An Adventure in Ministry

  Last weekend was a big weekend in my life and ministry. After studying at The Salvation Army’s William Booth training college for a year as a distance learning Territorial Envoy Cadet, I was commissioned and ordained as a minister with the rank of Lieutenant. On Sunday 14th July at The Salvation Army’s together 21 congress, I, along with 12 others who were in the ‘Defenders of Justice’ session were prayed over, affirmed, commissioned and sent out to spread the gospel. This day was a culmination of a time of preparation which included a retreat day, covenant day, reflections, learning the 11 doctrines of The Salvation Army and lots of rehearsals! The Sunday before we were commissioned, we went on a beautiful retreat day at The Royal foundation of St. Katherine, and at the end of the day we shared some of the things God had been speaking to us about. One of the cadets shared some verses from 1 Kings 19:11-12 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the L...

  Just over a month ago I attended an amazing women’s conference for women in The Salvation Army called Riverbank. It was a beautiful weekend of teaching, challenge, fun and friendship and there were so many highlights. Throughout the weekend there were a number of thread that God wove within it. It wove through the speakers and the worship, and was incredibly powerful.  One of these threads was the truth that we can still praise God in the midst of the darkest times. From the frist evening we heard testimony of how people were able to praise God in the midst of trauma and difficulty. This ran through the entire weekend with person after person talking about praising God in the difficult places and finding comfort, power and joy through it all. Each person declared "Still I will praise!"  One of the most powerful moments of the entire conference was on the Saturday morning when our amazing and anointed worship leader sang one of her songs. The song, ‘Still I will pra...

  This last week has been an interesting week in ministry and it has been a real challenge to juggle our mission of helping the needy in our community, especially the homeless.   Jesus says in Matthew 25:35-36: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” The salvation army has always encouraged its people to look after and minister to the people who are often forgotten in society. Its founder William Booth felt passionately about caring for peoples physical needs as well as its practical needs. He once said: ‘What is the use of preaching the Gospel to men whose whole attention is concentrated upon a mad, desperate struggle to keep themselves alive?’ However, as is often the case when we are doing God’s work, the enemy doesn’t like it. Unsurprisingly, as we star...

  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...

  I have just returned from a truly special and spirit-filled weekend at The Salvation Army’s women conference called the riverbank. Often when we think about time spent at a riverbank we think of words such as refreshment, rest and restoration and this year the conference did all this for me and more besides. This year’s conference theme was ‘Truth be told’ and to start off my recap series I thought I should take the time to tell “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!”  The truth is I almost didn’t make it to the riverbank! up until 3pm on the Friday afternoon (and the conference started at 4pm!) I didn’t know if I would be at the conference or in the hospital awaiting surgery! At the beginning of May I had undergone an operation on my back and there had been a number of post-op complications.The last few weeks had been painful,  (both physically and emotionally) Frustrating and confusing and it had been a steep learning curve for me about trusting in God...