractious) infant.

In all the noise and chaos, a fair amount of seat swapping took place. We juggled preferring others, mobility needs and proximity to said pushchair. At some point in the proceedings the guy sitting on the double chair next to my single seat shifted his backpack, to make room for the burgeoning crowds. His name, I found out, was Dave.

Unfortunately no-one sat down. I was a little embarrassed that certain members of our group seemingly preferred to stand than to take up his offered seat. So I smiled, acted apologetic, and generally tried to cover over our wholesale rejection of it. I expected that to be the end of the interaction, I expected to retreat back into my thoughts, but it was not to be.

 ”Where’s the Citadel round here then?” Dave ventured, a nod to the fact that we were all, (infant excepted), decked out in the familiar Salvation Army gear. Surprised at his use of lingo I explained briefly where it had been, and that we were borrowing another church due to the rebuilding of the hall.

The conversation flourished, he talked about work, how he was on the way home from a nightshift, travelling from Victoria to Carshalton (an unenviable distance if relying on buses). We then got onto issues of faith – I was amazed and touched by his honesty, and the fact he was so willing to talk.

Dave talked about his life, his dog, recipes involving haddock and mashed potato. He shared his health concerns and his thoughts about religion and action etc.

He commented that it was sad that we no longer talk to each other. That we are all carrying stories and so often we skim over an opportunity to share those with each other and allow them to briefly correlate.

I could see the rest of the group watching this quizzically, watching for signs that I needed rescue, wondering what we were so engrossed in discussing.

I was listening to Dave, feeling quite disturbed, thinking that it would have so easy to have ignored him, to have missed the moment, for him to have spent another two hours on a bus interacting with nobody. I was also feeling privileged, that of all the people in the world who could be hearing his story, it was, at that moment, myself.

He had a lot of respect for the SA, a lot of people do, but he said he missed seeing us out on the streets now. He missed knowing where we were and seeing us talking to people. I think what he missed most of all was talking to people. It was like loneliness emanated from him. I felt a pang of sadness that I was going back to an evening of music videos and pancakes, while he was on his own.

We left him at the corner, he stayed watching cars go by. He’d given me £2 to put in our collection, I left wishing there was more I could have given him, hoping that out conversations about faith would have encouraged him a little.

It reminded me of the responsibility of faith. The responsibility I have not to keep my head down and keep myself to myself. There are people and sitautions that are calling out for our interaction, our comment, our conversation.

I’m praying that Dave does have, or that he finds some people he can love and be in community with. I know that I value it beyond all the physical possessions and passing surroundings I have here. I’m also praying that I will be more vigilant for these occasions, so I won’t miss them when they arise.

Before and Nearly December 23, 2007

Today was one of those days which felt like a long pause before something happens. This morning, like most other mornings this month, I woke up and clambered disorientatedly over the pile of presents. Like most other Sundays, I went to Church (the local Anglican church today – it was fab).

Like almost half of 2007’s Sundays, I prepared for our church meeting at 3pm, and took the bus later to and from our cell group, but today didn’t really feel like any other day.

Firstly, we sang ‘O Come O Come Immanuel’ in the service this morning. The lyrics are evocative and speak of redemption and release. With an organ backing, the words seemed to reverberate around the church and the sentiment seemed exagerated. It was as if we were singing the verses about Wandsworth, as if the verses themselves became an act of intercession.

Our church meeting this afternoon was different too. There were over 40 of us, everyone turned out to celebrate, hand out presents, share coffee and worship together. There was the same intensity about our gathering, as if we really meant the things we were saying and praying. It was such a joy to dish out the pile of presents, knowing I won’t have to purposely avoid tripping over them tomorrow morning, although I wish I could be there to see people opening them. I love giving gifts.

The very atmosphere of Wandsworth today seemed to be imbued with a sense that we’re approaching something. Traffic jams lined the main road outside of our meeting place, and we marvelled that Jesus is perhaps the only person born 2000 years ago who still has the ability to bring the city roads to a standstill.

By the time we had finished, a thick fog had fallen, and the greasy streets seemed muffled and silenced. The last few days have been manic here, but tonight it felt like everyone had bought shopping enough, emptied Sainsburys enough, wrestled with wrapping paper enough, squeezed onto buses enough and there was a momentary lull. (I’m sure tomorrow will be pretty hemmed again, but it was nice that it all stopped for at least a few hours).

In cell we watched the Greatest Christmas countdown, ate cold turkey and marvelled that this was the last cell of 2007 for us. Again we recognised that we are anticipating something, that the celebration approaches, as do the endings, seperations and goodbyes of the end of the year.

Some of my housemates have already started the journey home for Christmas, my house feels half-inhabited, even here I can feel the strange ‘nearly-Christmas’ feeling. As I jump on the train tomorrow I know that instead of summising that people are off on a night out, or commuting home from work etc, we’ll all be engaging in similar trips to connect with and spend time with friends and family. I like the sense of antipation that brings, and the friendly understanding between fellow passengers clambering aboard carrying brightly coloured bags of presents.

