Journey to the Cross

To all those who have contact with the college at some stage during the week, let this be a reminder, please sign up to our 24/7 prayer 'journey to the cross'!

I've been part of several 24/7 prayer marathons and truthfully, I've never regretted organising them or going along, I've always met with God in a powerful way. I'm not really sure why that is, but I know I can expect God's Spirit to draw near to me as I commit myself to a specific time of prayer and fasting.

Have a go... see if God won't bless the socks off you and challenge you to go further than you've ever been before!!!

------------ UPDATE ------------

God is great! Cadets, staff and visitors visited 707 and met with the Lord. Most left their 'mark' in the room with prayers on the 'wall', in our prayer journal, sticky notes, prophetic 'posts', signing the guestbook and most importantly leaving their mark on the spiritual battlefield! Group prayer was a really special time for those who came along, God spoke to us in the prophetic and hope was renewed!

This 24/7 was an awesome opportunity to reflect on the journey of Christ as he travelled to and went through the ordeal of being crucified for our sins. Personally, I've been brought to my knees in appreciation for what the Lord did for me (and you)... Jesus is Lord! Keep the prayer flowing... Praise God.

Picnic Church?

I went to an awesome outreach event today... Waverley Corps is where I'm doing a Mission & Ministry placement as part of my officer training (pretty big corps with lots of seperate congregations.. Trad, cont, blended, youth)... They've recently experienced some awesome growth in their Playgroup program, so organised for a picnic for these families (to build on these relationships). Not only did they invite the playgoup families, but also the Brass band & timbrels and older kids ministries... the whole Corps was asked to come along and mix in!

At the picnic (12:30-2:30pm @ a local park) there were balloons, face-painting, parachute games for the littles, ball games for the older kids, puppets and showbags... everyone at the corps pitched in to make this a really positive experience for the Playgroup families. One thing that really impressed me, is how the Brass band learned some new songs to connect with these families (I don't know how many Brass bands you've heard playing music from 'The Wiggles'!!).

On the way home reflecting on the success of the event, I began to wonder... 'What if this was church?'. In a strange way, this was a modern version of an 'open-air' service! If we were to ditch church services on Sundays and go out into the local parks for a family-focussed 'picnic church', would we better reach the lost in our community? Seriously, if we think about Sunday-morning church, we have to admit that it has become a tradition for the people to come to us... and in today's world we have to realise that people aren't just 'rocking up' to a church to see what goes on... they think they know what its like (TV has a lot to answer for!)... and they don't want it. Could we plant a 'picnic church' through the Salvation Army?
...expanding to also hold mid-week discipleship & worship?
...possibly home-church based?

hmmm... interesting... I know this may be taking it a bit too far for those of us who are used to our Sunday-mornings sitting in a pew!

If we can just have a look at Jesus' ministry...

"Now when he [Jesus] saw the crowds, he when up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them..." Matthew 5:1-2, Sermon on the Mount)

"Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties." (Mark 6:39-40, Feeding the 5000).

What a thought!!!!

Frustration is my Friend

Ever had a moment when you've heard someone talking about something that you've been through, but they're not telling it with the passion you feel about it?
That's my life.

I really should stop reading Blogs from other Salvo people, I invariably get fired up by the prophetic voices rising up all over the world, reminding us to chase after Holiness and save souls... Then I read comments under these passionate posts and get all dis-heartened by people who just don't seem to get it. Why???

It seems obvious to me that the Salvation Army has been called to a specific task and that we are an Army for a reason. We are not about pussy-footing around and people don't expect that of us. We radically challenge the status quo, we fight against injustice, against poverty, against oppression, against the evils that see people condemned to a life of hopelessness.... we preach the gospel whether the 'time is favourable or not', we get out into the community to make Jesus a recognisable face in our neighbourhood, we challenge the lost to give up a life of sin and despair to chase after radical holiness, we meet needs in the name of Christ, we work at actively seeing lives transformed by the power of the Cross!
...or do we?

I'd love to say yes.... but I believe there is more for us to experience in the work of reaching this world!
I'm completely unable to say no..... many saints are fighting to the end to see the lost won for Jesus! They're making headway in the Spiritual War... when will 'back-up' arrive? Will reinforcement troops join the fight alongside them? (are you one of them?)

