History Part 2!

Soo i left the last post at the very first day i went to The F's church.
Lets let you know what happened since. Just to warn you these posts will probably be made up of lots of not so little stories.

this church is indescribable but ill have a good go..

I felt like it was home the first time i meant, it was love and godly devotion and honesty, trust, humility etc.. all wrapped up under one roof. i felt liek i had known the songs for my entire life, i knew these people and just spent the first few weeks getting to know everyone, hearing their stories, seeing their love. its been an amazing time.

i need to tell you about the outreach stuff that this church does because its that, that i really think describes just how amazing these people are!

So the things they do in england include:

Besom, which is an incredible project offering support and guidance for youn gmums and families with housing problems etc.. we paint their new flats, find them furniture, answer questions and offer support and guidance as much as possible. Now i dont know much about besom because that wasnt the project that took my heart.

Bar "N" Bus: Now this is special, essentially its a double decker bus that has been brought/sourced for the church, it has a kind of mini cafe downstairs offering free drinks and snacks, it also houses playstations and music and at the top, at the very front it has a sweet little prayer room. This bus is taken into different towns in our borough as outreach to the youth and the people on the street, taking jesus to the masses. there are some incredible people who work on the bus, they are all great speakers, great communicators and can talk about jesus in terms that young poeple undertsnad, its truely inspirational. Praise God

Then there is the boiler room/prayer house. The place that has taken my heart, the place i lovingly call 217 9as its number 217 on the street). this house is a 3 bed victorian house, detsteched surrounded by garden, set back off the road, its really secluded, which is great because its like a beating heart, with a direct line to god.
217 has 3 bedrooms upstairs and a kitchen, dining room, utility, shower room, art room and prayer room downstairs. which sounds quite normal but its far from it! The big plan for 217 is to have the prayer room used 24 hours a day 7 days a week, which means 168 people dedicating one hour of their time to come and pray to god, to laugh with god, cry with him, scream to him, praise him. they have time to just bare their souls, to say here i am god, i am here for you, this is my heart, be with me, move me, help me, for i love you, i walk with you, let me do your work, be a great example of a disciple of your love. ( i get a bit excited!) So teh prayer room is amazing, its walls are covered with all the outreach stuff we do, and one whole wall has lining paper pinned to it. This wall is teh wailing wall. You can pretty much write whatever you want on it. its free for you to express yourself your love for god, for prayer requests for thanks, its just amazing!
Not only that but they do house meals. So on a monday and tuesday night we cook for around 25 pople (you book in you see) and its free, you can contribute if you wish there are donation pots around. So we can all eat together, share our stories, laugh together and just have a great time. after this we have time for teaching or prayer, and poeple can share as much as they want, they can take the lead if they have ideas etc.. some incredibly creative work has come out of it! things that i will use on my own ministry, i am always learning from the people at 217, always, they are such selfless people, constantly giving to jesus, nothing seems to much, i am blown away by their genorosity and humility, i want to be that way one day!

We also do prayer walking, outreach at a local park, street parties and street cleaning, we go to festivals etc.. Its MIND BOGGOLING

Then there is the work overseas. in almost every corner of the globe there are people giving time love and devotion to spread the word of God, to show them just how much jesus loves them! i wont go into this too much because there will be more on this later!

There was a huge turning point in the church for me. one i will keep referring to as the 13 days because 13 days was all it took for one person to change my life once again. Tina was part of a programme called transit, she was one of 3 young ladies to move into our church not only to learn ministry but to teach as well!Charl and gemma ar ethe other 2 and are just as spectacular but i dont have enough time to write, ill do then next.

Tina is a crazy american. From Chicago very individual and well just crazy.
I first met her one tuesday evening i think, she was teaching after a house meal. She was talking about other cultures and how we must love them just as much as our own christian families. So the excersise for that evening was praying in the style of muslims but to our god obviously. it was a really creative way of almost shocking people into broadening their mind sets, to opening their hearts to change they way they think. she is amazing like that! just comes in and does something that at the time seems like a pin drop but will then be like a bomb going off in your heart 2 days later!
The next time i saw her was one evening we were dropping off alisa after fixing her computer and Charls internet lead thing and all sorts. I had a really bad evening that day and was fuming. But tina being tina had me crying with laughter within minutes, we swapped stories about god ans life and everything we knew, and realised tehre and then that we would be friends for a very long time. She really did teach me that day alone, how to be a 21 year old girl, that it is ok to be silly and playful and "immature" (something i have always struggled with, and soemthing i strugle with every day) From that point on we had 13 dyas to spend together before she went home and they were 13 days of fun and love and laughter and teaching. She just changed so much and made me realise that god loves individuality, and i dont have to be ther perfect stepford houeswife to also be a good christian.

I think thats enough for now as im really really tired. more 2moro!
Praise god today for something amazing he did (that shouldnt be too hard, just open your eyes)


peace out
Miss B x x x