September September 4, 2008

My life is often a feat of trying to fit a lot of diary engagements into not enough diary days. Especially in the excitement that is September, when prayer events aplenty seem to spring up all across our fair isle. I love the busyness, the feeling of being kept on my toes, the drive to keep going to God for inspiration because my own supplies have long since dwindled.

September comes with a sense that the year is drawing to a close. My ipod strayed to a Christmas song the other day and I didn’t forward skip it in disgust. Pretty soon the shops will be full of associated garb. I begin to feel the familiar sense of satisfaction that another twelve months are almost over and done with, and with that comes the urge to start looking at the statistics of my year. How many towns have I visited? What was the top moment? Where have I flown to? (and what was my carbon footprint like?) What has surprised me (there are some top contenders for that prize this year, let me tell you), What have I learned?

Also, meetings about next year have started to creep into my week. Both this week and last I found myself enmeshed in buzzing conversations, dreaming big for 2009, sharing concepts and visions and working out partnerships. I was excited about the potential of this year, and have not been dissapointed, and next year seems to be following suit. 

But there is more fun to be had before it’s time for that. Highlights of the next few weeks include trips to Bedford and Huddersfield and Banbury to hang out with lovely Salvation Army praying people. After that there’s a training day we’re pulling together that I’m really excited for. Exciting social occasions coming up include multiplicitous dramatic performances from my gifted friends, plus a cool engagement party, and an evening making Fair Trade goodie bags for a coffee evening we’re having with church.

Church is the other excitement in life at the moment. For the past twelve months we’ve been out of our building, while the dear old place was razed to the ground and replaced with an altogether shinier (and less death-trap-laced) new one. It’s pretty much done now, and it’s been really great to watch the finishing touches being applied. This leaves us with the fun process of shopping. So I have been measuring the height of filing cabinets, musing over the practicality of teal sofas and observing discussions about the correct type of potato masher to buy. I’ve learned things about decking out a church that I never would have even considered before.

All in all, these are exciting times. I find my head merrily full of projects that I am really able to get my teeth into. I find myself anticipating the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, amazed at what I have seen and experienced over the past nine months, and thrilled about what is to come.

Water Snake Days July 25, 2008

This week has been festooned with intercessory delights. I figured between my allegorical musings I would write about some of the different prayer events I have been to this week, just because I’ve enjoyed them all lots and it reminded me why I love prayer so much.

Can’t remember if I’ve explained the water snake thing before, but Lyndall explains it beautifully in her post here: http://lifeoflyndall.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/mustnt-grumble/

Anyway, so the water-snakery began on Monday, when I was faced with the task at work of sending out our monthly prayer diaries. In the past I may have been heard to grumble, because stuffing 850 envelopes can sometimes feel a little repetitive, and cannot be called the most exciting part of my job! Anyhow, I surprised myself this time by being quite excited by the task. As I handled the envelopes I found myself praying for those who would receive them, imagining how God could move through each of those people, praying that they would be challenged and inspired in their prayer lives. It didn’t feel like mindlessly stuffing envelopes, it felt like putting ammunition into people’s hands.

The next water snake moment was on Tuesday. We have a community meal and then a prayer meeting every Tuesday. It’s one of the highlights of a Wandsworth week. For a number of reasons it’s felt like I’ve missed a lot of those over the last few weeks, so it was wonderful to join in with that again. We had a beautiful meal, followed by waffles. Then we prayed. There were only three of us left, by that point, but it was one of those prayer meetings that just seemed to take a life of it’s own and flow without us directing it. We each got to pray for some of the things God’s been putting on our hearts, so it was a good space.

Wednesday’s Water-snakery was in the guise of department prayers. On my floor at work, each unit takes turns to head this up each week. This week was the turn of the Mission Development Unit. We all gathered, not altogether sure what to expect. I was unprepared for the direct challenge that came accross through this time. We looked at the passage in 1 Corinthians which talks about God using the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the things that are not to nullify the things that are, etc. We then had to think of the times that God had surprised us over the past week or so, and then write them on small cards and thank God for them. Then we were challenged to pray for more opportunities for him to do that. It made me think a lot.

Thursday was a busy day. We have whole-office prayers each Thursday at 9am, so we all trooped downstairs for that. We started by singing, ‘Praise my soul the King of Heaven’, which is always a good, rousing beginning to any reputable prayer gathering. Then we spent some time looking at Psalm 147, considering the faithfulness of God, and praying for the strength to trust in that. I love this passage because it contains one of my favourite verses: “The Lord heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.’ We then sang a song called, ‘If your presence’, which is taken from Joshua and Exodus, which asks how can we do anything, how can we move from this place, how can we minister love without God’s presence. I felt it was a really pertinent challenge for us all, and went back upstairs to my seat with that uncomfortable feeling that accompanies God’s conviction.

