Hello, again! Week 10? Alrighty then! Last week the Corps officers
were on a well deserved holiday with their family, and so the Corps was
running on a reduced programme, which meant we all got a week to relax
and re-energize ahead of the Christmas half term, and it was beautiful! I
got to spend some quality time with old friends (my bed included), cook
dinner for my lovely discipler Ruth and her daughter Lucy, and I also
was afforded some reflective moments, where I could just re-charge and
re-connect.
Before we broke up for the holidays, both my housemate and I showed some
visiting French Junior Soldiers, their chaperones and their officer,
Major Florence Bruno, around Stepney Green to show them what we get up
to and to give them a sense of our Corps' ministry - which naturally
included finishing with tea and cakes in our living room. In return,
they sang us their "Torchbearers" (Scouts) song in French and showed us a
presentation of the activities at their home Corps in Nice, France, as
well as giving us some tastes and smells of Provence. It was a lovely
evening, they were such a blessing to us and the stories they told us
about their corps were really encouraging.
 |
| Divisional Prayer Meeting |
 |
| Divisional Prayer Meeting |
This amazing sense of unity continued into this week
because, as well as the usual programmes, I was able to attend a TELCO
meeting (The East London Community Organisation - a founding chapter of
London Citizens), as well as a Divisional Prayer Meeting, all on the
same night! The TELCO meeting was really cool, as community action
groups across Tower Hamlets gathered to discuss what we could be doing
to help those within our communities who need it the most. Just seeing
how much love and passion local people had for their area gave me a
great deal of hope; God is working here in Tower Hamlets through all
those people! We then headed off to the Divisional Prayer Meeting at
Regent Hall on Oxford Street where we saw the cultures of our division
unite in an evening of praise, fellowship and prayer. The flags displayed around Regent Hall served as a powerful visual tool
to demonstrate quite how diverse London Central Division is, and I had no idea what half of them were! It occurs to me
how overwhelmingly blessed I am to be a part of such a loving church,
and indeed a wonderful wider community,
who, regardless of language barriers and cultural differences, is united
in such a strong sense of purpose. If this is just a glimpse of what God is doing with the Salvation Army right now, it makes me very excited!
 |
| Where are you in your journey? |
As I write this I am reminded of Revelation 7:9 (NIV) which reads, '
After
this I looked, and there before me was a
great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe,
people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their
hands'. I think I saw a little bit of what that could be like on
Wednesday and it just overwhelmed me. It was such an encouraging sight
to see so many countries represented by the people of London Central
Division, just beautiful. We are blessed.
