Over the last week and a half I have been involved in leading nine different services and events where the Christmas story has been told in poetry, song and more traditionaly throgh readings and sermons/ meditations. These have been for folk of all ages, from Christmas Meditation for Womens Fellowship to this mornings inter-active telling of the Christmas story to a group of pre-schoolers and their parents/ carers.They have also been of all sizes, from a packed out church last night to a few parents/ carers and children this morning...
Each event has been special in a different way, yesterday evening saw lots of people invloved, some reading and others leading prayers. The readings included a wonderful rendition of Luke 2: 8-16 from the Yorkshire Bible, which included the wonderful lines:
"' t' angil o' t' Lord says tul' em:
Nay there's nowt t' be afeeared on!! Ah've come to bring thee sum reight cheerful neews- neew's neews at'll gladden all t' fowk 'oo ear it! Ther's a little lad just bin born i' Beth'lem- t' Royal City o' David tha knaws.....
Tha'll find im in a mistal, liggin' in a manger, all wharm an' cooasy in is ippins!"
Don't ask me to translate, but you get the gist! It was great fun and Malcom the reader recieved a round of applause, people really listened! To finish the evening I preached and was pleased that a number of folk taked to me about what I had said on the way out.
This morning was special too, I took a robust wooden nativity set with me and hid the figures around the church, I asked the children to find them and they had great fun looking for Mary and Joseph, locating the shepherds and the wise men and then setting up the whole scene before we told the story, and then sang a few simple songs.
I believe passionately that the Christmas story is timeless, and that we must keep telling it. I don't believe it is cosy or comfortable, but I do believe that it is wonderful and powerful and timeless for through it God touches us again through the mystery the incarnation.
I also believe passionately that we must unwrap the story from a whole load of nonsesne that so often surrounds it; I am sure that Jesus was not a meek and mild baby who never cried! But more than anything we must keep on telling it, and reminding ourselves of it's transformational power.
I have had a Christmas Carol filled week, if I haven't been out singing them than it is likely that I have been preparing to go out to sing them. Interestingly this has led to some strange conversations.We started on Monday with the first of the two Primary Schools coming down to the Chapel for their Carol Service. The Key Stage 2 children (7-11's) had clearly been practicing for weeks. They came with extra microphones, trumpets, cornets, clarinets violins and cello's, they had a decent choir and one very brave and enthusiastic music specialist. Their parents came too many clearly uncomfortable at being in Church, my job was to welcome them and to open and close the service. We sang, opening with Once in Royal David's City... a pet hate of mine is one particular verse with the impossible lines:
"Christian children all must be, Mild, obedient, good as he...."
Now as much as I might like to believe that Jesus was a good child, I refuse to believe that he was mild, he certainly wasn't mild as an adult so why would he be a good Victorian mouse who was seen (rarely) and not heard? Actually I like to imagine that Jesus was a pretty ordinary boy, and that he wasn't devoid of mischief and fun. If I am asked to include it in a Carol Service I refuse to allow that verse to be sung. I mentioned that to one of the mums who told me after-wards that her daughter wouldn't be good enough to come to church... why oh why do we insist on sing this sugary claptrap????
On to visit an elderly couple, she has had a severe stroke, and he by choice is caring for her at home, their house was clean and warm and decorated for Christmas, their living room has been largely taken over by hospital furniture, their once vibrant conversation is all on sided. He showed me his Christmas letter explaining their predicament to friends near and far. I reflect on how cruel life can be, he has lost her, and yet she is there, there is something very wrong in this picture. They, he told me, were planning to listen to carols on Christmas Day, it would be a treat. I guess it will, and so before I left I prayed for them making a note to try to visit next week.
In the evening more carols at a house group party... I wonder why Christians find it so difficult to socialise, maybe we are all trying to be mild, obedient and good....... One conversation centered around the question of where Jesus had traveled before he began his ministry, had he come to England? Or was it more likely that he traveled to the Far East to study with the Yogi's? Errr, I suggested that he had been a carpenters apprentice and unlikely to have gone far at all... As for where he gained his wisdom from, umm; "In the beginning was the word....." Seems we have some Bible Study to do!!!
