WARNING: this is a blatant recruitment post … ‘if you have not felt a great desire to sign up to this by the time you have got to the end of this blogpost then you are either living a very long way away … or just in complete denial, and maybe really not listening to God’s call on your life! Which means you will miss out! Something will be missing from your life’s happiness!’ If you could hear my voice there would be sarcasm, and see my body language it would be jokey …. ok I don’t really mean that stuff (the bit in italics … just to be clear!) … but I wanted you to know before reading this that I am looking for people to get involved with one of THE most exciting things that I ever get to do as a pioneer!

This seasons boot fair dates have been announced. When I saw them late last night / early this morning my immediate emotion was one of excitement. I loved last seasons experience of running a stall for ‘spiritual seekers’ at boot fairs. If you look back to my posts of June and July last year you will see some stories … like here or over here or maybe here and other posts in that general date area.

As I read back over those posts I can sense again the real excitement and buzz laced with incredible awe at what God can do with people who just put themselves in the middle of a field to be used.

That was my immediate emotion. This was quickly followed by a sense of frustration and anger at myself. I have been talking about training and recruiting for such a long time, having ideas for development and thinking about names and … and… and … done sod all about any of it really! I feel like lots of time has rushed by and now I really need to pick up stuff and run to catch up with new people on the team, training and everything.

Not that I think there is a lot of training we can do (although saying that … we will run a training session of sorts for people who are interested). We are looking for people who just like to be around people and engage with them in simple normal interested human kind of ways. The best way to learn the stuff that we are doing is to come see and have a go, and get involved and be simply amazed that God has already prepared the people that God wants us to engage with.

I’m cutting and pasting from another boot fair post from last year …. and for me this kind of sums up the excitement and passion underlying why we do this:

… a friend summed it up in a short inspired sentence: ‘I like the fact that God is there with absolutely no religion to ‘help him out’..if you get me – just a field, and a few shattered people.‘

That says it all. The team are shattered after 6 hours of being ‘on duty’, but i think some of us arrive shattered after waking up at 5am! But …. the real exciting thing here is that God is simply there and waiting to meet with people. Ok we are using ‘tools’ to help us, but there is no dressing up or a drawing message. The one thing that unites all of the people we have engaged with is that God has been drawing them, speaking to them, connecting with them is some way that they have not really recognised or been aware of until they have stumbled upon us in an open field.

… those tools are The Jesus Deck, Psalm Readings, Prayer for Healing, Prayer Beads …. but in the main we are there with just a simple willingness to be there and support people in whatever way they need supporting!

This is really exciting stuff … and on a Sunday morning this is where I see God busily at work in the lives of real people in a real way that they can understand and relate to.

There are many stories we can share of how God engaged with people. As I read back over them … I sense something exciting, i know this is something that In really love doing and long to be involved in again, it’s genuinely something that I want lots of other people to experience as well …. because I believe everyone can do this type of stuff to differing degrees… and I believe many of us say we believe God is alive and working … but deep down we are unsure and we long to see evidence of that. Well … come to the boot fair with us and you won’t just see the evidence, you will be part of it!

Stories to show this from last year:

a man in his mid 20′s who chose a Psalm Reading  He said he was looking for guidance and randomly chose Psalm 27:1:
‘The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
With a smile on his face mixed with a little confusion he remarked ‘this is for me; this is what I have been looking for!’
One of the team then prayed with that young man.

a team member prayed with a Hindu lady who wanted to make a prayer cord because, she said, ‘I know that Jesus Christ is the only person who offers me real forgiveness’

we spoke with a lady that wanted a Psalm Reading, then to be prayed for healing … but then the real reason for her coming … which was to talk about her dad who had died nearly a year ago

these are not major transformation or spooky stories … these are stories of real people with real lives simply needing to know that there is a real God that walks with them.

So … please get involved … email me, message me, call me, let me buy you coffee …. this is an amazing thing to take part in! You don’t ave to be shattered … but i suspect it helps!

I await your response …..