SPIN LIKE THE WIND-the blog of Nigel James.

FINAL NIGHT AT KINGHAM HILL

Here's our mission team for this week: John and I from Ignite, The Sonflowerz and their parents from Colorado Springs, and the chaplaincy team at the school- Andrew,Dan and Debbie.
It's been a fantastic few days, with a girls only session last night whilst John and I each visited a boys' boarding house and then chapel, lessons and an evening concert today. We've given out loads of 3 Simple Words evangelistic leaflets and the chaplaincy team feel that we have helped accelerate their ministry here. John and I have been staying in the flat of Dan Ritchie, one of the assistant chaplains.
He's only been at the school since September but already has a posse of young guys who idolise him. No wonder- he's a top bloke. He runs a weekly club for them called 'Breakfast with God' and I asked one young boy why he goes to it. The reply? 'Because I like Mr. Ritchie and I like Jesus'. Dan models Paul's desire to 'follow me as I follow Christ' and sees his role here as being like a youth pastor with a youth group of 300 that he's with 7 days a week. Tomorrow I head off to London for an EA UK meeting, John and the Sonflowerz head back to Wales where we minister together again in the next few days.
Over the years Kingham Hill school has always been a special place to visit and this trip has been no exception.

KINGHAM HILL SCHOOL MISSION.

The first full day of the Ignite mission at Kingham Hill has gone really well and already we sense that God is at work around this great school in the lovely Cotswold countryside.
The day started with a 7.45am prayer breakfast; since then we've led the morning chapel service, taken lessons on Prejudice/Discrimination, Abraham, Modern Disciples, encouraged the Christian Union in a lunchtime meeting, and then visited 2 of the boarding houses tonight with a gospel presentation.
The Sonflowerz have been singing at every opportunity and John from Ignite gave a great gospel presentation to a packed house of 11 and 12 year olds. I shared with the older boys, who apparently are normally a real handful- they were really attentive for me! It's been really good to get away with John and to lead a mission team with him- he's a solid guy and a dedicated schools evangelist.

IN AND OUT OF CARDIFF

Whilst thousands of Chelsea and Arsenal football supporters have struggled to get in and out of Cardiff this weekend for the Carling Cup Final, due to railway difficulties, I've been in and out of the city too. On Friday afternoon I travelled up to London for a rehearsal of a service of thanksgiving for 100 years of Scouting. The service itself was on Saturday morning in Westminster Central Hall. Never before have I spoken directly after the congregation has sung 'If I was a butterfly' and 'Give me oil in my lamp keep me scouting'! Whilst it was a privilege to represent The Boys' Brigade (The Christian uniformed youth organisation I grew up in) at this service, it was a spiritually challenging time for me- The Scouts make a promise to God, but accept that can apply to any religions. The service was 'religious' but I wanted to speak from a Christian perspective, honour the day, not offend anyone deliberately, but clearly point to Jesus. All in the allocated 10 minutes! Thankfully, I managed to achieve it. I did meet lots of dedicated leaders who have given most of the spare time in their adult lives over to investing in young people. One man has spent the best part of 10 years preparing for this year's international Scout jamboree, when 42,000 Scouts from all over the world will be camping in Chelmsford for 10 days. Another man runs a Scout troop each Saturday afternoon in a Suffolk children's hospital and another troop for severely handicapped children. I got back into Cardiff on Saturday evening in time for some rest before preaching at City Temple on the Sunday morning- the theme was Abraham, part of the His Story series. Then this afternoon, John Setatree from Ignite and I drove to Kingham Hill School in the Cotswolds ready for a three day school mission. I've been here with a team loads of times before, but this is John's first visit. We are joined on the team by The Sonflowerz-a band consisting of 2 sisters from Colorado in the USA, along with their parents. We are working with the chaplaincy team at the school, headed by Andrew Savage- it's his first year at the school, so we're all praying that the mission will be a success.

NAOMI HILL

One of the most rewarding aspects of ministry for me is being able to see younger people grow in their faith and take steps in serving God. Naomi Hill worked with Ignite/Big Ideas for around 5 years in her early 20's as our evangelist, and in that time I was able pass onto her as much guidance and experience as I could. Yesterday Naomi visited our offices and it was lovely for Gary, Anita and myself to catch up with her. Naomi has been quite ill over the last year or so, but is now well enough to be working in a pastoral role with students at her church in London. Like many people, Naomi was able to share that difficult times (with her illness) actually drove her closer into the arms of her Heavenly Father. We spent ages yesterday catching up on the latest news, especially about some of the gap year young people who had been based with us. Naomi is a top quality communicator and there are loads of young women around the country whom God has spoken to through her. It's people like Naomi that make it all worth it!

