SPIN LIKE THE WIND-the blog of Nigel James.

GATEWAY SCHOOL OPENS IN INDIA.

I'm sitting at home one day after returning from India to attend the official dedication and opening ceremony for the Gateway School. On reflection, here are my highlights:

• Having Gill accompany me, and seeing her enjoy the trip so much.
• Watching her cut the ribbon to open the school, after 3 years or so of fundraising. 
• Traveling with our friends Paul and Amy Reed. We arrived 4 days before the team from City Temple. Gill and I enjoy Paul and Amy's company very much, and they had been a consistent support in the fundraising.
• Renewing my friendship face to face with Pastor Prasad and his family- Sunee, Evangeline, Victor, Vinod, Sagar, Prabhakar...  the list goes on. 
• Having a whole trip illness free ( apart from a little too much sun one afternoon). 
• Taking the opportunity to visit some of our Ignite India churches- including the dedication service of one, and one currently under construction. 
• Playing golf with Bryon Castle and Richard Tugwell, and receiving some tuition from our new friend Silveraj- the top amateur player in India! 
• Speaking at the dedication service for the school, and preaching on this verse:    And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.   
• Attending and speaking at the Blessings Festival on the Come Together Compound (home of the school) and seeing many people young and old become Christians, and many significant healings.
• Observing the City Temple team grow in faith and confidence as they saw God use them powerfully.
•  Praying for a young pregnant, married woman and her husband. He had infected her with HIV, and her family was unaware of this situation.
• Visiting the leprosy church that we had long been supporting, and agreeing to build an Ignite church there and also to fund toilets for each of the simple houses on site. 
• Swimming briefly in the Indian ocean on an afternoon trip to Kokanada. 
• Visiting a goat market with Prasad to buy meat to feed all who attended the opening of the school. We sent Sagar off with 3 goats in the back of an auto-rickshaw, and those goats provided enough meat to feed 500 people.
• Flying by Emirates Airlines and getting upgraded from Dubai to Hyderabad on the way out.  
• Returning to City Temple last night to show some pictures and tell some stories.  
• YOU CAN SEE A SELECTION OF PHOTOS OF THE SCHOOL OPENING IN MY PHOTOS ON THIS SITE.    
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India mission trip.

A full report when I arrive home but suffice to say our trip has been very rewarding. Gill has enjoyed every moment-especially the official opening of the Gateway School and visiting the leprosy church. Here's a photo of us out to dinner with Pastor Prasad and his wife Sunnee.

CHOICE No. 5- Reading Voraciously.

I've always abided by the principle that leaders are learners and that learners are readers. Therefore leaders must be readers. I've made a habit of reading as much as I can- you can see a wide range of books listed on this site. I'm heading off to India with Gill in a day or two, along with Paul and Amy Reed-friends from Ignite. We'll be opening the Gateway School and visiting Ignite churches. Already in my travel bag are a selection of books to read on the plane and late night in India when I can't sleep!

Here's a selection of some of my all time classic favorite and most stimulating books in the realm of Christian ministry, discipleship and leadership.

Axiom-Bill Hybels

Leadership- Rudolph Giuliani

What's So Amazing About Grace?- Philip Yancey

Celebration of Discipline- Richard Foster

Preach the Word!-Greg Haslam

Wild at Heart-John Eldredge

The Secret Message of Jesus-Brian McLaren

Evangelism by Fire- Reinhard Bonnke

The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leaders Day- John Maxwell

Sex God- Rob Bell

Prov. 15:2 The wise person makes learning a joy; fools spout only foolishness.

WHAT"S BEEN HAPPENING.

With only 5 days to go before Gill and I head off to India to officially open the Gateway School the last week or so has been pretty busy;

City Temple hosted the On Earth As It Is In Heaven conference with Bill Johnson from Bethel Church, Redding, California. In the Wednesday evening over 90 people were healed of various ailments by the grace of God, including one young lady on our India mission team who had been only told that day by her doctor that an MRI scan showed up such a serious condition in her spine that she needed an immediate operation and definitely wouldn't be able to travel with the team. She woke up the next day and for the first time in 12 years didn't need her pain medication.

I' m still digesting some of the lessons learned from a one-day conference the week before, on creativity in church services, led by Nancy Beach from Willow Creek. It was organized by the Willow Creek Association, which specializes in leadership training. I managed to finish and send off my latest research paper for the Master's degree a few days early so I went to this conference with Shikala Mansfield from CT and Chloe Roberts from Ignite.

Last night I spoke at the latest Ignite event for young people in South Wales. Gary had felt it was about time that the importance of the Ignite Declaration was put before people again, so much like old times I preached on that, using a portion of Isaiah 53.8 as my key text. At the last count, there were about 400 young people there who used the declaration with me as a holy moment and a bold statement before God, and over 100 of them signed the card format of the declaration for the first time.

As well as heading up the mission focus at City Temple, I've been beginning to give the student/18-30 leadership some guidance- Derek and Angela Hermann along with my old mate Pete Joyce head this area up and I'll be increasingly supporting them over the next year or so.

I've also booked my flights for the next Third Day tour-I'll be going over on the 12th March to the 5 April for my first chunk.

ALTERNATIVE CAREER.

Someone asked me the other day what job I would be doing if my life had taken a different path. Interesting question! I've always struggled to do something just for the money, so it would have to be something I was really interested in. Taking the 'impossible dream' options out of the equation ( like playing for England at cricket, being a world famous rock star, working for MI6 as the next James Bond),  I've come up with the following:

1st choice- not too far away from what I already do - Chaplain in the Armed Forces.

2nd choice-as I love writing and I love sport- Cricket journalist.

3rd choice-playing all my old records and CD's- Presenter on a classic rock radio station.

4th choice-the live audience, my stock of jokes- Stand Up comedian.