Remember that I mentioned something about interesting decisions and stuff and that I would fill you in… well here goes.
The Boiler Room has closed and moved out of its venue. Click here for the low down. As the article we have published on our site explains this is not a a bad thing, this is not a failure, this is not the end. The Boiler Room as a building will be back and we have the faith that it will come back bigger and better, there’s a dream and a vision that God has put on our hearts that we have faith in. In closing the venue we will continue in our efforts to mobilise the city to pray. Since we decided to leave the city centre venue, one which God strategically gave us for the Common Wealth games, the team has built up key relationships and partnerships in the city and we are working alongside others and hope not to be yet another prayer thing in Manchester but a movement that flows out of the prayers of what is already set up in Manchester. Unity is high on our agenda. God has blessed us in this area since the step of faith was taken to leave the warehouse.
So the team still have themselves a busy and hard job. Concentrating on our relationships and communication within the city and helping congregations of all shapes and sizes within the city of Manchester to pray. At the moment that has meant lots of office stuff and hence I have seen a lot of Anna who has volunteered as our journalist. Oria has drunk too much coffee as she goes out for her incessant meetings with people in cafes. And myself, well things have changed there.
I was doing a year out type thing called Wild Goose, which I have explained to a number of people. I am no longer a Wild Goose, I believe that is the right step. A step that I have been thinking about taking since before the whole boiler-room-closing-thing kicked off. I am now embracing the role as 24-7staff. Basically I am going to be serving 24-7prayer in whatever way I can. For the meantime I will contiunue to be based in Manchester and serve the BoilerRoom vision up here. However, I will also be working on another vision which is rooted in pilgrimage, prayer and mission.
Personally and as a team we really need your support and prayers at this time. Thanks for everything so far, the last month or so has been a difficult ride and we’ve been mustering up the strength time and time again to get up each time the buckaroo flings us off.
Somewhere over last weekend I caught a cold and gradually it has been getting worse.. the illness having complete disregard to the many glasses of water I have had and the almost constant stream of Vitamin-C into my system. So i look forward to a horrible shift at work tonight, the infamous Good Grief, with a head cold that is trying to steal me of my voice at present. I think the managers would go insane crazy at me if I tried to phone in sick because I know we are naturally understaffed for tonight. Some friends of mine are going to the club tonight to pray, they’ll be dancing around to the hard house beats and probably also chilling out in the lounge but instead of focussing on the ‘talent’, the alcohol, the whatever, they should be focussing on Jesus and His Holy Spirit.
This week I stayed in Chichester for a couple of days after last weeks conference in Southampton spent some time with a group of 24-7 people from all over. Then headed home via Reading where we celebrated Tom’s birthday and made plans regarding pilgrimage and camper vans. C’mon.
Haven’t done much apart from worked in the club and tried to rest (doctor’s orders) since I got back to Manchester.
I really wanted to go to the peace protests in London that were part of the global demonstration. So i missed out on the UK’s largest protests in history for the sake of serving 24-7 at culturalshift, something which also meant a lot to me. Refer to most websites on the internet to hear all sorts of feedback on the protests.
The weekend was a good weekend and I’m not home yet. Having had a great time meeting with the friends, the family that make up CulturalShift and especially with God down in Southampton I am now in Chichester. The conference was a mixture of seminars, hanging out with people and great worship and talk services. Highlights were worship led by dj andy hunter, leadership forum with jim mcneish and hanging out with friends.
Now i’m in the 24-7international office doing a couple of little admin jobs and playing with phil’s remote control car, who is lovingly hosting me for a couple of nights. Boys and their toys ey! Prayer request: Phil has just broken his new gift and hence communications between 24-7 and fusion are under risk of severence. Pray that the remote control car will regain steering control so that mesages can continue to be passed from office to office. I feel that the manchester office, currently working on communications, needs a remote control message delivery car so please pray (or donate) it in.