My 10th week at college

Hello!

Well essay crises and all that has delayed this post...I know excuses excuses....

Father's Heart
We had only one day in college this week and we spent it on the Father's heart. So we looked at the story of the prodigal son but then went onto a practical...

So they had three people come up (including myself) where they re-enacted the story with us as the prodigal sons. The Father welcoming us sons home: putting on a robe (to cover our shame), putting on shoes (as only servants were bare foot) and a ring on our finger (to show that we are a son and an heir). It was a moving moment - helping us to really grab hold of the lavishness of God's love for us despite our failings, sins and messes.

Derby Prayer day
Well Tuesday was a day of fasting (where we don't eat for 24 hours), followed by a day of prayer on Wednesday up in Derby (it's grim up north - though apparently it's only the Midlands - which shows how much of a southerner I am ).

Have to confess I thought it would be a real drag but when they broke it up with periods of testimony about what's happening in the churches it really fired us up. One of the most exciting moments for me was hearing about the street healing - literally they go on the streets and offer to pray with people who need healing - and they've seen all sorts from piles (the size of pairs apparently) to cancer getting healed. Fab.

In our own group David's retina was becoming detached again (he's had an operation on it previously) and some of us prayed and it not only got better but he says it's the best it's been for ages (ie his vision is so much wider than before). Excellent.

One of the fun times was the evening where we had a quick sleeping bag fight. However in my attempt to make Ben fall over he dodged out the way - it's all because he didn't have a "mummy" shaped sleeping bag (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! ) and I seemed to have ended up on the floor...


Oh yes and made a hole with my elbow in the wall...just above my prone form and to the left of the door. Yeah it was interesting explaining that one to the owners...still waiting for the bill...

I'm trying to get the video clip for this (does this sound a familiar story?) - though I have at least pasted it to my facebook profile if you want - it's well worth a visit - just to see Ben's face of shock when he sees the hole!

Also got a day's input from Mark Ritchie on using our stories to spread the good news. Although he hasn't been able to use the story about his mate who had been invited over for dinner and then couldn't flush his number 2 down the loo and so resorted to a grabbing a big clump of tissue pulling it out and throwing it out the window. All might have gone well had they not invited him into the conservatory for a cup of tea to see something (you know what!) zig zagging it's way down the roof...

Reflections
At the prayer day someone opened my eyes to the disciple John who started off so judgemental (wanting to call down fire on people) and proud (wanting the most important place in Jesus' kingdom). But then later came to define himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" and finally in his letters preached how love was the most important thing. What a journey! But as he described this to me I saw myself - the one who is often so judgemental and wanting to be the centre of attention but yet am discovering this year how much I am loved. I so want to finish this journey and become the one who sees love as the most important thing...

My 9th week at college

Well I really am getting behind with blogging - sorry was in Derby for a couple of days this week!

So a short sweet report and the next one will follow fairly swiftly!

Church History (part 2)
Well last week we did the reformation and onwards and how it wasn't just Luther but many people challenging the corruptness of the papacy (their mistresses, inquisition, selling of "indulgences" and the like) and their traditions which didn't stand up to scripture (as people read the original Greek texts which were released from Constantinople just before it fell. These showed just how poor Jerome's Latin "Vulgate" translation was, which said things like "do penance" instead of "repent").

Also went through the very messy English reformation (which made me just cry out to God and repent for our nation). And then the various revivals where social action (John Wesley, William Booth, Wilberforce, Shaftsbury, George Muller), spiritual outpourings (eg Welsh revival under Evan Roberts) and then God's miraculous healings (through Smith Wigglesworth and George & Stephen Jeffreys and the like) were key. Some of the healings just made our jaws drop and even us Christians who have seen God do amazing things (eg my sisters epilepsy cured, my friend's blindness cured, my wife's polycystic ovaries cured) were just shouting "no way!" . Great stuff.

Tumbling Bay
This week we organised skittles (ie indoor bowling) for the old people - have to say they (and we) had a great time. We're in Derby next week but the week after we will be doing Romanian and Ghanian dance and music courtesy of Daniella and Beverley, respectively.

Pregnancy
Little jellybean is still with us and our 12 week scan is on 25th Nov. Unfortunately, Jen's SPD has progressed very quickly this time and she is already on crutches and finding it hard to do many of her jobs. However the OTs will be coming round next week to assess her and provide various zimmer products to help her around the house and various people from the church are already volunteering to help with housework, cooking and lifts from school.

