SHOUTLOUDER

I just got this email from a member of our church who is currently working in the mission field out in Burma / Thailand. It’s horrible to think what is happening – but I firmly believe we have a God who reigns over all things and His promises are that He will respond to our prayers… if we just ask “in His name”. I’ve included the email here for you to read in Fiona’s own words. Please do pray!

I am just writing with a prayer request. If you have a chance i would appreciate your support in prayer. Thank you!

Last week i moved out to a village school called No Boh, it is on Thai soil but very close to the Thai-Burmese border, near a village called Maesalit and approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes from Maesot, a large border town. I am volunteering through an organisation called ‘Partners’ and had planned to teach English for 1 month before returning to the UK at the end of June.

All the children in the school (from age 10-20) are Karen children (an ethnic group from Burma). Most of the children come to the school from nearby refugee camps or leave their families in Burma and cross the border to study at the school. They mostly all live in dorms there and are almost all Christians as the Karen are a Christian people.

After i had been teaching there for a few days, i received word that the Burmese Army (SPDC) troops were advancing on the otherside of the river/border and preparing to fight and that i would have to leave. After one rather sleepless night with my belongings packed by my bed as instructed, ready to run if necessary, i was picked up and driven back to Maesot.

The children and teachers are still there. Since then the situation has escalated dramatically. Troops have been restrengthened and there are now 1000’s of Burmese SPDC troops in this border area on the Burmese side. The troops are trying to take over land along a stretch of approximately 30km of the border that has previously belonged to the Karen people, and are forcing the Karen people from this land. They have fired 60 rounds of mortars into the Karen area, and are forcing any people they find to work as porters carrying their supplies, or to walk ahead of them and clear the area of landmines. At this point they have not started full-scale fighting or burnt any houses, but this is likely to follow.

The Karen resistance force (Karen National Union) are attempting to defend the land and the remaining people. There are still many people hiding in the jungle and trying to flee into Thailand.

At this point in time 4200 people have fled the Karen land and crossed the border into Thailand. These displaced people were forced to flee with their families, children and all they could carry of their belongings. Some are sheltering in a Thai school, temples, and caves but others have no where to shelter. It is monsoon season and right now the pouring rain is relentless. ‘Partners’ have supplied as much food, clothing and medical aid as is financially possible up to this point but no other NGO’s have provided supplies over the weekend. Thai soldiers at checkpoints along the route make it very difficult for aid to successfully get through to the people.

Please pray:

- for the thousands of people who have fled and are still fleeing
- for other and larger NGOs to respond to the huge and immediate need
- for aid to get through the checkpoints
- for compassion from Thai people towards the displaced people
- for the KNU as they defend their land
- that the SPDC will not be able to cross onto Thai soil (this happened previously in 2001)
- for defeat and retreat of the SPDC

Reading reports like this, it is easy to forget that each one of those 4000+ people is an individual, with a life, hopes, fears and a family. Please do not forget the Karen people, who have been fleeing in this way for many years. Pray for peace for Burma and an end to the evil miltary junta’s rule over the country. Pray for democracy and justice.

For more information about Partners, or to donate money: www.partnersworld.org. If you would like your money designated to this situation please let them know.
For more information about the situation in Burma: www.freeburmarangers.org
For up-to-date reporting on the fighting: www.irrawaddy.org

I am hoping to be able to return to No Boh school as soon as possible but until then will be teaching at another school in a different area.

God bless you, and thank you
Fiona

Our media guys have just released the latest music video from the album Devoted – it’s called Fullness of Christ! (I’ll try not to be too proud of the fact it’s written by Leed’s very own Mr Dave Adam and it’s filmed on the 3rd floor of our amazing Megacentre!!) Check it out and make sure you leave loads of encouraging comments for the Media guys in Sheffield who are amazing! (it’s best viewed when viewing this post in it’s own page – ie. click on the blog post title first so you get the full widescreen!)

I loved speaking about Marriage on Sunday. The whole thing came about simply through the prompting of the Spirit… and to be honest it didn’t take a lot of prompting to realise that around church there are a lot of single guys eyeing up the single girls… so it seemed more than apt to bring up the subject of love and marriage. But more than that I believe that’s part of the role of a Pastor is to bring wisdom to the big subjects that can often rule our lives!

So I really enjoyed speaking on Marriage as it gave me a chance to dig deep into a subject and bring out some clear wisdom from the Word of God. And as it turned out it also gave everyone a great opportiunity to laugh at all the fopah’s that a preacher is bound to make when talking about Sex and Marriage with his wife sitting on the front row! Anyhow – I think I managed to get away with not too many embarassing revelations…

My key thought was to look at what God Intended for us in the first place. You just need to look at the first couple of chapters of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve to see that God intended man and woman to be in marriage from the moment He created us. Marriage didn’t happen after a few weeks when God saw how good Adam & Eve looked together! He didn’t warm up to Adam and say.. have you thought about asking Eve out? No marriage was the form in which God created them both.

