So what can't I believe, well what has happened since Wednesday has completely blown my mind out of the water. I am going to start with the, well I don't know where to start. There have been so many amazing things that have happened within the last few days. Right I will try and start at the beginning. Firstly I am almost in tears as I am writing this. It has been such an emotional time over the past few days and I will never forget them.
So starting with the 29th April, this was the Royal Wedding day, and I was feeling different to the way I was feeling a few days earlier. I originally didn't care about the Royal Wedding. I was originally thinking why should I care about them? They don't care about me! but after Wednesday my mindset changed. I was thinking, I hope they are successful and their marriage works for them and brings them unlimited happiness. We (the church) locally though ran a street party for the locals in the area and I was helping out with setting up and I felt I had to serve in any way that I could. I wanted to do anything to help and be involved and to serve the local community and bring the word of God through our actions. If I could I would have done everything. I know that I did my share of the work especially as I was going with three children and the potential future inlaws but I still wanted to do more. I wanted to be a beacon for Gods light on the community and to let him take all the glory for our actions. I didn't want any of it. It was an amazing day and I met some locals for the first time ever which was brilliant. At this point I have only told my partner and one close friend who I had coffee with on Thursday which was wonderful. Unfortunately during the evening we found some rude drawings in the car that evening which was very upsetting and were trying to decide whether we should give our time to the community if there were bad things that were going to be done to us by them.
The second day of the community work was on the 30th April when we did the traditional clean up of the local area. I have through a combination of skill, talent and luck managed to miss the previous two years even though I have lived on the road where the whole thing was carried out. Anyway in spite of the previous nights issue we were driven and motivated on the Saturday morning and we got involved with three children in tow, including one with a broken arm! On Saturday morning I started telling people about what had happened the previous wednesday and got the most hugs that I have ever had from everyone. I was asked would I say something at church about what happened on Wednesday and I said I'd let them know tomorrow.
The first few jobs were nice and straightforward, collect rubbish from peoples homes etc. We then got to the third or fourth job of the day and we ended up in a garden with a lady and her two young children where we removed some plants from the garden which took the best part of two hours. During this time I understood what we were really doing. We were helping the community but also spreading our love for people which has done nothing but overflow from me since. The old me would have been irritated by small children getting in the way whilst trying to use pliers etc but it didn't matter. The worst that happened was it took a bit longer but it didn't matter, we were able to talk to the people there and it was just amazing. We just did it. What was funny was we didn't mention God or Jesus or anything religious but we felt our presence touched some people. Little was i to know how much I had touched someone at the time.
We then in the afternoon ended up with what I lovingly call "The bamboo garden". There was more bamboo in this garden than you could believe. It was just grown over the whole garden. Maybe in the region of 4 square meters. There was also other things in there that shouldn't be and there were over 15 people in this garden removing this bamboo to the best of our ability as fast as we physically could because the lorry was early and we all just mucked in and worked our socks off to make it happen. I almost got thrown out of the garden because i didn't want to leave with the job not complete. I was desperate to get through the job. It was funny because again I would have historically gone, well good is good enough but here I am with my shoulders and back killing me trying my hardest to do as much as I can. I wasn't the only person, other people were really feeling it and it was amazing the way we all did it but it doesn't matter because it was for a greater good than us.
So God is really moving in me and I never expected it to happen, not like this. So that is Saturday. Lets move onto Sunday. Sunday 1st May 2011 we went to church and I spoke to the person in charge of the church and said I would say one sentance on the sunday morning. Anyway I remember this as i am sat in the front row in the middle, feeling very sick and very nervous at the idea of speaking in front of all these people. Anyway several times I think he is going to ask me to come up and he doesn't and finally he says. "I got some news Saturday which distracted me all day...." and I knew it was time. I didn't plan what I was going to say, I knew if I did I would mess it up so I trusted God to guide me and told people in more than one sentence, much more what had happened to me on the previous wednesday and at the end i said I'd given my life to God and the most enormous deafening din went up in the room. This enormous cheer went up, the like of which I have never ever heard in my life. I can't explain it. I know the sermons are recorded and if I can find it I would love to post it on the blog. I pretty much wanted to burst into tears on the spot. It was described as better news than the Royal Wedding and I am emotional just thinking about it right now.
I then asked for prayer for the first time afterwards and it was just truly wonderful. So is that it from Sunday, no. I decided to go to the church prayer meeting in the evening and got surrounded by four people who prayed for me and it was just the most uplifting experience, this is just such an awesome day. I can't begin to describe how beautiful the moment was as they prayed for me and I felt the power of God coming into me and God's love filling me. I have always run away from anyone praying for me and for once in my life I just didn't want it to end ever.
So onto May 2nd, my birthday, nothing else could possibly happen could it now. I am now 37 years old, not 38 as I thought! and I got a degree in maths. We spent the morning at home with the bunnies and restarted the bonding process which was a massive success as they were together for over 2.5 hrs which was the longest ever and it was beautiful. Eventually we went into town and decided we were going to have a vegetarian breakfast at a cafe in town.
So we got into town and ordered our breakfast and who should walk in but one of the young kids from one of the gardens we had worked in during the weekend. Anyway my partner thought she could hear him and I went no don't be silly. I was wrong, he came up to our table and said hi and started chatting to us. He remembered us from the weekend and he was there hugging us and smiling and laughing and even wanted to take us out with him for the day. He was with someone different to who he was with on Saturday so we told him what we had done and other people heard and the word of Gods work was spread again without him being mentioned, all because one child had remembered us. We must have touched his life through God. How amazing is that. I can't believe that it happened and it was just the most wonderous experience.
So it is now Tuesday night / Wednesday morning and I feel like i have written war and peace. I just want to get as much of this as I can, I want God to have full control over my life and direct me to the next things that I should do. It seems such a long time to Sunday. I am currently in Scotland and am hoping to get back for our house group on Thursday as that will mean an awful lot to me to be in Gods presence.
My plan is still to write my next entry on or about the 12th May but with what is going on I wouldn't count on it. If you read this please comment it would be great to get any feedback. TTFN
