Monday 18 October 2010

The Danger of Apathy

Right now at this moment in time, I'm feeling angry. I'm not angry at my day, or individuals, but angry about the attitude towards Christianity and Jesus.

I live in Mid-Sussex. It is a beautiful part of the UK and is extremely wealthy. God has richly blessed me and my family and placed us in the heart of the South East. But there's one thing that is wrong with it. People are so comfortable that they have forgotten about true values and are sliding into an abyss of apathy.

No-one gives a monkey's about Jesus because they are too comfortable and have no desire to pursue anything new.

Please don't think I am judging people. I am apathetic about many things and I've only just started to realise that I need to change along with everyone else in order to see a difference and witnessing on the street certainly strips away that feeling of security. But trying to tell people that they need something else instead of what they already have is the hardest task I've ever taken on.

I am certainly not going to give up, I am desperate to see a breakthrough of salvation.

Perhaps one of the maddest things I've noticed recently is Christians who don't openly show that they are with others in pursuing the Kingdom. Just last month I took a random picture of a bacon roll and received more comments about that on Facebook than about the time a boy's leg grew before my eyes in a park in Burgess Hill. The perspective of God is a very blurred one. I'd love to see this change. Wouldn't you?

Last night I decided to do something new and write in my status on Facebook that I wanted to meet my non-Christian friends in the park and introduce them to God. No-one came. I know that people read what I write in my status every day, because those same people comment on all the other random things I write about. Put something to do with God in my status and people just seem to disappear.

I guess what I'm saying is this: if you see another brother or sister in Christ write something about God, get behind it. Non-Christians will read it and will think that maybe there is more to this God thing than meets the eye. What I'm also saying is pray like mad that God sets people free from this can't be bothered mindset.

I hope you are with me on this.

Monday 11 October 2010

Big Decisions

In the last few days I had to make one of those big decisions where you know if you don't follow what God is clearly saying, you may regret it for a long while to come.

I've clearly got to fill you in on what's been going on, so read on if you're interested!

I work as a carpenter for my brother Simon who owns a loft conversion company. We have worked together ever since I felt God tell me I needed to pursue carpentry as a career instead of carrying on with journalism, which was my job at that time. I LOVED journalism. It was my world and a very happy one at that. I used to get paid to drive new cars and write about them for lots of different car magazines. Being a man and being paid to drive fast cars is pretty much as good as it gets. But God wanted me out of that and into the family business. The type of business where you get covered in saw dust, soot and water. Not really my cup of tea. I was only persuaded to get into carpentry by the Big G Himself when He gently reminded me that carpentry was His family's trade, too!

Who was I to argue?

Shortly after changing jobs we felt God calling us to a massive move from the UK to Australia. And I knew that carpentry was the only key to this move. God had changed my career before telling me why. Good job it wasn't the other way around!

So I've been doing carpentry ever since that moment in 2004. But in the last year or so I have been suffering with a bad back from all of the stooping over in lofts and I have also been feeling really down about the fact that this big move hasn't happened yet and actually feeling like maybe carpentry wasn't for me. So I decided to tell my brother, enough was enough. After all, there was no way I wanted to live the rest of my days with back pain.

But on the very day I chose to tell Simon my bad news I noticed my old job was being advertised. Yes the writing one. The writing one about cars. Same job, same company, same desk. I couldn't believe it. So I applied. Told Simon. We shook hands and I agreed to continue on for one or two remaining jobs.

Last Tuesday I went for an interview and from the reaction of the editor (an old friend of mine) I am pretty sure that I may be offered this job, but on Friday of the same week my brother offered me a new role within his company. It meant that I would be now running the sites rather than working on them. The money was better than the writing job I wanted, too.

So, I then had this dilemma. Do I take the ultimate job or the job that God wanted me to do? You see, some of you may be reading this thinking, well it's obvious. But to me who loves writing so much it hurts, it wasn't an easy choice because I had not seen any evidence of where my current career was actually going and in my last job I was actually making a name for myself in motoring journalistic circles. This wasn't easy. Until Friday night, that is, anyway.