I struggle with these feelings, you see as gung-ho as I am about getting a Spiritual Revolution underway, I can find complacency creeping in. Being a cadet is great, opportunities are around for ministry... but this is not the place God has called me to. I am not called to be a theological student, part-time cleaner, odd-jobs minister..... (although some may be).... I am called to be a no-holds-barred, passionate revolutionary, fighting to see the world won for Jesus.... to see his unending compassion raining down on the oppressed and down-trodden... to shine a light in this dark world... for my heart to break for God's children and each day to humbly walk the path of Jesus.... Full-time ministry won't come for me until after college, but there must be something I can do now... then again... We're stretched in so many different directions, could I handle 'one more' outreach project? (Lord, please make it 'yes'!)

Before I came into college, I was given a vision of a high white tower with eagles nesting in the rafters, babies being nurtured and pushed over the edge to learn how to fly. I saw also, a pegasus, able to walk within hours of birth, but for the pegasus, learning to fly meant running along the ground, stretching its' wings.... Both eventually fly... one in the seclusion of a tower, the other with feet steadily pounding the earth.

My heart longs for the earth, to feeling the dust rising behind me... to mix with the horses, the wild brumbies, and to teach them, that they too can fly.

The frustration for me is constant... want to be in the world - have to be apart... ergh!
The tension of this struggle is such that I am determined to hold onto the fire placed in me by the Holy Spirit, to tightly embrace the burden he has for me to promote a revolution, to learn and grow by the teaching of the Spirit, to feel the passion threaten to burst out of me! (Praise the Lord for Blogging, without it I would burst!). This struggle enables a refining of passion and calling, to be in the world serving in the name of Jesus. It hurts, but it's good. Frustration is my friend.

YOU CAN'T GET 'WHITE-HOT' WITHOUT BEING IN THE FIRE...

SalvoJo - the Story & the Call...

Someone once told me that if you had been part of the YES team (mission), the Youth Internship program or had studied in the training college, you were destined to be an officer. If this is true, it seems there was no choice in the matter - I have attempted all three! (help Lord!).
Let me tell you a story about the journey....
(adapted from my testimony as published in 'College Friends')

Over the past five years I've got myself 'involved' in:

• the Salvo Youth Internship program,
• studying both at The Salvation Army Training College and @ Whitley (Baptist Theological College)
• travelling with the YES team's one-month Sri Lanka mission (2004)

These experiences (and other edge-of-your-seat ministry adventures), have grown in me a passion for Jesus and ministry in his name. Mind you, I haven't always had this passion!

My early years of faith were spent at Preston Salvos, the family (Marshes) then moved to Werribee Salvos, where my love for God grew. In 1999, my faith took a hit when I met now-husband Peter Brookshaw, who was a non-Christian. His interest in my faith led me to begin questioning how much I actually wanted to live my life for God. Praise the Lord! Pete was awesomely saved and we began our journey of ministry... (who said 'flirt&convert' was a bad thing... whoops!)

Together Pete and I have discovered the awesome power of the Holy Spirit (still constantly blown away by the way the Spirit works!) and committed to serving God whatever the cost. Married in 2004, we recently gave up the best jobs in the world (at Werribee Corps as Youth & Children’s Ministers) to follow God. Let me explain...

Last October (2006), I was involved in an event where I acted the part of 'Mrs' Commissioner Nellie Coombs. In the lead-up to this, I prayed and read the word to prepare for God to use me in this role. I read Isaiah 58 the night before the performance and spent half that night crying out to God for the future of our Army (read it and you'll get what I'm talking about!). Playing a commissioner was strangely comfortable, although the costume definitely wasn't! Within a week, I had my 25th birthday and felt a sense in my heart that God's plan for my life was so huge that I hadn't got past dreaming about it! I was 'spending' my life (Isaiah 58:9-12) on waiting for my big future and distinctly felt the Spirit say to me "What are you waiting for?". I knew there was no way I could hold that call off... so I talked to Pete about it, he confirmed it for his own life and we immediately got into the journey(Four months later, I'm here in college!!!).

The heart of the early Salvos influences me in a powerful way... their fiery passion is what I hope to emulate in an explosive ministry to the lost! My heroes of the faith are Catherine Booth, Reinhard Bonnke and my all-time number one– Jesus! I have a strong sense that God is leading this next generation to be part of a spiritual revolution in Australia and the world (see my blog about it). God has been faithful, the journey ahead is both exciting and scary. There are things I can see God has for us to do in future that I don’t think I can cope with…. But God in his faithfulness equips us for every task he calls us for....

...to life as an officer I say, ‘bring it on!’.