In a charity shop...

...you can find some proper gems! To cut a long story short, yesterday morning I took my car to an independent garage only to find out that the repair was going to be longer than I thought. I had time to kill and no car so I went round a few shops, and ended up in Oxfam. Their selection of books is usually eclectic, after browsing for ten minutes, I found two books of interest, The enemy within written by Kris Lundgaard that I have just started. Click on this link to read an excellent review of this book written by Tom Welch on his blog, or copy this : www.SabbaticalJournal.blogspot.co.uk

The other book is called Awesome on the inside, how to be changed by God from the inside out. Written by Tim Hawkins. Come & hear Tim Hawkin’s powerful messages over two consecutive nights at Brisbane Chinese Alliance Church. Tim will be speaking on being “Awesome on the Inside” with the first night focusing on “A Powerful Heart” and the second “The Pure Heart”. The two sessions over the weekend are tailored for Christian high schoolers to young workers and Tim’s desire is for them to get fired up for God.
Tim Hawkins is one of the most experienced Christian Youth pastors in Australia. He has been a full-time youth pastor in a local church for over 30 years. He is currently the Youth Pastor Emeritus at St Pauls Anglican Church, Castle Hill, in Sydney Australia where he has been for over 20 years.
Tim’s passion is to see high-schoolers and young adults become fervent disciples of Jesus. He planted and built the “Crossfire” youth ministry at Castle Hill, which is one of the most fruitful local church youth ministries in Australia. Every one of Tim’s resources has grown out of his local church’s youth ministry. Tim writes this material and speaks powerful messages to meet real needs. His books and resources are revolutionising youth ministry around the world, and are now being used as training manuals in many bible colleges.
Let me know if you have read any of those as it would be nice to hear from you. Good nite. N.

Gladys Aylward (1902 -1970)

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards;not many were influential;not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:26-27

Being on holidays, I have indulged in my best hobby, catching up with some reading! So one evening, I had been reading 'Song of a stranger' (Keswick Ministries) and picked it up where I left it, chapter 6, The eternal presence, p 97, I quote: I don't know if you know much the growth of the church in China, but if you look at a graph of the growth of the church it is very level through the 20th c. and up until around 1970 and then graph takes off and goes through the roof. Over diner, I asked my hubby if he could guess why did this happen? In the conversation that followed, he mentioned the names of two Christian missionaries, Hudson Taylor and Gladys Aylward adding that they dressed like the people around her and this was a major factor in making their preaching effective. As I never heard of them, I read their biographies. Here is a short summary of Gladys' biography.

Born into a working class family in Edmonton, London on February 24, 1902, Gladys became a parlor maid at the age of only 14. Her call to missions came about when she attended a revival when she was 18 in which the preacher expounded on giving one's life over to the service of the Lord In her mid-twenties, she was given a probationary position with the China Inland Mission Center in London but  this endeavor didn't bear fruit. At the age of 26 her probation ended in failure. However, no one can frustrate the will of God."For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Rom 11:29) At the age of 30, Gladys begins her missionary career in Yangcheng working with veteran missionary Jeannie Lawson. She helped operate an inn for mule drivers and she learned Chinese. After Jeannie's death, Gladys was unable to financially sustain the Inn. The local officials approached her and asked if she would be willing to be a "foot inspector." The tradition of binding Chinese women's feet had  been outlawed, but it was still being practiced in many places. Gladys began traveling around inspecting the bones in women's feet. As she traveled she would tell stories from the Bible and many looked forward to the days they could hear these strange new stories. During the war between Japan and China, Gladys also adopted war orphans and eventually had over 100 children in her care. In 1940, the war had escalated and she was forced to leave Northern China and head south to Sian through the thickening battle, over mountains and across the Yellow River. When Gladys climbed over the mountains to Sian, she had 100 children with her, that she was taking to a refugee area.  On the twelfth day, they arrived at the Yellow River, with no way to cross it. All boat traffic had stopped, and all civilian boats had been seized to keep them out of the hands of the Japanese. The children wanted to know, "Why don't we cross?" She said, "There are no boats." They said, "God can do anything. Ask Him to get us across." They all knelt and prayed. Then they sang. A Chinese officer with a patrol heard the singing and rode up. He heard their story and said, "I think I can get you a boat." They crossed, and after a few more difficulties Ai-weh-deh delivered her charges into competent hands at Sian, and then promptly collapsed with typhus fever and sank into delirium for several days. After 20 years in China, Gladys returned to England. She was embarrassed to find that she quickly became a celebrity. A book, movie and TV documentary were all made about her life. To many Gladys became known by many as "The Small Women," the title of her biography. She continued to travel and speak about her beloved China, returning to Taiwan in 1957.

