Pilgrim Soldier

It’s hard to believe that we’re already two weeks into the new term at College and that already deadlines are fast approaching! Have to hand the first sermon in this coming Thursday before I preach it in a fortnights time!

I really don’t have a lot to report, although this week has been a week of seeing friends. Sarah has been over from Latvia and Lisbeth was at the college for a course earlier in the week. Henrik was also sighted for a coffee but we didn’t see him! So all in all it felt like a Latvian reunion for a few days!

One thing that has happened is that I have started to try to keep a little more fit! As part of that I’ve joined with a group of cadets to attempt the feat of rowing around Lake Victoria on the rowing machine here at college. The aim is to build up sponsors in aid of the Army’s ‘A Cry in the Darkness’ campaign. Not sure how far I’ll actually be able to row myself, but I’ll work out a widget in the sidebar (the bit to the left) for those who might be interested. Once I know how the sponsoring will work I’ll let people know who might want to sponsor me/us as well.

We’re now nearly at the end of a 2 week break from college! It’s been nice to have, especially after the handing in of 5 essays in 5 weeks that we had at the end of term. Thankfully, I’ve managed to pass both the two papers that we have had handed back! The next stage of the process will see a return to preaching and leading meetings as we will be having 7 Sundays at Chalk Farm corps over the coming weeks. Both Zoe & I are looking forward to this, even though it’s not quite what we’ve been used to in recent years as far as worship is concerned. It’ll be good to spend some time at another corps though and get to know some new people.

The break has been a time of family, friends and travel! For the first time, we were able to get round all the closest family. We spent Christmas Eve and Boxing Day at Zoe’s mum’s and on Boxing Day got to see our rapidly growing nephew, Oliver. It was then off to my family for a couple of nights which culminated with an invite to our eldest nephew’s 18th birthday party in April!! Despite the amount of travelling we’ve had to do, it was well worth the effort to spend Christmas with the family!

We’ve also managed to get some time with friends as well, which is always good. In fact the last three days have been spent with either friends who’ve been to visit us, or amongst the college community now we’re back in London.

And so we’re back! Still quite a bit to do before we restart lectures on Monday, but its been a great Christmas and a nice end to 2008. Here’s to 2009!

Just wanted to wish anyone who is still reading this blog a very happy 2009!

Hopefully I’ll be posting a bit more often over the coming months although no promises with college work having to take priority! Thanks for the support of those who comment and I pray that everyone will have a wonderful year!

Two things have happened this week that have made me realise that I’m no longer the young man I thought I was! Firstly, someone came up to me as I was collecting outside Marks & Spencers on Oxford Street and referred to the young man who she had put money into the box of. It was the way she said it though that clearly showed how she did not consider me to be young in the same way! That wasn’t too bad, but then it suddenly dawned on me that its now less than 6 months to my 40th birthday!

When did that happen? I really don’t feel like I’m going to be 40 in only a few months time, I still feel much younger! But there’s no denying it, the hairline is ever receding and the numbers of grey hairs are noticeably increasing! So, whether I like it or not, I’m approaching my 40th Christmas season before entering 2009 which will no doubt zoom past so fast that it’s my actual 40th birthday before I know it!

So here’s to getting older and the remaining 177 days of my thirties!

It was another of what are known in WBC (William Booth College) language as ‘Corps Sundays’ today. A Corps Sunday is a Sunday (remarkably enough) when you go along to the corps that you have chosen to attend during the time you are in college. For Zoe, the girls and I we’ve joined up with Deptford Corps, which is only just about a mile from where Zoe & I used to live before going to Latvia.

Now Abigail is not in the happiest of moods at the moment; a combination of being ill and 19 months old, meaning that she is not really happy to sit around and wants to be up and about all the time. Because of this I was sat at the back of the hall with her, slightly away from the meeting. I suddenly realised as I looked around that I was no longer seeing the corps as a place to go and be involved with for the next 18 months. Instead I’ve begun to see it as my corps, the place that I go be part of the community.

As I chatted to the guys after the meeting, talking about the Mens’ group we’re doing on Friday, I realised that I was valuing their friendship as well as the fact that the group fulfils some of the college curriculum requirements. So Deptford is my corps now and I love being part of that community!

Well I’m now officially into the essay season here at the college. Each Friday for the next 5 weeks the members of the session have to hand in an essay. The first deadline is tomorrow and we are submitting our Doctrine Seen Test, which is sat next to the computer with the cover sheet all prepared!

It’s on occasions like this that I wonder why I’m doing this, but I’m reminded about the things we did and heard yesterday during our Spiritual Formation morning. The reality is that all I am doing is being obedient to the call. Submitting 5 essays in 5 weeks is simply part of the discipline that is required while we are here! That it is part of studying more about God and getting to know Him better in the process is the really important thing, not getting hung up on deadlines.

The last week has been spent on our Social Placement at Faith House. It has been a great week and has left me with a lot to think about over the coming days. The challenge for the future is particularly strong and trying to put it fully into perspective is not going to be that easy.

Having said that it has certainly brought a few things to mind as I wrote my reflections in my journal. One of the main things is how poorly we tend to reflect Jesus’ way of doing things. I suppose I’ve always felt that many churches did not embrace those on the margins of our society, but having been immersed in just a fraction of their lives this last week that sense is really strong at the moment. How many churches do you know that would unhesitatingly embrace a drug-addicted prostitute into their fellowship? What about the dishevelled homeless guy?

Mahatma Gandhi is reputed to have said, “The best test of a civilised society is the way in which in treats its most vulnerable and weakest members.” For some reason I’ve never really thought too hard about those words; I’ve simply accepted them as being valid. This week though I’ve been forced into reconsidering their focus. Maybe it’s me but too often I think we see the society of which he was talking as being the society of our country, headed by the government. But I think the real society that we need to consider is much more basic than that. It’s about us and our place in society. So the phrase could be seen as being, “The way we, as the individuals who make up our society, treat the most vulnerable and weakest members of that society is the best test of our society.”

So how do we treat people? Do we go out of our way to include everyone in our corps, or do we still enjoy our little cliques that prevent the weak and vulnerable from being part of it? I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t gone out of my way that often, but this week has challenged me to think differently.