WILDER AT HEART

John Eldredge explains that 'A deep sense of validation is core to our identity as men. We should listen for a deeper voice, and opinion that really matters- Our Heavenly Father.'
So 12 men from City Temple travelled down to the Winston Hotel on the Gower, and we've all returned a bit more wilder at heart, with a bunch of new friends, and much more of an understanding about how God made us in his image and gave us wild, untamed and masculine hearts. John Eldredge on the video teaching, called us to be 'A fierce warrior battling alongside God against evil.' The very first session, when we share about our favourite films and the characters in those films we'd like to be, is always a great way to find out more about each other and to have a good laugh in the process. For most of us, Saturday afternoon's outdoor activities taught us valuable spiritual life lessons. Here's pastor Chris Cartwright abseiling for the first time in his life: The moment when you first step over the edge must be just like it was for Peter the disciple when he stepped out of the boat. Two of our guys overcame real fear of heights in order to be able to climb and abseil. Exploring a cave was a challenging experience, especially for one or two with fear of confined spaces. Here's me just about to enter into the cave, I'm not sure why I've got a pillow stuffed up my coat!
The sessions during the weekend were a real voyage of self-discovery, healing, friendship and we left with a desire to keep pushing forward in the journey of being real men of God. We recognised that we should be able to trust each other, and rely on each other- just like when someone's holding your climbing safety rope for you, and hopefully Wild at Heart will continue to develop at City Temple. here's Martyn Evans- who loved every minute of the weekend, even the climbing! For me personally, the weekend was a reminder of the way God spoke to me at last year's Wild at Heart weekend, it focused me on the decisions ahead in the next few weeks, and made me more determined to follow my heart and accomplish the things that I know make me come alive and make me the person God created me to be. A final thought from John Eldredge: 'Living a life of comfort in a small story will mean you never see the adventure God has for you.'

WILD AT HEART

This weekend 12 men from City Temple church Cardiff are heading for a Wild at Heart retreat. Aong with Pastor Chris Cartwright, I'm leading the retreat and we'll be using material from John Eldredge's great book 'Wild at Heart'.
We led one of these retreats last year and the outcome was awesome. Last time however, our outdoor activity was golf, and this time we are due to be climbing, caving and rock hopping on Mumbles beach- in February! I'll give a report of the weekend when I get back, but in simple terms Eldredge challenges all men to rediscover the wild, untamed heart that God place in them, and he contends that each of us has:

- A battle to fight
-A beauty to rescue
-An adventure to live

Eldredge unpacks this and much more in 8 top-class DVD segments, with room for discussion, encouragement and reflection. It's good stuff! Most Christian men identify the fact that they are either bored or busy, and that church wants to make them 'nice guys'. Wild at Heart has other ideas!

SNOW DAYS

Exciting times in Wales! We've got a few inches of snow on the ground-which is a very unusual occurrence. The snow started falling on Wednesday evening as I was driving home from Switchfoot in concert in Swansea. Ignite partnered with Event 53 and Christian Surfers to bring the concert to South Wales, and over 1100 people showed up. By Thursday morning the snow had settled and it's falling again today. Here are a couple of shots taken from my bedroom window. All the schools in the area are off because of the weather, and Bethan has been out with her friends building snow men. A few inches of snow completely disrupts transport, schools, and many working lives, but it's great fun for kids of all ages! It's been very strange listening to England beat Australia in the first of a best-of three final series in sun-drenched Melbourne. I was there only a couple of weeks ago, but the difference in weather makes it seem like a different planet. 2 centuries in 2 games from Paul Collingwood has helped England salvage some pride from an otherwise disastrous tour of Australia.
Today I received a letter confirming that I have been accepted onto an MA course in the study of Pentecostal and Charismatic Issues. It's a 2 year part-time course based at Elim's Regents College in Nantwich. I'm quite excited about this opportunity for formal, disciplined and Biblical theological study. There are two 4 day blocks of study in each of the 2 years, and the rest is reading and study on my own.

SPEAK UP

It's funny, that despite being relatively tired and a little uncertain about my long-term future, I'm being inundated with speaking requests. Sunday night was the latest of our Igniting a Passion events, we hold about 5 a year, and I generally speak at one of those- which happened to be Sunday. The theme was Igniting a Passion for NOW, and the aim was to show the urgency of responding to God right now and to showcase some of the projects Ignite are involved in right now. About 16 young people gave their lives to Christ, a whole bunch signed the Ignite declaration and loads took information about our various projects.We even had 5 children sponsored through Compassion, so that was amazing.
At the moment I have nothing in my diary in 2007 for America, although I'm sure I'll end up there at some stage during the year, but unusually for me I do have speaking engagements in Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis in North Scotland, Belfast in Northern Ireland, Narberth in West Wales, Westminster Central Hall in London, and plenty of lecturing at Regents College in Nantwich, Cheshire. As well as all that we've started a new preaching focus for the year at City Temple called HIS STORY- a story of faith, forgiveness and hope for every heart. We're attempting to tell the great story of God by using some of the main stories from the Bible. I'm preaching in a couple of weeks time on Abraham and the Covenants- sounds like a great name for a band... ladies and gentlemen, for one night only, here they are, let's give it up for Abraham and the Covenants!