FORM is great !

The teaching sessions at FORM are truly amazing. Speakers have put so much time and effort into preparing some wonderful teaching on important biblical subjects/themes.  This week, our first outside speaker, Sheila Lloyd, helped us understand more about God in the Old and New Testament.  At the beginning of the session, the group shared views on the comparative nature and character of God in the Old Testament and the New Testament.   After two hours of biblical teaching, brainstorms, group work/study the session concluded that the nature and character of God in the New Testament hadn't changed from the Old Testament.  Many attributes, such as love, mercy, grace, just, faithful, compassionate and many more that we see more clearly in the New Testament, are all so obviously there in the Old Testament - the exercise was a wonderful eye-opener.  We can often think of God in the Old Testament as distant, but the key passage that really spoke to me was Exodus 25:8 '...and let them make a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst'.  God wanted to be amongst his people right at the beginning and always has.

The afternoon's session on the Holy Spirit was another excellent talk where Greg took us back to the beginning in Genesis, to reveal the trinity and many more passages within the bible which speaks of the Holy Spirit.  Again, we heard another powerful testimony of how God touches people in ordinary unexpected situations.  It was a great session, but we needed more time to fully appreciate the teaching on the Holy Spirit, so I'm hoping to have 'Part 2' in the second term....

Discipleship training is going well - I found out earlier in the week that Sheffield are storming ahead with their Lifeshapes Training and are already on the SQUARE!!, whereas we're still on the CIRCLE!!  Should I be concerned?...well, frankly no,  'cause we're a thorough lot in Suffolk-we may take our time, but we do the job well! haha :-D  Actually, I've changed the format this year - we're also accompanying discipleship training with Spiritual Detox (my thinking being that we're not going to be effective disciples unless we get rid of all the toxins first!).  I pray that the combination works with the outcome of effective disciples. 

I love my gap year students (Helen and David) - they both have such a heart to serve; embrace the teaching, the outreach, voluntary work, their ministry development etc.  They are getting used to my daft comments, crazy tree climbing skills and are very patient with my sense of direction (ie, getting lost or disorientated whilst driving!) - thank you God for such patient and willing FORM students!  The ten FORM Plus students (and Pippa the FORM dog!) are also wonderful and we're all really enjoying sharing our experiences and getting to know each other better, although Pippa did get a bit too close to my ham roll the other day (mmm....sniffing distance! ).

Further news from FORM soon, Tracey