Kingdom Gifts Unwrapped: Hospitality

During the summer I really felt like I wanted to do a series (I have no idea which topic I'll do next) where I look at some of the words that get thrown around, like hospitality, and really explain what it is - that though it might also mean cooking a great big meal, it's much more than that and actually therefore, open to everyone, and being named as a Bible Gift, something we should therefore all try and grow in.

So what is hospitality? To me it's not so much about what you do or make, but more how you are open to receiving people. Is your home/flat/business etc open to a visitor or do you have to give them a special invitation first? If someone knocked on your door now (breaking your reading of this blog maybe!), would they be welcome? Can people just drop in on you (OK, people you know...but many do also entertain strangers, and in doing so maybe have hosted an angel...well that's what the Bible hints at anyway!)

You see, while hospitality does include inviting someone over to your home (usually) for some type of meal, it is much more than that - it's more to do with your attitudes and character than your ability to cook a great roast dinner.

Here are a few things we can all do, whoever you have over, to help make yourselves more hospitable;

1 - Greet your guests at the door. Both adults if possible, even if one is busy with the cooking/children etc, it's at least great to acknowledge your guests (ie, they are there anyway because you asked them to come!) arrival.

2 - Take coats/bags and tell them what to do with shoes etc. Every house has it's own 'rules' so make them feel at home straight away....maybe you'll let them do what they do at home, but don't leave them standing, wondering if they should put there coat down somewhere. If you'd like them to take shoes off, just easily say "You may leave your shoes here!" (Simple!?)

3 - Let them know where the toilet is (they might want to wash their hands) - but it makes people feel greeted and warm to your home. NB - Always make sure before your visitors arrive that you have enough toilet roll available, and a spare roll showing, if it's not obvious. Every house has their own places for these and you want your guests visit to be a happy, calm and relaxing time - not one when there is no paper in the toilet and they can't find the spare rolls you happen to keep in the shed at the bottom of the garden!

4 - Offer them a drink. This will come straight away after they've come in, or returned from washing their hands. Cold, hot, make some suggestions, don't just say "do you want a drink", say "We have hot, cold, juice. What can I get you?"

5 - Show them where they can sit down (this means, clear away at least enough seats for those that are coming in....no one likes to sit down on a messy sofa). Even if it's an unexpected drop in, clear while talking and make them feel they are not intruding (you need to mean it...lol...!)

6 - Listen to them, ask them questions. Don't just carry on with what you were doing (especially if they have dropped in - it would just say to them "Yes you are here, but I wish you weren't). If you do have stuff to do, at least given them a minute or 5 and make sure they have a drink etc.

Doing these things you are well on the way to being a very hospitable person! Of course, for friends and especially family, numbers 2 and 3 will be known, but really the rest should be followed, and besides, it's always good practice.

So, I hope these simple things have shown how you, whether you live in a castle or one room, can be hospitable to all that come your way. And a hospitable home is a happy ( and blessed!) home.

Adventures of Faith - Part 6 - Three Years In...

Today is Thursday. On Monday this week was three years since we first moved to Russia, on this ongoing adventure that we are on here in St Petersburg.

I guess really this series, titled Adventures of Faith for a very specific reason, is really the ongoing story of our lives over the last 4 or so years, starting as it did with the build up to our leaving the UK in the summer of 2008 and moving to Russia.

We were just three then - Mia turning 3 after a month of living in Russia. Anya was born in March 2010 in the UK and we came back to Russia when she was just three months old.

Clearly looking back over the last two years since my last update in this series is going to be hard - I can maybe remember the very biggest facts, and therefore the things we learnt, but there will be things, if not picked up in the entries that I've written over these two years, that will be lost, though I hope those are only a few.

Adventures of faith was a phrase God gave me maybe 7 years ago - we were in the US, if I remember right, and I felt God speak that phrase over us, and it's lived with me ever since. I love being on God's adventure, especially when faith is involved!

Our reason for coming to Russia was because God had planned it - the thing we were coming for was to be involved in the core team that would plant a church.

In the May of that first year, Hansie & Lena De Bruin, who I made reference to in that last posting, came to visit with a view to moving to St Petersburg to join the team - to our surprise at the time (I think that was mainly down to us not being able to read Hansie at the time, taking his answers as confirmation that they wouldn't come) they did come, moving to the city in the August 2009, and we launched Hope Church on Sunday 6th September, 2009.

