What a crazy week! I've spent more time in meetings than I have in front of my computer able to do work for or from said meetings. Yikes! It's been fun :) I've talked about books, films, 24-7 Prayer Rooms, resources, databases, making the most of your time (oh the irony), the USA, Asia and much more. I've responded to emails from Australia, Guatemala, Switzerland, Austria and a bunch of other places and right now I am happy to be finishing up for the weekend. It's been productive, it's been fun and it's most certainly been tiring. I love the new London office. It's great to be working around the team again and it gives me a chance to film lovely things like the below. So as I sign off for the weekend I thought I'd post the video so you can all meet Theresa. Theresa is my newest friend/colleague and does my job for the UK (I look abroad :) Love to you all and good night...
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Bookmunch
Melissa Marr: Wicked Lovely
Finished - started strong but found it disappointing in the end. (***)Stephanie Perkins: Lola and the Boy Next Door
Finished - enjoyable but didn't capture my heart like her first book (***)Heidi E. Murkoff: What to Expect When You're Expecting
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28 January 2011
26 January 2011
25 January 2011
Fasting & Feasting, Celebration & Control
After a holiday week of feasting I'm making a concerted effort to eat well and avoid snacking. Unfortunately not all of me has gotten the memo. My tummy's acting like a petulant toddler throwing noisy fits when it doesn't get it's way. "Feed me!" it gurgles... "With lovely carbohydraty goodness!" When you're sitting in front of a laptop in your living room, with the fridge in eye shot, it takes some concentration to remind it who's boss.
Being hungry does make me think about the journey I've been on in the last year... Before I explain indulge me as I give you some context...
I am blessed to say that aside from the odd pang of envy or sigh of longing I'm generally happy with my body and how I look. I believe women should be healthy, fit and celebrate what God has given them with confidence, modesty and creativity. I despise dieting culture. Why should everyone be a size zero? If that is how God made you, and how your metabolism works, and you're happy and healthy - more power to ya sister. But, if you have to starve yourself to get there I have to ask, 'Why?" Popular concepts of the perfect womanly shape change with surprising speed throughout history (even throughout the last century). Why try to fit a mould? Why not embrace what you have and make it the best it can be? In addition to such thoughts I love food: the many flavours, textures and combinations we can explore. I love that it is an excellent catalyst for social situations and (yes) a comfort when the world seems bleak. Sadly that last part tips me to the other side of the coin...
I love food a little too much. I have turned to chocolate, crisps, chips and much more when I've felt down. It's familiar, comforting and triggers these little chemicals in my brain that make me feel good. I love that God made food enjoyable. It could just be fuel but instead it can be sensational. I gradually realised over the last year or so that my love of that gift had tipped into something unhealthy... unhealthy for my body and my mind.
Just over a year ago I reached the day when I had to buy a size up in jeans. I decided to check how much I weigh. As numbers appeared on our electronic scales I was shocked. I was a good 2 stone heavier than I was when I considered myself healthy and fit. I was a stone and a half heavier than my BMI range recommends. It was a bit of a wake up call, "maybe I should reign it in?"
That turned out to be harder than I expected. In truth, what I eat isn't particularly unhealthy, it's more the quantity and frequency that was the problem. The more I started to try and change my habits the more I realised how moody I got when I was hungry and how much of my thought was taken up by food. I made slow, half hearted progress for about ten months. It took a change in the way I thought to make a real difference...
'“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial." 1 Cor 10:23
The teaching of Paul on self control to the church in Corinth, was a passage that came back to mind again and again in the last year. Is my motive to love God before myself, to treat His gift of my body and life with respect and care? The words of Richard Foster in "The Celebration of Discipline" started to take on new meaning. Fasting, he explains is not primarily about depriving yourself or even prayer, it is about worship and descipleship. Is pursuing God really my first concern?
