Wednesday, April 27, 2005

And Finally....

I will tell the world what happened. It's sort of semi-official, I told my vocations consultant yesterday and basically he now knows. That doesn't mean that things are sorted, b/c as you will see from this post (warning! Long!) it's rather complicated.

So here goes, for simplicity's sake, I am going to paste parts of what I put into my journal.

This all happened at Spring Harvest, at the beginning/middle of this month.

Thursday

I went to a seminar on prayer and posture. One of the excercises was “cupping your hands as if you were holding a butterfly or something else delicate, putting your passion/dream/loved one in there and then let them/it go to God”. I put my ministry in there and it took me a long while until I could let it go to God. I realised that I had been holding on to this and acting out of my own strength.

Friday

The evening celebration was led by Chrissie and Gerard Kelly and Mia Hilborn (anglican vicar) was preaching. Halfway through the evening I felt God was telling me to go up to Chrissie and tell her five things that God would do in her life. As it turned out, two of which she’s already walking in. But I thought I can’t do this, this is like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs etc. I nearly didn’t do it in fact. I had to wait b/c she was talking to someone else and I very very nearly walked away. Anyways, I didn’t and it turned out that she and Gerard had handed in their notice at SH leadership in order to pursue different avenues. And the day before they had been walking along the beach and praying that God would send guidance as to what she should do in particular, as this new avenue was more for Gerard than for her.

So we ended up chatting a bit and I mentioned in passing that I wanted to talk to Mia as she is where I want to get - vicar in the CofE. But I thought that she had already left anyways, so I never thought about it that much. But soon after, she walked past and Chrissie grabbed her and introduced me.

Mia asked what she could do for me and I said that I would just like a tip or two as I was in the process for ordination selection and am a bit stuck. she asked what diocese I was in and I answered “Chichester” to which she replied “oh dear”. And then she asked me if I had a mobile number and if she could have it as she would pass it on to Pete Broadbent. He would then ring me, as he could give me better advice than her. I forgot about it b/c I thought oh well he’s real busy as a bishop and being SH leadership and running seminars etc.

Saturday

I’m standing at the bar in the “Sun and Moon” pub when my mobile goes: “Hello this is Pete Broadbent here I’m trying to contact Katrin. Where are you?” (I’m in the pub bishop!). “oh so you’re in the pub. Will you be there long? I’ll come right now and see you”.

what then followed is not easily recorded. Basically, we chatted for a little while, I told him about my problems with Chichester and my Director of Ordinands, he got rather indignant, especially when he found out that I was 29 and they put me off for a year. Then he proceeded to tell me that if I thought that God was calling me to worship in Willesden, he could do something about this. Anyways, he said for me to pray about it and speak to my vicar, and get back to him. He basically said if I decided to go for it there would be a good chance he could get me in this year, and even if he can’t he’ll find me a job for a year.

With that he left. And left me dumbstruck.

Sunday

After the morning celebration I decide to catch Chrissie b/c I couldn’t face the evening yesterday after all that happened.

Mia comes off stage first: “Oh I heard that you spoke to Pete. He was very impressed. He means what he says, you know.”

Then Chrissie: “Oh Katrin. I heard you spoke to Pete. It was real funny b/c we were sitting together yesterday and I said to him there’s this German girl who gave me this great prophecy just when I needed it. And he said Oh I also spoke to a German girl today - I wonder if she’s the same. Must be. I was very impressed with her. I could see God in her. I’d absolutely love to have her in my diocese but it’s up to her.”

Monday

After talking to my vicar (who was killing himself laughing) I sent an email to the bish, telling him I’d like to go ahead with his proposal. Thinking that it’ll be a week or so before I hear back.

Tuesday

Phone goes at 5.30 pm - Bishop Pete. Hello Katrin. I’d like you to contact my ADO, Jackie, on this number. She’s going on holiday the end of this month so see if you can get in before then.
Me: What are the implications of this?
Pete: the implications are that I’m sponsoring you.
Me: do you need to speak to Richard?
Pete: Already have spoken to him this afternoon.
Me:!!!
Pete: I need four references from you - work, pastoral, friend, academic. Can you sort that out? Thanks. God Bless. Bye.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Lots but not much.