Then last night a couple of us headed to the house of a friend for more intercessory capers. I didn’t really know many of the others in the group, but it didn’t matter, and it was nice to meet new people. We prayed hard for Wandsworth, each taking an area or aspect of community. I had to pray about business, which was an intrigue as it isn’t something I find myself praying about a lot, but it was good discipline. At the end of the meeting we chatted some more about some of the stuff God is doing here, and generally just hung out with each other a bit.

However tiring it sometimes is, bouncing from prayer gathering to prayer gathering, I realise that I wouldn’t swap it for the world. I remembered how much I love just getting my teeth into some praying, just showing up where there are a bunch of people with a common goal, listening to words and pictures that people have had when praying and then using them to guide how we pray. I do love the water snake lifestyle!

The Joy of 24-7 May 27, 2008

Friday night afforded me the opportunity to get back into the swing of late night prayer, and I loved it. I was at a church in South East London for their monthly youth night of prayer. There were about 20 young people there between the ages of 15-20ish, and they prayed up a storm!

I’d forgotten the buzz that comes from sitting in a semi dark room, knowing that you are going to be there for the next twelve hours, anticipating where prayer is going to take you.

I’d forgotten how exciting it is to be around a bunch of youth who just so want to pray, and who will do any number of wacky creative prayer excercises as part of this.

I was humbled and amazed to hear some beautiful and honest prayers, you know the type that aren’t slick or polished but raw and heartfelt.

I was amazed to hear them praying for someone in their community who is struggling at the moment. Their grip of spiritual warfare was impressive.

I loved the 3am slot, where we just all stood in a circle and said thankyou to God. It could have gone on for hours, and there was a lovely sense of worship and adoration.

I also loved my faithful armour-bearing friend back home in Wandsworth, who stayed up till 4am, at home on his own to pray alongside us. That was such a blessing.

Most of all I loved it that Our Father caught all of this. That he was listening and present for every minute of those hours. That he strengthened us when the caffiene wore off and guided our prayers, that he even inhabited the moments of silence. That he hovered over the young people sleeping in corners, That he rejoiced and delighted in each of them.

I loved it that a group of them snuck out in the early hours of the morning and ‘tin-foiled’ some of the leader’s cars too. A top moment!!

Off to Sweden May 11, 2008

As of tomorrow morning, myself and my esteemed prayer-leading colleague are off to the wondrous town of Visby, in Sweden, to lead a week of prayer teaching.

It’s a bit of a heavy schedule, with 4 lectures each day (so we’re leading two each, each day!). So if anyone can spare a prayer or two that would be cool.

We’re back Saturday 17th!

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

Where to start? May 7, 2008

(I’m thinking this could be a long post!)

So, ROOTS was amazing. We got to Southport on Thursday evening to find blue sky (a big change from rainy London). We did a little bit of unpacking and then discussed some practicalities over a meal.

Friday dawned bright, and again sunny, and so we wended our way to the (lovely, spacious, white) tent to begin the set up. The day passed in a blur of mounting posters, assembling lampstands, splaying black fabric and setting up gazebos. Gradually more and more of the glorious folks who would make up the prayer team arrived, and so our assembling was punctuated by hugs, greetings and catch ups with some dear friends. Later on we had a collective staff meeting, which was a great chance to hand over the whole thing to God and connect with him before the madness started!

In the late afternoon delegates began arriving, which was great, as everything started to feel really alive and like it was really happening. We had an ‘after-hours’ slot in the prayer tent, and people came in really ready to connect with God and the theme. Historically the Friday night is sometimes a bit quiet, and it takes people a while to get into things, but this year seemed different – right from the start there was a real passion and fervence about the prayer going on.

Saturday was great too – the fervence continued, and loads of people came in for prayer. It had rained overnight, so we had to do a bit of bailing out, but it was dry for most of the day, despite a severe weather warning! We had some groovy seminars, including one about going ‘beyond 24-7′, which was really inspiring. The day passed in a rush of conversations and praying. We had a blue gazebo where some of the team were interceding at all times, so we popped in and out of there throughout the day. That night we had another ‘after hours’ slot, titled ‘Ignite’. We wanted to leave space for the Holy Spirit to do stuff, and He definitely did, in ways we didn’t expect.

Sunday began quite wet, so much so that we had to build a moat around the prayer tent, which was a first! We had some more seminars, more praying with people, and another great after-hours slot, where we cut people free of things that were holding them back. I had a couple of really useful and inspiring meetings, and went to bed feeling very excited about things God is up to!

