Day 83

Today has been SO weird! So quiet and nothing much to do! Don't like it! It's odd, the comedown after the business, the fading buzz after the event, the plunge at the end of an exhilarating ride!

For the past week I have been leading a team of 7 people, plus various others, at Jour J Normandie; a conference run by the Pastor and his wife here in Lisieux! http://www.jour-j-normandie.fr/index_en.html The 7 people came from Nexus Music College in Coventry www.nexustrust.co.uk/index.asp and they were amazing! We had a drummer, 2 guitarists, a bass player, keys, vocalist and even our very own Sound Tech!!! :-)

They were joined by 3 WEC students and a WEC family www.wec-int.org.uk/cms/home,
then we were joined by another Missionary working for a year in Pairs,
then a family who are in my church but live 3 hours away,
then by 4 people camping in the garden..... All of these were living in a gite we had hired for the week http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/pont-l'eveque/32387 which only had 2 showers and which could mamange about 6 of these showers before the water went cold!!!

Anyway..... the pictures from the week are posted on the right and I will write some more about how the conference went and what we did in another post later: as most people can't read more than this amount before falling asleep.........

Day 73

I have spent the past 2 days working with the youth in the youth room at church. Our church is in an old wine cellar and the youth room is part of the old warehouse. needless to say it is not the prettiest part of the building or the cleanest. The youth have never really taken much interest or care of their room but my plan was to change that a bit. So we swept out, mopped out, painted, cleaned, polished, washed and personalised the room. They had started at the beginning of the year and gave up because it seemed like too big a job but now, after a couple of days of getting messy the youth have their enthusiasm back: as well as pink paint in their hair and green paint in their ears! Oh well, thats youth for you. :-)

Lord, I thank you so much for their energy, their lives and their relationships within the group. I pray that you bless each one of them and over the next few weeks with the number of conferences happening (Jour J, Detling, Soul Survivour, Chequer Tree Camp) that each of them can grow closer to you and understand you more. I thank you Lord for the plans you have for each one of them and the special people they are, and they are growing up to be.

Day 71

DAY OFF!!!!!!

So I went exploring and dancing around in the greenery to my Ipod!
I was praising God at the top of my voice to the cows and the fields. I did stop though when I got to the towns! Thought people might stare.........

Only problem about exploring on your own is that pictures you take of yourself always look silly! Oh well, nothing different there then...! :-)

See photos on the right for what I got up to: the map is where I was!!!

Day 70

Last night I took the Youth group to a Gospel concert. New Gospel Family are a group of Christains from all across the world, mainly French speaking countries but others too, who voluntarily have given up their time to participate in a 35 date tour.

their website : http://www.newgospelfamily.com/
a TV report on the group : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIWtuTvxH4E

The kids all seemed to enjoy it, despite their only being 10 members of a 50 strong choir, a small stuffy church and us being the youngest there by about 20 years! I managed to embarasse them all by dancing and jumping up and down to the music; but sometimes praise music just makes you do that.........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In need of some TLC

Well with not much to do for the next few days and my 'boss' away I am intending on getting down to some much needed R+R.
I am going to restart a bok I first started in January, which was meant to take only 60 days, and now nearly 150 days later is still only half finsihed; i commit to finishing it before I get back to the UK. "Search for Significance" by Robert McGee is an amazing book. It is a book and has a n accompanying 60 day journal. The book is even better than Purpose driven life, and is harder hitting, but it is amazing and life changing. I have found it invaluable for my growth in God and my view of myself. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Significance-Robert-S-McGee/dp/0849944244/ref=sr_1_1/202-2791929-4543004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183477224&sr=1-1
I am also going to finish a book I started a month ago; "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge, which is another challenging and changing book. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waking-Dead-John-Eldredge/dp/0785261656/ref=sr_1_1/202-2791929-4543004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183477173&sr=1-1
Finally I might just get to finish the book on prayer I started when i first came here called "The power of Simple Prayer" by Joyce Meyer http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Simple-Prayer-About-Everything/dp/0340943882/ref=sr_1_1/202-2791929-4543004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183477027&sr=8-1
So actually I am going to be kept quite busy! As well as a bit of pampering and good food I might just survive the 2 long weeks with nothing to do: all I need now if you to pray for good weather, so that I can sit in the garden, in the sunshine and do all of this!!!!

