Choice Words

It is 11:38pm…. Jordan is in the Lounge writing his usual Blog post while watching ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’ waiting to welcome in another Month of 2008… They are coming and going so fast and of course christen another of our Blog Archives, which hold all the nutritional goodness of the past 7 Months of Blog… Bored, so am I! lets get on with it!

Church & Chips is a really good way to round off your busy week, because it allows you to spend some Quality time with God in a familiar envoirment with some of the best mates you will ever make in your entire life (OK – Im exagurating, what you gonna’ do … ive got the password) but honestly its brilliant because it brings together the Young and the…. Not So Young to worship as one.

Before the Church & Chips group is released on the Worship Hall we spend some time every week to chill out and prepare to listen to what God has to teach, this could mean a Game of Pool, Table Football or Guitar Hero (yes, it wasnt dead for long! .

Victoria opened the morning with another happy face and some choice words about the Football which Spain will win (Edit: I was correct!) and because we were in a particularly happy mood we sang two action songs – one old, one new and spent some time in prayer thanking and rejoycing in the power of the Lord… of course before we went downstairs we sang some classic hymns so not to lose sight of the older generation of praise music..

The group then transferred themselves down into their class areas for Junior Soldiers and Primary Sunday School sessions, ours (Junior Soldiers) was led by Anne & Kelvin and was very cool because they brought the topic of the session into the age group perfectly. The session was about Choices and Anne provided us with several tubs of our favourite sweets, (Cola Bottles, Flying Saucers, Strawberry Laces etc.) and told us to each pick one.. some found it easier than others and some decided straight away, we learned how choices affect us and how we were given Free Will by God when we he created us and our amazing home Earth.

We have the Choice to mould our lives to God’s plan or go our own way, but one thing will stay the same, whatever choices we make God will always be there – he never turns his back and never denies us his love, care and wisdom. What we do with these choices is a choice in itself because we are not Robots and God trusts us to make our own judgements.. helping us along the path with his word The Holy Bible.

Anne asked us Questions, normal questions that we encounter on a daily basis, such as What colour underpants to wear or what type of Cereal to eat in the morning – we also talked at length about Choices we make and the consequences that follow, we mainly chatted about Crime and its Punishments as this is the perfect example of big Choices and Concequences.

After the session we rejoined the main worship Family (I make a point to put that in at least once a week) and closed our time together in prayer, praise and diliberation before moving downstairs once again to enjoy the more social side of Church & Chips and of course The Chips (and Chicken Dippers) – which tasted pretty good if I say so myself.

Ben and Stuart enjoyed exploring more about the Drums with a proper teacher, and Roy, Keith and some others enjoyed messing around with some abstract musical instruments which I have forgotten the name of… sorry terrible memory, this has been published 2 days after… so I think I can be forgiven.

Finally, I would like to apologise for the late publication of this weeks Blog post but again, technology failed me this weekend and I was unable to access the Blog throughout the rest of Sunday and the whole of Monday.. but here it is, better late than never.

Now to walk the Dog….!

Have a Brilliant Start to the Month and I will see you all here next week for another edition of the Blog

Goodbye June, hello July.

Jordan

Fish Fingers, Bible Exploration and Glitchy Games

This was the main jist of today’s Church & Chips… Maureen & Dean were away… is God trying to tell us something?

I am writing this at 3:42pm on Sunday June 22nd 2008, at least 3 hours after the doors of Clifton Hall have closed for another week. (Come on, I needed some time to recover!) today’s C&C Group was missing a couple of its regulars as some went off to explore Herm Island and others were at Scout Camp… one was all the way in France, but we soldiered on as usual and spent some time chilling out before the meeting began to get rid of any pent up energy…. Morgan was beaten well and truely at GH2 by Girls and Boys respectivley and I was mashed by the Computer at Wii Sports Baseball (you cant win them all!) through all of this two girls played on their DS’ and others had a game of Pool missing a couple of balls after they went on a journey on Friday Night.

After everyone upstairs was prepared, we spilled out onto the top floor to join in with the beginning of Morning Worship and it began with a more traditional Hymn… and of course the always cheery Victoria welcoming us in the only way she knows….HAPPILY

Before we went downstairs and split into our little groups for a more personal study with God we sang one of our favourite Action Songs.. which were sadly missed by many last week as we came together with L’islet Corps for the visit of the Territorial Commander and his brigade (See ‘Daddy Day.’) – we all sang together the very hand-jive monster mash masterpeice that is ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’.

