In December, for the Christmas season, we joined with the town of Bournville to sing Carols on the Green. Here’s a video to capture a few memories of the evening. See this video and other on the Video page. Enjoy.

I find the greatest peace in the mornings. As I’m drinking a big cup of coffee (one of my favorite things) and listening to classical music (the music with which I was educated) I find peace. When days are at their quietest, in the morning, that’s where I like to live.For the last couple of mornings, I’ve been considering the idea of retelling and remembering all that God has done. This was brought on by a conversation I’ve had recently where I was responding to the simple question, “So, how are things going so far?” As I told the story of our time in England, I was remembering and recounting all that God has done and it excited me to see that there have been many awesome stories and demonstrations of God’s work in England - many of which I hadn’t recognized in the moment. It was only in the retelling and remembering that I noticed God the most. And so, I wish to recount again the story of our time in England…so far.

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. Psalm 77:11-14 (NIV)

Relationships
Since arriving on October 29th, our team has been striving to find our place and identity in Birmingham, England. When we first arrived, we noticed that CMF had done a great job of networking and developing relationships on our team’s behalf. However, now we had the responsibility of sorting out what those relationships actually were in practice and how we could continue to develop and invest in them. Relationships with Pavilion Christian Community and the people there, relationships with Together in Mission, relationships with Birmingham Christian College, relationships with other ministries in the city - all of these important points of engagement for our team. Then determining how each of these relationships then relate to each other was a focus for us.At the same time, we were focusing on our personal relationships as a team. We all realized quickly that we had spent a total of two weeks with each other before we arrived in England and now we were spending nearly every waking moment. We took on the responsibility of learning each other. We took on being intentional about learning how best to talk with, relate to, work with and love each other…successfully, I might add.We additionally had the task of determining what our relationships with supporters looked like now that we had to shift our whole mindset. We were here now. We weren’t raising support any longer. We weren’t working on communication and follow-up with them 24/7; we had a new job to do. Personally, this scared me a little bit (still does to be honest) because I want our supporting team to feel like and know that they are a part of all that is happening here and without them, it cannot continue. It remains incredibly important to me. And so we continue to work out how these relationships look while we’re making our focus students instead of “getting to England.”

Getting a Routine
Even from the first days, we knew we needed to get a pattern to life. We were beginning the process of learning the culture and some sort of order would help us all go through that process a little better. So we started regular, planned meetings - usually at Sainbury’s Cafe (say what you want Englanders, it’s a good cafe) to talk about vision, strategy and how things would actually come together. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but down the right side of this page is a list of some of the music I’ve just listened to today. I was just noticing that I was listening to all classical…what’s more…relaxing classical. That probably speaks to the state of the union as it were. One thing that made me smile today: I came across an old memory stick that had some ooollldd photos. I think this one is from our first Christmas together:

How fun is it to reminisce and to look back at how faithful God has been through so many things? It is honestly one of my favorite pastimes. It’s awesome to remember the works of God. After I had this realization, I looked for this:

Psalm 77:11-13 (The Message)
Once again I’ll go over what GOD has done,
lay out on the table the ancient wonders;
I’ll ponder all the things you’ve accomplished,
and give a long, loving look at your acts.
O God! Your way is holy!
No god is great like God!

And I found this as well:

Psalm 143:5-6 (The Message)
I remembered the old days,
went over all you’ve done, pondered the ways you’ve worked,
Stretched out my hands to you,
as thirsty for you as a desert thirsty for rain.

It’s good to remember. It makes today better.