Moved - AFRICA

Many are the plans of a man's heart, but the Lord determines his steps....

LiveAfrica

please add this link and join me as the Lord continues to lead..

Time Out

Well! Blogging.. it's proved to be a part of my schedule I have had to let go for a while and one I will miss in the interim.

The workload of lecturing for the first time in my life has proved meteoric.

Combine this with starting a Post Grad in education then...

Moving more and more into the ministry team of our fellowship here in Stow means some things have to go for a while.

Future projects. The church website will be up over the next few months and enrolement in Spurgeons Bible College to kick off my distance learning will happen before Christmas...

It's a privilege to know God is ordering our steps and for me it's proving a very steep learning curve...a curve of absolute committment to what God wants for each minute of my day...many of those minutes and hours will be as a husband and father to an amazing family..

So here's to the next set of chapters as God kicks up the fire, purges and proves me as He leads each day...an amazing journey.

I will continue to read my blogging favourites....God Bless

2 weeks no blog?

I never thought this would happen..such a gap...but life is life and the time has been full...

It started just after my last post...I had the privilege to preach in our church, an opportunity to be repeated more often towards Christmas as our Pastor has asked Karen and myself to be an integral of the ministry team...

70th - My Dad was 70 on the same weekend and we celebrated with a family photo...what an amazing weekend..



The new job (Lecturing)...it started...daunted by the thought that in less than a week now the new students will be sitting in front of me listening! I hope...

And more beside as we had our 2nd youth night...what amazing times...crazy games, music, drama and exploring "faith in Jesus" and all it means... you can see the photos here Youth4Youth

So I commit to renewed online writings as the days unfold.....one last word..

New Orleans...the British Media seems to want to lambast Bush personally for the events following the Katirna Storm....STOP! He's God's man with a team he has to trust...they'll work it out...and learn from it. What we all need to learn from it is that life is fragile, just one storm and the world reels in shock global petrol prices rise and we see the fragility of life...onlookers should take stock...life is so so fragile and can be taken from us in a blink of an eye.

is Britain Great?

Not any more...we're morally bankrupt, but this is only a symptom of being bankrupt of faith - faith is Jesus Christ. We've lost for a long time now the understanding of the gospel and that the Good News of Jesus Christ is the only answer to our many many problems. Problems which stem from turning our backs on God...we still as nation have our culture firmly turned away from wanting to turn to Christ.

Winning the Olympics will not bring us greatness, winning the Ashes Test Cricket will not bring us greatness...only by turning our lives in surrender to the person of Jesus Christ will we know greatness again.

Billy Graham said "I do not believe that any man can solve the problems of life without Jesus Christ" He said this in California in 1949...and it hasn;t changed since then nor since the 1st century church.....

Our challenge is to be His ambassadors today, right now and to be used as a channel of the gospel through our testimony, and life lived out.....

taking ground this weekend

It happened but not as we imagined...20 young people on the first night...!

Great icebreaker games; time to hang out, discuss and make music in the first night....

I don't think we could have imagined it going better. First of all God blew our hopes out of the water and has us redefining and preparing again for growth at a rate we never thought possible..

The feedback so far has been really positive and we give all the glory to God.

My week break from work which starts anew in lecturing tomorrow turned out to be a full week of stuff. Painting a sign for the village Christian book shop is nearly finished. Preparing for last night which was amazing and general running around helping friends and family do those things that need help.. a fulfilling week....

...also a week of battle, as last night (Saturday) loomed up so did circumstance to distract and depress... our foe is a past master at bringing us down. My "take" on the this is "good" the heat is rising so we're going the right way into the fire, forward on the front line..this weekend God didn't take an inch at a time..which sometimes we have to do but He took us a giant leap into growth...

...so now a new target is set... 50 by Christmas...with strength, depth and changed lives...

20 by christmas..

Ryan, Sarah, Fran and Charis are just the first 4 to be part of a new work in Stow-on-the-Wold Baptist Church Youth...they don't know it yet, but a vision of 20 of them by this Christmas is the target..

I think my nerves at entering again the arena of youth work is formost in my mind than enything else...will we engage them? will the time be interesting and provoke thought?...will the ice breaker and fun time be pitched right? all these questions and I know it's so totally out of my control..and totally in God's hands. I think from experience youth work on the night is very well ordered, but perceived chaos...and then it's over...

Well it happens for real this Saturday between 6:30 - 9:00pm...if you want to check how it goes, check back on the weekend..

SAFEHOUSE http://safeh.blogspot.com theme on the night:poverty

celebration today - another year!

Happy Brithday Sis....

I left home when I was 18 and my sister 5 and family life kind of ended for our relationship until much later in our lives...I went through college, married had children and slowly Nae caught up with me and we've now a wonderful friendship...thanks to my wife Karen who always kept a strong link.

Nae works and ministers in Trinity in Cheltenham and has God given gifting in worship...and we now live just 30 minutes drive from each other..

It's her day today...she's on her way to us to have a birthday tea with her 6 nieces and nephews and some jelly and icecream for desert...seeing God work out His plans in her life these days when a life is surrendered to Him is really exciting and encouraging to see...

Visit her blog and wish her happy birthday....Happy Birthday Nae...