Last day at work!

I can't believe it's my last day as intern at Grindstone church! It's crazy how quickly this day has come around. It's been an intense time here, yet September 6th (when I arrived in Toronto) somehow feels like yesterday. What an amazing experience it's been! And I'm so grateful for getting the chance to come all the way out here to Canada to be part of this church. Thanks to Mark Bonam for sorting it all out for me! As the 'worship arts' intern i'm amazed at how much they integrated me into the team; they kept me so involved even though i'm young and not trained! Working so much with Eli, the worship pastor, has been awesome. I've learnt so much and feel this year has led me to a great place in my journey as a disciple of Christ.

What is blocking the release of your Spirit from flowing?

Yesterday in the 24-7 prayer room at Freedom House in Brantford, I read this on one of the prayer walls...

"What is blocking the release of Your Spirit from flowing in this city?"

To me this is a massive question because it can be asked on SO many levels.

"What is hindering You, Holy Spirit, from working fully in my life?"
in my/the Church?(local/global)
in this place?
in this nation?

On a personal level God is working in amazing ways but there are still things I do that may hinder God from moving more powerfully in my life. Just writing that seems crazy...can our stubbornness really stop God Almighty moving?! Surely God can just do what he wants?

The story of the Israelites, led by Moses and Aaron, in the desert comes to mind. If they were obedient would they have been in the desert for so long? Did God stop working? Or did it just take a bit longer?

I don't think we can STOP God in our stubbornness. However I think that sometimes God chooses not to work in ways he would have done if we were obedient. So when we're disobedient maybe God is still working and using us but it's a longer process.

Any thoughts on that? I'm still working through what I think about it all so i'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I think there can be spiritual opposition to what God wants to do as well but i'm not gonna write my thoughts on that now!

So to summerise this post here's a question I want to think about, 'What am I doing, or not doing, that is slowing down what God wants to do through me?'.


Daria (heads up 24-7 for Canada), Matt and I at Freedom House, Brantford.

24-7 prayer: Grindstone weekend of continuous prayer

Last weekend we held a 24-7 prayer room at the church offices here at Grindstone church in Canada. It was an amazing weekend with many people finding out about the 24-7 prayer movement for the first time. The feedback has been phenomenal. On the first night someone wrote in the guestbook when leaving that they were now inspired to pray. After reading that both Matty and I, who set up the prayer room, agreed that if the room closed right then it would have been worth it. But God still continued to do amazing things!

Prayers for Grindstone, prayers for ourselves, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers for others, prayers for our neighbourhood and prayers for the world just covered everywhere.

(All credit for how the room looks goes to Karen Hayes for letting us borrow all her lights, paper, pens, art stuff, table cloths and much more!)

So I move back home to the UK in a month. Time is going fast. I'm so glad I was involved with this before I leave. Now I gotta stay focused and obedient to what I should be doing before I go home. My time here isn't done yet!

The Hammer...

So last night I got back from an amazing five day mission trip in the Hammer (Hamilton!) which is where i'm living here in Canada. Yes you are reading that right, a 5 day mission trip in my 'back yard'.

When you're serving abroad you leave the place. When it's in your own city it's pretty intense as you carry on seeing the same places and the same people even after the mission trip has 'finished'.

I really did find that as we helped out at different shelters, soup kitchens and community centres we kept seeing the same people. It's quite odd walking down the street each day and seeing people that you gave food to, and who opened up to you, the night before but now finding that walking past them with brief eye contact is no longer enough.

Some people's honesty and lack of embarrassment/caring about what others thought of them was refreshing and a lesson to me. It makes me laugh but I'm starting to think that I know some of these people on the streets more than I know people I've had years of 'civilised' conversation with! This makes me think that to some extent politeness can actually stunt relationships.

So i'm back at work feeling kinda drained and challenged but finding it hard not to smile when I think of what God is doing here in the Hammer.
:-)

The beats have stopped

So I'm home now and we're done for the day with all the drum parts finished. We won't be back working on the songs till Tuesday now as Monday is mine and Eli's day off.

I'm off skiing tomorrow. I'm excited as it'll be my first time. It's warm (+8 degrees) so it could be difficult conditions. Eeek!

I guess it sounds like I'm living the high life...here and there, yes I am. But please don't be fooled. I don't write posts about those boring days where I'm sitting around the office doing nothing for 8 hours. Or the doubting days when I wonder whether I have anyone who really knows or cares for me here in Canada. As you can see I tend to only write about the amazing things which are happening and only show the glamorous pictures. Don't get me wrong though. This year has been a massive blessing and i'm so thankful for that.

But maybe I should try and share when things aren't going so good. Hmmm.

E.P recording-Lay those beats down my friend!

Ah guys! So far today has been amazing. Adrian, the session drummer I mentioned in the last post, is in recording drums for my 4 song E.P.

We've got through two songs so far and we're just taking lunch at the moment. After lunch we'll finish tracking the last two songs and should be out by 6 ready for dinner!

It's a lot of fun doing all this!

E.P on the way!

So i've been spending some time writing new material for recording here in Canada. I'm a lucky man. By the time I leave i'll have a four song E.P fully recorded and produced.

Recently Eli has been picking up some new gear for the studio (Allan&Heath ZED 16, Avalon pre-amp, SSL Alpha channel strip pre-amp) which is all sounding great. We've recorded some scratch tracks (acoustic guitars and vocals) and either this Friday or next we'll be having Adrian, a session drummer Eli knows, in to record some drum parts. As Adrian's a friend of Eli he's doing it on the cheap for me. What a nice guy!

This year has really humbled me. With all the things going on there's no way I could have pulled this off by myself. It really is all down to our amazing God and the generosity of others.