Passion for God

UPDATE – This weekend is now sold out! The response has been brilliant so thankyou to everyone.

Need a weekend away? Need time to relax? Want to spend some time with God? Then come and join us for a weekend of friendship and fellowship. It promises to be a time of refreshing both physically and spiritually with great speakers and a wonderful location!

Bookings are now open and you can book using the form below. All you need is a £20 deposit to secure your place. Places are limited so please book early to ensure you have a place confirmed.

Caer Llan is a large country house set in 25 acres of garden, field and woodland in the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty around the lower Wye Valley. Whilst the location enjoys fresh, silent air, the amazing scenery is enhanced by the breath-taking views over Monmouthshire and the Vale of Usk.

Bedrooms are situated in the main house and in the adjoining award winnning extension. Rooms are comfortable with ensuite bathrooms.The inhouse catering team provides delicious and plentiful home-cooked food. Communal spaces have a lovely atmoshere with huge log burning fires perfect for November evenings. Come, enjoy and relax!

We are privileged to have Ruth Hill as our main speaker this year and she will be speaking in each of the main meetings. We are really excited about hearing her bring the word of God. She will be speaking on the topic…’We are His workmanship’ from Ephesians 2 verse 10.

Ruth is married to Larry Hill who has been a main speaker at the last two Passion for God weekends. She is a busy mum and grandmother and together with Larry helps to lead their local church in Ireland.

Ruth is currently studying at the the Irish Bible Institute doing a degree course in Applied Theology.  Ruth is involved in running a ladies Bible study and works with the group Teen challenge. She love cooking, interior decorating, craft making and shopping! Her favourite movie currently is Julie and Julia.  But her all time favourite film is Chariots of Fire.

This year’s seminars will be based around the theme of being a ‘Women of God’. The four seminars will run on Saturday morning as follows:

The Home – Abigail Marshall
The Workplace – Wendy Hitchen
The Church – Chandrika Meeten
Mission & Evangelism – Kat Hardingham

Abigail has been happily married to Scott for nearly 9 years. Abigail is a full-time mum, looking after her three children; William (5), Elliot (4), and Isabella (2).  They are part of Epsom Christain Fellowship. Abigail helps run the church toddler group and now helps teach in the christian school which her children attend.

Kat Hardingham is a Youth Pastor. Together with her husband Josh they work for New Life Church in Worthing. She is involved with running, young womens groups, school outreach and preaches regularly in the church. She also leads a Creative Dance team.

Chandrika Meeten is 37 years old, originally from America now living in West Kirby, Wirral with her husband Dave. CHandrika works as a play therapist in Cheshire and Merseyside and attends her local church Longcroft Christian Fellowship where she has been a member for 17 years.’

Other activities:

- Fireside chat with hot chocolate and muffins
- Film and fondue night
- Country walks in the Forest of Dean
- Shopping in Monmouth

The cost of the weekend is £85 which consists of £20 deposit upon booking and £65 which is due by mid- October. The cost includes all meals. You can book online at: passionforgod.org.uk/women and pay using credit or debit card.

If paying by cheque make cheques payable to Passion for God and send to : Helen Williamson, The Old Barn, 2 Leatherbarrow Lane, Maghull, Liverpool L

A number of rooms are available for mums with babies, please contact us if you would like more information. A small creche will be provided.

Check in time will be from 7pm. Places are limited so book early!

For over a year, young adults between the ages of 18-30(ish) have been gathering together to seek God’s face for our country. We are calling them revival prayer weekends, but what we are really praying for is for God to pour out his Holy Spirit upon and in us in a way we have never experienced before, wither it be deep sorrowful repentance or shouts of joy or silence. I believe that is the key to revival, people seeking Jesus with all their hearts simply to meet Him again, not just praying for souls to be saved or miracles to happen, but for Jesus to come to us. It is Jesus we need, for ourselves, for our churches and our country. When Jesus comes all these other things will happen.

