Love your neighbour: Mission dedication service

Love your neighbour: Mission dedication service: Monday's speaker was Revd Philip Swan, Director of World Mission in the Diocese of Lichfield. I will just share the key points of his...

Programme of the mission, Mid-trent Churches

Here is the programme for the week of the mission. It is such an exciting time for Mid-trent team and everyone living in the villages. Keep us in your prayers so that many come and find Christ our saviour and redeemer. Oh Lord, we pray for an outpouring of your Spirit on each speaker, and on everyone attending those sessions. We ask in the name of Jesus our Saviour and redemeer. Amen.

He's got the whole world in his hands.

Mid-trent churches mission 

A more detailed programme coming soon. Watch this space!

In the book of 1 Corinthians

Welcome on my blog. I believe that if you are on this site, this is not sheer coincidence so do explore and be ready to find maybe answers to your questions or find out radically astounding truth because whenever it is quoted, I believe that the Word of God is powerful and life-giving. 

Love is patient,

 love is kind.

 It does not envy,

 it does not boast,

 it is not proud.

 5 It does not dishonor others,

 it is not self-seeking,

 it is not easily angered,

 it keeps no record of wrongs.

 6 Love does not delight in evil

but rejoices with the truth.

 7 It always protects, 

                                                        always trusts,

                                                        always hopes, 

                                                              always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

The passage continues:

Everyone who prophesies
    will stop,
and unknown languages
will no longer
    be spoken.
All that we know
    will be forgotten.
9 We don’t know everything,
and our prophecies
    are not complete.
10 But what is perfect
    will someday appear,
and what isn’t perfect
    will then disappear.

11 When we were children,
we thought and reasoned
    as children do.
But when we grew up,
    we quit our childish ways.
12 Now all we can see of God
is like a cloudy picture
    in a mirror.
Later we will see him
    face to face.
We don’t know everything,
    but then we will,
just as God completely
    understands us.
13 For now there are faith,
    hope, and love.
But of these three,
    the greatest is love.

This passage is just awesome. I have just been reading a post about faith, hope and love written by a missionary called Nick Gambrell, and I'd like to share it with you. Click here. ...how faith played a part in the lives of those I met in Rwanda this past summer.I stayed in an Orphanage, as I showed you this morning, where 9 boys lived. Literally, one of the first things that I noticed was that in the kitchen, or even of the bathrooms that was supposedly storage, there was no food. I wondered, what did they eat? On top of that, I wondered, where do they cook this seemingly imaginary food that they eat?

I soon realized that there was no supply of food. They lived day to day. What food they did get each day came in the form of one meal often cooked by one of the older boys over a fire behind the orphanage. This is living by faith...

I invite you to join us in prayers for all our brothers and sisters in Christ who do not have enough food, water, a bed to sleep, clothes, basic material resources. 

Do let me know if the link does not work.

Have a blessed evening. N.

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.

Our Jubilee Mission

Our Jubilee Mission is imminent now. The tent is being installed as I write, I hear that the bacon is cooked and bacon butties distributed to the workers! along with a mug of tea of course.. Do come and hear a different speaker every night from the 14th to the 20th. Invite a friend and enjoy. 

Prayer Pointers for our Jubilee Mission

That the name of Jesus is honoured, the message of salvation and hope are clearly explained.
Praise God for who he is, what he has done and is going to do.
That people of no faith come to faith, that people of lost faith rediscover it, those with question and doubts surrounding faith see clearly and that people of faith are greatly encouraged and strengthened.
All the speakers
People who are invited to tell something of 'their story and journey of faith'.
Those involved in the after schools sessions.
All plans and preparations.
For fine weather as we hope to be using a marquees - this is now urgent in view of the current rain and poor conditions on the field.
The team running the meetings for young people.

Here is the information for the youngsters. To read more, visit the mid-trent churches website.. http://www.midtrentchurches.org.uk/

May you have a blessed week-end. N.

Tempted to buy a new mobile?

Think again! Is your phone fuelling the conflict in Eastern Congo? The film Blood in the Mobile released last October exposes how minerals used in mobile-phone manufacture are tainted with blood and conflict. This is a wake-up call to all mobile phone owners about how raw materials are sourced and the human cost of “conflict minerals”.

