Tuesday 24 September 2013

One week in...

Ok so it been a week. Totally mad to think I have know these guys a week and we are already so close. Had three of the other interns for dinner last night which was good fun and I have moved house. Whoa one thing at a time I am getting away from myself.

Induction to the church.
I am interning at a church as a part of the course helping with the students and the senior citizen outreach. Thursday we were shown around and basically it was information overload but I think I have the essentials like where in the office the tea is kept and how to turn on t he lights in the church. Also there is a fire assembly point... might look that one up later because might be best not to have forgotten where that is... think that was about the measure of it oh and they shared the church's vision which is kinda important - well very important and I have that written down somewhere.

Job hunting.
To be honest Job hunting feels intensely futile as much as I have claimed it for Christ and prayed about it and everything. I have handed out so many CVs to shops and places  although I drew the line at shops that were not of a kingdom vision ie. betting shops and the like. I have filled in loads of application forms. I am just praying that I get a part time job soon because there are a lot of things to pay for and I am hoping my resources will stretch till I get a job and a pay check.

Sunday
Church was amazing and we had great fun they introduced us all to the church. There was another girl there from my small town who was on a uni course here so that was interesting although we didn't go to the same school. I came to the realisation that not only everyone who was there when I was at school had left but many had been born since I started in year 7. That is scary. We had good fun after church together too although I missed the trip to the pub which was sad but there is always next Sunday.

Today
Today was our second teaching session and they got this amazing woman of God in to talk about our identity in Christ and it was amazing she was so prophetic and inspired.  I now have this list of words of scripture to read over myself and my life. We also kind of bonded deeper as a group and this was rounded with prayer ministry training which is always good to be reminded of the good practise of that. I love praying for people  its great to get alongside people even if nothing really happens its great just to be with them as they encounter God. We had practical and it was great. See you can't speak with authority in Jesus name like 'cough be gone in the name of Jesus' if you haven't rooted your identity in him first.

I am so excited for the year ahead its been such an amazing week Thank you God for the amazing week I have had. Loving this.

If you would like to pray for anything please pray

- pray for those people in Kenya in that shopping centre.
- pray that God gives us energy and vision for the year ahead.
- pray for those who are Christians and can't meet together because the country they live in persecutes the church.
- Pray that I will find a job.
-  Pray that someone donates us furniture because I am on an air bed and I am not sure how long my back can cope with that.

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Every journey begins with a single step...

Hey

So if you don't know me I am Allie I am in my early twenties and for the next year (well 9 months) I am going to be doing the discipleship year. I just thought well that instead of a prayer letter  or update thing that I always fail to keep up. I would do this blog because well blogs are cool and I know there are going to be some amazing things going to happen this year and it seems selfish not to share part of this year with you guys especially my amazing friends and family.

Today was the first day and I am going to try to share with you some of the stuff that I am being challenged on and some of what God is doing here. I am not going to say where I am because in many ways it doesn't matter. I guess also if you stumble across this whilst you are praying in consideration of the discipleship year it is kind of easier not to know where I am because then you can decide for yourself.

So today was the first day  it was good I enjoyed meeting all the new people I will be sharing this experience with including the girls whom I intend to be sharing a house with. Anyway everyone was lovely and I was genuinely surprised about the mix. I think this is because like every other Christian girl I automatically assume it will be majority female and it wasn't. It was about even, some older than me mostly younger but then I am at the top end of the age bracket. They talked through the course structure and encouraged us to be encouraging and supportive of one another. This of course makes sense because discipleship is done in community its about fellowship building each other up and being accountable.

This was followed by praying through and putting together pointers for what we wanted to get out of the year, what we wanted to work on within ourselves and well what was holding us back.

We  then had bible 101 part 1 which was great talking about the interpretations of the bible. I am a historian ( I studied mostly British history) so the idea of studying the effects and impacts of interpretation was an easy leap for me because that is what history is studying how people make conclusions about the past. It challenged me because I struggle reading the bible like I would anything else I tend to just read it and feel clogged about the context and trying to discern what about it was relevant to me now and all that so I am hoping this module will help. Possibly also for spesifics my new ESV study bible which I bought with my birthday money.

 I hope I didn't talk to much I mean I probably didn't come across to the others as a total wierdo they don't know me yet I suppose. I do that when I am nervous but everyone was in the same boat so maybe they will put it down to that.

Anyway signed the tenancy agreement on our house today. Very exciting and bought my one set text (apart from clearly the bible) this term.

Brilliant first day although I am totally shattered.


Prayer requests
- Please pray that God gives me a Job. I don't want anything fancy just enough to live on.
- Please pray for all of us nationally on the discipleship year.
- Please pray for Syria- they kind of need it.