SPIN LIKE THE WIND-the blog of Nigel James.

PASSAGE FROM INDIA

Back home for an hour before meeting my daughter Bethan to see Cardiff Blues beat London Wasps at rugby. India seems a long way away! The return journey was tiring and packed with memories for the team- flying out to India seems only yesterday, but also like it was a lifetime ago. Here's a few photos to whet your appetite for the gallery. This is Prasad and I with the Foundation Stone for the school building. There is already a temporary office structure up and the local villagers are borrowing some of the land to plant vegetables for a few months. The school building will hopefully shoot up over the coming months. Here's the team outside the first Ignite church-we took part in the official opening of the second church on our trip. Ignite has really taken off locally there with the help of Gateway Ministries- we now have helped provide two church buildings and have started an area wide youth initiative along the same lines as here in Cardiff. In between ministry activities we managed to do some socialising- our intrepid team are pictured supping coconut water at the Garden Centre where our friend Vinod's father is employed.

ONLINE-BUT LEAVING INDIA!

After an incredible 10 days of mission in India, and an unsuccessful time trying to post a blog, I'm in the business lounge at Hyderabad airport about to jump on a plane to Frankfurt and then onto London. How do I describe such an intense experience adequately? I won't be able to but here are a few highlights:

* Celebrating my Birthday by laying the foundation stone for the school at the Come Together Compound in Undeswerparum. Third Day helped my wife and I raise the money to but 3 acres of land- and the building is starting!

*Celebrating my Wedding Anniversary by officially opening the second Ignite church in partnership with Gateway ministries. It's in a village called Gummuluru.

* Seeing Craig and Jess, two young people who became Christians through the ministry of Ignite about 6 years ago, who were part of our mission team, cut the ribbons at the church opening.

*Speaking at the first two Ignite India youth conferences and seeing over 200 young people sign the Ignite declaration.

* Visiting many rural villages and seeing the team preach and pray for hundreds of  Indians, many of whom were Hindus.

* Sharing the speaking duties with Bryon, all interpreted by Prasad, at a two day conference for over 100 pastors and their families.

*Speaking at a church on a leprosy colony and seeing the joy on broken faces and hurting bodies as they worshiped the Lord.

* Renewing close friendships with Prasad and Vinod and their families.

* Seeing each member of our team- Bryon, Richard, Craig, Maddy and Jess serve Jesus unceasingly and sacrificially.

There's loads more I could say.. but I'll post some photos in the next day or two.

EARLY BIRTHDAY

As I'll be in India for my birthday (and our wedding anniversary!) we've been celebrating today. My darling wife Gill and beautiful daughter Bethan clubbed together and bought me a chocolate fountain! After a mound of chinese food we tried the fountain out, helped by our older daughter Rachel and our friend Jess who is part of our Ignite expedition to India. I'm fairly easily pleased as far as food goes- crispy aromatic duck followed by chocolate fondue with fresh strawberries is hard to beat!

RAJAHMUNDRY HERE WE COME!

After speaking in the first session of the latest Ignite Leadership Academy tomorrow night, I drive up to Heathrow airport. Six of us fly to India the following day, for 10 days of mission activity with my friends Prasad and Vinod.

Hopefully I'll get on line once or twice to post a report, but here's our itinerary:
20th Flight to Frankfurt departs 7.15am arrives 9.45am
Flight to Hyderabad departs 10.55am arrives 11.10pm
Hotel in Hyderabad
21st Flight-Rajahmundry departs 9.30am arrives 10.40am
Afternoon settle in. Lay foundation stone for the School Gill and I are helping to fund.
Evening- two teams for village visits
22nd Village visits and ladies meetings
23rd Official opening of Ignite church in Gummuluru
Evening village visits.
24th Youth Campaign in different villages.
25th Pastors conference
26th Pastors conference
27th Visits to Tribal villages including youth meetings
28th Village visits
Overnight train to Hyderabad departs 10.00pm
29th Hyderabad site seeing, rest in hotel, arrive airport
30th Depart for Frankfurt 1.15am arrives 7.15am
Depart for Heathrow 8.25am arrives 9.00am
If you get a moment you could pray for Craig, Maddy, Jess, Richard, Bryon and myself. We're all very excited and want to see God move powerfully.

LONGLEAT

Just back from Longleat Safari Park for a family day out. We were there to celebrate Gill's brother's upcoming 60th birthday and to say goodbye to our son James who leaves to start life in Dallas, Texas in a few days time. Highlight of the day was the drive through the Safari park itself- and a friendly monkey who travelled on the top of David's car!

