Author Archive for DavePage 2 of 9

Tour Post Number 1

Published
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Dave
on September 16, 2008
in I've Done Travel and Roy Fields Tour
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Well it’s just after 9am and I’m just about to start getting ready for the third scheduled stop on the “We Are The Generation Tour” which is in Bath. How’s it been so far? To answer that really briefly - hectic.

Here’s a quick run through of my last few days.

Saturday:
Arrive, provide my driving licence, and collect a splitter van from the Central Hall car pakr which required a 37 point turn(if you’ve never been is a triangle). Then drive from Southampton to Winchester and wait for the rest of the band. They then rehearsed while I made general tweaks to the mixing desk and rang Rosie. Pack up was completed by 7 and we were back at Central Hall for 7:45.

Sunday:
Wake up after really bad nights sleep I managed to get cramp in both my legs. D’Oh! Hobble round for a bit. Drink coffe for a bit. Go to Church where 24-7 are holding their international gathering. After Church it’s back to the van for the trip to Maidenhead via Guilford. Once we arrive “get in” seems to take longer than expected (possibly because of all the merch that we’re carrying) and this impacts on sound check time. Still it all gets done. About 750 turn up in the evening and 91 either commit or recommit their lives to God. By the time we’ve packed up it’s 11:30pm and we finally make it in by 1:30am

Monday:
Slept a lot better, though think it’s exhaustion. Today is the Central Hall event and we have plenty of time to be ready. I spend the morning virtually programming a desk for further along the tour which is going to save a lot of time that day. Once I arrive at Central Hall I start what seems the long hard process of setup - working out where monitor mixes will be, preparing mic stands, etc. The band appear over a two hour time frame and by 4pm everything is plugged in and ready to go. Sound Check takes 25 minutes and then they have some rehearsal time. Roy arrives just after 5pm and it takes a few minutes to get his IEM/Wedge mix sounding how he wants it - still with that done they go through a couple of songs and go and eat. The event starts and 7:30pm and there is a great atmosphere of praise and worship. Loads of people get prayed for loads of people commit or re-commit lives to God.

Tour News

Published
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Dave
on September 5, 2008
in I've Been On Tour and Roy Fields Tour
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If you’ve been following me on Facebook you will have, probably, noticed my sometime cryptic status updates saying things like;

can reveal his big news

Or;

has a big announcement to make soon

Well, I am finally at a point when I can reveal what that is. I’m, just in case you hadn’t guessed from the title, heading out on tour. Primarily this is going to be with American Worship leader Roy Fields whom many of you will have heard of from the Lakeland Revival. So, here is my September 2008 itinary.

Thursday, 11 September
The Kings Church, Wolverhampton

Friday, 12 September
The Kings Church, Wolverhampton

Sunday, 14 September
River Church, Maidenhead

Monday, 15 September
New Community Church, Southampton

Tuesday, 16 September
Bath City Church, Bath

Thursday, 18 September
Emmanuel Church, London

Friday, 19 September
TBA, Swansea

Sunday, 21 September
New Life Church, Harrogate

Monday, 22 September
TBA, Teeside

Wednesday, 24 September
Fraserburgh Community Church, Fraserburgh

Thursday, 25 September
New Life Christian Fellowship, Edingburgh

Friday, 26 September
Elim Church, Glasgow

This is obviously and exciting, but slighty nervous, time. I encourage you to pray for the Churches involved and all the crew. Both at The Kings Church in Wolverhampton where I’ll be acting as a session bass player, and on the Roy Fields tour.

I’m hoping to post a daily blog from the tours. See you on the terraces.

Dave

Lakeland - August 2008

Published
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Dave
on August 31, 2008
in Lakeland Florida
. 0 Comments

Many of you will have heard the surprising news that Todd Bentley and his wife, Shonnah, are separating. This was then followed by a further discovery that  Todd had entered into an “unhealthy relationship on an emotional level” with a female member of his staff. This news seems to have caused Christian opinion to split in to two camps - those who are presenting a caring, compassionate and forgiveful view, and those who seem to be queuing up to say “I told you so!”