By then we had a group of about 20 that was more or less a core.

Hansie & Lena have since grown to be very good friends. They are a real amazing gift to the core team and really added something we were lacking - gifting, yes, but also the biggest thing of all - Russian language!

Hope Church was to be a Russian International Church, as apposed to an International Church that Russians go to. So to be able to have Hansie leading our Sunday's in Russian, with translation into English, was great. And just after launching we were joined by a group of students from the UK mainly, contact having been made already by students from the previous year. That made those early three months in the life of the new plant very existing - the Sunday evening prayer meetings were particularly memorable. The three key students, Hannah Robinson, Liz Diskin & Sam O'nion have all been back to visit once or twice since. I'm sure we'll see them again! They remain very much part of our DNA.

The midweek meals also continued - a great venue for the masses of students the girls mentioned above were inviting each week! We multiplied the venues for these meals by now as one home was just too little. Having got to know the owner of a cafe just 200 meters from our front door (which opened while we were in the UK that first summer) we soon were having the main midweek meal there, which I ended up hosting each week. That ran up until the end of the year, getting up to 40 people. Just as I was about to head back to the UK (Rachel and Mia had already gone at the end of the November, as Rachel flew as late a possible in her pregnancy) we started the process of turning the meals into home groups.

But this is the details - what of the faith lessons learnt.

A huge ongoing one, and very fresh again as we enter year four, is faith for finance. We have been supported largely from individuals and churches in the UK, though about a third has been money we've put in ourselves, via my work or money we've come into. But the flow of cash has been astonishing - the three year figures showing that we have spent £115,543.68 since leaving England, a truly crazy amount when very little of that is known or salary. More amazing is the income figure - £115,658.88. Three years and God has matched the costs, with an extra £115.20 to spare!! If nothing else, this shows God's awareness of what we need!

Some of this is just in & out money in the UK - for example what we get on renting out our UK property (income) goes exactly to pay our mortgage on that property (expenditure), but the large part is just life here in Russia - I guess averaging just over £30,000 a year, with my work up to now averaging something about £2,400 annual salary, so there has always been a lot we've needed to trust God for.

What's different this year is we don't have the certainty we've had in the previous three that we have all we need for the coming year. In the past, though sometimes it's been last minute, we've headed back to Russia knowing more or less that we can get through to the following summer, and with a return ticket - this year, we neither have that ticket, nor the cash to get us further than a few months, knowing that if anything the budget jumps a little this year with all that is ahead....but maybe more on that later. So for us, in this area, it's once again back to faith in God that He has us here for a reason and that the money, when needed, will be there. He provided enough to get us back, and put some money in the account. When that runs outs, He'll no doubt have shown us what next has been provided.

So that's an on-going journey of faith - an adventure if you would, where we can't rest on lessons learnt and victories won, but continually coming back to Him who holds all things in His hands. It's not such a bad place to be really, anyway.

The three shaping words I see that have come over Hope Church are these - 1. That the English language and the church plant would go together, that something to do with language (a school?) and the plant would happen at the same time. 2. - That the church would become a base church, especially in the area of demonstrating team ministry, and 3 - That the church would plant out into other nearby cities - those named were Murmansk, Helsinki & Tallinn, with other Baltic Capitals mentioned in general as well.

In relation to number 1, we've kept the English language as a part of what we have done. We took our office on because of the chances of running a language school there, and though this wasn't possible because of some legal issues, English conversational groups have been running for some time. So we are seeing this happening.

Number 2 has also been coming to pass as well - leaders from other churches catching something, as we have a bigger influence, it would seem, than our natural state would demand. There is also something about team ministry, which I've blogged on here, that is really refreshing.

And Number 3 is also starting to take some shape. While there is nothing yet in the Murmansk direction, there is a great relationship in relation to Helsinki, and as for Tallinn, well you'll have to watch this space, though Part 7 of this series is almost certainly going to be written from there as we take the next big step in this journey. But more on that maybe in a later post.

But all in all, what have I learnt? Well, honestly, loads! I remember saying after two years here, that I had learnt more in that time than the previous 20, but yet knowing the following year (last year) would probably teach me as much again. It certainly has been something like that. Sitting here, typing this and looking forward this next year and then the few years beyond that, I can not start to imagine what I am about to learn.

