Kings Internship Log

Kings Internship Log The life and times of the Kings interns. http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/ Mountains and Valleys http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#72 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_dixon.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Dixon" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hi everyone! This week (and indeed the last) has been one of getting back into the swing of things after the rush and the highs of June Project. Having had such a great time and spiritual ‘boost’ after witnessing God do amazing things in a concentrated week of mission and evangelism, all of us Interns now faced the new challenge of ‘coming down the mountain’ and continuing with our everyday ministry, looking towards the end of our time as Interns in just a few weeks, including going back to our placements, continuing our teaching series on 1 Corinthians with Mark, and learning about modern pastoral issues with Ruth. Jesus’ disciples had to learn this very same skill. After their amazing experiences of God’s glory and Jesus’ transfiguration on top of a literal mountain, they then had to descend again into the ‘valley’ of everyday ministry that they were called to – tending to the poor, preaching the good news, following Jesus in all they did. Every Christian today can tell you of one or two amazing ‘mountaintop’ experiences that they have encountered that renewed faith, emboldened evangelism, and stirred hope. Likewise, every Christian can tell you of the long valleys of the everyday, where life is sometimes exciting, sometimes normal, and sometimes a struggle. But, as Curtis Hinds put it so well, "you cannot live on top of a mountain forever – the air is too thin!". In the day-to-day, we just as much need to seek God’s will and spend time in his presence as in the exciting and life-changing. During these valleys are the main times at which God shapes and moulds us, equipping us for the next climb up the mountain, and they valley beyond it. In a few days time, we will be going en masse to London to take part in the Ichthus Summer Project, and I am certain that these last two weeks of ‘normal life’ have been crucial for God preparing us for the mission week ahead. Praise God that he has such great plans for our lives, and is at our side in every situation! Tim Dixon - Tim Dixon Tim Dixon June Project Megalog! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#71 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_mayo.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Mayo" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> The internlog of all internlogs, the big one. The daddy. Or perhaps not. June project this year was an amazing five days and I am confident that each delegate, participant, hanger on or just observer will have seen and experienced God moving in this city in new and exciting ways. The opportunity to do so much and meet so many people, to pray for healing for them and sing songs of salvation over them, to practically meet their needs and express God's deepest heart that they see Him as provider and sustainer; has been incredible. I don't really want to say huge amounts more about the June Project here because the June Project was so much bigger than us interns, or the staff team, or even the group of 120 delegates who eagerly served God for five days. June Project begins, as it has done before and continues to do; to realise God's heart for Durham. Do check out the <a href="http://www.kcd.org.uk/news/archive/item/118">video</a>, the pictures that will continue to stream in, and ask delegates about their own testimonies of what God has done. Perhaps I should say a little of intern experience of JP'09. The couple of days leading up to June Project were a frenetic chase down of the last bit and pieces to get done for kick off on Wednesday, ranging from putting up an art gallery, performance practices, sorting out who is doing what gardens, to painting banners, to sorting out timetables..... Fortunately, God is absolutely sovereign and regardless of the energy in the time before kick off and through all the rushing, we were able to spend time worshipping our creator and reminding ourselves of the amazing privilege of being able to join with God's plans for Durham. I really feel like it is this thread that ran through June Project 09, of the amazing privilege of joining in what God is doing, that was so energising and empowering over the week. We had great times of worship, encouragement and prayer from Debbie Laycock, Ruth P, Mark Bonnington and Seymour Jacklin, and those moments reminded us about how God has willed, encouraged and is right at the heart of what we were doing. Another thing that struck me over June Project was that we had so much fun! We do have a reputation as Christians of being dull, but the rousing reception that RSVP got on Saturday night was anything but dull, and I do believe that in times like those, we connect with God among our brothers and sisters in Christ in ways that we don't quite get. Equally, times spend singing and dancing in the rain in Millennium Square, time spend chilling out together over the week over food and jokes all were conducive to this amazing week. Thank you so much to everyone who took part, whether you were involved in all of it, some of, prayed for it or just thought of us; thank you. In the following week, we slept. Praise the Lord. As we begin to finish placements, it certainly makes me look back over the last year and see how God has blessed and sustained each of us and taken us into new things. As I think this will be my last internlog, my encouragement to those who read this would be to perhaps take time to look back personally on the last year and remember how God has been at work in your own life. Tim - Tim Mayo Tim Mayo Seize the Day! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#70 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/sammy_hicks.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Sammy Hicks" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> June Project 2009 Get involved: Worship, Teaching, Prayer Busy, busy, busy 5 days, 120 people Gardens, Art, Sunny weather? Busy, busy, busy Old people, Young people, Middle people, Kids, Street performance, singing Dance, drama, clowning Busy, busy, busy Students, Coffee, tea, cakes, scones, Welly wanging face painters, Party in the Park? BBQ, car washing, healing on the street Football, DJs The Good News! Busy, busy, busy To the glory of God! Seize the Day! Participate, worship, pray... CARPE DIEM - Sammy Hicks Sammy Hicks God is working his purposes out http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#69 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/joy_van_straaten.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Joy Van Straaten" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hey all, After a quieter week last week, this week has seen us once again immersed in our usual activities, as well as a flurry of excitement for the June Project. Many of us are taking on different responsibilities for the June project and I have found it personally encouraging seeing how God has gifted us all incredibly differently, yet able to work together well! This week has also seen our wonderful teaching series on church history with Melody, coming to an end. The past six weeks has been a whistle-stop tour through some of the most fascinating and life changing events that the church has ever seen. We have seen the persecution of the church right at the beginning of its history, the mission of the monks taking the gospel all over the world, the reformation and the doctrine of justification by faith and the charismatic movement to name but a few. In our final session we looked back over the whole of church history and thought about how we could see God working throughout. For me, this was mind boggling as I saw God working in and through people no matter what. Also, that despite the church not being perfect, God was still able to use it and establish his purposes. So often in our walks with God it can feel like we aren’t making progress or really helping to advance the kingdom but the story of the church shows us something different. It shows us that people’s own seemingly small confessions of faith and willingness to serve him in whatever capacity, have the power to set the world alight and create an impact that may only be seen many years later. We were challenged as interns to think about what the church of the 25th century might say about the church of today - not an easy thing to work out! I, and hopefully you also, would want them to say that we were a generation who were willing to be authentic followers of Jesus Christ and to serve him in whatever way he may want us to. Furthermore, that we were more concerned with seeing the bigger picture of what God is doing than being dragged down by the weight of the world. As Delirious so brilliantly put it: "I want to be a history maker in this land; I want to be a speaker of truth to all man-kind. I want to stand; I want to run, into your arms". Are we willing? Joy xx - Joy Van Straaten Joy Van Straaten 7-year-old joy... http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#68 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/elena_borodenko.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Elena Borodenko" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> We have just come to the end of another ‘Quiet Week’ and what a marvellous ‘Quiet Week’ we’ve all had! God has blessed us with plenty of glorious sunshine and a fair bit of joy and excitement to go with it! Due to a dispersion of Interns during this week of no school or teaching it is difficult to give an overall idea of what we have been doing as a group. So it’s over to this term’s ‘Quiet Week’ interview... <table width="100%" summary="Quiet Week Interview"> <tr> <th>Question:</th> <th>What has been the highlight of your ‘Quiet Week’?</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Responses...</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign=top>Christina:</td> <td>"SUNSHINE! Relaxing, making a picnic bench (power tools ahoy), planning for June Project Street Performance – woohoo it’s getting exciting."</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign=top>Robyn:</td> <td>"Time and space! Time to process my thoughts, pray and prepare, be ridiculous – go on bike rides, get a little sun-tanned and standing back to ‘take stock.’ I like that little phrase."</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign=top>Tim M:</td> <td>"Having an opportunity to reflect on the term, JP, and having the time to enjoy the sun!"</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign=top>Lucy:</td> <td>"Watching a film about Rwanda. Wanted to watch it all term – not found the chance. Amazing! Take me there!"</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Joy:</td> <td>"Relaxing, enjoying the sun, sorting out my wedding things – exciting!"</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign=top>Nicola:</td> <td>"Bombing down Gilesgate Bank on a bike for first time since I was 7 years old (or something)"</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Sammy:</td> <td>"Sun"</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Tim D:</td> <td>"Enjoyed reflecting, recharging, and Barnard Castle, altogether very relaxing!"</td> </tr> </table> And for me the highlight of ‘Quiet Week’ has to have been having a picnic on one of those little wooden rowing boats on the river! Hmm or maybe our invigorating bike ride where it was both scorching hot and hailing... Fun times! So in conclusion this term’s ‘Quiet Week’ has been a great success. We’ve been relaxing, recharging, regaining that 7-year-old joy and the weather has helped us to enjoy the great outdoors of Durham! What a difference a little bit of sunshine makes to our mood. There is a real buzz amongst the Interns at present, with some very exciting events coming up and some brilliant ideas forming into reality. I can’t wait to see what unfolds during the remainder of this term. God is surely up to something...and I think it’s going to be good! Now I found the beauty of ‘Quiet Week’ to be so great that I thought I’d quote a poem by Jill Eisnaugle to express the Intern dream... Sunny Days There is a joy that comes to light When sunny days appear A sense of warmth, both bold and bright Each time the skies are clear A moment’s peace, a sacred calm And stillness, all day through We can behold within our palm When sunshine is in view. Enjoyment, in its purest sense Can thrive on sunny days For when blue skies and sun commence Our cares are swept away Basking beneath this golden glow We shall forever find The beauty we have come to know Where once, the world seemed blind. Much promise is held in the beams When sunny days emerge For in the rays, we see our dreams As more than thoughts we’ve purged A sense of hope, a sense of worth And love to last, always Shall evermore reign ‘cross the earth When we seize sunny days. I think we may take this ‘sunny days’ idea as a metaphor. God is good to us! - Elena Borodenko Elena Borodenko When the going gets tough, the tough get going? http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#67 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/nicola_bates.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Nicola Bates" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This week has been the last push before half term which for interns means we get a week that’s a little easier going! It has been one of the busiest weeks I think for all of us recently and I’ve realised more than ever how much the business of life can really be a distraction from God. For me this week has seen a panicked soup making fiasco that ended alright (ask the others who sampled my gammon and parsnip soup – I would pick a fancy one to make!), but we’ve all experienced the ever fascinating Old Testament teaching on Jonah and Amos from our very own Richard Briggs on Tuesday and Wednesday and then a very revealing session with Melody Briggs where we discussed our theological backgrounds, and finally a morning gardening in Newton Hall with Reuben keeping watch over our work! I know that I got to the end of myself this week, physically, emotionally and spiritually and that is where thankfully God stepped in! It’s a problem I think church workers the world over are plagued with; how to stay focused on Jesus and not get distracted by all the things you have to do. I am thankful to God that even though I don’t know the answer I have him to rely upon when I get to the stage where I’ve lost the plot! I took a walk in Pelaw Woods this week to get that much needed cave time and if you’ve ever walked down towards the river through those woods you’ll know there’s a wonderful view of Durham Cathedral! It was something so unexpected for me to see that view when half way down there was a bench which I perched on but I felt it was quite poignant! In a place where you can so easily forget where you are there was something to remind me; a place of worship that defines the Durham skyline! I went on a walk to Pelaw Woods to clear my mind and try to capture the point again of why I do all the things I do in the week and there I found it – worship! It’s something so familiar that the whole of the Christian life is about worshipping God, living in response to what he’s done but this is precisely the reason why it’s so easy to forget its meaning. It’s also quite ironic that I’ve found it easy to say to students that it’s important for them to spend some positive time with God in order to gain perspective on their exams, the lesson I’ve been trying to teach others has finally taught me! I pray that the joy of the Lord overflows into the things I do so that they become about worshipping him and doing so with a glad heart! - Nicola Bates Nicola Bates Not by might, Nor by Power http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#66 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/lucy_hefford.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Lucy Hefford" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> A swift look at the week so far shows that Kings Church is as active as ever: This weeks Theology101 was on ‘The Meal that Jesus Instituted’ – The Lords Supper. Amazingly, we heard how the 1st centaury church ate a full meal in between taking the bread and the wine… now there’s a part of early Christianity that I am certainly up for modelling. There was a Prophetic Workshop on Monday in the wonderful Appleby Rooms, which was really well attended and many students and residents were hearing from God – so listen up! On Wednesday evening, I led the GCSE and A-Level students who go to the youth group ‘Deeper’ through an exam-stress reliving mediation on Jesus calming the storm. Two of them fell asleep, so I’m guessing they felt relaxed as a result! On Thursday the Alpha course continues, so we look forward to hearing how the group develops as they investigate Christianity together over a wonderful vegetable lasagne. So overall, it has been a varied week of Intern fun, with an apparent theme of food. May I share with you a reflection on my work here as the Youth Intern, particularly on attitudes to ‘convincing people of the Gospel’. As the Youth Intern, I have the privilege of spending most of my weeks planning for or running groups for the young people in the church family and in schools. Such is my desire to see these children and teenagers jump up and declare their acceptance of the gospel, I often find myself trying to take on more of a convincing-them role than a ministering one. I have realised recently that my underlying approach to the youth work I do is more one of “I shall convert them!” rather than seeing it as a work that God does in people. Zechariah apparently got the hang of this before I did- “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit”, says the Lord: Zechariah 4:6. In light of this mini-revelation of mine, I have sought to spend more time praying for the youth who I serve, rather than spending more time examining my technique of leading the Bible study or whatever the really FUN activities are that I am involved in running. When I look back on my own journey to faith, I can see too how it was the still small voice of God’s spirit who led me to worship Him, rather than some really ace youth leader (although I did have on!) who used her mighty-youth-converting ability to convince me that Jesus was the way to go. God loves our children and young people so much, and His desire to see them sold-out for Him is actually greater than mine! This is often a good thing to remember when we are praying for friends or family members who do not know Jesus yet. So here’s to trusting God with their journey to Him, and praying He will use our small efforts and our prayers as part of His way to reach them…“Not by might, nor by power, but by His spirit.” - Lucy Hefford Lucy Hefford A Mission-filled Week http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#65 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/christina_maiden.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Christina Maiden" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Having read Robyn’s internlog for last week and realising the incredible rate at which the nine of us are apparently aging, I think we’ve coped with the busy-ness of this week quite well :o) Like any other week we’ve had teaching, community placements and church placements but here’s a few highlights... Our Thursday church history slot with Melody was as creative as usual, starting with a taster of a monastic service and leading on to a discussion between various nuns and monks who took the Gospel across Europe. I was St Patrick (as in the patron saint of Ireland) and, my word, what a legend! He took the Gospel to Ireland and worked tirelessly, evangelising like crazy, and seeing much of the country converted to Christianity. In addition to Patrick, we also heard from Benedict (Tim Mayo), Boniface (Elena), Francis of Assissi (Joy), Hilde (Lucy), Hildegard (Nicola), Aidan (Tim), Cyril (Sammy) and Colombo (Robyn). These people, spanning nearly one thousand years of mission, are such an inspiration, particularly when considering the mission activities coming up this term. With planning for June Project taking a step up, it’s a great encouragement to see the mighty ways that has God has used his people throughout history. Talking of the June Project, its getting exciting! The interns are beginning to take on particular areas of responsibility and this is both thrilling and slightly frightening. We long to push into the new things God wants to do with this year’s June Project but are also wary of the danger of whizzing ahead and getting carried away. Please pray that we’ll be following God’s plans rather than our own and also that we will be willing to step out in faith. On Friday morning June Project was in mind again as we worked to publicise garden clearing. We fought through the biting wind (and Nicola also battled with a biting dog) to push flyers through letterboxes on the Newton Hall estate. We pray that people there will take us up on the offer to do their gardening for them and that this will give us the opportunity to bless the area. So with a lot of time spent thinking about the June Project and a whistle-stop tour of European mission on Thursday, it’s been a mission filled week. It’s been useful to be reminded that easy though it is to sit back and enjoy the great things about being a Christian community, we are called to be outward looking. That’s challenging and daunting but, remembering the amazing things God has done in history through people just like us, we’re certainly in for some excitement too! - Christina Maiden Christina Maiden "The Trees Are Full of Saaaap" http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#64 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/robyn_stoneham.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Robyn Stoneham" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello all! Following on from Timmy D’s report, I too want to encourage a shift in our perspectives – for myself just as much as anyone else as it’s so easy to forget our purpose... Our interactive Church history lessons with Melody Briggs have been an all-senses and influential learning experience. Last week we spent the first half an hour of a teaching session in the Appleby Rooms building, (cleverly disguised as an Eastern Orthodox Church) experiencing Eastern Orthodox worship. It appealed to all our senses: icons and candles appealed to our sight, heavy incense appealed to our noses (and somewhat to our heads...), traditional Greek food appealed to our taste buds and holding candles appealed to our touch. Elena and Tim D requested our attention with our ears as they performed a version of Psalm 92 in an Eastern Orthodox Style. Unfortunately, I got the giggles when Elena sang the line “the trees are full of sap” (Elena pronounced it saaaaaap), but on later reflection – as this stuck in my memory – I have decided it is profound enough to base this week’s internlog on... I suppose we are fairly old in 'internship years' now – we are currently over 2/3rds of our lives as an intern (which makes us roughly 60 years old, in internship age). Psalm 92 has something to say about old age... 'The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; the flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap, showing that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.' At the moment, it’s easy for us to lose our focus as there are so many things happening. The past week has been full of a melange of events – of lost phones and broken down cars, buying houses and finding jobs, visits from old friends, but also some dreadful news that in the church in Angers in France, one of our friends lost her Dad in a brutal accident this past week. Our normal patterns of life have also been ruffled the past fortnight because of bank holidays and student leaders retreats - highlighting to us all what creatures of habit and routine we actually love to be. In addition, coming up this week, some of us have been starting some new placements in schools and elsewhere, a small Alpha course starts this Thursday, June Project mission plans are slowly forming to something cohesive and all our usual activities continue as normal. In the midst of all the business, I find it easy to lose the call from Jesus to 'Abide in me as I abide in you' and to remain 'planted in the LORD and to flourish in the courts of our God.' As we get older as interns, familiar with our routines, I hope and pray that we still produce fruit in all the things we do, that we still are green and "full of saaaaap" and that the LORD is our rock. I am glad to say I have learnt something from Psalm 92 about perseverance, perspective and old age and I’m grateful for the amusing way in which it was sang as this has resounded in my memory! With love, Robyn p.s. – I do not mean to suggest that 60 years old is definitely decided upon as 'old age'... - Robyn Stoneham Robyn Stoneham Faithful Through all Generations http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#63 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_dixon.