It's almost the end of another week for us, and our day off is just around the corner. This last week has been better than the week before, in terms of energy levels, on my part. Also some of the things we were involved in were really good. For example, Tuesday evening's time with God was really awesome. We went over to the Station Road house to join the DTS for a time of worship. For me, personally, God was confirming to me, again, what He's gifted me with, and as I've stepped out in that, He's opened the door to allow me to grow more in that. This particular gift is something that has been coming up in my life a few times over the last year or so. Yet, each time The Lord confirms it to me, it catches me by surprise. This is because each time it happens I don't expect it to happen the way it does, or even that it's gonna happen like that at all. The Lord does work in mysterious ways.
Wednesday evening saw us in Harlesden again, working with the Salvation Army. We with the DTS and a table of sandwiches, pastries and hot drinks, which was placed under the clock that stands on an island surrounded by roads, near the Station Road house (where the DTS students live). I went on a prayer walk through the area with one of the other LMD students, Melissa. We decided to soak the area in prayer so spent about an hour or so praying a blessing and asking that God would give those in conversations with people to have the right words to give the person. There were a few people we stopped to invite to go to the table under the clock for a hot drink, because it was drizzling. After that we decided to have fried chicken and chips, which is a big favourite amongst the Dartmouth Road house. About a year ago, after my own DTS, I chose to cut carbohydrate, (so all types of potatoes, rice, all wheat products (bread, lasagna, piazza, cakes etc)), also deep fat fried foods, out of my diet, for health reasons. Since I made that choice I've found that when I have eaten carbs I've not felt totally well afterwards, it's hard to explain because it's not really wheat intolerance, but it sure does feel a bit like that. So I was given some money to get some soup, we then went home by bus. So whilst everyone else was enjoying their chicken and chips I was quite happily eating my tinned tomato soup (which I heated up in a bowl) and honey yogart.
Then on Thursday we went to Wembley to do a long prayer walk through Wembley area and to pray for different things that are based there. Then after lunch we walked through the Indian area and went into a Hindu temple. Almost as soon as we set foot in the Indian area a heaviness descended on me and it got worse when we went into the temple, and because of this I chose not to enter the building. I then felt I needed to get off the compound, so stood outside, praying. I then began to get a headache. This headache progressed and got worse as we headed to Station Road for the community meeting. We'd arrived quite early, and I had wanted to update my blog then, but the headache was so strong by this point that I had be totally motionless for it to left. It decided the moment I moved my head. I took some medication and then thought I wouldn't join the community meeting, even though the headache was starting to lift a little, however just as the meeting was starting I felt that I had to join in and worship God. By the end of the meeting the headache was totally gone.
On Friday, we had a values exam, to see how many of the eighteen YWAM values we remembered. Some of the students had done loads of revision for it, but because of the dramas we'd done during my DTS, I didn't find it all that difficult to remember them all. I think it well reasonably well. We also prayed for the DTS and the lecture they were having that morning. We also talked about some ideas for a business project we're going to be working on during the LMD's lecture phase. There are a few really good ideas on the table, we just need to see what happens with these ideas. We also prepared for King's Kids, and had a lesson on how to best work with children. We also looked at the values of King's Kids. It was very insightful. One of the staff is leaving next week to go to the US. So we had a lovely meal, as a school, on Friday evening. We'd just received the largest donation that YWAM Urban Key has had, to date. We had a lovely curry for dinner and there was two types of desert as one of the staff is a vegan, so there was a special desert for her. We then spent some time playing card games and whilst some of the guys played football (American: soccer) on PlaySation.
Today we were with King's Kids all day and then in the early afternoon we went to a shopping mall (the name I have forgotten) to play a game called "Where's Wally". One of the guys, Joël, was dressed like Wally in big glasses, a red, bobble hat and stripped red and white shirt and went walked round the shopping mall. The two teams then had to find him, and try to get a number of cards. The team with the most cards from Wally were the winners. It was good, and included me taking off my shoes, thus walking round bare footed, because my feet were so sore from the ankle boots I was wearing. I'd thought we were coming back to the house, but we didn't have the time.
Photograph captions: Friday lunch in Wimbley, (from left to right) Lindy, Amy, Alina, Melissa, Joël, Niko and Ezequel; a church in Harlesden, near where we had the table; Wimbley National Stadium; Joël and Ezequel, practicing worship for King's Kids; and the guys enjoying some down time in front of a PlayStation, playing football (American: soccer).
Until next time, and thanks for taking the time to read this post!