One new thing for me these last two years was taking the church out onto the streets - these have been very amazing times, and you can read about one of them here. This I want to continue to play a role in my personal walk with God in the future - as I'm so outside my comfort zone I need Him more than ever!

I've learnt that God is by far a much better father than anyone can ever imagine. There is no comparison to anything, anyone on earth, so how could we fully know. But the more I see, the more I realise we don't fully know God as our wonderful father. He is also much bigger than we think. Most hold back, not stepping out until they are totally sure that God has given them the green light (so ultimately many don't step out), worried that without total confirmation, they might step out of line with God's plan, and unable to change things, God would kind of loss sight of us. But that's making God very small. He's huge! He's easily able, loving and big enough to stop anything from happening that he doesn't want, that's not part of his plan, knowing all the time He is the best father we could ever ask for.

So don't wait so long for God's green light - maybe the green light was the Great Commission. Instead, start moving and stop if you see a red light!

Three years on, three years into the journey, it still amazes me that we are here. The orphans, the babies, the abandoned boys and girls, the homeless and the hopeless, the living and the dead that I have seen these last three years has changed me to my core.

We travel further down those tracks that I talked about in Part 5. The blessing's are all the more while the sacrifices and costs - well, I try not to think about them much. But we are further down that track, not alone but not where we were, God with us, but moving. When we will get off this track, I don't know. We seem to be heading deeper into things and that's fine by me. As long is God is with us, then that's fine by me...

Previous Series Entries

Part 5

Part 4

Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

The Ten Biggest Influences in my life: Number 1....

I've been running through the top ten people to have influenced my life most (up to now!) this last week and wanted to recap here who has made the list so far;

10 - The Pastor who laid his hands on me as a baby

9 - Gerald Coates

8 - Matthew Hosier

7 - David Devenish

6 - Brother Andrew

5 - Colin Baron

4 - Andy Davies

3 - Hudson Taylor

2 - Jim Elliot

You can click on the links above, if you haven't read them already, to see why they made an impact. The order of these nine does not really make much difference. In their own place, for the things they did in my life, they have all helped shape me into who I am today, and where I am today!

That cannot be said for the last person on this list, who is miles ahead, out of sight, on their own as the truly super number 1!

That person is Jesus Christ.

Three of the people on the list I have never met - Brother Andrew, Hudson Taylor and Jim Elliot. And the 10th placed man I was only a baby and do not even know his name.

But their impact on my life, through their prayers or stories written about them have all made an impact.

And how much more so with Jesus. An undisputed historical figure (no legitimate historian denies this), with so much written about him and quoted from him in the Bible, but being who he say's he is, that is God, He has so much impact in my life now and has always had so much impact.

Do you think it's strange that I can say Jesus still talks to us? Can God be that close? Maybe you think I'm crazy.

Well, if in other areas you think I make sense, if in other areas I'm in my right mind, you have to accept that I could be right about this one too - Jesus is who He say's he is - the one, the only God and not only did he die in my (and your!) place, he's now risen, victorious and awaiting to come back, just as the Bible say's, one day (and this day ONLY known by the Father, not by any American preachers!!!!) - and when he does come back, that will be it. No second chances, no Christians disappearing. We'll all see him - and for many, this will be the worst day of their lives. They will have realised they got it wrong. They gambled that the millions and millions of Christians around the world, the millions of Bibles, the stories of miracles - they gambled this was all somehow wrong, or not for them. Maybe they put their trust in others things or other religions. None of these things will help them on the day Jesus does return in glory. So you have been warned.

I am a rational, intelligent person - and I know the Bible is 100% true, that it's events actually all happened, and there will be a day when all that we see around us is no more. You have been warned, and if you are reading this it means you still have time - you still have a chance to ask Jesus into your heart. You still have time!

You see, Jesus has made the biggest influence in my life, not because it's what I've been taught to say, or because it seems cool, but because he ACTUALLY has made the biggest impact. I've seen God heal me - miracles happening in my body after friends have prayed in the name of Jesus and laid their hands on me. It instantly got better. Just as the Bible says. I've also prayed for others in Jesus' name and they have got better. I want to prayer for more and more, and see more get better, more healings, more miracles. But it's real.

