Leading Into Holy Week

With an unusual start to the weekend, I discovered I am probably old. Well, not the start exactly, because that was work as normal, but Saturday evening I went to a Taize service. And I was almost the youngest one there. So, therefore, I must be old. Probably.
Anyway, for those of you who have never been to a service inspired by Taize, which is a community in France visited by people of all denominations (and ages), what you need to know really is that it is quiet. They build silence into their liturgies, which are quite simple to start with-the idea being that anyone can join in if they wish. Because anyone can worship. The service was lovely, quite relaxing for me. Though that may have been partly because I was quite tired anyway. I kind of dozed a bit, but I didn't sleep, as I joined in with most of the responses. I was aware of Taize services before, and discovered I actually knew several bits of the liturgy they were using. The whole thing was very peaceful, and I will definitely go again. If anyone is interested, it's at st Mary's church every couple of months-the next one should be around May 18th-it will be a saturday, anyway.
And then, afterwards, chatting with a few folk, I discovered that Folk On were playing a bit later at St Matthews-pretty much just across the road. So I had to decide whether or not I would go-and I went for 'yes'. I went into town and grabbed something to eat, then headed straight over. I met up with a couple of friends, and got a seat near the front. Which was good, as the place was pretty packed. Now, if you haven't seen Folk On before, they're a folk trio who either attend the Salvation Army church locally, or come from the small cotswold village of Little Dribblepatch (so small you won't find it on any map. Or google earth-apparently the day the satellite came over they hid the village in the bushes). Needless to say, they're not entirely serious. Or not at all. Which is all to the good. Needless to say, if you like music or comedy, then you'll probably like them-and if you like both, then you absolutely will. I enjoyed myself muchly, and even caught up with a couple of friends who I wasn't expecting to see, one from Bristol. Where they're playing soon, if you fancy it.
So that was Saturday evening. Sunday was much more relaxed, starting with getting up later for a start. I read a bit, and then I wrote a poem inspired by the evening. And then I went to church. God told me to got to St Matthews that evening, which was interesting, as I wasn't expecting my Saturday to be mostly there as well. But it was also interesting because they did a completely different service to what I think went on at my church. The start was probably similar, and then it was quite different-they had what was basically a small passion play, going through the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. And then there was a cross, in which we were invited to hammer nails in, before taking a palm cross. I was reminded once again what the point of the crucifixion is all about, and the fact that Jesus did that for me. Definitely something that will stay with me for some time to come.

