The First Term for Mel

I have great pleasure in saying – I am a Form+ student and here is my first blog!!

What has happened so far…

I was hugely encouraged from the first week.  In Mark chapter 1 we read of Jesus calling the first of his 12 disciples, he said “Come, follow me,” in verse 17.  Which is the meaning of discipleship. We then looked at Mark 6 he sends them out. Wow. Already? Did they have all the answers? All the theoretical knowledge? People skills?? Presumably if they were to wait until they were fully prepared, then they’re ministry would never have started.  We don’t need all the answers. We just need to be servant hearted.  God does the hard work.  This is something I have to continuously remind myself. 

During the first term we received an expanse of teaching.  From the roots and rules of baptism to trying to discover our spiritual gifts and emotional intelligence.  

Every week I have felt as though I have learnt something new about God, and the way I need to respond to Him.  Two sessions have really stood out for me, and they were most surprising!!

The first was the creative writing with our own Andrea Skevington.  Now, I think only Andrea herself would be able to put into words the dread I felt before this session!! It was a whole day of creative writing, and at the time I knew I was NOT creative. No shadow of a doubt in my mind that God had not given me a creative bone in my body and I was quite content with that!!! This session brought out a new way of seeing creativity, and a new passion for me – perhaps a beginning of writing these blogs! Not only do I enjoy writing more than ever but also I have explored other ways of being creative. Just because I find it impossible to write a ‘grown up’ poem and I can’t draw a stick man to save my life, it doesn’t mean I can’t use creativity for myself and ultimately for God.

The other session was when we were all required to get out of our comfort zone. Not sure how much I can say about this, but it is always amazing and so encouraging to see people flourishing outside their comfort zone.  That is what discipleship is always about… going through things we didn’t intend and didn’t realise we can do, but in Gods strength we can overcome them. 

What I truly have come to love is our Form+ community.  We are still growing real and deep relationships with each other, which is helped by our ‘huddle’ sessions. Basically, we can see each other grow in faith and knowledge, encourage each other in our relationship with God and in return be encouraged.

I can’t wait to see what happens during the next 2 terms!

I will be posting more blogs on www.dearlylovedchildren.wordpress.com

Mel