Pilgrim Soldier

Last Sunday was my last in command of Godalming Corps and we had an amazing evening meeting! As often happens on these sorts of occasions we had a few extra people in the meeting which boosted numbers a little. The meeting itself was good and led by our good friend and sponsoring officer, Adrian Allman. I didn’t even get up to preach until the meeting was an hour old, and it usually only lasts one hour!

People said nice things about our ministry and we received a few presents, all of which was great but it shouldn’t be about us and what we’ve done, but what God has done through us!

So I get up to preach and I’ve known what I should say for weeks now, so I start and soon realise that something is happening. The Spirit is there and is touching people through the words I’m delivering on the Spirit’s behalf. The words are about having a big God! They are about allowing His glory to be seen through our everyday lives! And then the Spirit challenges them and me, and out of my small congregation of 25 people 13 make their way forward to surrender themselves to our awesome God, and the meeting becomes not about Zoe, the girls and me leaving, but about the God who we serve.

The scenes on Sunday night will stay with me a long time and I am glad to have served the Lord in Godalming and will miss this small group of Christians. I know though, that He has greater things in store in the future!

Our God is great!

It’s strange to think that I only have two Sundays left in charge of the corps here in Godalming. We have had a challenging year in some ways, what with knowing that the appointment would most likely be for just one year and that we also had to adjust back to living in the UK after 6 years in Latvia. At times things have been difficult, in fact at times they have been quite demoralising, but God has brought me through the experience wiser and stronger in my faith.

This coming Sunday evening will be the highlight of the year for me personally. Why? Well I will be enrolling a soldier! To see the way this mature woman has grown in her faith is such an encouragement and as we shared together last night she said the following,

“The only thing now is that I have to study the Bible more. Not because I’m supposed to but because I want to!”

Says it all really, doesn’t it! I have to admit that I was almost skipping down the road as I walked home beaming with pleasure.

One of the problems we’ve been facing here is the fact that most of the people who come through our doors on a weekly basis are either members of the corps, or have been coming for the best part of 20 years. This means that there is a certain flow to every week that sees little deviation.

So Zoe & I decided that we would hold a special evening at the corps. Seeing as this week is the start of Lent, and that our Tuesday programme is already busy, we instead set up a Pancake Day evening tonight. Zoe, along with the husband of one of our adherents, spent two hours in the kitchen cooking many pancakes!

The wonderful news is that 30 people came, of which only half attend on a Sunday! Several others come to various of our weekday programmes, but 7 (plus 2 babies) came who have only been in the building one or less! This included the two couples who we are getting to know fairly well in our street.

Whilst there was nothing overtly evangelistic about the venture this evening it was great to be able to build upon the relationships that have been made over the years. It was great to see people chatting to each other and for myself I enjoyed the chance of spending some time with my neighbours and getting to know them a little bit more!

More than anything it was nice to open the doors to a group of people so that they experience something of the community that is possible within church.

… is what I was thinking as I headed out of the house at just before 7:30 this morning. You see Abigail is sick and spent most of the night in with Zoe and I taking up a ridiculous amount of bed for a 9 month old baby! She’s wheezing and coughing and crying and is generally feeling lousy, which isn’t very easy for her to understand. After maybe a maximum of 4 hours sleep, split into several segments, the alarm went off and I dragged my uniform on in a semi-comatose state.

As I walked down the hill from the area we live to our hall in the town centre, I was fortunate enough to see a gloriously red sky with the clouds being painted by the not long risen sun. The beauty of it started to burn away the fog that had collected in my head.

The reason I was up and out to the hall so early this morning was actually because today we hosted an Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast. Whilst the numbers there were relatively few, just 13 of us, we could count several different denominations, plus a Sister from the local convent. After spending fellowship together, I can honestly say that it was a real privilege to lead this group as we dedicated the rest of the time to praying into situations here in the town.

It was only as I was waiting for a family to arrive for a later meeting that I realised that all the tiredness I had felt as I started off down the hill this morning had fled. Time in the presence of God refreshes us in ways that we can’t begin to understand!

I love Market Day!

This morning as I stood in Godalming market selling the Warcry and talking to the people who were kind enough to stop in the steady drizzle, I spent quite a bit of time chatting to Chris, the market’s butcher. During the course of the conversation we got onto the subject of religion, something that often happens on a Friday as I talk to the stall holders around me.

Today, Chris challenged me with one of the normal statements that we hear; most of the wars that have ever been were about religion! If we look at the bloody history of Christianity alone we have to admit that many of the wars across the ages have been carried out in the name of religion. However, few involving Christianity at least, have actually been about religion.

Almost without exception they have been about power. More particularly they have been about man’s wish to gain more power.

As I spoke to Chris I tried to get him to see that true Christianity is about peaceful transformation. Its about transforming our lives and our futures, not by force but through the love and grace of Jesus. Chris listened and then a customer came and when he finally got another chance to chat the conversation moved onto another subject. Maybe we’ll return to the subject next week!

I love Market Day!

Over the last couple of days the Christmas season has really kicked off here in Godalming. The size and age profile of the corps dictates that December is not the extremely busy season that some of my fellow corps leaders experience, but this changed this last weekend.

We kicked off on Sunday with a trip to a children’s care home for children with profound disabilities. The corps have been going there every Christmas for around 40 years and playing carols and giving out small presents. My task is to lead the singing and to get people to choose which carols they want to sing and then to encourage the children to shout for the Father Christmas who comes with us. To say that the place is noisy is an understatement and I was warned that it could be very difficult to cope with seeing children such as those who live there.

Anyway we spent about 30 minutes there and I would say that it has been my favourite moment of the Christmas so far. Seeing the excitement in some of the children’s responses to favourite carols was a joy to behold!

Were we full on evangelistic in our effort? Honestly, I can’t say we were. However, from the two or three conversations I had with the parent’s of the children I know how much they appreciated our efforts. Did we manage to put across something of the meaning of Christmas? I reckon we did! Did we bring some joy into the lives of those who were there? Without doubt!

For me this was about showing that we are around and that we are interested in everyone. It was an opportunity to say that we care! It was about being salt and light.

Then yesterday we went off to a women’s prison to play for their annual carol concert. Whilst the band’s role was to play for the carol’s, it was great to see the ministry that is going on there! One of the volunteers on the chaplaincy team did an unashamedly in your face talk and pointed out that Christmas was a chance to put the past behind and move on into the New Year with a new focus of following God’s true will for your life!

All in all an excellent couple of days! I haven’t touched on our Carol Service yet, but I’ll do that in another post!

I meant to post this at the end of last week, but I ran out of time before Zoe, myself and the girls got away from Riga for a short weekend break.

On Thursday afternoon we opened the postbox to see a letter addressed to Envoy and Mrs Smith. It turned out to be the Godalming Corps newsletter and within it there was the following:

Envoy Graeme Smith has been appointed as our new Commanding Officer from early September. We look forward to welcoming the envoy with his wife Zoe and their two children in early September.

Firstly, it was very strange for me to see the title Envoy in front of my name. Until 4 months ago the thought of being an Envoy had never entered my head as I was expecting to be a cadet come September. Secondly, there is a growing understanding that I am about to enter a completely different form of ministry from anything that I’ve ever done before, and that is both frightening and exciting.