A very quick video bog about week two:

 

Welcome to The Cedars in London. This is an amazing stately old home.

And our living quarters are at the back (the lodge)

1Ki 19:9
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

The Lord Appears to Elijah

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1Ki 19:13
13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Our prayer to God is that he would let each of us know why he has brought us here.

Mission of the International College for Officers

The International College for Officers exists to further develop officers by:
1. Nurturing personal holiness and spiritual leadership
2. Providing opportunity to experience the internationalism of The Salvation Army
April
3. Encouraging a renewed sense of mission and purpose as an officer

and the vision

* An environment which is conducive to spiritual and physical rest
* Where each officer has the time to be alone and with others for prayer
* Study of God’s Word, and reflection on individual ministry;
* Exposure to the personnel and systems of the international Army

Video Blog

 

I‘ve always thought that London would be a horrific place to live… too many people… too much congestion (etc etc)

BUT

I’ve now seen its beauty, I’ve experienced the incredible people moving efficiency of its public transport and, most importantly, I’ve met some great hosts.

On our first Saturday Julian Watchorn has the dubious honour of guiding 25 others of us through the intricacies of the rail/tube and bus system so we could see a little of what London has to offer.

Julian (third from the left) has the patience of Job and I, for one, will forever be in his debt.

Here are some photos, not only of that trip of of subsequent excursions also.

Buckingham Palace

Changing of the Guards

The London Eye

Westminster

Victorian Toilets at Wesley Chapel

Preaching at the Wesley Museum

Couldn’t find that bear anywhere

or Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant for that matter!

Found a Harry Potter wannabe at King’s Cross Station though

New Zealand’s ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park

Hope you enjoy these.  More photos are available at the ICO Facebook page.

 

Since hearing of my appointment to The Salvation Army’s ICO about two years ago I have wondered and wondered why God would want me here.

Yesterday we were blessed to have a quiet day with God.  I read and I prayed and I listened.  I immersed myself in the Word.  Now I wouldn’t say it was an unsuccessful day but I had no epiphany.

But last night as I started to drop off to sleep, the ideas started to flow.  I woke myself up to jot down some notes as normally I wake up in the morning tearing my hair out trying to recall those really important thoughts from the night before.

Today, however, as I did my devotions I was prompted to the bookshelf in my room.  There on the shelf was a book by Peter Farthing in which he essentially  took Brengle’s writings, excerpted them and translated them to modern readable english.

As I read my heart leapt.  This is why.  (It even fits with a paper I promised myself I would write in my spare time while I’m here)

I love the Word of God and I have it on my heart to always preach accurate doctrine… the truth if you will.  But it is possible to harden your heart even when in the truth.  Also accurate doctrine doesn’t always inspire the flock.  But holiness…

A chorus from The Salvation Army’s Songbook came to mind.  I pray you feel the same as you read these words:

    All my days and all my hours,
    All my will and all my powers,
    All the passion of my soul,
    Not a fragment but the whole
    Shall be thine, dear Lord,
    Shall be thine, dear Lord.

I’m republishing this post as hopefully it will automatically appear on the ICO facebook page.

 

Since hearing of my appointment to The Salvation Army’s ICO about two years ago I have wondered and wondered why God would want me here.

Yesterday we were blessed to have a quiet day with God.  I read and I prayed and I listened.  I immersed myself in the Word.  Now I wouldn’t say it was an unsuccessful day but I had no epiphany.

But last night as I started to drop off to sleep, the ideas started to flow.  I woke myself up to jot down some notes as normally I wake up in the morning tearing my hair out trying to recall those really important thoughts from the night before.

Today, however, as I did my devotions I was prompted to the bookshelf in my room.  There on the shelf was a book by Peter Farthing in which he essentially  took Brengle’s writings, excerpted them and translated them to modern readable english.

As I read my heart leapt.  This is why.  (It even fits with a paper I promised myself I would write in my spare time while I’m here)

I love the Word of God and I have it on my heart to always preach accurate doctrine… the truth if you will.  But it is possible to harden your heart even when in the truth.  Also accurate doctrine doesn’t always inspire the flock.  But holiness…

A chorus from The Salvation Army’s Songbook came to mind.  I pray you feel the same as you read these words:

    All my days and all my hours,
    All my will and all my powers,
    All the passion of my soul,
    Not a fragment but the whole
    Shall be thine, dear Lord,
    Shall be thine, dear Lord.

I’m republishing this post as hopefully it will automatically appear on the ICO facebook page.

 

A really big shout out to my beautiful daughter Gabi.  I’m missing you so much and can’t wait til you get over here too!

Today we had a quiet day…  A day to simply be with the Lord.  I’ll write about it in a separate post but part of what I did was go for a walk in the Sydenham Wood.

I saw lots of squirrels…

but unfortunately also a fair few rats…  BIG rats…

I’ve also seen quite a few foxes, not in the wood but right around the lodge where we sleep.  Unfortunately they don’t seem inclined to want to be photographed but if I manage to catch one on film I’ll put it up later.

God bless

 

Or maybe that should be day three by now…  With these changing time zones, who knows!

