Hallelujah or Hello?

As our Corps/ Church are now in a state of flux, having only one worship service on a Sunday at 2:30 in the afternoon, it's all been rather odd and I don't think we've cracked it at home at all.
If fact, ( see * 'The Problem Is') I don't think we have had a run of normality yet and with Christmas coming, I think it will be January before we recognise a routine.

The Sunday Programme is running nicely, folks are coming and going, some are using the opportunity to take stock and trying other things, but everyone is I think, on the whole, giving it a good old go.

The thing is, at home we really want Sunday to be different from other days so have said to the kids that the tele will not go on in the morning, we'll share a nice breakfast and or brunch depending on whether or not we go for the healthy walk we promised that we would try and do.

*The problem is that other Corps have their meetings and kids programmes in the morning and so, as I occaisionally need to visit them as part of my job, it means leaving the family to it and then bumping into them again either at home, halfway through FOJ ( Followers Of Jesus ) Club or in the afternoon service.

Anyway, all that aside, variety is the spice of life and ....all that.

So today our Corporate Worship was led by Majors Mike and Lynn Highton our Divisional Leaders and they were BUZZIN'. Mike was particularly in an energising kind of mood, but recognised early on that we, the congregation, needed to relax a bit, chill, let go etc

I get the feeling that we didn't ever really get that far and when a particularly challenging 'sound bite' ( I don't mean that, but you know what I mean) was issued, and there was no Halleujah in response, it was noted and I was sad. I'm not one for shouting Hallelujah, but I must admit, it has been a while since I heard one.

What I did hear though was a little boy shouting Hello a couple of times, which really made me want to laugh.

What does God want to hear us shout - an affirming exclaimation or a 'Hello, are you there?'OR a bit of both...and actually who does a yell of hallelujah affirm? Surely it's more than just a hear hear, or encore.

Where are all the people gone that shout Hallelujah or have they lost the fire that makes them want to verbally agree with an inspiring speaker delivering a word from the Lord and if so, then why?

I've Found the Key!

Being a lady of a certain age ( i.e mature...in years), I am pretty sure that there is nothing I have now to learn about myself, the way I react to things, the things I'm good at and the things I fail miserably at and I'd like to focus of the last of those attributes in this honest and heartfelt blog.

Some of you may recall the Shower Quiz that takes place in the hall household most mornings when I - NEVER Keith - get into the shower and suddenly everybody needs to know where all their illusive stuff is and yells their requests through the door into my water filled ears for me to dicipher and then provide the correct answer.

I will digress here, because I don't want you to think for one minute that Keith never has a shower, far from it, he has a very relaxing shower without the anxiety of 'THE WRONG ANSWER', in fact the children will do anything to avoid asking Keith any favours or questions because he is consistant, or at least they assume that he will say no.

So if I am upstairs getting ready for example, and Keith is downstairs IN THE KITCHEN, generally a small person will come up the stairs and ask me what is for breakfast or can they have a drink etc.

I will exclaim that ' Daddy is downstairs, why are you asking me?' to which the response generally is, 'He's getting ready for work' I will then ask, 'What do you think I am doing then' and more often than not, the response is, ' I don't know'

I have asked him what it is he does that makes it so obvious to them that he is indeed getting ready, and why they can't seem to grasp that me drying my hair while applying make up and sometimes ironing a top at the at the same time, does not give them some kind of clue as to what I am doing - maybe I am doing too much at once and their little sensors become overloaded?

Which brings me to the point of my blog - doing too much at once!

One of my worst failings, and here is where the Shower Quiz Event is SO funny, is that I really can't very often remember where I have put something. I mislay stuff all the time and almost have a reputation for it. People give me things and ask if I will be ok with them and it's got to the point where I will say something like, 'You'd really better not give me that because I WILL loose it'

So it was with great fear and trepidation that I took responsibility of The Key To the YP Cupboard at the URC. There is only one key and Dawn has very capabily has held it for 4 weeks and she knew as she handed it over that it was in grave danger of getting lost, we even joked about it - haha!

I placed the key in a fail safe place, my uniform pocket, knowing that I would be wearing it again the following week and would not need the uniform at all in the intervening days. The key was safe - Ha HA!