FACTS
“Blood in the Mobile” is the story about how our phones are connected to illegal mining in Congo (DRC). Every time we communicate through our cell phones we are associated with the crimes in Congo.
Congo is a country of many natural resources like gold, diamonds, rubber, coltan and cassiterite. But instead of causing Congo wealth, these resources have ended up fuelling the bloodiest war since WWII. 5 million people have died, estimated 300.000 women have been raped.
The film focuses on the mineral cassiterite - a mineral used for producing tin, which is used for the production of all kinds of electronic devices - including mobile phones.
Director Frank Piasecki Poulsen visits a mine in Bisie. Bisie is one of the largest and most notorious illegal mines in the region. It happens frequently that some of the mineshafts collapse and miners are being buried alive.
Child labor, prostitution of under age girls and lack of rights and protection of miners are some of the conditions around the mining operations of cassiterite. The money from the minerals is financing the war in the region.

Find out more, click on these links http://bloodinthemobile.org/the-film/video-blog/  or  http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/ To know how your favorite tech company is ranking, click on this link http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/conflict-minerals-company-rankings

Also, I recommend the following websites http://www.frontline.org.za/news.htm and  http://www.sendtheroths.com/  where you will find out more about mission in Congo. Will you join me in praying for all the Christian missionaries, in Congo, and Africa,  may the Lord protects them, guides them and strengthens them everyday as they seek to advance the Kingdom of God there, training other missionaries and giving hope to the orphans and victims of the war. In the name of Jesus, our Saviour. Amen.

Explore this website : rejesus.co.uk

It is well worth it. On their home page, this is their introduction:

Two thousand years after he walked the earth, Jesus of Nazareth remains one of those most talked-about and influential people who has ever lived. In the pages that follow, we explore his life, character, teachings and followers.
We look at how he has been quoted, misquoted, filmed, reported on, worshipped and argued over. Please feel welcome to click, explore and post your questions, thoughts and prayers.

Content on rejesus is arranged in four main areas:
Story contains modules about Jesus’ life, downloads and a pub quiz to test your knowledge.
Lives looks at Jesus’ famous followers from ancient saints to modern day heroes.
Spirituality has modules that aim to help you discover more about prayer and the inner life.
Creativity contains modules that show how Jesus has been interpreted and explored.

In the Lives section, I found out who was Jackie Pullinger. At 22, Jackie Pullinger wanted to become a missionary, but no society would take her on. So she went on her own to Hong Kong and began a pioneering work among drug addicts and Triad gang members that continues today. As a young girl at Sunday School she decided she wanted to be a missionary - and that was before she really knew what a missionary was. But as she grew up, she forgot about her childhood ambition for a while and became a student at the Royal College of Music.
It was only when she started meeting regularly with other Christians in a friend’s home that she thought about being a missionary again. Then one night, she had a dream.
“I saw a vision of a woman holding her arms out beseechingly as on a refugee poster. I wondered what she wanted - she looked desperate for something… Then words moved past like a television credit: WHAT CAN YOU GIVE US?”
After a series of dreams and vivid experiences, Jackie decided she would go to Hong Kong. The trouble was, no one else agreed with her.
She applied to every missionary group she could think of, and also to church organisations and the Hong Kong government - but all the doors closed in her face. You’re too young, you’re too inexperienced, you have the wrong qualifications, she was told.
She was about to give up, when the vicar of a church she helped in told her, against the received wisdom of everything else she had heard, to go to Hong Kong anyway. Want to read more, click on the link http://www.rejesus.co.uk/site/module/jackie_pullinger/P2/

or go on Jackie Pullinger's website, http://www.ststephenssociety.com/ at the moment you will have to click on Enter Flash version as the html is under construction..

In the Creativity section, I chose to go on 'Jesus and hope', an interactive exploration. I quote the explanation given by their maker:

This ideosyncratic exploration is full of deeper meaning and reflections on what the Bible has to say about Jesus and hope – it’s best approached slowly with an open mind. Produced by Bruce Stanley.

I thought that it was brilliant, deep and fun at the same time.

In the Spirituality section, I found a Happiness e-course. Wow!
This course takes the wisdom and simplicity of Jesus and combines it with the latest interventions from the world of positive psychology to help you find happiness and meaning in your life. Follow this free 8 week happiness course, complete the exercises and see what occurs for you.

Lord, thank you for our brothers and sisters who decide to leave everything they have to bring the Good News of your Salvation in dangerous zones, they have no fear because they believe in You, they persevere even when everybody says no go, they listen to you Jesus, instead of choosing an easy way out. May you pour out abundant blessings on them, their family and team and give us the same boldness of mind, us who live in a comfi setting in the West. Amen.