Week four

It's Friday? It's Friday!

But let me begin with last Sunday. Garth conducted communion at church and he spoke of about Jesus' career and his life style. Both would have been a constant reminder of the death he would have to endure in the future. Garth was really nervous but did a good job and he had lots of good feedback.

From then, Garth has had a particularly hard week: Rykr was home from school for 3 days coughing away with a chest infection and both Ezri and Swae developed a runny nose and a cough. The biggest downer about all of this meant NO SLEEP at night. Basically every night this week, Garth probably saw each on hour on the clock - rocking, patting, giving drinks, cuddles and all too often kids ending up in hour bed! Unfortunately, I have been little help during the days and I am guilty of often sleeping through the calls at night..... I have truly dumped the lot on him! But, he is also super cool and has handled the week well. What a man! (and he was sick too!)

We had miracle happen this week... Rykr scored 100% on his spelling test on Friday. Now let me put this into context: every week the class have a pre-test of the list of words and every week this year Rykr hasn't got any of the words right. And because he hates homework his desire to learn these words has not been high and so his been lucky to score 50% by the end of the week. BUT this week, I decided to teach him how I learnt to spell and he responded well to my silly method... well the proof is in the test! We are very proud of him and we pray that this enthusiasm will remain for the rest of the year!

And my week was amazing! We had Gareth Evans come a speak at Capernwray.

The theme was "To soar like an eagle" - we covered the reasons why some eagles never fly. Some are wounded: we covered Justification, Glorification and Sanctification. Some eagles have made decisions contrary to God's principles: we explored the choices we are constantly making and how they can hinder us. Some eagles never understand what they should know: we discussed the failings of churches and fellow Christians who lead people to their way of Christianity and never teach them the basics of life with Christ. And some eagles have their wings clipped: with this we recognised the tight reigns that churches often have on people, particular young people and they are so afraid to let them go and soar, that they shoot them down again and again.

We were then given 5 words - Vision, Burden, Gift, Ministry and Anointing.

With Vision we covered all angles - inwards, outwards and upwards, and the need to get all these correct and in line with God. Very challenging for me, particularly inwards and trying to tackle my self-worth issues!

With Burden we learnt about the need to find our own and to make sure we don't put our burden onto other people who are not meant to carry it because they are not made for it. And to make sure other people don't put their burden onto us. It's ok to say no if it's not what God wants you to do, regardless that it might be good works. And we need to be willing to step up to our burden and take it on.... don't spend the rest of our lives waiting.

With Gift, of course we discussed spiritual gifting and natural gifts. Whatever our gifts we are to use them within the body of Christ for the benefit of the Body. We are all different and together we make up the whole - so let people be different.

On Ministry we learnt to recognise our passions and when God is putting Godly people around you to lift you into your ministry. We covered Authority, responsibility and accountability.

This then lead into Anointing and the difference it makes with what we pursue - it will thrive when it has been anointed by God and that this can happen to ANYONE - ordinary people - you don't have to be smart or have pieces of paper - you just need to be God's.

GREAT WEEK, do you agree?