... Welsh revival

We got up early on Saturday November 9th, for our Location Learning trip to Wales.

The day started with a beautiful sunrise as we left at 7:15.
We arrived in Llanelli, Antioch Church Centre at 11:30 or so. http://www.antiochchurch.co.uk/

Karen Lowe, the Pastor, gave us an inspiring talk about the Welsh Revival of 1904/05 and the impact upon the women and children. She has made a DVD of the story and written a book, "Carriers of Fire - The Women of the Welsh Revival 1904/05".

After an excellent lunch at their cafe, we drove over to Loughor to Moriah Chapel, the home church of Evan Roberts who was instrumental in that Revival.

There is a memorial to him and on one of the sides, is written:

Dear Friend, God loves you. Therefore, Seek Him Diligently, Pray to Him Earnestly, Read His Word Constantly, Yours in the Gospel, Evan Roberts

He would leave leaving cards with these words upon making personal visits.

Lovely Bethan gave a great talk about the life and times of Evan Roberts and R gave an excerpt from one of Evan Roberts sermons. There were quite a few tears shed.

... beauty

This was my cycle to work this morning,heading towards the rising sun and towards work.

 

 

 

And another day's cycle home...

 



And I have now worked out how to add the photos!!

... food bank

This evening our home group helped sort the goods received from local Harvest Festivals for our local Basics Bank. It was a great evening and an excellent place to use our organisational skills. Finding the unit on theindustrial estate was a challenge, but we saw the Basics Bank delivery van and could follow that, some of our group arrived late as it was difficult to find the exact unit on the estate.

I found some fo my assumptions challenged as to the type of food that are most required. They had an extreme abundance of tins of soup and baked beans, but not so much baby food and nappies. The guy leading the sorting said that at differnt times of the year they require different goods.
He said that the use of food banks had risen compared with this time last year by 50%.

So everyone can I encourage you to give something from your weekly or monthly shopping budget to help those people who don't have enough money to buy food.  By buying tins and packets of food, nothing can be taken for administration costs, though if you wished to give donations of money I am sure they would greatly receive your gift.

... Fungi

On Saturday R & I led two fungi forays for volunteers at the National Trust Mottisfont. We aimed to follow their normal guided walk, but as usual for a fungi foray, we didn't get very far before we foud some intersting specimens. Car parks are wonderful places to find all manner of interesting things.

 

We found some Handkea excipuliformis, both new specimens and some older fruiting bodies which puffed.

 

We also found another puffball, Lycoperdon perlatum, which has some soft spines.

 

 

There were also evidence of Bovista plumbea, as we found an old fruiting body, as well as some Bolbitius vittelinus, Fried Egg Mushroom.  (sorry about the sideways photos!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We carried on the boardwalk by the Duck Ponds and found some nice things and we talked a lot about fungi to the volunteers. It was lovely to speak with fellow nature enthusiasts.

 

It is half term this week and so no Ignite, so on Monday we led two public fungi forays, one at Bramshaw Common and one in Speareywell Wood. These  were different as there were paying public including children. They mainly came because they wanted to know what ones they could eat. They were really amazed at the variety of shapes and sizes that fungi come in. From typical mushroom shapes, with gills or pores, to ball shaped ones, growing close to the ground or on stalks, to coral looking ones, to egg shaped ones, which grow into quite rude shapes!  Again, it was great watching people see the variety of specimens and realise that there is some much to see if only they looked a little more closely.

We had a great day, but quite tiring.

...Love

Both my husabnd and I are on a course called Ignite. It is a course aimed at transforming who we are and become what God really wants for us.
As part of this course we have been asked to read the book by Kris Vallotton and Bill Johnson "Supernatural ways of Royalty".  The book aims to lift the reader from a "pauper mentalty" to discover their true identity as a child of the King.

How much do I love myself? DO I love myself? Should I love myself?
There are times when I would say, not very much. Usually they occur most when I am feeling low.
There have been other times when I have loved myself well enough.

Kris talks of his childhood challenges particularly how he perceives himself. "People don't really care what think and say." He prayed about this and acorss several months Jesus said to him
" The problem with you is that you don't love yourself enough to feel worthy... You're afraid that if that [geneours person] gets to know you, [they'll] be sorry [they] gave you [ gift of money]. That's why you dont want [them] to get to know you."

When I read that I felt that Jesus was prompting me to replace the words in [ ] with anyone in my life.  Yes I am afraid that if anyone gets to know me they would not like me.

After all I the internal messages I hear go something like these,
" Why would anyone be interested in me?"
" Why would anyone want to listen to you?"
"They are not inerested in the same things you are and certainly not interested in what you do."
Then I get paraysed in the brain department and can't think of a worthwhile subject to talk about.

I see this happenning at Ignite. We have coffee time twice a day and lunch time as well.This is a to be a time of getting to know one another. But I find that I don't open up easily, as I still have these thoughts floating around.

Kris realises that whenever someone values us more than we value ourselves, we tend to sabotage our relationship with that person, we don't want them to get close enough to find out we aren't as good as the think we are.
I can see this howw easily relates to me, I see it happening again and again in minor ways like the example above in coffee breaks.

When we have been trained [by our experinces] to feel insignificant, we develop survival skills to try to  avoid the pain of that reality.

Thinking back on those coffee times, I know I have avoided chatting as I don't think someone would want to get to know me. After all what is there to like about me? Why would someone want to know me?