"More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us." Richard Foster
Put like that it all sounds quite serious. Yikes! Best way for me to prove myself food wasn't in control was to get healthy. Healthy in my weight, and healthy in my mind. I joined weightwatchers last autumn (hang on didn't I say I hated diet culture - well honestly I don't think ww is about dieting - it's about self control and healthy balance!). I set a goal weight somewhere in the middle of my BMI range and I set to work re-educating my body. By Christmas I reached my goal and felt so much better. It wasn't just that I'm fitter and my old jeans fit again, it's the knowledge that what and when I can eat isn't one of the determining factors of how good my day will be.
I still love food. I still feast! Only now I can choose to feast and enjoy it rather than living in a pretty much constant state of special eating. I've found new things I love and still eat chocolate, cake, crisps, chips and many other scrummy things... I actually think I enjoy them more now. As my tummy grumbles reminding me that I still haven't made lunch, I think I'll probably have to be aware of this tendency throughout my life. I always want food to be something I enjoy. As I enjoy it, I'll thank God for it.... Right... I think I'll have some roasted butternut squash for lunch :)
24 January 2011
Book seven: the journey to room 101
Astounding. Compelling. Terrifying. Brilliant... I have just finished the pages of George Orwell's modern masterpiece Nineteen Eighty Four. I am in awe.
What a world. What a tale. If you have not read this book much of it will seem surprisingly familiar. I was told it was the grandaddy of modern dystopian fiction, but I had no idea just how much the concept (and language) of this book had penetrated the zeitgeist of today. Orwell gives language to some of our greatest fears. I don't want to say too much about the story, or the journey of Wilson, the protagonist through who's eyes we experience a world gone mad, I only want to encourage you to explore it for yourself.
Already I have read some great books this year (and it's only January!) but it's hard for me to imagine a book that will better the world, intellect or the pull to keep reading as this. Ah! What do I read next? Is it all downhill from here?
23 January 2011
Good friends, good food, great conversation
Steve and I have returned to a quiet home and bulging inboxes after a week in the sleepy seaside town of Frinton-on-Sea.
It was blissful.
For many years, over many meals, the Hardings and the Hawkins have dreamed about the day we retreat from our regular lives to take more than an evening in each other's company. Last week, those wistful conversations became a reality... in a secluded little place on the English coast we made the time to walk and talk, eat and talk, laugh and talk, to nap, watch some 30 Rock, and then do it all again.
Ed, Jenny and Freddie made wonderful companions to our hermit like holiday style and are, quite frankly, two very entertaining and interesting people to spend a week with. I whipped through a few more books, discovered a whole new comedy series and generally revelled an agenda-less life. I also thoroughly enjoyed long conversations with Jenny by the sea shore, realising the Ed and I are food buddies and time to get to know the little person that is Freddie - oh yes ladies, he may yet be one year old but he's already a charmer!
Mid-week my handsome husband turned the grand age of 33 (or as he liked to refer to it - the Jesus age). We had a lovely day in Bury St Edmonds buying a second hand guitar, browsing book shops (we have no willpower when it comes to second hand books - especially classics!) and generally enjoying each other's company. It was a very peaceful way to mark the year and I hope it will carry forward into 2011.
Actually his birthday got me thinking... I turn 30 this year! I'm already cooking up some party ideas (currently they're all down the Pixar/fancy dress route - eek!) Anyway before I get side tracked I should finish up... Really should tackle my inbox before Sunday turns to Monday and meetings take my week away... Ah, to go back to Frinton and do it all again :)
20 January 2011
Book Six: tear stained pages
Richard Foster is a very smart man. Thank you God for giving him a brain that can take a wealth of information and boil it down into something I can wrap my head around. I've benefitted greatly from previous Foster forays, "The Celebration of Discipline" and "Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home". So I opened my recent read, "Streams of Living Water", penned by the same mind, with great anticipation. I was not disappointed.
A good friend recommended this thick book. It's an exploration of the different steams of the Christian faith and we what we can learn from them. As I read about the life of Jesus and the stories of some amazing people through history, I was moved to tears several times and challenged frequently. Streams of Living Water was not a quick read. It took perseverance, but, as with Foster's other books, it is well worth the effort.