Day 51

I’ve been helping the Rocke’s on a Wednesday mornings, to do anything that needs doing in the barn that they are converting. I haven’t done anything back breaking and wonderful yet but I have been painting and varnishing. My time with them is brilliant. I am welcomed into their family, I get to know all of them a little better and I get to look out over the beautiful views they have over the valley. I put the Ipod on with worship songs and thankfully the family go out shopping, working or to school and I can sing at the top of my very bad voice and praise the Lord!!

Please pray for the Rocke Family – Tim, Jane, Hannah, Will, Jamie, Johnnie and the baby bump (which is due at the end of July), please pray that the family can get ready for the imminent arrival of the baby (which they still don’t know is a boy or a girl), pray for the family to work well together and communicate well whilst different members of the Rocke family travel and work during the summer, pray for the whole family as they get used to the routine and stresses of welcoming guests into their guest house and finally please pray for the baby that it is delivered safely, is healthy, is welcomed into the family and is blessed by God from its first breath.

Day 45

My planning has been a little all over the place for the past 3 weeks because of the Prayer Walk “Overlord” which has been taking place in Normandy, run by John and Yvonne Pressdee. http://www.prayerexpeditions.org/?Walks:2007_Normandy_Beaches

I have managed to join in with 6 days of the 18 days that the team has walked, mainly on thursdays which are my days off. This isn’t as many as I would have like or had planned, but it was a privilege just to do the little I did. Prayer walking is something I had never really heard of and can’t really define. I would never have believed someone if they had explained it to me.

The days that I did…

Day 1 - Pegasus Bridge and Museum, Commissioning on old Pegasus Bridge with WW2 Veterans, Walk to Ranville Cemetery

Day 3 - Juno and Gold Beaches: Langrune sur Mer to Arromanche

Day 10 - St Jean de Daye to St Lô

Day 16 - Walk around Lisieux; home of La Source Church, Evening Celebration at La Source

Day 18 - Argentan to Mont Ormel, the Polish Memorial

Day 19 - Final morning celebration at Twelfth Century Church of Reconciliation in Coudehard, Finish at Museum, overlooking the Falaise Gap

Prayer walking isn’t anything amazing in terms of technique, length, qualifications, and spirituality: it is just a group of people getting together and walking as they pray.
The main principles around prayer walking are
*Prayer works and releases the power of the Holy Spirit
*God can change the effects that the past has on the present, through the power of the Cross of
Jesus
*Walking and praying can change situations and bring healing to the land
2 Chronicles 7 v 14
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land
*Humility and apology disarm not only individuals and nations but principalities and powers too

As you walk through a country, or in an area we pray for its people and government, its history, its present and its future. We believe that as we walk and pray, we can ask God to bless and bring healing to that land. Prayer walking isn’t just about walking, or just about praying, or even the cumulative effect of the 2 put together: Prayer walking is personal, collective, powerful, joyful, renewing, painful, releasing, empowering, challenging, prophetic and spiritual warfare.

Please pray for John and Yvonne Pressdee, for their family and their church in Green Street Green (Bromley, Kent - www.gsgbaptist.org.uk), pray for all of the team; every person who has taken part in the walk weather for one day or the whole 3 weeks – that they will continue to walk with and battle for God, please pray for the future of Prayer Expeditions as John has threatened that this will be his last walk now he is 65!, please pray that the work that has been done during the last 3 weeks bears visible fruit as well as winning spiritual battles in the heavenlies, pray that the church in France rises up and within the next 5 years we see French churches doing the same walks fighting for their own church….