I was on my way to Tesco when I felt God say, "Stop getting in my way. I'm trying to get you to where I want you."

That was it. Decision made.

I have not heard about the outcome of my job interview yet but I start my new role later this week and I cannot wait.

You see, when it comes to difficult decisions like these, there can be only one right way to go. His way. I am SO glad that my God loved me first.

Lonely Hearts Club

Today was another excellent day in the park. This time myself, Jenny and Gemma started the hour by praying and asking God to give us someone or some people but again, wanted to be led, rather than us land on someone all guns blazing.

We spent about 25 minutes wandering about the same area and there were no real groups of young people anywhere, except a lot of younger children in the skate park. So we thought it may be an idea to look elsewhere. Jenny said that she was feeling like there would be a lonely woman somewhere. Literally two minutes after she said this we saw a lady sitting on a bench all by herself smoking a cigarette and knew that this could well be the lady God had laid on Jenny's heart.

The only problem here was that there were three of us and one of her so I suggested that it might be better if Jenny and Gemma go and talk to this lady and I would keep praying for them as a covering.

The lady said that she'd never met Christians before and was really interested in hearing all about Christianity and so the girls spoke with her for a little while until her friend came to meet her. It was pretty clear to Jenny and Gemma that the friend was in no mood to hang about so they got up and left.

But once again, God has been faithful to his word and another seed has been planted. Praise God!

Monday 4 October 2010

The Adventure Continues

It's now week three of these mini adventures with God. This time I was joined by my friends Gemma, Rachel and Jenny and God did not disappoint once again.

Before I get into the detail of today's events I just want to underline the fact that I am not the world's most gifted evangelist and this is not something I passionately prayed about doing. All I know is that God has put a fire in my belly and is working in me massively to be able to get out and proclaim the Gospel. And, the thing that's really amazing me is that once you ignore the Enemy saying "don't do that, no one will listen" it's actually mildly easy to talk to people about your faith. I just want to say that if you've ever thought about doing this, do it. God honours you massively.

So today I went to the same park. I knew the guys from the week before said they would be there because of work experience but I also knew that God being God could very easily provide someone else to talk to. Gemma, Rachel and myself prayed as we walked around the park and asked God to give us some people to talk to and within 5 minutes we saw a group of 4 girls sitting on a bench.

My spirit told me instantly that these were the ones we should talk to but we carried on walking and prayed once more. Gemma felt that God was saying if we didn't go back we could miss this opportunity so we went back and asked if they were busy and if not we could talk to them about Christ.

I should point out that as we approached them, they all got up to leave the park and a young guy called to them which stopped them. This allowed us to catch up and ask them if they were busy.

They all said they were up for talking about God and very quickly we were answering lots of questions about who God was, how do we know Jesus actually did what he did, and what is God. One girl said she was Christened as a baby and was therefore a Christian but I pointed out that she didn't make that choice herself and that we'd all made a choice to follow Jesus. It's the kind of thing that could offend people but she wanted to know more and accepted the fact that maybe she wasn't a Christian like she thought she was.

One by one we shared our experiences of God and Jesus and by this time Jenny had joined our gathering and shared some quite blatant truths about Grace and how it sets you free from condemnation.

Once again it was an amazing time. We said that we'd be there the next week and they seemed interested in coming back for more questions. We left them with a challenge to ask God Himself to reveal His truth to them and I can only give all honour and praise to The Almighty for another incredible time. You see, these girls woke this morning knowing nothing about Jesus and now they do. Just brilliant.

I will continue to write these installments and hope that more of you comment to encourage others who read this blog. I owe all of this to Him who sits on the Throne. It is ALL about Him. Amen

Monday 27 September 2010

Evangelism in the Park

Hello again. Well after last week's success of God making a young lad's leg grow I was a bit apprehensive as to whether anyone would be in the park this week as all the young people who I spoke to last time said they wouldn't turn up.

