Tuesday 15 March 2011

The vision of corporate prayer

We recently inherited a pile of old Leadership journals which were produced in the USA some years ago. The one I am browsing at the moment from 2001 is mainly about prayer and this paragraph caught my eye.

" Our individualistic culture robs us of a vision for corporate prayer. Private devotion is upheld as the ideal. But Scripture teaches that the church prayed together. And Jesus taught us to pray in a collective sense. The language of Matthew 6 is essentially , "When you pray, pray Our Father and "give us our daily bread" His ideal is that we pray in community. People who have considered this teaching have asked me "Which is more important, private or corporate prayer?" I respond, "Which leg do you need to walk on more, your right or your left?"

(by Daniel Henderson)


God bless

Carol

Friday 11 March 2011

A Salvation Army Story


On Monday it was our privilege to travel back to a previous appointment to attend the funeral of an amazing lady called Margaret. I have blogged about her and her great friend Myra before. Theirs is a great Salvation Army story. Margaret had been going through a tough time and was desperately unhappy. Her Salvationist neighbour Myra invited her to the Army where Margaret got saved and became a soldier.

Her life was transformed and because it was a practical option Margaret and Myra decided to flat share. They had a spare bedroom and this gave Margaret an idea. Soon each week that bedroom became the Sunday room and was full of children from the council estate enjoying Sunday school. To raise money for outings and equipment but also to meet a social need, "M and M" as we all called them, began clothing sales on the wall outside the Post Office. They stored the clothing in the flat so people from the estate could come at anytime if they were in need.

Soon all kinds of people were going to M and M's door for all kinds of things, not just clothes. A teenager who had been beaten by his Dad, a mother who had seen her husband taken into custody for child abuse and her children taken into care, an elderly lady who was in distress because her dog had died, another who had spent all her pension on the lottery. Having seen what M and M did for the children some of the women on the estate complained that there was nothing for them. A ladies fellowship begain in the lounge. It was soon packed to the rafters, so much so that when the DC visited he had to sit on the floor! In addition to all this they both worked tirelessly for the main corps and managed to look after our children and on a regular basis. The picture above is of Margaret, taken in a hospital in Romania that looked after babies with Aids.

And if ever people say they they do not have enough faith, enough energy, enough resources to do what God is telling them to do I say, "Let me tell you about two ladies........

God bless

Carol