My Christmas tour will take in Canterbury, Dunstable, Northampton and then Canterbury again. I am so looking forward to seeing different people, celebrating together, drinking vast quantities of Schloer and generally reflecting on the good bits of 2007.

Back in a week or so!!

Sunday Happenings December 3, 2007

Yesterday morning I had a very strange experience. It was ‘good strange’, but all the same very bizarre!

As I mentioned previously we have been doing a bit of ‘church-hopping’ on Sunday mornings while our corps hall is being rebuilt. Yesterday my church leader went to speak at a church in Tooting, so a couple of us tagged along.

It was an awesome service, we sang for an hour, it was rocking and the atmosphere was electric!

Then came the weird bit. We were asked to come up to the front of the meeting so people could bless us and encourage us for the work we are doing for the community in Tooting (There were three of us from the SA, and then one police officer). We stood there for ages while they prayed, prophesied, kissed us, and were genuinely lovely.

 I was bemused as I had only tagged along for the ride, I wasnt expecting any of the above, and I felt a bit of a fraud, because I don’t really do a lot for the community in Tooting!!

It so blessed me though, and reminded me that God knows what we need, and although it felt a bit strange, it was very lovely to have all these people being so positive and affirming. It challenged me to try and be as encouraging as I can to others, who may be in a similar place to me yesterday morning – really in need of that touch and reminder of God’s love.

In the afternoon we gathered as a boiler room for our regular meeting, there were a few people away, which was a shame as it was a really powerful and impacting service. One of the best bits was that Dot, the oldest member of our congregation, who is, at best, a little wobby, became an unwitting evangelist! She was waiting outside in the cold for us to come and open up (we were still trying to extricate ourselves from the Tooting Encouragers!) A lady saw and stopped and invited Dot to sit in her car. When we turned up 20 mins later, Dot had invited the lady into church, and she stayed for the whole service – how cool is that!!

Protests and Prayer November 29, 2007

So, they plan to open a ‘adult entertainment’ venue in the middle of Wandsworth. We found out about three weeks ago, and so the past three weeks have passed in a flurry of letter writing, prayerwalks around the proposed venue, networking and dropping the proposal into every possible conversation.

On Sunday we had a bank of laptops set up so people could write letters opposing the plans and we could send them en masse to the council.

Last week the SA’s reseach and development unit sent us loads of facts and figures showing that clubs of this nature can increase crime, disorder and human trafficking. Not things we want to see increasing in Wandsworth!!

We also had an MP and a councillor join us as we prayerwalked outside. It was great to partner with the authorities in fighting this thing.

Today I was riding on a bus and I saw some billboards for the local paper. In big capital letters I saw, “SALVATION ARMY PRAYS FOR LAPDANCERS.” It struck me as a funny headline, but it did make me think that all the letter writing and protesting is good, but if the club does open I feel we have to take a different tack. It is not enough to simply say “We don’t want this place”, we need to act. And I don’t mean in a standing outside shouting at those who enter, I mean going inside, meeting the people who use the club and providing chapliancy to the girls etc.

Social Justice is one of the fundamental elements that make up the Boiler Room, and I am uncertain how much justice will go on in a place like this. But I know it is not enough just to pray and protest… it is vital to act too.

You can read the newspaper article here: http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/search/display.var.1863830.0.salvation_army_prays_to_stop_lap_dancing_club.php

The Best & Worst November 18, 2007

There is a quote from ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens that sums up life Wandsworthwards today. It simply says, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

There is so much about these times which is good. So many things I could write about:

Work this week was brilliant – prayerwalking in Walthamstow, exciting meetings planning prayer ideas for 2008, a lot of things seeming to take off and start to really happen.

Yesterday I spent an inspiring day in Birmingham with a group of prayer leaders from around the UK. Then I zoomed back to Bromley for ‘Encounter’. I’ll probably post seperatly about yesterday.

This morning we led church at Balham Sally Army. We used the Psalms to help us. It went really well and we enjoyed the challenge!

Next Sunday is the Boiler Room’s 3rd birthday, so this week involves lots of last minute planning and organising, as we prepare to thank God for three years trying to work out what it means to be a place of prayer, community, mission, social justice, creativity and pilgrimage in Wandsworth. It will be a time to look back, to celebrate the journey so far, and to ‘vision-cast’ for the future.

I know that it is often in the times when some things seem to be steaming ahead and really growing, that other things seem to stutter, fall apart or erupt. There has been a fair bit of that this weekend!

People suddenly becoming ill. Situations of trouble and conflict. Losses that you feel right in the pit of your stomach.

I am comforted by the words of Psalm 84:5-8

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
       who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
       they make it a place of springs;
       the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

  They go from strength to strength,
       till each appears before God in Zion.

 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;
       listen to me, O God of Jacob.
       Selah. “

I have set my heart on this pilgrimage. Through summer or storm, and in the moments when the icey winds seem to cut me to the bone, still I will stand. When my heart thrills at new birth I will remain, I will be steadfast when foundations crumble around me. My God has proved himself before, and in the valleys of weeping I will find him again.

In these days of utter joy and breathtaking sorrow I will trust in his provision.

I stand with my Father, and he goes before and behind me. I am secure.