Well, I can't believe how quickly the time flies. Since Sunday afternoon, Lee Abbey has been closed. "CLOSED" is normally a time for massive Deep Cleaning of the House to be undertaken by House Team. In my new Role as House Team Leader, it has been something I've been fretting about for quite some time.
On this occasion however, so many of my team were doing training such as First Aid or Food Hygiene etc, that the few of us that were left have had to work like crazy simply to get the Beacon in ship shape ready for tomorrow, and a get a good way into tomorrow's Changeover at the Main House (as there will probably only be 6 of us working as opposed to the usually 12+).
Despite the hard work, "CLOSED" is good for lie-ins. On House Team we start at 9:00am as opposed to 6:55am and morning prayers changes to 8:30am as opposed to 7:50am. The main carpets don't need to be hoovered daily, meal times are SO relaxed and jovial that "CLOSED" is just a very relaxing time - not to mention I can play the Grand Piano at 2:00am if I so wished without the fear of waking anybody. The Main House is eerily quiet at night though, I'm glad I don't live in it for such periods as these - especially with the nights drawing in.
To say I'm looking forward to going back to Leicestershire for a holiday next week would possibly be the understatement of the century! I can't wait to see family again (though it has to be said that the vast majority of my friends will still be at University).
I had one of the most profound moments of my entire life last week, which I hope to try and describe a little of in one of my posts. The Lord met me in a captivatingly intimate way and it's an experience, which has shaped my life powerfully. I have CERTAINLY fallen short since last week, but my ability to pick myself up and know myself loved by God seems to have increased tenfold! I'm especially prone to depression at the moment as am on some VERY powerful drugs (a consultant-level prescription for a skin condition affecting my scalp), these affect my mood (not to mention my skin) but even a weepy moment is soon sent packing when I recall what God did for me last week.
Watch this space...
If anyone is reading this website over the next few weeks...then please PLEASE pray for my time at home. It's always a shock-and-awe tactic by the devil who pounces on me in more ways than one whenever I leave the support systems of Lee Abbey for extended periods of time. Pray that I would actively demonstrate a new way of living by not succumbing the temptations he so readily puts before me.
I'm not sure if I ever followed-through with an update on what this "special spiritual experience was", but I readily recognise the date. I experienced Barry Kissell's healing ministry in all its fullness.
ReplyDeleteI, like many other members of community, ended up falling on the floor (fortunately caught in the armes of Danny, especially enlisted for this purpose) in a very special encounter with the Holy Spirit. While, many years later, I'm very cynical indeed of Christians who "frill-seek" such experiences, desperately hoping to collapse on the floor every Sunday, this really was a very special time.
Barry was able to speak into past wounds I had suffered as a child which he could not possibly have known about without a very special "word-of-knowledge" and it was very moving indeed, and even now, I have fond memories of this evening.