What isn't real is thinking Jesus is anything less than the one true God, the only God - and still the only God today. Not replaced by anyone, or anything, not any less than he ever has been or ever will be. Not irrelevant and not untrue.

If that were so, you'd have made God in your own image. The Bible is clear on this one. There is nothing that's complicated about it. You just need to read it to know what it says.

Jesus impacted the lives of all the nine people I've already written about - and they impacted mine. Jesus has a plan for my life (and yours) - and it's the best adventure I've ever been on and ever will be on.

Some think that following Jesus is boring and for people that have no other option. I have options. If you know me, you'll know that to be true. I now live in Russia, in St Petersburg. I'm involved in the nations. The last few years have seen us in Spain, Egypt, Finland, Estonia, Russia, France, Ireland. This next year its looking like Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, USA, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Russia and England. Boring? All this is because of Jesus - and ONLY because of Jesus.

Life with Jesus is the only life I could ever have wished for. I turned my back on a multi million pound career in the London Equity market to move to Manchester and follow God's adventure in my life - I did a voluntary year that year. Yet God blessed me. God gave me all the things I was praying for, but didn't have in London. A wife, a family, a home and so much more.

You see it's those that ignore Jesus that live the lie - and also miss living life to the fall!

God has now put around me, both locally and in many nations, people I am blessed to know - Hansie, Dave, Slava & Oleg - the great team mates I have here in St Petersburg. I'm getting to know people all around the world - America, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, Northern Europe, France, Russia etc etc. Wonderful people, blessed people.

Jesus really is who he says he is and who the Bible says he is. I didn't have to have blind faith when I first accepted him - no, it's more because of the reality of it all that allows my faith in things to grow.

Jesus - you have had your hand on my life from a young age - and I love the plan you designed for me. Help me to continue to bring glory to your name. Thank you for this life - this adventure. Thank you for sending us to the nations!

If you've been reading this and you don't have this kind of relationship with Jesus, something that is living and real - something that's two way, then I urge you to pray, to talk to someone you know who loves Jesus, to find a great local church or to drop me a line and I'll get you in contact with a great local church. It'll be the best thing you ever did, and it'll take away that guilt you carry around.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for commenting. I love the fact that the nations are reading this. And I'm here for the nations, because that's what Jesus said to me. God bless you all.

The Ten Biggest Influences in my life: 2 - Jim Elliot

Like Hudson Taylor (Number 3 on the list), reading about the life, and death of Jim Elliot, 40 years before my time on earth began, had a big impact on me.

There was a time when I too thought I would die on the mission field at a young age - that changed when I met Rachel, and now I'm not as young as I was then and also know God has got other things for me. But my heart is still the same - God is God. To live is Christ, to die is gain!

Many will remember the words - "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose". Life. Jim knew this and lived it.

He would have prayed for the Auca Indians salvation - at what ever cost - and he would have meant it. His death, tragic as it was, opened up the road to salvation for many in that savage tribe, so that years later, the children of those five men murdered on the beach in the jungle could actually baptize the same people responsible for the massacre.

He was only a young man when he was killed. He left a wife and daughter. But God works all things for good for those that love him. Might there have been another way? Maybe, we don't really know. And what would Jim had said. Asked if by not dying they could still have seen a little impact made for the gospel I think he would have come back and said - "Let it be as it was. I want them all reached for the Kingdom!"

What also happened all around the world is more prayer was given for mission, more finance given and more people went. Because five men were killed.

I look forward to seeing Jim Elliot in heaven. I look forward to thanking him for the example he set. I look forward to seeing the reward he is given, the crowns and treasures for living a life that didn't shy away from anything, even death.

He is an example to us all. Our cosy, comfortable lives, our creature comforts. Our material possessions and holidays and wanting more and more, bigger and better.

In the depths of an Ecuadorian jungle, on a sandy river bank, this man bleed to death. He'd left everything to reach these lost people. He only had love and friendship to share with them. And yet they killed him. But his death made the Indians ask questions, to seek a better way of living. Ultimately it led them to the good news of the free gospel of the salvation and forgiveness of sins that Jesus made available for us. And this brings me nicely to my number 1......

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The Ten Biggest Influences in my life: 3 - Hudson Taylor

The next two people on my list are two great hero's of the faith for me. Number three has to be Hudson Taylor.

