Welcome Back to PIP

Monday I started back to my PIP, which is my Personal Initiative Project that I have to do whilst in College. This is something that I really enjoy. I work with 9 - 13 year olds at the Youth Club at Poplar Salvation Army. I have been away from the Corps for 3 months because of my summer appointment, but walking into the youth club on Monday evening it seemed like I had never been away.

I did what I enjoy doing, and was on the door, taking the kids money and signing them all in. This week I saw some kids that I hadn't seen for over a year, but for some reason they remembered me!

One of the main reasons that I particularly enjoyed club this week was because it was such a happy place. I saw a glimpse of heaven lived out on earth in the heart of Poplar. It was beautiful. I think for the first time since doing club I could see God's hand in the work that we were doing. We weren't praying, we weren't praying, we weren't preaching, and I don't think that God was mentioned at all all evening, but He was definitely there with us.

Wow! The summer has flown past and I am now back at the Training College for another 9 months. As I was singing our sessional song today, my mind was going back to all sorts of things that have happened during the past year. I thought about my welcome meeting last year when I marched down the aisle, the last in my session with all of my friends from Poplar Corps supporting me. I thought about the commissioning of the session that have just been commissioned, and how I was thinking about my own commissioning then. God is the same today as He was last year at our welcome meeting, it is just my understanding and knowledge of God that has changed.

Over the summer I have seen some amazing things that God has done through my work. He brought some unexpected people into the prayer day that I had organised for my mission project. I am totally amazed that God is actually allowing me to take part in His work. This is something that I can't understand, but be thankful that I have a part to play in His plan for the world.

My Mission Project

When we are sent to our summer placements there are a number of things that we are expected to do. one of these is a mission project. Basically, the college want you to do a project that helps you to reach the local community. My mission project was a day of prayer.

I was slightly concerned that the prayer stations that I had organised around the room were a little too simple. I was also concerned that I hadn't put enough work into it. Again, God proved to me that it wasn't my mission project but His.

The day was really good, and well attended with some people praying for about 4 hours continuously. It was brilliant to see so many people wanting to pray.

What a great day!

Yesterday was a great day. I love it when I have great days. It was good, because I had really good conversations with people. I found out lots about various people who enter our charity shop. I also got the opportunity to pray with someone, which is always good. Nerve racking but good.

It's days like today when I realise that I will love my job. Ok, I mean my life, after all, Officership is not a job but a lifestyle choice.

I am a battle axe.

I'm turning into a battle axe! Today I was in the charity shop at the hall when 3 men who were drunk came in. They started looking through the rails of the shop and started to change t-shirts in the middle of the room. I had to tell them not to do this, because I suspected that they would change into their trousers in public as well. This was confirmed a few moments later, although they respected my wishes and got changed in the street. I didn't ask them to change in the street, I just asked them not to do it in the shop.

After this incident today, I really felt at home. This type of thing would have happened at Poplar when I worked for them. I wonder how many of my session mates have had to deal with this kind of incident this summer.

A hug makes it better

I had a bit of a tough week on placement last week. This culminated with me questioning my calling to be a Corps Officer, as opposed to being a Salvation Army Social Services Officer, which is what I would like to do at some time during my service. I asked myself if I would be able to deal with the kind of problems that being a Corps Officer brings. Yesterday, there was not many people in the meeting, and was hard going trying to lead it, but I just laughed my way through.

At the end of this particularly tough meeting, and tough week I was greeted at the door by one of our elderly ladies, who must be nearly 90 if not over 90. She had a big smile on her face, and said to me, "you're lovely you know". I was clearly taken aback and she gave me a big hug. This comment and hug made me feel on top of the world. Today, one of my ladies in afternoon fellowship gave me a hug because she had enjoyed today's meeting which I thought was not very good as well. Seems to me that God is trying to tell me something about being in the centre of His will.

I'm a second year

Today, I have been thinking about what being a second year Cadet is all about. So here are a few of my thoughts.
1. I will be a commissioned officer of The Salvation Army in 48 weeks.
2. My essays will be longer.
3. God loves me just as much today as He did the day I entered the training college nearly 1 year ago.
4. Expectations will be higher of my ability to lead meetings.
5. My shoulders are a little heavier (2nd year Cadets have 2 bars on their epaulets, 1st years have 1).

My hopes for the coming year are -

• I will grow in my relationship with God.
• I will grow in my knowledge of God.
• I will be the best person that I can be for God.
• I will develop into the best Salvation Army officer that I can be.

