Its been a busy few months at 24-7 Prayer. If you’re interested in a quick news update and haven’t been checking the blog much lately, get your quarterly shot of what’s happening with me here.
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Thanks!
Category: Supporters
24hr Prayer n Praise
I’ve just awoken from a far-too-short sleep after an amazing night of prayer and praise at my church, Greyfriars, here in Reading.
Our theme for Pentecost was ‘breathing in’ the presence and power of God’s Holy Spirit, and ‘breathing out’ that same transforming Spirit into our troubled world.
Prayer for the Nation
Today I had the privilege of joining in prayer with around 20 Christians from the Department of Work and Pensions, Her Majesties Revenue and Customs, and the Treasury Solicitors! It was fantastic to be able to encourage the people in attendance with stories of the 33 24hr prayer meetings going on right at this moment around the world, as well as some of the amazing stories of God answering the prayers of his people.
Tough couple of weeks
Its been pretty busy the last 14 days with 24-7. Trustees meetings, an office move from Chichester to London, and a significant financial challenge have stretched the old ‘to-do’ list to the limits of what I can manage.
After seven years, we’ve left the building in Chichester that we shared with Revelation Church and a number of other ministries and businesses. Revs have been a great support to 24-7 over the years, and although the move is the right thing, its sad to be leaving behind the close working environment with the church that birthed the 24-7 Prayer movement.
Why we do what we do
Pete Greig just brought to my attention the following article on 24-7’s US website. This kind of story is a fantastic reminder of why we do what we do here at 24-7 Prayer:
“…At school, I began to pray that all thirty-three of my frat brothers would give their lives to Christ. And one by one, they did!…”
Click here to go to the full story.
There’s also an updated version on the main website – with pictures – here
Get Lost
After a bit of R&R on Friday evening for Shirley’s birthday, we decided it was time to up the running stakes a little further and get down to Windsor Great Park for a training run.
Over an hour and a half later we were completely lost, hoping that we would be able to find the car at all! The complete lack of maps and the shocking signage in the park, meant that after we had returned home, it still took me about an hour with a map and satellite images to work out where we had been! Thankfully the locals blessed us by returning us the last mile or so to the car, otherwise we would still be running.
At least it was a beautiful day, and the run was between 14 and 15k, so we’re on track for the half marathon distance…
Please Sponsor Me!
I’ve finally got my act together and set up my ‘Justgiving’ page for Reading Half Marathon. I’m running for the charities 24-7 Prayer and Reading Single Homeless Project, and you can find links to the donation pages here.
Thanks for your support!
Something to aim for
Today, for the first time, running a half marathon at the end of March seems like a possibility.
I’ve signed up for the Reading Half Marathon, tempted by the offer to run for a good cause or two. I’m running to raise money for Reading Single Homeless Project, and hopefully a little for 24-7 on the side! If you’d like to sponsor me, links will be posted here soon on how to do that!
I’d like to be able to run the distance in under two hours, although I should have started training quite a while before I did for that to be a practical aim! Having said that, however, I ran 11km in 1hr 2mins today, so it may just be do-able.
Watch this space…
Back to prayer
Last weekend Shirley and I spend a quiet afternoon up at Douai Abbey near Reading. We’re trying to build more of a rhythm of quiet days into our routine, and the evidence that we’re not quite there yet was displayed by the entry in her diary, conspicuously missing from mine! Thankfully I’d not managed to double book us, so we drove up to the Abbey on the beautifully crisp and sunny Saturday afternoon.
YEEESSSSSS!
Its quite sad how happy this picture made me feel, accompanied by the following words:
“Your item with reference ZU12345GB was delivered from our LIVERPOOL Delivery Office on 30/01/07 .
We can confirm that this item was delivered before the guaranteed time.”
I’ve spent the last month replying to a ridiculous (and I use that word deliberately!) number of e-mails about 24-7’s accounts from our auditors, and despite my best attempts we only managed to get them in right before our companies house and charity commission deadlines. PHEW!