There were a few missionary books I read growing up that really captivated me, and certainly a few about Hudson were amongst them.

He was a man in a very different time to me - an English man who went to China. China then was this long lost place - his first trip took 6 months to get there by boat, and they nearly sunk before they'd even passed Ireland from their Liverpool exit.

Today, we are a 3 hour 30 minute flight from the UK - and have Skype, emails and the like to stay in touch - even when letters and packages are sent, it's something like up to a month.

Not so in Hudson's day - letters would take months to go one way - twice that if you were waiting for a reply! When he wanted to propose to his first wife who was with him in China, he had to write to her parents in England and then wait months and months for their reply. I couldn't imagine that wait!

Hudson Taylor was one of those men that got on and did it. I remember a statistic he'd use from his time that said out of every 100 people that said they'd 'go to the mission field', only 1 person ever actually made it. That challenged me. I think the stats are at least the same today.

Hudson Taylor was part of the few that first started going to China and then to the interior, and even dressing like the locals. He knew suffering and hardship, death and sorrow. He was such a man of faith.

It is because of people like Hudson Taylor that I shudder when I hear myself being referred to as a missionary. He was a missionary - I'm just a normal Christian! It is also because of people like Hudson Taylor that China today is sending thousands of missionary's out - his heart helped change a nation.

Hudson was misunderstood by those around him, even maybe looked down upon because he dared to dress un-English and make himself look like a Chinese man. I relate very much to the being misunderstood! Maybe it comes with 'our' sort of lifestyles. Maybe we do have something in common.

Quite simply Hudson Taylor is a superb role model and wonderful example of a Man of God. And for that, and his impact on my own life, I honour him.

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The Ten Biggest Influences in my life: 4 - Andy Davies

I first came across Andy at Stoneleigh 1999 - and if you've read any of the other entries today, you'll have understood that that particular week had quite an impact on my life.

Two years before Gerald Coates (No 9 on the list) had brought a prophetic word about my distant future. It had left me amazed but kind of waiting it out, looking forward to the many years time when things would 'happen'.

Andy was involved in Revive that year - working with Matthew Hosier (No 8 on the list). The encounter two years previously had clearly left a huge impact on me, so that during this week I went to the seminar that Andy was doing on the prophetic. Little was I to understand that our lives were about to be a lot more intertwined.

Not long into the ministry/open floor time at the end of Andy's seminar, he came darting over to me and said "You had a prophecy over you a couple of years ago, didn't you" - erm "Yes". It was about your future, wasn't it" - erm, "YES!" He then went onto state that while that was great and exciting, God didn't want me to wait for things to happen but get on with them now, stepping out in gifts now. Wow! The second major word of knowledge over my life. A few minutes after this I remember bringing my first prophetic word, over a girl about to move to Holland. As I started to bring it, she started crying, saying it was bringing comfort to her as she was nervous about the move.

That was the starting point of me stepping out in spiritual gifts. It was exciting and continues to surprise me every single time. I love the way God shares things! I want to keep moving in these more and more, for God's glory.

By the following Stoneleigh, I had already made one visit up to Manchester, staying with Andy for one night in Oldham as they were yet to move down to Stockport. This was in preparation to me doing the year team in Stockport from September 2000. At the Stoneleigh just before that team, Andy (OK, knowing me a little but still not fully) brought another word over me, one that now is really starting to become a reality.

You see, following the events of the year before, I went away and tried to teach myself Russian at home - and didn't do very well with it. The thought of living out my days in one nation, in Russia, didn't seem to get on with me. What Andy therefore brought in 2000 had another big impact - he simply said he saw many flags under my feet - it was nations, not only one nation! NATIONS!

At the start of this year I was reflecting on the things I know God has called me to - they come down to three things - Salvation, Russia and the nations.

The nations are really opening up (you'll have to watch this space on this one...) Andy's word, and confidence to bring that over me, was the catalyst for this knowledge I have as to what God has confirmed to me.

Moving to Stockport in Sept 2000 was a big move but was amazing to get to work with such a guy as Andy Davies. And to be around people like Colin Baron (No 5 on the list) was also a great learning experience. I am a better man for having made that move - it was also God's plan for me, so that helped!

