Some Sabbath thoughts...

Once in a while we may share some more spiritual stuff that we want to pass on to you, things that we have been impacted by. so... here goes!

Our retreat last week was all about sabbath. It was a very thought provoking time and challenging.

The pastors (Charley and Bev) that took us through the week are a couple who have spent in excess of thirty years ministering in churches and have seen many Pastors and leaders "burn out". Their passion is to bring leaders and pastors back to the biblical principle of balance and rest.



Charley told us that he had heard according to a recent study, the average time for leaders to stay in youth or associate ministry in the US before burnout was around 1 1/2 to 2 years at the moment. I don't know about statistics for the rest of the western world but it may well be similar.

It's obvious that we all get out of balance at some time or other, changes in life such as getting married, moving house, a new job, exciting new opportunities or additions to our family all take time to adjust to.

Once out of balance it can almost seem like an impossibility to get back. In reality we have to be brave enough to say no to some things, sacrifice some opportunities and maybe disappoint some people in order to prioritize who or what is the most important to us. For those of us who are christians that means time with God being our first priority before anything or anyone else.

Just to let you know.... We are still working this out! ..... yeah, err, probably going to be working it out for a long while yet!!

Being in a new country and a new job we are conscious that this is a crucial time to be careful about over stretching ourselves. We trust God though that if we "seek him first" all the things we need will be "given to us" so we are trying to hold true to sabbath.


Bit of a long post, hope you made it through! I pray that this week you will find some true rest and restoration.

Grace and peace

Si



Exodus 20 v8-10 "Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God"

Matt 6 v33-34 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

update

Hey everyone, just got back from our week away on retreat. It was an amazing time, learnt loads about the principle of sabbath from the Pastors who were there and had some solid time praying and reading.

Will post more soon about it but here's a picture anyway

Grace and Peace

Si

It has taken us a long time to get settled in and we have been working hard to get stuff organised every day. So we took a day off and headed off to somewhere we visited last time we were here....

A recent little trip we took from Simon Ayrton on Vimeo.

Retreat...

We have an excellent opportunity next week for some time away. We are going to spend some time at a place set aside for people to go "on retreat".

Life is busy for all of us and whatever your beliefs about God, faith or religion it's wise at times to take a step back, to take stock and to make sure you are living according to what is important to you.

For those who follow Jesus teaching and example, the idea of a retreat is a principle rooted in scripture. Jesus, before he started his ministry, spent time away from everything in the wilderness and often during his ministry withdrew to "lonely places" to pray.

This opportunity has reminded me that it has been too long since I purposely took myself out of everyday life to do this. I am already thinking that this will be something I do more often.

Can I encourage you to join with us as we intend to do this. Plan to get away for a time, it doesn't even have to be a long time, get someone to look after the kids for a morning, leave your mobile phone/laptop/ipod at home, get away to a peaceful place to pray about life's direction and reflect on the season of life that we find ourselves in. I'll be taking my Bible and a notebook to journal in but that's about it. I am confident that we will hear God directing us and shaping us.

We will be away for a week at a place in the sierra nevada mountains, no cell phone access or internet so you won't be able to get hold of us, sorry! It's not a holiday, but we are really looking forward to being refreshed and excited about what God is going to do.

Grace and peace

Si

Canada Day

So it's Canada day today, people have the day off there's loads of stuff going on, fireworks later. We have spent some time with people from church and it's been nice. It's pretty rainy here today so it's not that inviting to go outside but there ya go!

Other news is that we have managed to get ourselves a car! woohoo! It's going to make life so much easier. North america is not set up for people without cars. Where we are there is only really one or two bus routes and everything is a fair distance away.

So i hope this post finds you well and having better weather than us!

Si