And then it was all over too quickly – Monday morning flew past, and before we knew it we were packing down. This seemed to pass in record time, and everything fitted neatly into the van. We said lots of goodbyes, then had a relaxed meal with the seven of us that remained. It was lovely to wrap everything up and discuss some of the breakthroughs we had seen.

It was then back down the M6, merrily spotting Eddie Stobarts, chatting about all we’d seen and done. There were no traffic jams, and it was lovely to see Wandsworth again.

I was astounded again over the weekend by the power of prayer and the difference it can make. I was surprised again by the presence of God in unexpected places. I was personally challenged and convicted about lots of things. Think that all deserves a seperate post though! Suffice to say that it was an awesome time and there is lots to be thankful for!

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?

Unbelievable April 15, 2008

I think it is unbelievable how many things I have managed to cram in since last posting. (I also think it’s quite unbelievable that I am still standing!)

Early last Saturday (after about 2 hours sleep and a battle with an evil wasp), I jumped aboard a train at Euston and wended my way up to Liverpool. I’ve mentioned before how train travel is one of my favourite things to do, but even I ended up sat staring into space for most of the journey!

Three hours later I disembarked to a crisp yet sunny Liverpool. I navigated myself around an underground station and caught a local service to a place called Bidston. I mused on this journey that I had absolutely no idea where I was going! Eventually I made it to the small hamlet that is Heswall where I was picked up and ferried to my weekend’s location.

‘Unbelievable’ was the title for the divisional youth councils there this year (area youth celebration thing, if you’re not of a salvation army persuasion). Saturday was also the kick off of the area’s 24-7 week, so the two were merged together and the youth had a sleep-over-prayer-service thing.

My job was to be interviewed, to enthuse them about prayer, to do a little bit of speaking and to fill an hour of prayer. This all went ok, with no major disasters. As well as this, they had other prayer activities to do in the other night hours, some rocking worship times, and some passionate games of football.

After everything had finished, a very lovely friend came and picked me up from the middle of nowhere, and then we went back to Liverpool overnight. It was great to catch up. Then I got the train home yesterday.

I’m so tired it feels like I am thinking and writing through soup, but it was a journey worth making and as ever I was encouraged by the prayers and the lifestyle modelled by the youth up there.

That’s the end of my manic journeying for a couple of weeks (only for things to get super mad again in may), so I’m going to take the opportunity to relax a bit, write a bit and hopefully recoup some sleep!

Illfated Attempts February 29, 2008

Just to dispel any myths that working in prayer is glamorous, I thought I’d share with you the story of our Wednesday afternoon this week.

Just as some background, we’ve been looking at reviewing some of our processes recently. Stuff like admin, communication, filing… fun stuff like that. Wednesday afternoon came around and it was time to tackle communication. We’d worked all morning, and had lunch, and so we decided to have a brief ten minute blast back at our desks before hitting the review. It was at this point that our neat plans came crashing down around our ears, and chaos and catastrophe ensued!

The first signs of trouble were some unhappy noises from Friendly Boss’s desk. She was searching for a file on her computer, which, though it had been faithfully completed previously, just happened to have inconveniently dematerialised. After a futile search through the annals of the filing system, the only solution was to recreate it from scratch, as it was the deadline for it to be sent off. Not a good moment. The technological malfunction was then exacerbated, as her small computer began to have health issues, until it froze, unspeaking and immobile. In Friendly Boss’s defence, she remained calm, and did not throw either computer out of the window, a temptation which may have proved too strong for me.

On my side of the desk divide, things were equally fraught. Lots of things we seeking to distract me from my tasks, not least bored colleagues and disgruntled email correspondents. I was looking forward to the tea and chocolate which were to be integral parts of the communications review. I was also feeling quite sleepy, a fact which did not abet my ability to rise above the administrative mayhem bearing a cheery grin! 

Things continued in a similar, unfruitful vein for an hour or so. By this time we decided to abandon the communications review and retreat to a purveyor of latte and muffins in a last ditch attempt to redeem the afternoon. There was, however, one last grim moment to be had.

In order to preserve the dignity of Friendly Boss’s Sometimes Hapless Guide Dog, I will leave it to your imagination as to why we found ourselves huddled in a grimy corner near the shopping centre. I would also like to state that we were off the beaten track, we were prepared for the eventuality, and were therefore not harming or disrupting anyone. It was therefore quite bemusing as a random man started telling us off. Just to give you an idea of our crime, I quote his catchphrase: “You people are nasty innit (insert repetitive expletives here)”.  Now, I am quite a placid person, but after a few minutes of this I found myself retorting, which, though brave, proved futile.

We reached the aforementioned purveyor, finally, laughing about the litany of disaster that had befallen us in such a short period of time. Life in prayer may not be glamorous, but it certainly cannot be described as dull!!