Category Archives: mbs

dekhomai in London

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I am looking forward to being a part of the Dekhomai stand again this year at the Mind, Body and Spirit fair in London. The event runs from 25th – 30th May and I will be there on the Thursday. You can find us on stand 43.

This is an amazing event which is full of spiritual seekers. There is a whole variety of spirituality here that visitors can interact with. Dekhomai offers spiritual resources from a Christian tradition. In the past we have offered Jesus Deck readings, healing prayer, prayer beads, foot and hand massages along with listening. Everything we offer is free of charge.

I simply love this event. I love the way God brings people across each other paths, I love the way people come searching, I love the openness and the acceptance that there is across most of the festival.

If you have not been before and want to experience something different …. maybe see you there!

sweep prayers

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Involvement in Dekhomai at the Sweeps Festival was yet again an amazing experience. The team who gave their time worked amazingly together. We designed this postcard for the stall as St Florian is the patron saint of firefighters and chimney sweeps.

Being involved was, for me, a vey humbling experience. People shared deep stuff with members of the team and asked us to pray with them. People seemed to simply want to talk and share. Something I noticed this year more than others was that there was no need to offer prayer … people simply asked for prayer for a variety of situations.

Although I love working in this way I found it very exhausting this year and I think that was because this year, more than other years, I was moved to tears on a number of occasions due to situations people find themselves in. One family in particular will remain with me for a while and as I continue to pray for them in their desperately horrible situation I continue to shed tears for them.

I look forward to next year when we may do this again (but before then the original Dekhomai will be at MBS London at the end of the month – so I look forward to being there (why not come too!?).

a welcoming place

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The Sweeps festival is here again and we are again hosting Dekhomai in the cathedral as a safe place to find rest and explore spirituality.

This year we will again be offering foot and hand massages, prayer for healing, blessings, Jesus Deck readings, prayer cords and a chance to simply chill in the special place that is the cathedral. This year as well we are going to attempt to offer ‘dream discussions’ as an opportunity to explore and talk about dreams that people have and whether there may be any meaning to them.

I’ve said it before … but I love the Sweeps festival. The vibe is a good one, people are chilled and interesting in chatting about a load of stuff.

The stall is in the cathedral all over the bank holiday and Sweeps weekend so why not pop in for a free massage or to talk about your dream ….

join us at sweeps …

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The Sweeps Festival is not far away and is on the weekend after Easter, Sat 30th April until Monday 2nd May.

Last year we ran Dekhomai, an MBS stall, offering a variety of things to help people connect with God. We offered hand and foot massage, prayer for healing, prayer cords and used The Jesus Deck. This year I hope to be able to offer the same over the 3 days of the festival and maybe look at dream interpretation too.

This will be the third time of running the stall inside the cathedral, at the feet of a window that has a stained glass image of St. Florian who just happens to be the patron saint of sweeps and fire fighters. Each time we have run the stall we have been amazed at what God has done in the the lives of people. It has been amazing just to sit back and watch God at work, it has been humbling to be trusted with peoples stories and it’s been amazing to think our willingness to listen has been used in some way.

This is a recruitment post!
I am looking for more people to get involved by offering to be around for a morning or an afternoon (or a whole day if you like) on the stand.
Do you like people?
Are you willing to listen?
Are you happy to offer to pray with someone?
that’s all it takes …. if you are interested then get in touch!

I look forward to hearing from you ….

just another monday

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Today has been another varied and interesting day which started with Staff Forum. This happens a few times a year when all the departments from the cathedral update the rest of us on what is happening. It’s interesting to know what everyone is doing and how your part fits into the bigger pattern.

Soon after that I met up with Sharon in Deaf Cat to look at the Jesus Deck as I thought Sharon would be good at being involved with this over the Dickens Festival. WE looked at the cards and others in the coffee shop became interested in what we were talking about as well … which is a good sign that they could be useful during Dickens.

This afternoon I met up with Justine, vice principal of SEITE, who has kindly agreed to be the supervisor for my masters. I have been thinking and mulling things over for a few weeks and until recenty it has been hard to pin down a topic I have been interested in. This is not for lack of topics … the exact opposite actually. I have been thinking more about the
significance of my waiting, as well as how to support and ensure pioneers survive, as well as the role of imagination in pioneer ministry, as well as wondering on the whole idea of communities, rather than individuals, coming to Christ. All of those would be interesting to look into, but the one thing that has really grabbed me has been this whole thing to do with confession which I blogged about earlier.

So … for the next few days I am looking out for sources and research along the theme of confession and how it may be linked to mission. If you know of anything … give me a shout!

Dickens angels

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I have now started to think more about the ideas we have been having for the Dickens Festival. We see between 10000-15000 through the cathedral doors over this weekend. My task is to work with others to develop ‘stations’ or some way that people can encounter God as they pass through the building.

This can be a tricky task at normal times, but during ‘Dickens’, being near to Christmas, people always seem to be in such a rush unless something really grabs them. Last year we ran with the theme of ‘pause for thought’ and this year we are using the theme of angels. In my conversations with people I have noticed angels cropping up in conversation quite a bit. There seems to be, at least a local, interest and so it makes sense to me to take this as a theme and see what happens.

We are going to take a bit of a gamble this year and run with a similar set up to how we worked at the Sweeps Festival with a mind body spirit theme overarching what we do. We will be offering prayer for healing, a space for meditation, prayer beads and the ever popular and valuable foot and hand massage and you will again be able to experience a Jesus Deck reading. Our ‘giveaway’ will invite people to spend a week with the angels.

