A small update

I have now been in England for 3 months, 1 week and 5 days. I was told that it would probably rain like all the time so I came well prepared. I packed my red wellies and my yellow rain coat thinking “I’ll look fab even in the rain”! I've only warn my gear once. Disappointed! Maybe after Christmas!

Two weeks ago me and the boys left for another training week and this time we stayed at a Priory in Aylesford outside of London. It was so beautiful and the main buildings where exactly like I imagined it to be. The place where calm and peaceful and you left feeling refreshed and filled by Gods spirit. It was lovely spending time with the rest of our Essential group, catching up and focusing on God’s grace which where the theme for the week.

Christmas is upon us and I've done a bunch of Christmassy things these first weeks of December. Last week me and boys where in charge of the decorations for the hall but it ended up quite quickly with me taking charge, telling them what to do. Oops! 

In five days I’m flying back to Sweden for my Christmas holiday and when I get back again me and the boys are swapping around so I’ll be working with the church leaders for the next three months. It’s been a great working with the children but at the same time it feels like it’s time to do something different and develop in something new. 

Here comes a bunch of pictures from the last couple of weeks!

Moses, prayers and worship.

I actually wrote this post a month ago but completely forgot to post it, typical me! Better late then never, right? :)

Hello friends!

It feels like the time goes by so quickly and it’s only like two more weeks till December. Gosh!

As I told you in my latest update, we had a holiday club during half term, where we focused on the life of Moses. We have a brilliant children’s worker who planned the week so well and I believe that the children will remember and talk about his story for a long time.

This is what we did on the Moses part:

1   1. We saw bits from the movie Prince of Egypt. Such an amazing film and possibly one of my favorites!

     2. We talked about it so they could listen and discuss. One of the questions my group got was: what their favorite part in the movie was? Almost everyone said, “when the sheep ran away and he had to chase it”- awesome, that was my favorite part as well! But one of the girls thought about it for a while and then said, “when God came down and spoke to him”.  Yes!                                                                            

     3.We had sheets that they filled in so that they could think about what happened in the story. When they where done whit that most of the sheets turned into paper aeroplanes. 

So many different ways of learning and I have had a few children talking about it already. Amazing!

Last week was another special week for us as we had a 24/7 prayer week. That means that every hour during the week, someone is praying even during the night. I helped setting up the room (that turned out beautifully) and people could come down there to pray or they did it where they felt comfortable. Can you imagine all the prayers, praises, visions, answers etc that was said or shown during that week?

I had a few night sessions so the beginning of this week was quite hard but it was so powerful to spend so many hours praying and praising God. And I think it was the perfect ending of the reunion weekend! We have so much to look forward to!

This weekend I’m going to London to be a part of a worship band for a youth conference this Saturday. I’m really excited and it feel good to actually take a small break from Bedford cause it can be quite overwhelming and tiring after a while.

Love

Malin

Heroes& heroines!

It’s been quite a calm week for me and I’m really getting in to the work now and what I am doing. The challenging part though is that I’ve been put in situations were I had to lead, which is great since I want to grow in that area. But sometimes my nerves takes over and I start to look down on myself.

 

This weekend we’re having a big reunion as the corps in Bedford turns 125 years. It has been a lot of preparations into this weekend and almost 300 people are going to come. Sick! I’m very excited and I think it’ll be good for the corps to look back at the history, as it’s hard to move forward unless we know where we are coming from.

 

Half term starts on Monday and we’re having a holiday club for the children. The theme is “Heroes & Heroines” and we will be focusing on Moses and his life. A real hero right there! If you don’t know who he is - he’s the man God worked through to save the slaves in Egypt – a rather remarkable story! You can find it in Exodus, well it’s basically all Exodus. My Essential mates and I have a little part in the Heroes & Heroines theme as we are leading the warm up every morning and are a part of small groups every day. 

Who's hero or heroine will you be this week? 

Blessed!

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I updated my blog. Bad of me! 

This is my fourth week in Bedford and I'd like to give you an insight of what it has been like and what God has provided me with.

   Basically I've been doing pretty much everything this corps has to offer such as meeting and chat to people, a lot of people. I'm mainly involved in kids/youth work but I've done a handful of other things asewell like homeless meals, small groups, Sunday meetings, youth councils, coffee mornings, clubs, found raising and I've made a billion cups of tea. This church has been blessed with people and it has been blessed with teams that wants to serve Gods kingdom. It's a joy and a huge blessing for me, not only see but to be a part of Gods work in this community. He has provided me with people and situations that will push me make me grow. 

