Fight for the heart of the King

Ok well this week has been my first ‘official’ week of work,  me and the team have been preparing all week for a school we were going into on Thursday. We went in and all was going to plan then eventually the bell went half way through are talk and the young people left. We had been given the wrong time, so we were very disappointed in that but we had one very encouraging thing coming out of it, it was a lunch time club and we had 50 ish young people there maybe more. So is great that we could have that many people and hopefully next week we will have the same if not more people J . A great thing happened this week again for me (well two things) I was asked to play at the youth group that have once a month on a Friday! Those of you from Oswestry its abit like passion praise but for 11-18’s. we got about 70 young people I believe and was great (if you want to see pictures they should be appearing on facebook some time soon) so it was awesome to be involved in a band they have lots of equipment in the band and was just really cool and I enjoyed in a lot. Then today (Saturday) I went along to the Church’s band practice and now have been asked to play this Sunday (tomorrow) so yeah its all been busy busy busy this week, but things are beginning to fall into place, ideas I have are starting to be shared with the church and Pais team and things are just growing for me and the people around me.

            Ok so I tend to do this every week were I just say something that has been on my mind and this week its something again in one of the sessions we had at FT(Foundational training) and again it caught my mind when I was reading the book in which it came from. Firstly I recommend the book its called ‘the cloud and the line’ and is by Paul Gibbs the founder of Pais. And the line Fight for the heart of the King

 Is used in this book in relation to an old battle. Were a guy called ‘Robert the Bruce’ who was a well love King of a clan. (ill shorten the story) so they went out to battle and he said if he died to take his heart our of his body and take it to Jerusalem, so surely enough in this battle he actually died so Roberts friend Douglas took Roberts heart and put it in a glass cabinet around his neck and while he fought he had it round his neck. One day they were stuck in a corner and were facing defeat so Douglas took Roberts heart out of the glass case and threw it deep into the enemy so all his army could see then he shouted ‘ fight for the hear of your King’ so his army did, and they won the battle.  And the thing which Paul says at then end of all of this hit me ‘ the heart of robber is now entombed in melorise Abbey, Scotland, dead and buried. It will never be fought over again; however, the heart off our King of Kings is alive and well’    I think that is so powerful. We should be fighting for the heart of our King like those solider did no matter what situation were in, for those soldiers they could see defeat they were loosing, but when they fought for the heart of the King they did the amazing, the unthinkable the Amazing thing. And I think if we fight for the heart of Our king then the same can happen for is…

Prayer points for this week

-          we go into all three of our schools this week so prayer for that as we move on in our work in each of the schools

-          I text someone this week (who was a non-Christian) and I asked them if there was anything I could pray for them. And this was the exact text back I got ‘ Wow that means an awful lot, more then you know, my mum is battling breast cancer’  she’s a non Christian and text me that, so I just want to encourage people to join me in prayer for her mum.

Love you all Luke

Rubbish in, Rubbish out

So this week has been quite chilled, thank you everyone for your prayers that have helped me so much! so this week was hub week (kind of) so we met up together just as a hub luckily my hub is very big so felt as if it was just the whole pais gb!! there was 22 of us this week at life church all going through a few sessions with paul gibbs (founder of Pais) then there was alot of time for us to work in our own teams planning assemblies/lunch clubs in teams then presenting them to other teams so we could have feedback on it and things like this. So out topic this week was 'living life to the full/living a full life) so me and the Burnley team spent a few hours one day and the next day preparing a lunch time club for secondary school aged school children, then presented it to some of the other teams!  was really fun and a really good way to see what kind of things were good at and what things we need to improve on as a team, but over all my team is AWESOME.

     So why is this Blog called Rubbish in Rubbish out? well during out first week of FT (foundational training) pete baker (national director or Pais) took a session on this, and when he first did it, it didn't hit me to much, but reading back over my notes that i made it has hit me! i have always chosen to be a happy and friendly person, i always want to be nice to everyone, say the right things, and be good in all i do! but i always found that i would casually lie about things (not meaning to but it would just come out of my mouth) or i would casually take things because i needed them so basically stealing, and it would only be little things, but i would still do it! so i prayed to God about it asking 'why do i do this, i dont want to do this but i do, please help me' so this was months ago, and yet i continued, then i heard pete do this talk. he used Romans 7v 15-22 and if you just read that it is and amazing Verse! it kind of says in it 'we dont control sin, sin controls us' but thats not saying we cant stop sin, but is saying when we think we can over come sin on our own really were not doing anything, sin is still there! so i was still confused once i heard this, i still didn't get what i could do to help me then in 2verses i knew exactly what i had to do 'Mathew 12v35 and Corinthians 15v33' and in the words pete put it ' goodness in, goodness out.... Evil in, Evil out.... Rubbish in, Rubbish out' so who we are with who we hang round with, what we watch, what we read, what we do, what we drink, what we talk about, how we act, how we dress, how we treat people, how we look at people, what films we watch, what games we play... all of these effect what person we are....so for example if  i watch 18+ films watch 18+ movies talk about 18+ things drank 18+ things smoked/took 18+drugs then what will come out of me!.. but if i.. love people, are nice to people, watch things that are good for me, drink things sensibly, talk about good things, dress properly.. then what will come out of me? do i realised.. i can want my life to be something (godly) but if the way i act and things i do arnt Godly then how can i ever become Godly! i need to think about the things i do and then when i sort out the bad things i do, and the bad things i say then maybe i will stop doing the things i dont want to do and will actually live a good life!
        Ive come to the realisation that i am easily influenced, so who am i influenced by? surely if i hang around God all day every day then he will influence me... but in a good way.. that is my aim for this year..


