A Day in the Life

I was inspired this time to talk about an ordinary day in the life of a Sheffield missionary children's pastor. It may not be as exciting as previous blogs, but you'll get to see where I live, work, and play. Above is my bedroom. I live in the top floor of a terrace house. Terrace houses are kind of like duplexes, except usually attached on both sides to other houses. Our house is attached on one side and then there is an alleyway on the other. But the attics of all the houses on our street are attached, so I got to hear when the neighbours decided to renovate. Many attic rooms have a sink, especially since there is usually only one loo/toilet/bathroom. So I get the sink in my room. And the third photo is my pet Gerber daisy. I've managed to keep it alive and reflowering for 4 whole months. Exciting, I know. Living in the attic has it's ups and downs. I have a great view of the city and my own little getaway, but I also hear the rain and wind. Mostly, I think it's great. Sometimes I hit my head on the slanted roof...

These are the stairs that go down from my room to the middle floor. People here call it the second floor, but in America we would call it the first floor. I am proud to say I have only slipped down the stairs once, but it can get a little tricky especially whilst carrying awkwardly shaped, heavy objects. The next photo is our loo, and the photo is tiny because the loo is tiny. But we have a full tub, which is great. Making your way down to the first floor is another set of stairs. I have friends whose stairs are steeper than ours, but not many. They were built at a time when people's feet were smaller too, because my whole foot doesn't fit on the step. Normally, I don't use the hand rail when walking down stairs, but I do for my steps at home. Gotta love pink carpet!

And this is my lovely kitchen. You'll notice that the washer and dryer make their home in the kitchen. I'm so thankful for the pair because many houses don't have dryers, or they have a washer/dryer. One of my teammates has one and she affectionately refers to it as the 'washer/less wetter.' This is where I come for a cuppa tea or to grab my breakfast and lunch on the way out the door to work. The picture on the wall was done for me by some of the children in the church, a sort of prophetic, feed my sheep piece of art. The last photo is my back garden. It's pretty good size, and I've laid out watching the stars before. Previous tenants have used it as a fireworks launching pad as there are no fireworks restrictions in the UK, especially on Bonfire Night.

This is the office where I work on most days. We were very blessed to get it, right in the city center with good sized rooms for uni lifegroups and prayer nights. I decorated the staircase at Christmas with holly and ribbon! And the loo was previously painted a horrid turquoise and teal, with avocado fixtures. I rescued it with some brown and cream paint. Slightly odd to mention the loo twice in a blog, I promise I won't be mentioning it any time in the near future.

At the top of the stairs is the conference room where I spend the majority of most Thursday mornings for staff meeting. Next door is the prayer room, where on Mondays we prepare for treasure hunting and on Wednesdays we have a prayer lunch hour. This Friday we'll be in there for a Good Friday time of worship and prayer. And last but not least is the office room. The sun shines in on my desk, which is looking typically neat and tidy ;). It's the first one in the room, right next to the radiator. I like where I work!
Things are otherwise going smoothly. I found a climbing gym, and got to climb a 15 meter wall. Yikes! But it was really fun; I even seconded and did a lead climb. And, I had to remember how to tie a figure eight. With the coming of spring, spirits are lifting. The whole nation is praying for revival and we are gearing up for a mission trip to...Sheffield. That means a focus on evangelism in the sermons, and this week the kids are learning about the Easter story in the context of salvation. Then we're making heart books, so they can share with their friends. Last week at the prayer night the kids got in front and tore, punched through, and generally shredded some of the strongholds on the nation - alcoholism, spiritual relativism, teen pregnancy, and materialism to name a few. It was awesome and powerful. God is doing great things for us, and we are filled with joy!

Haircuts and Hilarity

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  Are you wearing green?  I am, but I'm not yet sure whether that is just an American tradition.  I haven't seen many Brits sporting the color.  Today it's a bit gray outside, but for the past week it has been sunny and fairly warm, with blue skies.  There's a market set up on the main walking street in honor of St. Pat, and the delicious aromas wafting from the food booths were enough to mildly distract our group of treasure hunters yesterday.  

I don't know if I've told you about treasure hunting yet.  Simplified it's waiting on the Lord for clues about people we expect to find out on the streets and then going out and finding and hopefully praying for them.  It's been about 8 weeks since we started, and God is doing really cool things.  The first week was very slow and we got our share of rejections from people who can't think of a single thing they may need prayer for, not a single thing.  But God is beginning to show us that He is moving.  This past week we got to pray for a woman who'd been in a car accident and a pair of international students from Hungary and Japan.  It's so fun to see God lead us to people who are in need.  Still waiting to see immediate healing, but God is good and faithful, so it's coming.

 (Mmm Chili's)

God moves in other ways as you know.  I went to get my first English haircut and had the most interesting conversation with my hairdresser, James.  He was intrigued about the church and what we are and aren't allowed to do.  He asked if I was allowed to get married, or marry more than one fellow, or if I needed to wear special clothing, if foreigners were allowed....he wanted to start a controversial discussion.  I think in the end God just gave me a bigger heart for him.  James ended up sharing that he was recently divorced and didn't really speak with his daughter.  I think I may go back to him to have my hair cut again just to be able to tell him that God loves him.  

Another first for me in Sheffield was my very first children's ministry interest meeting.  I'm really excited to get to know and work with the fifteen odd man and women who came to the meeting!  Having been praying for a team of people to join me in reaching the children, I was pretty overwhelmed by the response.  I now have just over a dozen people who have a heart to see children experience God so powerfully while they're children that they will never want to turn away.  Now I just have to figure out the organizing and training.  I think in this journey I'm learning that everything seems to take a little longer when you're church planting.  But praise God that I'm am not alone!  

(Big Ben in the sunlight) 

I felt that more than ever at this weekend's Worship Central conference in London.  People all over the UK are feeling the call to prayer, fasting, and worship this year.  One member of our team went to a prayer meeting that was host to leaders from every denomination in the UK, and they spent five hours repenting and praying for the United Kingdom.  Powerful!  This past Saturday the worship team (I qualify under the status of children's worship pastor ;)) travelled down to London (no, not to visit the queen :)) to attend Worship Central.  Imagine nearly 2,000 people passionate about worship and leading people into the heart of worship.  We got to eat a meal at Chili's, too.  Present were Peter Grieg - the 24-7 prayer guy, Tim Hughes, Al Gordan, Ben Cantalon, praying with drumming, prophetic rapping...heaven is going to be such a cool place.  

Let's see, what else have I been getting myself into - I list because it's nearly time to sign off.  Training for the Sheffield half-marathon, getting burgled, tube surfing (pronounced tyube), starting a new unit with the kids on worship, having fun at the office observing my co-workers sporting attire from the dress-up bag, playing at the coolest park in Sheffield with built-in trampolines, sampling food from the first Sheffield Market of the year...life has it's ups and its downs.  In it all, GOD IS GOOD.  May He bless you and keep you in His kindness wherever you may be in your day!

Loads of love!