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Well it’s the start of New Life Conference 2010 today and a bit of a rainy start at that! New Life is the annual conference for our network of churches and is held at Rora House in lovely Devon. The speakers this year are Larry Hill and Les Wheeldon and the theme is Y as in why.

We’ll be posting regular updates on the blog so check back to keep up with the latest. You can also follow us on twitter.com/passionforgoduk for shorter updates. If you want to join in the conversation then leave a comment on the blog, login to post your own thoughts or use #newlife on your tweets.

We’re looking forward to a great week and whatever you’re doing or wherever you are we hope you have a great week too!

Psalm 84 says “Blessed are those whose strength is in you”. Interesting then to read the whole Psalm and find out what it means to find our strength in God. On a monday morning it might just be the very thing you need. Or maybe it is personal or financial. difficulties. Whatever it is, you’re probably thinking I really need God’s strength at the moment.

The psalmist starts by recognising ‘how lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!’ It starts from there, from recognising that the best place you could be is in God’s dwelling place. He is the LORD of hosts, the title used to remind his people that God commands the host of heaven and there are millions upon millions of angels who serve Him. The psalmist then turns to himself and says ‘my soul longs, yes faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.’ The next secret of strength is having that longing in your heart to be in God’s dwelling place, even just to be in the courts of the LORD for in those days no-one could enter the Holy of Holies. The psalmist’s desire to meet with God was so strong that if he didn’t he said he would faint. Our thirst and hunger and passion for God

is

our strength!

The psalmist understood that every creature has a home, even the sparrow in their humble nest. And our hearts cannot rest until they find their rest, their home, in God. We were made for Him and without Him there will always be that nagging doubt that we were made for more than this. And so he says ‘ Blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your praise! Blessed are those whose strength is in you’. To have our strength in God is to recognise that His dwelling place is the best place we could be and to be those who hunger and thirst to find our home in Him.

The next verse is interesting! ‘In whose heart are the highways to Zion.’ What does that mean? Every year the people of God would pilgrim up through the highways of Israel to the mountain of God for their festivals and songs and feasts. The psalmist is saying that those who are strong have the highways to God’s dwelling place in their hearts! When we need that strength we can look inside us and remember our times of pilgrimage and meeting with God. Maybe it was our very first experiences with God. Maybe it was a time of prayer and fasting in our lives when we really met with God. Maybe it was an experience of God’s faithfulness in the toughest of times or a word of prophecy that God spoke to us. Whatever it is we all have those ‘highways’ in our hearts and the time we need them is when we need strength from God.

‘As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.’ Those who have the highways in their hearts can pilgrim to God any time. You don’t need a conference or festival, or a great speaker or worship leader. You can pilgrim! And as you start to do that you will make the valleys a place of springs. You will start to know God’s presence and blessing where you need it most and the springs will turn into pools and you will go ‘from strength to strength’ until you appear before God in Zion. Your strength is found in your pilgrimage and knowing the destination of God’s presence that you are pilgriming to!

And that begins to put the psalmist in the place where he can pray ‘O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer!’ Before you jump straight in with your requests try a bit of pilgriming first!

‘For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.’ The only thing that is going to keep you from the tents of wickedness is the longing to be in the house and presence of God. To know that simply being a doorkeeper is better than anything else by far. Nothing and no-one compares to God. A day in his presence will see you through a thousand days elsewhere. An encounter with him will sustain you for years.

‘The LORD God is a sun and a shield; no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!’ The LORD blesses and protects, it is a double blessing! He is a sun and a shield. Walking uprightly is the way to know his blessing and provision. The last line sums it up, this is all about trusting in God and the one who does is blessed and finds their strength in Him.

Happy pilgriming!

Just like the title of the first track on the album, There is more, there is certainly more within Lou Fellingham’s new album Step into the light.  Lou shows the power and diversity of her voice, ranging from Amazing God (originally done with Phatfish) to her new version of To God be the glory with the original lyrics by Fanny J. Crosby.