this week is my week of just me and Burnley.. we go into schools on tuesday wednesday and thursday doing lunch time clubs for each, so prayer points this week will be

- that me and my team will be able to reach out to young people in the school we go to, that young people will Engage  well with what we are doing, and will really get something out of the time we have with them
- continual prayer for me this week as i try and head up the youth program in my church, we had out first youth club on Friday in which 6 girls came to it, one 16 one 15, two 13 one 11 and one 8!!!  so just prayer that as i try and encourage more people to come along that God will really bless anyone that does come


Luke

Live a Life that Provokes questions!!

So this was my last week of Foundational training as a whole, we have one more week now were we train with just people in our HUB so my HUB is east Lancaster and theres about 20 of us there so we will be working all next week in 'life church'

So this week has been awesome again has been a crazy week with lots of getting up at 7 with 12 hours of teaching then bed at 1 so am very very tired and very warn out. There has been a lot of great teaching this week about all kinds of things that will help us in the schools we are going to be working in such as ... "use it or loose it" were we talked about using the talents you have been given by God to expand his Kingdom then about habits and not letting habits control you,  we then had 4 sessions on schools and how to work in schools and what to do and act and respond like in different situations, then mark Richy came in to speak to us for 4 hours about how to teach, then a 3 hours session on child protection and 3 and half hours on Islam and how to work with it. This isn't even half the sessions we have had there just the main ones.
       So i come to now why the title of my blog is. 'Live a Life that Provokes questions!!' this was a sentence that hit me in one of the sessions this week it was basically saying your life should be lived in a way which makes people ask questions 'why are you doing that?' 'why are you so peaceful/ happy/ fun' and questions which make people think about their life. We aim to be like Jesus in our lives, we aim to live a life that pleases God so if we aim to be more like Jesus, then our life should reflect this, and if our life reflects this then people will want to know what kind of drug you are on so they can have some, and you can just tell them its the Jesus drug.
        I've always been afraid to be different and always afraid of questions, but now i am aiming to get asked as many questions about my life as i can, cause surely people are wanting the life i want, then that means i am portraying a life worth living. Jesus was asked lots of questions and if we are aiming to be like him then we need to be too. When people look at me i want them to be seeing Jesus and God all around me, i want to be like in a cloud where they can see me, but they also can see this thing that surrounds me and is coming out of me. This message has hit me alot this week about needing to a live a life for God a life which is 'To Him, For Him and About him'

 so this week i met my host family, they are wonderful and go to a church called Mount Zion which i will be attending tomorrow, they came to my commissioning service today at the life church which was amazing to see/ they have blessed me so much with a whole upstairs to myself with a bathroom and toilet, and bedroom all for me which is a gift from God to say the least.

So prayer points for this week

- It takes me an hour to get to work from the house i live in on the bus, so just prayer that God my provide an easier route for me, or give me the strength and stamina to be able to get up early to get ready.
- i start my first 'real' week this week working a lot of the time in my team preparing for the week after when we start going into school and preaching Gods working, and trying to make Missionaries. So prayer for this week as i undertake these tasks

Missionaries making missionaries

Missionaries making missionaries is the main theme in Pais. The idea of Pais is for us (Missionaries) going into schools in a local area working with the local church and making Missionaries out of the young people we meet in the schools.  It is an amazing concept and imagining it in real terms is amazing, this year just in Great Britain we have got 30 young people who are Missionaries working with Pais. If each of us connect with 5 young people and make them Missionaries in their schools starting and running CU's and amazing things like that then that is 150 Missionaries. If each of them help 5 more people become Missionaries thats 750 more young people and this just goes on. The idea is amazing and the practical aspect of it is so simple and amazing but doesn't come easy!

      So regular day for me at training with pais. we stay in a local church where all 35 young people and leaders sleep talk and just meet together. then we every morning take in in terns to go to the local swimming baths to have showers. once we have done that we aim to be at out host church (pais headquarters) The Life Church. So there we have 4 meetings throughout the day each an hour long and each very intense with topics such as 'fight for the heart of the King' 'judge and be judged 'traits of an excellent team' and 'rubbish in and rubbish out'  each of these are aimed to challenge us, make us thing, make us become closer and want to be closer to God and to help us train for this year preparing our hearts and mind for the upcoming tasks we are about to undertake. its such an amazing place, people who have a passion for God worshiping like theres no tomorrow in the morning and then pouring their hearts out in the sessions trying to encourage us to be great people for God in the time were spending this year together. One concept is that we cant teach others unless we ourselves are in the right place hence the 'rubbish in and rubbish out' session being so challenging for me with the main focus on Roman 7v15-22. and explored the fact 'sin controls us, not we control sin' so its about putting into your body and mind what you wouldn't mind giving out to other people.
     Its been such an exiting week and i cant wait for more from Pais, im not ready to get out there and go to the schools the week as been so encouraging so far and i hope and pray for more

prayer points.....


- i meet my host family in burnley and my church leader on wednesday, so guidance and prayer for that!
- that God manages to continue to bless me and the church by providing some more funds for me at pais
-God will continue to bless and encourage me and what i'm doing at Pais