… the first day of my holiday!

woohoo!

This afternoon we had our Christmas ‘event’at St Marks.
The story of Christmas, Roly Bain, the ‘Holy Fool’, a nativity of sorts – but that, in my humble opinion was not the most important part of what we did today.

The event was followed by games and food and ended with the singing of carols around the keyboard. As this was happening I looked around the church ‘family’. This was a mix of people; some who would call themselves Christian, others who were interested, others who were there for the children, others who had come for the food.

People were comfortable to sing, to chat, to play games, to observe. Everybody felt ok to be there. People seem to want something that they feel they can belong to – I’m sure Finney has spoken about that in the past.

Our church family is not about believing all the same things, it’s about realising we are all on a journey together in trying to understand who this Jesus is and what it means if I choose to follow him. As we travel together people’s ideas will change as we learn and discover together.

Exciting stuff!

a great quote I have been pondering on today from Amy Carmichael.

I feel like Christmas is well and truly on its way now.!

When you work from home and most of the time on your own, without the run up in the past with Carol cocerts in schools and the office/team christmas party, Christmas can sneak up unexpectedly! I guess that is just another one of those things I miss from no longer running a team.

This weekend we have put up the Christmas tree which means Christmas is only a week away! On Monday we have the YFC national team Chritmas meal and then I’m taking a long long holiday until staff conference the second week of January – excellent!

You will have noticed that the MPH banner acorss the corner has magically changed.

Please send Tony Blair a card via the banner to remind him of his commitment to eliminating poverty – it only takes 30 seconds and you could be saving real lives!

This note from a child to a Quantas pilot made me laugh a lot (but please don’t go there if you will be offended by one use of the ‘f’ word!)- probably shows how sad and shallow an individual I am.

You can see it here.

I had some fun here.

Scary thought – maybe this IS how his speeches are written for him!

Today I caught up with the excellent Epping Forest YFC team while I led their retreat which was held this year at The Convent of the Sacred Heart in Chigwell.

It was a real privilege to spend the day with the team and give them the space to think about who they are in God, and how God accepts them and loves them for who they are, rather than what they are.

It strikes me that many involved in ministry constantly strive to be better at this, or to do more of that, or to squeeze in one extra meeting, lesson, phone call etc. Rob Bell, in Velvet Elvis, draws attention to some verses at the end of Mark 8, where Jesus says:

How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul in the process?

It seems to me that many of us, in our strivings are doing just that – gaining the world, gaining respect, achieving more, but at the expense of losing sight of who we are created to be by God – in other words losing our soul.

I was reminded in the quiet today that God has already chosen me, he has already called me to be a person that is passionately in love with him. I don’t need to do anything else, I can’t earn that love by working harder, or indeed by working less.

The love is there irrespective of what I do, irrespective of what I say, irrespective of what I think. Nothing can separate me from the love of God.

Today it was just good to be reminded.

I have just uploaded my latest prayer letter and supporters form.

All YFC staff have to raise 50% of their salaries – it’s a worry as I have dropped to 25% as I had a few very generous large donations before I started last year.! I’ve never thought of asking people via SHP – but hey, its a lot easier than phoning people!

I guess this is the part of my job I find the hardest – asking people for money for YFC to pay me! It certainly takes me out of my comfort zone and we have been thinking of new ways of doing this – and so comes this post on SHP!

There are great advantages to having to raise 50%:
– it means I have to pray and rely on God quite a bit
– it’s a fantastic confirmation from God that you are in the right place!
– if people are donating money, I think I can be pretty sure that they will be praying for me too!
– it means others are involved in my ministry – I really could not do it without their generosity!
– it means people outside YFC get to see, share in and hear the excitement of what is going on.

If you are interested in hearing more of why YFC does this – you can read the 10 FAQ’s.

Anyway … If you would like to invest in YFC by supporting me- please do so – you’d make a 40 year old man very happy!

Carey from MOOT posts really poignantly here on Mary as the mother with Jesus. Short but incredibly thought provoking.