Sore Knees and Boston Teas ...

What a clever title eh?
I came up with that myself and i will explain its meaning. Last Wednesday was Grosvenor Church men's 5 - 10 a side football. In this game i soon realised how poorly out of condition i was, it was atrocious! However I still had full confidence in my identity as a world class football player and thought it was easily possible for me to sprint towards a pitch dividing net, gently tap the ball out of it and continue to score a game defining goal! In reality what happened was my foot was caught in the net i fell down in front of the whole pitch of competitive Christian men and scraped my knee rather nastily. This has consequently lead to the swelling and eventual beginning of scabbing over after a week on (treatment thanks to my host Chris). Therefore that explains the 'sore knees'.

Boston Teas, this refers to a lovely Cafe called the Boston Tea Party, which I have vistited many a time this week! I even decided it was worth getting a loyalty card for it!

So overall (despite the knee incident) a very good week, really enjoyable and i have had a good time. Feels weird to think that there is only a week and a bit left now, this UK placement has gone past incredibly quickly!

So Hannah earlier today had the sheer nerve to claim that her blog was better because it had more 'God stuff' in it! So in response i am going to drop the verse which has been on my mind all week. 2 Corinthians 5 v 21 - "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God". After watching Fruitcake and Ice Cream by Louie Giglio, I have been thinking about this verse all the time! I think it is amazing, for a God who hates sin to send a son to be our sin and then to not finish there, but to at the cross exchange our sin for Jesus' righteousness, it just blows my mind! I have been able to do some talks to children and youth this week about whatever i wanted and i really wanted to use this verse, but thought that the word righteousness may go straight over primary school children's heads.

Thanks for reading.
James

Too Many Trips to Tesco's?

Many of you may be wondering what work in Grosvenor I have been doing. Well I have had over the last couple of weeks done about 5 or 6 trips to Tesco's often getting biscuits for the Grosvenor youth events but also equally often just because Paul or I fancy some chilli and pork pies.

So this last week has been so busy, over the last week i have been busy almost every night! I can't believe how busy I have been, even though I have had 2 and a half days off a week!

With Paul, I have mainly prepared stuff for the Flame youth group (which is school years 7 - 9) and for the local schools Christian union, I have not prepared much for the A2J youth group (school years 10 - 13) but I have bonded with that group really well. Hannah and I on our days off have been doing half a day studying the Bible, also on our days off we have visited some areas of Devon, so far we have been to Woolacombe and Dartmoor. On Monday I had my first session with my mentor James "Gib" Gibson, we instantly clicked and we get on really well!

So far so good, I am really enjoying myself despite having to attend a 4 hour child safety seminar today.

Blog again soon
James

Hello Barnstaple/Bickington

So after a rather short stop at home for the weekend, I have arrived in Barnstaple for my second stage of the First Serve program. I am staying with a lovely couple called Russ and Chris Beresford, who live outside of Barnstaple in Bickington. After dropping Hannah off at Suzie and Nick's (her host home) I managed to very successfully get completely lost in Bickington. I ended up stranded outside of a funeral directors until Chris came to the rescue in her classic Jaguar car and navigated me to the right house!!

I have just had dinner with Chris and Russ, which was a delicious kedgeree and I learnt all about their passion for fixing up classic cars and their connections to Bedford. It has been really nice to be welcomed so warmly into their home and I am looking forward to my month here! I start at Grosvenor church tomorrow morning so I will meet the team then.

I have been told that I am needed for the Beresford quiz team for University Challenge and a Question of Sport tonight, so I must dash, but thought I would get a cheeky blog in before it started!!

Keep in touch!
James

Tilsley Ends ...

It is 3 days until my stint at Tilsley Bible college is over!! I have had such a wonderful time here and people have made me feel so welcome!! The lectures have been quite intense and then getting back into the swing of writing essays for the college has not been easy!! It also doesn't help that the GLO students keep us up late watching movies, chatting or playing ping pong. All in all it has been such a lovely time here and I am going to miss living in this wonderful community!!

I have found I have been really challenged at Tilsley college about certain things.Before coming here I was worried that not having Brethren routes would mean that I would be seen as wrong to have a different theology about certain aspects of Christianity. However I have really been challenged about my judgements before I get to know people. My worries have been completely wrong. Everyone here is so respectful to everyone's different view and I have actually found that some people have a very similar theology to me.

I'll be blogging again soon
James

The First Stage

The First Stage of my First Serve mission began on the 11th of February 2013!!

I travelled up to Motherwell, near Glasgow with my girlfriend Hannah to attend to Tilsley Bible College on the 11th and we were introduced to the sights of Motherwell!
At Tilsley, Hannah and I have joined with two girls, Alison and Deborah who are also doing the First Serve programme. Along with our fellow FirstServers we have incorporated with the Tilsley College students who are on their year long Bible study course. There are 11 Tilsley students excluding those doing the FirstServe at the college who are from 8 different nations.

Since arriving on the 11th Hannah and I have formed lots of friendship with the main course students and I am having a really wonderful time!! I have been placed in a luxurious double bedroom all to myself which is quite a treat!! Our typical day at Tilsley begins at 8:55 for Devotions (which usually take a form of worship and a small look at God's word) then at 9:20 we start lectures. There are small breaks in between lectures which lead up to Lunch at 1:15 or 1:30. We then have the afternoon free, however the core students are often slaving away with assignments during this time so us First Servers have chosen to focus on an assignment we have been given to write during this time also. At 5:45 we have dinner and then we keep the evening free for relaxation or other activities.

From the 12th - 15th we had lectures focussing on Wisdom and Poetic literature within the Bible, specifically looking at Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes and lectures on the History of Christian Mission in which we looked at the work of Christian Missionaries in the past such as William Carey and Hudson Taylor. It has been so interesting to learn more about these wonderful books of the Bible and to explore more of what the theology behind such books is. From the 16th untill present we have been participating in a Mission Orientation Programme in which we have more lectures per day and the subject is focussed around Mission overseas and how to work for God overseas abroad effectively!

Sorry that this has been such a long first blog, i am sorry if i have bored some people and i promise to keep the next blog much shorter!

James