Army Of The Lord

Tomorrow at midday, the YWAM gathering starts. It's all very exciting as this is the first Ywam gathering I've been to. I'm really looking forwards to meeting people from some of the other bases across England. The last few days have been very busy for The King's Lodge as there are over two hundred people expected to be coming on Friday and staying through until Sunday. The kitchens, for example, have been organized pandemonium. I know this because I've been working in the hospitality department for the last few days and that's right next to the kitchen. So I've been walking past that a number of times a day. The chefs have already started preparing the meals. The cold room has been quite exciting. Today I was shocked at the amount of milk I saw in there (to view a photo to see what I mean, click here) when I was going to get the fruit for one of the hospitality baskets (which are part of the welcome packets for the rooms). I don't think I've seen so much milk outside of the supermarket. The King's Lodge has a really big kitchen, as they're making food to feed many people.

I don't think I'm going to have time to write another post before we leave for London so I'll write about my experience at King's Lodge and what next week should be looking like. Well, I've had an amazing time here. It's been great being in the country again and being able to experience how a larger base runs and operates. It's also been really great speaking with people who have been to Uganda, who understand the craziness of life out there. There's also a deep sense of fulfillment that I get when I'm able to serve practically like we have been able to since we arrived last week. It's hard to believe that we've been here for six days now. It seems like we've been away from the big city for a lot longer than just six days. Part of me is looking forwards to returning to our base, but another part of me will be sad to leave.

On Sunday afternoon we're heading back to YWAM Urban Key London. We're getting straight into things as a film seminar is starting on Monday and we're going to be a part of that, I'm not sure of the details of what's happening there as we've been away from base for almost a week now and . I'll post about that when I find out about that. I'm not sure what to expect because I've not done anything with filming beyond taking still photographs for my own pleasure. I have a vague idea of how a movie is made, from what I've seen over the last few with the media projects we've been working on, and from the 'behind the scenes' of some of my favourite films, like The Lord of the Rings (problem with my doing that is that I now know too much of how they made those films, though it still means that they're my favourite movies). As I said I'll post as soon as I can with any news in regards to what we're going to be doing next week and the weeks there after.

The captions: the first photo is of The King's Lodge, this is the front of the building, which looks onto the road; the second photograph is of the ground in front of The King's Lodge, this is where the inflatables were set up; and the third photograph is the view of the drive, which runs up to the main entrance.

Until next time.

At The King's Lodge

We're coming to the end of our first weekend of mini-outreach at YWAM The King's Lodge. It's really great being here and being able to be a part of the base's 30th anniversary celebrations. The schedule has been a bit busy, but on the whole it's been good being able to celebrate with the community. For those of you who don't know about The King's Lodge, it was a school for boys (a boarding school, if I remember correctly, but don't quote me on that). The school's most famous student went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, who crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. YWAM England bought the building in 1984, paying a deposit of £1 (and later on paid the full amount). The King's Lodge run a number of DTS's a year and they also run the  nine month long SBS (School of Biblical Studies), which was started at this base, and the BCC (Bible Core Course). The SBS was run at Heidebeek, where I did my DTS back in September 2012 (almost two years ago).

Backing up a few days, we had some schedule changes preceding our coming to The King's Lodge (the lesson on government was changed to Thursday, so we didn't go to Wembley). We left on Friday morning, early, and arrived at The King's Lodge at around one o'clock in the afternoon (click here my blipfoto for Friday). We spent a good part of the afternoon working towards the weekend's activities. Yesterday (click here for yesterday's blipfoto), we were involved in different activities, there was three of us who were working with the Wildfire team (the name of King's Kids in England), in the Family Zone. It did rain an awful lot yesterday, so we had to move locations. I think it must have rained through most of the morning and into the afternoon. There were some inflatables that couldn't be used for most of yesterday because of the danger caused by the rain (click here for today's blipfoto and an image of what one of the inflatables look like). Today, thankfully, we had a light drizzle this morning and that's been about it. Yesterday was very long, but worth it. Today's been quieter. I worked in the kitchens, helping with the dishes and whatever else needed doing, like peeling carrots and taking the skins of onions. I also ran back and forth, making coffee for the kitchen staff. It was fun.

Tomorrow's more or less free. We're gonna do some stuff as a team. At the base in London, we've been praying for the UK, so we're gonna continue that here. We're also gonna watch two films together (one in the morning and one after dinner). We brought these films with us because we are currently looking at their messages in different aspects of our lessons.

