Talkin 'Bout A Revolution

Bank Holiday tales...

Somewhat on impulse, I dived on a train at the weekend up to Derby. (Forgetting quite how far North it actually is!) I had a great time, listening to my friend Martin play a gig, chilling out with friends, and checking out some lovely scenery.

The Prayer of… Complacency?

Sitting in our little cell group, one of my closest friends haltingly spoke up as we settled down to pray. ‘Vicki’, he asked, ‘Now prayer’s your job, well… do you ever find yourself struggling to engage with it? Does it ever become commonplace or boring?’

Worthing, wandering & worrying

This weekend I travelled down to Worthing, to meet and spend some time with a friend. It was really nice to get a change of scenery, and to see a new place. We walked along the beach on Saturday afternoon, it was very very breezy but it felt like it blew some cobwebs away.

Gravity

Walking home from work yesterday, I overheard a conversation between a mother and her little son that really spoke to me.

He had been leaning forward in his buggy, so much so that he had overbalanced and fallen out. He was unhurt, but you could see he hadnt understood why he had fallen.

An encouraging day

Awww, today I have been calling round all the salvation army churches in the UK (there's about 800, so far I've only rang about 10!) to find out what is happening with prayer there - who are the pray-ers, and if there are any ways we can resource them.

It's been encouraging because people seem genuinely friendly and pleased to chat about it, and I've been hearing some great stories... I've got another 780+ phonecalls to make over the next few weeks, but if they are all as encouraging as the few I've done today, I will be grinning from ear to ear by the end.

I think I may be creating work for myself though, as everyone so far has said they'd like more creative prayer ideas... fun fun! :-)

Unforced rhythms of grace

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Matthew 11:28-30

Ponderings...

“While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end!”

When you grow up in the Salvation Army, this is one of the quotes you hear really often, it's almost inprinted onto ones memory by the time you reach teenage years. I've always been really moved by it, but a couple of things have happened over the last couple of months that have really bought it to our attention.

Post Roots

We got back from ROOTS at about 11.30pm, and after sleeping in till late today, I wanted to scribble down some of my initial thoughts, because i know, soon, that 'normal life' will take over again and maybe I will forget some of these fragments of brilliance from the conference.