When I went to give it to my dad, as I realised I would not be at the URC in time for the start of FOJ Club this week, confidently going to my pocket, can you imagine the horror, when I found that The Key was gone! Boo hoo!

Panic gripped me as I mentally retraced my steps; where had I been, where could it have fallen out? I did that odd thing where I kept going back to the pocket in the hope that the key would somehow reappear.

Another digression - I was walking into the town on Friday afternoon and saw a lady trip up, which was funny because, well it just is - she didn't fall over anything, but she did turn around and give the offending paving slab a good hard stare. Why?

Anyway, we had been to a party on Sunday afternoon to celebrate the dedication of Ellie and Daisie and I had got changed at the venue, so I phoned my sister in law to ask her if a key had been found - NO KEY!

The following morning, before confessing my misdemenour to Dawn, I checked in the car. It was such a thorough check that anyone walking past might have mistaken it for a drugs bust ( I've seen them on the tele!!) - the whole inside of the car was out on the pavement - NO KEY - or at least, not the one I was looking for!

Confession time, not only to Dawn, but to Ann and Richard and the Minister at the URC. She was out, so I left a message, in the slim hope that she would ring back and tell me not to worry, they actually have hundreds of keys because people loose them ALL the time.

I spent Friday in a state of real anxiety.

...and then, in the early hours of Saturday morning, as I was drifting off to sleep, I had a vision of me slipping the key onto a keyring and shot out of bed and downstairs to my bunch of keys only to find................ that it wasn't there. ( yep, I felt just the same as I'm assuming you do now at this gripping point of the story - totally deflated)

I went to hang my keys on the magnetic key hook on the fridge door - they don't go there often and what do you think was hanging there?

( it was the key by the way)

Well I was jumping about, squealing as quietly as I could and whispering excitedly to Keith that I really must ring everyone and tell them, when he very gently reminded me that it was 1:45 in the morning and they probably wouldn't be that bothered. I fell asleep grinning like mad - which must have looked really very odd indeed, but I didn't care!

At some point during the week I had moved the key from the safety of my pocket onto an accessory made especially for looking after keys and I had NO recollection of doing it. It is at this point in the blog that I am considering deleting the whole thing because I do infact, sound like a mad person, or someone on the edge of dementia, which I may well be, but might not want the whole world to know about it just at the moment.

I think I do just do too many things at once and don't log what most of them are and I'm not being a martyr to that, it's just how my life is and why I am rubbish at being a guardian for things.

The minister at the URC did ring back and I told her the good news and she said that as I was so good at finding keys, perhaps I could find hers to the actual church - huh I really had her on a pedestal and now I know she's just a normal person!

I have since recalled the parable of the woman and the lost coin and can relate completely to her experience and have a tiny little inkling of how delighted God must be when someone who has been lost is found.

I've found the key!

PS I can't seem to make the spaces happen here, so that's why this posting is stripey :)

Oh WOW!

I am just googling for churches in our area who have a children's ministry of some sort - I googled 'Kids Worship - Romford' and the second entry is MY BLOG!!

I am VERY EXCITED!

What Does Hope Look Like?

Have a look at this website and tell me what you think.

http://www.hope08.com/

What do you GET from this?

What do you understand about this?

What do you feel about this?

What can you see happening through this?

( think that's all the learning styles covered!)

If you have joined the Hope 08 Facebook Group, have you had a proper look at what you are aligning yourself to - no leaving the group now!

Romford Bloggers - anyone got a burning desire to turn what is essentially a vision into something more tangiable, doing more, doing it together with other churches and doing it in word and deed?

Other blogging friends and profile viewers - you know who you are- let me know what you think too PLEASE :)

Why We Intentionally HAVE to minister to our Children

A while ago I wrote about how kids in our meetings are influenced by what they see going on around them, body language during sung worship, attitudes in prayer, attention paid to the preacher, listenening to a post mortem of the meeting in the car or around the dinner table. It all matters.

I admit to being fundamental about ministry to kids, I guess it's how I've ended up doing what I do, but the following is an exerpt from Nicky Cruz's book ON HOLY FIRE, which was a wake up call to me and, as I said in an email to someone earlier on this evening, 'it just means that the responsibility we have is even more awesome that we initially thought!'