Painting and Praying

Well I got home on Monday to find things moved around in the flat, and painters rags covering other things up. I wasn't totally nonplussed, because I did know my landlords were planning to have the place painted, but I didn't know when. So I checked the phone to discover a couple of messages from them, one asking if I could get in touch with them to say when would be convenient, and one saying that as I hadn't got back in touch with them, they'd booked the painters in anyway. As it happened, this week was actually pretty convenient, as I'm still working full time hours, so I'm out most of the day anyway. Apart from Tuesday, which was my day off; so I had to think about what I was going to do then.
And on Tuesday, I had decided that sleep was important, so I didn't set my alarm, and just got up whenever and spoke to the painters. They were working at one end of the flat, so I quite happily stayed at the other end and read for a bit. After a while, they came and had lunch and we chatted; and, after, I carried on reading and went online for a bit. Until they finished for the day at about 4, when they cleaned up and left shortly before 5. And then I left to go to ALPHA, where I was helping with the catering. You'll no doubt be pleased to know that doesn't involve me cooking in any way-that's pretty much finished before I get there. I just help with the clearing up, and, this week (because we were short), I helped serve food. And then sat around chatting (and prayed a bit), until it was all over. When I went down the pub. Not on my own, I would like to be absolutely clear, but with a few others. Thankfully, most of the racegoers had gone elsewhere by then, so we were pretty much on our own-all 12 of us. So a bit more chatting ensued, and I discovered another friend of mine was a painter of a different sort-though she insists she's not very good. We shall see at some point, I hope.
And on Wednesday, I was back at work, so that meant I didn't have to concern myself with the painting. Except that I'd arranged to meet up with a friend to pray, and had to rearrange it to be at his house. With wet paint around, I figured it would be better if I went out, rather than inviting someone else over. But that was simple enough, and it meant he cooked for me. Sweet potato, mmm. So we chatted about all sorts, from 'The Young Ones' to the effect thoughts have on life. Not positive thinking, but the idea that tohughts can actually have a direct effect on others people without being vocalised. I hadn't really heard of this before, but, as we discussed it, we realised that there was a lot of power in thoughts that we hadn't considered before, and that isn't really considered much among Christians. But it probably should be. No, make that definitely.
One of the things I prayed about was whether I should go out on the streets to pray. As it was Race Week, some people in church thought it would be a good idea to go out on the streets each evening, and chat and offer prayer to anyone passing. And just see what God did. Anyway, I felt He wanted me to go out on Thursday. But before that, I went to a friend's house in the evening. She had arranged to have a Skype conversation with another friend who is currently in Canada, and invited a few people round. I was the first to arrive (which is probably the first time that's ever happened), because I had to come straight from work. So I got to watch 'In the night garden', as her daughter was teething and needed to be cheered up. And then other people arrived and we had our Skype conversation, and then prayed for Lydia, and then went our separate ways. I got home and grabbed something to eat, before going out to the meeting place for those about to pray. And no-one was there. So I went into church, where we have a weekly prayer meeting, to discover some people just about to set off. So I joined them. In my group was someone from Bristol, who was in Cheltenham working, and knew about our church-she goes to a church there called Woodies, which works with us. Anyway, we went out, and after one short conversation with a guy with a leg in plaster who was quite happy to chat, but definitely did not want to be prayed for-I've never seen anyone move so fast-we got onto the High Street. Where we almost immediately stopped by someone who knows me-who I hadn't seen for literally years. Which was really nice. She invited me to her baptism in three weeks time, which I'm looking forward to, and asked us to pray for a friend of hers. And the friend she was with, who doesn't believe in God, was quite happy to allow us to ask God to bless him. She did get a photo taken of us all, but I haven't got a copy. Yet.
Well, that was clearly the highlight of the week, but I did go out Friday as well. A friend texted and asked if anyone was up for going into town. Apparently no-one else did, but we had a good time. Yes, the pub was fairly full, but not crowded; and it was good just to relax and chat. Nice. Saturday I stayed in-probably a good thing I didn't even try to get to the A.S.E.T. dinner, as I was so tired.

Mothers, and Father

I have had a busy week in a way, this week. I've been working full time this week, as my manager is on holiday, and I've been too tired to really think about doing much outside of work. Which has meant that there hasn't really been anything to talk about on here. However, yesterday was Mothering Sunday (not Mother's Day), and was also the end of a conference at church.

Mothering Sunday is not Mother's Day (which apparently is in May)-the origin of it was to celebrate at your 'mother' church, to enable families to spend time together. Read about it here if you want to know more. But it's still a good excuse to spend time with my mum, which I did. I didn't go to her church, though, as I had to be at mine in the morning to sell tickets for a performance by Springs Dance Company called 'Bread of Life'. It's on Maundy Thursday (March 28th) if you're interested.
Anyway, as I had to be there at the end of the service, it only made sense to be there for the actual service. Where the speaker was one of speakers we'd had at the conference during the week. He started by getting people to pray for people who had problems with back pain, all of whom got better. One is a good friend of mine, and I spoke to her after the service, and I can say definitely that she frankly said the pain was gone. Which is cool. And a good way to start a talk. I can only really remember a few things about his talk; the main thing being a story about a guy in a gang who first came to his church because he wanted to shoot him. He didn't do anything, and left in a hurry at the end of the service. Shortly after that, he got arrested; and Robbie (Dawkins, the speaker) went to visit him in prison. He was aggressive at first, and was in his face, and demanded that Robbie tell him what he did to him. Robbie didn't know what he meant and said so; he told him that when he went to the church he found himself unable to move until the end, so he got out of there. Robbie told him that was God, and He wanted to give him the chance to have a different life. The guy refused at first, but on being told that most of the N.T. was written by a murderer decided he wanted to. Robbie prayed for him in the interview cell, and his face changed. He said that he had been carrying round rage, hate and shame all his life, and it had gone. I had tears in my eyes at that point, though that wasn't the end of the story. If you want to hear it all, you can listen here- the talk is 'The Presence in the Boat'.