The photo captions: photo one is the view from the room I'm in, photo number two needs a little explaining: we made name tags before those in the local area came. As you can see in the picture, I wrote my name "Raquel" because if I wrote "Rachel" on it then people would call me "Raytchel," which isn't my name. Then the photo on the left is of Notting Hill Community Church, where we have the community meetings on Thursday nights. This photo was taken the night before we left for The King's Lodge. I've been too busy to take an awful lot of photographs of this beautiful building, but I'll try to do that tomorrow afternoon, so I should be able to add them in my next post.

Outreaches

Today marks the beginning of a new week at YWAM Urban Key, London. I was on work duties on Sunday and yesterday. All that means is that one of the other students and I were responsible for taking care of the welfare of the house. So we did the cleaning, the food preparation and at least one of us was in the house for the weekend, in case someone knocked at the door and to answer the phone when it went off. It was quite relaxing being able to do something practical as it helped me thinking a few things through. It was very quiet here because the household isn't very big, and as people tend to come and go, the house wad very quiet for most of the weekends, which is really nice, actually.

With the beginning of a new week, it's hard to believe that the school is currently going into it's sixth week of lectures. This means that the lecture phase is half way through it's total length (which is three months). I'm sure some of you are wondering where both the mini-outreach and the two month outreach at the end of the lecture phase, will be taking place.

I'll start with the mini-outreach. This Friday, the six LMD (School of Leadership and Ministry Developement) will be travelling to YWAM, King's Lodge, Nuneaton by bus, for about ten days. We're going to be working with the base to prepare for the YWAM conference for England. This means that all the English YWAM bases will be gathering for the last weekend in May, for a conference and to fellowship together. Beyond that, I can't tell you much more because that's all I currently know about what we're going to be doing.

About our two month outreach, which starts on June 24th, we're still not totally sure where the outreach is going to be going, though it looks like we're going to be involved in the Wildfire Outreach (the name of the King's Kids outreach team) at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. It's something I'm really looking forwards to, partly because I love working with kids and I can't wait to see what God is going to do, but also because I've got strong Scotish blood in my veins. I'll be sure to write and let you all know what's happening in this regard, when I know for sure what exactly is going to be happening.

A longer update will be coming over the next few days, so stay posted.

A Life Changed

It's the end of another busy week. It's been an unusual week because we were having lessons with the DTS. The topic was a heavy one. Freedom in Christ.

Like in this picture*, our lives can be covered in padlocks, with the keys lost in the river below, and God wants to take them off. He's the only one with the master key. For me, personally, He did take one off on Friday morning, but it's not one most people would expect. Deliverance sessions have spooked me out for a while. I'm not sure if it's because I grew up in Africa, where "deliverance sessions" can happen on an almost weekly basis in local churches or because of my own experiences in different conferences I've been to. On Friday I was fully prepared, and had the intension, to walk out on the session if I thought I couldn't handle what was happening to the other students. However God had other ideas for me. One of the staff asked us to go forwards if we were apprehensive or scared about what might happen and kneel down. She then prayed, and asked us to hand our fears over. After I did this, I returned to the back of the room and sat down. The idea of leaving still flickered across my mind, even though the apprehension in my heart had gone. Then the staff member who'd prayed sat down next to me and prayed for me (some others prayed for me as well, but staying and being there was the biggest part for me). It was like a lock had been taken off my heart. God was in control, no matter what happened around me. He wanted me to concentrate on Him and not on what was happening around me. It was lifechanging. It was what I needed. To be honest, if I'd walked out I knew that a part of me would want to come back, yet if I stayed in the deliverance session, there was another part of me that wanted desperately to leave. I'm so glad I stayed!!!

*This photo was taken outside the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, on the bridge about the River Thames. You're probably knew about that famous bridge in Paris, over the Seine, and weren't of the few padlocks here in London.

Freedom

Things have been crazy over the last few days, hence my silence on here. I've wanted to post sooner but haven't been able to because of the business of the schedule this week and because I've been so tired when I get into bed. We're already into our fifth full week of lectures. It's surprising how fast time flies when you're really, really busy, as busy as we have been since the school started. Due to the nature of this week's lectures, the LMD (the School of Leadership and Ministry Development) and the DTS (the Discipleship Training School) are having lessons together in Harlesden at the Salvation Army's buildings. The schedule for this week has been changed quite a lot due to the amount of time it takes walking to Harlesden from Dartmouth Road. Walking fast, it'll take an about forty-five minutes or so to get there, but somehow it usually takes longer. Walking has been rather refreshing as it gives me an opportunity to wake up more in the mornings before the lectures begin as I'm not really a morning person.

