the year of ... 2007

Can you believe it?! It's actually 2007. and we're in our 2nd term already... well more precisely, we're going into the FOURTH week of term 2! It just seems mental. But we have to get on with it as always. No time to stop and moan!

Ok, first week back - grrreat. Bryn Franklin wasn't able to visit, so basically we were just left to a week of prayer (and prophecy of course) and waiting to see what the Holy Spirit wanted to do with/to us. Was brill. Loads of prophecies came out and it was just mega. As well as this, we were all having to read up on things for our seminar papers (which was on the topic "Signposts to Spirituality" - things in our faith that help us on our journeys of spiritual formation basically). I was looking at the season of Lent within the church calendar, and, to my utter surprise, it was really interesting! God's totally challenged me on my prayer, meditation and fasting through this. I've never really taken the period of Lent too seriously - always given up chocolate, sweets and crisps (the usual) for the 40 days, but never utilised my time or mind any better because of it. So this year is going to be completely different - God's been speaking to me about it all and I'm actually looking forward to it!

The second week was "Spiritual Formation" with a guy from Hatfield Bible College (the principle), Hatfield, South Africa, called Michael Neumann. DOOOOOD. This guy is AWESOME. He is the most challenging, intriguing, passionate, Spirit-filled, servant-hearted, humble, loving guy ever. His lectures were THE bomb (if anyone can manage to get a hold of the Cd's, lucky, lucky you), he had been praying for us all before he even got here (never met any of us) and had prophecies for each one of us (pretty much all of them were spot-on). We had him for dinner one night and he is so friendly! He even grated cheese for me (those who know me well will know that is my most HATED job when cooking) and then we sat and talked about things going on in the Muslim world, and prayed into it loads. He was just such a persistent character, and has challenged every one of us to become more prayerful and broken-hearted for the broken-hearted and the lost. Kudos Michael. He blessed us all incredibly. I thank You God for bringing us together under the odd circumstances and 'coincidences' that You did! I know everyone got very used to him being around college and we'll all miss him very much.

For the past week, we have had a guy from South Manchester Christian Fellowship, Andy Barclay-Watt (whatta guy as well)! He was 'lecturing' us on "Developing a Heart for People". When I say 'lecturing', it's because the two groups have split up now (M&M and B&T), so our group are in a separate room in a much smaller group (13 of us) and the 'lectures' are much more informal and interactive, taking a more practical route through the 'action-side' of what we're learning! This guy was such a blessing. The lovely, humble, REAL guy that he is was such an inspiration. Seeing the heart that God has put in him (clearly imparted some of His own) was just mind-boggling. And to think that we can seek and get that too is just crazy. But bring it on.

It's the only way this world will be changed.