After a small but meaningful prayer time, welcoming the new children who have just joined us for the rollercoaster ride of learning about our Lord and Jesus and sang another hymn, which is well known by many of the children as one of the hymns they sing at Primary School, but we sang it differently… (‘Cause thats how we roll Dawg’) we sang it as a Round… and as each side of the worship hall joined in I really felt a community warmth and spirit… then I thought, we are much more than a Community – we are a family.

Then came the time we went downstairs to enjoy our Sunday School Class with the S-team (:-)

Captain Kelvin, Roy & Anne! – today the Junior Soldiers learned about following Gods Word and living the way God wants us to, and how The Bible gives advice and is really a handbook to the Christian Lifestyle. After playing a game which involves Biblical Heroes (Ruth, Noah, Moses, Samson etc.) we got down to some good old fashioned Scripture Reading, looking through some passages in the ‘Good Book’ and discussing them together, as a group… I did fall over and nearly squash Franki – here is my public apology.

As usual, after spending time upstairs we rejoined the main worship and shared the Benediction together to close the meeting – which allowed us to go downstairs to enjoy Fish Fingers & Chips and an afternoon of runny-jumpy-stuff (sadly, this included the demise of Guitar Hero) one of the best Playstation Games ever created by the human mind. – ask Francesca, she would say the same… and maybe Victoria if you poked her enough!

My final thoughts for this week include how the adults didnt know who was cooking for the kids so we ended up having a late dinner…. I laughed – me and Flic enjoyed a game of throw the Chicken Crisps accross the room and see if they bounce, what can I say… we are mad.

JD

Daddy Day.

Sunday June 15th always has a very special meaning, but today it was even more important to the humble flock at Clifton Community Church. Because the Territorial Commander and his brigade were in Guernsey to visit the two Guernsey Corps (or ‘Big Boss Man’ – as I called him). Because of the TC’s visit both Clifton and L’islet Corps joined in United Worship today. The hall was packed (ive only ever seen it that full at Christmas) and the kids were on their best behaviour. (well, maybe that was asking too much?).

Before the meeting today was a chance to blow off some steam before learning about Jesus, and meet some newcomers who had come for the very first time (Id namecheck them but Im terrible with names) and of course a good game of Pool, and a couple of notes of GH.

We went upstairs to hear the opening message from the TC, say hello, all the usual stuff… we sang a couple of traditional churchy hymns and spent some time in prayer… opening our hearts and minds to the touch of God on this special day, spent in celebration of both our Earthly and Spiritual Fathers.

Kelvin & Dean led our Youth Sunday School Group today, and we spent some time exploring what God had set out for us to explore, we played a brilliant circle-time type game in which the circle have to follow the actions of one person and another has to guess (I completely owned everybody with my action).

After the games the group worked on some drama type peices, both involving storytelling and ‘Audience Participation’ – it worked well with us because it involved shouting… and shouting is always good when worshipping God.

Kelvin then showed us how to make those cool little people… you draw one and cut it and you end up with loads…. pretty groundbreaking stuff, after everybody cut these people out (we ended up with some odd shaped heads, hands and legs – but we got there in the end) to complete Kelvins little craft activity. We wrote the words Jesus :: Jordan :: and two other names of the people we wanted to tell about God this week… seems hard but God will give us the strength to do the job.

We didnt go back upstairs into the meeting, we stayed downstairs and let the smell of freshly cooked sausage and chips envelope us as we played Pool, Guitar Hero 2 and just relaxed before another week of School… wait… NOPE (well the rest of you have!).. sorry for being big headed.. you know what im like

stay tuned, see you next week.

Enjoy

Jordan

G.O.D

Have you ever walked into a place and felt you are completely and utterly welcome?, hopefully you have experienced that… because, I have to confess – I feel like that every time I pass through those big white Doors to Clifton Hall and today was no different. From walking in at the beginning to walking out to face another week at the end, that feeling never left my heart.

Another thing that makes Church & Chips so special to each and every person who comes every week is that – not only are you learning about God and what he wants us to do with our lives – which are like blank canvasses, waiting for our futures to be painted on by the master artist but we are learning together as one big Family – (There you Go Victoria, hope that put a smile on your face). We are not split for the whole service – yes we do split during our teaching time – but we do assemble to learn and worship and praise.

I just hope next weeks ‘Special Visitor’ really gets a true taste of Clifton Hall as we join with L’islet Corps to worship together for one special week of United Praise.