Reflections
It's been a really amazing week for devotions so much so that they've had to delay starting the lectures as we were overwhelmed with His presence and love. For me I was really moved when Joe said in his devotions "we came to college for that Sunday Resurrection feeling but are finding out that we have to go through the Good Friday first" - I had been feeling that Jen's pregnancy (meaning I won't be able to go on the mission trip) and disability (meaning I'm late to college each morning and so miss out a bit on devotions) will mean that I'll miss out what God's got for me and my year is wasted.

However after dropping off Lizzie and Josiah to school in the car (and so already being late) I was miserably trying to get my moped started (don't buy Piaggio ) and I was suddenly overwhelmed by the delicious irony of the situation - here I was trying to get to college so I wouldn't miss out on what God had for me in the devotions and I felt Him say that I was missing out on what He had for me in my troubles!

He was right I was limiting God to only speaking and moving in one particular way! I suddenly realised that this isn't out of God's will - as if He didn't know what was going to happen this year - this is what he has for me - these are the circumstances that I need to go through to grow and mature (one of the key things I had been praying to happen this year). So yes we're still going to pray for healing for Jen's SPD (...Claire at Didcot church was miraculously healed of this) but I'm also embracing all He has for me at this time. Bring it on!

My 8th week at college

Welcome back! Here's the belated update (was still recovering from my last essay to face writing the blog last weekend!!)

Church History (part 1)
Well first week back after "reading week" and we razzed through the 1st 1500 years of church history. It was absolutely mind blowing. I confess I just kinda thought that after the persecutions at the start, the church got more corrupt when Constantine issued the edict of Milan and sponsored Christianity (with lots of money for churches and the like) and the whole pope thing took off. And yes there was that - but it was fabulous how in every generation there were Christians rising up and saying "this is wrong" and getting back to basics with refusing wealth and the trappings, serving the poor and the destitute and living the Gospel (eg St Francis, cistercians, "brethren of the common life", St Patrick, St Benedict, John Chrisostem, Augustine, St Anthony, etc). Fab!

Essays!
Well Friday was the hand-in of our "love ethic" essay (only 4am finish this time! let's say that the essay was within the word limit but the footnotes were rather large - some would say bigger than the essay itself... ) - where we were exploring Jesus' command to love your enemies and how this has been the distinguishing feature of "true" Christianity from the martyrs forgiving their enemies, to modern day examples in WWII, the Rwandan genocide and South Africa. Just to get hold of how God loves us - even when we were enemies of Him - and forgives us of so much - how can we do anything but share the love He has shown (and given) us. Sorry if I'm repeating myself - but it was so cool to get hold of this - I am so much more forgiving of those who are cutting me up on my moped. Bless 'em!

Third Place group
This is our community service group - I am currently assigned to Tumbling Bay Retirement Home (not quite prisons yet...but I'm learning to submit!!) - guess I was a little disappointed and I really haven't ever engaged with the older generation (it's shocking I know! just always felt that I didn't have anything in common and so what would I say???) I have to say it's been a delight to serve them - they still have a wicked sense of humour and so I tease them mercilessly. We attended their quiz (and will be doing skittles with them next week)and were even able to answer some questions despite many being out of our generational knowledge...

Church Placement
All students get attached to a church where they will serve and I'm attached to my home church (on my own...). Being at my one church has pros and cons - the pros being that we can develop our life as a family in the community, the cons being that we might not get as many opportunities. However chatting with our pastor we're going to be working on some kids work - specifically some praise parties as sometimes the main church service can be a little dull for those who want to run and jump (and for the children too ;) )

Other stuff
Things are really changing round here as the group grows together - it's been a pleasure to see how people who started at totally different ends of the spectrum (including me) are loving each other - it's truly a beautiful thing to behold. Arguments which used to be about trying to prove your point was correct have just given way to learning from each others viewpoints and experiences. Mint!

Plenty of other things on the boil which I'll chat about in next week's blog.

PS Babies still doing OK - though Jen isn't - her SPD kciked in on friday last week...

My (belated) 7th week at college and "Reading" Week

Hello there! Welcome back.