If you've read my previous post then you'll know that on Saturday morning I went to Dunstable to spend the weekend with my cousins. After a somewhat dramatic journey with having to change Tube trains three times instead of two, and being on a train that kept stopping  because of signaling problems I finally got to Luton, then caught the bus and made it to my cousins' place with moments to spare. We then went off to see Lindsey preform in an amazingly done musical on Saturday. Lindsey had such a natural talent for the stage and has so much enthusiasm. To me, it seems like she's so at home on the stage and just loves being up there. My aunt and uncle (who are Lindsey's grandparents) were there, as well her godparents, and we had seats right at the front of the auditorium. After that we went back to the house and had a lovely spread. It was lovely. On Sunday, I was able to relax all day, which was really nice. Then in the evening I get a message from one of the school staff, saying that there was a parliament prayer meeting and that I needed to go (I won't disclose what I thought about that, at least I can say the meeting went well). They'd only just heard that all the LMD students had to be there. So when I came back to London I dropped my duffle bag at the house, grabbed my passport and headed back into London city.

I spent all of Monday meandering through London. It was a lot of fun being on my own, actually. I love being around people but sometimes I just need a break. The staff knew I was going to meet them outside Westminster Underground Station at 6, so I went down Oxford Street and bought some clothes. I also Skyped a friend from a Starbucks. It was short, and the quality wasn't great, but it was nice talking to her. I then travelled over to Westminster and spent a few hours sitting in one of the gardens there  reading and catching up on my diary/journal writing, before meeting the school at the station.

Being something of a history nut,  I was so excited to be in the Houses of Parliament. One of the other girls and I had so much fun talking about the history of the great hall, where we were waiting for about half an hour. It was incredible because the building was finished in about 1099 by William II (otherwise known as William Rufas). It has gone through many changes over time and was badly damaged by a fire in 1834. The great hall has seen trials of great men, like William Wallace, who was one of the leaders of Scotish war of independence (roughly 1297-1298). The great hall also heard their verdicts, for William Wallace, that meant execution, and thus, on 23 August 1305, he was hung, drawn and quartered (for the sake of my more sensitive readers, I won't go into the gory details surrounding that, but I'm sure you'll get a nice description if you checked Wikipedia).

Till next time, dear reader!

To Be An Empty Jar

I hadn't actually planned to post anything until Monday, at the earliest as I'm currently with family for the weekend, as my cousin, Lindsey, had a performance today. However, something big has happened Thursday night and I can't resist writing about my experience. It's the experience of when I allowed God to use me in an incredible way, in the lives of other people both when I was travelling back to the house last night and at the YWAM community meeting in Notting Hill. Yes, I was able to share some things that He'd put on my heart during the meeting and I was able to put that into action on my way home. Don't worry nothing scary or dangerous happened!! Just God awesomely being able to use me because I let Him! Here's what happened:

Every Thursday evening YWAM Urban Key meets in a church in Notting Hill area in London. I'd gone by the Tube because I have a Railcard that's been merged with my Oyster card (so I pay about the same as the bus). I had gone to Notting Hill early to have some time alone. Though it meant I was walking around feeling really homesick. Then when the meeting started I was feeling really rotten. Whilst the worship was happened I decided to make the decision to focus on God and He was still able to use me, and speak through me. I shared about how God wants to fill us up with His love, so we can go deeper in Him and being able to give back to others, like the story in the Old Testament (in the Bible) of the widow and her two sons. They'd had to sell everything and when the prophet came to their village they asked him to help them. All they had left was a small jar of oil. The prophet told them to get all the jars they could and fill them. The miracle was that all the jars were filled and only when there was no jars left did the oil run out. To be an empty jar is so that God can refill us.

Then at the end of the meeting God reminded me of something I wanted to share earlier but hadn't felt right about it earlier. The second part of what I shared came from one of devotional readings a few weeks ago. So this is what I shared: someone once wrote this about Jesus: "He who is the Bread of Life began His ministry hungering. He who is the Water of Life ended His ministry thirsting. Jesus hungered as a man, yet fed the hungry as God. He was weary, yet He is our rest. He paid tribute, yet He is the King. He was called a devil, but He cast out demons. He prayed, yet He hears prayer. He wept, and He dries our tears. He was sold for 30 pieces of silver, yet He redeems sinners. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is the Good Shepherd. He gave His life, and by dying He destroyed death."

