Here's Carla's reflections on her visit with us at the end of October;
"Personally I enjoyed going to Colchester, it was good to be back there and great meeting people I haven't seen in awhile.
It was great to get to know Richardand Katy and to hang out with them and everyone else in the Boiler Room Community. We were made to feel really welcome and it was great to be a apart of all they were doing. Everyone was very generous and kind.
I found it quite tough that week personally, my emotions were very up and down and was really anxious that week and things that wouldn't normally bother me, seemed to bother me. Which was a challenge and something I had to deal with during the week. Was hard not having my own space, a chance to be on my own.
On the other hand I really enjoyed everything we did,(well maybe not getting up for the 6am prayermeeting!!!!!!!lol). It was great to go along to the various prayer meetings and be a part of community life.
It really made me think during the week about prayer and how we pray, that prayer doesn't have to be something separate, and I know this and on a personal level it isn't something separate, I chat to God throughout the day, but as I'm going through the day with others, is prayer a part of it? not just the times where we meet to pray? Do we have to stop and say, ok, let's pray together or should prayer just be a natural part of our life with others that know Jesus?
There were times during the week where pray was a natural part of the conversation or came out of the conversation and this challenged me to think about this. Does prayer have to be be separate or is it and should it be apart of everything I do? I think this is something I'm really thinking about at the moment and will be sometime I'm trying to workout.
I really want to see the natural and spirtually things be one thing in my life, not two things that run side byside, but never mix. I want prayer, worship etc to be a part of my life all the time, not something separate. (don't know if i'd explained that well)
One of the moments that really stuck out for me was the community meal on Wednesday evening. I really enjoyed after the meal, chatting about journeys, itwas so natural and great to hear peoples stories. It didn't matter if the story was a spiritual one or not, it was good to share in that experience with others. Being creative and encouraging others was fun too. That evening was more than just sharing food together,it was about sharing our lives together.
Another cool thing was the tea and chat with the foreign students at the uni. We sat at the tables andas a student came, someone would direct the student toa table. It just amazes me how God works things out. The person who sat next to me was a Brazilian student,which was great, we were able to talk about Brazil. God's so good.
As a team it was really great Thursday when we put together the prayer room for Cre8, it was great to see us all working together and facing challenges together, where we weren't sure how to go about something we stopped and prayed about it and moved forward together. The prayer workshop went well too, all fitted together well. Was really great all the things we were doing and wouldn't have wanted to do any less coz don't feel we would have got a proper feel for what was going on in Colchester if we had.
It was hard to find time to do the reflection questions during the week, coz the time we did have free, we either spent with our host, or resting after earlystarts or having a bit of time in the town to do thetourist thing! Which meant we ended up doing the question when we got back. I don't know how i would change it, coz i wouldn'thave wanted to not do anything we did.
Was a good week all in all. Lots of praying, eating and laughing! Carla"
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