My earliest memory of that year, and summed up the year for me really, was when Andy said we were going to be launching a daytime home group 'together' for a number of elderly people in the church. Great I thought. I planned it and the Wednesday came. Andy couldn't make the first one, so I went and did it on my own. The next week he was also unavailable....I don't think I bothered to check with him by the third week, I'd got it....I was to lead it on my own.....Doing the year team with Andy, in Stockport, meant I got to do loads of stuff. It was a great learning experience.

When Andy married me & Rachel in the September 2001 I had not quite known him a year, but already there was this amazing connection. I still remember fondly Andy telling me he used to pray for me as his son. That meant the world. And for that, I honour you.

When he moved to Cardiff it was personally a very hard move. We wondered if we were to be in Cardiff too, but the connection was more relational than geographical.

Andy is one of those people that if you spend 5 minutes with, suddenly everything is possible! I love talking with Andy!!

What makes me laugh was his 3 year plans.....I must have been on one of his various three year plans for about the 6 years we were together in Stockport for....but that too is great!

Andy is full of energy. There is never a situation he doesn't give himself too, and yet has a wonderful family with five children. His energy is amazing!

I was deeply moved when Andy said that during his recovery from a serious illness he'd had a few years back as a result of a car crash he'd had some years before, he'd written a list of people he'd like to work with - and had written my name. I don't know how that list looks today, but he's on my list as well. And with what is about to happen over the next few years, with the nations opening up, I couldn't think of anyone better than Andy to get involved in things. So I guess I'll just have to see what happens from our conversations in the future.

But Andy, I write this to honour you and not to embarrass you. You are a great role model and the guys in Cardiff, in Wales, in the UK are blessed to have you with them, as well as those nations you already work into.

You are a great guy (maybe not the best written communicator in the world but you make up for that a thousand times when we meet face to face, which ultimately, is the best form of communication anyway!!) May God bless you richly and your wonderful family my friend.

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The Ten Biggest Influences in my life: 5 - Colin Baron

I first properly came across Colin Baron once I'd moved to Manchester - which was through God saying Russia, via Manchester to me in a vision at Stoneleigh 1999.

Colin was 'Mr Manchester' back then - he lived and oozed the vision of 20 churches in England's 3rd city.

Back then, all the churches shared a common office, and being on the year team, I too had a desk there. So it was here that I got to see the man behind the curtain, so to speak. And what I saw was very impressive.

This was a man who had international responsibilities. This was a platform speaker, and yet this was a man that got on with things, getting his hands dirty.

Two particular things stand out for me. Once, there was something that needed to be done under the floor at the office building. The floor was a raised floor so it was possible to get down and go under the floor. I think that a cable needed to be put under the floor for some reason. Somehow it was me and Colin that were there to do this. Here was Colin - International Speaker and Apostle - here was me, young year-teamer. But it was Colin who went ahead and got down there, doing what needed to be done. I remember him saying next time it could be me, but (thankfully) there wasn't a next time! But I remember that. I respect that! And I think that has rubbed off on me as well a little.

A second story I remember was a car journey from Manchester to Swindon, where I was driving Colin down for a meeting with some leaders there. It gave me time with Colin, and he also needed to get down there. It was on this journey, in the February of that year team (it ran from Sept-July) that Colin started asking if there was a lady in my life - and I shared about Rachel, another girl on the year team (and now my wife of nearly ten years!) but stated that we couldn't get together on the year because of the rule - to which he replied "What rule?".

Long story short, and having understood that in our situation it was a godly relationship, we were able to get engaged a month later, while still on the year project, and then were married just 6 months after this conversation in the car.

So that too was quite a conversation!

We have got to know Colin a lot more since, able to call him one of our good friends in Manchester. I chatted with Colin a bit ahead of coming to Russia - he has also visited probably at least three times since we were here within his role with New Frontiers. Back then, Colin said he'd be the hardest person to talk to me - as it proved....one particular lunchtime when we seemed to hit loggerheads and he said he wasn't able to help me because of the way I was talking. He helped me change - though I can say everything I said actually happened as well, so we were both right! I needed to allow people to speak into my vision (which is what Colin was training me - and I've certainly had conversations with others since, like Colin did with me then!), but also remember that the vision God has given me I am not to compromise, because what God promises, He will do.

So Colin - you have been influential and will continue to be. You are one of those guys that it's good to be around. You ask the things others don't, and see things the way others don't. And for that, I honour you!

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