God also intended from the begining that we’d have someone suitable - that He has someone in mind for you who is the right person, so we need to stop pursuing any and every good looking chick or hunk when we should be pursuing God’s purpose for our life.

God intended for us to become ONE in marriage - an expression of His own ONEness and the ONEness we find in our relationship with Christ. How amazing is that – and that’s why sex is for marriage alone!

Finally God intended that we walk in the garden with Him. Adam was ashamed after eatin the apple and hid – he missed walking in the Garden with his Lord. But praise God that Jesus came and died for the sin that we have so that once again we can walk in the Garden with our Lord. Don’t worry what’s in your past or how badly you’ve done relationships / marriage. You can start afresh under His grace!

Love to hear any testimonies of lives changed though – make sure if you were there that you leave a comment and let me know how God has impacted your life! That’s what it’s all about after all.

I was left almost in tears on Sunday night as a young girl testified to how a prophetic word I’d given literally saved her from going through with suicidal thinking. I found the whole experience incredibly humbling and left me in awe of the incredible work that God can do through us when we allow Him the liberty to move!

So I’m believing for marriages and relationships to thrive in Hope City Church because of the foundations we began reinforcing on Sunday.

I wrote this post last August before Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry brought Twitter to the forefront of British social media… (yes by then I’d be tweeting for quite some time!)…  just thought a few of you may appreciate it’s thoughts now more so than back then! Be nice to hear what you think too!

Check it out: Surely I have better things to do than blog!

We’ve had a great Easter in church – exciting to see so many new faces around. One of the best things has been hearing about people who have literally walked in off the street because they have seen the huge billboard / sign that is hung up over the front of our building. One of the benefits of having a front that faces directly onto a busy dual carriageway!

The Big Getaway was fantastic as usual… even more so this year as everything just felt a little bit easier and more familiar at good old Cliff College. It probably also had something to do with the fact that we were sleeping in one of the Conference dorms near to the Conference Centre and I didn’t have to trek up the huge hill 10 times a day to the Main College complex. Not only that but all the memories of spending 2 years of my life in the college… kind of scrambles your brain. So this year I didn’t go anywhere near the College part and it felt like I was somewhere else completely!

But Easter is over for another year and now I’m looking towards the new season in the run up to our summer. There’s plenty to pack in from new Connect groups to relaunching our Friday night Youth at the Megacentre. Plus there’s the bLink Summit coming up, a special tour with Steve Kennedy from Australia and finally as we hit the summer – Summerfest is back!

If you’re not careful you can blink and miss plenty of stuff that is happening – which is why I’m really hoping to take some time this next week to get my head round everything and make sure that I’m fully focused and covering all the bases. That can be hard sometimes in leadership because there is SO much to consider as well as SO much needing to be done – but I guess the key to it all is MAKING the time to think and plan. It can’t just always be do, do, do – work isn’t just about being able to say you sat at the computer all day, or managed to paint the loos (which need doing when I think about it!). Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is actually to stop… and take stock. Make some plans, write some to-do lists, make a few phone calls and get everything clear and in order – and then get on with the do-ing!

What do you need to stop and take careful consideration of today? What’s crying out for some thinking time? Don’t put it off as often these things are the most important things to be considered!

Take time to think! Take time to focus on the new season!

So a really annoying thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago – my mac book pro got nicked! I won’t call it my ‘laptop’ as mac’s are WAY above such a common designation as ‘laptops’ but nonetheless it dissapeared thanks to the coinciding of a passing thief and a moment of opportunity.

Hence the reason I’ve been quiet on the blogging for the last couple of weeks. Plus on top of all that we’ve had Easter, the Big Getaway and plenty of design work to keep me busy as usual.

Thankfully, (as I force myself to write this on the PC) tomorrow (hopefully) a courier will drop a brand new Mac Book Pro off at my house and the journey may continue. It’s at this moment in this post I also have to Praise Almighty God and probably show some appreciation to Steve Jobs as well for Time Machine (the clever Mac backup facility) which has a complete record of my hard drive just waiting to be reinstalled onto the new Mac Book.

So my dear wife is looking forward to seeing her husband dissapear into the office as I endeavour to work out how to reinstall all the rubbish I’d put on the last mac back onto the new one. Which means hopefully I’ll be typing the next post out on something that doesn’t resemble a spare part from the tardis or makes a sound like an aeroplane landing whilst it attempts to keep itself cool.