What an admirable woman and an incredible story! In one of the websites, some comments are made by people who either heard her speak or knew her so I do recommend you to visit them! Blessings. N.

Credits for these resources in those links:

www.tlogical.net 

http://www.historymakers.info/ 

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/73.html

Serving the King

At the end of the Jubilee mission, on the Sunday 20/05, Rev Adrian Stone who is the vicar at St John's Littleworth in Stafford preached on 'Serving the King'.

Everybody who came this week enjoyed listening to those messages and many said how they were touched by them. If you are still searching for the meaning of your life and have questions, I hope that these messages will answer directly or indirectly some of your questions. As we are off to Norfolk for half-term, I hope you will have a blessed hols. If you are still working, have a blessed week. In the name of Jesus. N.

Day away!

Some time ago, we went to Barlaston Church, a beautiful modern church south of Stoke on Trent to spend a day of reflection on the team's strengths and weaknesses. There was one or more representatives of each church. We thoroughly enjoyed this time spent together praying and getting our brains tickled. The theme was to define our involvment at key strategic levels in our community.

Our speaker, George Fisher, reminded us that we are not living any longer in a country where Christianism is the norm but in a country where secularism and humanism have taken over. In fact some see Christians as the 'enemy'. It reminds me of Psalm 37:19-21 (NIV) 20 But the wicked will perish: The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish—vanish like smoke. So most people think they can get on with their life without the church, without the Lord! Consumerism has taken over people's mind. They have the idea that whatever they want, they should get! If they disagree with the style of praying/preaching in a church, they may decide to go somewhere else instead of working things out! The sad thing is that now many people do not have a clue what Christianity is about! They may not even know the Lord's prayer.

So how do we reconnect with the community ?

We may want to read again 2 Corinthians 6

3We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;

We should not be afraid of letting people know that we are Christians. 

Let your colleagues, your friends, your boss/es, notice the fruit of the Spirit in you. For example, they would realise that unlike them, you, as a Christian seems to be immune to the arrogance or nastiness of 'the boss' or the 'floor manager'....They will notice your 'virtues'.

Part of George's job is to visit churches anonymously to see what kind of welcome he gets! At lunch, he was telling us that in one church, nobody spoke to him at all. Gloups!

Also your church sign is capital! How to get your church noticed! Here are a few comments!

Autumn leaves, God doesn't.

If you are looking for a sign to come back to God, this is it!

Where will you be sitting in eternity,

smoking or non-smoking ?

How to connect again ? A few ideas...

Have a sign in your church saying : Non-members welcome ...

Psalm reading sessions!

Get some non-believer friends to be part of a 'sceptic anonymous group' to whom you will tell the Good News.

What do you do to line up with the Lord's mission and not block the way!
Let's pray for a renewal of our Christian faith in Great Britain! In Christ.

Brewood week-end part 2

It seems that I wrote part 1 such a long time ago! I meant to post the sequel quickly but circumstances changed. I had to prepare for an interview for yesterday and things got hectic. So, now, I can resume it at last.

Sunday afternoon, Steven and I went walking by the Shropshire Union canal. This is a view from the bridge looking down on the road. From the road, the bridge looks very ordinary so it is a bit of a surprise when you walk up to discover this big canal!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this cute moor hen

We walked for about two hours which is in itself an exploit! On the way back, I noticed this eco-friendly narrow boat, it has got solar panels and what seems to be a wind turbine. There arn't that many around! We met up quite a number of friendly people, mostly the owners of the narrow boats, busy looking after them.

The sun came out for a while and it was lovely to sit down on a bench by the canal warming up!

I am so glad we spent this week-end relaxing. It helped Steven to recover from his laryingitis quicker!

On the way back, I was so grateful to the Lord, I praised him and glorified him. I was overwhelmed by a feeling of peace and joy. I thanked him for this long week-end, for giving us the opportunity to admire his mighty works. In Jesus's name.