Time flies! I've been down here in Sussex for over a month already, and so much has happened I don't really know where to start. There have been countless fun times, and countless things I've learnt - and I keep putting off writing an entry because I can't see how any of it would be interesting to anyone else, except for the new insight I have into God's grace, and that's something to write about another day.
Firstly, some pictures!
Left: Our staff team - me, Debora (Utrecht, Holland), Anurag (India), Hanna (Sweden), Gina (California), Peter (Holland)
Right: me with my roomies, Christy (Wisconsin) and Deb (Utrecht, Holland)....spot the cow connection - the others may not yet be cow-freaks, but they're both from dairying areas!
One very exciting thing about this week so far is that we've been learning more about the Holy Spirit - who He is and what He does. Despite having teaching on this twice before, I somehow still wasn't sure that I have been given any of the spiritual gifts as listed in 1.Corinthians - we tend to focus so much on speaking in tongues, healing and prophesy and teaching, that we forget that the other gifts are equally important in making up the Body of Christ. Our speaker, Gary Killingsworth (who I met in Uganda twice last year and will meet out there again in April...small world!) believes that each of us have one of the seven gifts of prophesy, serving, mercy, ruling, teaching, giving gifts, and exhorting/encouraging, and that although we have at least a couple of the other gifts in a smaller amount, there is one that predominates in us. We went through a checklist of character traits that go along with each dominant gift, and a checklist of ways in which we might be misusing the gift (kind of like a personality test) and I found it such a relief to know for sure that I DO have some gifts, I don't have to guess and hope that I have been given one - that used to cause me to doubt I was even a "real" Christian, because some people believe you're not filled with the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues or have some other obvious gifts, and I know that I'm nothing without the Holy Spirit...so you can see the spiral of panic this lie causes!
I think I'll end there - this is enough for one day!
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