An Adventure in Ministry

I have just returned from the 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 second post in a series of what God spoke to me while I was there (You can find my first post here: Tales From the Riverbank: Singing at Midnight ) If you were there too I would love to hear what God revealed to you, I would love to include you on a guest blog post! 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 Saturday morning of the riverbank conference we listened to Commissioner Debbie Horwood as she brought us truths about God’s great compassion, and there was something she said that completely and utterly floored me! She spoke about how she has been doing a deep dive on the word used for compassion in the Old Testament - the wor...

Today is a good day! The sun is shining, the daffodils on the table I am sitting at are blooming and beautifully scented and as I watch the daily like of my corps go on, I feel so blessed! When I embarked on ministry, I knew it would be diverse, but some days it blows me away! Just this morning (and it's only 10am!) I have spent time soaking in his word, sent copious emails, written a bible study, picked up food donations to gift to a local church, sorted through some donations of clothes and had a sing song!  Ministry is a great orchestra full of diverse instruments, from a simple triangle to an exquisite cello and a kazoo thrown in too!  As I sit and observe the bustle going on around me, I see a member of staff give a lesson to a lad in his twenties on how to add up a bill as he simply cannot count. I watch my husband talk with one of the volunteers, just doing life together. I also see a family come in who are regulars in the coffee shop and have excitedly...

I am me! This week I had a revealation. I am me! Some of you may be thinking “duh, of course you are you!”  But this week it was something that really hit home. As part of our training and development as ministers in the Salvation Army Paul and I have just spent the last week at the William Booth Training college in London. It has been an interesting and challenging week in many ways! There was some great teaching, thought provoking worship and some fellowship with people walking on the same road of ministry as me. But for me, the greatest part of the week, was in the gentle call and affirmation that God seemed to breath over me as the days went by. There were a number of points over the week that God spoke to me and said “you are you and I made you that way. Stop worrying over the way you are, if you are wrong, I will tell you!” On Monday morning as I read my devotional I was struck by these Words As I meditated on these words I penned this prayer ...

At the start of this new year I felt called by God to try something I had come across in a few blogs. You choose a word (prayerfully!) and use it to hang your thoughts, journal and ideas for the year. A lot of people I have read about have seen it really transform their life, so I thought I would give it a go! The word I chose was GRATITUDE. So this week I have started 52 weeks of gratitude, and I will attempt to share some of my ponderings with you!    The first week asks why start this challenge? Well gratitude is a great thing to exercise. The talks time and time again about giving thanks. But how often when we pray are we guilty of giving thanks to God as a pre-curser to the main event.....asking for what we want.  Having an attitude of gratitude is something that I believe could completely change my faith, my marriage, my ministry and my relationships. When we go through our life looking for opportunities to give thanks, we can't help but also see love, ...