Goodbye For Now.

Back in 2008 this project began, with encouragement that could’ve filled a blog of its own I set about documenting something about Church & Chips every week – and the response was amazing, people from all over the Church (and in some cases) the World Wide Web had taken notice of us.. I mean even my dad had begun to read it.. and even better – people were printing off the content for reading at home.. how awesome is that?

The Blog ran – weekly, or as close to that as possible – for a year (that year can be found in our C&C – 2008 archives) and it came through writing this that I truly found a talent for writing and even found a degree of spiritual fulfillment from writing every week – it was an achievement I was very proud of and something that allowed me to spread the good news in my own unique way.

2009 started as a promising year, and we got over four months worth of blogging archived – before things began to change – a new chapter was beginning, and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I was ready to accept it. Because being human I am scared of change and this change hit me hard. and although I could feel the presence of God throught this trying time I have to admit the whole writing process got a bit stale. After everything had blown over I began to write again but never got that spark back – instead of feeling happy about the words I was typing it began to feel like a duty (this might seem a little melodramatic, and in a way it is but I need to say it).

I denyed it for a couple of months and continued to write, but instead of new and fresh posts appearing every week I just began to follow a formula, so in response to this I took a few months to re-evaluate my situation, alas it has brought me to this point. After thinking for a few months inbetween Exams and School and further change and shake up within the Church I felt, and still feel like the blog has come to its natural end..

Nothing can last forever, and everything ends and instead of prolonging the inevitable (yes, alright this is slightly melodramatic – but do you know me for anything else?) I have made the decision to close the book on the Blog.

There could be a time when I pick this project up, resurrect it and continue to run with it – Just like God did with Jesus but until then consider this the final full stop.

Thanks for all your support and prayers.

Jordan Dodsworth

April 2009

Lent – The First Sabbath

Today is the First Day of the Third Month of 2009 – and marks the first Sunday of Lent, which leads up to Holy Week and the most special day in the Christian Calendar – Easter Sunday. That day is the Sunday in which Jesus Christ amazed everyone – cast all doubt away and rose from the dead – not only to see his friends again, but to prove that he is the Son of God and ultimately bare all of our Past and Future Sin on his shoulders and bring us forgiveness – bottled at source.

Before the First Sunday of Lent we celebrate another day (officially two) in the Christian Calendar – commonly known as Pancake Day – Shrove Tuesday, in which I am sure most if not all of you indulged in some freshly prepared pancakes smothered in your favorite topping (Maple Syrup for the Win!) – this marks the official start of the Lent (Festival?) because in much more traditional times the most common things people gave up for Lent were Dairy Products including Milks, Butter and Eggs – so with the world being such food fiends we decided to combine these ingredients and use them up in one meal – allowing for one last pleasure before showing our Love for Christ and emulating his 40 day fasting process in the Desert.

Anyway, we met up This Morning for our regular Morning Worship led by Majors Alan & Barbara – along with Barbara’s sister who led in This Mornings message. – it must have been quite an experience as you stand up and lead your Home Corps, the people who were a big part in your spiritual growth as a follower of God.

Before the Youth Groups split up to work on their own learning we spent some time Thanking God for the things we love – including, Family and Friends as well as belting out a few really powerful hymns and speaking The Lords Prayer.

Of course today wasn’t just significant because of its presence in Lent but also because it served as the culmination of this year’s Self Denial: Missionary Appeal – members of the Church – Young & Old returned their envelopes and boxes in the hope that the money raised will allow others to experience the same style of life as every person who sat in that hall this morning.

Although I was busy helping the younger youth with Hazel, I know that the older youth worked on understanding The Bible some more – and I also know they enjoyed working on a ‘Holy Ground’ exercise – but they did miss Dean who was called into work at the last minute This Morning – but Maureen did a brilliant job serving up a lunch of Sausage Rolls and Chips later in the afternoon.

As I mentioned above I had a change of scene this week and worked with the smaller guys (and girls) who listened to a story about the ‘Seeds of God’ before doing some colouring and having a bit of good old fashioned Chill Out Time.