Caught in a trap.

When I started college, one of my biggest fears was that I would get caught up in the trap of comparing my results for my essays. Slowly but surely my marks have improved, and as they get higher I then expect higher marks or my essays. I am now caught in this trap. If I get lower than a certain mark for an essay I am disappointed, which my rational mind knows is a silly way to be, but it doesn't stop me being this way!

Update

I have now been at Clapton 4 times. This seems weird to write, because in some ways it feels like I have always been there. Today I was working in the kitchen, and it all seemed really natural, not like a new job at all. Well, except for when I gave somebody 1 piece of toast when it should have been 2, but it was handled graciously.

I am really conscious that I can hide away from people in the kitchen, or in general busyness, which is something that is very easy for me to do. This is instead of the more difficult task of talking to people.

My First day of Placement

My mind is all over the place tonight because I had my first day of placement today. It started well with me missing the turning to go into the car park for the corps on my way there this morning, and then every subsequent journey had a wrong turn in it somewhere!

I had a really long first day starting at 8:45am and finishing at 8:30pm with 1 hour break in the middle, but I am, and always have been fully aware that this is what ministry can be like sometimes. Although, this was my fault because I offered to go to Hoxton Corps tonight to help with the youth group that happens there.

All in all the day has been good, with lots of things to take in, but I'm sure that this summer will be ok, and I am working with really positive people so I hope that this rubs off on me.

The End of my First Year of Training

Today has marked the end of my first year of training. In 1 year and 1 week I will be a commissioned Captain. I know almost all of my posts have spoken of how quick the time has gone, so I will not say any more on this subject.

Tomorrow I start my summer placement at Clapton Corps in Hackney. Hackney is, I think, one of the poorest boroughs in London, and I think is going to be similar to Tower Hamlets in this. It seems strange that I am on my summer placement because I have seen a lot of Cadets come to my corps on their summer placements, and now it's my turn. The good thing to come out of this is that I should have lots to blog about, because I am aware that I have rarely blogged since starting college.

Holiness

Today in College we were thinking about holiness. For Salvationists, this is a pretty important thing to think about. However, in my lifetime, I can only remember 1 sermon being preached on the subject of holiness. I wonder why this is? Is it because people have not felt confident enough in their knowledge of the subject to preach on it? Ok, so Officers have preached on aspects of holiness, but the actual word 'holiness' has rarely been said.

Vicky, a Cadet who was on meeting leadership placement with me preached an excellent sermon on the subject, and it seemed to be just what the corps needed on that particular Sunday.

Today's illustration was really good, even though it seemed a strange thing to do at the time. We were all asked to come to class today in smart/ casual dress. This meant no uniforms! Shock horror! Cadets in class but not in uniform! What is the college coming to??? We had no idea why we had been asked to wear our own clothes, and it seemed that it had got people speculating as to why we were not in uniform. This is what a life of holiness should be like. We are so different that people do not understand why we are like we are.

Am I Getting Old?

It's only 3 or 4 weeks until we go out on our summer placement, and I can't believe how quickly my 1st year of training has flown by. as Cadets, we have to do a personal revue of how we feel that we have progressed during training. My first one was quite difficult, because it was quite early on in training, but the second was a lot easier to do. I have learned a lot during my time in College, but more importantly God has done a lot in my life as well.

When I entered college, everyone seemed to be talking about the fact that we would leave different people to the people that we were when we went in. This reminded me of the joke that says, when you enter college they fill your mouths with marbles, and take them out one by one until they are all gone, and then they commission you. Ok, it was funnier when I was told it, but I'm not good at retelling jokes. Back to my point! I was a bit annoyed by the talk of leaving transformed people, because I felt that surely someone had faith in me to be an officer as the person I was, so why did I need to change? Now as a wiser person I realise that as a Christian, God needs to continually transform us inside, and this is what this change is all about.

Computer Literate?

I thought that I was quite good with computers until Saturday. How wrong could I be? Well, OK, I did literally blow up a computer a few years back, but now I know that the sliding switch at the back is actually to alter the power input and too much power makes the computer go bang!

On Saturday I took myself off to PC World, and after having wireless broadband in my house for about 1 year, I finally realised that you do not have to have a computer plugged into the main wireless box to get a wireless reception! I puzzled the poor bloke who was trying to help my predicament, but I am really grateful to him, because he saved us a lot of money. And here I was thinking that every shop only wants your money! My faith in PC World and shops in general has been restored.

The post with no name...

