The Jesus Wave

We are on the Crest of The Jesus Wave. 

 Today (Sunday, March 30th) was the day The Clocks went Forward so it was no surprise that only a few of our Church & Chips group actually turned up. Those who did had a really brilliant time because the tone was different this week… last week was the celebration of Holy Week – and most importantly the Ressuerection of Jesus and New Life. But this week was very relaxed, messages of last week still in the minds of adults and children alike but we just took some time to relax and worship in a way that was comfortable for us – both old and young, and to either resume or begin our journey with God in which we will discover something new every single day.

Around 10 young people were part of the service today, which was led by Kelvin because Victoria was away in Cyprus – we had a laugh and a joke before we went upstairs and I asked a few people after the service and they seemed to enjoy it – I certainly did! then the Primary and Youth Groups (Including the New Junior Soldiers! – well some of them) all went downstairs to discover what they would be learning about in their sunday school class. – because Victoria was away, Kelvin stayed upstairs and led the rest of the meeting, leaving the two Anne’s (Le Marchant & Watt) to help us start on our new Mobilise! Course Books – mainly talking of the Bible and how it helps Christians of any age in daily life. we read a Bible verse ‘Your Word is a Lamp to Guide me’ and played a little game with what seemed like a small Library of books! 

Anne Set us a little challenge to complete this week – a little Bible Exploration Challenge – and me being the complete and utter Rebel I am (or think I am) I have decided to help everybody out and post the complete Bible passage on the Blog! so here it goes:

THE CHALLENGE: Read Nehemiah Chapter 8 – Verses 1-3 and copy out Verse 3 for next week

THE ANSWER: ‘All the people of Israel gathered together in the square by the water gate, they asked Ezra the Teacher to bring out

The Book of the Teachings of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel – so on the first day of the seventh month,  Ezra the Priest brought out the teachings for the crowd, Men, Women and and all who could listen and understand had gathered’

We also worked on a small peice of Drama about a young girl called Mary who was facinated by the Bible and wanted a copy for her own in her native tongue – so she saved every penny she got from doing various chores and jobs for six whole years, then walked over 20 miles to go to the town in which the Bible seller lived, she got a bible and the man who had sold it to her was so inspired by her love of God and need for a Bible that he went on to build one of the biggest companies for Bible translations.

 We then went back upstairs and performed this drama to the gathering (I dislike the word Congregation – plus I never spell it right) After we finished the drama piece we sang ‘One More Step’ – a Hymn I remember from my primary school days and it was refreshing to sing it again – Kelvin closed the meeting in Prayer and we went downstairs to socialise with our mates and eat dinner (which was prepared solely by Maureen as Dean had to work!).

Just a little word before I sign off:

I am away on the 15th April for 10 days so although the Church & Chips will be continuing over Easter – their will not be a blog post until I return on 25th April. and also I believe that our previous Salvation Army Captains arrive on the Island on Friday (James & Penny Van Cleef) so no doubt we will see them this Sunday and that Kelvin, Victoria and The Girls are away in England for the Easter Holidays.

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I Hope you enjoyed this weeks Editon.

Jordan  

 

 

We are on the Crest of The Jesus Wave. We will be together when it Crashes down.

Bringing Heaven With it!

   

Are You Amazed? – The Story of The Ultimate Sacrifice….

All The Nations of The World will Be Amazed.

 He still had the scars, the wounds – to show us that he was ready to sacrifice himself for the Future of the Earth – but that didn’t matter to him, what mattered was he Rose from the grave to show his power – to show everybody that he was truly the Messiah, The Son Of David – The Son Of God and that by giving up his life in the flesh to defeat Sin. 

That was what we came together to celebrate – and it really was a celebration – not only was the regular congregation there but they brought family members and friends to join in with this inspirational time, The Children came together to celebrate too – but before I get into the amazing ‘Resurrection Rock’  we watched an amazing, I mean utterly Amazing video that really put into perspective the final days of Jesus’ before WE – yes WE put him to death for something we didnt understand at the time, I didn’t mean us literally I meant our ancestors.. but you get the picture.

The Children put this time into a fun, new and exciting way – singing their favorite Worship & Prayer songs – praising Jesus in a way that really made sense to them. As well as singing we listened to them really give their hearts to Jesus using Testimonies and Prayer – You could really feel Jesus working in the people who were gathered at Clifton today – from the smallest to the biggest, from the youngest to the oldest. 

Victoria led the Enrollment Ceremony which saw 7 New Junior Soldiers welcomed as fully-fledged members of the Salvation Army, with the flag flying and everything! and Francesca sang ‘Abba, Father’ which touched many hearts and Roy and I both prayed for the new members (Roy prayed in a more conventional way, whereas I… well you all know what I did).