So, where do I stand? As you know I visited Lakeland in May of this year, about six or seven weeks into Revival, and posted at length in this post here. Well, after some thought I stand with those who are praying for the restoration of the marriage and are offering a hand of grace throughout this difficult situation.

From my own experience I believe that those who are, and have been, involved in the Lakeland revival passionately love Jesus and more than anything want to see God deeply touch the whole world. Certainly many many people have been blessed because of what’s been going on in Lakeland. God has been meeting with the hungry and spiritually feeding them. Or, as Elim’s John Glass put it:

“God recognises and responds to hunger. Leaders heard there was a fire and wanted to be warmed, heard of a well and wanted to be refreshed and heard there was food and wanted to be fed. That God met them on their journey is yet another expression of his amazing grace.”

We all know God’s plan is far bigger than us. Than. One. Man.

I believe this tragic situation presents us a chance to discuss whether what’s happened an attack of the enemy? We are told to expect trouble, is this it? Is this a very public demonstration of what’s going on every week in local Churches internationally?

Also, I believe it allows us to look again at the Biblical principals of accountability. Who are you accountable too? Are you accountable to anyone? If you are, is this true, forgiving and genuine accountability, or is it just a bunch of friends who use it as a an excuse to get away for a few days? What ever your thoughts are I recommend you check out Mark Oestreicher’s posts on accountability here.

We, the united Church, are presented with unique opportunity to show the world the unique brand of politics that Jesus bought with him. Showing love where hate would normally been shown. Showing forgivness when the world judges.

I recommend that you read both John Arnott’s and Che Ahn’s statements on this news.

Funhouse

Published
by
Dave
on August 5, 2008
in I've Done Technology, I've Done Youth Work, I've Got A Quick Post and I've Got Thoughts
. 0 Comments

Normal service has kind of been resumed.

Last week was week 1 of ACC’s Funhouse and I thought I may show you a treat. Here’s one of the intro videos that we made.

Also, for those of you who wonder what exactly is involved in a Sunday morning setup at ACC then check out the video below which was shot by Thai Blogger, ACC member and all round good guy Adrian Oliver.

The Joys of iPhone 3G

Published
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Dave
on July 25, 2008
in I've Done Technology and I've Got A Quick Post
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I’ve had my iPhone 3G up and running for just over a week. And, while it isn’t acting as my main phone yet it giving me a chance to play with all the new features!

A lot has already been written on a lot of websites about it. So, I don’t need to cover any ground there.

So, I’ve been hugely impressed by some of the features, sadly o2’s 3G network isn’t amongst them.

Maps + GPS has been a revelation! It made finding an address on foot in London an absolute breeze! Though I’m seriously hoping that they’ll add Turn-by-Turn in the near future!

3rd Party Applications are a big bonus. As I only have an 8Gb I’m not going OTT on anything! Having said that I’ve got a few favourites Facebook, WordPress, YouVersion’s Bible and Super Monkey Ball.

My final iPhone bonus is MobileMe - Yes, it costs extra and yes, it took it’s time to get up and running. And yes, it isn’t fully “push” like advertised but there’s just something great about modifying a contact or adding a calendar event and instantly seeing it on your Mac/iPhone/Web Browser!

While you are waiting…

Published
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Dave
on July 17, 2008
in I've Got A Quick Post
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It may be a couple of weeks before normal service is resumed so I thought I’d post something to keep you entertained.

I really think that James Blunt should be praised for managing to get the word hypotenuse into a song.

All quiet in the blog world

Published
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Dave
on July 15, 2008
in I've Got A Quick Post
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So, it’s nearly the middle of July and it’s been a bit quiet on the blog. And you know what I’ve kind of enjoyed this mini-blog break. It doesn’t mean nothings being going on, on the contrary - plenty has just I don’t want to reveal it until I’ve had a few more discussions and done just a little more writing.

