Learning Experience...

To my loyal readers, I’d like to start off this blog entry by saying something very profound. That is that I really like James Bond. I’m currently sitting on my couch in my own 3 bedroom/2 story house watching “GoldenEye.” (Except that I will have to copy and paste this since I don’t have internet in this house.) What makes this even more nostalgic is that I’m watching it on VHS. (FYI, if you come to Europe and say “VHS” people don’t know what you’re talking about. “Video” is the proper word.)

Yesterday was a day full of learning and new experiences. I attended church at City Temple and I really did enjoy it. They are a Pentecostal based church but I never felt extremely uncomfortable or out of place. It was much more ‘calm’ than I was expecting. I had been imagining a television evangelist-type experience but I didn’t think so at all. What was exciting was that I knew all but two of the songs so I was able to participate in the worship service.

Reinhard Bonnke was the Sunday evening service I attended. I believe there were about 1500 people that attended his presentation. At the beginning there was a praise and worship time and then Bonnke spoke for about 30 minutes about what God’s doing in Africa. So that wasn’t too bad at all. Then I realized that it wasn’t over and there was much more to come! Bonnke then did his evangelizing and he had a lot of good points. That man has so much energy and passion. It was cool to hear about other works in Africa. At the end of his presentation is when the healing came into play. That was of course very different for me and I wasn’t accustomed to seeing people so overcome with the Holy Spirit. God amazes with me with all the different types of worship that people around the world use! It was a learning experience to say the least!

When I got in the office today Nigel, Vinod and I had a “debriefing” about the service yesterday. It was cool to learn more about the charismatic beliefs and why they do what they do. We got to talk a lot about the differences of denominations. Ignite is a ministry that is not focused on denominations but young people’s passion for Jesus. They want young people to be involved in church no matter what denomination that church might be. He asked a lot about ACU and their views on denomination. It seems to have become much more relaxed than what it has been. Besides the fact that we still don’t have instruments it doesn’t seem to be church of Christ focused. But honestly, I’m not sure I could say what many of those differences would be.

I work with about 20 or so other people and they don’t all go to the same church. I have come to appreciate that the people that I’m surrounded by here are all focused on growing their relationship with Jesus rather than on what church they go to. Although we all worship in different ways, we all have one common goal.

And the story to make my family truly proud of me… yesterday afternoon Nigel and I brought my luggage over to the new house along with some food. The fridge had been turned off so I loaded my things in there, turned it on and went on my way. Last night Nigel came in to check to make sure everything was okay like the lights, etc. I opened the fridge and noticed that everything was frozen and I asked Nigel how to turn down the fridge. He walked over, started laughing and told me that I had put all my things in the freezer. In my defense I would like to add that these fridges are stacked and each one is about three feet tall. Keep in mind that it had been off and these Brits just do things differently! Luckily the only thing that was ruined was the mayonnaise and everything else is fine!

Whew, this was a long one! Until next time… (and by the way, I didn’t grammar check so I apologize if there are errors!)