Afterwards the Group of Children Prayed and shared Testimonies – which ranged from Thanking Jesus for Busted, to Family or the funniest Toilets! and I shared mine, which I shared for the first time in the Four years I have been Enrolled as a Junior Soldier and when I wrote it…. it seemed wrong and over the top, but judging by the reaction it got… it seemed to be just the right words at the right moment. for everybody what was said came from the heart – we spoke freely about our relationship with God and every single person in that hall enjoyed every second of it.

After the Children’s Invasion had been cleared from the stage – which had been set with the scene of Jesus’ Tomb in which he had risen from – STUFFING THE ENEMY and showing his absolute Brilliance!, Victoria spoke about the other really cool thing about Easter – Which can sometimes cloud the real purpose of the festival. THE CHOCOLATE! and put her points across using something that we can all relate to – and hopefully, if you are reading this – those words really meant something to you – they did to me, well the whole day meant the world to me. It was an eye opener and it has changed my life forever – for the better.

We are on the crest of the Jesus Wave – and we will be together when it crashes down – bringing Heaven with it!

I hope today meant as much to you as it did to me.

feel free to download the special wallpaper I designed using elements of those amazing worship video – I will post some new ones on the forum later this week – the new forum is located at www.thechipshop.co.nr 

 

 

 

Palms & Psalms.

Welcome to another Edition of the Offcial Church & Chips Blog – We have now generated over 380 hits and I have posted an article a week for 3 months! – It is now offcial, I have no life outside Clifton.

Again I have to apologise for the lack of Chipwrapper again this week – although it didnt stop it getting printed eh Kelvin! this break is due to my computer being a computer and not working when you need it most.

Today (Sunday March 16th 2008) is Palm Sunday the beginning of the Holy Week and remembering Jesus’ final week living on his Fathers Creation and it is a day that his held dear by many as in this week Jesus took our Sin and wiped the floor with it ‘Stuff the Enemy, God has set me Free Now!’ - we are celebrating as one this week, the most important events in the Christian Calendar.

When I arrived Jordan & Morgan were wrestling – that ended in a bit of turmoil – and Francesca, Felicity & Hannah had ripped part of the pool table Cloth – I just knew it was going to be a day to remember. Guitar Hero has been played into the ground over the past few weeks and Francesca continued her domination – she really needs to change her difficulty!

We went upstairs when everybody, minus a few – had arrived and joined with everyone to celebrate Jesus riding a Donkey into the town in which would later become a place that he would have a deathmatch with sin and come out on top! he road in as a king and came out as a saviour – What a Man!

We sang a few hymns that really set the tone for the day – including the round that got so many of the boys excited then split into two groups – Primary & Youth – to work on our Sunday School classes – the younger group working hard on getting to grips with the story of the Palms with the Amazing Bubbles childrens activity storybook.

The Youth worked hard on ‘Ressurection Rock’ which has become more of a home-grown production than first thought! with the group learning the full routine to ‘Jump Up!’ (we remembered stuff we forgot there!) and wrote testimony’s and prayers to be spoken in the meeting alongside the welcoming of new Junior Soldiers – thats right – its finally here!

Do you think we will get to the number of JS’ as Dunstable Victoria?

When we had done as much as possible downstairs we came back up to join the meeting again – finishing it off with another rendition of the round and a final Blessing that was in the air hours after the meeting had finished. – once downstairs we had lunch, played pool and hid bags (or was that just me) and generally enjoyed each others company before another week of School (and in some cases Work). We didnt play with anything on the middle floor but used the chairs and tables to create quite a remarkable fort!

This week will see a long weekend (Bliss!) with Good Friday, The Church & Chips 1st Birthday and Easter Sunday hitting home – please remember to check the Blog on Saturday as well as Sunday as I am on location for the blog and hope to catch every last second of Bowling action for your eyes to enjoy – you never know we might be able to debut the blogs picture gallery if I can get hold of a camera!

Have a Good Week – Keep Praying – Easter is on Its way, lets not forget its message.

thanks for the continued Support.

Jordan.

The Spirit is Moving…

I would just like to take some time this week before getting into the Blog to apolgise to the readers as due to unforseen cuircumstances I was unable to attach last weeks Chipwrapper.

On a lighter note the Blog has hit over 337 Hits as I write this week.

The Spirit Is Moving…

Today (9th March 2008) topped off a brilliant weekend for me this weekend – after the fun and chaos of Friday Night into the brilliantly inspirational Saturday in Jersey with One Way UK and this amazingly uplifting Church & Chips – the message of Easter is really getting into peoples minds as we get ready to ‘Take the Sting from Death’ with Jesus.

