April - Easter

Easter was crazy... good crazy...

Noémie Tilmanne (some of you might know her) was here during eastertime. Noémie is studying in England and heard about me living in London, so she came down to visit.
It was great to see her again after so many years and to chat about when we were younger.

So back to Easter.
The day before Easter, some Christians celebrate a Seder meal.
It goes back to the Jewish passover meal, with her traditions.
Wikipedia says:
The main Christian view is that the Passover, as observed by ancient Israel as well as Jews today, was a type of the true Passover Sacrifice of God that was to be made by Jesus. The Israelites' Passover observance was the commemoration of their physical deliverance from bondage in Egypt, whereas Passover represents for most Christians a spiritual deliverance from the slavery of sin (John 8:34) and, since Jesus' death, a memorial of the sacrifice that Jesus has made for mankind.

So we went to one of the young families here and had a great time. It was nice to prepare Easter in this way.

After the meal we left for the Easter vigil that would last all night. 

It was done in the neocatechumenal tradition. 

A very deep and beautiful service with 7 baptisms in a pool built in the church. 

see the cross-shaped blue thing? That's the pool.

It's amazing how quickly time passed, because before we realised it, it was 6AM.

Back in Acton we had breakfast at Bob Bell's. Went home to get some sleep (which was very much needed!) And came back to Bob's where an amazing dinner was waiting for us.
24 crazy but beautiful hours. It was a great opportunity to live Easter in different traditions.
I am very grateful for this time.

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).

Kairos Week of Prayer and Fasting

This week is a special one for us.
It's set apart to pray and fast for Kairos and Koinonia.
Please join in!

'Fasting can be a window of God's grace. It can be a powerful way to draw near to God. It can be a way of seeking him to know his will and as a response to sin. It can be an expression of love for God and as a way to commission new mission.

It's assumed in the Scripture that you will fast.
Matthew 6:16 "and when you fast...."

Use this week to join with brothers and sisters from all around the world to fast and pray for God to work in and through us.

Pray and fast for yourselves
Pray and fast for greater holiness
Pray and fast for that you can know God more
Pray and fast for freedom from sin
Pray and fast for your outreaches
Pray and fast for labourers in the harvest
Pray and fast for resources
Pray and fast for people to work for outreaches as staff
Pray and fast for money to pay staff
Pray and fast for households
Pray and fast for men and women to say 'yes' to God
Pray and fast for more volunteers - for GAP years, for student missionaries, for people who just want to serve God

Pray and fast for more saints, missionaries and martyrs in our midst.

Spread the word, invite others'

Intercession

Good clip!

"And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the GAP before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none." (Ezekiel 22:30)

Poland!

Hi there!
Poland was class.
Great people, good schedule, beautiful nature, powerful retreat, amazing team and loads of fun!
I was struck by the generosity and hospitality of the people we met. It challenged me to take a second look at the way we receive guests...

The student retreat was located somewhere in the mountains with a beautiful sight. On saturday morning I woke up and the view from our window showed a beautiful blue sky over a frozen lake with some misty mountains in the background. STUNNING!! Best start of the day ever :)

The retreat itself went very well. Combine over 50 students from all over the place (Bielsko, Krakow, Sosnowiec, ... ) with some good teachings, prayer and fun and I guarantee a good experience.

Next to that we had a tour around Bielsko by Ania and Maciek.

Market square Bielsko-Biala

On monday we visited Szczyrk. For those who remember the kairos weekend in Poland 2008. That was in Szczyrk. So many nice memories came back :)

Here is a picture we took 4 years ago.

The only difference was the weather. This time it was cold and snowy...

And the last day we visited Krakow, where some of the students showed us around. It was good to see where they pray and meet as a group at the Dominicans (Beczka). A very beautiful city.

Also... I found my camera -thanks for your prayers :) - but only after I came back from Poland. So the only picture I have that we actually took ourselves is this one: 

our team: Maarten (Leuven) - Sam (Leuven) - Leah (Dublin) - Me (London) - Eoin (Dublin)

Dziękuję!