17 January 2011
Book Five: reading poetry with a dictionary
I've always thought that I had a reasonably comprehensive vocabulary. I've learned much through reading, which has led to many embarrassing mispronunciations, but hey, it's good for my ego and all part of learning. It's not often I come across a word I'm unfamiliar with, but when I opened District and Circle (a collection of poems by Seamus Heaney), I had to read it with a dictionary by my side!
Every third poem or so I'd check a definition and my eyebrows would raise as a sentence came to life. The frequent interruption didn't detract from the experience, somehow having to strive for understanding made the reading richer. I love the choices Heaney makes. The rhythm of his sentences and the vivid imagery he conjures in my mind, make him my favourite poet... (Not that I'm terribly knowledgeable or well read.)
I heartily recommend District and Circle. The words of it's title poem in particular have stayed with me. Heaney's observations and perspective of the world we live in, has broadened my own in a small but beautiful way.
16 January 2011
15 January 2011
The Harding's are on Holiday!
Today Steve and I embark on a much anticipated holiday. We're packing up the car and taking off with Ed, Jenny and Freddie Hawkins to Frinton, a sweet little English seaside town on the Essex coast. I will probably embrace the life of a luddite for the week and unplug from the cyber-world, but I may briefly pop in here to say 'hi', you never know. So, until next week I bid you adue. (Er... how do you spell that?)
14 January 2011
How to Choose a Book: Finding my 52
I've been asked a few times this week whether I know all of the 52 books I will devour in 2011. The short answer is no... but that's not the complete answer. When I sat down to think about it I realised I had a lot more titles than I'd realised. The piles by my bedside are looking precariously tall (especially as they are directly in the line of fire for the laundry basket). As I walked through our modest library* pulling out books to add to the topple-waiting-to-happen I realised that I did have criteria... even if until now it wasn't full considered. In 2010 I tried to read books that would expand my horizons, that would require perseverance, or a foray into a genre I'd previously avoided. It made for slow, but interesting reading. 2011 however will need to be different. Four things will shape my book list this year: size, subject, ownership and the BBC.
They can't be too big; well unless I create a book buffer getting ahead like now before tacking a beast. I need to choose books I can realistically get through in the time I have to read weekly. (That has meant my re-read of The Lord of the Rings will need to be post-poned!)
I want to enjoy them. Though my book list is varied I really want to enjoy what I read this year. As I glance through the titles I want a sense of anticipation about the stories and ideas they hold.
I'll start with what I own. I am ashamed to realise how much of our book collection I haven't read! So, I have decided I cannot mooch or buy any more books until I go through a good portion of the ones already taking up residence in our home.
I'll take the BBC's advice. Years ago I blogged about how many books I'd read on the BCC top 100 books list. Bizarrely that post still attracts daily visitors to my cyber home and I enjoy watching the comments grow as people chime in. There are some cracking titles on that list so I've been accumulating a few to tackle this year.
Other than the above I will re-read a few things I haven't read in a while, I will take recommendations from friends and strangers alike and I am going to try and blog about each one I complete.
So, in no particular order my 52 books to read in 2011 include:
Already read:
1. The Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
2. Acts for Everyone Part 2 by NT Wright
3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
4. Looking for Alaska by John Green
Currently reading:
5. Streams of Living Water by Richard Foster
6. District & Circle by Seamus Heaney
To read:
7. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
8. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home by Richard Foster
9. Surface Detail by Iain M Banks
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
11. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
12. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
13. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
14. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
15. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. God Stories by Andrew Wilson
18. Life After God by Douglass Coupland
19. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
20. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
21. Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
22. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
23. The Role and Ministry of Women by Martin Scott
24. The Long Walk by Richard Bachman/Stephen King
25. Roadwork by Richard Bachman/Stephen King
26. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
27. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
28. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle
29. Matilda by Roald Dahl
30. Bell Canto by Ann Pratchett
31. Tales from the Perilous Realm by JRR Tolkien
32. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
33. Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell
34. With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray
35. Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
36. The Bible
(Books in italics are re-reads, books in bold are from the BBC top 100 books list)
I reserve the right to edit this list at any time. Anyone care to fill in the blanks? What should I read for number 37 to number 52? Suggestions in the comments please.
