Bible Cafe - The School Of Ministry

Well, the first two taster sessions of the School of Ministry at Bible Café are now done – I am delighted with how well both evenings went, and I feel there has been a fantastic buzz to both sessions. The responses I’ve had – both in terms of written “homework” and direct feedback – has been great. It has given me a lot to think about, especially regarding the next phase ( Foundation Course in February) and beyond.

I pray that for those who attended, it gave them a sense of just how significant every single child of God is to the outworking of His Kingdom purposes here on earth, and that equally, Satan wants us to be blissfully unaware of what that might actually mean.

Our God, though, is a GREAT BIG God, and He wants us to minister wherever we are, and whenever we can.

And I pray that ideas, assumptions and pre-conceptions regarding what is and isn’t ministry have been blown out of the water.

Now all I have to do is think about visual aids for the next course that do not involve either shoes or shoeboxes……

Aberfan - 40 years on...

21st October 1966 may not mean much to many people, but for those of us born and bred in the Valleys of South Wales it is a tragic date.

On that fateful day, a coal tip collapsed sending thousands of tons of mud and colliery waste down Merthyr Mountain, destroying a school and about 20 houses and killing 144 people. The name Aberfan, barely known outside the valleys until that moment, flashed across the world.

Many will have memories of that day, but mine centre around my Dad and my young brother. At that time, my father worked for South Wales Gas Board, and as such, he played a vital role on site at Aberfan, making sure that no further complications were added to the tragedy by problems with gas pipes, and also, so I now understand, acting as an important Quartermaster, obtaining much needed tools and supplies for the rescuers. He never spoke to me about that day at all.

Forty years ago, the news was not quite as instant as it is today, and mobile phones did not exist. It was therefore some while before an emergency announcement could be made to avoid drinking water for a few hours, as the sludge may have contaminated water supplies. By the time this news reached my Junior School, my brother, only 5 years old, had already taken a drink from the school water fountain. He became very ill indeed, and at one point, we feared greatly for him.

I can never visit the valleys these days without remembering the terribly white, spotlessly clean rows of gravestones across the hillside at Aberfan, and for those of us who lived through those days, 40 years on seems not a lot of time, really. We were touched when The Queen visited Aberfan within a few days, and was given a posy of flowers, with the inscription: "From the remaining children of Aberfan".

Today we remember a lost generation, and those left behind who still mourn deeply

The School of Ministry...

First Bible Café of the School of Ministry tonight, and it went really well. Many thanks to all those who prayed – there was a great buzz to the evening, and I can truthfully say that everything I felt God wanted me to say got said, which is all I can ask for, really. Hopefully it also sparked off a lot of thought

Please also pray for John, my wonderful hubby. He is exhausted, especially having had to work an 18½ hour day yesterday, It meant he did not get home until 3 am, and unfortunately, I could not drop off to sleep until he did come home. John then had to go back into work for 8;30 am, but thankfully , the equipment that needed to be shipped out to Romania ( which they were doing final checks with up until 3 am) left this afternoon.

So it’s nite nite from him, and definitely nite nite from me….

Crowns...

There are a number of songs that use the lyric “Crown Him with Many crowns”, one of which we sang in church today. The Bible speaks of the crowns we will get in heaven – such as a crown of life, of joy, of beauty, of glory, to name just some. And Revelation chapter 4 says that these will be gladly lain at the feet of Jesus, when we see Him.

I got to thinking, though, as we sang this today - what does He do with all the crowns, as there will be lots of them at his feet?

Revelation 19 might give us a clue – it says that he wears “many crowns”. I don’t think he does this all at the same time, as some of them might fall off. Maybe it means that He wears many crowns, but one at a time

I certainly know that there are people in our Queen’s Royal Household whose job is it to care for, and catalogue, every gift she is given, including jewellery. Someone knows who gave it to her, when, and from where. On her travels, she is meticulous in wearing jewellery that will bring honour to the country and the giver.

And I think that there may be one day in heaven, when The Lord will call us by name, and as we come into His direct presence, we will notice that he is holding something in His hand. It will be a crown.

It will be our crown

And He will say, “Child, today I choose to wear You”

How then should we live, so that the crown of our life will be fit for The King?

Weights and Aches....

Bible Café has now started, and it’s only 5 days until I kick off preaching with the School of Ministry.

It has taken a great deal of my brainpower to get to this point, and I’m now at the stage of “Why did I agree to this? Is this the right material? How will it be received? Will anyone turn up….” and so on. Pretty standard preacher collywobbles, really!

It is at this point that I have to really lean into God, and pray that He knows what He is doing. If you do get to Bible Cafe this Wednesday night, hopefully some of this will actually make sense, but at the moment, it all seems a bit on the blurry side….

I met Helen (by chance) at the gym this week, and she has valiantly persuaded me to book in to have one of the trainers instruct me on some of the weights machines. So far, I have stuck to the three main pieces of equipment that I was first shown how to use – the cross-trainer, resistance bike and treadmill. I vary times and programmes within these, but essentially, I stick to these three. Helen assured me that better toned muscles help all round. I therefore booked up the one and only session they had free next week that I could make – namely 7 am next Monday morning! It should be my week off Oaks and Acorns Playgroup, but if anything, I’ll have to get up even earlier – typical! And a Monday,too – I mean….

Anyway, If this doesn’t work, I will lovingly know who to blame…..