Always held...: June 2013

commissioning present participle of com·mis·sion (Verb)

Verb

Give an order for or authorize the production of (something such as a building, piece of equipment, or work of art).
Order or authorize (a person or organization) to do or produce something.

Sunday 30th June was a very special day for some very very special friends - the day when, surrounded by family and friends, Abbie and Paul were commissioned by their church, Downton Baptist, to go and serve with OMF in Taiwan.

They chose the songs and the focus was on John 13:1-17

Great is Thy faithfulness
King of kings, majesty
Bless the Lord oh my soul

Isaiah 52:7-12

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.
But you will not leave in haste or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard."

The pastor, Phil, then spoke about the importance of following in Jesus' dusty footprints - beautiful feet are feet that follow Jesus. And feet that follow Jesus are feet that are washed in grace.

Ephesians 6:15

"...and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace."

Phil then asked Abbie and Paul up the front where they had their feet washed by some of the young people.

Phil invited people up to stand with them while a representative from OMF prayed for them, then prayed for them himself and commissioned them for their work in Taiwan.

God I look to you, I won't be overwhelmed

After Abbie had read John 13:1-17 and Paul John 17:1-5, Phil spoke about the importance of servant hood and about how we should expect to get dirty in the world as we serve Jesus and that real love is demonstrated in the willingness to enter into the dirt for others.

The full extent of Jesus' love was shown as he washed Judas' feet - the feet of the one who he knew would betray him. And He not only washed Judas' feet, He then shared a meal with him. So should we serve those who will betray us. We should keep loving one another even when we make a mess of things.

Let us find life in all its fulness as we serve God in everything.

Meekness and majesty

We shared communion together before singing a final hymn.

We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender

Jude 24-25

"To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

After the service we had lunch together and it was really good to catch up with old friends and meet with Abbie and Paul's families and friends in the church.

The children in the church have really taken on board Abbie and Paul's willingness to follow God and are supporting them in prayer - here is a drawing of their feet that the children did and is up on their noticeboard:

And here are the real thing so you can compare...!

After an emotional goodbye we headed back to Gloucester... :'(

Part way home we stopped off for some water in Marlborough. After we'd bought the water we passed a stand behind the tills where there were some discounted plants - reduced from £6 to 65p...a bargain! We chose one and I said jokingly 'Shall we call it the 'Abbie and Paul' plant?' Having bought it, as we left the shop, Andy then said 'Wouldn't it be funny if it came from Taiwan?'

The plant label said it was a ginseng ficus so I looked it up on my phone and discovered one of it's alternative names is...the TAIWAN FICUS!!!!!!!! We couldn't believe it!

So here it is...

We're still amazed :D

So so glad we were able to go and share their special day with them. Thinking of them very much during their final week in the UK before they head to Singapore on July 7th.

See you on Skype soon Abbie and Paul!

Well...I said the next prayer event was being planned and it happened last night! "Prayer with a Purpose" was a creative prayer event bringing the church community together to pray for our Community Fun Day due to happen next Sunday.

It was going to be a fairly simple evening until a few weeks ago during a morning service when someone was talking about the fun day and mentioned it was going to be out on "The Triangle" which is the grassed area in the centre of the nearby streets called, not surprisingly 'the triangle' because the grass is, well, triangle-shaped!

Well - that got me thinking - triangles...trinity...interaction between God and us and the church and the community and all of a sudden I had an image in my head of a pyramid, made of garden canes tied together with string...

This is what we made last night during the evening - our prayer pyramid!!

People arrived and had tea/coffee and cake while they interacted with seven different prayer stations - writing prayers, thoughts and verses on parcel labels and also drawing round their hands. All these were tied onto the pyramid later on in the evening. All in all a very successful evening.