*Can I call one heaving set of bookshelves and four buldging homemade shelves a library? How many books does it take to be a legitimate home library?
13 January 2011
Book Four: first friend, first girl, last words
"I go to seek a Great Perhaps."
The dying words of French poet Francois Rabelais propell Miles Halter to a new state, a new school and a series of firsts and lasts that will stay with him through life. Looking for Alaska, the first (and award winning) novel by (my joint favourite Youtuber) John Green is... well... amazing. As I began to get to know the lives, loves, flaws and fascinations of Miles/Pudge, the Colonel, Alaska, Lara and Takumi I couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading a modern day The Catcher in the Rye. Except - I could relate to this book.
I read The Catcher in the Rye early last year - partly because of that urban legend that ever lone gun man in America has owned a copy - and partly because I was trying to read all the books I thought I should read. It was good. I could appreciate the writing, the mood, the suspense, the irony... but I just couldn't relate to the protagonist. I appreciated it from an intellectual perspective but it never touched my heart or occupied my thoughts. Not like Looking for Alaska...
People are not just one thing. Green writes characters who can be kind and cruel, smart and dumb, self aware and gloriously oblivious. He captures the hope and pain of the in-between, those years that stretch from childhood to adulthood, with subtly. I was rivetted. I think I read the book in two days (another long journey home and nothing on telly helped somewhat!) So the tail of Alaska Young and impact on the people in her life becomes the forth book in my 52 of 2011...
"If people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane"
Tomorrow I'll post my book list as it currently stands and the decisions that brought me to those pages.
12 January 2011
Carla Harding: Lion Tamer
Lots to think about this week. Finished the book of Job in my read-the-Bible-from-cover-to-cover-in-2011 marathon. I have to say it left me confused. I haven't read it in ages for precisely this reason; I'm never certain what exactly I should take from it. Job is not a book I've really studied, only read through and it presents God and our relationship to him in some interesting ways. I briefly chatted to my handsome and thoughtful hubby about it and we touched on plays, interpretation, suffering, the western perspective on God and what we do when He doesn't fit our current understanding. As I read the last chapter today the thing at the forefront of my mind was that classic Mr Tumnus quote about Aslan,
"He's not a tame Lion."
He's not a tame God. I cannot train Him, shrink Him or demand that He fits my world view. Maybe that's what Job and His friends partly discovered through their experience and interaction. I don't know. Anyone recommend any good teaching or books on Job? I think I wanna know more...
The other thing on my mind is this brilliant video made by a friend of mine. Those of you who frequent the 24-7 Prayer site will have seen it as this week's feature. It's called The Ache, and though I'm no longer a University Student, His words, questions and ideas struck a chord with me. I recommend you take a few minutes and hit play below.
11 January 2011
Book Three: Coffee and Crushes
It is such a joy to be reading again! I have ticked off number three in my 52 books to finish in 2011 tonight. Yes three! And it's only the beginning of week two! I figure it's good to get ahead while I'm enjoying it, let's face it there's bound to be a time when I'm either a) too busy, b) bored with my book list or c) generally unmotivated. It's all about the buffer right now :)
My newly reinstated commute into London is helping greatly. I used to reserve the 90 minute train ride home to share a film with the lovely Lottie but since she moved on to be all successful in Brighton (sob - I miss you honey!) I've felt a little odd watching films alone. My now solitary journey home has become the perfect time to get my teeth into the latest book. I am relishing it...
I finished Anna and the French Kiss in two days! It's a charming (and distinctly girly) tale about confidence, self assurance, facing your flaws and of course... falling in love. The protagonist Anna is forced to spend a year in another continent stumbling over a new language and leaving all that is familiar and comfortable behind. It totally drew me in. I recommend this to anyone who wants a book that can paint a cheesy grin on your face as you speed read it on the tube. (Oh not we're approaching my stop... must... finish... chapter... YES!)