Just as quick side note - I’m still waiting for my iPhone to activate and it seems I’m not the only one. An article found online says that people have been told they face waiting until Thursday before there phones are activated. It could be me but that’s quite a bit longer than the 2 or 3 days claimed by o2! Oh well…as the Guinness adverts have said for years: Good things come to those who wait.

The iPhone 3G Experience

Published
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Dave
on July 11, 2008
in I've Done Technology
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I have restrained myself from posting this for long enough.

I have an iPhone 3G, but it doesn’t work…yet. I had originally placed my order with o2 online but found out on Thursday night that an iPhone wouldn’t be arriving on my doorstep on Friday and I could cancel the order and join the crowds on Friday morning. Which is exactly what I did.

So, it’s at this point I have to admit that at 06:00 on Friday 11 July 2008 I got up made myself a cup of coffee and then made my way to Worthing’s o2 store. Where I arrived at 06:30 I joined the 16 people infront of me. It wasn’t long before I was joined by 18 and 19 and at about 07:00 number 20+ joined the queue. We all did the British queuing thing.

There was plenty of geeky chat, plenty of discussion about how a coffee stall would be most welcome and plenty of wondering whether everyone would get an iPhone (and if so, what size and colour but more on that later)

At about 07:30 things started coming to life, First one member of staff said that there would be enough 8Gb iPhones for all, but there were only eight 16Gb iPhones (with none in White). Then o2 staff started walking down the line handing out precious numbers and checking people knew which tariff they wanted. Number 17 - relief I would be getting one; it would just be a matter of time.

08:00 - From outside in to the store and then…stop. Outside we’d been told there’d be two express tills and we would be called by number. Numbers 1 and 2 got through quickly followed by a disaster, just like the online experience, the entire o2 retail system buckled under the pressure of so may new contracts, and upgrades, being set up.

08:30 - No one is going anywhere while the staff decide what’s going to happen. Except that is for those who’ve been waiting two hours and have to move their cars before they end up with a parking ticket. I’m one of those so cheekily fly into Carphone Warehouse to see if the situation is any better. It isn’t they’ve sold out of phones and are waiting for the last two credit checks to go through. Oh well, time to move the car. At least I can go straight back into o2.

08:40 - Car moved it’s time to wait again. Things really are completely stuffed, the system is down and isn’t coming back up any time soon. So after a frantic call to the area manager things started to move forward. Everything was going to be done manually and put through later.

09:20 - My processing finally begins. ID is taken and froms are filled in. By the time it gets to me all the 16Gb iPhone are gone - oh well I can cope with an 8Gb one.

09:30 - I’m now in another queue this time at the checkout ready to go through and pick my iPhone up. Activation will have to wait - And I’m warned it could take up to 24 hours. Great!

09:45 - Heading to the car park. I have my iPhone but I’m going to have to wait

10:00 - Am home. It’s going to be a long 24 hours!

What a fool!

Published
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Dave
on July 1, 2008
in I've Got A Quick Post
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Having confessed this comical but true story to Jon earlier today I’m going to open myself to more ridicule. At work we have a temporary new member of, voluntary, staff to help out with some of the Childrens & after schools clubs as well as the Church’s playscheme.

Sadly, Jon couldn’t make her induction so it was left to, primarily, my boss, Steve, but I’d been asked to help make her feel at home. It, however was a normal work day so I set about about doing the day to day tasks that I have to do. And that’s when it happened, I had a mental block over a word and foolishly said:

I’m having a blonde moment, how do you spell examining?

Now unfortunately, for me, the new member of staff is naturally very blonde and doesn’t speak English as her first language. I went very red. D’Oh! This was added too by Steve suggesting that I might like to explain what I’d said. More redness, and gneral embarassment as I realised I couldn’t leaving him to explain.