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Dixon" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hi everyone! Apologies for the slightly delayed Internlog this week – having enjoyed two weeks of rest at Easter, all of us have found ourselves hurtled back at force into Intern life, with a busy but exciting start to our final term! We’ve started a new teaching series with Mark on the Book of Revelation, which has been fascinating so far (if a little perplexing and confusing at times), as well as starting a series on church history with Melody Briggs, which this Thursday involved some of us dressing up as Early Christians and singing Psalms, followed by eating lots of olives, bread, and fish – I definitely enjoyed the hands-on learning experience! One thing that struck me during last weekend’s Student Leader retreat in Lanchester, where up-and-coming cell and pastorate leaders came to share fellowship, worship, and teaching together with Kris Miller, was that as Christians we can sometimes have a tendency to forget where we’ve come from, and so lose direction to where we’re going. Kris led several excellent talks about 'God’s Story and Our Story', looking at how God shapes our past, present, and future, and this provoked many of us to look not just at the way in which God has been faithful throughout our lives but the millions and billions of lives that have gone before us. Through schisms, wars, persecution, heresies, and in-fighting between believers, God has proven time and time again that he will protect his church and is consistently faithful towards those who trust in him. Even in times of desperate need, when Christians have been forced to give up their lives for their faith, God has used their witness to spur countless thousands of people to faith for generations to come, providing hope and courage to Christians trying to live their life like Christ lived his. So when we look back at the year (or even the many years) that we’ve had, it’s worth looking at the ways in which God has been faithful to us and answered our prayers, as it spurs not only us on, but also others as a testimony to God’s goodness! - Tim Dixon Tim Dixon Post-Match Interview http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#62 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_mayo.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Mayo" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Ok, it's the last of the sports related Internlog titles from France, but it seemed so befitting to use them to talk about an intense period of time giving our all to the team (body of Christ). I promise I'll stop. Anyways, I've been given the opportunity to tell all about the second half our adventure, and the last few days since we've been back, and I can honestly say its been a truly special time for us all. After our feedback session this morning (Friday), we've had an opportunity to reflect on a week of travel, worship, prayer, good ol' fashioned sweat and toil for the Lord; all spoken in French. We dive into the action on the Monday, the day after the mime and lunch spent with the church family. On the Monday, we woke up a little earlier to travel to a retreat centre run by two English ex-pats called Marc and Deborah, who welcomed us to reflect, pray, worship and enjoy some very tasty food as we had some much needed fellowship in the sunshine. The sense in which as a group this opportunity to rest and reflect, and to spend some extended time in devotion to God, was much needed towards the end of a week which had a pretty fast pace to say the least. The afternoon was spend gardening and enjoying Paul walk into the middle of a fountain in La Fleche, where we enjoyed some more fellowship. The Tuesday came with a sad revelation that it was the last opportunity to see some of our new friends in the church, and so we approached the day with a typical gusto, only to find that just as mission trips seem to always do, change the schedule completely from time to time. We found ourselves with some free time to get one or two prezzies for our loved ones and our hosts, and look round the city a bit more. We then sang in the middle of town for the second time, and God really answered prayer and moved during the brief opportunity to proclaim Him on the streets. Happy day! As a group, we then prepared to be involved in the food distribution in the afternoon and evening at 'croq etudiant', which literally translates as crunchy student. Twice more we sang and brought some Happy Day joy to those receiving the food parcels, and had opportunities to talk to those who were there, which was a real highlight for us. As we finished the final day of activity, going back to our host families for the final time, there was a genuine sense in which we had been blessed to be a blessing over the week spent in Angers, and we were going to miss the town. The following morning, at the slightly disagreeable time of 4.30am French time, or 3.30am English time, we were up and about to get ready to leave. We met at the church at about 5.40am French time to make our way back to Calais, catch a ferry to Dover and drive back to Durham. All was fine until Mark's van had a bit of a mal a la electronique, and made the final leg of the journey one filled with trust in the Lord. May be best to ask those who experienced that reality when you get a chance. We all made it back to Durham though, and decided to take a day off on Thursday. I think you'll agree we may have deserved that. And finally today (Friday). We had a briefing this morning and praised God for all the things He blessed us with, taught and moulded us with over the past week, and it is so humbling to think that God chose to use me as part of a group of 11 to go to France and proclaim the happy day when Jesus demonstrated the depth of God's grace and mercy for us, in a place where protestant churches are called sects. Very humbling. And, as I couldn't resist, a couple of post-match interview cliches that loosely apply. It was a game of two halves, we gave 110%, and my personal favourite, we went for a result and we got one. To finish off, we must praise God that He was faithful in answering prayer, equipping us for every circumstance and being so much more than we imagined over the last week. See you in the summer term for plenty more intern action. "do do do doo do do do doo doo...(aka the Match of the Day theme tune) - Tim Mayo Tim Mayo Half-Time Report http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#61 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/sammy_hicks.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Sammy Hicks" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> We’re now drawing near to the end of our time in France and we thought it would be good to give a 'half-time' report. Just looking back over the prayer requests in the last internlog we have seen 6 answered already, and we continue to pray for the rest! We have been amazed by what we’ve seen God do, despite our lack of French and some of our worries. Tim will give a more full report at the end of the week but I’ll give a few first half highlights... On Thursday we had fun getting involved in social action projects that the Church here in Angers does. We made furniture with varying instructions from our French hosts and Mr Burgess :) We also attempted to collect food for poor people in a French supermarket, which was fine until a member of the public asked one of us to explain why we were collecting the food! Despite the challenges we were all convicted of the importance of doing what we were doing for God, and it was great to just have the opportunity to bless the people in the Church and those that they’re helping. Saturday had on the programme 'evangelism in Angers' which had a few of us worried. This phrase made us think of the street evangelism we do in Durham, with often little interest from the people we talk with, or deep theological discussion and debate. The prospect of doing this in French was indeed slightly worrying. Then we realised/were reminded (or were told by Paul!) that we could still share God’s love in other ways. We decided to simply use the time to worship God in the centre of Angers. So, as a group of 9 interns we set-up on steps in the main square and with the aid of a guitar praised God for 1-2 hours in the sun and the rain, and had a few people standing around ready to answer the obvious question of why we were doing it. As well as these things to give a few examples: we performed a mime in the Sunday service, played football with homeless people, been to French home groups, eaten French food, had a taste of French wine, had one or two coffees, and had a tour of Angers focused around the history of the Protestant Church in France! None of the things we’ve done could we have done without God and because of this we are able to give God the glory both as the reason for why we’re here but also as the strength and power behind what we’ve done. - Sammy Hicks Sammy Hicks Pre-match report http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#60 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/joy_van_straaten.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Joy Van Straaten" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Bonjour! I am writing this from Angers where we finally arrived on Tuesday night and are all now firmly getting into the swing of things. On Tuesday night when we arrived we were shown to our host families that we will be staying with while we are here. Some of us are staying with English speaking people and others are thrown somewhat into the deep end by being with French families that can’t speak any English. Christina and I are in the latter category and are having so much fun being immersed into the French culture and language. While we are here we would really value all your prayers for some particular things. So to make it easier we have come up with a list of prayer points: <ol> <li>We are planning and performing a drama for the youth service on Sunday morning so would really value prayer for proper time to prepare and inspiration on what to do as this is still undecided. It would be great for us to be able to bless the church through what we eventually contribute.</li> <li>Prayer for a blessing on all the host families that we are staying with - 4 in total. Pray that the lack of French language will not prevent us from being able to form good relationships with them.</li> <li>Prayer that our broken French would not be our primary concern whilst we are out here and that God would teach us how to witness to him with our actions as well as our words.</li> <li>That God would protect us in all our travelling whilst we are here and that our sat navs would continue to work as we have been having a few problems with them.</li> <li>That God would continue to support us and help us to step out in boldness and have confidence with the new things we are doing.</li> <li>Pray for the church here that it would continue to flourish and that good relationships would be sustained by the church community.</li> <li>Pray for the town of Angers that appears to disregard the gospel due to a feeling of satisfaction with their life and possessions. Pray that God will break through into the hearts and minds of the people in the town so that they realise how much they need a relationship with him.</li> <li>Pray for strength and continued laughter and high spirits amongst the team.</li> <li>Pray for a lady’s son who we met who is having nightmares which might be linked to the bad music that he listens to.</li></ol> Thank you once again for all your support while we are out here. We are so appreciative of all your thoughts and prayers for us. We will write again soon about all the news from Angers. Au Revoir, Joy xxx - Joy Van Straaten Joy Van Straaten Paul and the Spirit http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#59 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/elena_borodenko.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Elena Borodenko" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> The sunshine has lifted the spirits of the interns this week. As we prepare for the even sunnier days to come (i.e. France) we have been gently mulling along on what has been a pretty normal week despite the weather... For most of us France seems but a vague and distant concept at the moment even though we leave on Monday. In fact we seem to have taken a leaf out of Paul’s book, as we are on the whole pretty calm about the whole thing. Maybe it’s the sunshine that is making us so laid back. I wonder whether the reality of it all will kick in by the time we actually get there... The France planning meeting was enjoyable this week. We read through the plan of our days there, which our hosts had so kindly sent to us in French (a language that the majority of us still struggle with). Yet all was not lost as our number 2 interpreter Tim D (Hannah Juby is no.1 of course) cleverly took us through what it actually said. We also got a bit of a giggle or worry out of the fact that it had been written up on the white board using a black permanent marker... But don’t worry like we did as Paul and the spirit were there to save the day with Paul and his practical knowledge and the spirit being white spirit. Talking of the Spirit, Mark’s teaching on Tuesday began with a look at various theologian views on the relationship between revelation of Jesus and the Spirit in John’s Gospel. Is the role of the Spirit to interpret and communicate Jesus to each generation or to repeat what Jesus has already said historically or does he bring new revelation along with discernment, speaking to us as Jesus in the here and now? This week has also been a week to review what we do as interns. Communicating how we have found each aspect of the internship this term, challenging ourselves on how both our character and relationship with God have grown and whether we have fulfilled our targets. Self-reflection is difficult but I have personally found that it pays to see where you have been on the way to where you are now. Praise God that he is changing us from day to day whether we realise it or not. I am sure that God will work wonders in us and through us on our mission trip to Angers and this excites me greatly. The vulnerability of a language barrier and the fact that we will be evangelising in a place we don’t know leaves space for our eyes to be taken from our own efforts and onto God’s glory and grace. We need the Spirit! The apostle Paul sums it up well in 1 Corinthians 2:1-4: "When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words or wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God." Amen Elena - Elena Borodenko Elena Borodenko Parlez vous francais? http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#58 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/nicola_bates.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Nicola Bates" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> 'For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified' 1 Corinthians 2:2 The past few weeks have revolved mostly on our up coming 'adventure with Jesus' to France - Angers to be exact! There is a mixture of excitement and anticipation amongst the interns I think, I know I'm feeling this combination of emotions! We've been learning some French thanks to Madame Juby, enough for us to make some effort with the people we'll be meeting! Christina mentioned some of the phrases we've been learning which hopefully will help us in beginning conversations with people at which point we'll say "Hannah!!! Help!" We're going to be getting up to all sorts whilst in Angers, constructing and distributing flat pack furniture, giving out food parcels, prayer walking (whilst being tourists for the day as well!) there are a number of other things we'll be doing as well most exciting is that we'll be going into prison where some of us will give our testimonies! The language barrier has been a source of panic for me until I realised that I'm not going to France to have an intellectual conversation with people there in French because I simply don't have the words! How then am I to communicate Christ and the Good News that he loves those I will meet and wants to be in relationship with them? I am going to have to 'know nothing but Jesus Christ', in my very being, the way I behave, my body language, my facial expressions, my enthusiasm will all have to overflow with God's love and faithfulness! This is a wonderful thing to relax into, knowing that God can use me in my weakness to reveal himself to others but also what a challenge! I've also been struck several times recently that there is great joy to be had in sharing who Jesus is with those around you, and to do this is nourishment for ourselves, as we obey God in making disciples of others God speaks to us and teaches us and transforms us. In John 4 there are great words of encouragement in proclaiming the Good News we get 'good wages' we're promised the Holy Spirit, he is with us as we go out, we are given words to say, confidence and boldness. These are the promises I pray that we as a team of interns will hold on to and be encouraged by as we go to Angers to 'know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified'. - Nicola Bates Nicola Bates Do you enjoy being a Christian? http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#57 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/lucy_hefford.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Lucy Hefford" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> One of the speakers at the Living Leadership conference which we went to this week opened his seminar with the assertion that "most Christians are dissatisfied with their experience of Christianity." It shocked me because I find it so true for myself. I have come to realise that it is my lack of understanding of Grace that is causing this. We have a little joke among the interns; 'Be careful what you pray for!' I remember a few months ago being challenged by a speaker: do you know that you need a crucified Christ? Since then, I have prayed that I would know my need for a saviour – that I am not my own saviour. God has helped me recently to understand that I am totally in need of Jesus. I am sad that I have been a Christian for so long an not understood my utter need for a saviour! As Bob Fyall put it on Saturday morning, we sing "Worthy is the Lamb" but secretly want to sing "Worthy am I". I think that the story of the Prodigal Son puts my problem into context. The Son who stayed at home earned his fathers love by the way he obeyed his father. However, the son who ran away and wasted his fathers money recognised he was in need of forgiveness. I think I have spent a long time working hard for God because I think it will keep my in his favour when actually, no mater how 'good' I think I am, I DO need a saviour to put me right. There has been much talk recently in Kings, both in services, at the Student House Party and in Cell Group about the Christian life being one of 'Grace not Law' – freedom not obligation. "It was for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free", yet I have felt for a long time now that this 'Freedom' we talk about is far from my experience. I can relate very well to the Pharisees who were so keen to honour God that they made themselves many rules (known as 'hedging the law') to ensure they got it right. Bob Fyall helpfully pointed out on Saturday that Christianity the 'faith' says 'God accepts me, therefore I do good', but Christianity the religion says 'If I do good, God will accept me.' For example, I can confess that I have sucked the joy out of my prayer times by making them a daily necessity. I find myself feeling guilty when I don't have a quiet time, but that guilt is not something God puts on me, it is my own modern day version of 'hedging of the law'. I wonder if other Christians find that they put rules on themselves? I think that we would find more joy in our walk with Jesus if we recognised the laws we create and ask God to break them down so that we only rely on Jesus: not on out efforts. 'Grace not Law' – freedom not obligation. Lucy - Lucy Hefford Lucy Hefford Half way through http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#56 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/christina_maiden.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Christina Maiden" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> We’re half way through the internship (scary!) and in one of our teaching sessions this week the nine of us gave three words each to sum up how we’re feeling. The following featured amongst the 27 words: appreciative, growth, anticipating, challenged, oscillating, positive, confused, hopeful and natural. It’s been quite a year so far and all of us have learnt and experienced so much. We’re still fully aware, however, that there is so much more for God to do in and through us and that’s really exciting! With the mission trip to France, June Project, more theology and Bible study and outreach in nice weather (shock horror!) on the horizon, we’re looking forward to the months to come, but before all that, on to what’s been happening this week... After quiet week last week, we’ve come whizzing into a ‘normal’ week. Placements in schools and teaching with Mark and Ruth are back up and running and we’ve all been getting back into the swing of things. The week started with the Sunday morning service and setting up for baptisms. How amazing it was to hear testimonies of how God has been at work in each person’s life. And hearing the news that baby Bailey (or rather Anna Bailey) was born earlier that morning made the celebration of Jenny, Sally, Dave and Alex’s baptisms, and the symbolism of this marking the start of a new life, all the more poignant. Along with our usual teaching slots and placements, we’ve had a language lesson this week. Knowing that speaking English slowly and more loudly will simply not do on our mission trip to France at the end of March, we’re having French lessons with Hannah Juby. And it’s certainly good fun! Such looks of bewilderment haven’t been seen flashing between interns since the first few weeks of learning how to set up a Sunday morning service back in September. Our understanding of French ranges from A Level standard to never having spoken it before so it’s been interesting! We’ve learnt such important phrases as ‘Please can you repeat that?’, ‘Where are the toilets?’ and ‘I’m dairy intolerant, does the food have milk in it?’ The next lesson we’ll be learning how to talk about Jesus in French and hopefully we’ll be able to remember the important bits! Next week we’re off to Leicestershire for a 3-day conference (the second part of the one we went on in September) and we would all appreciate your prayers for the time we spend away. Please pray that God will meet with us and that we will be open to hear from Him. That’s all folks. Au revoir! (...I hope that’s right!) - Christina Maiden Christina Maiden Quotes from Quiet Week II http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#55 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/robyn_stoneham.