14/11/10

Good afternoon world! Nice to have some quiet time with Papa and put digits to keys again. 


So whit's been goin' oan? - well, Linette recently held a prophetic art seminar at The Lighthouse in Troon, which was f.a.b. as the Thunderbirds would say, it was a lovely relaxed day with some awesome talent on show and some newly discovered talent having come out of their shells. It's funny how some people before Lin's seminar say "oh, I can only draw stickmen" or "ahm no artist" and then at the end of the day they're posing for a photo for me holding an awesome piece of prophetic art in their hands! Ha! Ha! - Papa is de man. :-)


It's always the same, setting up for the seminars is the stressfull part - making sure floors are covered incase of spills, protecting tables (incase of spills), making sure audio and visual stuffs are all working correctly, stocking the tables with everything the students will need etc etc etc, but the day itself is usually hassle-free and there's always a lovely sense of calm (courtesy of Papa G).


I like helping Lin at her seminars, my roles are to greet everyone at registration, operate the sound board whilst Lin (and guests, if there are some) provide worship, play background music during the creative times, help Linette with her timing, near the end take photos of everyone's finished peice(s), help pack up and just generally be there for support for her. It's a long day, but usually an enjoyable one. I haven't seen anyone go away dissapointed yet, which means we (and Papa) must be doing something right. :-)


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We were also fortunate enough to watch the legendary Kilmarnock fireworks display this year too - Linette, Francesca, Oli, Callum and I all wrapped up nice n warm and headed on down to Kilmarnock's Kay park and got there in good time to see the display. I'd heard tale that they were thinking of cracking down on the budget a little at the Killie display, but you'd never have known it as just when you thought "ok, that must be it" then something else would go off - amazing.


I think going to the fireworks displays might be a hassle to some and it is in a way, but when you're there and you see these magical displays then it suddenly reminds you "oh yeah!, that's why we come - 'cause it's just AMAZING!" - ANYone can watch fireworks from their house or on the telly, but you actually have to be there IN PERSON for the message to hit you. I don't know anyone who, when at a display, can say "what a load of crap, wish I'd stayed in". There's something magical about being at a fireworks display that turns (or SHOULD turn) you back into an 8 year old again.


Going to a fireworks display is a little like having not been at church for a while, it's easy to get lethargic and go "auch, ah'll not bother, church'll always be there next week, next month, next year won't it?..." but it's only when you go back you go ""oh yeah!! - THAT's why we come! - 'cause God is just AMAZING!" and you know what? - that's when you realise you've been missing the most amazing fireworks you'll EVER see.


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Men's group has reconveined lately, which has been good, we're taking time to listen to the Jack Frost sermons - quite different to the John Eldredge 'Wild At Heart' dvd seminars which we'd been concentrating on, but they're good too, just in a different way. I'd lost faith a little in the men's group - I'd seen the numbers dwindle each week after we'd finished the John Eldredge dvds and even though we'd been praying and seeing some amazing things happen the numbers had become half to a quarter of what they had been before.  


I took it quite personally as I couldn't understand why some guys who had said "this group is great!" / "this group is amazing!" etc etc weren't now coming anymore.  I'd put a lot of enthusiasm into gathering the guys every week and there's only so long you can do that and watch numbers dwindle before you go "err, wtf?..." y'know?... After some council I reached the conclusion that not everyone is where I am in my faith and you can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, so after that I chilled a bit more with my possible over-reactions. I'm now at the point of "hey, if you can come that's a bonus and if you can't then bless you, we hope to see you again", that's given me a lot more piece of mind.  I'm also at the point where I feel "hey, you know what? - I'm gonna let YOU guys drive the bus, I'd prefer to be a passenger tonight" - I think it's a healthy thing to know when to let other troops do the work.


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Church has been great too, last week Richard started the meeting with a bold question - to ask yourself "why am I here?..."  Ho! Ho! you could literally SEE people squirming in their seats! - Here was our pastor really cutting out the shit and getting to the heart of the matter - are we just there to drinks tea, eat some biscuits and leave none the wiser or are we here to really be with God?...


I LOVE it when Rich gets all fired up, it's good to see his baws come out every now and then (not literally though, lol!) I love to see our leadership challenge the congregation (myself included), it's good for them to be seen as accountable and it's good for the congregation to wake up too.  After that Yolanda spoke on how we should and could try to be more Christ-like - what we can do and what we shouldn't be doing. Again, that made a few people squirm, but Yol stuck her ground and kept going. That's a tough sermon to preach 'cause no one likes being reminded of their possible short comings and some offence is sure to be had by those embarrassed, but Yol presented it in such a way so's not be judgemental - well done missis. Yolanda is a great preacher and MAN you should be in the room when she roars sometimes - JINGS!!  :-0


This week we had Andy Hall back fresh from Bethel and his sermon was about our dreams and aspirations and God's dreams for us amongst other things. Ooft, it was a good sermon - wanna hear one of the things he said? he said "God had a dream and wrapped your body around it" - now what do you think o THEY apples?! - wowee, powerful stuff. We're so blessed to have Andy as one of the leaders, he might not be the world's best interactive person, but golly gosh has God annointed him in his speeches. Andy has this amazing talent of preaching, but it being real easy to follow, kind of like reading a prophetic d.i.y. manual out loud - brilliant to hear. He's a good man and even though he's not a touchy feely kind of guy like me, I like him a lot.


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This week has had its ups n downs for me - the downs being still no sign of work, having to finally pull my head out of the sand as to debt problems and asking for help. Lin and I have also had a couple of probs, which i won;t go into as they're of a deeply personal nature, but the ups have been that we've seen the enemies hand using those problems against us and trying to distance us from each other and then combatted against him. 


F ME, it MUST get boring for him CONSTANTLY getting beaten by the lord -he's been fighting since the dawn of time and STILL hasn't come to the conclusion "I'm wasting my time". Yeah, he's savvy and yeah, he's consistent (OH, how we KNOW he's consistent!), but for feck's sake GET THE MESSAGE LOSER - F OFF!!


Ooft, got a bit fired up there, did you see it? - lol. Well, nae wunner! - wee red bas##rd really does ma nut in.     ;-)


Let's keep fighting and doing HIS nut in folks ok?...


Blessings to you and yours


- Beef X