Tuesday was a day of preparation at home, looking at readings and preparing the Power Points for Sunday's two Community Carol Services, I am looking forward to these with slight trepidation, there are lots of people involved, and a potential for the whole thing to go pear shaped....
Wednesday and more carol singing, first with the Nursery Class from the second Primary School and their traditional Nativity Play. The shepherds wore tea-towels and the angels were decked out in tinsel. Mary was grumpy ( she didn't want to carry the doll... um Jesus) and Joseph reluctant ( he didn't want to be with grumpy Mary), some of the children sang beautifully while others were bashful. The teachers did a great job, and our Womens Fellowship surpassed themselves, making orange juice,teas and coffees, cutting cake, and warming mince pies this was the first year that they had served the school in this way and the school appreciated it. Lots of parents stayed to enjoy a chat and a warm drink, all in all it was a lovely morning!
Home for lunch and then to Pontefract for a hospital visit, another member who has suffered a stroke, she is unlikely to recover; I talk, hold silence and pray, there are no other visitors, life can be cruel...
And so to my first Community Carol even this week, with a neighbouring LEP (Local Ecumenical Project), a number of community members take part and the service is led by Ian the Anglican Vicar and me (Methodist Minister), because it is held in the Church not the Chapel we have mulled wine and mince pies after-wards.... Mulled juice would not have been the same! The Chapel Steward tells me how he used to pop out to have a drink in the neighbouring village and wonders if I mind that they are serving wine. I have several conversations on this topic and wonder if people can see the glass in my hand!
Thursday and more preparations, and then frustrations because there is a fault on my phone line, I have checked everything that BT have asked me to check so an engineer is coming out this morning if he can get through the snow. Thankfully people can call in, but I can't call out! I went Christmas shopping in the afternoon, did the lot in one hit, we are having a simple Christmas gift wise this year, as we need to buy a car for Tim to get to work, he starts in January.
This morning I am sipping Hot Chili Chocolate and watching the snow fall, it has settled overnight, and it is still snowing as I write this. Our Outdoor Carol Singing will be pretty if cold on Saturday morning the snow is forecast to continue, who knows we may just have a white Christmas at this rate!
Only six services to go and then Turkey and the Dr Who Christmas Special.... :-)
Time for a carol I think:
Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain; heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
It is that time of year, busyness takes over, in the next three weeks I have fourteen services to lead, and twelve sermons to preach, some of them will be light, and others more serious. Slowly but surely the message of the incarnation is mixing with the theme of advent. Hope is beckoning those who have intentionally entered the desert, reminding us of the mystery and wonder of the God who took on flesh. As these themes mix I pray that I will not leave the Christ Child in the manger and preach a safe and domesticated message. I cringed this afternoon as folk sang again the words from Once in Royal David's City;
"Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as He"
Was Jesus mild and obedient? Was he the almost invisible Victorian child that this carol portrays? I honestly don't know, but I hope not! I hope that he played boisterous games, and laughed with his friends. I hope that he knew the joy of running through the grass with the wind on his face, and the exhilaration of diving into a cooling stream...
But I am aware that some folk will find those thoughts shocking, that for some Jesus is as real and vibrant as an alabaster statue, something beautiful perhaps but unreal and untouchable. It is interesting that the carol goes on to acknowledge that he did know tears and smiles and cares for us because he understands us ( maybe it is not so bad after all!!!).
I believe that it is essential that we engage with the fully human fully divine Jesus without rendering him safe and comfortable, the stuff of greeting card verses. Because of this I will cling for as long as I can to the wild themes of advent, to the message that calls me to look beyond both the manger and the cross to the risen Christ who we believe WILL come again, it reminds me that the spark of life that once inhabited a virgins womb now dwells in heavenly splendor, he is not gone, he is alive over 2,000 years later!
The wonder of that should draw me to my knees to pray not only for myself but for this world and it's people who so often groan under the weight of oppression and injustice. Dave Perryquoted from John Dominic Crossnans "Jesus a revolutionary biography" today highlighting the role of John the Baptist;
“When people came to him, he kept sending them back from the wilderness, through the Jordan, which washed away their sins, and, purified and ready, into the Promised Land, there to await the imminent coming of the redeeming and avenging God. What he was forming, in other words, was a giant system of sanctified individuals, a huge web of apocalyptic expectations, a network of ticking time-bombs all over the Jewish homeland.”