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Robyn Stoneham" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> For the interns, the past week was "quiet week"; a week without blocks of teaching of the team meeting with staff on Tuesdays and for some of us, school placements were also absent from our timetable as it was half term. Quiet week is a chance for us all to stand back and take stock. To do all the bits and bobs we've been longing to do, or to relax, or to "process" or to take a big deep breath of fresh air. The pressure's on to stick to the rules of keeping the week "quiet" - which means something different for each of us... Last term none of us grabbed at the opportunity to soak in silence and solitude and consequently, in retrospect, we view quiet week as a rule that must be obeyed. I feel quite underqualified to comment on quiet week on behalf of everyone, having not shared as much of my week with them as normal, so I decided to interview my fellow interns when we met up on Friday morning to litter pick in Newton Hall! The following is merely their first responses to the question "How was 'quiet week' for you?" It by no means reflects how "good" at being interns we are, how naughty we are, how dopey we are - and as you read this please bear in mind it was early in the morning, we were a bit hyperactive at the thought of using litterpickers again and I did rather unexpectedly challenge people on the spot. Therefore, please, please do not use these quotes against us... So - How was 'quiet week' for you? Tim D: "Refreshing. I went to Bath beforehand and survived the Jane Austen centre." Sammy: "I can't actually say out loud. Don't quote me on that. I reckon I did nearly at least double the amount of stuff I do in a normal week. Oh no. Ruth's gonna kill me..." Elena: "I don't think quiet would be a word I'd use to describe my noisy week. God reminded me to put my toothbrush in my bag this morning. *smiles*" Christina: "Oh Dear. *laughs* I'd like to write a poem to describe my quiet week. *silence* O.K. What rhymes with hot chocolate?" [Elena commented on how she didn't understand the poem, so Christina dropped the poem idea and proceeded to actually answer the question] "Quiet week was good. Really good. I liked it. That's the best quote I've ever had." Joy: "Quiet. Yeah - I have't seen anyone pretty much and had lots of time to myself." Lucy: "Prime planning time. And BABY LUCY was born on monday! *squeals* Toast Cafe [a Christian cafe put on for youth in the evenings Durham this past week - half term] has been amazing and we sold 120 toasties in one night. Also, naps are good." Nicola: "Yeah, not that quiet. I went to the Edgebury estate clear-up on Tuesday with Aquila. Yeah, it was really good fun working with a big bunch of kids. It's interesting what people throw away. And... guess what time I woke up yesterday? 2pm! I don't think I've slept properly all week. I needed it!" Tim M: "Erm up until Wednesday I've been a nurse looking after K because she's been ill. Fever, nausea and flu. Bleurgh. It was good that it was quiet week so I could look after her! I haven't really done anything other than looking after K, but I did copy recipes down to make jam..." And for myself, the past week has been wonderful. A vast mixture of resting, laughing, a bit of weeping, thinking, drawing, reading, walking and praying. I'm so thankful to God for a shift in our usual routine for a short time, it keeps us all fresh and reliant upon God in all circumstances, however different they may be! When it's easy to fall into patterns of a normal lifestyle and routine, a week of initial blankness arrives and our choice on how it is filled are all part and parcel of our year of learning and growing. I wonder what the report will be at the end of quiet week III?! Thanks for reading and for being interested in our lives! Love Robyn - Robyn Stoneham Robyn Stoneham Freedom, outside the box http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#54 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/sammy_hicks.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Sammy Hicks" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This week we’ve been thinking a lot about how we, as Christians, can influence our society and the many ways in which we can communicate the good news of the Gospel to non-believers. The Guest service was a great example of different methods used to convey the same message: multi-media presentations, songs, drama, a talk, and the opportunity for people to talk with their friends at the end, while sharing ice-cream and toppings. All these led to people thinking through the meaning of what had been talked about. The room was packed and this was mostly down to members of the Church inviting their own friends and everyone being welcoming to guests. On Thursday we continued our series with Ruth on 'Influencing Society'. We looked at people's varying views of work, ranging from those who can’t be bothered to find work to those who would do their work even if they weren’t paid. We talked about how people in the Bible treated work differently; some gave it up to do God’s work, some continued to work to fund their ministry, some used their work as their ministry. The significance of this is that paid work can have varying roles in a Christian’s life but that it should always be something which aids our work for God. In our society this may mean doing a job which we may not have considered in order to reach a group of non-believers, or to persevere with a job we do not enjoy in order to pursue our Christian ministry. On Thursday we also had our first French lesson, in preparation for the intern mission trip to France in March. Language is often a very important method of communicating Jesus to people, so some of us will have to put in a lot of practice to be ready to communicate with French people! Personally I now know the words for a few lunch items so at least I won’t go hungry! On Friday we had our regular coffee morning with some residents in Gilesgate. Despite this not being overtly evangelistic, it’s a great opportunity to serve the local community and to reflect Jesus to them. Finally, this week we have been very aware of the CU main event week and all the activities planned to reach as many of the student population as possible. Although the interns are not directly involved in this many of us will be encouraging students as they invite their friends to events and I expect the events to increase awareness of Christianity and how significant it is to people’s lives with openings for meaningful conversations on the street, in Church and in events already running such as the Student Alpha course. - Sammy Hicks Sammy Hicks Transformed (by a sprinkle of white) http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#53 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_mayo.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Mayo" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Good day to you all, and thank you for once again logging into all things intern. We pick up the week that followed presentations, which became a week were each of us realised that we were in fact, really really busy! Tim excellently captured the sense of excitement and apprehension, as well as the big deal, that the presentations were built up to be; but once those were over, we had plenty more to be excited about. We revisited the heady days of our mission trip to Chiselhurst as we did some prophetically motivated first contact in Durham town centre on Friday morning last week, and saw God's amazing grace at work as He gave us words and pictures that spurred us to talk to the people that were brave enough to face the weather, and talked about the up and coming Alpha launch night. Saturday night saw a hugely exciting step in church unity with the Alpha launch, and although this falls outside of the internship bounds, it is nonetheless exciting and several of us got involved in different ways. The evening was great, with good food, good music, a great down-to-earth talk and a real sense of fellowship with other churches in Durham. And then there was Monday. The snow beat just about everyone in the UK, and it beat us. Great to have a day of rest! The rest of the week has been spent gearing up for the guest service, which was last night (Sammy will share about it next week I'm sure), and starting some new things. Tim D has finally made it into prison to help out, which is very exciting; and we have started a teaching series on influencing society. As we find ourselves in the middle of the middle term, wondering how just under half our internship has managed to pass by so quickly, starting something new reminds us of each great opportunity we get to learn and develop, but also how we are to make the most of the year that God has gifted us with. The continuation of our look at the Screwtape letters again and again gives us the opportunity to look at an aspect of human behaviour and identify the way God lovingly and tenderly seeks to help us to understand how we follow His ways for living, which again and again (as it's always mentioned here) has been so good in challenging the way we think about our lives. Looking at the grace in which God communicates and deals with us is just mind boggling, and awe inspiring, and its that grace that is continuing to drive us week by week, even through the snow and cold. I thought I'd leave you with a little poem, as I was inspired to write a dit after the legend that is Gaz. As we look towards lent and the spring time, And look back at a winter of glee, As we make ourselves open to the Fathers, will and ask that our spiritual eyes see, As we soak in the wisdom of ages, and we go forth and carry the light, we ask Him that if it's no problem, that we'd get another sprinkle of white. God bless you all! - Tim Mayo Tim Mayo Grace in Theory and Practice http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#52 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_dixon.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Dixon" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello everyone! As the more astute of you may have realised, I am not, in fact, Sammy Hicks, but Tim Dixon. Sammy’s not very well this week so I’m writing his Internlog instead; get well soon Sammy! This week has been a busy one for all us interns, as we have been preparing and presenting presentations on the gospel resonances in a film of our choice (although not Narnia or Lord of The Rings – apparently they’re too easy!), as part of Ruth’s teaching on Culture and Christianity, looking at how we relate to culture and media as Christians. We were all given twenty minutes to speak, and got feedback on our presenting style and content, which I for one found very helpful. It was interesting too to see the variety of films chosen (from The Lion King to The Lives of Others) and the way in which gospel-resonances and Kingdom values have seeped into our film culture, and how we might harness this in an evangelistic context. This week has also taken us to the dizzying complexities of Election and God’s Grace (Theology 101 on Monday), boggling our minds at the connection between our free will and God’s divine initiative, as well as our introduction to John 1:1-18, with Mark (as usual) managing to draw a huge amount of a very small piece of text! But along with all the presenting and mind-stretching, there has been time too for reflection this week. During Team Meeting on Tuesday, usual service was delayed for a time of group reflection on God’s grace and how that related to our times of rest and relaxation, stemming from Kris’ insightful talk on Sunday morning about the value of rest in relation to Jesus’ freedom-giving ministry. By this point in the week, I felt like I was "running on empty" with a huge amount to do in the days ahead. But God really touched us all at that point in the week, helping us all to remember a simple but powerful truth; that all our striving and work and effort comes from the strength God gives us, as do our times of inactivity and leisure. God created us to delight in both rest and work (as Ecclesiastes points out so artfully); sometimes we just need to trust that God will give us the hours we need for all our activities, even though it is difficult in a society where time is at such a premium. "Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labour under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God." (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19) God Bless, Tim Dixon - Tim Dixon Tim Dixon Lots of bits and pieces... http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#51 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/joy_van_straaten.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Joy Van Straaten" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Having come back from houseparty thoroughly exhausted but excited about the term ahead, we have all begun to get back into the 'normal' swing of things. Monday morning saw the start of Theology 101 again or maybe more appropriately named 'the journey into the mysteries of God' or so it seems to me each week anyway. I find it slightly disconcerting that the more we study all the key tenets of our faith the more my brain seems unable to cope with it all. However it is always wonderful to remember that I don’t need to have all the answers, I just need to trust someone who does! Anyway, we hit the ground running with the first session on 'sin', which focused on the age long debate of original sin and the differing views of Calvinists and Arminians on this topic. I found this completely fascinating and had to go away and do a lot of pondering, which I think was shared by other interns. On the Tuesday we continued our study in our team meeting on The Screwtape Letters, which is fast becoming, for all of us a book that contains such profound truths and ideas, that it gives us lots to think about and discuss each week. To those who have never read it, it is written by C.S Lewis and is a very ironic but profound portrayal of human life from the vantage point of the demon Screwtape who is advising his trainee demon Wormwood on how to keep humans away from the enemy’s (in this book, God’s) clutches. The letter we were reading this week describes the demon Screwtape explaining to Wormwood the peaks and troughs that Christians appear to go through in their walk with God. I shall include an excerpt-remember the enemy refers to God! "Now it may surprise you to learn that in the enemy’s efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, he relies on the troughs even more than the peaks; some of his special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. The reason is this. To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about his love for men, and his service being perfect freedom, is not mere propaganda, but an appalling truth". I find this such an encouragement that God has a completely different perspective on my walk with him to the one I have. I spend my time thinking that the troughs are unhelpful and an irritation and yet he uses them for his glory to be shown all the more. Having chatted to many people about this, it can be easy to think that in the troughs, God has somehow abandoned us or that he no longer cares, but it is in fact those times that he holds as extra special, the times when he is closer than we know. Other exciting things this week has been the transformation of the kitchen in the Appleby rooms which now has worktops, a cooker, and dishwasher, all thanks to Paul burgess! When you are in there as much as we are it makes all the difference! Also, Tim Dixon’s prison clearance has finally come through! It would be great to pray for him as he now eagerly starts the work he is going to be doing in Prison. Anyway, I shall leave this mammoth log here. Thanks for all your continuing support and encouragement, it is much appreciated! Joy xx - Joy Van Straaten Joy Van Straaten Hook, hook where’s the Hook? http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#50 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/elena_borodenko.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Elena Borodenko" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Watching a film or an episode of Doctor Who will never be the same again for the Interns. As we research the idea of using film and media as a way of dropping the gospel into everyday fun, we are finding that the way in which we watch films has become a lot more thoughtful and analytical. It’s just so tempting now to pick (or twist) out the gospel links, whether the director intended it or not. This form of work is quite a nice change from our usual teaching and reading, especially as we get to watch films for homework! But also the idea of looking at the way in which God has skilled people to make some truly thought- provoking, moving and beautifully creative films has provoked in us a new appreciation for the God reflecting skills we tend to take for granted in our media filled society. The fact that a secular film can resonate a gospel message is something that lets us in on the fact that God can use the work of non-Christians as well as Christians to speak to people and change their perspectives. With our media presentations quickly driving closer this way, I’m pretty intrigued as to know what gospel hooks the other Interns have managed to pull out of their chosen films. Let’s just hope the technology works! On a change of subject: Be filled with the Holy Spirit, and have life! Student Houseparty was a lot of fun, taking place on a slightly obscured weekend which ran from Thursday to Saturday. There are many things that were great about the excursion, number one being the amazing meals that Norman and Hazel provided us with!! I was very excited to find that they had planned a full roast pork dinner on the second day (especially as pork is my favourite!!) Fun antics were also had with mass games of Articulate and a clamber up a pretty much vertical local hill. Mark Lawson was deemed the Infamous King of Fun, and rightly so as he led a great evening of entertainment and laughter on Ruth’s birthday, gaining the label of 'evil genius' after commanding some truly disgusting competitive tasks for all. The main purpose of our trip of course was to encounter more of God and share His Word together. Tim McGreavy was our speaker and we enjoyed the refreshing message delivered by his gentle and cheerful character. The theme of the weekend was ‘Christ in Me’ which presented a whole range of ideas about how the Holy Spirit can transform our lives. Some key points that I personally picked up on were as follows: <ul> <li>Living in the presence of God can pass life onto others</li> <li>We are people of the Word and of the Spirit- we need to live in the flow of both of these things</li> <li>We need to recognise the fullness of our identity with Jesus</li> <li>We are loved children of the Heavenly Father – this is what defines us</li> <li>You’re loved, and nothing you can do will change that</li> <li>Take your identity from the heavenly Father and no one else</li> <li>We need to learn to listen to our Heavenly Father’s voice because He’s never wrong!</li> <li>We need to have eyes to see people like Jesus sees them, having an attitude that lines up with His. After all, it’s all for His glory!</li> </ul> Tim also joined with the leaders to pray for the Holy Spirit to inspire the students and Interns in worship, witnessing and prophesying. This was a long process as each individual got prayed for at the front, yet well worth the intense prayer session as we can expect great things from God! It excites me to think of how God can inspire the way in which his children encounter Him and live with His fullness of life. I pray that all who went on the Houseparty will continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit and resonate His life. Praise God that He delights to live in us and give us life in all its fullness! Elena - Elena Borodenko Elena Borodenko Happy New Year! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#49 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/nicola_bates.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Nicola Bates" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> [apologies for delay in posting this entry from last week - Ed.] Welcome to 2009! I think I can speak on behalf of my fellow interns as well as myself and say that we’re all refreshed thanks to a good break for Christmas, some of our favourite Christmas presents including a range of things from DVD box sets of Friends to face paints, secateurs, and my personal favourite, face wipes! We’re also raring to go this term looking forward to things taking a step up after we’ve reflected on the term already gone and looked at how far we’ve come and where God might want to take us. We had a good start to the term with a myriad of things going wrong on the first Sunday service in which the interns were involved! The heating wasn’t working, so emergency heaters were hastily requested, the PA went down momentarily, multicoloured lights were flashing on the screen, and we proceeded to be standing up, sitting down, standing up, sitting down to prevent us getting too chilly! Despite all this, those of us who were there to help set things up and keep things running managed to be really positive and the interns especially stepped up! This week has been a gentle one, easing us back into the swing of things and also introducing us to what we have in store for us this term! I myself am particularly excited about the new module we’re doing in our Thursday teaching sessions which is analysing different kinds of media in the light of modern culture and finding the religious themes which may give us a way to communicate something of God to those who may not otherwise be interested! Other things we’re looking forward to are going away with the students to Knock; we’re all anticipating a really enjoyable and fruitful time of learning from God and building relationships with our students, and also the follow up conference to the ‘living leadership’ conference we went to at the beginning of the internship and also our mission trip to France! Watch this space to get updates on all that we have faith God will do in his kindness, graciousness and power! - Nicola Bates Nicola Bates Heal the sick and feed the hungry http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#48 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/lucy_hefford.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Lucy Hefford" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Dear all, I hope this advent season is treating you well! We interns donned our Santa hats and found our angelic voices on Tuesday evening for a spot of caroling around Newton Hall. We were able to bless people by giving them the mince pies, tracts and conversation rather than asking them for money - most were pleasantly surprised! In other news: Ruth spoke on Sunday night about the issue and fact of life that is 'suffering'. Before the service I was rather anxious about what I would be hearing, and reassuringly wrote in my note book: 'He will not give you anything you cannot bear.' I was worried that it would be another one of those services which I would walk out of at the end a) frustrated at my apparent lack of suffering in life, b) determined to suffer more and c) convinced that until I learn to suffer, I can put on hold any hopes of becoming a 'serious' Christian. Thankfully, Ruth spoke more about the suffering in the world rather than our calling to 'take up our cross'. Phew! No suffering for me tonight then!! On Monday I went Christmas shopping! I can do that because I'm part of the richest 5% of people in the world. I also bought myself a book about the Congo conflict, which claimed 1,000 lives a day since 1998. Ruth spoke about how we often ask in these situations, 'Why does God allow it? Why doesn't he do something to help the victims - to heal the sick and feed the hungry?' (Maybe that's where I come in?) On Thursday, we had teaching on healing. We talked about how God sometimes uses healing as a way of revealing his love, his power and to allow us to glimpse his Kingdom! So I thought of the people I know who are ill and complained, "Why doesn't God just make them better?!" Do you hear the missing link with both of these issues, with suffering and with healing? Because I didn't, but my ears have been opened this week. The missing bit is us! The body of Christ, the salt and light of the world, the heirs of his Kingdom and the hands and feet of Jesus: The Church. I've been really challenged by James 2:16 'and you say, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well" – but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?' So my prayer is that in our own situation, be it in Durham or in the depths of the Congo, we would know that we are individual members of the Body of Christ and be part of the solution to the suffering of those around us. Your fellow body-member, Lucy - Lucy Hefford Lucy Hefford Advent is our next Adventure http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#47 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/robyn_stoneham.