"Reading" Week
Well last week was holiday, err I mean "Reading" week - and was a chance for us to read all those excellent books we've been recommended during the term...only they set us two essays to be due in the first week back...aargh! So did reading for the essays...but to be fair one of our essays is on the "Love ethic" - Jesus saying "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" to show God's divine love for all mankind whether people love and respond to him or reject him. Man! Has it been good to get into this...once I realise how he chose to love me (even though I was nothing special even though I was horrible for my wife for years even though I had addictions even though I chose to turn my back on him) then can I show anything but love to others when God has shown such love to me? Awesome!

Baby scan
Friday was our first scan of our sixth baby...and here is our jellybean doing a dance:

It was so good to see the little ones heartbeat and a joy to celebrate his/her life. In fact in chapel the week we were talking about different seasons of the soul. And I really felt God challenge me that I was still living in the season of death and being afraid to truly celebrate just in case we lose this one - and I should embrace this season of life - so I went to Sainsbury's and purchased some baby grows (which are hanging up in our bedroom) and a card (strange but true...there are no "congratulations you're pregnant" cards - is this just our supermarket or has anyone else experienced this?!?!?)

Also again it's so funny how the world is with pregnancy - after losing 2 babies we are all out for celebrating our baby from conception (as we don't know how long we'll get with them) - at the scan the man was like "well it's early days, not much point" and we were like "it's got a head, a body and heartbeat! This is fantastic - they're alive and doing a little jiggle!!!" and even today at bible college someone mentioned that the lecturer was "halfway to becoming a father" - and I was like what are they missing a wife and so only got one of the components necessary for conception??? Ho hum.

THE essay
Week before last week was THE essay week - which I finally finished at 5.14am on Friday morning ready for its 9am hand-in. The night included a 2 hours of chopping to get it from 3800 to 1800 words! I'm starting the next one a lot earlier!!!

New Testament intro
Well that's essays - what else has been happening? We've been doing a brief intro to the new testament over these last two weeks - so lots of history of the Jewish people in the run up to Jesus' birth (and you can see why they were after a military Messiah who would deliver them from the hand of their oppressors after nearly 600 years of foreign rule of Palestine by Babylonians, then Persians, then Greeks and finally the Romans) - in particular the rise of four distinct groups (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots) as ways of dealing with the occupation and Jewish identity. Looked at the book of Revelation (that weird book at the end of the bible with pictures of beasts with many heads and horns) and it was so great to see what these images represented at that time and so get a real handle on what's actually being said. (PS The images were used as a kind of code to talk about their persecutors - the Romans).

Reflections
Well living in community does have its benefits - and they all seem to stem from rubbing each other up the wrong way! Well it had to happen - I managed to put my foot in it big time and upset someone. So it's been a great opportunity to develop maturity (as you can't really avoid someone in close community for 10 months!) by apologising and accept forgiveness and seeing the relationship restored and then moving on in that forgiveness (yeah this last step was hard - wanted to hide a bit). But I am genuinely grateful for the chance to mature (and boy do I need it) - I rather suspect this'll be the first of many such opportunities...

However, in a confession conversation with a friend at college I was challenged to think about how I impact others - in particular my lovely humour.... My humour was originally developed probably as a coping mechanism to deal with the extensive bullying at school and other and became very much a way of getting attention (people laughing is a great ego boost!). Now I've been healed of that - does the humour go? No - God's into redemption (remember the "nothing is wasted" post) - He wants to use all of me to glorify Him and that includes my humour ! Scary thought - but I'm game for letting God transform and use it...watch this space!

My 6th week at college (well almost!)

Well OK I'm having an essay crisis and to be honest I was just going to write a sentence to say something along those lines but...

Was chatting to God this morning (after being in a right grump about how little I'd achieved the night before and how the children had made me cross and ...) and really felt like he was saying that I want Him to help me out with my work and honour all the effort I've put in on this essay but actually I haven't honoured Him. I want Him to come and fix my problems but I'm not spending time with Him and seeking His priorities.

Then Zoe in the morning devotions was talking about how we want God to come and heal us so we are better but actually God heals us so that we can serve Him and carry out His purposes.

Man! I was so blown away by this - before my essay was everything and I was trying to apply God to my essay and my priorities but actually it's Him that's to be the priority.

I just felt this wave of peace come over me and I was totally changed - from panic and stress to reliance on God - I can't describe the transformation I am so different in my outlook and I'm really looking forward to doing my essay...right now in fact...