I love the thought of the creation of ticking time bombs of apocalyptic expectations, there is so much power and potential in that illustration, before the people could be sent by John they had to come out to him. The Scriptures tell us that they flocked to him, and he did not simply speak to them he demanded a response, and when they responded he baptised them.
I wonder how often in our preaching and in our conversations we refrain from challenge and provocation simply to remain safe, how often we draw back from speaking the words that not only call forth the hunger in our hearers, but actually lead them to make a response. John baptised those who chose to turn from their sins and sent them back to their towns and villages as people who were filled with expectation and anticipation, as people who had caught a fresh glimpse of hope, as people who were looking for Christ's coming....
I believe that we cannot remain at the manger this Christmas time, and what better way to journey through advent than to pray that those apocalyptic expectations might be re-awakened within us, and that we might have the courage to give voice to them again!
I have had a busy weekend, and am trying to draw together my thoughts, for although there have been many different activities there seems to me to be a common thread running through...
On Saturday I traveled to Newark to present a Jesus Deck Workshop. Two Journey Into Wholeness Groups were involved, and as they engaged with the teaching a common theme emerged from the comments and questions, it centered around the way we expect to present the gospel. So often we take a linear approach, we want to tell the story of Jesus from beginning to end, and we want people to confess their sins before we are happy to say that they have had a meaningful relationship with God.
The Jesus Deck demands that we engage with the gospels in a non linear way. We may have to begin in the middle and move around between the end and the beginning as we tell the story of the cards. It can also be so with people coming to faith, I have a friend who talks of having a meaningful relationship with God for almost 3 years before he had any conviction of personal sin! We talked about how the traditional ( or at least post-enlightenment) emphasis on preaching a gospel of repentance, provides us with a narrow message, often perceived as unattractive in a spiritually minded culture. I do believe that there is a place for repentance, indeed I believe it is essential ( and should be an ongoing part of out journey), it is just not necessarily the first or second thing that we should ask of folk!
Could it be that we so often encounter folk and try to get them to come with us to a starting point within our comfort zone so that we can journey with them... Maybe the challenge is to learn to start where they are, no matter how uncomfortable that makes us! If we dare to do so maybe we will end up at a wonderful destination we could never have envisaged!!!
Next came the Sunday morning service and a look at the themes of Advent. How interesting that we begin the Church year with a look at the second coming! I find this challenging and discomforting, and used two images to make my point.
, and
It is easy to domesticate the season of advent, to visit only it's acceptable themes, but Christ cannot be domesticated and the message of the gospels is not always comfortable. If we never dare to venture beyond our comfort zones maybe we never meet the risen Christ and never come into contact with resurrection possibilities for ourselves! Maybe we need to engage with the season of advent by daring to begin from a different place....
Lastly Tim and I drove around the Circuit tasking photos and filming for two different projects. My favourite photo was this one...
I live in an area dominated by power stations, Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge are iconic if sobering landmarks. This photo taken at Drax this morning shows the original power station and two new wind turbines. Interestingly in an ever increasing culture of eco-awareness there have been a number of locsal protests.Some folk are not happy about the turbines.
I am challenged by this thinking on a number of levels, and am struck by how human it is! Could it be I wonder that this picture and situation could serve as a parable for the church...
We want change, but how often do we dig our heels in and refuse to begin something new. How often do we welcome change, providing it is not us who are being challenged...
How often does the sentiment "I wouldn't start from here" pass through our minds and flow into our practice....
I wonder how many of us would have dared to start in a rough hewn manger in Bethlehem?
Jan over at Revgals is offering a Thanksgiving Friday Five, asking questions about customs and traditions. As a non-American member of the group ( a Brit) I will not be celebrating Thanksgiving- next Thursday will be a normal day of work for me and I will not be eating any special foods, and my children will all be working on their studies at various their Universities around the country.