When I got there, ALL of the young people from last time were there and they'd even brought along some of their friends. The first thing they said was; "Pray for them and make their legs grow!" It was the best thing they could've said. I definitely wasn't expecting it either.

As the two young people who wanted their legs to grow were girls I couldn't pray for them to protect myself but for the next two hours they asked questions about Jesus and all of the young people were listening. The guy who's leg grew the week before was still as determined as ever to try and prove God wasn't real but wouldn't let me pray for his smoking addiction because; "if God was real He might take it away!"

This time around I had two friends join me, Gemma and Jenny. We all shared our testimony's about how God had impacted our lives and it was such a massive encouragement to us all. The young people even said they'd be there next week. Please pray God would reveal Himself to these young people. After all that's been happening, I know He will.

Praise God!

Monday 20 September 2010

Treasure Hunt

Hi All. Just wanted to share with you what happened to me after work today.

During my lunch break I was driving home and I really felt God tell me to go to St John's Park to find a guy named Nigel who was wearing a grey hoodie, with a right shoulder injury. Just so you know, at this point I was not asking God to talk to me and I wasn't even praying. It was totally out of the blue, so therefore I knew it was Him.

After work I went to St John's Park and sat on a bench for about half an hour, waiting for a stranger in a grey hoodie to walk up to me clutching his right shoulder. It didn't happen like this at all. In fact there was no one with hoodies in sight. Right there and then I could've given up - but as this was God's plan and not mine I didn't go.

The next thing I did was drive around to the other side of the park and try and see if there were any young people in the skate park wearing hoodies. As I walked towards to skate park all I saw was a load of school lads on BMXs and skate boards, but as I got closer I noticed a group of lads chatting and the guy stood in the middle was wearing a grey hoodie. At this moment my heart thumped out of my chest and I actually said something along the lines of: "Thanks God. A bunch of young people who are going to rip me to pieces. But it's not about me." So I walked over to them, but walked straight past. The guy in the grey hoodie stared at me as I sheepishly scuffled along, trying to look cool at the same time.

But I knew I had to approach them. So I did. All of them turned to me and stopped talking and I could sense that they were already looking me up and down, thinking 'what on earth is that bald fat bloke doing here?'

"Hello. Are you called Nigel?" I said to the lad. "No, **** off! I wouldn't have a name like that." Oh, I thought. By this time i felt the size of a mouse and imagined them to give me a happy slapping. They didn't. So I asked again, "are any of you called Nigel?" "NOOO!" OK, then. That's a definite no.

Then the lad in the grey hoodie said; "Why are you looking for a guy called Nigel?" I took a deep breath and said; "I am a Christian and felt God say to me to look in this park for a guy called Nigel in a grey hoodie with a shoulder injury. You are in a grey hoodie, do you have a shoulder injury?" No, he said.

So for the next 5 minutes I was asked loads of questions from these young lads, mainly inquiring if I was a weirdo or a nutter and was I about picking up young guys? I can understand why they were asking these questions. One of them said he was an athiest. I said; "oh that's good then. Because if God didn't exist there would be no athiests." He looked a bit puzzled and his mate on a BMX said; "You gotta admit, mate, he does have a point."

Then the guy in the grey hoodie said; "I totally believe that there was a man called Jesus who was a decent bloke and who really did die on a cross. But I can't believe that He rose again." I knew at this point I was talking to the right guy. I also knew that God hadn't given me a load of false info just to make me look stupid, it was about getting my attention and to see if I did as He said. I was then asked by the athiest to say how I knew God was real. So I told them all that I have seen signs and wonders and talked about the fact that I've seem limbs grow and that I myself had my left leg grow.

They asked me how so I asked them to sit with their legs out. The athiest said he's never do it, but the guy in the grey hoodie said go on mate, what have you got to lose? So the athiest sat down and I held up his feet by his heels. Sure enough one was shorter than the other by about half an inch. I asked if I could pray and he said yes. I said; "In the Name of Jesus, leg come down." And it did.

