Day thirty nine #40acts

I wasn't very inspired when I read today's act. It's Good Friday, and Good Friday in the life of a kids worker means being at church all day. Being at church all day means being in contact with Christians all day. I knew I wasn't going to find anyone and change their view of God. However, I decided to look just at the sharing my story bit. I managed to chat to one person about how God had called me into kids work. It's a very small part of a much bigger story and it doesn't convey giving my life to God or anything like that, but it's a story of how God was speaking, guiding and showing me my purpose. Sharing my 'calling' with that one person today may not have done anything for them except they understand better why I'm passionate about my job. It really spoke to me though. In a time where I really need God to reveal to me his plans, it's reminded me of that time four years ago where I also needed Gods direction and he showed up and look what happened! I know God has my whole story written and he's holding it in his hands. 

Day thirty eight #40acts

A very wise person once told me, 'Unforgiveness is like you drinking the poison and expecting the other person to die.' To this day I remember this little quote. It's so true! Someone hurts me, I get angry, I sit with it, I get more angry, the anger turns to bitterness, I keep hold of the bitterness that works it's way into hate. Meanwhile, the person who has hurt me skips about their life blissfully unaware that I'm harbouring all these feelings of anger, bitterness and hate towards them. It's a no brainer as to who is worse off in this scenario yet time after time I do it. I keep hold of yucky feelings instead of giving them over to God and forgiving. 
Today I let rip with God and did some forgiving. Some things were really small but I knew I still needed to let them go and some of them were a bit bigger and even though I've said the forgiveness words, I expect I will need to keep on forgiving until I've let go completely.
I don't want to spend my life drinking the poison and I want to get better at letting go quicker. 

Day thirty seven #40acts

As an extrovert I love spending time with people so really, today's act should have been very simple. Sadly, in the run up to the Easter Weekend you will find me in my office buried under Easter eggs, photocopying, laminating, stickers and curriculum! There wasn't much chance of giving over a chunk of my day to anyone. 
At 1pm the lunchtime buzz begins and at church we are all very good at doing lunch together. Today I had decided to work through lunch in the hope of getting away from the office a little earlier. However, as people began filtering outside I longed to be part of the community, part of the laughs and chats going on, part of sharing life with each other. So I switched off the computer, left my phone in the office and went to sit for an hour and do lunch with some of the best people I know!! 

Day thirty six #40acts

Sharing lunch today was a fail! I didn't even make my own lunch in the first place because I was running late so Ash had made my sandwiches for me. Despite not sharing lunch I did share lunchtime with the wonderful staff team of St Bs! 

Day thirty five #40acts

Today I shared the gospel message in three simple words. The recipient knows the gospel message but I wanted to send her a reminder today. I know this challenge was intended to be bigger and more brave....what can I say, I chickened out. But I really felt my friend needed to hear the gospel message 'GOD LOVES YOU'. 

Day thirty four #40acts

Joy came over me when I read today's act. Planning an event for next Saturday. Well, here I am giving myself a whopping big pat on the back. Although, is it cheating if the community event was already planned ahead of knowing what today's act was? It's not cheating I hear you say, well that's a relief!! 

Our church Missional Communities have been encouraged to do something outreach based on Easter Eve. A lovely couple came up with the idea of running an Easter Egg hunt for the local families and the families that come through our doors for toddler group and our Friday kids group. So, next Saturday we are having a Family Easter Egg hunt round our local park, followed by a bit of craft and a visit to the Easter bunny for a treat! I'm very excited! 

Day thirty three #40acts

Any petition that's going to make a child's life better is a petition worth signing to me! Today I signed a petition to stop the trafficking of Christian children in Bangladesh. 

Since 2005, a special group of human traffickers have been operating in Eastern Bangladesh. They approach desperately poor Christian families in remote areas and pretend to represent a humanitarian organisation, and offer to make their hopes come true by providing a good and inexpensive Christian education for their children.These malicious traffickers then take the children far away and sell them. The children’s names are changed, they are issued new identity papers as Muslims, and then forced to study Islam all day, every day. Children rescued from these institutions report being starved, locked up in closets, and being beaten with live wires and canes if they refuse to learn the Quran. Worse still, some of the boys have been forced into child labor and some of the girls forced, starting at around age 12, into prostitution.
Today this trafficking ring is still operating in Bangladesh. The petition is calling the government of Bangladesh to account and demand they take action to shut down this vile group before any more children get harmed.