But I have celebrated Thanksgiving in the past, and was struck by truly celebratory nature of the occasion. For each of the three years that we lived in Texas (Katy, just outside Houston) we were invited by three different groups to celebrate with them. The first two times we were made welcome and treated as members of the family, we helped with some of the food preparation and joined in with the games and fun before and after the meal. I was struck by the way that the celebration was rooted in true thankfulness and that the reason for the first thanksgiving has not really been lost (despite the fact that most turkeys came from supermarkets, and that some of the pumpkin was canned!). I was also struck by the family centered nature of the occasion and was pleased when on the third occasion we joined a group who took Thanksgiving meal and celebration to a park in a poorer area of the city. Turkeys had been donated, four of them were cooked at home and four of them deep fried (yes really) at the park. Side-dishes were prepared and people were invited. We ran a shuttle of cars to take meals and blankets to folk who were housebound and laid on games and music for the whole of the afternoon. It was a truly community centered event.
Here in the UK many churches continue to celebrate Harvest, but it is a shadow of a celebration in comparison, the date is not set, and many folk don't celebrate at all. We have it seems become separated from the land. I know that the reasons for this are varied, and that our history is very different to that of the Pioneer settlers. but I do wonder if we are missing something vital and important.
When I look back through our Chapel records I see accounts of village feasts, and of communities working to bring the harvest home. I am also reminded that the land was not and is not tame, that the elements can make or break a harvest, they remain beyond our control. I live and minister in a rural area, and I wonder if the community centered nature of harvest is something that we need to re-visit, and I wonder how we can truly creatively do so. Perhaps as Jan hinted in the poem she quoted celebration is a cure for apathy- and that we need to put on a red dress, bake a cake, and share our lives more often!
I have been mulling over this post all morning, partly because there is too much to write, and partly because I do not even have the words to begin...
This is not an exegesis, rather it is my devotional response to this mornings New Testament reading from Revelation 5.
Revelation 5 offers us a vision of the lamb, who alone is worthy to open the scroll, but first the writer offers us a glimpse of his own heart. Caught up in a vision of heaven he hears the angels calling for one who is worthy to open the scroll and none is found, not in heaven, nor in the entire created universe. His response challenges me to my core;
"I wept and wept because no-one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside." (vs.4)
The writer knew that he was not worthy, and knew that if none was found that the scroll would never give up its secrets, and so he wept. He wept for his own inadequacies and for the salvation of the world. This was not self pity or sorrow. it came from somewhere much deeper than that, and it continued to flow as an intercession of tears until he was called to look up and to see the Lamb of God approaching. The Lamb had been slain, and yet he was standing, and this was no meek Lamb, the symbolism of Revelation shows him as one who has been perfected in strength ( seven horns), and whose spirit has been sent to all and for all ( seven eyes).
I am not attempting to unravel the mystery of the symbolic and apocalyptic language of Revelation, but I am struck here by the picture of the Lamb- Jesus who gave all has been raised in power, and it is to this Jesus that we look for strength. Not that this Jesus is different from the Jesus of the Gospels, he still calls us to follow, his teaching is the same teaching, and his challenges are the same challenges...
..but too often I think we leave Jesus at the cross, too often we bemoan our inadequacies, and we forget that not only does he call us to follow but he also promises to equip us for the task.
Throughout the gospels we hear Jesus telling the disciples over and over again of the type of death he will die, we read of the struggle they had to come to terms with what they were hearing, of their denial of it, and of Jesus further insistence that this must happen. The disciples are still confused as Jesus explains what will happen:
"15 If you love me, you will obey what I command.
16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever—
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." (John 14)
Like those first disciples I think that we are often confused, and we feel inadequate, even orphaned. BUT he has not left us, he has overcome death, and he will equip us by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can continue to follow and so that we can continue to share the wonder, the mystery and the astonishing truth that God loved the world so much that he came amongst us and gave himself for us....
He was slain, but he has overcome, and as the heavenly hosts burst forth in a song of praise they remind us that we have been put right with God to step into his calling for us:
‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints fromevery tribe and language and people and nation; 10you have made them to be a kingdom and priests servingour God, and they will reign on earth.’
We have been made worthy! In and through him we have and will overcome all that stands against us; this is not pie in the sky visionary stuff. This is God reminding us that he is for us and not against us, that he considered and considers us worthy of his attention and his love, and of the sacrifice he paid for us in Christ!