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Robyn Stoneham" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello all For the interns and most of the staff, everything is gearing towards the final push of this term… We're pulling on our superhero pants, attaching our capes and bracing ourselves to fly around the city for a few very busy, but very exciting weeks. (This is not to suggest that we are superheroes, but merely that we do this to make ourselves feel better.) There are so many planned activities this coming month... Free Christmas present wrapping, Carol Singing as outreach in Newton Hall, Christmas Parties, Christmas guest services plus our usual activities! It still feels as though we are still seemingly adjusting to how actually to 'do' the Internship and to pace ourselves. This term feels stretched and long, yet masses of growth and challenges and stories have been tightly packed into that time, with still just under a month to go! The past week has seen some interesting events for me personally... I made a nativity scene out of Fimo (that's posh playdough for non-arty folk) with Elena, which we are extremely proud of and photos of it will form the basis of some rather innovative Christmas cards. I went to Scotland for a weekend away this past weekend which was a frozen wonderland and took a startlingly similar appearance to Narnia... and a number of us went to Loughborough this Wednesday to a conference held by Fusion for student leaders, where we discussed vision and values and student teams. It's all happenin'! As we look to these events, I've been pondering and we've been praying and exploring as a group what it means to be joyful in this time. During advent, it is so easy to be joyful because of lights and family and friends and snow (which we have had some of this week…!) but I hope and pray and I'm sure the others echo this, that our joy stems from a refreshing revelation of what our Father has achieved through Jesus, what great news Jesus is! We pray that this will resound deep within us, so that we don't run dry in this time, we don't run off fuel from trivialities, (especially not from snow!) but our passion and hope spills over into every conversation, every act of service and permeates a refreshing view of how to bless people at Christmas! With love (at Christmas...!), Robyn - Robyn Stoneham Robyn Stoneham What a Sunday! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#46 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/christina_maiden.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Christina Maiden" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Sunday is usually a fairly busy day for the church staff and intern team but this Sunday was particularly eventful. The day started for some at 7am with the tank being filled with water for the two baptisms (thankfully the majority of the water made it into the tank, although some escaped with the help of a certain Miss Hefford). It was wonderful to witness Elizabeth and Eva’s baptisms and to hear of how God has been working in their lives so far. It was such a fantastic reminder that everyone has their own story and it made me realise afresh how encouraging it is when we share these with each other. On Sunday evening the eagerly anticipated Guest Service took place. The usually fairly uninspiring ballroom in the depths of Dunelm House was transformed into a beautiful display of twinkling fairy lights, candles, flowers and helium balloons. As 7:30pm approached, we were faced with a problem that is always wonderful to have to deal with – there was not enough space for the amount of people who arrived. More tables and chairs were quickly put in place and the service got underway. During the evening someone gave a testimony, there was the performance of a song written specially and a talk was given on the ‘Parable of the Wedding Feast’. As I was thinking about the wedding theme of the evening and the idea that we are ultimately heading towards an amazing wedding banquet, it struck me how easy it is to bumble through life without holding that as a reality. I’ve recently been invited to the wedding of a good friend of mine and I was so excited to receive the invitation. When I think that Jesus has invited me to an even greater wedding reception, how much more thrilled should I, should we, be about it? It’s such a shame when the busyness of life encourages us to forget that awaiting us is a celebration which will be greater than we can even begin to imagine. (And where the hot chocolate is even more delicious!!) Post-Sunday, the week has been ticking over as normal with Theology 101, a couple of teaching sessions and each of us whizzing off to different placements. Seeing that there are just over 3 weeks left and that we’ve been doing the internship for nearly 3 months now has made me realise how quickly this year will fly by. It is such a privilege to be able to devote this year to serving God and to have time set aside specifically to learn more of Him. Please pray that each one of us will be joyfully serving God this year and will make the most of the blessings and opportunities He has poured out. You’ll hear from me again in 8 interns’ time. Until then, Happy Christmas, Happy New Year and God bless! - Christina Maiden Christina Maiden We keep learning http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#45 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_dixon.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Dixon" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Welcome to another Internlog with another Tim! This week has been marked by a sizeable amount of teaching: as we finished hermeneutics weekend we went straight into Theology 101 learning about the Atonement – how and why Jesus died for us. It was really humbling realising how much we as Christians take for granted Jesus’ sacrifice, and looking in detail at the full extent of God’s love shown to us was inspiring stuff. We have also had teaching on the ‘Kingdom of God’ in Mark’s gospel (another phrase I tend to take for granted but never really stop to consider) and about various Christian responses to spiritual gifts and the meaning of ‘prophecy’. The overall lesson I seem to be slowly but surely learning is that God is so much bigger and higher than I will ever be able to comprehend. Every time I learn something new, I realise that at least two things I thought I knew were rubbish! This is a painful discipline but a necessary one, as I begin to realise that God is so much more than our intellectual grasp of him; we can never shove him in a theological box or make him fit neatly into a doctrine. Likewise at <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/resources/sermons/files/Kings-Sermon-2008-11-16-pm.mp3'>Crux on Sunday</a>, Mathew Vargheese reminded us all through the example of Abraham that our theology can never replace living out our faith in everything we do; for me a timely reminder indeed. I feel I am beginning to understand Paul’s doxology in Romans where he says: O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?’ (Romans 11:33-34) This week has also been marked by the preparations for the Guest Service – a great opportunity for King’s Church to welcome people in and show them something of God’s love, kindness, and generosity towards them; the theme is set around Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast in Luke, where all people are invited to come! The preparation has likewise been a really helpful reminder that, as each intern and staff member has a different role to play in getting things ready, likewise the body of Christ has many members with different functions (Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12) – we all need each other, and none of us can say we are more important or indispensable than anyone else. Thank God that he gives us all different gifts that we can use to his glory! As the cold months roll on and Christmas beckons tantalisingly, we will all need to rely on God’s strength and on each other to be build up and spurred on, right to the end. God bless, Tim Dixon - Tim Dixon Tim Dixon Name above all names http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#44 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_mayo.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Mayo" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Welcome once again to the hand (or more accurately the keyboard) of the interns. I had the pleasure of beginning the 2008-9 internlog and reflecting on the fact that my last internlog was 8 weeks ago is a strange thing indeed. To think about where we have been over the last 8 weeks makes me, as well as the rest of the interns I'm sure, praise and thank God for His grace and abundant blessing. Over this last week we interns have been given another 'odd' week, with the opportunity for some exciting teaching on Hermeneutics, and as we attempt to get our heads round the shift in how we interpret what we read and see, it is ironic that we are planning our first Guest service of the term, and asking: what is this service really for? Is it for us to put on a nice shiny event, or is it to try to capture the heart that God has for reaching out to our friends who don't know Him, in a way that is relevant and different. The way we are shifting our emphasis is the lesson that God is really teaching at the moment. Our team meetings that happen mid-week are a break in the 'work' routine for us as interns and staff as we focus on God and spend time in devotion to Him corporately, and our study of 'Sit, Walk, Stand' sees us looking at how we emphasise our battle against "all powers and principalities". This week's devotion allowed us an opportunity to remind ourselves of the power we have in the name of Jesus, the name above all names, to stand against the enemy and to see the will of God done. How awesome a responsibility we have to use His name wisely! In our weeks that are filled with placements and teaching, how do we effectively use the mighty gift of the name above all names in prayer? Our emphasis is on realising the finished work of Jesus and standing in that victory. In a week that in some ways has been quite ordinary, and in others has been quite remarkable, the sense in which we are constantly being renewed in our thinking and our devotion to God has been something that I can only pray, through the name above all names, Jesus Christ, will continue. As our emphasis and hopefully your emphasis changes in respect to our devotional lives, I hope that Jesus Christ, who owns that name, will be where our emphasis lies. God bless you. - Tim Mayo Tim Mayo Remember, remember... http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#43 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/sammy_hicks.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Sammy Hicks" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> "Remember, remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot, I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot. This week we remembered the 5th of November, not only on the 5th but also on the 3rd, at <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/students/international/'>Interact</a>, our social event for international and UK students. It was indeed a joy to explain the story of Guy Fawkes and to play conkers together. Apparently, as the rhyme suggests, we should never forget the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. I find we do a fairly good job of this each year with the number of fireworks displays, bonfires and the occasional burning of a guy effigy. In Durham alone, I will have had the opportunity to be reminded at Interact, on the 5th itself, at the King’s Bonfire Party and at the Grey Fireworks on Saturday. Although we may not all know the full story, most British people know why the 5th has importance traditionally and most join in festivities to celebrate the victory over the plotters. If we celebrate this ‘victory’ once a year, how often then should we remember and celebrate Christ’s victory on the Cross? Is this event one which we celebrate once a year at Easter, or once a week at Church or is it one which we should be constantly remembering and living according to day by day? After the 'quiet' week the interns have gone straight back into our weekly timetables. In many ways it has been a tough and tiring week. Some of the team have been off ill; most of the team feel like we could do with another 'quiet' week; the floor of the kitchen in the 'intern house' (aka House of Rest) was pulled up on Thursday; we had a short essay to hand in this week. However, during this week, in parallel with being reminded of the ‘victory over the plotters’, I have been constantly reminded about Christ’s victory on the Cross and what this means for our lives. On Sunday morning Richard Briggs spoke of the ‘<a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/resources/sermons/files/Kings-Sermon-2008-11-02-am.mp3'>Triumph of the Cross</a>’. At our Tuesday team meeting we talked about our spiritual battle not being to gain the victory, but that we fight from the victory Christ already has over the powers and authorities. "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Chris Jesus" Ephesians 2:4-7 While we are in a difficult part of the term, I have been encouraged to keep in mind God’s grace which has saved us and sustains us, and that all we do is for and should be for God’s glory. By God’s grace we continue to have encouraging stories of good conversations, we are learning more about our spiritual gifts, gifts given freely by God, and whatever we are doing it is always an encouragement to remember that we are already have the victory in Christ. Perhaps a better rhyme for us as interns and as Christians may be to ‘Remember, remember the grace and the glory...’ - Sammy Hicks Sammy Hicks The challenge of rest http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#42 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/joy_van_straaten.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Joy Van Straaten" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hellooo all, I hope you are managing to keep up with the weird and wonderful things that God is doing in Durham. This year so far has been fairly non stop. The Chislehurst mission has now faded into some hazy memory and the idea of Durham without thousands of students, unthinkable! So it is with all the memories, challenges and wonderful encouragements of the year so far that we now embark on a quieter week, largely helped by the lack of teaching and schools placements for many of us. This gives us a chance to get all those practical jobs done that have been put off week after week, in addition to reflecting on all that has happened and allowing God to refresh us for the rollercoaster ride that all of us seem to be on at the moment. This opportunity to rest in itself is a very real challenge for me and I’m sure many others. Being someone that loves structure, busyness and all things that involve using a high amount of energy, resting and relaxing in God’s presence is probably one of the hardest things for me to learn this term. However, as I am realising, it is absolutely necessary if we are to become not just more effective in our discipleship of Jesus but also more in love with our saviour himself. I have always loved the way in which Psalm 23 uses the words: "He (the Lord) makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me by still waters, he restores my soul..." Our God is one who actively wants to give us rest, refreshment and opportunity to learn more of who he is and who we are in him. We as interns are so blessed to have this opportunity to take time out, allow God to reinvigorate us and prepare us for the starting up of our teaching and placements again next week. We all thank you so much for all your prayers, encouragements and time that you have given so many of us as we have started out on this journey. We would ask that you continue to support us in your prayers as we spend the final part of this week resting, as the after school drop in begins next Thursday for the first time, and as many of the schools placements start up again. Finally, prayer for God’s grace to see us all through for the rest of this term would be fab! - Joy Van Straaten Joy Van Straaten Plums and Ladders http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#41 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/elena_borodenko.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Elena Borodenko" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Imagine a plum. Imagine 2, 3 4 24 falling from the sky right in front of you, one after another after another... Before I tell you what the plums represent imagine the tree above you, a wind is blowing the branches and the plums are stirring, moving around, getting agitated, ready to fall. The Interns have been coming back from their various Intern adventures this week with stories of inquisitive people (i.e. the plums). These plums have been asking questions and making statements such as 'Tell me about your Christian Beliefs', 'What is the Trinity', 'The Alpha Course is just what I’m looking for', 'I’ve been thinking of becoming more spiritual…' etcetera, etcetera. All of these have led to some fantastic conversations where we have been able to tell people about the great news of the Gospel, who God is, how He wants a relationship with them, how His love pours out of us and where they can find out more. The Interns haven’t had to do much for these incidents to happen other than standing under the tree with bemused and somewhat stunned expressions on their faces, catching them as they come. There does however seem to be some sort of connection between praying and asking God for such things to take place and them actually happening! I guess this is time to wake up and get onboard with what God is doing. We definitely need to get our plum baskets out as God is obviously shaking those branches and letting the plums rain on down! Hot theological topics for this week have been the Trinity, Spiritual Gifts and the Mysterious ‘Q’. Tricky subjects but amazingly God gives us the ability to use and stretch the minds that He’s also given us, and so we’re managing to get to grips with a fair chunk of it. Praise God that He’s still too complex for us to fully analogise or explain in a simple sentence. 'Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the Spirit of Yahweh, or what man shows him counsel?' Isaiah 40:12-13 I can only fit about 50ml of water in my tiny hand and I’m sure my scales would break if I put even a wheelbarrow of rock in it never mind a mountain! Praise God He’s still too big and vast for us to imagine. He is the mystery yet source and sustainer of our tiny lives and I’m not going to complain about that. Elena Borodenko (AKA Intern 4) (Special Thanks to Ruth Perrin Ministries for the Plum Dropping Analogy) (And congratulations to Papa Paul and his Tree on the arrival of their Reuben) - Elena Borodenko Elena Borodenko "God is weird" http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#40 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/nicola_bates.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Nicola Bates" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> "God is weird" but in a good and amazing way! The most poignant part of this week had to have been the interns' session yesterday on 'listening in leadership' which was not only about listening to others but also listening and being led by God. Hearing God is something that is old to some of us but new and hard for others of us but is something we all recognise is one of the most important parts of being a leader. We were discussing the ways in which God has communicated with people historically which is where we coined the phrase "God is weird!" God through the ages has communicated through burning bushes, dreams, visions, an audible voice, angels and a myriad of other ways which made us all realise that God has always and still does want to speak to his people! We also considered the way in which people communicated with God before the death of Christ and saw that it was never direct, it had to always be done through a mediator and could even cost you your life! With Christ's death the Temple curtain was ripped in two; God ripped a 30 foot high, 1 foot thick curtain that separated his mercy seat from the people! He did it in order to show us we can boldly approach his throne with no fear of death as Christ has already done that bit! Christ's blood is permanently on the mercy seat, the place in which God dwelled with his people at the Temple, there is no longer a 'day of atonement' once a year now that Christ has made himself a sacrifice on our behalf! This 'direct line' to God is something everyone is invited to regardless of experience! It's easy to think that because we've never received an image, idea, vision, prophesy, dream, word of wisdom, word of knowledge from God the that means we don't have Christ dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit or that God hasn't given you those gifts. We learned yesterday that is not true! We did an exercise where we prayed for each other, asking God to speak to us in order to encourage each other and found God to be extremely kind and gracious in blessing us in the 3 minutes we actually stopped speaking and let him talk with many pictures and encouragements! I would have any other time panicked about the time limit and felt pressure in having something to say to encourage my fellow intern but I let go and simply trusted in God to speak and he did! This had to be one of the highlights of the week for me personally but for all of us this has been a great week, the Lord seems to have given us all a real peace and joy about what we're doing even though so many things are still new and new things are starting up! The Hill Pastorate met for the first time yesterday evening which went brilliantly well for which I am so grateful to the Lord! There have been good reports all round from each of our placements which is really encouraging! Our response to these encouragements were gauged yesterday by a number out of 10! I think our average was about 8 out of ten so it's been a happy week! - Nicola Bates Nicola Bates The Demographics of Christ http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#39 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/lucy_hefford.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Lucy Hefford" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello, this is your Youth Intern speaking… welcome to the InternLog! Fresher’s fair this week was the scene of a poignant little story. We were positioned right at the bottom of the stairs looking to invite new students to Kings, especially any Christians who are new to Durham and are on a grand ‘church hunt’. While handing out the King’s Church and Student Alpha flyers, a man next to us was giving out leaflets for a ‘Dance Music’ gig. After half an hour, he turned to me and said; “I’ve been trying to work out what your demographic is, but I can’t! I though you might be going for people with the big chemistry books who looked clever, but I can’t work out any pattern at all. What sort of people are you going for?” ‘Brilliant!!’ I thought – how theologically profound! Sadly, I proceeded to make up some pathetic answer about giving them to people who didn’t look too busy. What a wasted opportunity to explain that Church really is open for everyone! I’m glad he recognised that fact, but I am disappointed that I didn’t say something better in response or even offer him a flyer (but I would probably have had had to go to his gig in response – Oh no!!) In other news, the Church Ceilidh on Saturday was great fun. We were pleased to see some of last years interns back to join in. (Elena also did a splendid job at ‘encouraging’ Mark Bonnington to join in the dancing, for which she received a rapturous applause!) I will finish this installment with a reflection on a book I am reading called ‘Listening to God’ (by Joyce Huggett). I am finding that it is answering many of the frustrations that I have developed in relation to vocal prayers. As the author puts it, most Christians are first introduced to prayer as part of Bible studies, where and at the end, “the person concerned will pray some sort of free, vocal prayer… but”, Huggett continues, “ there may come a time when these prayers do no more than touch the fringe of our longing in prayer...” I fully relate to that, and this is exciting because it can mean that “the Holy Spirit is leading you into contemplative prayer,” - being silent before God rather than doing all the talking. My heart was racing when I read this page! God obviously wants to lead us all into a deeper relationship with Him, so I am both apprehensive and excited about the transformation which my prayer life is taking and all the fruits this will bring. I’m not a Holy person or special in anyway: but Christ’s demographics for who he leads closer to him are pretty broad, you know! Lucy Hefford - Lucy Hefford Lucy Hefford Sandpaper and Songs http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#38 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/robyn_stoneham.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Robyn Stoneham" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello, what a delight it is to scribble my thoughts on a challenging, refining and exciting week of the internship…! This week, we have been enlightened by the world of Myers-Briggs personality types, with letters like "E" for extrovert and "I" for introvert, "J" and "P" swimming around our heads as we go about our activities. Analysing our own behaviour, sanding out our imperfections and grappling with how to act in group situations has mostly resulted in short explosions of laughter such as awkwardly deciding who should pray first… However, whilst growing in self awareness at a rate of knots, we have also been participating in placements all over the area, developing confidence through visits to places such as women's prisons and various school CUs. On Friday, we ventured out to investigate Newton Hall, a housing estate about three miles outside of Durham where we will do some mission work and outreach over the coming year. The estate is a large, seemingly blank canvas, but as we prayer-walked the area on a cold sunny morning, seeds of inspiration to bless this community appeared in our pockets (more to come, we hope) which will be prayed over before planting. I'm excited that there will be more to report on this estate as the coming year unfolds. Please pray for this estate, that our budding plans would be aligned with the Lord's. It's also been a race against time this week to complete decorating the Appleby Rooms, stripping bogey-green gloss paint with sandpaper, whilst bopping to "guitar legends" or our own rendition of Christmas carols, led by our fantastically gifted soprano Tims. (Both have an astonishing ability to be mistaken for talented female singers.) It seems apt that a substantial part of my week has been chipping away at old paint, preparing for a fresh coat of a superior coloured paint (well, better than bogey-green anyway…) when inside, I'm praying through aspects of my character and life, the bogey-green bits that need a fresh coating of better paint. It's good to note though, that a great deal of singing, dancing and bopping goes on in this process in the Appleby rooms and a great deal of singing, dancing and bopping is going on inside – the Lord is good, and he has great plans! - Robyn Stoneham Robyn Stoneham Getting Started http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#37 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/christina_maiden.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Christina Maiden" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hellooo! Well we've been back in Durham for a week now and it seems like we’ve never been away. After a couple of days of much appreciated rest, we got back to work on Sunday and once again spent the hour and a half before the morning service trying to understand the wonders of PA. It was fantastic to be back worshipping at Kings and it was great catching up with friends and getting to know new people. As for the picnic and baseball match after the service, it was entertaining to say the least. The rest of the week has been filled with final bits of introduction to the different areas of ministry we’ll be involved in. We’ve looked at student work and also outreach within the wider community and it’s been exciting to see what God has been doing thus far and to think about what He may have in store for this year. Each of us also visited what will be our placements, a few of us heading off to Aquila Way and others visiting prison, local schools and youth groups. It’s been slightly daunting so see where we’ll be working this year, a definite stepping out of comfort zones for all of us, but it’s also been really thrilling to see new challenges emerging and to recognise the potential for God to do great things. Next week the majority of our placements will get underway and so please pray that we’ll put aside any anxiety and trust that God is well and truly big enough to carry us through any situation. Christina - Christina Maiden Christina Maiden Baptism of Fire http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#36 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_dixon.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Dixon" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Heya! I’m writing this Internlog on a train up form London after our mission week with <a href="www.ichthuschislehurst.talktalk.net/">Ichthus Chislehurst</a>. We had only been given our timetable days before we started and as a group were very excited, if a little apprehensive, about our foray into mission and evangelism; for my part especially, this being my first experience of taking the gospel out on to the streets. Led by Martin, Ichthus Chislehurst’s pastor and leader, we embarked upon a chock-full week. At the start of each day, a pair of interns led a time of devotional bible-study, worship, and prayer. From here we had teaching from Martin or another local leader and then put our teaching into action in the afternoon and evening. Our first day was a real baptism of fire, as we were asked to go onto the street of Chislehurst, pray for words of prophecy for people, and then speak to them; we were also giving out short tracts explaining how much God loved them and the good news of Christ, and asking if people wanted prayer for anything. Many of us (myself very much included) were quite apprehensive about stepping out in this way, but were spurred on by mutual encouragement and our knowledge that our identity was in Christ, and not in our own efforts. Many members of the group had opportunities to share God’s love and the gospel with the local community as well as praying for them. Two men who the group had spoken to came to church on the following Sunday which was a real testament to God’s power working through us. The rest of the week involved two community BBQs in the local Edgebury estate (complete with face-painting, football, and general craziness) which the kids really appreciated; it was great chance to show them that someone cared for them and to chat to their parents and tell them about Ichthus, with one set of parents even asking for a Bible, which was awesome; we also did a late-night BBQ outside the local pub on the Friday night, resulting in many fruitful conversations. We each, at some stage of the week, reached a low ebb, especially in some of the places we went to where people were hostile to the gospel and the ground felt “unploughed”, leaving many of us discouraged or disheartened by the seeming lack of response – but it was a real testament to the hospitality of Ichthus (who put us up for the week free of charge and cooked for us) and to the group of interns as a whole (not to mention the one-and-only Paul Burgess!) that we really gelled as a group and grew in maturity through these experiences. We all had highlights of the week too (mine being having some really great conversations with people on a fairly rough estate in Greenwich, something I would have never imagined myself doing), all of which showed God’s amazing power and great faithfulness. The main encouragement of the week and the one thing that sticks in my mind the most is that if we step out in faith, God will always be with us; if we go out in the power of the Holy Spirit, God will do amazing things! God Bless, Tim D - Tim Dixon Tim Dixon Welcome to the wonderful world of the Interns http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#35 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/tim_mayo.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Tim Mayo" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Welcome to the wonderful world of the Interns of 08-09! On behalf of the team we hope that in some way these messages help to convey the excitement and glory of what God is doing using us this year! Our first week has been a real adventure, especially for Lucy, Elena and myself as we are all new to the city. After a couple of days meeting the staff team; being introduced to the church, its history, its vision and values and to the things we will be involved with this year, we were introduced to the Church on sunday, with a funny fact each (!), and then whisked off to Leicestershire for a three day conference for new leaders. In an action packed schedule we learned about God's heart for how we are to be as leaders. Ruth was on hand to encourage us, wake me up, deliver an amazing session on the entire bible in just over an hour which left us speechless, and make sure we went to bed at a reasonable hour. We met interns of various descriptions from around the country as we joined an atmosphere of prayer into our hearts for service. A particular phrase that was spoken over the few days was ploughing the ground, that we were taught and encouraged, the ground of our heart was being ploughed, and rocks and other stuff was brought to the surface. We have realised the incredible joy and privilege it is to serve God and the Church this year and how this year is not about us, but about what God is doing. Good news indeed! As I write this, we are now a couple of days into our mission week in Chislehurst, but that is for the next internlog... - Tim Mayo Tim Mayo Summer Project and Goodbyes http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#34 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jeanna_shalkowski.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jeanna Shalkowski" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Well, what an amazing week we had down in London on the Ichthus Summer Project! We had a brilliant time making new friends and getting to know some of the people in the community. We were split across the three teams for the week (Forest Hill, New Life and North London) and were engaged in lots of different activities, ranging from first-contact evangelism, giving away free water, coffee and tea, to running kids clubs and putting on free BBQs and fun days. It was great to meet more Ichthus friends and get to know people from all over the country (and beyond – there were delegates from Germany, Switzerland and Norway among us!) and to get alongside each other to worship God every day, and serve each other as we sought to engage in the communities where we were on patch. There are so many stories I could tell here but don't have time or room to tell them all! The team Becky and I were on in Forest Hill saw 9 people come to faith in one day and one person was healed in Jesus' name! The following day we went back to follow up and ended up talking to even more people in the community and saw another 3 people give their lives to Jesus and another healing! God is SO good and SO faithful. On the final day before we left we all went to visit the congregations where we had been serving all week and joined in with their celebration services. I did the children's sermon (looking at Jesus' second coming) and we used a gospel choir arrangement that Becky had put together with the whole team earlier in the week to illustrate the joy we have to look forward to in heaven when Jesus returns! Before we left we went to see Jay Smith at Speaker's Corner and shout for JESUS, which was very interesting and inspired many of us to engage in conversations of our own with others there. It was sad to say goodbye to the friends we'd made, especially those who were staying on for the second week, but it's been great to stay updated as people tell us how things have been progressing in the last week. We saw God move in some amazing ways and were amazed at the fruit we saw as people made definite commitments to Christ and also how receptive people were to talk about God –some seeds have definitely been sown for others to reap the harvest in future! The last week has involved recovering from Summer Project, and we've begun the redecorating of the Appleby Rooms in St. Oswald's Institute with Paul. It's been hard work but the place is mid-transformation and it's brilliant to see the changes. I can't wait to see it when it's done and we can compare before/after photos! It was our last coffee morning at both McNally and Cunningham Place, and sad to say goodbye to so many friendly and familiar faces we've grown to know and love over the year. At Cunningham a couple that we met through the June Project came along for the first time, so that was a real encouragement from all the hard work that was invested last month. It's hard to believe that we are just a week away from the end of the internship. In so many ways it feels like it began only a few months ago, but as we begin the de-briefing process we can see how far we've all come, both as a team and how God's changed us and individuals and helped us to grow over the last 10 months. We have so much to be thankful for! Thank you so much for your prayers when we were down in London. It was a great way to go back to our roots at the beginning of the internship when we were on mission in Chiselhurst, and we were so thankful for God's protection and provision. Thank you for your support and grace with us, and for reading these logs and praying for us, we can't thank you enough. God bless, Jeanna :-) - Jeanna Shalkowski Jeanna Shalkowski Hello from London http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#33 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/ben_ward.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Ben Ward" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello from London! Last Sunday the interns made their way south by train, bus and car to the capital for a week of mission with the Ichthus Christian Fellowship. Each morning we receive teaching before heading out in our teams to one of three locations across London. We've been involved in a kid's club, BBQs on council estates and lots of street evangelism. A lot of us have been able to use the teaching we have received as we talk to people on the streets. On Wednesday, one woman gave her life to Jesus in Holloway following a prophetic picture of her being given. Yesterday 9 people came to faith and one re-dedicated themselves at a BBQ in Forest Hill - Praise God! Please pray for: <ul> <li>More people to step from darkness to light</li> <li>Good sleep for delegates</li> <li>Relationships between the churches we are working with and the communities we are working in.</li> </ul> Got to go now - need to go back to teaching session! - Ben Ward Ben Ward The Home Straight http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#32 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jason_piper.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jason Piper" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello all! Well, the interns are about to enter the home straight of the internship! This week began with a somewhat emotional service where the graduating students were prayed for as they move on into their different walks of life. Similarly for the interns, this week has been the final week of (the majority of our) placements. This has been a time of beginning to say goodbye and sharing what’s next with those we’ve been working with over the past 9 or so months. Both of the teaching sessions this week have been contemporary issues sessions with Ruth and were on the highly topical and current themes of racism and war. I think the other interns would agree that both sessions were both incredibly emotive and thought-provoking! What is the root of the prejudices we bear? How far does the myth of redemptive violence pervade our society, or yet further? How has the bible been used to justify racism? Is peace lack of war or more than that? Are our only options when faced with aggression passivity or violence, or is there another way…? This weekend sees the interns gear up for mission yet again, and for the final time as the Ichthus Summer Project kicks off in London on Sunday! There is a mixture of excitement, expectation and some anticipation of the unknown (for all of us except Becky, who’s done it before!) We’ll spend a week getting teaching from Roger and Faith Forster and being sent out into the streets of London to engage in mission in various forms. The exciting aspect in comparison to the June Project will be the premise of the engagement that comes with not having to plan so much of it! Thanks so much for your prayer and support! Things to pray for in the coming week are: <ul><li>God’s strength to carry us – we’re all at different places and for some of us, circumstances are really hard. Please pray that God would strengthen and comfort us at this time.</li> <li>Health – to different extents, some of us are still (medically) recovering from the exertion of the June Project. Please pray for healing and recovery from illness.</li> <li>Expectation – for this coming week but generally for God to move in and through our lives to those we’re being sent to, this week and always.</li> </ul> God bless and keep you all, Jason - Jason Piper Jason Piper We'll miss you! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#31 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/naomi_aves.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Naomi Aves" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This last week everyone has been trying to recover from the busy (but brilliant) June project. It was a jam-packed week of community projects, teaching, outreach, and fun. God was utterly faithful to us as we faithfully served him. One lad became a Christian and we had a fantastic response on Sunday. (For more information see the <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/community/projects/june-project-2008'>June Project report</a>). Please continue to pray for all those involved. Please also pray for health and energy for the delegates, staff and interns following June Project. It has been a fairly normal week as far as the interns are concerned. Placements have continued as normal, and we are all preparing to say goodbye this week as they come to an end. To spice up our week however, we had two long sessions of teaching from Richard Briggs on Daniel. We laughed at the political satire and quirky narration, puzzled at the historical anomalies and characters identities, and chewed over the question of the existence of gods. It was incredibly insightful and interesting. And, because it is 'always a joy and never a chore', we had more laughs on Saturday at SBS when Richard took us through the tale of Jonah and the ENORMOUS fish. Have you ever noticed the special mention that the animals get? Mark Bonnington also concluded our teaching on 1 Corinthians with the resurrection of the dead. Sunday was a sad day for many reasons, but particularly because we were saying farewell to many students/ finalists who have been worshipping with us for several years and have contributed so much to the life of the church. We will miss you! - Naomi Aves Naomi Aves Onwards and Upwards http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#30 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/ben_ward.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Ben Ward" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> A lot has happened over the last week or so: half term is now over, so we have been back in our school placements; students have finished exams (well done to them); and the June Project is rapidly approaching! We finished our series on church history last week with a café-style discussion of the 'emerging church', looking at where and why it has arisen and how it might develop in the future. I've found this 'module' to be really helpful in providing a broader picture of the church, providing useful information about where we have come from spiritually and theologically as well as where the church is heading. This week's teaching engaged with the 'contemporary issues' of sexuality, especially homosexuality. On Sunday, we will be celebrating with two students who are getting baptised. What a great way to lead in to the week of mission that follows. June Project is fast approaching - hoorah! Now with over 100 people, this is a huge organisational feat, but also a wonderful opportunity to partner with God in mission and have an impact across the city. We'll be doing everything from gardening to face painting, providing water after clubs have closed on Friday night to afternoon tea for more elderly residents as well as a host of other exciting things. See the <a href="http://www.kcd.org.uk/juneproject">June Project</a> page for more details of what will be going on. During our prayer meeting on Tuesday, God was clearly encouraging us to open our eyes to the spiritual dimension of this world: to not just look at all these activities that will be going on, but to see the spiritual significance of them as well. This is quite a challenge when it is so easy to see the world through purely naturalistic lenses. Francis Schaeffer writes in his book True Spirituality, 'The "supernatural" is really no more unusual in the universe, from the biblical viewpoint, than what we normally call the natural'. Here are some things we would really appreciate prayer for over the coming week: <ul> <li>Protection, especially for those involved in the June Project</li> <li>An openness to God and seeing things from his perspective.</li> <li>All the planning that has and is going into the June Project.</li> <li>That people will hear and see the good news of Jesus and be set free.</li> </ul> - Ben Ward Ben Ward Hello and Amen! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#29 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jeanna_shalkowski.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jeanna Shalkowski" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello and welcome to another instalment of the Kings Internlog! It’s been a quiet(ish) week for the interns as we had a reading week and so had a bit more personal time off. Placements have been continuing as normal, and how half term is upon us some of our loads are a bit lighter without schoolswork. It’s hard to believe that we will have finished the Internship in about 7 weeks! There’s so much to do until then, and so much we’ve learned over the year to be reflecting on before we go on to do whatever God has in store for each of us in the time ahead! Just10 has been carrying on well as J. John has continued his series on the Ten Commandments and their relevance for life today. I’ve been really encouraged and learned a lot from the teaching, and it’s also a great opportunity to meet other Christians in the Northeast, whether they’re sitting next to you, waiting in the queue for the toilets or as you’re queuing to get in/out of the car park! It’s been so fantastic to hear the good news of people responding to the gospel and the messages J. John’s been delivering and to see lives transformed each week! A few weeks ago we found out that we are going to the Ichthus Summer Project in London in July! Although a new experience for all of us but Becky, we’ve had raring reports from those who were part of the Summer Project in 2007 and are really looking forward to it, especially off the back of June Project! We really enjoyed the first induction mission week with Ichthus in Chiselhurst, so this will be a new, but definitely exciting experience that I’m sure we won’t forget! Teaching over the last week or so has been continuing Church History with Melody and exploring the Pentecostal movement and our own church backgrounds. It was really interesting to see the similarities and differences between different experiences of church. Mark’s teaching on Revelation has continued to grow in fascinating-ness(?!) as we looked at the Pale Rider and apocalyptic imagery. Faith Forster was here last weekend and continued our morning series on Isaiah and spoke on Spiritual Gifts in the evening. It was a great opportunity for people to come forward for prayer and to be encouraged. Tonight Jase, Becky, Dave and I helped host a Superhero-themed party and game night in Crook at the youth group we assist with each week. It was a great time and really good to get to know some of the kids a bit better. We just couldn’t get enough of the superhero costumes in Bosnia! Apart from that, we’re beginning to get ready for the JUNE PROJECT 2008! We’re all in charge of delegates and various aspects of the outreach over the week, which is incredibly exciting and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in! We really appreciate your prayer for the whole June Project – that God would work powerfully in peoples’ lives and that we would see the city of Durham transformed with His love and His heart. A worship song we sang in our team meeting today has the following lyrics: <blockquote>There is no-one like our God…For greater things have yet to come…And greater things are still to be done in this city</blockquote> Please keep praying for our preparation and as we face the beginning of the end of the Internship, that the time we have together as a team would be really valuable, full of encouragement and building each other up, and creating memories that will draw us together and last for a long time! Thank you so much for your continued support – God bless you! Jeanna - Jeanna Shalkowski Jeanna Shalkowski Bookworms http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#28 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jason_piper.