Call of Duty

Want to begin this blog with our first Wednesday night class. We had a good bunch there on the 1st night as you can see from the photo. We started bringing some colour to the hall by getting everyone to put their hand print on the wall - the kids loved it! We told the kids what we were going to do this new term. We are going to go through Jesus teaching, both parables and sermons with a 3 column approach. The bible record is in the first column, the kids write it in their own words in the second column and in the third column they write some applications for their lives from the teachings. The kids do this in their classes, but we all come together to discuss the application part. Will keep you informed as to how this works out! In short we had a great first class!

We just back yesterday from the Aberdeen Youth Weekend! Alex, Elaine and I took a group of 12 teens through for the weekend and in spite of all the usual symptoms of sleep deprivation and exhaustion we had a truly quality time. I can't sing high enough praises for our group. The way they conducted themselves showed a level of maturity and spiritual appetite that was a credit to them. The whole weekend they represented the Peterhead congregation well and I am well proud of them all!

I will try to put into words the essence of the weekend. When we left the building we stopped off at KFC for a snack before turning up at the building to register. We played an epic game of football upon arrival, as is our tradition. Being so close to Aberdeen we always arrive first and after the group are registered we head across the road to a concrete pitch and play for 2-3 hours - excellent! There is something very therapeutic about this football match. It's almost like I get all my anxiety and troubles out there and after the game there is a sense of peace and calm comes over me and I am then ready and focused for the weekend. I get to know everyone well on the pitch and the connections are made for the weekend and everyone has a starting place for conversation.

I mentioned just before my lesson the journey I went on in preparation for the topic I was given. I was given the topic, "Enemy Briefing." The theme is Spiritual warfare and I told the audience that getting the lesson to come together was not easy. I told them that any time you study about our enemy, Satan, you are forced to come face to face with your sin and your brokenness. I was honest about my struggles with Satan's "Strongholds" in my life and the constant struggle I have to keep examining my heart and taking a sledgehammer out every now and again to break through the holds Satan has managed to place in my life. I talked about our need to be consistently behind Christ and the danger of being exposed and out in the open when we forget to "...pick up our cross and FOLLOW Him." I used 1 Peter 5:6 as a foundation and used the illustration there of being under God's mighty hand. Ant the danger of not casting our anxiety on Him. I have to say I was in constant prayer leading up to the presenting of the lesson because to that point I was aware that my heart was not settled on what I would say. I am convinced that any time we expose Satan and his schemes we will come under attack from the enemy. I am thankful that God used me and the words came readily to my lips. I am confident that the lesson achieved it's end and that hearts were convicted and "strongholds" were starting to be demolished.

I was given the honour of sharing some insight into ministering to children and youth. I focused on two points. The first is obvious, but it took me a long time to accept and live by, "I planted, Apollos watered, but it is God who makes things grow!" I asked the question, "Is our mission to "Save" or to "Serve"? We are simply the planters and the realm of growth and salvation is God's! The second is one that has been proved true consistently in my ministry over the past 10 years which is the principle: "What you win them with is what you win them too!" (Thanks Dan!) If you attract the kids with activity then activity becomes the attraction. If you attract the kids with Christ then Christ becomes the attraction. We need to have God's influence right at the beginning in order for His hand to be at work in their young lives. The sessions went well and the comments implied that many were inspired to action, therefore, praise God!

Another benefit of the weekend was to meet Jeremy and Jenny Arron and Richard and Mary Harp. Both these families are now in Scotland and involved in ministry. I was only able to hear one of Jeremy's lessons because he was teaching the teens while I was teaching the young adults at the same time. The lesson I got to hear was titled, "End Game." He shared that the game was already won through Christ. He focused his lesson on Elisha and his servant when Elisha prayed that the young man's eyes might be opened to see the army of god surrounding the enemy. Great stuff! I'm sure we will get to know each these good people over the coming months.

We had one "incident" during the weekend. During our 5-a-side football on the Saturday evening Alex and Thomas had a clash of heads. Thomas went down like a ton of bricks and Alex had blood pouring from above his eye. It took Thomas a while to get things together and after a couple of hours in A&E both emerged looking a little worse for wear, but on the mend. Alex is the proud bearer of a good sized scar above his eye - note from the picture above. Thomas has no such battle scars to show off, just a pretty sore head!

Fenella, Holly and Hannah came through for the Sunday! It was lovely getting a hug from Holly and Hannah, but to see Fenella again, after being totally spent during the weekend, was priceless!

God is good!