So then, I went to see my mum. My sister wasn't there, possibly as her daughter had decided she was going to come home early from her dad's house as she "should be with you on Mother's Day", and she was going to make her lunch. I don't know how that went; originally she was going to do breakfast, which she was quite confident she knew how to do. And so I spent a nice few hours with my mum, talking about all sorts of things, but I remember Lent and church came up in the conversation a lot. Which was nice, but all good things must come to an end (and, thankfully, bad ones); and so, I went back home-or at least to the evening service.
Where the talk was on grace. I can remember him talking about waves and tides cleaning up beaches; about how after a holiday weekend, the beach is in a real state, but with time and tides, it gets restored. This may seem a small, simple thing, but it's far from that. To realise, to remember that whatever has happened God not only can but will restore is a vital truth to hang on to. It may be all you do have to hang on to sometimes, until He does it. If you need it, that talk is available too, on the same page.
And then, I had some good times with friends, some I've only started to get to know recently. And I spoke to Dan Browne, who tried to get me to go to the A.S.E.T. ball this coming week. When I said I couldn't afford it, he prayed for me to be given money. Just in general, not money to go. So it will be interesting to see what God does.

Afghan Life

A few days ago I went to a TrinityMens event-which is exactly what it sounds like. An event put on by Trinity for men. It was a curry evening (yum), which sounds sort of typical of a men's event, but there was a bit more to it than that. There were actually 2 points, 3 if you count the simply getting-together-and-being-men aspect. It was to raise awareness and funds for A. S. E. T.- a charity which was set up by Dan Browne, who used to work for our church.

He gave a presentation about the work of A.S.E.T.-what they are doing, how they got to do it, and what they are looking to do in the future. He started as he always does apparently, with an open invitation to join him there, for however long; so, I'm repeating that offer. If you want to join him there, for however long, you're welcome-just contact the organisation. and then he explained how he got there. Just after 9/11, he was leading a prayer meeting, and he started calling out for God to send people to help in Afghanistan; and the upshot of that was that God sent him. He said he learned from that that it's always good to be aware that God may make you the answer to your prayers. So if you don't want to risk praying for them, you could always just send money-though actually I'm sure he'd prefer prayers, so he's hoping you want to take that risk.
Anyway, less than a year after that point, he was out there working for an N.G.O. in Kabul, which lasted for a year or so, before he felt he should go to the north of the country. And to do that, he needed to start his own organisation, so A.S.E.T. was born. He moved to Mazar-al-Sharif (a town who's name is 'grave of the holy man'-now there's ominous) and started whatever he could start. Which has grown from very little to actually quite a lot now. There's a lot to do, and the longer he's stayed, the more opportunities he's had to do more. The main thing they're hoping to work on now is well building, because Afghanistan is full of small villages who get their water from dirty sources, which is the main cause of all sorts of illnesses. Which is what we were intending to raise money for. Now as a well drilling rig costs approx £10000, you won't be at all surprised to learn that we didn't raise that much that evening, and nor were we intending to.

And that leads me on to the final point of the evening. Our fundraising idea is to canoe down the river Wye, or at least some of it. The amount they have in mind is 88 miles, which the idea is to do in two days. So, FAQ. Do you have to be able to canoe? Well, as long as you're confident you can keep going, you're unlikely to capsize, as they'll all be two man canoes. And there will be training days available. Do you have to be available for the training days? No, not if you can't make them. It will be a good time to build up relationships between all the people doing it, but it's not essential. Do you have to be a member of Trinity? Again no, as long as you're up for the challenge, and support what we're raising funds for. And, finally, do you have to be a man? Well, unsurprisingly, yes is the answer to this one. Or at least a male over the age of 14-if younger than 18, then an adult guardian must be taking part. And that's all, I think.
Oh, and if you want to go to Afghanistan for a couple of weeks with Dan, the next time with free spaces is in October, so plenty of time to plan...