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jason Piper" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This week, the interns have had their heads ploughed thoroughly buried in the books as our teaching series on Revelation, church history and contemporary issues continue! Last Saturday saw the 'May We Have Hope' sports day at the Laurel Avenue Community Centre. Upon arrival we were greeted with glorious sunshine and the perfect conditions persisted throughout the day! Sports and activities included a 5-a-side football, mini-olympic games, frisbee, basketball, circus skills and face-painting. A rough head count on the day yielded more than 200 people which was a huge encouragement! This week, in our study on Revelation with Mark we explored the central character of the book – God! This involved looking at the titles God has through the course of the book and how they change. Similarly the persons of Trinity and the influences of prophecy in other books of the bible bring loomed large on the radar. Genuinely fascinating! Church history marches on as we continued to wade through the steep tides of the reformation! Our journey took us through Luther’s gargantuan contributions to the movement (such as the translation of the NT into German), the theological principles behind the reformation and an in depth discussion into the role of the sacraments. Theology 101 looked at the challenge of postmodernity and Jeanna and Naomi provided rich sustenance in the form of garlic and nettle soup and (slightly more traditionally, tomato soup.) The responses to postmodernism detailed in our packs provided fuel for stimulating discussion. This week, placements have continued as normal, Just 10 continues, as does planning for the June Project. Please be praying for us as we continue to work with students and in our placements. Pray for wisdom as we plan the June Project and for volunteers to sign up. God bless, Jason. - Jason Piper Jason Piper Monk-ey Business http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#27 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/dave_fisher.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Dave Fisher" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Aside from punning badly, this week the interns have been acting the part of Medieval Monks, considering the four horsemen of the apocalypse and eating pea soup. We are also starting to plot plan for the June Project 2008! In our series on church history we have been looking at monasticism and the beginnings of the Reformation. We discussed the strengths and weaknesses of missionary monks, taking the Gospel to the nations and meeting people on their level may involve creating the Cyrillic alphabet although Cyril and Methodius may have already done that. Hitting the King of Ireland with your staff while baptising him may not be a good idea. With Mark we are continuing to look at John’s Revelation, this week examining the book’s structure, in particular the parallels, and also differences between Babylon and Jerusalem, and the judgement of God. Part of this is the four horsemen of the apocalypse, which have proved very popular in culture. Clint Eastwood’s film <cite>Pale Rider</cite> is one such example of this, so of course we had to watch part of this to finish the session. Theology 101 moved to a new venue this week, which presented new challenges before we even got to the theology of cessationism. Jason and Ben, who made pea soup, met the challenge of soup without a nearby kitchen admirably and I am sure we can step up to the added challenge of remembering an extension cable to power the projector next week. The June Project sign-up was launched last Sunday, which is exciting news and preparations are coming along nicely. Please pray for us, that we would be reminded of God’s faithfulness and that we would go in his strength not out own, especially as this term gets busier. Please also pray for outreach in Durham and the North East, the June Project is coming, J John is into his fourth week and this Saturday some us are also supporting the HOPE08 sports day in Gilesgate. God Bless Dave - Dave Fisher Dave Fisher Catching up http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#26 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/rachel_farish.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Rachel Farish" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Having been back from Bosnia a couple of weeks, our placements have now all kicked in, the students have returned and our own personal teaching has begun. It’s like we’ve never been away – well almost! Saturday morning took us to SBS with Mark teaching us on 1 Corinthians 11 and a guest speaker, Bob Fyall, enlightening us on the Song of Songs. It was excellent and a great thing to finally understand (at least a little bit) what the Song of Songs is about. It’s great to catch up with people that we haven’t seen for weeks (mainly the students who have been away for 5 weeks) and to be back serving the community and church at all our various placements. I think everyone has enjoyed getting back into the swing of things and there have been some really encouraging stories. This week at Interact we welcomed the Japanese students who have come to study English at Teikyo University. Eighteen of us went on a tour/walk around Durham which concluded by having a relaxing drink in a local pub - their first experience of a British pub. We look forward to this week as they said they would bring friends to our chocolate fondue party! Yum Yum! As well as Interact, Cu’s have started up, coffee at the station is back on, the work at Aquilla continues, as does the youth club at Crook – and now it’s nice weather the team there assure me that it’s hard work to play football in the sunshine! ; ) Our teaching began this week, with Mark introducing us to the fascinating book (and I’m not being sarcastic) that is Revelation. I can’t wait to get stuck into this with all it’s amazing imagery and symbolism. We also have started the long anticipated teaching with Melody Briggs on Thursday who for 6 weeks will give us a taste (quite literally) of the church through History. This week we began with the Early Church, sharing in their style of worship, the readings, prayers and meal that their services would have contained when they met together. It was a lot of fun and quite insightful! As well as all this, Just 10 (an event which occurs every Tuesday evening in Gateshead with J. John who talks through one commandment a week for ten weeks) has begun. It’s really exciting to see a tent full of 6000 people coming to hear J John speak on the 10th commandment. Please pray for this event, that people would begin to get a glimpse of who God is and come to know him. So it’s the end of the Intern log for this week, please pray for continued energy and enthusiasm as we continue in all the things we do. Tune in next week to hear this weeks up and coming adventures. Xxx : ) - Rachel Farish Rachel Farish The start of our final term http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#25 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/naomi_aves.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Naomi Aves" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Well here we are at the start of our final term of the internship! It seems strange that we have already been back a week. Bosnia seems ages ago, and Sunday only seemed like yesterday. All of us have been resting up and preparing for the weeks ahead, and hopefully the others have done all their laundry, unlike me. Some of our placements have started up again too. The transition from Bosnia to Durham has been fine. I think we’re all grateful for hot running water. Please pray that we would not forget what we saw and learnt in Bosnia, and that we would know how to apply it here too. This Thursday – Friday just gone we (along with a bunch of student leaders) went on a student leader training retreat. We looked at the life of a leader; public, private, and devotional, led by Ruth, Kathryn and Seymour Jacklin, and Phil. We experienced God moving among us and were released to worship Jesus with our whole bodies. It was fantastic to see so many young people engaging in heart-felt worship to Jesus. We concluded the sessions by praying and prophesying over each other, and again God was really speaking into the hearts of his children. Once again, please pray that we would not forget what we learnt and experienced, and are able to be effective instruments for God in Durham and beyond. Many thanks and blessings. - Naomi Aves Naomi Aves Final Report from Bosnia http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#24 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/ben_ward.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Ben Ward" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Thank you for your prayers whilst we were in Bosnia Herzegovina. You'll be glad to hear that we made it back safely to Durham on Tuesday night. The journey home was long with some tense moments: nine foreigners travelling together seemed quite interesting to the guards at each of the three border checkpoints we had to pass through. The journey passed smoothly however and we made all our connections with good time, praise God! Our last few days in Mostar were taken at a somewhat more relaxed pace to the rest of the week. Seeing the children of Mostar acheiving, even in small ways, was a blessing. On Saturday, the Klub is open for most of the day so that kids can drop in when they like: Dave and I learnt that children have a greater sense of satisfaction if they beat you on the fourth or fifth game of table football than if you let them win immediately! During the week Becky, Naomi & Rachel had been teaching a dance to a group of Klub members with the aim of filming it to keep a record of what they'd done. The dancers were incredibly excited about filming something that they had worked hard to get right, and it was great to see their satisfaction at having achieved something. Even learning how glitter works brought looks of amazement to the faces of children from Karašebeš, a semi-permanent refugee shack town, and had a brilliant time. Experiences like this made us reflect on how privileged we are. We had a picnic and went swimming at the country's largest waterfall, at Kravice, during our day off. It is easy to see why the tourist industry is picking up and good to see that this is helping the economy to recover. God was so good – we had beautiful weather pretty much all week despite there being large snowfalls the week before we arrived. On Sunday we worshipped with the two evangelical churches in Mostar. As part of the group that joined with the church on the west side of the city, I listened to a visiting missionary speaking of how God had worked in his life from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to the jungle of New Guinea. This reminded me yet again of just how faithful God is, even when things seem utterly hopeless; how the church is God's agent of transformation on earth. <img src='http://www.kingschurchdurham.com/images/content/news/080411-bosnia-2008-1.jpg' width="400" height="300" alt="Mostar" /> It was such a privilege to join in with what Novi Most are doing, bringing extra hands and energy in order to bless and encourage them. We returned to the UK confident that God will continue to work through the church to transform both Mostar and Bosnia Herzegovina. Please pray that we will be able to wisely use the few days we have to recuperate. The transition from Mostar to Durham is quite a jar so please pray that we would cope well with the reverse culture shock. Read the other reports from the team: <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/?entry=23'>1st</a> & <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/news/archive/item/91'>2nd</a>. - Ben Ward Ben Ward Internlog from Bosnia! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#23 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/becky_rolls.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Becky Rolls" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> We made it to Newcastle and then had a flight out of London to Croatia - during this time we had to pray for our baggage to arrive so that we could get our connecting flight out of London. God answered our prayers and made it possible for our baggage to be checked in straight away by passing a long queue. This photo is us all before we left Newcastle <img src='http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/news/2008-04-bosnia-1.jpg' alt="The team in London" width="400" height="300"> After a 3 hour flight we arrived in Croatia to meet the team - here we are! <img src='http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/news/2008-04-bosnia-3.jpg' alt="The team in Croatia" width="400" height="300"> The team here are great and God is really bonding us together to be effective for His work - we have already taken time to pray for the Novi Most team and to listen to what God is telling us about Mostar. All of us, in our own way, have realize that an horrific war has taken place here - the contrast between the new developed buildings and the ruins is shocking to see when there is a community living amongst the effects of this daily. Please pray that we would see Mostar as God does - there have been words about God’s renewal already. Day 1 - We have been helping out with Klub and last night was the first of this term-there was a great turn out. Young people from 14-21 years old joined in with games that we had prepared. Fun was had by all! (see photo) <img src='http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/news/2008-04-bosnia-4.jpg' alt="Fun being had by all!" width="400" height="300"> Becky did a talk about how God loved them all and each person was different and unique because this is the way that God had made them. This is a huge message to hear because of the division within this city. Many of the children are bound by the location of their homes. However Klub Novi Most, situated on the border between East and West Mostar, is the place where these two sides have begun to come together and form relationships. Tonight Jason is talking about Friendships - this is with the younger kids. Pray for his clarity, tuning into the spirit and for the translation to communicate God’s message. There will be more games and opportunities for crafts which encourages them to find their own creative ways of expressing themselves.This afternoon half of the team have gone to Bišce Polje, a Roma community outside of Mostar. The other half of us will go later this week. Pray for the relationships that Novi Most have built to strengthen and that God's love for them is communicated through our actions, as language is a problem.Tomorrow we are going to explore Islamic and Catholic shrines of pilgrimage at Blagaj &amp; Medugorje. Pray for spiritual protection, discernment and breakthrough of God’s truth. Other prayer requests - Health- Sleep has been a problem - many of us have had restless nights. Pray for deep restful sleep. Becky’s back is doing well - so far so good! Ben’s ankle is uncomfortable so pray for this to be strengthened as Mostar is hillier than Durham! Spiritual - Protection through the full armour of God. Prophetic gifting to be used effectively to enhance our understanding of Mostar and its people. (God is already speaking a lot) Team - Good communication between us all - English and Bosnian. We will update you with more information throughout the week. THANK YOU for your prayers. God bless The interns, Ruth and Phil - Becky Rolls Becky Rolls Roundup http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#22 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jeanna_shalkowski.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jeanna Shalkowski" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> So, the second of our third term of the Internship has come to an end. It's rather strange to know that we're now past the halfway mark! It's been a short but busy term because of Easter's unusual place in the calendar. We finished up Ruth's teaching on the Theology of Work and looking at the Passion narratives with Mark. Theologically, the term was rounded up with Saturday Bible School – looking at Idolatry in 1 Corinthians with Mark and the Canon with Dr Richard Briggs. One of the media projects is now finished, so watch this space for YouTube previews of the Easter Reflection (if you weren't there on Sunday to see the finished product!) We've been finishing up placements and work with students as the academic term comes to an end. Youthwork in Crook is changing slightly as we combine both age groups on Tuesdays, with two hours for both younger and older groups. Please pray that this transition would go smoothly and we would ease back into things after a longer break between Easter, school holidays and our time after Bosnia. The Interns are now on a bit of a break for Easter, hoping to catch up with friends, family and supporters, and rest and relaxation before heading back to Durham and preparing for our mission trip to Bosnia. Please be praying for the whole team, along with Ruth and Phil as we try to learn some of the language, prepare activities, crafts, games and a joint youth service. Pray especially that we would be growing together as a team and learning more about God and each other. Also pray for protection – emotionally, physically and spiritually as we find ourselves in an unfamiliar environment, and that we would be effective as we seek to help Novi Most as they work with the children and young people in Mostar to overcome the effects of the past, equip them to face their futures with hope and empower them to become instruments of transformation and good news in their communities. We really need the Holy Spirit with us to empower us – we are just vessels for God's work! Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers – they are so valuable and we appreciate them so much! God bless you! Jeanna :) - Jeanna Shalkowski Jeanna Shalkowski Weekly News http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#21 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/becky_rolls.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Becky Rolls" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello-It's great to be able to report to about the weekly news from the interns. As you know I haven't been around due to a broken coccyx-but praise God-this week I've been back. So What have we been up to? Well we found out more information about the In's and outs of our mission trip to Bosnia. Things to pray for are-ideas of fun activities to do with kids and teenagers in Mostar-that this time in preparation God can be preparing our hearts and equipping us ready to do His glorious work. The God would go before us and prepare-with out God there's no point going. Pray for joy and energy for the trip and that as a team we can be the most effective that we can be. Other news- Theology with Mark is working through different thematics within John's Gospel and with Ruth we have been looking at how to be in the world but not of it! Challenging but awesome that there is a way to glorify God with our lives. Filming and editing is still going on-so watch this space. Placements are going well also-pray for an increase of sensitivity to the prompting of the spirit in order to get in line with God's planning and timing, to make every opportunity the best that we can. Training for international mission in Jesmond took place today-this was beneficial for all who were there-interns and residents as well as students from Kings. We look at different ways of crossing cultures for God's commission-after all Jesus came for the world...not just for one part of it. We have baptisms tomorrow which we are all looking forward to-7am set up for the pool-but well worth it as people public ally following Jesus's command. So exciting things all round-thank you for you faithful prayers-as you can see fruit is coming for God's glory! Till next time Becky - Becky Rolls Becky Rolls Half way through http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#20 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/dave_fisher.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Dave Fisher" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This week marks the half way point of the internship, and with a lighter timetable this week, it’s a good chance to look back over the last few months and see what God has been doing. The answer is a lot! All seven of us are different to when we first started way back in September. Its been great to see the Holy Spirit working in each of us, building us into the people God wants us to be for his kingdom. We have all realised and grown in our giftings, and gotten to know God a bit better. We have also laughed a lot, and cried a little. Please pray for the second half of the internship, that God would continue to amazing things and that we would see more of his glory! We had no teaching this week, as we are also half way through this term. This meant a couple of extra lie-ins and a chance to catch up all the bits of admin that pile up during normal weeks. Shooting for both of our media projects started this week, you might see some of us out and about with cameras over the next couple of weeks as we work our way through what we want to shoot. We had some exciting news on Tuesday, we found out that we are going to Mostar, Bosnia for our mission trip at the beginning of next term. Mostar is a city in the south of the country, with a population about 130,000. It’s going to really exciting and we are all looking forward to it. Please start praying now, that God would be at the very centre of everything we do leading up, during and after the mission. Please also pray for the journey and for something of the kingdom to come when we go to Bosnia. God bless. - Dave Fisher Dave Fisher Praising God for His faithfulness http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#19 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jason_piper.