Then on the way home, I was again going by the Tube. In the station, in Notting Hill, was a man who was begging for people's pennies. As I walked towards the point where I swiped my Oyster card to pay for the journey home, I felt I had to give something to the man. I don't like giving beggars money because I don't know if they're going to buy drugs or alcohol. Earlier I'd bought some oat biscuits so I reached into my bag to get a packet out for him. He thought I was going for my purse, so he asked for change, I said I had something better for him so I gave that to him. I also said "God bless you," which caused him to enquiry if I was a born again Christian and I told him I was. He was shocked and didn't want to take it at first but I said it was for him. He was then very grateful, and wanted a hug, so I gave him a hug. I said I knew that begging was hungry work, which made him laugh. It was so nice to be able to bless someone like that and I spent most of the evening thinking about it. I also prayed for the man on my way home. I was ever so thrilled that I was able to do that.

I was able to come to Dunstable for Lindsey's performance today. I'm really glad I was able to come and that the school staff gave me permission to have the day off to come. Lindsey was amazing today! She's a real actress and has a natural confidence on the stage! I almost missed the performance because of there was problems with the overhead train wires and the signaling. I'd caught the train to Luton from St. Pancras. So I ended up sitting in the train at Harpenden for a while and then at Luton Airport Parkway. I was ever so happy that I arrived with five minutes to spare before everyone left for the theatre. The train was almost half an hour late, so I was really worried I wouldn't get to to Taz's by the time they left, but I managed to just in time.

All the photos, except the last one, are from my time in Kent with my great aunt. The last one is of the delicious red velvet cake Taz made.

Photo Post

Dear readers, I had an really good weekend with my great aunt. It was great being able to see my cousins again. Not much has happened since my last post, all I've done, really, is visit my great aunt's and I got back yesterday evening, but I thought it would be nice to post some of my photos from the last few days.

Some of the flowers in my great aunt's garden

Some more flowers in my aunt's garden

I love country lanes

More country lanes

The Shard from London Bridge Station

Under An English Sky

Greetings, reader, from cold, dry London. I say 'cold' because I still find the weather a bit too cold for my liking, but I'd better get used to it. The weather has been all over the place, sunny one day and overcast and rainy the next. We have had a change of schedule because of a few very overcast, rainy days this last week. 

It's been another busy week for the LMD students. The house has had more people arrive, so it wasn't as quiet as it was the last time I posted. The base leaders returned from Argentina on Monday, and Mary, the last LMD student to arrive, came yesterday. So there's five of us in the room now, instead of four (there was the four of us before Mary arrived). It's nice that we're all here. I've also had people staying in the house over the weekend. They've come for a Hillsong conference call Colour (if I remember correctly), so are staying with us. I was able to help prepare the room for them.

The last week interesting. We haven't gone out as much as we would or should have done, because the weather hadn't been nice enough to do what we needed to do so we've had a lot of lectures. So here's a quick run down of what we've been up to over the last few days.

You know that on Monday I visited the Tower of London (the first photo in the post is of London Bridge taken from the outer defenses of the Tower). Then on Tuesday we worked on our media projects for most of the morning and went to the Station Road house for some time together in The Lord's presence and on Wednesday we had a government lesson and in the evening we worked with Salvation Army in Harlesden.  We were had our work duties rotated, so I'm now cleaning the living room. On Thursday, for the morning and early afternoon, we were supposed to go out on evangelism but the rain stopped us from going, though it didn't stop us from going to the YWAM community meeting at Notting Hill.

Friday saw us with another change in the schedule. We were supposed to have a small group in the morning, but it was moved to yesterday evening. So we had some extra free time and we then worked on our media project some more. In the afternoon we had another lesson on government. Mary also arrived yesterday afternoon. Today we went to go Harlesden to do some evangelism work with some churches and with Salvation Army. I helped with the face painting, which I really enjoyed. When I went to Brazil I did some face painting, but just turning my team members into clowns, and not so much with children. It was a lot of fun today, especially when one of the girls from Wildfire (the name of YWAM's King's Kids in the United Kingdom) wanted to have a pink hippo on her face. I've never drawn or painted a hippo before in my life, so doing it for the first time on a four year old is a a big step.

This weekend I'm back in Rochester with my great aunt and uncle. I stayed with them when I first arrived in England back in March. This weekend is also a bank holiday weekend in the UK so I'm hoping to be able to spent some time with my cousins. I briefly saw them when I arrived. The reason I couldn't seen a lot of time with them was because they were all working over the weekend or studying for their up coming exams, three out of the four them have their A levels (the last of their high school exams) coming up. These exams are extremely emportant as they decide whether or not a student can get into a certain university course or not. It's very stressful as the papers are different every year and no one (except the exam writers) know exactly what's in the paper until it's opened on the day of the exam.

Well, I gotta go now. Need to leave for another activity. I'll write again soon, so keep an eye out!