Manchester Alive, Cefn Lea Wales

Manchester

So this is going to be another one of those blog posts that has a little bit of information on a place, and then a rather lengthy section on a conference. I have three conferences this month, and I've just finished my second.

Manchester is a really cool city. Mike Spencer is the guy who runs the ministry there with his wife Becky. They are a really great family and I can't thank them enough for letting me stay with them, and for Mike taking me to see the Old Trafford. Mike has set up a ten year plan for the Navigators ministry in Manchester and would love to see it become a discipleship capital in the UK. He shared that plan with me during my time at his house, I won't be posting it out of fairness to him, and mostly because I haven't asked if I can. But it is really exciting to see what he has set out for himself and what he hopes to achieve through God with the ministry in Manchester. I got to meet a few students and learn about the kinds of things the Navigators do in the city, and from what I have learned, they do a lot of work with non-Christians. The Alpha course is huge over here, and Mike leads a study called "Glad You Asked" with students and their non-Christian friends. It is really exciting to see these students get stoked about inviting all of their friends to these meetings so they can learn more about who Jesus was, what is Christianity, and just get a lot of their questions answered. It is a fantastic ministry!

I am not a huge Manchester United supporter. I think a lot of people I know back home tend to support them, mostly because the team has some rather large names in football. But when one thinks of Manchester, they think football. And Manchester is indeed a football nation(yes I realize it is a city, but you get what I mean). So as is such, I went and saw the Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. It was just really cool to get to see and learn about some of the history behind it, and how Man United became a football club.



English Summer Conference



The English Summer Conference provided something different from the Scottish one, but both seemed to be working along the same themes of transformation. It was a really great experience getting to go to both of them and getting to learn what God has to say on how we can be used for His Kingdom. The conference took place in the Cefn Lea Center in Wales, which, aside from the roads, is a really beautiful country. We were smack dab in the middle of a valley with some really large hills, and surrounded by sheep farms! But it was a great chance to meet different people from the England ministries. Mike Spencer asked me if I could help him with the seminar he was supposed to give on our cultures view of the modern family, which I agreed to do. Let me say this, this was my first seminar and it was a lot like jumping into the deep end of a swimming pool for a first time swimmer. I hadn't counted on how personal a subject this was for so many people. My own family life has been filled with issues, but God saw to them all and brought about healing, allowing me to talk to others who might be going through similar situations. The talk was the last one of the week and emotions were running high, but we got through it, and we learned that even in a background that is considered broken, God can bring about healing and transformation and still use it to His purposes. The verses we used for that talk were 2nd Corinthians 1:3-7.

The other thing that was really great about that week was what God told me! God used a few people to really speak into my life on things that I had been thinking about and wrestling with, and it was really incredible! I won't go into to much of the details, if you are interested in knowing about it, please just ask, and I will send you an e-mail! But one thing that God told me was through a couple people, and that was in regards to some frustration I was having in my role to serve God. I was wondering if I was in the right place, if I was doing the right things, if I was good enough, had even asked why God would call me into ministry because I found myself lacking. But through a couple people during a prayer time God told me that I was right where I needed to be, and that He was proud of me and that He was going to continue to use me in a leadership capacity. That was just one thing that was shared with me, and like I said, if you want to know more, ask, and I will send you an e-mail. I had a really great time at this conference, and I learned so much during it! I am currently in Leicester taking it easy before the Cross Cultural Week in Birmingham. Thanks everyone for you thoughts and prayers! Take care and God bless!



As per usual, click on the images to enlarge.

The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Seaguls!

As I am currently writing this, I am on a train making my way into Preston Lancaster Station before switching to another train into Manchester. Wifi on a train...very spiffy.

You will have to forgive me, my comments on Edinburgh will be quite short as I spent the majority of my time there just sort of relaxing and took in a museum as well. I will, however, be posting up some of my thoughts and what I learned during my time at the Scottish Leadership and Discipleship Training Program in the wee town of Arbroath. But firstly, Edinburgh.

