Well, I’m off for a few days in the Sun. Before I go I’ve been working hard providing some reading for you all while I’m away. So, you’ve got 3 proper posts showcasing the best of what this website is about.
Archive for the 'I've Done Travel' Category
With all that’s been going on in Lakeland, Florida. Things that I’ve seen with my own eyes and touched with my own hands I can’t get one question out of my head
How can things ever be the same?
On one side of things there’s this huge outpouring in Florida. Meetings have grown from 700 to 8,000 and people are clearly having a huge experience of God. Many are being healed and a large number of these have been medically verified. Also, since it began some 60 days ago there have been 13 verified resurrections from the dead.
On the opposite side of things natural disasters are happening. In Burma the official death toll from the Cyclone stands at 78,000 although external agencies put these figures above 100,000. In China the government puts the death toll from the recent Earthquake is in excess of 12,000. While a third Earthquake in Bogota, Columbia, already has a death toll of 78.
If you look at things in a different perspective here in Western Europe we are entering an economic slow down. Rich nations are becoming poor, primarily this is down the cost of crude oil which is currently running at about $135 a barrell. However in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa almost the reverse is happening economies are growing and poor nations are becoming rich.
God is on the move. In a sense it’s a return to the Old Testament values when every 50 years (the Jubilee) things were reset: Debts were cancelled, land was returned and slaves were freed. Wealth was divided equally. It’s almost testament to God’s sense of humor, Bono et al have been banging on for ages about dropping the debt and spreading the wealth and almost with one click of his fingers God has done it naturally. Again the question:
How can things ever be the same?
If you look in one respect there are parallels to the Old Testament. There are also parallels to the New Testament looking at what’s going on in Lakeland puts in mind the book of Acts. After Jesus ascends to heaven the disciples are left waiting around for something to happen. They know that they’ve been promised a helper but have no idea when or where. In Acts 2 they find themselves Jerusalem for the festival of Shavuot, the Spring Harvest, when the Holy Spirit is released. For those disciples who start to speak in the tounges of nations and God, then Peter declares the prophecy of Joel resulting in the baptism of 3,000 they must have had one question:
How can things ever be the same?
At the start of Acts 3 something breaks and we see the first post-Jesus healing when Peter heals the crippled man. There is no laying on of hands Peter, probably overflowing with the Spirit, just commands that this man gets up and walks. And guess what, for Peter & John, the crippled man and those saw him there was one question that they must have been thinking:
How can things ever be the same?
And really that’s where I am now. How do you come back from seeing tumors disappear? From seeing the blind able to see and the deaf able to hear? And ultimately seeing legs starting to grow? You can only be expectant for God to turn up and start doing stuff in your own congreation, and I’d love to see more it at Arun.
I want the signs and the wonders but actually I want more than that. I want the intimacy with God; To know that He is within me and is guiding me and speaking to me daily. I want the lessons I learnt in Lakeland to be with me forever and not just a couple of weeks. And there were lessons, primarily I learnt the vital importance of pressing into what God has for us. Whether that’s in our days at work or in our Church services.
So you don’t like the worship leader, or don’t like the style of preach? Well, have you ever thought that God may want to speak to you in it? All it takes from us is a little effort to get beyond the natural and listen for the subtle heart beat of our creator whispering to us.
I’ll be honest here - I struggled one evening out in Florida they were resting the normal worship leader and had a guest in his place. Instead of entering into a place filled with praise, and errors, as the band practiced and worshipped there was, nothing. Then a Jack Black look a like, with mohican, took to the stage and sang a whole load of songs he’d written and I’d never heard before. Being honest I felt about as connected to God as the biggest Atheist in the world. My friends were fully engaged - Joe was on the floor giggling his head off and Matt was in a similar position, mostly without the giggling.
I, again, felt completely out of sync with God’s heart beat. And then it kinda happened instead of taking the cynical view:
“Oh, it’s not for me this evening!”
I heard the faintest whisper saying “press into me, this is for you!” So, I tried and slowly the negativity melted away and pretty soon found myself face down on the carpet praising God for what he could do both in me and others. The time of worship after that was amazing, almost the most powerful since I’d been there, but I struggled to begin with.
It’s been a journey; 8,000 miles, a lot of sobbing, even more carpet time and even more prayer. I know that I won’t ever be the same, but a week after I started this post I still can’t process it enough to come up with an answer to the question I started with: How can things ever be the same?
Some of you will have heard about the revival currently taking place in the city of Lakeland, Florida. Well, I’m going. It’s been arranged fairly quickly but on Saturday I’ll be joining Joe Gisbey and Matt Ford on the flight to Tampa followed by a drive to Lakeland.
And I’m really excited I can’t wait. I’ve got quite a lot to do. The weather is about 30 degrees, so while I’m prepared for a English summer where it rains every third day I’m not prepared for proper sun. I need to get all the things that it would normal take me 6 weeks in 3 days.
After that? Well I’m off! Unusually on one of my trips I will be taking a laptop alongside a camera so that I can blog about it and from what I’ve read it seems that the city has free WiFi.