Maybe it's unfair to call it girly as I read it on the recommendation of John Green, an author I enjoy and my joint favourite YouTuber*. If you haven't checked out John and his brother Hank (AKA the Vlogbrothers I highly recommend them). Mr Green also happens to have written the next book on my night stand. I have just transferred my magnetic Little Miss Sunshine bookmark from the back of Anna and the French Kiss to the front of Looking for Alaska. Here's hoping for another story my nose gets stuck in... hmm, weird mental image... let's move on.
* John Green ties for my YouTube affections with the Annoying Orange :)
10 January 2011
Miss Helen Monkton: Steadfast & True
I am fortunate to have many amazing people in my life that I count as friends. Some I share life with through Church, on my street, at work or through a common history. I walk with some for months, with others for years. Yesterday we celebrated the life of a woman who falls in the later group and has greatly impacted the last decade of my life.
The beautiful, faithful, creative, thoughtful, mischievous, multi-talented and steadfast Miss Helen Monkton.
I first got to know Helen on an intense and challenging trip to Ibiza with 24-7 Prayer. From the first morning we sat together on the dusty ground outside our villa I knew there was more to this woman than met the eye. I had no idea then how important to me she would become. There are few people with her capacity to love, to be kind, to grow and develop as a person and to stay utterly faithful to her God, life of faith and the people around her.
Yesterday I watched her chatting happily with the motley crew pictured above and walking through enchanting English countryside. I was so grateful to be there (not just a lovely walk with good friends heading to an excellent pub!) but with her, almost ten years on from our time in the White isle. My husband taught me that I can have as many friends as I want but I'd be wise to invest the few I want to spend my life with. Miss Monkton is most certainly one of the few. She constantly teaches me about kindness, love and the pursuit of God. I look forward to the decades and the lessons I can learn with her to come...
08 January 2011
Book Two: The Dragon, The Raven & The Wolf
"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come to pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is forgotten when the age that gave birth to it comes again..."
The second in my book-a-week marathon for 2011 is the penultimate instalment of the epic/bloated fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Despite the fact that creator Robert Jordan slowed his tale down to a near snail like speed toward the centre of the series, the last few books have been a rip roaring read well worth my patience. The book I've just finished is the thirteenth in the series (that doesn't include the short prequel I have also read) so it takes a lot of dedication to get to this point, but I have so much affection for the literally hundreds of characters whose lives I have followed that I must walk with them too the end.
Sadly, Jordan passed away a few years ago with the series incomplete. He did have time to make extensive notes however, so Book 13 or Towers of Midnight was actually written by someone else. Brandon Sanderson is the man who has taken on the unenviable task of finishing a much loved and long anticipated climax to the series. In my opinion he's doing a brilliant job. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It makes for a gripping instalment to the series and I wept not once but three times whilst turning it's pages. As I followed the fortunes of Rand Al'thor, the Dragon Reborn, Perrin 'Golden Eyes' Aybara, the Wolfbrother and Mattrim Cauthan, the Prince of the Ravens & Lord of Luck this book became one I rushed home to read. I enjoyed it so much I even carried it by hand too and from my London office (it wouldn't fit inside my rucksack - it's a bit of a beast) in order to read it on my journey home.
If you're looking for a fantasy series dealing with good and evil and set in a world similar to that of Tolkien's Middle Earth then I heartily recommend this series to you. It is not perfect... but it is compelling.
07 January 2011
Book One: shipwrecks, persecution and an undying hope
I love to read. There's a level of peace my mind achieves when giving it's entire focus to words printed on a page. I don't find it in conversation, nature, watching films or many other pursuits. It's not that I don't find rest in those things, it's simply a different kind. One of the joys of the last month has been the unanticipated but much relished time I've had to read. The more I do the more I want to. As I traded booklists with friends for the coming year my mouth is almost watering in anticipation of the wisdom and adventures I would find in the dozen or so titles currently piled by my bed. So I've made a decision... I aim to finish a book a week in 2011. I can't wait.