The guy on the BMX was nearest and he just stared at this mate. The athiest jumped to his feet and moved about testing his legs. He then ran away swearing and saying that he was a bit drunk and it couldn't of happened. So I asked him to sit down again to check and he did. It then looked like his leg was shorter again but his left shoe was loose and I pushed it back on. All at the same time his mates all swore together and were asking me to try "it" on someone else.

I didn't because I knew that God had already demonstrated his power and scared the living daylights out of this young lad. The guy in the grey hoodie then said, "So what's the meaning of life then?" I said I didn't know but told him a little about the meaning of my life. They were all pretty taken aback and I then said that I'd be back next week to answer any more questions.

It was an amazing 15 - 20 minutes that I could have so easily passed up. But when God tells you to do things, it's so much better if you do them. You never know what's going to happen.

Saturday 11 September 2010

Let's get it started

Hi Everyone. I'm sorry it's been a while since I last wrote some thing but you know how life can be. The importance of things that aren't that important get in the way and then you forget about what you should be doing.

Life has been pretty mad of late and my wife and I are trying to work out where we're meant to be, what job I'm supposed to be doing, etc. Speaking of which, I have decided to go back into journalism after 6 years as a full-time carpenter. I have enjoyed my job but journalism is what I was trained in and after laying it down just before I got married I now feel it's time to go back into it.

It wasn't a decision I took lightly, either. These kinds of decisions take lots of thought and prayer because I don't wish to lead my family down a cul-de-sac but make sure they are safe and have a regular income. My carpentry job has been brilliant in terms of finance but it's got to the point where my love for the job has grown less and less and I cannot go on any longer knowing that my heart just isn't in it.

Journalism is my passion. I love writing and I actually miss it so much that I wonder why I ever came to the decision to give it up. Well, actually, the reason I gave it up was because I felt God told me to so I guess you can say that choice had a fair degree of substance to it. But now I feel God is preparing me for more writing. I hope it's more to do with Him than cars and stuff but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Other stuff going on in my life include being in a band. I am the bass player for a band called Jagged Dogz which I enjoy massively. I didn't think for one moment that after spending 16 years playing bass in church I'd end up in a rock band but it kinda just happened. We have written a few tracks now and one is going to be used in a film called The Estate which is a pretty violent film but I'm happy to be a light in the darkness, if nothing else.

There's nothing much else to say write now but I am going to start making more regular contributions to this and please tell your friends to read it because I'm going to use this as my spiritual soap box from now on and I really want to reach people I don't even know. After all, it's not Christians who need the gospel, it's for everyone else.

Right. Time to go but as I say, please tell your friends. Ta x

Sunday 1 August 2010

I completely forgot about this!!

I will add something soon, I promise. Just need more followers.

Sunday 28 February 2010

My Interpretation of John 3 v 16

I want to be able to unpack a passage that has been used so many times and one that we may have become all too blasé about over the years we’ve been Christians. And if you are reading this and don’t feel you can say you have a relationship with the living God, you may need to pay special attention. This message has the capacity to radically change your life.

The verse in question is this:

“For God so loved the World, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

I wonder what emotions this verse stirs in you when you hear it? Does it grab your attention? Does it make you feel so humble to know that God cares this much? Well, hopefully this morning we can draw nearer to the Almighty and understand a little bit more of the love He has for us.

I don’t know about you but I’ve seen this verse on Church billboards all over the place. I’ve seen people holding up boards at sporting events emblazoned with John 3 v 16 across them. I sometimes think about whether the person holding up the board or the church literally advertising God, really think about what power is behind this short but unbelievable statement.

Well to be honest I haven’t ever really considered it until recently when God revealed to me the fact that it wasn’t just our sins that were nailed to the cross with Jesus, but it was every single person before that time and everyone who will ever live and choose to put their trust in Him. That, my friends, is merely scratching the surface of what this verse is really revealing here.

The implications of this one sentence are simply staggering!

