The end is near

well this wil lbe my last blog post .... ON HERE!!!

go check out our new blog

http://www.robinsonta.plus.com

Future of church?

I was sent thing video, very amusing at first, but actually a very good serious well produced video. This is why we need more youth workers!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lkmvHVtekA

Proud Daddy

Well a new term started, Ali back to school and slightly more scary is Dan starting school. There he is in his uniform, happens to be the very same uniform I wore when I started at that school 23 years ago!

I am also very proud of his grasp of complex theology. I know he is only 4, as far as we can tell he hasn't understood enough about life sin and Jesus to make a commitment to him yet BUT, as i was putting him to bed tonight something quite profound happened. Every night we share things that have made us happy and sad and then we pray about them. Today's sad thing was all the rain which meant we couldn't play outside. So I prayer for some sunshine tomorrow. As soon as we stopped praying, he looked at me and said

"God made the rain and the sun, he can do anything"

As if that wasn't enough, he then went on to explain that there are three bits but 1 God.

"A mummy and daddy and the holy spirit. "

I said 'close!',
Dan said

"oh yeah, sorry, Father, Jesus and the holy spirit. but they all make God."

Okay so some of you reading would point out there are fine details of 1+1+1=1 but he is 4. I haven't ever explained it to him! Maybe it was vegetales?

I read a BOOK!!!

It is Very Very rare that I bother picking up a book, my preferences are things that will provide much amusement (Tabloid Bible), or trying to understand people better (When generations collide), occasional a biography especially if it is a testimony of someone seeing God at work in their lives. Whilst at Soul Survivor I had the great privilege of getting to know a chap by the name of John Robinson. The first contact i had with him was having to ask him to move his chairs from our area so we could get set up. Unlike previous exhibitions we have been at, he was very polite apologized that all their lounging around and slowly shifted the chairs and stuff! We had some great times, Singing annoying songs to each other from the main meetings, I nicked his spot lights (1 x 500w flood lights!) He called a medic for me, I stole his phone and sung that annoying song as his ring tone, which finally played when John was in Tesco with his bags full of shopping. He got the whole tool shed to sing happy 55th Birthday to me over the PA system, we moved his entire display on the last night to on top of a wall in the corner, manging to extent our display all over his patch! Haha, we had a GREAT time. He was also part of the prayer ministry team in the main meetings.

Along the way, I discovered his tattooing gang based history, amazed by what God had done in him I loved joking with him even more! 1 VERY slow afternoon I started to read one of the books on his stall I discovered it was a book he had written about his life. Well at the time I only read the first half chapter then the book was lent to someone else. I eventually bought the book, and i just read it in an afternoon, man an addictive read, i genuinely couldn't put it down!

Nobody's Child is Johns book written whilst he was running the bus ministry for the message trust in Manchester. An Easy read, which suits me, but an AMAZING testimony of God at work. John was in and out of children's homes and eventually in and out of Jail, and a failed marriage, but in amongst all of that God was calling him all the time. My favourite quote is in the last chapter when he was reading all his childhood notes, and he says he remembers speaking to one of the Psychiatrists, who said

I am at a loss as to how i can help you, I've never met someone who has suffered so much rejection and abuse who hasn't managed to kill themselves.

Go read the book hear more about what God has done!

Summer is finally calming down!

Well I have finally finished my epic summer. Togo, 5 days, WYnet Camp, 6 days then soul Survivor. Many, many highlights to share but I will restrict myself to a couple from each place

Togo: Getting 205 Ntcham New Testaments into the hands of people who need them ,also the epic journey to the top of the mountain :) A whole lot of stuff already posted about Togo... go read it!

WYnet camp: Definitely Thursday evening, getting all the leaders releasing stuff in prayer over all the peeps who were at camp. It was an amazing privilege to stand there with a bunch of wonderful amazing young people all desperate to see God move in them an through them. Also amazing to see Young people desperate to see God working in their lives and that they were prepared to be open to God using us. Okay i say us, i am really thinking wow God wants to use ME. I somehow lost sight out that the last couple years. All the routine of summer camp, easy to organise and put everything in place, but being open to God using you, that never fits into a plan! It sort of revived my desperation to see God move in my life and to use me at every given opportunity. Thanks gang for being open to that, thanks campers for being open to God!!!

Soul Survivor: Going into 10 days of Camping and exhibiting already tired is NEVER a good plan. Thank you Steve for putting up with me and helping me get through! This was the first time I have thought, maybe i am actually getting to old for this job! I hate camping at the best of times let alone in Gale force wind and flood producing down pours. We made a lot of good contacts, had a LOT of great fun with our Neighbours from Ellel Ministries in the Tool shed exhibition. A lot of the time was blurred with the news that Christophe one of the translators in Togo had died. I knew it would happen, he had stomach Cancer, but trying to deal with that, a colleague of 10 years, and 20 people to call and inform was not easy in the middle of exhibiting.