Today started like any other day – with Francesca enforcing her Guitar Hero record and the rest of the gang running around or watching one of the many pool games – some of them coming out with better results than the Football this weekend.

Upstairs we looked at the Final Self Denial country Paraguay and Adults & Children alike leaving their offering money boxes or envelopes on the table to be sent to people who really need it to extend their relationship with The Lord and hopefully build a Worshipping community a little bit like the one we are part of every week

Salvation Army Clifton: The Best Church in The World.

Paraguay really touched my heart today as I think that having the oppurtunity to Praise Jesus is nearly as important if not more important than having access to a constant source of Education and Lifeskills and the money we gave last year helped them to build a bigger Corps Hall – resulting in the community growing – The Lords Family never stops growing.

After closing the Self Denial Appeal with  Prayer Time lead by Kelvin we all had a good sing song – then – disaster struck – Victoria announced she was leading the Youth Sunday School, this was met with an unexpected (and unprovoked I might add) chant of ‘We Want Kelvin’ leaving Victoria confused.

We soon got over it and began to practice for our Easter Performance – choosing songs and writing heartfelt Testimonys to be read and performed during our Easter Sunday Celebration – Which will include the Enrollment of new Junior Soldiers and a family mealtime.

When we returned upstairs to join the group – The Primary Group where explaining to us about Zach – He has a long name which I cannot spell so Im not going to try. How he was a tax collector and he heard that Jesus was passing through the town in which he worked and went to speak to him – they ended up having dinner together.

Downstairs we had a meal of Pizza & Chips and enjoyed socialising with the friends we have made over the first Year of Church & Chips – yes Church & Chips has been going for one whole year! more details on how we are celebrating that will be revealed in due course! – if not I will tell you anyway.

The Cranium Super Fort ended up as a swordfight with Both Victoria, Dean, Roy and I feeling some pain at the hands of the little magnets on the end of the foam tubing!

Thanks for a Brilliant Weekend – all who have been involved – and of course the amazing support you have given the blog over its founding months – now three months in please still keep this on your reccomended reading lists as your hits make this worthwhile.

Jordan

Mothers Day: Church & Chips Style!

Today (2nd March 2008) is Mothers Day – The day when we take some time to really apprieciate what our Mums do for us on a daily basis, from the most extraordinary stuff to the things we take for granted. Before I was picked up for Church & Chips I made sure I gave my mum a hug and her card – before leaving her with the Dog and darting off to enjoy what has swiftly (along with Friday Nights) become the highlight of my week.  – What have you done to make your mum feel extra special today?, leave your comments at the bottom of this page.

I was exploring the blog today – just before I wrote this weeks Church & Chips Report – and I noticed that the hit count has a special connection with the Junior Soldiers this week 316 the reason for this being that we got to grips with the Bible this week in preparation for the Enrollment of the Junior Soldiers on Easter Sunday and we read my all time ultimate favourite bible verse in the universe John 3:16 along with 2 Timothy and some from the gospel of Mark.

This morning Roy, Dot, Alf and Myself were the first people to get to the hall  – closely followed by Victoria, Kelvin and the Girls and from that moment our feet never touched the ground – we let off a little bit of steam this morning with Francesca trying to take pictures of us running around like headless chickens – and Felicity trying to barracade Morgan into the Boys Toilets!, when the whole crew (but a few) had arrived we joined the Adults in the first stages of Worship – the landscape outside was an ugly grey but we carried on regardless – letting the light of the Lord wash over us – cleaning away our impurities and touching us like only he can before the day (and week ahead).

Before we went downstairs Kelvin asked us why we think our Mums are special – and he got some mixed responses – from I Dont Know’s to She Gives Me Money!  and we carried those thoughts downstairs ,  only switching the focus to Jesus and how he loves us in a special way – expressing that love in The Bible and in Prayer.

The Primary Group looked at Bringing The Children to Jesus – the story in The Bible of the Follower who thought Jesus was too busy to speak to the Children,  Jesus told him that was not the case and that the Christian Faith will grow through the Generations – and The Children are the very Beginning.

We had Lunch together and had a good old time with the traditional Chicken Nuggets & Chips and although we were in a different mood – brains switched into ‘Have as much fun before school starts mode’ the messages of the day where still floating around – Even when the funky Cranium & Twister Moves! dance games made an appearance!

Hope you have a Good Week and Remember to Download your printable Chipwrapper to read at Work.. or whatever! and sign up for the new C&C Offcial Discussion Forum which I have christened The Chip Shop

Hope it all goes well this Week! and Thanks for the Comments & Continued Support of The Blog -

Couldnt do it without you……well I could – it just wouldnt be as fun!

Jordan Dodsworth & The Motley Crew!