I’m looking forward to the weekend and hearing peoples stories – it’s one of the privileges of my role!

The team is looking good, but if you want to get involved please let me know)

MBS pt 2 … searching!

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I was back at the Dekhomai stall again today at the MBS festival.

It was another amazing day packed with meeting loads of interesting people. Today I had a chance to wander around with the camera and look at the amazing diversity of things on offer at this event. The gong master was there as ever offering gong baths. There were various therapies along with angel art, having a photo of your aura taken, readings of a variety of descriptions, guidance on diets, music to help you find your inner self, mind-body balancing techniques and so on and so on. One of the things I was not too sure about was purchasing your own bed of nails to use on a daily basis- is that me or does that just sound too painful! I’ve included a pic so you can check them out.

On a more serious note – I again return amazed at the openness and genuineness of people in their search for something that makes sense of life to them. Many of these people have been searching for a while, many I spoke to today pray daily, attempt to love a life of love and a number told me they would love to go to church. Sadly a (smaller) number had tried only to find somewhere where their questions were not welcomed and their creativity was pushed aside.

I have met lots of people over the two days I was present who are genuinely on a spiritual journey and looking for something that works and resonates with them. It has been a privilege to be able to pray one to one with these people and be able to share a gospel that speaks of equality, hospitality, inclusivity and love. It  gives me a lot of sadness to hear from them that they have only heard of a Christian faith that talks of rules, exclusion and dogma laced with judgementalism.

Today after massaging her feet I prayed with a young woman that was too scared to go to a church on her own through fear of not being accepted or of doing the wrong thing. She shared how she prayed each day and asked if I could pray for healing and guidance for her. I was moved to tears then, and am now, as I think of this person quite desperate to learn more of Jesus and yet unable to do so because we can’t get our act together to become relevant to those outside and searching. How have we, as ‘church’  got this so wrong?

MBS – a special gift

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Today saw one of the highlights of my year – working on the Dekhomai stand at the London MBS festival.

This year was no different in amazing me on a variety of levels. Firstly the diversity of stuff that is available from treatments, to therapies, dietary stuff, books, music and so on. Loads of stuff sold to help us achieve a better and healthier balance in out lives. This leads me on to the next ‘amazement’ which is how much people are prepared to pay. Some of the stuff was priced anywhere between £30 and £80 for anything between 15 and 40 minutes of whatever treatment, therapy or reading that was being purchased.

Another amazement is the openness of people that come to events like MBS. Today I was humbled as I spent time with a couple that had traveled from the midlands to the festival because, as far as I can make out, they were having a tough time and so were searching for answers to help them. As we prayed with them I offered a picture I thought God was giving them and it seemed to make sense to them. Later they both independently had a Jesus Deck reading and amazingly both were drawn to the same card. I don’t know the chances of that but the probability of both choosing the same card from the pack must be pretty slim.

I think my biggest amazement though, which seems to happen every year, is how Good seems to draw people together at MBS who have a connection. I had some link with everyone I prayed with today. One came from Weymouth (my home town), another was a youth worker (ex job), another suffered from back ache and the list could go on. The connections were too numerable to be coincidence.

Today I have massaged feet, listened to people, prayed for healing, made prayer cords and read Jesus Deck cards with people and it has been an amazing day! I am buzzing with this real sense of having been part of something quite special today. It really is a privilege to be able to offer the gift of prayer to others who are searching.

mbs next week!

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Next week I am again going to be helping out on the Dekhomai stand at the London MBS fair.

Being part of this is one of the highlights of my year and I’m really looking forward to being part of Dekhomai again this year on Thursday and Sunday.

If you visit the Dekhomai website you can see the new postcards, one on the Jesus Prayer and the other on silence, designed for this year – I think they are pretty impressive.

in the shadow of St Florian

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The weather today was rubbish and so we moved the Dekhomai stand into the south transept of the cathedral. Initially I was feeling a bit disappointed about this but it seemed to work quite well and by the end of the day we were talking about carrying on inside the cathedral tomorrow whatever happens with the weather.

Inside the cathedral, with access to power, the stand looked more inviting and welcoming due to the use of light. The atmosphere was calmer and conversations with people seemed to flow easier. People came into the cathedral because they were looking for ‘something’ and finding Dekhomai was like finding ‘an oasis’ according to many that I spoke and prayed with today.

Today I have had the honour of praying with people, laughing with people and even shedding a few tears with people as they have shared things which they would welcome prayer for. That may not sound that unusual to some – but as 90% of those I listened to today would not call themselves a person of any faith in particular I find that pretty mind blowing.

What started as a day with me feeling sad at the ‘lost opportunity’ of being outside and available to the masses ended as a day where I felt very excited by what had happened throughout the day. I was reminded that it is God who draws people and that it does not matter where we are – people who are searching will be drawn to those places where they might be able to make one more step on their journey.

Towards the end of the day Ross, one of the team, looked above our stand to the stained glass windows of the south transept. There above us, unnoticed was a stained glass window of St. Florian, the patron saint of Sweeps. Is this God telling us we are in the right place for this festival. we are giving out the prayer of St Florian and praying the blessing of St Florian with people; where better to do that than at the feet of the window of St Florian himself? Or … is that just coincidence?