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Over the last month we’ve had 195 visits from over 31 countries.  On average people spent between 3-4 minutes and had a look at just over 3 pages – that’s almost 700 page views of the last 30 days.  The most popular being the blog and this month the women’s page.

148 of those visits were unique visitors for the month rather than the same person visiting us 195 times! The most visitors on one day? On June 14th 30 people visited passionforgod.org.uk to read ‘How to be a tree’!

We hope you’re enjoying the new website and don’t forget you can leave comments on any of the articles or register yourself and write your own blog post for passionforgod.org.uk. Happy Reading!

If you’ve ever wondered what we talk most about on passionforgod.org.uk check out this wordle that sums it up:

It was created using wordle.net which is pretty cool. Just out of interest here’s a couple created using the names of God. You can download any of these to use so have fun!

Child2Child is a Christian organisation that helps disadvantaged children in East Africa.  We have started by building a rehabilitation centre for Street Boys just outside Nairobi, Kenya, and run a sponsorship programme to assist the boys in the programme.  More recently we have branched out to Uganda and have been helping Sebastian Juma and his school in central Uganda.  We come under the umbrella of International Mission Project, a registered charity in Leeds.

The camp will be held in Naluwerere, serving a school community where 80% of the school children are orphans.  On this site is most of what you need to know.  For more information, contact Matthew.

Would you like to come?  If you know Matthew, then please contact him to register your interest.  The dates are 18-28th August and the cost will be about £900. You can contact Matthew on 07765 348471 or child2child[a]googlemail.com. Matthew is an elder at Clifton Community Church and you can read more about him here.

To find out more about the camp visit Child2Child Camp. A

Outline

Dates Wednesday 18^th August – Saturday 28^th August 2010.

Flights to be booked and confirmed.  The flights will be centrally co-ordinated by Matthew and his travel agent.  Each volunteer to organise their own travel insurance.

Travelling to Entebbe, Uganda and then by mini bus, (called a taxi), to Bugiri, about 4 hours away.

Costs

The cost of the flight is £700.00  You will need a visa that costs £25.00 and can be obtained in advance from the Ugandan High commission in Trafalgar square in London.  It needs to include a special form that can be downloaded from their website, or I can provide one.  It needs to be sent by registered post there and back so the full cost is about £37.00.

Accommodation and food will be £100.00;  this will cover bed, mosquito net, water, power and all facilities at your home for the time.  This £100 needs to be paid to Matthew in advance.  Then you will need your own cash too for things like personal water and phone credit.

Finally any inoculations and medications needed may cost you. Please see your doctor for their advice.  For antimalarial tablets, please do not get Larium/Meflaquine as these are tablets have serious side effects.  I suggest doxicyline anti-biotic tablets.  These are the ones I have and find them ok. You take them two days before, everyday there, and finally for four weeks on your return.  You need a private prescription from your doctor for them.  I have a good supplier at 18p each tablet.  Then there are things like mosquito repellent and sun cream and anything you need medically.  I have a list of things you specifically need.  We will carry a first aid kit at the home and the school.

Living

Accommodation

The whole UK team will be staying at Sebastian and Lydia Juma’s home.  This is a fairly modern home.  We will be sharing bedrooms with one another.

Food

Most days we will be having breakfast and dinner at Sebastian’s, but lunch and breaks at the school. There are local foods that we will be encouraged to try.  If you have special dietary needs please make this known on the application form.  Dinner is normally quite late although I have asked to be fed at a uk type time.

Washing

It is advised that you set up a washing line in your room and wash your underwear each evening.  Also consider washing your shirt/t-shirt daily.

To wash yourself, you will be given a plastic washing bowl full of water and expected to wash with this.  So you need a plastic cup that you can use to pour water over your body!  You will also need flip flops to wear when you are bathing.

Toilet

It could be that we will be using a pit latrine for out toilet.  We will definitely be using one at the school, so crouching down is the order of the day.  It is advisable not to have anything that can fall out of your pockets when going to the toilet.  At Sebastian’s, he could have the inside toilets done, but otherwise we will be using the latrine there too.