I need to be continually reminded of this as I work out my salvation and walk with others as the work out their salvation. God is for us, and he has overcome sin and death, and because he has overcome sin and death we will overcome sin and death...
As I read and pondered the Scripture this morning my first response was to sing a hymn of praise, and to allow myself to be caught up again in the wonder and the mystery of the truth that the Creator of heaven and earth loves us so deeply.
I have just returned from a church weekend away with a lot of stuff to ponder.Much of it has to do with the way and the reason we talk about mission within the church. I was asked if could name one thing I did as a Lay Worker that had a truly significant impact upon one of the Chapels I worked with...
The answer didn't take long to come up with, but it certainly surprised the folk who asked the question. The answer was that I closed something. The something that I closed was an after school club... "Are you crazy?" I hear you asking. "Have you lost the plot? Surely we need to encourage young folk...?"
My response is simple; yes we do need to encourage younger folk, but if the effort of doing so is wearing us out so much and depleting our creativity in the process then it is time to stop.
In this particular case two of the Chapel members were working alongside us to keep the Club running, ( others gave up as soon as a Lay Worker came on the scene for we all know that Lay Workers have miraculous Church building powers). The problem was that the Sunday morning Congregation were not willing at that time to embrace a new way of being and critisised any attempt to adapt to accommodate the children and their families.
So in consultation with the Church Council we closed the Club. It was the best decision we made! Freed from running a club that drained them the two Chapel members were soon energised and able to use their creativity again. A book club was started, and the members found other ways of reaching their community that were much more suited to their gifts and talents. Social activities were arranged and friendship groups began to spring up. Soon there were new members at the Chapel, and although they weren't young families they lowered the age profile by about 10 years!
So why am I writing this post; the reason is simple. If you read any Christian magazine or newspaper you will find dozens of adverts for Youth Workers, or Youth and Family Workers, but very few creatively thought out Lay Work positions.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Youth Work is unimportant, I am simply saying that it does not and must not stop there. We must open our eyes to see that when we talk about the missing generations that we mean EVERY generation, and significant numbers of people under the age of 65....not just folk under 30!
I believe that it is these missing folk who should be our focus when we talk about mission, too often we still see them as pew fodder and the answer to our problems, rather than recognising them as people whom God loves so much that he became human. We forget that he wove his story so intimately through our own human story in order that we could know of his deep deep love for us. We forget that we are loved, and so we forget to love others.
The Church is not a club, it is the living breathing body of Christ on earth, and he wants us to open our eyes upon the communities that surround us with fresh vision, they are full of people who need to be touched by the gospel message, and dare I say, that does not necessarily involve speaking it or preaching it to/ at them!
I wonder if the best description of the Church today is that we are a community of exiles, and I wonder if somehow that exile has been self imposed. Maybe it is time to listen to the prophets afresh:
"4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29)
As I write this I am aware that this conversation is a long way in the past for some, it is certainly one I have had before, but again and again, and in more and more places we must start asking ourselves questions about our traditions and practices. We must dare to consider being different, or as a member of one of the other Chapels I have charge for commented this weekend, "we will die!"
This morning I headed off to one of our smaller Chapels to lead a Communion Service, when I arrived we chatted informally for a while, this small congregation likes to gather in good time and the members relish the chance to catch up with one another. We then moved into the more formal part of worship, and these folk who had all been sitting together drifted to their (usual) separate pews.
Surprisingly and not un-welcomed this morning one of the members responded to questions I posed through the sermon, this in itself was an adventure because the person who had been assigned to read the gospel read Luke 6: 6-19 instead of Mark 13: 1-8. Knowing the embarrassment it would cause I simply shifted my sermon ( and it was quite a shift), making a note to double check that the Steward has heard me correctly next time I call! Sometimes though I think that the Holy Spirit goes ahead of us to help us to find a new way forward and this was one of those days...
When it came to celebrating the communion we struggled with the constraints of the space, this was not the first time I had presided there, but I am pondering the awkwardness of the table which is no more than a shelf tucked under the pulpit, and the small platform hemmed in tightly by the communion rails which make movement difficult.