Let’s look at it in more detail. I challenge you this morning, as I dissect this verse, don’t allow yourselves to be passive or to think that you’ve heard it all before. That’s what I used to be like and sometimes we really need a new fresh revelation about what God we are really serving.

John’s starts this verse with; “For God.”

There is no wasting time here in his language, is there? He gets straight onto it. John, I believe, is grabbing our attention to the fact that this act of amazing Grace is really about only one person here. It’s not about anything else. He’s not saying, ‘a recent survey was taken by a group of people who may or may not quite believe someone may actually do this but they think Jesus died for you.’ John is addressing the first being mentioned in the Bible. He is pointing to the fact that God is real, and therefore you need to listen up, and that this selfless act was orchestrated by the One who created all things.

And then John carries on. “So loved the World”.

Now, I don’t think we will ever begin to understand this part of the sentence. When you think of God’s love, what comes into your head?

God’s love is indescribable, incomprehensible, unfathomable. It knows no limits. It says in the scriptures that it’s beyond all measure. When we start to talk about God’s love for us, we are speaking about the kind of love that could make the Earth shake. It’s that strong.

I think that before we get into how much God loves us, though, it’s very important to see God from another angle. God is a God of love but He is also a God of anger. He cannot stand sin. He cannot stand the proud. He made us and wants us to be in a relationship with Him but in our ignorance to Him we all choose to do our own thing.

If we go back to Genesis we see that after a while, God grew so angry about what He’d created that He got His trusted servant Noah to build a massive boat to carry two of every living creature so that God to get rid of all he created. It says this in Genesis 6 v 6; “The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.’

He then brought so much rain that it wiped out every living thing, except Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. Man, that thing must have stank!

To then demonstrate His love immediately after this somewhat shocking display of anger, God creates a rainbow. He then says this: “When the rainbow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the Earth.”

God is basically saying He’s made a deal with us that He will never destroy mankind again. It’s because He loves us so much.

Then again, His love for us could be described in the same way a mother loves her children. In my opinion there is no greater love on this earth than what a mother has for her children. I believe it’s to do with the fact that she may have carried them for nine months. It maybe the fact that women are the one’s who see their child grow up at home and know his or her’s every need.

Whatever it is, this type of love is limitless. A great image of this was in the film, Passion of The Christ. It show’s exactly how I think a mother feels about her children and in the same way, how God feels about His children, us. Mary sees Jesus fall to the ground, carrying His cross, and as she runs to help Him the film goes back in time to when Jesus was young and falls over and hurts Himself. Mary runs to Him and drops everything in the process to help her Son. God did that for us!

I believe that God wants you to know this kind of love. He will catch you every time you fall. And the perfect safety net is Jesus.

This brings us onto the next part of the verse; “That He gave His only Son.”

I want you to take note of the word Gave here. Jesus has always been with God. As Jim so excellently taught us last year about the Trinity, Jesus had never been separated from His Father’s love, or that of The Holy Spirit. Jesus is God’s Son and Jesus knew what God what asking Him to do. He knew that the only way we would ever have our sins forgiven once and for all, was for Him to be offered as a ransom for us.

Jesus would also have known about crucifixion. Even the sound of the word would make most people in those times wince. In fact, the word excruciating means ‘out of crucifying’. After having His shoulders torn apart by flagellation Jesus then had to carry the cross to the place of execution. I looked up how much a typical cross would weigh and it turns out that they weighed about 21 stone. Then if that wasn’t enough, nails would then be put through His hands and then if the Roman soldiers felt He hadn’t died, they would have tried to break His legs with an iron club. Make no mistake, Jesus knew exactly what was coming to Him.

So God didn’t just lend us Jesus to help us a little and generally make us feel nice, He gave Him over to men who would seek to destroy Him by crucifying Him. This gift of Grace which none of us deserve, in other words Jesus, was given. It cost Jesus everything, God couldn’t look at Him. People still mocked Him, even as He hung on the cross. This was all for us. Totally free.