Phones

I buy a local sim to use in my phone.  This is definitely the cheapest way to phone or text home.  So put your numbers down and put them into the new sim when you get it.  Credit is called airtime and is easily available.  An sms to UK, (text to you and me), costs 220/- which is about 7½ p.  local sms is half that.  Airtime is available in 5,000/- lots.  The cost of a call home is about 3 mins for £1.00.

Internet

I tired the internet once in Bugiri.  It took 20 minutes not to load the gmail home page!  Just forget it.

Transport

Apart from the taxi that collects us form the airport and the day trip out on the first Saturday, we will be using boda boda.  This is a local motorbike service and is cheap and cheerful.  On the whole the riders are safe.  The cost of travelling to the school from the town centre is 500/- (about 15p) and the trip home to Sebastian’s is 1000/-.

On the Saturday we will be having a day trip to the source of the river nile and a tour of Jinja, the second biggest town in Uganda.  We will be travelling by 30 seater.  On the last day we will be coming back to Kampala in a taxi minibus, for the tourist bit, then on to the airport at Entebbe.

Electricity

Although electricity is there, when I was last there it was on about 40% of the time.  It is important to take a torch with you to the night time toilet incase the lights go when you are on the loo!

Camp

The camp is set 2kms from Bugiri in Naluwerere, at Elohim Nursery and Primary School.  This is the school that Sebastian has started.  There are up to 300 children in the school. We will have from P2 – P7 classes.  This will be 7-12’s approximately.  There will be about 170 of them plus 30 church children.  I have requested no children under 7 at all as this just leads to babies wetting their nappies in the middle of the walkway!  At the top of the age range, there could be some early teenagers as year 7 children could be older as they might have missed some school.  A majority of the children attending the camp will be fatherless or full orphans.

Fellow workers

We have a team of 30.  Of that 10 come from Uganda.  They are older young people who have been in the programme of Hope for Lugazi. A charity set up by Edward Nsimbi of Lugazi and John Ray of Worthing.  It is for orphaned young people who need to get their education.

The Kenyan 10 will be the boys, (young men), from the Child2Child programme in Nairobi along with probably 3 adults.

During the camp we will be subdividing and each activity group will consist of one from each team.

The Uganda and Kenya teams will be staying at the school for the week and eating all their meals there.  We will be joining them for some of our meals.

For the few days before the camp when we are there we will be doing some team building activities and doing the final preparation for the camp.

Arrangements

For the full timetable of the camp please see the timetable document.

A typical is:

7:30  up wash and breakfast

8:30 leave for Naluwerere

9:00  team devotions and final prep for the day

10:00         Children arrive

10:20 Christian meeting

11:20 break

11:40 activity #1

12:40 lunch

14:00         activity #2

15:00 break

15:20 activity #3

16:20 children go home

16:30 feedback session

17:00 preparation for next day

(for three of the days there will be a film in early evening)

UK workers part

The uk workers will generally be leading the activities, unless we find the others have better gifts than us!  We will be teaching a bit too so the others can learn things for themselves for the future.  There will be 25 children in an activity group so there will be three leaders plus other helpers in each activity group.

Activites

All activities will be pre-planned and all resources bought with us from UK or bought locally if possible.  They will be:

Sport (football and rounders), crazy games (parachute games, relays), craft with paper, Simple first aid training, music and drama (preparing a simple musical to perform), further craft with paint, and also letter writing to thank the UK children who have supported the camp.

Want to know how to be a tree? Fortunately the Bible has the answer! It can be found in Psalm 1 called in the NKJV ‘The way of the righteous and the end of the ungodly’ which about sums it up.

Do you want to know how to be blessed in life rather than cursed? The read on as Psalm 1 starts with this line: “Blessed is the man.” Blessed is the man who does what? Well let’s start with three things he doesn’t do.