I have learnt a lesson. I looked it up on Wiktionary.

blonde moment (plural blonde moments)

A momentary lapse in concentration, resulting in an embarrassing situation.

So, you could say that my blonde moment resulted in a blonde moment. Still, I won’t forget the spelling of examining for a while.

Acts 4: Arrested!

Published
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Dave
on June 25, 2008
in I've Done Youth Work and I've Got Thoughts
. 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I co-wrote some teaching notes for Arun Community Church’s Ignite and Fuel. I think now is the right time to post them.

Aim:

To learn about Christians who are persecuted for their faith and understand how God encourages and inspires us in difficult situations.

Activity: Survivor!

Give everyone a pen and paper, then ask them to write down (or draw) their three most important possessions. Once everyone has decided, explain that there has been an huge earthquake and their houses have been destroyed. They have a few minutes to grab ONE of their items to carry with them. Which one would they take and why?

When everyone has shared, tell the group about the underground churches in places like China and North Korea. In these places, God’s word is their most treasured possession with people risking their lives to smuggle Bibles and share the good news with others.

How does this make them feel? Did anyone think of taking their Bible with them?

Background:

Following Peter and John’s healing of the crippled man at the Temple (Acts 3:1-10) they were arrested for preaching about the good news of Jesus. The Jewish leaders believed that the disciples were committing blasphemy (speaking untrue things about God) and they were thrown in prison overnight. Even though the believers were scared of what might happen to them, their numbers grew from 3,000 to around 5,000 men (Acts 4:4)!

Reading: Acts 4

Your group should have read the chapter in advance. Take a few minutes to recap on its content for those who haven’t.

Illustration: Brother Yun

Take a few minutes to look at the life of Brother Yun (author of The Heavenly Man) whose story represents an example of the persecuted Christians in China

Seen as a rebel among some Chinese for not joining the ‘official’ government-controlled Christian organization, Brother Yun was imprisoned and tortured by the government authorities. He was finally arrested and sentenced to many years in prison. However, Yun continued his ministry while in prison, with miraculous results. As a result, many prisoners and even some prison officials became born-again.

Apparently, while he gained increasing favor from some officials, he also became a target of increased persecutions by others. He was repeatedly beaten and became severely malnourished. After many years, he escaped from Zhengzhou Maximum Security prison. He described how he heard the voice of the Hoy Spirit, telling him to simply walk out the heavily guarded prison gate. Risking being shot to death on the spot, he wrote later that he obeyed the voice, and walked straight through several prison doors that were somehow left open in front of many prison guards, across the prison yard and finally out of the main gate. Yun stated that it was as if he had become invisible to the guards who stared straight through him. Although many expressed doubts that such a thing could happen, some prison guards had apparently lost their jobs for this ‘embarrassing mishap.’ It is reported that the official investigation by the Chinese Government concluded that “Yun received no human help in his escape.” It is claimed that these reports have been also confirmed by numerous prisoners who occupied the same prison cell as Yun. Apparently, he remains the only person to have escaped from this notorious maximum security prison!

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Yun

You can watch a 10 minute testimony by Brother Yun on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDpDRTvRYZ0

Discussion:

  • How would you react to being arrested for what you believed? Would it effect your faith and beliefs?
  • What would you do if it was illegal to be a Christian? Why?
  • Do you think that you could praise God in difficult situations? How would you do it?
  • Which of our 5 Values (Follow, Honour, Serve, Support, Share) apply to this passage? What can you learn from it?

Prayer:

  • Pray for the persecuted Church around the world
  • Pray for boldness within the group that they can share the message amongst their friends (and family) without fear
  • Pray for any issues affecting the group this week.

Challenge:

This week, you should try to overcome your own fears and share the good news of Jesus with some friends! Ask God to give you boldness even when people are rude to you because of your faith. Remember, if people laugh at you because of Jesus, you are in great company!

Further Reading: Genesis 39:20-23

Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

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