Victoria & Kelvin picked up the reigns again this week after the inspirational visit of Jane Kimberly last week and led our meeting, and as always to begin our fresh morning of learning and of course (one of the most mentioned, yet important words to ever be typed on this blog) Praise – with quite a marathon of Traditional Hymns and Action Songs… and just has we went to sit down, to rest those tired legs – a nice quiet Prayer Time was placed on top. (Surely you put the most important thing first?.. what do I Know?!)

Downstairs in our Junior Soldier’s Mobilise. session we looked at another of The Salvation Army’s Doctrines. (posh, uneeded word for rules methinks.) which is focused on Abstinence. (Not drinking a single drop of Achohol) and how we enforce this rule, because of the damage it does to the human body but also the families who have to pick up the pieces for someone who has a drinking problem.

During the session, we had a look at the statistics and took some time to share some personal stories (no, we are not young drinkers!.. before all the complaints come flooding in!), and of course Anne Watt (Ex-CrimeKiller) shared some of her stories from when she was wearing that blue uniform.

Before we finished up and returned to close the meeting with the rest of the Congregation – we looked into what The Bible Aka. ‘Gods Mega Massive Instruction Book’ said on the subject of Alcohol and then shared this with the group upstairs.

As Usual Dean & Maureen outshone themselves with the C&C Post-Meeting Meal (Chicken Burgers and Chips) and we spent some time socialising before we all parted for the week ahead… another School Week and more exams for some people.. but of course our Liberator and his Father will watch over us.

Till Nex Wee

Jordan

I just want to take some time to wish Anne & Terry, Good luck with their new arrivals from Russia this Evening, and they will be in my prayers as they really brighten the lives of children who come from an area in which none of us have ever really experienced.

Set 2 Inspire.

Its the 1st of June 2008, its 3:45pm and its time for another groundbreaking C&C Blog Report Posty Thing. And this weeks caps of an absolutely brilliant weekend spent in the company of God who was really ‘Set 2 Inspire’, using the Ministry of Major Jane Kimberly to do it. As I mentioned some of us have spent the weekend at The Cotils for our Annual Corps Retreat, and although it has nothing really to do with the youth of the Church – because it is more of an adult thing… I thought it was important to mention it because of the visible impact it left on people, it really refreshed peoples hunger to be taught by The Lord. And it was obvious that he was working within us during the time we spent together – Thank You to all who made that time as special as it was… to everybody, old and young.

Jane led our worship today, which was a welcome change – and a rest for Kelvin and Victoria and although I didn’t get to hear alot of her message I do know that contributions from the retreat weekend were used as reflection material. – we started the meeting with one of the Corps favorite hymns ‘Shine, Jesus Shine’, and what a belter it was. The Hall was alive with the refreshing and powerful praise that makes Clifton such an amazing place to be on a Sunday morning. This was followed with a peaceful time of prayer… we made that special connection with God, asking for his watchful eye over our Worship and of course the week ahead. Which will challenge us – both our Spiritual and Physical beings, no doubt – until we meet again next Sunday. 

Today was another special occasion because Dean returned from one of his mammoth work trips from Alderney and we saw  the re-formation of ‘Boys Aloud’ as we sang one of our favorite Doug Horley action songs.. with the fun addition of a massive set of Blow Up Air Guitars and Microphones! (Church never gets boring!). Once we had really opened up worship in a truely Breathtaking and Exciting way, we parted ways into our seperate Youth Fellowship Groups to learn about our Lord and explore what God has to teach us at the beginning of our spiritual, lifelong journeys with him.

In the Basement we worked with Anne and Kelvin to read a Psalm (Im sorry, the number has slipped my mind) – we then worked as a team to illustrate the different verses on a big landscape poster to show the rest of the congregation at the end of the meeting… I believe it has been put on display somewhere in the Hall if you wish to have a look at what became quite a masterpiece. 

After we re-joined the group to close the mornings Worship – we showed off our illustrations of the Psalm and Kelvin read it out and explained the pictures a bit more… it was one of my favorite moments of today because we got to see what images the Psalm brought to the minds of different people… we had Geeks, Red Cheeked Kids and loads more – it really shows a more creative way to explore Gods Word. 

After we closed the meeting in Prayer – everybody went downstairs to enjoy a meal of Sausage and Chips and of course spend a little bit of time with friends.. in a more social envoirment.. some looking forward to going back to school, others dreading it, but they got to spend a little bit of relaxing time with The Lord and with his help and awesome power are ready for the week ahead…. 

until we meet again. 

Jordan