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jason Piper" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> We’re already a month into the New Year! As we approach the half-way point of the internship, we are in the process of looking back and praising God for His faithfulness throughout the past four-and-a-bit months and looking forward to what God is going to do in the following months. In the attitude of thanksgiving, we praise God for an awesome night on Sunday’s “Light for Life” guest service, which hosted what can only be described as a multitude! After the tireless efforts of those setting up was the revelation of a beautifully lit Riverside café! Amidst the goings on, it was a huge encouragement to see so many bringing friends along! This week, we have had two teaching sessions with Dr. Richard Briggs on Genesis, which have been both intriguing and fascinating. Covering aspects such as the names of God used, repetition and details of the Hebrew itself provided a host of questions, answers and more questions! In a similar vein, Theology 101 looked at Satan, demons and the powers in what was a challenging and interesting lesson. Again, on behalf of all of the interns, your support is genuinely priceless! Thank you! Please continue to pray for each of us as we engage with our placements in the community, our media project with Andrew Whiteley and our roles in church life as a whole. Please pray also for a speedy recovery for Becky, who is beginning to be more involved in placements as her condition allows. God bless, Jason - Jason Piper Jason Piper Innovative Title http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#18 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jeanna_shalkowski.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jeanna Shalkowski" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> So, fully back into the swing of things! Term is underway, as are our placements, and we are once again a Complete Intern Team as Ms Rolls is once again residing in Durham! Happy interns :):):):):)! We're really glad to have her back with us and would ask you to pray for the continued healing of her back as she eases back into Durham life. Ben, Naomi and Rachel gave their film presentations this week, and it was great to see how the work they had put into them really showed us how each of their films could be used to insightfully convey the contrasts between God's kingdom values and those of the world. Great work! We've had an influx of people joining Pastorate and Cell groups – praise God for their growth! It's such an encouragement to see people wanting to get involved and serve God together! The prayer evening on Wednesday night in St. Nic's in the Market Place was a huge encouragement. It was fantastic to see so many Christians uniting to pray for the North East and the work of Hope '08 and Just 10 throughout the year. The guest service 'Light for Life' is almost upon us, and it's great to hear that we're expecting lots of guests! Please pray that God would work really powerfully and that he would honour the efforts we've contributed. Evening services this term have been packed, almost to capacity with well over 100 people each meeting. Ruth's talk on 'Living in Purity' last Sunday was really challenging – for the link please contact <a href="mailto:office@kcd.org.uk">office@kcd.org.uk</a>. Thanks so much for your ongoing prayers and for keeping up to date with what we're doing through this 'feed. Please be praying for each of us as we approach the mid-point of the internship and for continued energy as we power on through the term in God's strength! - Jeanna Shalkowski Jeanna Shalkowski Roll on Saturday! OR Roll(s) on Monday! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#17 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/naomi_aves.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Naomi Aves" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Currently, I am sitting on the sofa trying to gather my thoughts for this week’s internlog, as well as enjoying the quiet rest while it lasts. Soooo much has been happening…I’d simply have to write an essay to fit it all in ;-) At SBS last Saturday, Mark taught us about what Paul says about singleness in 1 Corinthians. Melody Briggs then gave us a whirlwind tour through the history of the church and how all the various denominations came to be. Sunday was incredible. It was great to see so many faces with all the students back, as well as our residents who had been down in London for Chris and Hannah’s wedding the previous week! We’re all still guessing where they went for their honeymoon. Will you tell us now?! We had well over 100 people at the evening service, and it was great to see several new faces. It was totally packed, and truly amazing. With Becky away we’ve had to share some of her placements between us, but we have just received some fantastic news. Becky Rolls will hopefully be back in Durham by Monday! Unfortunately she is still in a lot of pain and is unable to move around too much, so please keep praying for a quick recovery. It will be great to have her with us again. We’ve missed you hun! Jase, Jeanna, and Dave gave their film presentations to the group on Thursday. They all spoke really well and said some really insightful things about the ethics and world views within their chosen film. Well done guys! All the Pastorates have met now, and all have gone swimmingly. Student cells are now back in the swing of things, and it’s great to see so many more students wanting to be involved. Lastly, Coffee mornings in Gilesgate are going really well. We united McNally with Cunningham this morning, as building work is going on in McNally. It was great to see so many people fight the wind to be there, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. God is blessing everything we do, and I’m so excited about this term. Next week we’ll be holding our Guest service, so please pray for that. God is good! - Naomi Aves Naomi Aves Never a 'normal' day http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#16 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/ben_ward.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Ben Ward" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> It's all go as students once again fill the streets of Durham. We've all felt the slight jolt of transition as term starts. Not only has student ministry kicked off with the first Sunday evening service and pastorates of term, but we've also had assignments, reading and preparation to do. We're praying that Becky will be able to join us soon as she's still recovering at home. It's quite odd being one member down. It seems that there is never a 'normal' day on the internship. On Tuesday we did a reflective painting together as a staff and intern team; today I was dressed as a pirate. There was a reason for this, of course: primary school assemblies have to have some element of fun in them after all! Today we started a media project with a technical wiz, which should help us to gain more insight into how film is made and manipulated, complimenting the teaching we are receiving on culture and communication. With so many things starting afresh, it's my prayer that God would use all these things over the coming term and that we would make the most of each new start. - Ben Ward Ben Ward Beginning http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#15 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/rachel_farish.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Rachel Farish" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> It was with anticipation that we (the interns) returned from our 2 week holiday (I know you missed not having an intern log for two weeks, but it’s ok we’re back now and ready for lots more adventures)! Having left 2007 being very busy caught up in all the fun activities that Christmas brings and on a bit of a high, we have all had an enjoyable 2 week holiday and are looking forward to what this term brings! Unfortunately Becky has not yet returned as she fractured her coccyx whilst skiing with her family. Please pray for a quick recovery. So we’ve been back ten days and we’ve been straight into teaching, finishing off Mark’s gospel, beginning John’s gospel, and looking at understanding and influencing society particularly through media. On Sunday it was great to get back to church with the residents and a few students. In the evening we visited Stockton Baptist Tabernacle church, it’s great to worship with other members of our family in the North East and we were warmly welcomed. Most of the placements began again this week so we are straight back into the swing of things and having lots of fun. We’re looking forward to the students return this weekend, beginning our evening series on the sermon on the mount and congratulating Chris and Hannah on their wedding day! Whoop! - Rachel Farish Rachel Farish Christmas is Nearly here! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#14 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/becky_rolls.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Becky Rolls" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> There has been much JOY in the camp of Kings as adventure has been our agenda! First half of the week was the end of all the placements until next year, that is! This has been a great opportunity to be able to 'take stock' and to reflect on the amazing things God has done over the last 4 months. Personally I've been struck by the amount of relationships that have been started and the fruit that has, and that will inevitably come from showing other people God's love. House party is a fine example of this! I'm happy to report that there was fellowship, fun, and Mafia galour-the Interns were generally all killed during this game! One the first night Mark Bonnington constructed the background information on the Lords Prayer for us. Then Karl Martin taught us about the different sections included in the Lords Prayer- Starting with calling 'God our Father' and ending with 'forgivness.' This was an awesome time with student, leaders and God coming together. Friday night- The Church Christmas party took place-there are too many great acts to mention in this years variety show-but much laughter was heard at the sight of an array of animals and children's characters playing-the song 'little donkey', mainly on recorder, with our very own Chris Juby conducting them. We are still amused. Everybody enjoyed themselves and got into the Christmas spirit. And to 'Wrap up with' Yes- Christmas present wrapping was a great joy to all who took part- Thank you so much for everybody who helped! This is where we say, from all the interns- THANK YOU for your support and your prayers over 2007. We really do appreciate it. We wish to give God all the Glory for everything that has happened this year-and we will be praying for the year to come. Peace, love and joy to you all this Christmas. - Becky Rolls Becky Rolls Christmas is coming! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#13 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/dave_fisher.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Dave Fisher" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This week Christmas was very much in evidence. On Monday night the Interact group has their Christmas party to round off the term in style. Some of our placements finished for Christmas this week, Becky and myself won’t be going to Crook until next year now, which feels a little strange because its only the first week of December. At the CU in Durham High School we had a Christmas party, which was a lot of fun and involved plenty of sweets and chocolate. On Friday we hosted a Christmas lunch for the residents of Gilesgate, which was well attended and lots of food was eaten. Credits to Jason because he organised the whole venture. To everyone who helped out, with cooking, lending us cutlery, plates, serving dishes etc, thank you! But most importantly, praise to God, without him it would not have happened. Looking forward, there is more Christmas stuff happening. Present wrapping in the Gates is this Saturday and next Saturday, where we are blessing the shoppers by wrapping their presents for free. The student house party is next week in Wensleydale, where there will be fellowship, teaching and Mafia. There is also the small matter of the carol service on Sunday. Prayer requests: Giving thanks to God, he has been so good to us and we still need him. There is a line in a song that goes “By the grace of God we will carry on” and its true, it’s only by God’s grace that we can keep going, so we need lots of grace. Please pray for the carol service, there are a lot of things happening for it so please pray that God would bless it. [Ed - it went well!] - Dave Fisher Dave Fisher Lots to report on http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#12 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/naomi_aves.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Naomi Aves" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Lots to report on this week. Sunday evening was packed out as guests and students filled every chair in the room to listen to Ruth teach us about 'spiritual gifts'. It was great to look at what the bible says about them, and to have a comprehensive list of all the gifts God gives us in order to bless others. God is so gracious! Monday morning a few of us went into the market place to film clips for our carol service reading. It was fantastic to see the locals enthusiastically getting involved and shouting out 'glory to God in the highest!' in the middle of the market square. Through it we were able to have some great conversations and invite people along to church. Hallelujah! We looked at what 'community' means in out team meeting this week. It was a good opportunity to test out our artistic abilities (or lack of!) and discuss what it means to be a part of God's family (the church as Jesus' body) and how we can love one another. Furthermore, the month of December is a time when we can really put 'community' into practice. There is so much going on, and we're busy preparing for lots of christmas parties, meals, and outreach events, so please pray for energy. It's really exciting! Coffee mornings in Gilesgate, with the older residents of the community, are going really well. Numbers are still growing, and we were able to invite many more along to our carol service. It's great to see so many coming along and share fellowship with one another. Our individual placements are going well, but next week will be the last session for most of us as we get ready for the student houseparty and for the christmas holidays. Please pray for opportunities to continue building good relationships, for energy and organisation, and thank God for all that he has done so far. Praise be to God! Amen! - Naomi Aves Naomi Aves Stories of God's goodness http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#11 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/ben_ward.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Ben Ward" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> <blockquote> 'O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; His steadfast love endures forever!' </blockquote> The past week has been marked by hilarity and stories of God's goodness. Our usual placements, from Christian Unions in schools to Aquila Way in Gateshead, have been encouraging. Student ministry is gaining momentum, with lots getting involved in student cells and <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/students/pastorates/'>pastorates</a>, where they have the opportunity to form community and develop giftings. Interact made us ponder just how glitter gets everywhere as we made Christmas cards and advent fun: glue-tastic! I've started a placement in Gilesgate Primary School helping with school assemblies: a truly delightful experience. It was really encouraging to see new faces and lots of international students at Sunday's <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/sundays/evenings/'>evening service</a> (Connecting with God when it costs). Mark spoke on the familiar story of Daniel in the lions' den (Daniel 6) and challenged us to cultivate our fear of and relationship with God, develop our character and devotional life. God has been working in people's lives during these times and it was encouraging that the prayer ministry team was able to pray with lots of people at the end of the service. Friday's coffee mornings in Gilesgate were brilliant: a great opportunity to build relationships with the older generation. One of the two had so many people show up that they ran out of cups! I'm sure that we'd all really appreciate your prayer for a Christmas dinner that we're organising for these people. Our theology study this week has been very stimulating. From Satan, Angels and Demons in Scripture with Roger Forster as part of the <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/bibleschool/'>Saturday</a><a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/bibleschool/'> Bible School</a> to a mind-bending session on interpreting scripture (looking at the rather difficult parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16); from the theology of healing and its pastoral implications to how the atonement works (<a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/theology101/'>Theology 101</a>). All this sounds pretty heavy, but it's been most enjoyable and seasoned with laughter. Dave's birthday brought with it a brilliant 'birthday balloon bombardment' and bowling (alliteration central!) - fun times! Prayer points: <ul> <li>Praise God for his goodness.</li> <li>Christmas preparations &ndash; a guest carol service, student '<a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/students/houseparty/'>houseparty</a>' or retreat, Christmas meal and a church Christmas party all have to be organised on top of the regular stuff. Please pray that God would sustain us through this busy period.</li> <li>That we'd make the most of the last three weeks of term and use challenges as opportunities to learn.</li> </ul> - Ben Ward Ben Ward News and excitement http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#10 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jeanna_shalkowski.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jeanna Shalkowski" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello and welcome to the bonus edition of Internlog! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, today you get not just one, but two weeks' worth of news and excitement! The Kings Bonfire Party was a huge, (one might say 'roaring') success, and a fun time was had, with music, refreshments, marshmallow-roasting and most of all, a warm, crackling bonfire at the Bonningtons' house. It was great to see so many people there! We are all settling into our placements, with some of us now beginning to establish ourselves volunteering with Aquila Way in Gateshead. The prayer evening at Waddington Street was a great time to feed back some of the things God has been doing in the areas we'd been praying for last month, and to focus on the work that is going on with international students. We also prayed for peoples' mission fields in their places of work and that God might give opportunities for them to witness to colleagues and the people they come into contact with. Last Friday we went out and did some outreach in the city centre and around the Market Square. We took questionnaires and engaged people in conversations about spiritual beliefs, God and church. We had some amazing conversations with people and are praying that those we've talked to would be challenged about how they view God and Christianity, as we are challenged about the way we come across to others and the ways we represent God to them. Last weekend's 'Saturday Project' involved painting the inside of the house of one of the older members of the Kings congregation up in Gilesgate. We're really excited about the ways that we can be reaching out to people and sharing the gospel through serving them in the community. This week was a 'reading week' which meant that everyone had a week off from the Internship teaching programme. It's about half-way through for us on the Internship so it was great to get a bit more time to chill out, lie in and be more flexible when meeting up with people. We took a (10 mile) walk out to Finkle Priory on Thursday, which was really lovely and beautiful (pictures on Facebook and hopefully *here* later). It was brilliant to be able to simply chill out and spend some social time together. We've been missing that since our induction weeks! Unfortunately we *slightly* misjudged how much time it would take to get back and were rather appallingly late returning for Theology 101. Thanks to everyone who had to put up with that - your patience and graciousness with us when we were so exhausted was much appreciated! Sunday's *TASTE AND SEE* Guest Service in the evening was a great success! We had about 25-30 new people turn up and the Riverside Cafe was packed out! I think that we'd all like to say a massive thank you to everyone who was part of that, for all your help, energy, encouragement and effort on the night, with the planning and with the pack-down! It was really great to see so many people there to hear Caz speak on John 21 and Jesus appearing to seven disciples and sharing breakfast with them. The whole evening looked and sounded amazing, and we got some really positive feedback and some people who wanted to discuss Christianity and the talk. Praise God, he's so good!! Please be praying for: <ul> <li>Our placements - that we would be able to work well alongside others on the teams and get to know the people we're working with</li> <li>Our energy levels as we hit the middle of term The response we've had to the guest service - that people would be challenged and that God would open their hearts!</li> </ul> Thanks for reading, and tune in next week! Jeanna :) - Jeanna Shalkowski Jeanna Shalkowski An epic week http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#9 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jason_piper.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jason Piper" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This has been an epic week. Fact. God has been doing some incredible things over the past few days and this week has been yet another fascinating chronicle in our year long saga! The week began with the baptisms of previous intern Gareth Owen and resident Simon McConway, a real encouragement to the whole church! Sunday evening saw Seymour Jacklin speak on “Connecting with God when we’ve blown it”, a challenging talk on Psalm 51 which affirms God’s heart for our salvation being the receipt of a new heart from Him and His desire to restore our relationship with Him. Each intern has a story to tell, week by week. Here is a section of the patchwork of our tale through the week: Monday involved preparation and placements in schools within Durham. Tuesday and Wednesday bore the action of the community placements at Crook which were enjoyed by all (as far as I’m aware!) Furthermore the briefing for Aquila at their Gateshead office was hugely informative, insightful and encouraging. The Light Party at the Light’s House was a runaway success with many kids coming along and getting involved in the games, food, carving of pumpkins and learning about the Light of the World. Respect. After teaching on Thursday morning, there was a wealth of activities for us to undertake, including clearing up of the garden for tonight’s bonfire (if you can, come along!) and collecting wood for the same! Manly. Theology 101 this week provided a first fascinating look at the doctrine of the Trinity, which has left everyone who was present with much to ponder! Last, but by no means least came this morning’s teas and coffee’s at the station and Gilesgate coffee mornings which were both a roaring success with gorgeous weather accompanied by healthy subscription to all! Each of us interns are feeling stretched this week with our commitments and responsibilities, but remain encouraged by God’s faithfulness in all circumstances, to carry us when we need it and to hold us always. Please pray for strength and rejuvenation over this coming week, which brings the excitement of our placements and a guest service! God bless, and peace always, Jason. - Jason Piper Jason Piper A couple of new things! http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#8 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/rachel_farish.