HELP

Anyone got:

• an Elivis wig
• inflatable guitar

I can borrow for next week?

James 1

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

5-8 If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

13-15 Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame.

16-18 So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.

Merger - Can we cope with change?

So it's almost time for a the new season of house / cell / home / bible / whatever-you-want-to-call-it-group to start again.

! ! e x c i t i n g s t u f f ! !

Can't wait.

However.

Not as we know it.

The day when two-become-one is creeping towards us at a pretty fast pace and I'm starting to fear that I don't do change!

What about the 9.15pm grapes?

What about the toilet stop?

Ritual.

Joking aside, I have loved house group over the past..erm..how long is it ? ? ! ! People have been and gone. Some people remained the same.

There's been times I've laughed. Times I've cried.

Times I've shared. Times I couldn't.

Times I wish I had. Times I wished I hadn't.

Times I've blurted out rubbish.

Times I wished I'd kept my mouth shut.

Times I've shared a word. Times I've shared a look.

Times I've been annoyed. Times I've been overjoyed.

Times God has spoken. Times God has listened.

Times I think God forgot the Group started at 8.

Times when God stayed 'til way after bedtime.

Thanks Keith. I thought you were amazing.

Thank you for your time. Your tact. Your roll of the eyes. Your commitment. Your home. Your voices. Your hugs. Your words.

God really blessed everything you did.

(oh, yeah, and Liz, the tea and grapes were great, will you tell Fiona about the mango?)

New Blogger

Check out the new blogger in town.

Sometimes we need reminding

People make choices everyday.

Some more important than others.

We make lifestyle choices, sometimes, even without thinking. And people like me don't have to justify them to anyone.

I was asked the other day why I live so close to one Salvation Army church, yet choose to worship at a different one. I was taken aback at being asked quite so directly, particularly by someone who I don't really know.

Ironically, as a child from a small corps, it annoyed me, when growing up, that people who attended other larger corps in the area, drove past ours to get to their church. I couldn't understand it, though now, to a certain extent although their reasoning was probably different to mine (that's me being judgemental!), I am a little less 'bitter' because of what I find myself doing!

Attempting to justify the journey I take twice each Sunday, I explained the great welcome I'd received when I arrived at my new corps and how 'nice' (horrible word!) people were/are.

Another question faced me...

'Are the people at the Corps in the town where you live not nice?'

Hmmm! Difficult one. My feeble answer? 'errmm, I....I...I dddon't kknnoowwww' ! ! !

Slightly perplexed and feeling somewhat embarrssed at how I'd seemingly managed to judge people I don't even know, I began to wonder how I could get myself out of this corner I had been unwittingly pushed into.

I didn't really have to justify my reasoning to her. Nor do I think that people at any other church are 'not nice'. But it did make me think.

When I first turned up at my new church people were just lovely. So many people made an effort to make me feel welcome and at home. It wasn't easy, still isn't sometimes, but people invited me into their homes, encouraged and supported me.

Some mentored me into the 'adult' that was waiting to come out (and still do).

When I think of the week I've had, eating McDonalds while doing work in the Army car park because there wasn't enough time to go home before practises, working out when I'll have time to take part in Annual Appeal, Prayer Meetings etc around getting home in time to eat, do work, talk to my family, sleep(!)......I do get stressed.

But, then, a text from someone from the corp saying hi, a friend calling me 'Darling', the very recent memory of myself and one of these friends dashing towards each other, arms open, to have a long awaited hug, simply makes me (emotionally) smile and most of all thank God that when, behind the strong facade of Watson, control is slipping away, there's someone I can text and say 'Can you pray?'

That's not to say I wouldn't find these relationships somewhere else (though I'm not sure I would!) God's made a pretty good choice for me.....and who I am to challenge that?

The End

With the imminence of school, the holiday blog was kind of halted, so, a quick finish.....

If you haven't got your Graham Kendrick tickets yet....WHY NOT?

Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch THIS Sunday 7pm Tell everyone