March

This month's update will be short since I told you most of what happened.
March was pretty much devided into 3 important weeks.
8-13: Mission trip to Poland
14-21: catching up with work and meeting Camille's parents and sister (and getting a new haircut :) )
22-30: D7

D7 is a seven day meditation based retreat offered by Kairos. Every day you follow guided meditations designed to help you better understand what it means to be a follower of Christ.From that place, D7 can often be instrumental, within the context of a wider discernment process, in helping people hear God speak into key directional life decisions. For example, career choices or whether to get married or explore some kind of single for the Lord vocation.D7 was designed with university-aged people in mind and seeks to challenge them to let the Lord reveal something more of his plan for their lives.  

http://www.kairos-eme.org/Training/D7 

This D7-week was a good time with the Lord. It started with questions about next year. And I found a lot of peace in that area. One of the first meditations is: 'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.' (Rom 8:28)

What a great truth to ponder on.

Claire

End of march, Claire came to London.
How great is it to have some quality time with the sister you haven't seen in months?!
It was an honour, Claire, thanks!

The weather was beautiful, so we trotted through London for a few days.
It's in moments like this that I feel I get to know London. Shaftesbury Avenue, Sharing Cross road, Victoria station, national gallery on your right, st. Martin in the field behind you, Big Ben somewhere on your left, and here you see the countdown for the Olympics, careful cars come from this side here, it's a red light, but we don't care...
I love it! Hopefully, now the weather is getting better, we [read: us gappers] will get to know our city even better :)

PS1: Claire, I love you :)
PS2. I'm starting to realise how I have no clue when I'm speaking/writing American english and when Brittish english... I guess honour is British? 

Happy Easter!

A meditation on easter from another perspective... 

Written by Eroni. 

   “The women went to the tomb in the very early morning of the first day of the week, carrying the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, and when they went in they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus.

As they were at a loss what to make of it all, suddenly two men in shining clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified, and bowed their faces towards the ground. But the men said to them, 'Why look for the living with the dead? He isn't here - he's been raised! Don't you remember? While you were still in Galilee he told you that the son of man must be handed over into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.' And they remembered his words. They went back, away from the tomb, and told all this to the eleven and all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the wife of James, and the others with them. They said this to the apostles; and this message seemed to them just stupid, useless talk, and they didn't believe them. Peter, though, got up and ran to the tomb. He stooped down and saw only the grave-clothes. He went back home, perplexed at what had happened.”    Lk 24: 1-12 

  How does the word 'Easter' make you feel? Excited? Glad? Joyful? Relieved? According to this story, the first answer was in fact: puzzled, terrified, unbelieving and perplexed.

I think that's good news, actually. So many people in and around church life know that they're supposed to feel happy and joyful at Eastertide but and in their hearts a little niggle - or perhaps more than a little niggle - saying, 'Are you really sure? Isn't that all very odd? And how on earth will that help pay the mortgage, save the marriage, feed the hungry, save the whales, or even make you a better Christian?' Well, if you've got one of those little niggles today, you're in good company. Three terrified women, a bunch of frightened and grumpy disciples, and a perplexed Peter. It all makes the point: what happened on the first Easter was something nobody expected.

The challenge to pray through the Easter story is the challenge of holding your mind, and your whole life, open to the God who does unexpected things. Life-transforming things, things you'd never have imagined in your wildest dreams. Paul talks of God being able to do 'exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think' (Ephesians 3.20). The power by which God can do that is precisely the power that raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1.19-20).