But this wasn’t all about crucifixion either. The worst part of all this is that in the act of giving us Jesus as a ransom, God would then have to allow all of our vile sin that we have or will have committed, to be heaped on Jesus, thus making Him sin for us. God’s gift to us meant that He would not even be able to look at His own Son, either. Jesus was separated from His Father for the first time.

Even David when he was writing the Psalms wrote a passage which describes this moment. In Psalm 22 David writes; “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.” And in verse 16 of the same Psalm, he says; For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

This word Gave is a big, big deal. But the verse doesn’t stop there. It ends with the best news we could ever know. The greatest love story ever told ends with the ending of all endings. Jesus rose from the grave on the third day because death couldn’t hold Him. That means through the resurrection power of Jesus we who believe in Him have also been raised into a new life. There is nothing that compares to knowing Jesus. Nothing.

Then John ends this verse by telling us of the consequence of now believing in Jesus and putting our trust in Him. He says; “That whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

I love this word Whoever! It makes me feel mightily relieved. Believe me, I used to be a nightmare. I made teacher’s lives very difficult at school, I’ve had addictions to lust and nearly a reliance on alcohol. I am not a saint guys. Far from it. But in this word ‘whoever’, I am included, hallelujah! And that means all of you. Your future generations. Past generations. We are all included in this.

And then there’s the word ‘believe’. I think this is the part most people outside of knowing God fully, struggle with the most. Looking at this whole Gospel thing from a non-Christian perspective, it’s actually really difficult to believe in something you cannot see.

God is very mysterious to people and to put your trust in something invisible is actually a huge step of faith. I can actually understand also that the concept of someone forgiving you for everything you’ve ever done maybe quite hard to take because when you feel guilty about something, you think no-one could ever understand or give you that level of grace.

A close friend of mine struggled with this part of the Gospel the most when he did the Alpha Course, which we run here. His argument was why on earth would God want to forgive me? If I am for one thing believing in God who I can’t see, it’s another thing to know that I’m then forgiven in a moment when I’ve lived my whole life on the run from the one who made me.

But this is the thing. Jesus did walk the Earth. It is historically documented. It was prophesied thousands of years before. Jesus is still making the same impact on people He did 2000 years ago. Guys, make no mistake Jesus is fully aware that we are weak and when you put your belief in Him, He makes you strong. When you say you believe in Him, you instantly become aware of His presence. He is amazing.

And if you believe in Him, another amazing transformation takes place. Instead of your life heading towards certain destruction, it then takes a completely different journey towards eternity with Him. Praise God. Remember, God GAVE us Jesus.

What do you think of when you think of the word perish? I’ve heard people use this word to describe how cold they feel; they say, ‘I’m perished’. No your not. Sometimes this word is used to describe people who have suffered terribly in human disasters, such as famine or flooding. This is probably a more accurate description.

But what I believe this word means is a life completely separated from God. Actually I don’t think anyone of us have ever experienced that, whether we believe or not. God is in every detail on this earth. He is in the very fabric of creation, He gives people wisdom on how to discover medical breakthroughs, in the Scriptures it says the stars are kept in the sky by His very word.

If we were completely separated from God for eternity, I can’t even begin to understand what that would be like. In my opinion this would describe the word ‘perish’.

So we will no longer perish but live for eternity with Him, Amen! Here, again, is a concept that is far beyond our recognition. I have spent many times trying to think what it would be like to live forever and I almost go into meltdown because the thought of it is too mind boggling.

I’ve heard people say this next phrase so many times; ‘When I die, that’s it. Just blackness and nothing else.’ Well today I want to say that this type of thinking is totally foolish. If you say you don’t believe in God then why would you still want to gamble your whole life by passing off a statement like that? It sounds to me like the people who say this are saying it in hope. They hope they are right, but what if they’re not?

If I and millions of other Christians across this and many other nations are totally wrong about God and all this turns out to be nothing and we die and there’s just blackness, then we haven’t really lost much. But if it is all real and you’ve chosen not to believe then what a loss. What kind of a gamble was that?

