An Adventure in Ministry

  I have recently returned from a fantastic weekend at the riverbank, a conference for women within The Salvation Army and I had such a brilliant time. The fellowship was sweet, the worship was spirit-filled and the teaching challenging, and I am only beginning to unpack all that God did over our time together. Today I am thinking about the keynote speaker Dr Helen Paynter who powerfully brought us the story of Esther - a woman in the bible who discovered she can! Dr Helen Paynter presented the account of Esther in a fresh light showing the tyranny of the powers of the day and how her story was truly one of resilience and pain. She talked about the call on her life to make a stand for God and how in spite of the barriers, she gave her risky yes.  While talking about the call on Esther’s life, Helen used a phrase that has been bouncing about in my mind for a little while, and one that I felt God had been challenging me with. This is the command of “Speaking Truth to power.” Est...

  It’s been a month since the Riverbank conference and if you were anything like me, God spoke to me about so much as the teaching was so rich. However, when I have had experiences like this, I like to take a look back after a while and see, when the rubber hits the road, when I go back to my everyday ordinary life, have I applied the teaching to my life and what has God continued to teach me of who he is.  The month since the conference has been jam packed, and looking back over that time there is one thing from the conference that God has been reminding me of, day by day, sometimes even moment by moment and that is that ‘He is enough! As our verse for the conference says:  ‘God’s grace IS enough - It’s all you need’ God has spoken to me;  When I have sat broken in grief…’I am enough’ When I have asked BIG questions…’I am enough’ When I can’t see him at work…’I am enough’ When I can’t get caught up in worry about the future…’I am enough’ When I’m exhausted…’I am eno...

Recently I attended most amazing weekend at the Riverbank conference, with women connected to The Salvation Army from all over the country. God’s presence was tangible, the worship was powerful and the teaching was Holy Spirit inspired. This is the fourth post in a series of what God spoke to me about while I was there (You can find other posts on this blog! ) If you were there too I would love to hear what God revealed to you. If you weren't there I pray that a little of the riverbank will flow into your heart and you might just sign up to join us next year!   In the world today we often hear people say ‘be you’ they declare the ‘be the you,you want to be’ or ‘do whatever is good for you’ and that makes me feel uncomfortable. Where is God is that. In the past when we I did what I felt like and followed my own plans it led me to a place that was so very far away from God. However on the Sunday Morning at the conference, Rachel Turner spoke about the 'youness of you' and I l...

  I have just returned from the most amazing weekend at the Riverbank, with women connected to The Salvation Army from all over the country. God’s presence was tangible, the worship was powerful and the teaching was Holy Spirit inspired. Over the next few days I will be sharing a little of what God spoke to me while I was there. If you were there too I would love to hear what God revealed to you. If you weren't there I pray that a little of the riverbank will flow into your heart and you might just sign up to join us next year! On the Friday night, on the bank of the beautiful river installation, the head of family ministries, Major David Betteridge taught from the story of Paul and Silas in prison found in Acts 16. One of the (many amazing) truths he spoke declared that ‘The songs you sing in the daytime become the songs you sing at midnight.’ Throughout the weekend I returned to this truth and I am sure I will many times more as the power of it takes root in my heart.  My hu...