Bye!

My 5th week at college

Preamble
Hello there - 5 weeks down and only 2 more before "reading" week - however since my Old Testament timeline is due in the end of this week and the big exegetical paper is due in at the end of next week - I think I'll need a week to recover!

Apologies for subscribers who didn't get the email last Monday - there seems to be something horribly wrong with the system. Once again I'll always aim to update on either Sunday or Monday every week...famous last words...

So let's get on with the blog...last week was our brief overview of the Old Testament (all 4000+ years) so this week followed on by looking in detail at just a few parts of it (we'll do much much much more detail later in the year) to give us an exciting taster (or at least that's what they told us )

Introduction to Judaism
We had an absolutely smashing day on Tuesday learning all about Judaism - their main pillars of belief (monotheism, covenant, election, purity, messiah and The Land), including the many feasts and festivals (passover, Shauvot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Hannukah). Man these people know how to celebrate - Christmas and Easter are dull in comparison (and completely secularised in this country) - methinks we need to party more as Christians (see photos later on) - am putting on my thinking cap of how we can celebrate All Saints Day bigtime (why should halloween get all the fun?!)

But the thing that blew me away is how they view the law - not as a burden but as a privilege. They see it as the responsibilities of being God's chosen people. I guess the best way of seeing this is to think of marriage. My marriage vows to Jennie including sharing everything and loving her through thick and thin (and boy have we been through the thick...) - do I see this covenant as a burden or as a privilege of being the only man in Jennie's life until she dies...

Lamentations
Had a day looking at the book of lamentations - which reflect the sorrow of the people at the destruction of Jerusalem (and the temple) by the Babylonians in 587 BC after a three month siege.

It's just a fab book to express your deepest sorrows - this really resonated with my journey - that expressing these feelings is totally ok - it's part of our honest and real relationship with God - and we needn't be afraid of it. Brill.

Other stuff
We also looked briefly at how the old and new testaments fit together - is the God depicted before Jesus the same as the one depicted afterwards?

And finally looked at the historical and theological run-up to the birth of Jesus - particularly who were the key players in the social world Jesus was born in (Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, zealots and Palestinian and Hellenistic Jews), the difference between the temple and the synagogues and the expectations that people had about the coming Messiah and why Jesus didn't quite fit into their mindset of the one who would set them free from the Romans. Really interesting stuff and we'll being doing more on that next week.

Cooking
Part of our service is cooking for all the students - so me together with 3 others (well actually three others with me! ) prepared a meal for 38 of lasagne and banana cake. They were stuffed - so mission accomplished.
Jennie's 30th birthday party
Finished the week with Jennie's fancy dress party - we all had to dress up from one of the decades of the 20th century. So Jen went for 60's and of course I had to be 80's...



Jim and Claire from the 20's:


Mikko, Olivia and baby lydia all in 60's outfits (the baby one was so cute!):

Penny and Andrew from the 70's:

Dan and Lulu from the 70's (Lulu shaved her head especially - such dedication):

And finally Jennie with my friend, Paula, from bible college:

It was great fun (though the tidying wasn't! )

Baby is still with us after 10 days of us knowing about him/her - so we are very happy. The sickness and heartburn (according to the doctor) are indeed good signs!!

Until next week readers...

My fourth week at college

First the apologies:

Sorry for the late posting.  I'm aiming to always post on Sunday nights ready for that Monday morning look-at-posts-rather-than-do-your-work moment - but what with attending my brothers wedding on Saturday and err...oh all right I admit it I had a night off on Sunday!

Also sorry that I still haven't got the toga version of the Greek alphabet song for you.  Don't know if you can view it yourselves on the facebook KBCTC 08/09 group...

Now on with the blog...
 
Well after one induction week, one overview of the bible week, one week of exegesis, we have moved onto two weeks on the Old Testament (ie the bit of the bible before Jesus was born).  I have to say that my head was spinning at the speed at which they were trying to give an overview of some 4,000 odd years of history...and didn't help having our first exegesis deadline on Friday I was a tired bunny (well a tired man actually).  Though it was interesting what a deadline does for the popularity of the library! 