I can't believe it is now May. I am really slacking with this blogging thing. Since I last posted I have been on my weeks Corps placement to Brighton which was brilliant, been on holiday to St Ives which was a good break, and celebrated my 30th birthday. I am now officially no longer a youth in the eyes of The Salvation Army. Quite a scary thought!

I celebrated my birthday in style with me preaching at Wickford which is my Sunday meetings placement. For anyone interested I preached on the lessons learned from Mary's life and obedience to God. This was good to look into because it was prepared during Easter, and it brought it a whole new perspective to Easter for me. If Mary hadn't said yes to God 30 years beforehand she would never have had to face the agony of seeing her firstborn son dying on the cross. But if she hadn't said yes, God's plan for salvation may not have been fulfilled either. I wonder where my saying yes to God's calling will lead...

My Week.

Apologies for lack of blogs recently, I had loads of essays to write n that took all of my creative energy, so there was none left for my poor blog.

This week has been really good. In fact I might stick my neck out and say that it was the second best week of training so far. My best week was the week spent in a Salvation Army hostel in November in case you were wondering. Anyway, back to this week. We had a full week of what is called Reaching People. Basically this is where we all sit in a class room and talk about how to reach people! This week has been good, and I have learned loads. However, my problem was with two of the speakers this week. They spoke about how they 'do mission' in their corps. These two people concerned me because they both said that they both stopped all of the social programme at their corps because they felt that God was telling them to. For me, I can see that there is a real danger in doing this. It is so easy to arrive at a corps, not enjoy doing some of the things involved in the programme so close it down and say that God wanted you to stop it and He wants you to pray instead.

Well, I'm off to Brighton on my week long corps placement now, so no blogging for another week. Bramwell has peace and quiet!

Not Recommened Reading

I read blogs all the time about books that the people are reading and how much they recommend them to everyone. Well, I got a book out of the college library last weekend and I certainly do not recommend it to anyone! It was really boring and seemed really pointless to me. The name of the book was "Urban God". It had short studies on how certain Bible passages related to life in the Inner City. So if you happen to read the this book, don't say I didn't warn you about it! Have a nice day!!!!

D Day

Today was the day that all second year cadets got their appointments. So now they know where they will be living in 5 months. I am not sure if I like the idea of knowing so far in advance, but then I am lucky because I don't have to organise schools for children and so could literally know where I'm going the day before I move in.

I have to say that I was slightly upset during this mornings lecture. This lecture was taking place at the same time that the second years got their appointments. I was sad that they were leaving, and my comfort blanket of having these people that I knew around. Also, I was slightly jealous because I wasn't moving as well! I know, jealousy isn't good for a Cadet. And yes, I do love my life in Poplar, but I wanted to be a part of the excitement of the day.

Update

I haven't really had much happening in my life that I could blog about lately. College has been just College. I haven't had any flashes of inspiration that I could share with anyone. Although I wonder if Bram would disagree with that. When something has really got to me during a lecture, or inspired me I have shared it with him. So that is the reason I haven't blogged for a while. Oh the joys of having a mundane life!

When I first applied to go to college I didn't know what I was applying for. By that I mean that I didn't really know what being a Cadet was all about. I didn't really think about the college part of the application. My mind was fixed on the being an officer part and the College part of the application was pushed to the back of my mind.

I wouldn't consider myself to be academic, and certainly don't enjoy studying, but this is all part of the deal. I am enjoying my time in college and have made some really good friends there. There have been times when I have not understood why we have just been lectured on something, but I always try to look at the bigger picture. Once I do this, I come to realise why we have been taught something. We never know what is in the future, but trust that whatever it is will turn out ok in the end.

Echoes and Memories

This blog is not about Bramwell Booth (he wrote a book called Echoes and Memories which is used sometimes in college), it is about Rhonda Hayes! Tonight I have been a bit bored and found myself googling "Fraggle Rock". This was a kids TV programme when I was small. I used to avidly watch every episode of this programme. I went a school called 'Castle Rock', and we got called Fraggles because of this. Whilst Googling this, I came across another favourite programme from my programme. This was "Button Moon". I surprised myself when talking about Button Moon, because 20 years later I can remember the theme tune, and could remember Characters names, and what happened in the story!

This has now got me thinking about what a good tool memory is. We are able to remember necessary things, and also useless things. We remember all the time. Our Creator God is totally amazing. He has made us all perfect, and also unique. I also know that people have bad memories of things, but we are also given the tools to deal with this in whatever way is best for us.