(un)answered prayer?

Been a while. Not been ultra busy, but have had half term and have had a bit of a blip in the health thing...nothing too horrendous but enough to be spaced out on the meds again....ho hum.
Just finished a very interesting book, 'Healing and Deliverance' by John Woolmer.
I always approach any books about healing with slight trepidation as there is such a range of views, and I am, as a sufferer of a chronic lung condition, quite tired of premises such as no healing=no faith, or unconfessed sin, etc etc. This book provides a balanced and compassionate exploration of some of the issues around healing, and doesn't skirt round some of the nasty realities in this life, i.e that people, yes even Christians! - do get ill, do have accidents, do die. Not everyone is healed, and not everyone isn't. Is God not answering our prayers when we ask for healing and we are not healed? Woolmer seems to argue that yes, he is, simply not in the way that we would perhaps want him to. He talks a lot about healing being not simply about relieving physical symptoms, but about a whole life change - a more holistic view. He refers to many cases of medicine and complementary medicine working together with prayer for a person being part of a process of healing, though not necessarily ending in a full healing as such. In the end, as Christians we believe that death is not the end, and therefore we are only fully healed when we do die. Not an easy book to read, but it is fully of stories of amazing healings (eg see Jennifer Rees Larcombe). It documents healing through the Old and New Testaments, then through from the early church til today. It's very interesting reading and while not providing any easy answers it does have a lot to think about, and makes me feel that I am not healed not because God doesn't love me, but on the contrary because he does.....I will never understand this! I will (try to) never come to a bitter acceptance, more of a hope.....God can heal me, and God wants me to be whole, as he does everyone, and I will keep praying. Meanwhile, I am doing pretty well healthwise, having had the best winter in years, and thank God for this.

'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am also known' (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Powerleague Promotion

Our first Powerleague season has finished, and we have been promoted. Or at least, as of Monday we are in Division 9 rather than Division 10, though that has more to do with teams dropping out of higher leagues. There is now no Division 10!

Anyway, here are our results:

P, W, L, D,GF, GA, PTS
14, 7, 5, 2, 101, 71, 23

Although, it does have to be admitted that we did have 6 10-0 walk overs awarded to us by other teams being missing from the league, or not showing up, so for actual games played it looks more like this:

P, W, L, D, GF, GA, PTS
8 , 1, 5, 2, 41, 71, 5

:-)

Anyway, we did improve a lot through the season, and were unbeaten for 3 of our 4 last games. Lots of great hopes for Division 9, starting on Monday night.

TimC

Microfinance Opportunity

1. Have you got £500 in a savings account?
   
2. Are you likely to need access to it in the next 12 months?
   
3. Is the £25 interest you're likely to earn on it in that 12 months critical to your long term financial plans?
   
4. Would it be a disaster if you never saw the money again?
   

If your answers are:

1. Yes
   
2. No
   
3. No
   
4. No
   

then you might want to consider making that £500 available to majority world entrepreneurs via a Microfinance broker.

TimC

Farewell to the Chaplaincy, would you like to say hello?

Yesterday was the last day of our six Sunday placement at the hospital chaplaincy at the Queen's Medical Centre.

It was tough at times, particularly the cold calling on the wards to talk with people and ask if patients would like to come down to the chapel service. However, there were real high spots of people grateful to come to chapel, people who didn't know there was a service happening but wanted to come when we asked them, people who wanted to talk and tell their stories, people who allowed us to pray with them and for them.

We had to do this as part of our training, and I'm really grateful for it. The real heroes are the people who go and volunteer to bring people from the wards down to the chapel on a regular basis. If your house group or cell is looking for a servant ministry to get involved in, then you could do a lot worse than ringing up the chaplaincy at your local hospital and finding out if you can get involved.

TimC

Slavery Action

Regular readers may remember that I wrote about slavery and its continuing reality in this country a little while ago.

So now for some suggestions for action, as the 200th anniversary of Britain's abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade comes into view.

March of the Abolitionists
The first of two walks will begin in Hull and reach Westminster on 24 March, joining with the Walk of Witness (see below). The walk will be 200 miles long -- a mile for each year since the act was passed -- and provides opportunities to learn about and reflect upon the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its abolition, as well as the continuing impact of the Trade on society today, and the realities of modern day slavery.

The second walk, June 3rd - July 11th, is still looking for participants and for hosts, take note you guys in Luton, see July 9th. I hope to join for a couple of days early July, depending on my placement church and term dates.


The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are inviting you to join thousands of people from across the country to join a Walk of Witness on Saturday 24 March from Whitehall and Clapham, through parts of the capital to culminate in a large-scale act of worship in Kennington Park, South London. Walkers will be invited to sign Anti-Slavery International's Declaration as they reach the park. I'm gutted that I'm not going to be able to go as we are having our next Together celebration on that day, but I'd encourage you to get along if you can.

TimC

25% there

Well not quite, last day of this module is tomorrow, but that will mostly be revision for the exam on Monday, so I can safely say we have now done the material for a quarter of the modules I will do before leaving. And I've only been here five minutes, doesn't time fly when you're having fun.

The season of elections is now fermenting around the college. The presidential nominations go in next week. For some reason I appear to be being set up to be the Children's and Youth rep, which would be a new experience for me :-)

Today we had the last session of our Pastoral Care module. Bits of this have been challenging, as they have required more self-examination than the more academic modules. It has also bought home to me the privilege it will be to listen to people, support them and celebrate with them. Reflection on this privilege reinforces the sadness that we are generally so poor at doing this and at allowing others to serve us in these ways.