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Rachel Farish" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> So this week began with the first ever Saturday morning bible school in the United Reformed Church, and it was exactly what it said it would be, a bible school on Saturday morning! Teaching from both Mark Bonnington and Richard Briggs means that all those who attended are now fluent in both Hebrew and Greek! –well almost?! :) We also looked at 1 Corinthians and the cross as human foolishness and divine power. Great stuff! So Saturday was followed by Sunday, because every Saturday usually is! No student lunches this week, but still plenty of students to chat to. It’s great to see familiar faces now and to be building those relationships! The evening service was the first of two services with a particular emphasis on a deeper understanding of God’s word and its application to our relationship with Him. It was great to see the room so full, with a mixture of students and residents and to begin to grasp an understanding of God’s ultimate purpose, which was a real high point for most of us interns.</op> With it being half term this week, there were no CU’s, but none the less it has continued to be a fun and packed week. Interact happened as normal on Monday evening. We met at Ustinov bar, and had great fun just chatting as a group, and drawing maps of the UK on serviettes, to illustrate where the best places to visit in the UK are. Very accurate of course! :) Crook this week has been detached youth work, which has been good for building and strengthening relationships with the young people and I’m sure they are all looking forward to their parties next week. Aquilla is beginning to come together as we sort out our individual placements, which is exciting. And of course pastorates and cells continued to meet. Like Dave said last week “Its inspiring how many people want to come together in the name of Christ to praise and grow closer to God”. Finally, in our teaching this week we looked at how to begin reading the gospels for what they are and why there are some similarities and differences between Matthew, Mark and Luke. We also looked at the gifts that God has graciously given to us, having filled in a spectacularly long questionnaire! It’s great to see how God has uniquely given us all our individual gifts and how we can begin to utilise those as a team. In summary, I think God has been stretching all of us this week. Pray for continued strength and energy. The relationships that are being formed. And praise God for the faithfulness, goodness and love that he continues to pour out. - Rachel Farish Rachel Farish Getting stuck in http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#7 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/dave_fisher.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Dave Fisher" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> This week was more of a normal week for the interns, whatever normal might mean, with more placements starting and things becoming more regular. Sunday saw the second and final student lunch after church, and it was great to see so many students to help us eat all the potatoes. :) During both the morning and evening services God was busy sending many people to encourage and build up His church with pictures, words and testimonies, drawing us closer to Him. All the youth groups in Crook have been planning for their Halloween parties after half term, the older group created a fantastic collage of a night scene on Wednesday. Both the Tuesday and Wednesday youth groups have been a success in the first half term of the year. God has also been answering our prayers in Crook, He has spread a peace over the hall we use and has started to mend relations with other people in the area. Over the past couple of weeks student pastorates and cells have been starting, both the Claypath and Hill pastorates met for the first time this week, and cells started in the Viaduct. Its inspiring how many people want to come together in the name of Christ to praise and grow closer to God. Teaching this week was slightly different to usual, we looked at prophecy on Wednesday in Applied Theology with Ruth. We looked at how the people Israel communicated with God in the Temple, where a 30 foot curtain protected them from the glory of God in the Holy of Holies. Only once a year could the High Priest enter the presence of God to present a sacrifice, and even then he could be struck down if Israel has not repented her sins. Now through the blood of Jesus, the way has been opened for everyone, the curtain ripped from top to bottom and we can each encounter God and hear from him. Praise Him! Theology 101, formerly know and Soup and Theology, started on this week, the 7 interns and 13 other people enjoyed pumpkin and pepper, and broccoli and stilton soup before starting this term’s series, Encountering the God Who Really Is, with a look at the authority of scripture. Its great to see God moving, really moving, this week, in the teaching, in outreach and in the life of the church and its an awesome privilege to be part of what our God is doing in Durham! I just have space for some prayer requests: <ul> <li>Energy to keep going</li> <li>Healing for the colds and coughs going around the church staff</li> <li>For new students, as now is the time when it can all become overwhelming.</li> <li>And just thanksgiving to our always faithful God!</li> </ul> - Dave Fisher Dave Fisher Week four on the Intern adventure http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#6 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/becky_rolls.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Becky Rolls" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> As you have perhaps previously read, the internship has been full of adventure, and this week was no different. The first week of our timetables allowed us to gain insight into all of the contexts we will be working in. This was tiring but worth it! Our week... To begin with we were able to meet new freshers at church on Sunday and converse over jacket potatoes and beans. It was a brilliant sight to see them arrive on Sunday which boosted our congregation from 120 to 350 members. It was a pleasure to meet everyone as well as an encouragement to see so many students wanting to meet with God. Take two -the Sunday evening service was a time for students (mainly) to respond to God and meet him in a personal and vulnerable way which was inspired by Ruth's teaching on the invitation to partake in Gods plan. What an amazing chance we have and how gracious is our God to even ask. The placements -have been all over the place this week! Some of us are working with Aquila Way and we were able to visit the houses we can choice to volunteer to work in. Others were continuing to run the Christian Union meetings - at one school the children were asked 'Who is God?' Rachel was amazed by the deep insight the children had into who God actually is -the trinity was even mentioned. Some of us helped with the youth work in Crook-this week they were taking the initiative to plan a Halloween party-Pumpkins and bats were made! However this week was a challenge with the older group due to their relationship with the older generation in this area- Please Pray for reconciliation within this town... it's desperately needed! <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/interact/'>Interact</a> - Calling all International Students! - This was a chance for international students to socially mix with UK students. Monday night was the first one: loaded with tea, cakes and our custom-made Interact t-shirts… Interact began! We, meaning 30 of us or more, played games from different countries which allowed friendships to begin as well as laughter! Prayer Please- Pray for God to bless these friendships , contacts and meetings where we have opportunity to talk about Jesus and our faith to people who have never heard. Pray for our hearts and minds to be active in these conversations in order to engage effectively with everyone we meet. Also that we would have a God-given compassion for the work ahead, but mostly for the people involved. We all need to continue to commit these plans to the Lord and to find his heart and purpose amongst these contexts. Thank you so much for your prayers... it means a lot to know that we are being supported. Amen. Blessings Becky and the team - Becky Rolls Becky Rolls You won’t find a Fresher Kings Intern http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#5 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jeanna_shalkowski.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jeanna Shalkowski" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Normality has begun! Well, not quite, though having been given our individual timetables we are starting to feel like we’re getting familiar with a bit of a weekly routine. FRESHERS HAVE ARRIVED! Freshers and returning students alike have descended upon Durham after 3 weeks of nervous anticipation (on both parts!), so we’ve been busy getting to know them, welcoming them (back) into the Kings community and beginning our student ministry. It’s been great fun! This began with Student Leader Training on Friday and Saturday, and it was great to meet other <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/students/pastorates/'>Pastorate</a> team leaders, Cell group leaders and the <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/interact/'>Interact</a> (international student ministry) team and start planning for the term. Sunday was our first week of full morning and evening service setup and takedown, and we’re still learning the ropes, but it’s good to see how everything happens ‘behind the scenes’! The Kings <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/prayer/'>Prayer Evening</a> was a good way for us to come together and listen to God, and focus on how the shape of the term looks from the perspective of the whole church, and to connect and pray with other members of the church family. Tuesday and Wednesday involved some time down at the Freshers’ Fair alongside student societies, giving information to students, talking to those looking for a church in the area and signing them up for our email list. We had some great responses, and also talked with and gave information to many non-students advertising businesses, and are praying that some of them take up the invitation to join us on Sundays! The Interact team had some stalls at the International Freshers’ Fair and had 70 students sign up for Interact and 20 for the Ustinov Bible Study!!! Praise God for their enthusiasm, and for his continued faithfulness in raising up more people who want to be involved in international student work. We began Biblical Studies and looking at Christian leadership dynamics in teaching this week, which has been challenging us to look at how we read the Bible and opening our eyes about how we interact with each other as leaders and in leadership positions! Youth work in Crook has really taken off and there has been very enthusiastic, consistent attendance and we’re enjoying starting to get to know the kids. Induction for those working with Aquila Way in Gateshead was very interesting and informative, and we can’t wait to start on the projects! The Christian Union meetings some of us have helped lead in the local schools have been really encouraging and it’s great to start building relationships with the young people there. Early morning <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/community/'>outreach</a> kicked off BRIGHT and early this morning with a great response to free tea and coffee at the station (water apparently ran out at 8.15am) and the residents in Gilesgate were very receptive at the coffee morning up at the community centre. We had 8 residents this morning and are praying that those who were unable to attend will come along next time. We’ve certainly been learning to lean on God to help us with all the new stuff we’ve been doing and in adjusting to our new activities. Thank you for your prayers and continued support. Prayers for continued strength and enthusiasm as we settle into a more definite routine for the term and continue to build relationships with students would be most appreciated. <blockquote> …I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. O my Strength, I sing praise to you; You, O God, are my fortress, my loving God. <cite>Psalm 59v16-17</cite> </blockquote> - Jeanna Shalkowski Jeanna Shalkowski Things begin to fit together http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#4 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/naomi_aves.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Naomi Aves" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hello there! To balance last week's essay (necessary as so much happened in Chislehurst!) I'll try to keep this short and sweet. We've had some fantastic news from Martin, the leader of Ichthus Chislehurst, saying that they had six visitors last Sunday and they are also beginning to form an evangelism team. Praise God! All the interns had Monday as their day of rest (which some managed better than others). Even though the weather has turned, I was totally in awe of God's promise to us as I looked out my window and caught sight of a beautiful double rainbow. On Tuesday we all received our personal timetables. Bring it on! We're all really excited about things now, not that we weren't before, but now we can see how things fit together and have some direction. Personally, I'm thrilled with the opportunities to use and develop the skills and theory that I have gained from my degree, and be able to bless others through the gifts that God has given me. We were all really challenged yesterday when Ruth took us through the chronological overview of the Bible. Not only did it test our knowledge but it also put things into perspective really well. God is such a holy, just and faithful God. - Naomi Aves Naomi Aves Chislehurst 2: Beautiful Feet http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#3 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/ben_ward.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Ben Ward" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> <blockquote> How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.' <cite>Isaiah 52:7</cite> </blockquote> Hello there! We've all returned from our time in the leafy Kentish suburb of Chislehurst safely, praise God. Thank you for your prayers whilst we were away. The past week consisted of reaching out to the residents of Chislehurst with the love of God in a variety of ways: free BBQs, offering prayer for people on the street (giving them a cuppa too); walking the streets to meet residents and pray for the area; and giving out free bottles of water to commuters at the train station. I found that it takes a certain knack to catch the eye of a besuited gentleman as he hurtles towards you in the dash for his train to the City. It takes an even greater skill to hand over a bottle at no charge, let alone engage him in conversation: many could not understand why we were giving away things for free! Far too much happened during the week to detail it all here, so I'm going to offer three short stories of how God proved faithful, guided us and worked in unexpected ways. God has done some amazing stuff through and in us as a group over the last week. Before we left, we met to pray and wait on God for his guidance. He graciously gave us quite a few words of scripture, images and names. Stephen Light and Martin (the pastor of the church we were working with) left quite a lot of space in our timetable to allow us to pray and adapt our plans as we felt God guide. Before we left Durham, we had an image of one of us having to give our shoes away. Being keen interns, we all packed an extra set just in case. Little did we expect that God had something other than obedience to teach us. Whilst out delivering fliers for a free BBQ on the Edgebury estate and talking to people, Anna stepped on a shard of glass. Much pain and hopping ensued until we managed to get her sat down on a bollard so that we could go in search of a first aid kit. Two lovely women answered the door of the first house we knocked at. They instructed us to bring Anna over to the house so that they could help. We were invited in to their living room, but didn't want to get blood over the carpet, so Anna sat on the bottom stair. Quick as a flash, they returned with antiseptic, warm water, plasters, a towel and all manner of useful implements. They started to wash Anna's feet, although I made sure that they were not burdened with having to dry them as well as we were there to serve their community. Once Anna was patched up, the women offered her a brand new pair of shoes and socks. Of course, Anna politely refused and it wasn't until we had said our thank yous and left that we realised that a situation akin to when Jesus washed his disciples' feet [John 13.1-11] had arisen unexpectedly. We had been set on serving whilst in Chislehurst, yet God was reminding us that we also need to be humble enough to be served if the Body is to work. We met up with the rest of the team outside, discovered that there was still glass lodged in Anna's sandals, and Rachel gave her trainers to cover Anna's feet. It was at this point that it dawned on us that we had been offered shoes, but had refused to be served; but God had provided anyway. During an evening prayer walk (Ronseal™: praying for an area whilst walking round it) one of the groups got a bit peckish and so headed into the fish shop. They got talking to the assistant whilst waiting for their chips and asked if they could pray for her. She was pretty open to this and told them the things she would appreciate their prayer for. Notes of the names etc. were taken along with the chips, and the shop emptied. Driving back to 'base', Stephen realised that he'd only gone and left his Bible in the shop. So, as they drove back to pick this up the car-full started to pray for this woman's requests. Anna felt God prompting her to pray for the woman in the shop. Scary stuff, as Anna had never really done anything like that before. They arrived, Stephen & Anna popped in and were greeted by the same woman as before, waving Stephen's Bible in the air. She placed it on the counter, saying, 'Pray for me.' There was a bit of a queue, so Stephen & Anna said that they would, thanked her for the Bible and left the shop having failed to complete their task. They were greeted with a withering look from Rachel! So, Stephen & Anna headed back in to the shop, waited for the queue to dissipate then Anna prayed for the woman. God graciously gave them a second chance to obey him. They prayed with her right there and then. Just one of the other quite amazing things that happened occurred on Friday – the last night of our time in Chislehurst. We had set up a free BBQ on the high street, giving away burgers and hot dogs to people on the street, mainly people out for a night on the town. We got into a lot of good conversations, explaining to slightly tipsy people why the church was doing this. Lots of them were stunned that church could look like this. We were able to pray with each of the police officers out on the beat that night. People were very open with us whilst offering tea, coffee & prayer out on the high street. So much so that we had almost 200 requests for prayer! Please continue to pray for us to be sensitive to God's Spirit & Word as he guides us over the coming week of training in student ministry and over the year. - Ben Ward Ben Ward Chislehurst 1: Christ Taking Us, Taking Christ With Us http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#2 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/jason_piper.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Jason Piper" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Early on Saturday morning, the interns and Stephen Light set off for a week of mission working with Ichthus in Chislehurst. This is their story: Hey everyone, this log has been written in a variety of places over the course of the weekend, and we're currently at Martin and Rachel's (our hosts for the mission this week) for a session on listening prayer! On Saturday we set off in two cars and headed south. After a stop at a petrol station to stock up on provisions and to re-commit the trip and mission to God, we set off. Coming from the south, I can appreciate the epic scale of the journey we undertook. Respect to Stephen and Rachel for their invaluable effort in driving all that way (and more!) Activities on the road (either side of the lunchtime pit-stop) included: Listening to funk, listening to Greg Boyd sermons (twice), talking to people in traffic, prayer, worship (NOTE: Attempting to sing a 4-part harmony on the motorway may inhibit your ability to perceive the location of junction 3 on the M25. You have been warned! Ha ha!) Upon our (eventual) arrival in Chislehurst, we were warmly welcomed into the community of the church with both love and food! Even then the 5 interns present all felt that a part of ourselves was missing without Ben and Jeanna. [Ben and Jeanna will be joining the rest of the team shortly! - Ed.] Romans 12:5 is still ringing in our ears no less! Later in the evening, we headed to the homes of our houseparents in pairs, following an inspirational time of prayer full of words, pictures and most importantly, the Holy Spirit. We've all been hugely encouraged by the number of people that have been praying for us, and we all want to thank those of you who are and urge to to continue to do so! Furthermore, the prospect of hearing from God in advance of and throughout the course of this mission excites us greatly! On Sunday morning, we were greeted both by a glorious sunrise and a vibrant congregation at the Chislehurst Icthus Fellowship. Stepping out of our usual comfort zones, Becky and I were involved in worship, (we both sang). Stephen preached with his ever-present tenacity on the importance of going out to people in mission in the power of the Spirit. Present in the congregation at the time was a young man from Chile named Gonzalo. He gave a testimony on how God has used him both in his country of birth and here in the UK. In the short time he has spent with us, he has been a huge encouragement to our faith - it is so obvious that Jesus is his life and we're all excited at the prospect of him joining us this week! All of the interns would concur that to sum this guy up in two words would leave us no option but to use, "absolute legend!" Lunch at Martin and Rachel's followed promptly and was a real experience of fellowship within the body of Christ. Dave put it this way: "Fun was had by all." Enough said really! Finally, on Sunday night, the whole posse headed on up to South Street Baptist Church in Greenwich for the Ichthus celebration service. The gathering encompassed people from a variety of churches, again highlighting the scope of Christ's body and the coming of the kingdom. Many of the interns got stuck into stewarding for the event - chatting to people and welcoming them in. The service itself featured vibrant worship and challenging teaching from Roger Forster on James 3 which left all present significantly quieter than when we arrived! Anyway, I'd best be off - we're giving out water at Chislehurst station from 7:30 tomorrow morning! God bless and keep you all! - Jason Piper Jason Piper New Internship Year, New Internlog http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/log/#1 <img src="http://www.kcd.org.uk/images/content/people/100/rachel_farish.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Rachel Farish" style="float:left;margin:0 10px 3px 0;" /> Hi, welcome to this years brand spanking new internlog, (!) which will hopefully be full of the interesting things that we get up to this year as <a href='http://www.kcd.org.uk/internship/'>Kings Interns</a>. It was with curiosity, excitement, anticipation and probably a few nerves that we started this week - our first official week of being interns! Whoop Whoop!!! This week we have spent time getting to know each other, staff members and ourselves a bit better. And for Becky (whose first time it is in Durham) it has been a week of being introduced to all the weird and wonderful things in the city of Durham. So it has been an interesting, eye opening and fun week! Our teaching has included a brief overview of: church history in Durham, discipling and discipleship, and church community work. We finished the week by preparing with Stephen Light for Chislehurst, a week of mission in London, beginning tomorrow (Saturday 15th). We are all enthusiastic, if a little scared maybe, about what God is going to do there and the people that we are going to meet. So I'll leave it there for now, awaiting next weeks log which will be full of the things God has done In Chistlehurst! - Rachel Farish Rachel Farish