I'm sort of cheating this week as I'm probably going to finish a few books I've been reading over the last month but hopefully it'll give me a buffer as I head into the new year. The fiction titles are (no surprise) dominated by Sci Fi and fantasy, and the Christian titles range from commentaries to manifestos to teaching.
Book one of my potentially overambitious challenge is from the latter category. Acts for Everyone Part 2 by Tom Wright. For the last two years Wright's Bible for Everyone series has dominated my regular study time so the end of this excellent book marks a bit of a shift for me. In 2011 I aim to read the Bible from cover to cover. Shockingly, I've never done this before. I always get a bit bogged down in the prophetic books of the Old Testament and skip over chunks. This year no more skipping; I will read it all! Book one of my 52 was a brilliant walk through the lives of the apostles Peter, Paul and others, and an amazing, inspiring and challenging account of the early days of Christianity. I took a lot from studying it and Luke and Wrights words have filled the pages of my journal with thoughts, realisations and prayer. As I put it down and change tack in my study (gone will be the ten-ish verses a day to look at in some detail - now begins the gauntlet of several chapters at once) I feel energised to approach God's word afresh.
So I know what book one is, I aim for the whole Bible to be book number 52 but what titles will fill the 50 between? Any recommendations? What's on your book list this year?
06 January 2011
I am inconsistant... my socks give me away
If there's one thing I will spend my life working on it's consistency. I am not entirely inconsistent, I somehow never waver from feeding, watering or putting myself to sleep, but with much in my life I flit. This year I will turn 30, and I guess it's making me reflective. If I were to put a word to the decade of my twenties I think that word would be 'growth', hmmm maybe 'depth' or possibly 'development'. OK I don't have one word yet but you get the drift. From 20 - 30 I had a lot of lessons to learn and many roads to travel... most led inward. Realising that discipline makes my life better not worse was a big step. Deciding what was good for me and deciding to pursue those things even when I suck at them was another. Understanding that some things will take years rather than days or minutes to improve was huge.
Mostly the last decade was about not giving up.
Not giving up reading the Bible, not giving up talking to God, not giving up mastering food and not letting food master me, not giving up learning, not giving up making new friends and opening up to old ones, not giving up on dreams, not giving up on reading, not giving up on listening, not giving up on... the list goes on, I won't bore you.
Today however - despite all my learning - my socks are taunting me. They are holy, and not in a good way. I have three approaches to such a problem: chuck 'em, darn 'em or ignore 'em. With this particular pair it's time to decide and door number 3 may have been chosen one time too many. My inconsistency in dealing with this small household task is bugging me. It's like a metaphor for the many ways I put off deciding to act. Act about what, I'm not sure but as I know there is still much for me to find consistency and strength in, it could be many things. I am inconsistent - my socks give me away. End of stream of consciousness.
05 January 2011
This may be the most beautiful thing I've seen on my MacBook screen...
Yes, the near impossible has happened - my inbox is empty. I feel this occasion needs to be marked - it is truly momentous... surely this image corresponding with a completed to do list (a feat still out of my reach) is the perfect picture of contentment any modern girl living in a technological world could hope for. Ah well, best to have something still to dream for...
Though this post will go live on Wednesday, I'm actually typing it on Tuesday afternoon. The above image is the peace and tranquility that has been achieved after about four to five hours of sifting through and responding to correspondence from all over the world. The journey was as amazing as the result. I received emails that made me wiggle with glee from amazing people loving leprosy sufferers in the Philippines, two people planning 30 and 40 days of prayer and fasting at the same time in Sidney and Melbourne, Australia respectively, and news of a potential year of prayer in an Asian nation I probably shouldn't shout about until it's official! There were lots of other good stuff too: emails with friends arranging tea and soup, swapping book lists with fellow book worms and responding to enquiries about 24-7 Prayer from Moldova, the USA, India, the Philippines and more. My cyber feet are well travelled today. I wonder where they'll take me tomorrow?