After Ted came downstairs to collect both groups, as he usually does we returned upstairs to tell the congregation about our learning exploits – and the older youth group – which are led by Corps Young People’s Sargent Major Roy showed off some pretty polished knowledge of Bible verses in and around the chronicling of The Creation.

After Barbara & Alan closed This Mornings meeting with The Benediction we went downstairs a revelled in some time to run off some steam before returning to school for another week.

See You Next Week

Jordan

—

In some more generalised information I would like to bring to your attention www.saclifton.org.gg which is the offcial website for The Corps – it is updated weekly with new Diary Dates and Weekly What’s On? Guides as well as providing a digital download of our Weekly Printout – provided by Graham ‘The Keep In Touch’.

I am also hoping to add Photo Galleries to the site during Special Events – and there is no better place to begin than with some panoramic views of Clifton Hall or Photos from the Easter Celebrations.

If you have any Questions or Queries regarding the Website then drop me and email at this address:

web.saclifton@gmail.com

Self Denial 09′ – What Can You Do?

Today, the second week of February saw the launch of this years ‘Self Denial’ Appeal. – this special event comes around every year just before the start of Lent. The Appeal lasts for a month and focuses on a different country and its charity projects – they range from building new Corps Buildings to buying new equipment for existing outreach and community programmes.

Majors Alan & Barbara led today’s Worship and introduced the appeal – its importance – and its aims.

We have envelopes and arty coin boxes for your cash – and the whole point is that you take something from your life, lets say Chocolate or Fizzy Drinks or (a more adult denial) that expensive new piece of jewelery or that really cool remote control car you saw in the window of WHSmith the other day!.. and you put the money you would’ve spent on your Chocolate or your Drink into your envelope or box – and if you continue to do this you will soon have quite a collection to give in on the 1st of March when the appeal wraps up – and all that money gets sent off to help The Salvation Army with its worldwide projects that will change the world.

The Church & Chips group was alot smaller than usual – and the main topic of conversation was the shocking downpour of the white stuff – which allowed us all to have two whole days off school (conversation was only heard between the rumbling elephants running from one room to another).

The meeting today mixed two styles of worship to create an explosion of Power and Praise – we had a more traditional element in the classic hymns and some brilliant flag-waving from the young people – after the flag waving and spending some time in quiet and reflective prayer we went downstairs to continue with our Mobilise Youth Ministry, this morning we worked on The Bible – its first 5 Books (The Law) and the differing translations. No, I am not talking about New Living and New Century and all those kinds of translations, I mean The Bible in other countries and locations – like the African Tribes who believe that knocking signifys the arrival of a theif so any part of The Bible that includes knocking has been changed to calling because that is what they believe.

Another example we looked at is The Bible in eskimo communities – who have never seen a Sheep so any verse in The Bible which reads ‘The Lamb of God’ is changed to ‘The Seal of God’ – because that is something they can relate too. And to fully understand the important teachings of The Lord you need to be able to relate it to your own life and the situations which you face.

During the session – which was led by Roy and Dean we had a go at paraphrasing sections of The Bible. – for example if you had to explain the Christmas Story to a person or a group of people who didn’t know what a Shepherd was then you would have to modify it so they can relate to it – Stuart (One of the Church & Chips Boys) put it like this

‘A Trained person who works with animals’.

I had a go at paraphrasing something myself, explaining Jesus and his forgiveness to people who live in the desert – Can you guess where it is from? *hint – Clean

‘Bathe me in the light of the Lord and I will shine gold like the grains of sand’.

After the lesson we shared our learnings with the Congregation – then went downstairs to enjoy a meal of Chicken Nuggets and Chips from our resident Master Chefs Dean & Maureen – after eating we ran out some energy ready for the week ahead, and the imminent arrival of Half Term – and I hope that this week brings you happiness and you can join us next week for another fulfilling week of Church & Chips action. !!

Jordan