I will recommend this book to anyone who might be looking for reassurance that they are not the only one who feels passionate about 'God's Holy Spirit unleashing his power in your life, your church, you neighbourhood', it's not just about ministry to kids, infact it hardly is at all.

Nicky had a vision and here it is:

God...has shown me a coming time when the Holy Spirit will move in the quietness of the night and stir up our children as never before, They'll be like the young boy Samuel in the bible who ran to Eli because he didn't know whose voice was speaking to him in the darkness....

....God is calling our children to make a difference. He knows that so many of their parents have not fully surrendered their lives, their time and their energy...to his control, so he's calling the children of our time to fill the gap. My message to the parents of ( and for me today, those who work with) these precious children is this:

Do not stop them. It is God himself calling them. It is his fire, his Holy Spirirt, prepareing the way for the greatest transformation ever to take place in the world.

If this vision is going to be fulfilled, we are going to have to invest more heavily and work more intentionally in discipling our kids. It's no good waiting until they are 'older' and can begin to reason it all out. I'm not talking about brainwashing, I'm talking about taking the discipleship to children seriously, listening to them, letting them teach us, giving them time to explore when it's good for them, base the programme around their needs rather than how well in fits into what we want to do.

If God is calling our children - raising up an army made of those who are still young - then who is going to teach them how to recognise his voice?

Happy Birthday Keith.

Yep, the great man is another year older and he's kind of spreading out the celebrations.

Earlier this month he went, with Joe, to see Rush - a Canadian Rock Band of epic proportions. Well, actually there is three of them, but they are fairly legendary, if slightly cultish, in the world of Rock and special mention goes to their drummer Neil 'The Professor' Peart who's kit alone would stike terror into the heart many lesser drummers, of which there are, indeed, many -in our humble opinion.

They are pretty old now, but ...so is Keith (!) However the fact that Joe is now totally sold out on them says something about their communication skills...or maybe Joe has lousy taste in music. Nah!

Early in November he, Keith 'Grrr' Hall is off to the Motor Bike Show at the NEC, Birmingham with Heaven's Angels who are Dom ' Rookie' Willmore, Richard 'Motormouth' Borrett, Cedric 'Thunderbirds' Hills and Mike 'Speed Demon' Willmore, and so far has a whole £20 to spend - woohoo.

Today, we had a really great Brunch with Marks and Spencer food to begin the Birthday Day and it's at this point that I will welcome you to the world of mealtimes at the Hall House - Andy, if you're out there, you might need some protective clothing, it gets a bit random!


Whatever I cook and however lovingly I have prepared something, there is always someone who will, figuratively speaking, turn up their nose, and while I am proud to have bought up children who know their own mind and would say NO loudly to anyone who tried to get them into a car, a mealtime evaluation during the actual meal is sometimes hard to bear and I don't think it will be too long before I slide under the table never to return.


So this morning out table was groaning under the weight of Croissants made with real french butter, raspberries picked from the end of the rainbow,eggs especially manufactured to reduce colesterol, orange juice NOT from pulp, sausages subtely spiced with ...spice, bacon from a pig and mushrooms plus a variety of other accompaniments and specially lightly boiled egg for Thomas who is not keen on what is essentially a fry up, whatever fancy language you might choose to employ and so it started.


'Oh you should have done tomatoes'....'Where are the baked beans?'...'A jug of iced water would have been nice' and the piece the resistance, 'What about a chimpanzee on a unicycle?'


I have pinched myself repeately but I am awake.

Proper Second Blog of the Day

Ohh I am on a roll today.

I can see that there might be some confusion about my previous posting, in that it was essentially the first blog of the day today, but I began the posting prior to that in draft yesterday, posting it today, so TECHNICALLY it was posted today, even though it has Thursdays date on it!

Also, I have added a page element called Blogs I have Not Yet Written so that I don't forget to follow up some of these little seeds that have been sown over the last couple of postings.

And FINALLY, we did visit the babies today and I have to report that they are SO lazy, they even cry and drink their milk with their eyes closed.

Seriously though and what IS incredible is that if eveything had gone to plan, they still wouldn't actually be born yet!!

WOW