At the end of the service once again the congregation gathered together, a couple of us sitting on the floor, and others sitting on the front pews to talk through the Scriptures and their response to the sermon. I am left wondering if in such small gatherings whether a new way of being and worshiping needs to take shape...
How might it have been if we met over coffee, and pondered the Scriptures together? There would still be room for prayer and worship, it would simply be less formal. With only 10 people would it have been so terrible to form a circle and to share the Communion as if it were truly the family meal we believe it to be?
I am not calling for irreverence, but for relevance, todays pace of life means that Sunday mornings are often the only time these folk can meet together, and the chance to be together and to encourage one another can be done much better through dialogue than through a hymn prayer sandwich.
I am also not calling for an end to all formal worship, maybe just a shake up in the variety of what we do together, a monthly or fortnightly cafe style service??? We have a lot to talk about it seems. Dare we take the risk?
Tim and I went for a walk this afternoon to Fairburn Ings; a local RSPB Reserve. It consists of groups of lakes and wetland habitats, and runs alongside the River Calder. Not only does Fairburn Ings sit in the shadow of Ferrybridge Power Station, but it is situated on the site of an old mining complex that included a coal tip. The RSPB say:
"We are working with our partners to manage the restored coal tip. Measures include mowing and grazing the dry grassland to help breeding skylarks, grey partridges and lapwings; improving the shingle around lagoons for breeding little ringed plovers, ringed plovers and lapwings; and enhancing the farmland areas for passerines such as tree sparrows and corn buntings.
We are also improving water control, introducing fencing, conducting patrols, and monitoring plants and invertebrates."
Ferrybridge Power Station and it's sister stations at Drax and Eggborough dominate the skyline as I travel around our Circuit, they provide employment in an uncertain age for hundreds of people, and that is good news for an area hard hit by the recession and suffering from high unemployment figures. All three burn Bio-mass in an effort to reduce the carbon emissions produced by coal burning, but all three power stations still serve as reminder of our reliance upon fossil fuels for electricity. That all three are involved in schemes to help the environment is to their credit... we live in a world of juxtapositions and contrasts. It would be easy to critisise the industry without thinking, it is more challenging to work alongside it in an effort to find a sustainable way forward whilst acknowledging that we currently live with a less than desirable situation.
Fairburn Ings stands out as a symbol of hope, trees and grasses now colonise the coal tip, and the lakes and wetlands cover the scared face of the mined land forming a rich habitat for bird and marine life. At the RSPB Centre groups of adults and children come to hear about wildlife and conservation and regular activities and opportunities for learning are planned.
I am struck by the potentially unlikely partnership here, and wonder what this has to say to us as a church; it seems to me that some of the most successful Fresh Expressions initiatives spring from unlikely partnerships, that creativity flourishes when we dare to step beyond our comfort zones, and that transformation becomes possible where we had thought that all was lost.
I am currently thinking and praying about creating a garden area on a piece of unsused land, I would like to involve the teenagers who hang around in that area drinking and smoking. It is certainly an unlikely partnership, and at the moment the task of convincing either of the groups who would be involved seems impossible and risky. It will certainly be messy, and won't be without problems, grace will be called for, but I wonder if together, by grace, and through prayer if we might just be able to create something beautiful....
Fairburn Ings is beautiful, and through its trees even the view of the towers was Ferrybridge were softened in the evening light.
We did see this Kingfisher today, there is a special viewpoint at the reserve where you can watch for Kingfishers, a testament to the work of an unlikely partenrship!
I lead the Circuit World Church service this evening and was greatly encouraged by the stories I heard this evening. I invited Ann from Hope Trust, a charity who take aid to Zimbabwe, and Dave a young man who will be leading a team of young folk to help with building schools and other similar projects in Zambia.
They both spoke with passion and with a real sense that God has not only called them but provided for and challenged them. Ann spoke of the God who lifts us from our knees with the promise to support and equip us, while Dave spoke of recieving much more than he gave.
Through their stories they revealed to us afresh the God who goes both before and behind us, the God who calls us beyond our comfort zone to bless us. After the service people were expressing a real hunger to know this God in a deeper way, to break free of our constraining traditions, and expectations....
Maybe we will find it as we answer his call to move beyond ourselves...
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