Tom Sine
On Thursday had a break from the Old Testament and had Tom Sine give a presentation based around his latest book "The New Conspirators".  Basically it was an exciting overview of how many Christians are radically living out their faith and being counter-cultural.  It's something that has been stirring in me for a while - why do we resemble our society so much - how much are we truly influenced by God and how much by our culture and advertising, etc.  We already have our home as a drop-in centre and share our lives (and holidays) with people and dream of building an extension so we can have people live full time in it - and this passion was re-ignited anew by Tom (who lives in a community).  Community is something that is desperately needed by the world and too often we have swallowed the home is my fortress (or whatever - it is late!) line...

NEWS FLASH Thought you all might like to know that we found out on Friday that Jennie is pregnant with our sixth child. 
The children are VERY excited and the consensus is that they would like a boy.  Lizzie thinks this is important as we have had 3 girls and 2 boys so far - so it'll be balanced!  Josiah would like a boy to play with and looks at the pregnancy test each day to see if mummy is still pregnant.  Hannah just keeps saying "baby in mummy's tummy" and "can I touch the baby?"
Public "thank you" to all those who have said "congratulations" to us - your affirmation of our baby's life means so much to us.  We don't know how long we will have to love this one - so these moments have been so precious.
If you want to pray for us then please pray that we would love this one without holding back (it would be so easy to do so after losing the last two to protect ourselves from pain) and that Jennie would not be afraid of living (avoiding doing anything that might cause a miscarriage - but there's no life living that way).
Am very happy.

Monday's devotions
Finally for those who have asked how me leading the Monday morning devotions went (we have half an hour first thing every day except Thursday where we have "chapel" later in the morning)...I did it on Lamentations (a cheery thought indeed for Monday morning!) First I started with a quote from Matt and Beth Redman's book "Worshipping God on the road marked with suffering" (great book by the way - written by people who have been through the mill):

 Worship is always a choice.  At times it's an easy, straightforward one.  When life is peaceful and painless, the choice to respond to God in thanksgiving and praise may not be such a hard one to make.  But at other times in our lives, worship becomes a much gutsier decision.  Caught up amidst a whirlwind of pain and confusion, the decision to cry out, "Yet I will praise You," is a costly act of devotion.  In the life of every worshipper there will come times when worship meets with suffering.  And these moments shape what kind of worshippers we will become.  Yes, praise be to God for times of abundance and plenty in our lives - those carefree days full of peace and laughter.  Yet we praise Him also in the wilderness times - those dark and stormy seasons of the soul when we're left crying out with the psalmist, "How long, O LORD, how long?" (Psalm 6:3) When trials come, trust must arise.  When there's nothing to rock the boat, our trust in God is rarely tested.  The question then is this: Can we still find our way to the place of praise?  We may have faith to believe in God as Lord of the calm - but do we also have faith to believe in Him as Lord of the storm?

Then we watched the video clip:



I wanted a video to engage people's hearts.  It's very easy with something like this to only give mental ascent to the ideas whereas I wanted people to open up to hear what God had to say.  I was also wary of using a video as I didn't want to just create an emotional fix - but have people meet with God and be changed.

I then talked about how my wife and I sought to worship God when we lost our baby (Rachel) last Boxing Day - one of the first things I did was talk to a lady in our church whose husband walked out on her and her two kids for another woman and asked how - how did you worship God? She said "worship is a choice" - she was so right and has it made the difference in her life - she sought after God and has been transformed - she has no bitterness only joy and all the more so now her prayers for a godly man have been answered (she gets married in 2 weeks!).  So we did choose - we chose to trust that God is who He says He is and worship Him and we don't regret it - we are different people as I said in one of my previous posts.

I had a number of passages that I felt were right to use and then prayed about which people to give to read them.  God was so good as they seemed really speak to those individuals.  If you're interested, they were:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=habakkuk%203:17-18;&version=31;

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2013:1-2,5-6;&version=31;

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lam%203:20-24;&version=65;

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2042:1-6;&version=31;

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=job%201:18-21;&version=31;

We then sung "Blessed be Your name" and "Even though I walk (You never let go)" by Matt Redman.  Great songs to worship God in all circumstances - the first was written after 9/11 and then second after their third miscarriage in a row.

Finally I pointed out how many of the passages tell us how they remembered.  When in these circumstances we should remind ourselves what God has done for us, who He is and the hope that we have in Him.  So had someone read Psalm 103:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ps%20103;&version=31;

We finished off with singing "Our God is an awesome God" by Rich Mullins.

"Mint!" as JK would say.