Faith jumps, fear looks!

I am now officially 3 days in to my new job and although I appreciate these are early days, I think I have found the best job in the world! There are going to be some huge challenges along the way, I can see them coming, however I cannot wait! Nothing to do with me simply that God has put a spark in my heart and a desire for this work that is unquenchable at the moment.

Monday saw my first staff meeting, relaxed, peaceful and not in the least bit competitive, something that is far removed from the business world. I then had some admin bits to do and later a meeting with John Durrant of Holy Trinity to talk about Amplify (www.amplify-uk.com) and Outside Light (www.outsidelight.blogspot.com). The evening was a big event in OL calender, a end of term barbecue, let me quote some of the write up from that evening because God is awesome and He moved...

Not for the first time I felt dazed when arriving at the rec. We have faith that there is some sort of plan before we arrive but you just don't know what you're going to arrive into. For a bit of fun, try and picture us as an army, God's army going into battle; weapons of the Spirit ready, barbecues armed, hot chocolate machine on, sword of God's word ready to fire. We didn't quite arrive in helicopters, however I think that what we do on a Monday parallels quite nicely with the approach an army might take to a theatre of war situation. What struck me last night (other than a beautifully cooked burger), was that on arrival it was hard to know where to begin. Picture groups all over the field; where do you 'attack' first? I radioed for back-up, my commanding officer sent me off in a couple of directions, (not both at the same time, thankfully).

He is a great commander as he knows exactly what is happening all the time, what to do, where the biggest need is. I saw my colleague Captain Hazelden off in the car park conducting an information raid. I found an area where the young lads were coming to me, telling me stuff about their lives, talking about starting college etc. One lad was scared of being in a minority, he doesn't like big groups - which was kind of ironic given the feeling the residents have about him and his friends. He fired a shot of reincarnation at me when I asked him what he thought life was all about, we kept getting interrupted by sniper attacks and I couldn't get a decent shot off. My commanding officer assured me he had some inside information and this man would soon be back in our cross-hairs. It wasn't long before operation Outside Light had thrown in a couple of smoke bombs, the smell of the barbecue hit the car park and drew the crowd over to the field.

Brigadier Durrant was flying back and forth to barracks bringing in supplies. Field Marshalls Hill and Pepper were cooking up a storm on the barbecue. But the distraction and genuine acts of love and kindness had lowered the barriers for me to come in with some heavy artillery, I hit about 20 of the young people with gospel tracts. One group were determined to fight back and I took a couple of hits, persecution and ridicule mixed in with some swearing. I radioed in to my commanding officer, He sent the weapon of mass construction, (the Holy Spirit), closely followed by this group asking me some great questions. The Holy Spirit enabled me to share the gospel with the four of them, the big guns came out and they were really struck by this black book with the words "holy Bible" written on it. It penetrated and we were soon into some deep debate, I was struggling to hold all of them, then Major H Morrow swooped in to cover the rear and was engaged in battle with two of them, which allowed me time to focus on the other two.

We had a great conversation, one of the lads allowed me to link up with our Commanding Officer and to pray for him, I challenged him to do his own praying at home later that night. I loved it; no, I love Jesus; I love Him. Before I go into battle I hate the thought, I dread the conversations, I am not sure how I am going to start them; but if any of us didn't feel fear and anticipation then it would be all about us. Thankfully it is all about Christ - without him none of us would be here and we would certainly not be talking to these people in power without Him!

We are part of an army, lets not give up fighting the good fight. Operation Outside Light needs more soldiers; full training given, the best weaponry in the universe provided, survival not guaranteed, rewards are immeasurable...let me lay a challenge, if God said he would give you £10,000 every time you went out or shared the gospel would you do it? I am ashamed to say I know I would do more, yet we are serving something of infinitely more value than money and with infinitely greater reward...Outside Light needs you, God wants you!

I let you look around the Outside Light blog for the rest and what happened on Tuesday night!

The rest of the week has involved meeting up with some contacts, hooking up with one of young people from the church who said something profound about the journey I had been up until this week - "Sometimes you need to go off and be on top of the mountain and survey the valley, the valley being what you are going to and the mountain top being some time you spend with God getting prepared then off you go into your mission" - He didn't know that last week God had called me up a my own mountain, I had sat on top of a huge hill and spent some amazing time in prayer with God. He was now confirming the mission.

I have had some great conversations on the door in the parish, it is just great talking to people about eternal things rather than earthly things. I had a good conversation with a Muslim outside Winston Churchill who believed his goodness would allow him to go to heaven. We discussed whether we had both broken the Ten commandments and the reality that none of us are good, it opened up some real thought and he took a book I offered...

I met with the area Evangelism co-ordinator too and she has given me some great ideas, I hope I her too.

I am trying out a new motto that I read in a book recently, faith jumps, fear looks! I like it, not always easy but when God catches you it takes your breath away...

Ephesians 3:14...

Keep looking to Christ