I think that it could be a really significant time for the three of us and I think Friendship, Faith and (Gods’) Fire will be in abundance. Following that time I’ll be heading off to the Ignite weekend away and I really want to see God move powerfully amongst the Young People so much so that we are prepared to drop our plans to wait on Him. Arun has already a taster of this and I think there is a hunger.
For more information on Lakeland click here, while to take a look at things from a while for a Wikipedia perspective click here.
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Regular readers here will know that I’ve been away at Spring Harvest in Skegness. So, I thought I’d post some thoughts on the week.
I was again working with the 5 - 7 team, Powerpack, and it was nice to see some familiar faces. Again I was in the Blue team though I can’t give the weeks results but more on that later! Along with Praise all Powerpackers get shown dramas in the the “Story Machine” slot. My favorite part of the day has to be small group and activity time. Four activities are done during the course of the week (Bob the Builder, Games, Craft/Indoor Play and Dance) and I’m very happy to say I managed to avoid dance.
Of course the real beauty of being on the 5 - 7 team is that you get some you time as there are no evening meetings. So in the evenings I’ve been splitting myself (though not literally) between The Big Top, where Sue Rinaldi was leading, and The Alternative Celebration, where Stuart Barbour and Psalm Drumming Friends were leading. Although the styles were different both were fantastic in leading us into the presence of God. I must admit I had a slight preference for the style of the Psalm Drummers.
One of the big features of Spring Harvest is the evening entertainment. And somehow I ended up on stage with comedian and entertainer Joe Fisher helping with with a feature called “Name That Kendrick”. It was very amusing, especially the worship leader who couldn’t recognise “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever” and it wasn’t Martin Smith, maybe we could re-create it at Arun!
If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know that I spent yesterday traveling up England to Skegness ready for Spring Harvest.
I thought I’d share with you a little bit of information on the journey. I arrived at Worthing station in plenty of time for my train, and as you’d expect didn’t miss it. It was nice and comfortable and despite me worrying I arrived at Victoria on time. 50 minutes to get across London. The Victoria line was totally packed, but compared to what would come later it was a breeze!
The 5 stop journey took a little over 15 minutes and before long I was at Kings Cross, along with ALL the football supporters heading to Wembley. But I got to the main part of the station and waited. After a further 15 minutes the train was called and the fight began….a 4 coach long train and many many people. Result I stood up from Kings Cross to Grantham.
A quick change at Grantham to a train with 2 coaches and even more people to fit on it awaited us. This was not looking good. More standing. This time from Grantham to Boston and a total of about 3 hours. Only at Boston, and the smallest train of them all did I get a seat again, which is pretty crazy.
Things didn’t get much easier once I arrived at the Spring Harvest Site, because of a problem at home my parents couldn’t make it, though instead of managing to cancel my parents places, they managed to cancel mine and my mums. It took the best part of an hour to sort, and never have I ever been quite so glad to see a Spring Harvest tea.
I was thinkng of calling this post “In the VIP” but, thought better of it.
Saturday night saw a large percentage of Arun Community Church head up to the o2 Arena in London’s docklands in order to witness the final UK gig of current drummer Stew Smith. Rosie and I were no exception we jumped, or in Rosie’s case slowly maneuvered, into the car and set off for London town.
I’ve never been to what was the millennium dome and the approach was really mixed. One minute we were driving through some of the East ends most deprived areas the next, the oppulency of the city; Canary Wharf and the new “trendy” houses that now line the banks of the river Thames in obvious hope that with the dome prices will have risen.
Still, this isn’t the post to discuss social injustices. Once parked we set aboout the trek from car park to dome. I’d read some things about how AEG had redeveloped the dome; I’d imagined something like Disney’s “Downtown Disney” complex. Sadly, I was slightly mistaken. It’s clear that despite it’s opening in June 2007 development is still very much in progress.
Inside the main doors lies a mass of floor space broken up only by some alternative artwork like the balls (that can be seen above) or a huge enlargement of a BMW’s front end. All interesting stuff. After a quick snack at good ol’ Starbucks it was time for the gig. We were on the guest list and plesently surprised to find VIP passes and not just complimentary tickets.
I’ll leave you to visit www.delirious.org.uk for a review of the gig. It’s fair to say that it was an emotional time for all the band with kilts, stockings and a vespa were all present. Yes, you did read correctly…stockings.
It’s perhaps only right that I leave this post here. It was a great night and therefore was memorable for all the right reasons.
I’ve just realised it’s been a little quiet on the blog front recently. I’ve been fairly busy, in fact it’s been almost non-stop. On 15 February Rosie and I headed “oop North!” to visit friends Pete and Ali, something we’d last done in August last year. It’s great to catch up with people you haven’t seen in sometime finding out what each other has been up to. On the way up we’d arranged to see Christian band Delirious? play at Lincoln cathedral.