The message here is truly amazing. We are being invited into God’s family free of charge, and the rewards of that are eternity with Him and a life made brand new. No longer a slave to sin but total deliverance from its shackles.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that living a life with God is the easiest thing in the world. God’s requirement for us is to love Him and put Him first in everything we do. I am still learning that, even though I’ve been a Christian since I was five. But when you are living in the will of God, it’s the most amazing thing.

You feel safe. Secure. You have someone to lean on when everyone else around you fails. You can have complete peace about dying. You can know a love that you will never be separated from. Jesus is worth putting your trust in, even if you can’t see Him. With His Holy Spirit present, you can certainly feel Him.

So to close let’s read this verse again and this time really consider what it means. “For God So loved the World, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life!’” What a verse, what a Gospel and what a mighty God we serve!

Monday 15 February 2010

A nice weekend

This weekend was a mixture of relaxing at home and going totally flat out at a wedding. Our weekends usually have something going on and this was no exception. Saturday was spent milling around the house, eating sweets and generally being house-hold Sloths. It's actually my favourite thing to do, but beggars can't be choosers and so Sunday was like living in a hurricane in comparison.

The wedding we attended was our friends, Rob and Claire King who tied the knot at the Grand in Brighton. What a hotel that is? You kind of take these things for granted a little but when you're there you just have to stop now and again to take it in.

The reason it was hectic is because when you have a four-year old and an eleven-year old, life becomes just that little bit more complicated. Everything takes twice the effort and twice the organisation. Luckily for us my parents live but a stone's throw from the hotel so in the evening we were able to drop them there and put them to bed so that we could party the night away. The trouble with being at a wedding on a Sunday, however, is don't forget that work is the next morning. And I did. Today was a complete washout.

It started OK, to be fare. We had a nice leisurely breakfast and I made my way into work at about 11:30 but my work colleague and I had a complete nightmare working out part of the floor we were putting in. It was worked out in the end but the best part of the day was wasted by lots of scratching of the head and sipping tea. Well, it'd be rude not to, eh?

So that was my weekend and Monday in a nutshell. Not much else to say about Australia but I'm sure I'll bore you with that again sometime in the near future.

Anyway, I'll be back soon.

Saturday 13 February 2010

Next Step

Well the guy turned up and everything about my trade application was explained fully and both my wife and I feel really peaceful about everthing that's happening with this.

Basically I have to work through a booklet which is my coursework and once that's done then I can proceed to site visits. Someone will come to my job and help me work through things that I don't understand. After all of this I will then be a fully qualified Australian carpenter which is a bit scary because then I can fully apply for a job. And then a visa. It's all happened overnight, literally. It's crazy but I am realising that all of this will happen in God's timing. There is nothing I can do that will stop this or make it go faster and we feel totally cool with that.

For the last five years my wife and I have prayed non-stop that God will have His way with us. Don't get me wrong there is still so much to do here. We are fully committed to our church and families and we will not stop serving here until it's the right time to go. We are very excited about our future but it's also a huge step of faith. This move will be the hardest thing we've ever done. God is asking us to leave our families and set up home in a new land but if this first step is anything to go by then I'm pretty sure that everything will work out. Speak to you soon.

Friday 12 February 2010

I'm very excited

At this moment in my life I am on the edge of moving to another country. I will tell you more about it as the days go on but it all started five years ago when God put a place on my wife and I's heart and since then we've been praying into it to see what God does. If you don't know God, don't worry this doesn't exclude you in any way, you may find it even more interesting to read!

Tonight I'm waiting for a man to come to my house to sign me up to a training program which will enable me to get a qualification in carpentry for Australia. I'm hoping it will open up plenty of opportunities, so I'll let you know what happened.

That's all for now, but I'll be back!

Well, er, hello!

OK so this is my first ever blog. I've never done this before but I will hopefully keep you all updated on this of what I'm doing etc, etc. Looking forward to sharing my world with you! God bless.