Well there's been no updates for a little while because there 's nothing to update on. However, there is loads going on. The issue is that I can't go public with this yet. So even though I'm bursting to tell you all, it's not possible at the moment.

Suffice it to say that I had a theophany (if you don't know what it is, look it up ;-) ) and God has done a wonderful thing which resulted in my life being turned around into a direction I didn't think it would go this year. Give me another couple of weeks and I'll be able to tell you. Now I know this is unfair, but I didn't want to let you hanging wondering "why isn't she updating? Has she been raptured?" Only, everything else pales into insignificance compared to the last three weeks. So there. Make sense of that. Or not.

Oh and btw, some of you might already know what I'm talking about. That's fine. And if you don't know and would like to know, email me. Only I don't want to put it (yet) on a public board.

Love you all!!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Captivated

Captivated by You
Held lightly but not wanting to go
Secure in Your love
Even when miles away
Knowing You'll welcome the prodigal home

Your love embraces my sin
Absorbs it, forgives it, forgets it
Your love welcomes me in
Just as I am
Dirty, dishevelled and disoriented by the world
Your presence cleanses me, sets me on the right path, gives me direction

A sense of newness every day
Clean slate
New beginnings
No matter what went before
You are the God of my yesterdays
But even more so
You are the God of my today and my tomorrow

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

We start them young....


YoungGeek
Originally uploaded by katacrossthepond.
Here you can see my friend's young son being indoctrinated. At the end of the week he said to his dad "Dad why can't we have an APPLE??"

RESULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Serious geek alert


Picture(24)
Originally uploaded by katacrossthepond.
Just to let you all know - I am sitting in a Little Chef on the A604 on my way to Spring Harvest, having lunch and surfing wirelessly on my laptop. How much more geeky can you get? And the saddest thing is that I think it's totally kewl.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Post-Easter Update

Well the Easter weekend was crazily busy, but in a good way. I won't bore you with the details of the whole weekend, but here are the highlights:

On Sunday morning at 6.30, a bunch of us went down to the lake to a sunrise service. I was determined not to go (I mean, 6.30 am? Am I a mug??). I woke up at six precisely, thinking "oh good, I can turn around and go to sleep again". Well I didn't. Finally I said to God "you don't really want me to go to this thing?" and he answered "why do you think I woke you up at this time?" Do you know, sometimes I wish I wasn't blessed with hearing his voice (just kidding).

Then our main service was interesting to say the least - the sermon was on how God bridged the gap between man and Himself with the cross. Well imagine one vicar balanced on two stageblocks and a bridge between them made out of a school gym bench (the whole contraption about 1.2 m high) and you get the idea...I aged about ten years imagining what would happen if the bridge broke (is there a doctor in the house????). Oh I forgot to mention that at the beginning the two blocks were together and the vicar separated them by jumping up as he counted down sins (selfishness, greed, pride, etc) with someone else pulling the block further away from God's block every time he jumped.

Then off to lunch with friends, and back at church for four pm for the prep for our evening service. We did the Road to Emmaus. Well how do I describe that...it was intended as a praise party. As most of you know, my church is an Anglican church. A middle of the road Anglican church. We don't do crazy jumping about. Well at the pre service prayer someone had a prophetic word that God would use the worship group that evening as a mirror to the congregation, ie whatever was going on in the worship group (if even only in their hearts) the congregation would mirror. Also there was a call to the worship group to take off adulthood and put on the spirit of being a child in His presence. I have NEVER seen every single person in our church raising their hands in worship, jumping up and down, clapping etc, until that evening. The place just went wild. I can't describe it so I won't try. Suffice it to say, God SO turned up. So much the sweeter for it being unexpected. I mean, we're Anglican....