No photo of the Malaysia Airlines 747 that carried me from Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow in London.  We took off in the dark and we anded 13 hours later in the dark.  Yes, night time chased us all the way.

One really good thing and a few curious things:

Good

I had more leg/knee room in the 747 compared to the 777 that took us from Auckland to KL.  I’m not sure if the seats were a bit further apart or if it was because the 747 didn’t have a footrest on the seat in front.  (The footrest on the 777 wasn’t sitting snugly up where it should and I had my shins/knees pushed up against it pretty much the whole flight.)

Curious

Looking at a map I would have thought the KL to London trip would have taken us over the Mediterranean Sea but it actually took us much further north and we even flew over the lower part of Russia, Afghanistan and Belgium.  I guess flat maps are quite misleadng!

When we arrived at Heathrow after clearing Passport control and picking up my bag I headed off to Customs to declare a couple of  things I was carrying.  Go figure but there was nobody there at all.  We all just walked out into the public area.  Wow… talk about protecting the borders etc.  I’ll look at that reality programme on TV with different eyes now.

Right now I’m having a cup of Hot Chocolate waiting for our first session to start (at 4pm local time).  We’ve been promised an easy evening which is just as well.  I really need to have a kip soon.

Catch ya all later.  I’ll put up some pictures of ICO tomorrow and let you know what I’m going to be up to.

 

Day One:

Travelled from Napier to Wellington on an Air New Zealand Bombardier. Flight time was only 45 minutes, a window seat (the only negative because I much prefer the aisle) cloudless skies and a great landing.

Then over nighted in Wellington with son and daughter-in-law, Ant and Claire (thanks guys).

Day Two:

Ant took me to the airport nice and early.  Oops, I left my phone and charger on their kitchen bench!  A rush back and then to the airport.

At the airport caught up with Raewyn’s brother and family (Kelvin, Wendy and Bradley) who are heading up to Auckland on an earlier flight… and then off to Malaysia… would you believe it… on the same flight out of Auckland as me!

Got to Auckland with three hours to spare before the Malaysian Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur.  Went through immigration with my brand new e-passport.  Got to scan it myself and then “stand on the red footprints and look directly into the camera.”  Didn’t work – maybe I’m the invisible man?  Oh well… Had to actually deal with a real live person to get through! 

Waiting in the departures lounge thought I’d see how my beloved RedSox are going in the fourth game of the season.  Oops… looks like they could well be 0-4 soon.  Thankfully the boarding call came so I had an excuse to turn it off.

On the flight.  Margi back in Napier had told me the thing she recalled about going Malaysian Airlines one time was cold fish and cold cauliflower.  Well Margi. I wish you’d eaten all your cauli because they served it up to me… still cold.  That said the crew and the flight have been great so far.  I’ve managed to watch three episodes of The Big Bang Theory.  Loving it.

Without a doubt the only negative to this trip is being apart from family for so long.  I’ve had a few phone farewells with Raewyn since I left.  I got a bit teary and I already miss her heaps.  Love ya honey. 

 

I love technology.  There’s no hiding it.  But even more, I love the mobile gadgets that let me stay in touch, do work, blog…  OK, and play games… when I’m away from the office or home.

I’ve got my Samsung Galaxy S smartphone, rooted with a special Ice Cream Sandwich ROM.

I’m typing this on an ASUS Transformer also running the Android ICS operating system.  With this little beauty I can take the screen off the device and use it as a tablet (think iPad if you’re an Apple loving, technological heathen).  There’s a battery in the tablet and in the dock, therby doubling the time I can operate on battery. In fact, when you re-dock you can actually see the battery state increase back towards 100% even as you use it without the charger! (What you don’t see, of course, is the dock battery reducing by a similar amount as its charge is transferred to the tablets battery)

Currently I’m sitting at Wellington Airport waiting for my flight to Auckland.  From there, I’m off to London for three months.

The only issue with this mobile technology…

I just about need an extra piece of luggage to hold all the cords and plugs and adaptors that these things need to operate past their battery life.

 

Title

The Grace Effect

Author

Larry Alex Taunton

Summary

In this book Larry Taunton explores the the connection between Judeo/Christian  based society and those that are based on an atheistic world view.  His premise is that without the common grace of God, societies fall into a corrupt, me first culture, especially amongst the eople who hold the power.

Taunton’s mixing of theoretical debates with Christopher Hitchens and historical information on the Ukraine is masterfully done.  Intertwined with the intellectual debate is the story of a little orphaned Ukranian girl, Sasha and the battle to adopt her to a Christian family from the USA.

My Reaction

There seem to be so many “Christian” books around now.  Maybe even too many.  Maybe even many that claim to be Christian but espouse New Age and non-Biblical doctrine.

So it’s refreshing to stumble onto a book like this.  I rate it 5 stars!

Yes, OK, I often come from an intellectual side and this book definitely satisfies that.  The debates and the history lessons are very good.  BUT… the incredibly emotional story of Sasha draws you in and you become emotionally conected.  In fact, by the time I’d finished reading I even felt ownership.  And I’m pretty sure anyone else who picks it up will feel the same way.

Take my advice – Get a copy of this book – you won’t be able to put it down. (What a cliche!)

Disclosure:
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”