Not everything has been easy and it's not everyday I feel this rush of joy. It comes days when I feel that the language I know I'm good at keeps failing me and that nothing I say makes sence. Some days I'm more homesick and I miss being able to just call someone in my family and have a chat. I wonder how my grandparents are doing and what they're up to and what new songs VasaGospel is learning and if someone has taken my place in the choir? 

   It's in those moments, the blessing of people keeps me going and I forget about the hard stuff. The fact that I see Jesus walk down the corridor in shape of and older lady fills my heart with love and it reminds me that he's closer than I can ever imagine. He knows my heart better than I do and he fills it with peace.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quite waters, he refreshes my soul. 

He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. 

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." -Psalm 23 

A working God!

I've been back in Bedford for a few days now and I've finally started working at the church. But before I go in to that I'd like to update you on what we did during our last week of training. 

   So, we left London and the William Booth college to head up to the Yorkshire Dales. We arrived quite late and my first impression was,"oh man, it's really cold up here". Yes I know I'm from Sweden and I should be used to this type of weather but man, the fall comes like a chock every year and I'm never ready for it!! The morning after when I was on my way to get breakfast I was in chock. Not because it was cold but the view was amazing! I've never seen anything like it. You could see all across the valley and it was almost like I was a hobbit being in the Shire. Breath taking! 

Andrew Grinnell had a few sessions with us about finding God in the community and mission. He showed us around his community and told us about the work he and his wife are doing there. It's quite a poor area that used to be more "alive" before the cole mine was shut down. He and his wife came to this community with the mission of "open hands, open hearts and open eyes". It got me thinking about not to come to a new community or a new place with the attitude of "these people need help" and rather be a friend and supporter at let the people see for them self Gods work in me and God will do his work in them. You may not see it but I believe a seed will be planted in their hearts. 

Have you heard of interfaith? That's something else we've talked and learned about. A women from the organisation called The Feast paid us a visit and talked about their work. Basically it's an organisation that brings teenagers from different faiths together to learn from each other and to get an understanding of what it means to be a Christian or a Muslim etc. It helps them to see what the media exaggerates about other faiths and it builds a more peaceful community. 

I wish you all a good week and you'll hear more from me in a few days.

Malin!

A walk through the bible!

Wow, what an amazing day I've had! 

It started with some "holy space", where we spent time alone with God. It can be through bible reading, prayer etc. It is a really precious time and I feel that during it it's important to put your whole heart in to it and welcome God in to every moment of the times here on essential. 

A walk through the bible was the session this day and Major Steve Wilson really surprised us with how he was gonna do it. He basically did the same session with us as he does with 11 year olds, puppets and everything. It was brilliant! Even though I've been a christian my whole life and heard about the biblical people thousands of times, I for real needed this session to remember which order they come in. 

I want to give a big applause to my class mates who really acted out their characters during the day. You guys are great! 

The evening program was..........rock climbing!!! Such a good group activity where all are occupied with something to do. I bet my arms will be so sore tomorrow. 

Today's biggest laughs has been when my mate Axl has found and red pick up lines out loud. Here's a few of them:

"You may fall from the sky, you may fall from a tree, but the best way to fall is in love with me".

"If i were a transplant surgeon, i would give u my heart".

"If you where a Dementor, I would become a criminal just to get your kiss". 

Malin

The start!

Welcome to my blog, Essential with Malin. Here you will be able to read about everything that is going on with my Essential gap year.

At the moment I'm in London for some weeks of training before I'll head back to Bedford (my placement for the year). On these training weeks we will look at and discuss different subjects such as descipleship, trinity, missiology, walk through the bible and identity. So for you who read this and have no clue what kind of gap year this is, it's a christian year that I will practise work at the community of Bedford and at the Salvation Army church there.

It has now been a week since I arrived to England from Sweden and a lot has happened. To start with I was stuck at Heathrow (airport in London) with a bank card that didn't work and I was there for almost 4 hours. So I had to be picked up. The first 3 days me and my class mates had activities together to get to know each other and after that Me, Axl and Chris went to Bedford for orientation. We got our flat, met the church leaders, met the staff at the church, help out at the homeless meal on Sunday afternoon and at the youth fellowship. The Salvation Army in Bedford is a big church with a lot of members and activities. The people we met where very friendly and obviously they knew we where coming and they immediately show there interest for us. We felt very welcome and we know God has big plans for us this year.

Thanks for now and I'll update in a few days.

Malin