We had a great drive home, apart from a slight emergency when we ran out of a windscreen washer fluid and couldn’t find a garage on the M1 for about 75 miles. D’oh! While the Monday, for me, was a write off Rosie had to work. And so began Tuesday, I’d planned to split my time between the ACC and Links International offices but half way through the morning I received a phone call offering me the chance to goto the world famous Abbey Road recording studio.
Work at ACC has been a little busy. Though I’m pleased to say that I’ve managed to achieve one of my long term goals. The Arun Community Church podcast has been rethought and rewritten and is alive. I’m hoping it will be live on the iTunes Store by the end of the week. Though if you want to subscribe now click here, for the Sunday Teaching, or here, for the Jabez breakfast. I’m hoping that a third ACC Podcast won’t be too far away,
On Wednesday several of us headed up the A1 (A road that two of us know only too well as it also leads to Lincoln and Skegness) to visit Peterborough Community Church in order to look at their new Kingsgate building that has been open just over a year.
The Church was founded in 1989 with 9 of them in a front room. Today each Sunday attracts something in the region of 1200 people. This makes it about three times bigger than Arun currently is.
From the point of view of my Job, it was good to share ideas with both Peterborough’s technical director and the others who came. I could list plenty of things that I’d love to take back to Arun. By that I don’t mean the entire £750k sound/light/computer/AV rig!
Actually it was some of the numbers that impressed me. The Church saved and raised approximately £3 million towards the building. This left them requiring a mortgage of £4.2 million. A build cost of about £7 million to get to the end of phase one, a further £3 million is needed to complete phase two. Once the Church start repaying the capital (as opposed to just the interest) on the mortgage their repayments will be around £35k a month.
Was the trip worth it? Well, I think so. I’ve got some things to think about and some things that the Church leadership want me to think about. So from that alone it was worth it.
It’s Friday which means Rosie and I are back from our travels. As I mentioned in my last post Rosie and I left Grapevine on Tuesday (complete with Pete and Ali) and headed a further 130 miles up to Durham which is conveniently located between the three major cities of Newcastle, Middlesborough and Sunderland. Tuesday evening was a quiet one. We ate Pizza and drank beer, well Pete and I did, while watching some episodes of Friends on DVD.
A long sleep later and it was pretty much Wednesday lunch time. A quick look round the amazingly beautiful Cathedral, a very quick tour of the city and it was time for lunch. After lunch it we accompanied Pete and Ali to the biggest Tesco’s that Rosie and have ever ever seen! It was two floors. After returning to their flat we watched a couple of episodes of Red Dwarf before playing cards. Then we took them out for a meal which turned ou
t to be quite a highlight. You really can’t go wrong with good friends and good food. Since both Pete and Ali have a passion for China they suggested we all goto a local Chinese buffet. The conversations flowed, the food piled up, etc. Once we got home we put on the classic film Johnny English.
That takes us to Thursday morning. After another fairly long sleep it was time for a quick breakfast and refuel (and the aforementioned Tesco’s) before we hit the A1(M) for the 322 mile trip back down south. The drive was sweetened, in Rosie’s mind at least, with a quick visit to the UK’s biggest shopping centre in Bluewater, Kent. Sadly, she didn’t buy anything. I however did. A protective iSkin for my MacBook.
Yesterday I took Rosie to see the Blue Man Group as her main birthday present. It meant getting up early (or 8am, which if you’re Rosie is still the middle of the night), spending 2 hours on the train and crossing London on the tube (which Rosie really doesn’t like).
After we’d arrived in London we both made trips to cash points and then set about getting the tube to St. Paul’s where we crossed the Thames using the infamous millennium bridge and popped into Tate Modern for a quick look round. Personally I don’t understand modern art, the only thing I found interesting was a Salvador Dali picture featuring a lobster on an old phone.
After that we headed off along the South bank, past Shakespeare’s recreated Globe theatre along to a usefully placed Pizza Express where we headed in for lunch overlooking the Thames and life in London at lunch-time (why do people jog during their lunch breaks?). After we’d eaten we headed over to the Holborn/Covent Garden area where after getting lost (whoops, good job I had Google maps with me) we found our way to the New London Theatre and got the tickets for the show, by which time Rosie was bouncing up and down!
With some time to spare we ventured into the Covent Garden area and some of the incredibly expensive boutiques including one called All Saints; Where if you have the money you can buy a white leather belt that says “Jesus Love You”. FInally it was time to head back to the theatre, get seated and get our Poncho’s on.
I really can’t explain what the show’s like, it’s far too unique, if you’ve seen it you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t; Go there NOW as it finishes on June 24 or buy The Complex Live on DVD. One of the stand out moments for me was them playing The Who on an instrument made from PVC pipes.
After the show had finished we had a mad dash back across London at rush hour and only 40 minutes to make our connection in order to get back to Littlehampton for slam. It was once we got back to Victoria station that we had our random moment of the day. We travelled 70 miles and bumped into Stuart Bellamy from Church.
After another 2 hour train journey we arrived in Littlehampton with 20 minutes to spare before slam so after a quick discussion we jumped in my car and headed off to Fred’s Fish & Chip shop for some much needed food.
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