04 January 2011
From the mouth of the movement
At the beginning of each month I have a ritual. It goes something like this... I open up an email folder full of correspondence with 24-7 Prayer Rooms from the last 29-31 days. It's a job on my work to-do list that I actually really look forward too. Each month I look through the email conversations and draw out the thoughts and testimonies that stick with me. Some of them arrive here on the 24-7 Blog, all of them go into a word document that is stored away on my hard drive. At the end of each year – for about the last seven years – I make myself a cup of tea and I sit down to read through that document.
It never fails to bring me to tears.
Just before Christmas I looked through my (almost complete) document of prayers and praise from 2010. Currently it stands at 14 pages and almost six and a half thousand words. It is a beautiful read. Here are just a few snapshots of what God has done in the words of the people who have prayed.
From South Korea… “This is one of the best things to happen in our church in a long time.”
From the United States of America… “For a year, students at Robert Morris University prayed that God would move on their small Pittsburgh-based campus. Since the beginning of the fall 2009 semester, God’s presence has been overwhelmingly evident in the way of many new believers, physical healings and baptisms. With a thriving weekly Bible study and a group of students who meet to pray and walk the campus regularly, the students at RMU are bubbling with stories to tell.”
"A Korean international student at Iowa State University got healed of nine years of back pain AND healed of bitter unforgiveness toward the man who hit him—immediately upon meeting Jesus and falling in love with him!"
From the United Kingdom… “I’ve never seen prayer displayed or experienced like this before. It’s made me realise how many different ways prayer can be appreciated. It’s opened up religion into my life again. Thank you!”
“Many of our prayers were for our dear friend… who had terminal cancer. Ronnie went to be with Jesus just after New Year, but his wife spoke of what a haven the prayer room was for her, a place of peace where she could draw near to God.”
“A young boy who was sick with pneumonia was prayed for and we were delighted to hear that the child had been released from hospital having made a 'remarkable recovery' according to somewhat baffled doctors.”
“God amazed me in how he used the prayer room for outreach and evangelism. Even as a room in a church, a lot of people felt less threatened by going into a prayer room than they might going to church. Friends of ours who don't know God often went in together or with a Christian friend. I think it would be fair to say that they noticed something tangibly different about being in that place, a place where God was so present.”
From Australia… “I believe because of 24-7 Prayer people have allowed new life to be breathed back into the church.”
“God healed a number of people – including 2 people who had bad backs and were in quite a bit of pain. One person in particular could hardly walk and was sitting very uncomfortably. By the end of the gathering she was sitting on the floor, cross-legged with no pain and complete freedom of movement. Even now, 3 days later, she is feeling the nerve down her leg constantly tingling and said it feels like the whole thing is re-generating! She was also so overwhelmed by God’s presence it was difficult to drive home! She says she just felt like God was pouring and pouring and pouring himself into her. She is a different person today and still cant wipe the smile off her face!”
“We prayed for 253 people over the four days and 25 came to faith.”
From New Zealand… “Our day of 24-7 Prayer went extremely well. We are an addictions centre so we are ministering to people in recovery as well as people discovering for themselves their spirituality. It's an awesome place and I am privileged and blessed to be able to encourage their journey into discovering their spirituality. So a lot of our clients spent time in the prayer room during our 24-7 prayer and had an awesome time with God as they understand Him”
“We have some AA members in church that brought friends and apparently this time of the year is big for relapses so it was cool to see some of the guys (how don't necessarily believe in the God we know) really get into [the prayer room].”
From The Philippines… “My prayer watch is really a part of my life and 24-7 Prayer has changed my life. It gives me so much strength.”
“Prayer is loving on Christ (worship, singing love songs etc) but we feel part of prayer is not complete without a prayer lifestyle which is also loving on Christ through loving the poor... We have two church meetings in the leprosy place sunday mornings... My wife also goes during the week to massage the leprosy ladies there. What they most need is to be loved...”