Edinburgh


Edinburgh was formerly run by Mark and Jenny Stirling and is now in the more than capable hands of Collin Gillies and I do believe he is getting help from an American by the name of Mark Backlock. Both of these men are great to be around and have a real heart for discipleship and meeting with students one on one. Collin meets with a guy not much older than myself named Dave, while Mark is meeting with a couple guys I met at the conference, Luke and Ben (a funny story about them a bit later). Collin has been spending a lot of his time investigating how he can be effective for God in this ministry, which includes the things he puts his focus on, things that could easily become idols. He was open enough to share that, not just with me, but with other students at the conference. He is a really down to earth guy and I connected with him right away. He took me to a museum in Edinburgh and I got to see all kinds of artifacts from the Roman occupation of the isles as well as the Lewis Chessman, a really awesome exhibit!


Arbroath and the Conference



This conference was absolutely amazing. God really used this time to confirm a lot of things I had been investigating as well as help me to correct some rather blatant scriptural misunderstandings. I will be looking at the scriptures much more carefully now I can tell you. I will get into that a bit down this post though.

The conference was hosted by Mark Stirling and the guest speaker was a former instructor of Mark's named Hans Bayer, who is from Germany and just a really awesome, engaging speaker, and really kind man. He had been addressing issues of the heart of man for the week using the gospel of Mark, with a focus on Mark 11:22-25, which I can assure you, we have grossly been mistranslating. He also used the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Ungrateful Servant. I won't go into all of the details, if you are interested, I have recorded all of my notes, I am willing to talk with you, simply send me an e-mail; I will however share with you what I got out of it. I had been investigating the idea of our selfish nature vs. what God calls us to for a while now, and Hans really confirmed a lot of my investigation. I will summarize it by saying that we need to identify autonomous behavior in our lives and hearts and allow God to correct that, to move towards a more selfless approach. Not selfless in the sense that we diminish into nothing, but selfless in the same example set for us by Christ in His complete and total dependency on the Father. Selfish behavior, I have been finding, is at the root of so many transgressions, our autonomous behavior is at the root, born out of greed and fear. Jesus moves us towards true worship, removes the mountain of idolatry, and allows us to move towards true worship of the father. You'll need to forgive me if this explanation is rushed or un-thorough. I just finished the conference today and have not yet had a chance to piece it all together into something more polished along with the findings in my own time in the scripture. What I will close with though, is that the Gospel of Mark is quickly becoming one of the most interesting Gospels I have read.



Funny Story...

I thought I would share a funny story from the conference. I love all of the people I've met in Scotland thus far. I have made many great friends and I have felt very relaxed and welcomed during my trip so far. The evidence of the Kingdom and our spiritual family is evident over here just as much as it is back home. You might remember that I mentioned an American working out of Edinburgh named Mark Backlock, who is discipling two fellas by the names of Luke and Ben. Well one evening, as everyone was sitting down to supper, Luke doused Mark with a pitcher of water and the two began to wrestle in the dining room. Mark, a former American Football is his own force of nature, not to be reckoned with. He gained a very quick advantage over Luke, when Ben decided he would come in to help and began to give Mark a wedgie. Again, Mark being a force of nature, managed to not only fend Ben off while keeping Luke at bay, he gave Ben a wedgie, one that ripped the elastic completely off Ben's shorts. Luke moved in for the kill, managed to get a hold and tried to finish the work Ben started, Mark countered and ripped the undershorts right off Luke as well. Ben moved in for further assistance and teaming with Luke, the both of them no longer having anything to lose, managed to finally get Mark back. Everyone was laughing and the discipler and his disciples were all grins and smiles as they allowed their photos to be taken and gave each other a pat on the back!

Once again, please click on the images to enlarge them, and feel free to visit the gallery from previous articles to see more images!