prayer weekend at swanick

i didn't go into this event with the most open of minds as i didn't think that that it would be something that would interest me quite as much as it did. i learned a lot more about myself than i thought that i would, the subject that we were studying over the course of the weekend was Prophecy and it interested me a lot i made like a billion pages of notes, i also filled in one of those cool spiritual gifts booklets i think the official name for it is a Wagner-Modified Houts Questionnaire and this was very enlightening for me as it let me know the spiritual gifts that are more evident in me and what God can use in me for his kingdom, the gifts that it says that i have are helping others, service, an discerning nature, leadership, mercy and giving, i dont know how accurate these booklets are and if i actually have all of these so for those of you that are reading this and actually know me i would appreciate your thoughts as to whether i have them. so in summary the prayer event at Swanwick can be considered a success, WELL DONE GUYS.

Feeding the multitudes

The title is slightly misleading as it was only like 50 but its still a lot for me ok, as my challenge this month that was set from my corps officer was to cook for the over 60's lunch which is harder than it sounds i swear, i have so much more respect for the lovely ladies that run it every week now. I cooked a vegetable soup for starters followed by a Chicken Chasseur for main and a strawberry and apple crumble for dessert (just to let you know it was my first attempt at making all these things) which turned out a lot better than i thought that i expect its to no doubt thanks to the supervision of Babara and Mary my assistant chefs for the day, they will kill me for calling them that so if you don't hear from me again you all know why. This has been by far my favourite challenge so far and has shown me just how much i enjoy helping and serving people, so cliff if you want to throw more stuff like this my way #bringiton

24/7 prayer

sorry I haven't posted in a while I don't really have an excuse either but here goes, this week has been a very long one for me but incredibly rewarding I have got a lot from God through the exercise of prayer as we at the Salvation Army in Bedford have taken part in a 24/7 prayer week. Before this week I found prayer to be tedious and at times unnecessary but taking part this week it has completely turned those views on their head and now I cant get enough of it, just taking yourself away from life in general to be alone with your thoughts and a bible and God and shout, sing and talk or just meditate on how you feel, what you want and what God wants from you, its brilliant. A few nights I had to do night shifts and going into the week I was thinking to myself why are they asking me to take these shifts I'm never going to be able to fill that much time with prayer on a tired brain without going insane but prayer is a discipline and anything that takes effort, practice and time to master is worth it in the end and actually I found that it was a lot easier than expected, so all of you that are like me and struggle with prayer give it a go you may surprise yourself I know I did. Coming out of the prayer room at the church at the end of the week I was a little sad as I know that the room will be going back to its usual purpose and I wouldn't have that room to go back to whenever I wanted some time to myself but then someone told me that that room can be in my heart and that God is everywhere and always listening I don t need to go to a special room for him to listen and hear and if necessary respond that's the beauty of having such a sovereign Lord. so since the start of the week I have gained a new discipline that I'm going to master if it kills me. P.S: I hope it wont be as long until you hear from me again..........

Mans Cell Group

At bedford salvation army we have started a cell group for men mainly made up of youngish men, it was only the first meeting together as it is only a temorary thing running until christmas, but it started off well as all manly things should with an arm wrestling competition in which i did a lot better than i was expecting and got all the way to the final where i lost 2-1 in a best of 3 competition but i will definately have to smash him next time, im coming for you Nathan Loxley. we then went on to say what we thought the modern day jesus should look and act like, the pictures ended up looking more like criminals than messiahs if u ask me but hey ho everyone has their own opinions, then we discussed what subjects we wanted to study over the next few weeks before christmas and how long it will take to study each of them, now cant wait to get started on the subjects and discussing them with the great group of guys that are involved.

first week on placement

my first week at placement has been rather hectic but very interesting aswell i find myself doing things that i would never dream of doing like sitting and having lunch with the older generation and going to indian dance nights, this week has been quite challenging in many good ways as i have had to adjust to life in a new town and life away from family. on saturday i went to an indian dance and singing night in which was run by members of the indian community in order to raise money for salvation army and their MUGA which stands for 'multi use games area', i thought that this was fantastic as members of a different faith group were raising money for work that the army in Bedford is doing and this gave me a great sense of unity in the community and that we could rely and work together in the future more like this. my highlight of this week was in the SAMM (salvation army meal and meeting) lunch socilaizing with some of the homeless and hard up members of the community playing dominoes and listening to their life stories it was very interesting and a lot of fun, we had 14 games in which i won 5 whoop whoop ......

I have had an awesome starting week on the Alove essential gap year, we have been doing a lot of activities most of which I have been AWESOME at, and that is being modest ranging from crate stacking to aero ball the only thing I didn't rule at when we were at Gilwell park was the raft building as it was an accurate recreation of the titanic for those of you that don't get it we sank big time, I have seen god at work in all of us this week as we have grown together as a team and shared exactly why we were all here doing this year and how God has influenced us and it is great to see young people being empowered to do work for the Salvation Army, I have been taught to journal by Matt Leeder and Anita Gellatly and that has been a new experience for me as I don't normally let my thoughts run wild and they actually be more mature than who would win in a fight between superman and a great white shark but it has been very helpful for me so far surprisingly, I have enjoyed learning sweedish from my awesome flat mate Malin even though I am still very bad it is a lot of fun I still only know pointless words like pinnbrod and very basic questions and responses but I hope to know it better come the end of the year, my biggest achievement this week was learning to play Dominoes with a few of the older generation that come to the homeless lunch and beating them all even though I'm sure it was just beginners luck it still felt really good and now I can't wait to experience more with another awesome week of training coming up BRING ON THE CHALLENGES.