1. He doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
The man who is blessed doesn’t take advise from those who aren’t! Literally he doesn’t ‘walk in their advice’. What are the sources of advise in your life as we all have them. Do we ‘walk’ in advice that isn’t helpful to us? The latest news or trends, how to get rich quick or succeed in life? Even the latest Christian fad or celebrity? We have to be careful who are friends are.

2. He doesn’t stand in the path of sinners.
This is going one step further. From walking in advice that isn’t helpful to standing in the path of sinners. If you stand in the path of a truck you’re going to get hit! Don’t stand in the path of sinners and then complain when things go wrong. Get out of the way of the truck!

3. He doesn’t sit in the seat of the scornful.
The lowest form of wit is mockery. It’s the easiest thing in the world to sit and criticise and mock and scorn. Don’t sit in that seat. Don’t be the one who says it will never change or ‘there’s no hope’ or ‘I can’t do it’. Be a God-believer as with Him all things are possible.

But if that’s what he doesn’t do where are the positives? Read on!

“His delight is in the law of the LORD and in his law he meditates day and night.”

One answer to all this. Listen to God’s advice, stand in His path and sit where He sits. Focus your thoughts and attention on God, on what He says and what He does, His principles and His word. Let it be your meditation, the thing you think on when you have those 5 minutes, when your brushing your teeth or waiting at the lights. Why?

Because if you do that you’ll become like a tree! You’ll plant yourself by the rivers of water, by the rivers of God. You won’t be moved and you’ll drink deeply of His river, of His life.

It may not look like anything is happening but look what it says next. When it’s time, when it’s the season the tree will ‘bring forth fruit’. God has a time for you, it may not be now but he has a time for you to bear fruit. Will that happen automatically? No, you need to prepare, you need to be planted, you need to drink that water up. It can take years for a tree to fruit but without those years of growing and watering it wouldn’t be ready to do so.

What about the tough times? “Whose leaf also shall not wither.” Even in the valley and through the rains and storms the tree planted by God’s river will stand strong and firm. And sometimes those times will be the making of the tree so it is ready to bear fruit.

Don’t worry about whether you’re doing the right thing or whether you’re in the right place. Christians can get very hung up about finding God’s will. What does Psalm 1 say? “Whatever he does shall prosper.” It’s more important that you’re planted in God than about having the right job. God can prosper you where you are if you stop fretting about whether you’re in the right place and start meditating on God’s law.

If you don’t choose this way. Well, you’ll get blown away like the chaff, you won’t stand a hope of standing strong so don’t kid yourself that you can do it in your own strength.

The LORD knows the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Selah.

There’s a story in Luke where Jesus calms the storm. For many of us that’s a very useful analogy for what goes on in our lives and we can often feel that we need the ‘storm of life’ to be stilled.

Amazing to think they only encountered the storm because they were in the boat with Jesus. Sometimes following him can mean we go through storms on the way to our destination, but remember they are not the point or object of our travels, only things we must endure ‘if needs be, for a little while’ (1 Peter).

Do these things bother Jesus? Well in one sense no. He is the Lord of all and knows exactly what is going on. But of course it’s true to say that Jesus ‘had compassion’ and he ‘walked where we walked’ so he knows and feels our trials.

So what did they need to do when they encountered the storm? Not panic, or sing, or even do their devotions. They simply needed to ask Jesus to sort things out. It can be the simplest things that we can forget to do. Have you asked Him to ‘rebuke the wind and calm the raging waves’? He can and will if we will but ask him. They had to endure the storm for a time so they might ask him to help. How often do our trials serve to benefit us because for the first time in a while we have to ‘ask’? In the calm we can forget our reliance on Him.

What did Jesus call for in return? Faith – trust in Him, leaning on Him, relying on Him, depending on Him so that if he doesn’t come through we’re sunk.

The other thing they learned? More about who Jesus actually was. You would have thought they knew but again this storm served to open their eyes to the wonder of the King.

Next time you see the waves swelling around you, remember this simple gospel story!

Here’s the full story:
“One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, Let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we are perishing! And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, Where is your faith? And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”