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE

Just got back from the UK Council meeting of the Evangelical Alliance. I'm part of the council, representing Wales. Today was the AGM, and various vision casting and discussion sessions. The opening worship for the 40 or so of us was led by Martin Smith and Stu Gerrard from Delirious. They ministered in a sincere, humble and excellent way, but you could see that some of their songs were taking a few of the older EA council members out of their comfort zone. The song 'Our God Reigns' for example, gave most of us the first opportunity to sing a worship song with the phrase 'Chinese take away' in it! ( That's the UK equivalent of a carry-out for my US readers). The EA UK council can be quite intense and cerebral at times, but I'm pleased to carry the flag there for Wales. The EA has been around for 160 years, and the cream of British evangelical Christians have served on the council over the years- there are still quite a few spiritual heavyweights on it now.... and me!

FULL SPEED AHEAD

After a fairly restful summer, the last couple of weeks have been an indication of how busy the next three months are going to be. I'm enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon, readying myself for the time ahead. Zach Kaufman is here for lunch with us today, he's from Fort Wayne in Indiana,USA, and is over in Wales to be part of Ignite's school evangelism team for the next academic year. He and the others in the team have all been arriving and settling in over the last week, and are beginning to get to grips with their training and preparation for visiting schools and taking Religious Education lessons. The Ignite Leadership Academy commences with a new intake of students in a week's time, so we're still doing some last minute interviews for that, I'm leading a mission team to India in 10 days time, and then not long after that join up with Third Day for two stints on the road. I enjoy the challenges of a packed schedule, but it is hard on my family and occasionally too physically and mentally demanding for me. India will prove extremely intense, and I'm taking 5 other people with me. I'll preview the trip later this week, but for now you can see my diary listed.

PREACHER OR PERFORMER?

Motivation comes very easy to me when I'm preparing talks or actually speaking in public- so the weekend was fulfilling in that on Saturday I gave a seminar and then spoke in the closing worship session at the Elim movement's Serious4God youth leaders UK training weekend. About 60 people came to my seminar and there were about 120 or so in total in the final meeting. Leaving Cardiff at 8.00am and returning at 1.00am meant it was a long day but I was up early on Sunday to speak in the morning worship at the BB UK council. There were over 300 leaders present, many of whom remembered me from my time working in The BB. My message - 'The Miracle of Generation Blessing Generation' went down well and seemed to connect with people. I'd also used it for my seminar theme the day before.
It's strange really, I wouldn't say I'm always the most confident, assertive or persuasive in a one to one situation but I really come alive when given the opportunity to speak and encourage a group of people to follow Jesus. I'm not that fussed if it's a school assembly, church service, after-dinner speech, conference or whether there are five, fifty, five hundred, or five thousand present. I'm just happy to be speaking! Cynics might say that's because I like the sound of my own voice, but I believe it's because I'm fulfilling the purpose for which I was created.
Changing the subject slightly, I'm aware that I watch far too much TV but now and again it pays dividends. Recently I caught a couple of episodes of a BBC TV series on the history of Light Entertainment. The episodes focused on famous TV comedy double acts and on the all-round presenter/comedian/performer types. It was engrossing but uncomfortable viewing, bringing back many memories but also causing me to acknowledge some traits in these performers that I could personally identify with. The comedian who was almost completely dysfunctional off stage, the depressive comedian who only found real validation in front of an audience, the double act who performed well in public but had a prickly relationship otherwise, the chat show hosts who knew that there must be more to their careers than the tacky show they hosted but who were afraid to quit in case they didn't get another job.
The jump from preaching to performing is more of a hop than a leap, and actually for the effective preacher humour, rapport with the audience, and a larger-than-life personality can all be tremendous tools of the trade. Yet with all those things the performer and the preacher are saying 'please like me, please listen, please give me your approval and your applause'.
The urge to communicate is partly assuaged by writing a book or a blog, but nothing beats the live event. Compared to other challenges in life, like being a husband and a father, I find preaching comparatively easy. I honestly don't know how I would cope if I knew I would never speak in public again. I have a recurring nightmare that I'm struck down by a debilitating illness- sometimes the illness leaves me brain damaged, but other times even worse it leaves me mentally alert and agile but physically paralysed and unable to speak. I have all these thoughts going around my head, but no way of getting them out.

BUSY WEEKEND COMING UP

Sitting at home basking in the glory of the Cardiff Blues rugby team's win over last year's European champions Munster in their opening league game of the season: 22-13 and it should have been more.
This weekend is going to be fairly demanding. I'm speaking tomorrow at ENLARGE, which is the Serious4God national youth leaders gathering- it's about 160 miles away and I'm leading a seminar and speaking in the final main session. My theme for the final session? Seven Signs that You're Living a Kingdom Life. I'll be back very late tomorrow night and then Sunday morning I speak in the morning service at The Boys' Brigade's annual UK leadership conference which this year is in Cardiff. My first one of those was in 1978 as a young leader- in Cardiff! I'll write some reflections on the weekend in a day or two.