Nightshelter 2012/13

Well my blog's have been a little depressing recently, so I wanted to blog about something nicer, you know kinda like the 'It's not just doom & gloom' section of 'Russell Howard's Good News'

Nightshelter is a network of churches who group together in the winter months to help some of Brighton's most vulnerable people: the homeless. It acts as a stepping stone to help get homeless people integrated back into society, and primarily we provide food and shelter for up to 15 men a night. The scheme is run entirely by volunteers who really have a heart for serving, and compassion for both the city and helping people in this situation.

I volunteered last year and God blessed me so much by doing so, It allowed me to break down common misconceptions that I had of this group of people and actually put my heart for servitude into action for him.

I went through most of my Christian life thinking that God had missed me out when he was handing out gifts. I'm not exceptionally musically talented, I can't speak in tongues, I'm not a great leader, or a great public speaker. I can't quote verse after verse from the bible from memory. But it took me a few years to realise, God has given me a servant heart. I get so excited to work for Him, show his love to people who don't know him, through my actions. It's one of the reasons why I want to be a doctor, why I want to work with people, Not to demonstrate myself and how amazing I am, to to demonstrate Him and give glory to him through my actions in the opportunities that he's laying out before me.

This year I'm getting involved in nightshelter again and I'm absolutely buzzing!! due to first aid training, I can't do evenings anymore but I'm giving up sleep to get there and give them breakfast in the morning and start conversations. It also gives me a glimpse into why I got the job at Asda, as well as being a way of earning money and supporting myself through uni, I really feel like God is equipping me through the opportunity to work with and build relationship through a wide range of people. I'm also so excited for what this step will lead to in these peoples lives, how they could improve them.

Let's see what the next year brings!

XOX

He is AMAZING!

I've never had God speak to me as clearly as he did today and it was so amazing!!
Basically, tonight I went to work, and I'd been having a rubbish day and I mean probably up in the top 10 worst days of the year so far, and to top it off I'm feeling so ill and bunged up it's unbelievable, but I'm contracted to work Saturday evenings so I went in. About halfway through my shift I had a customer come through my till, so I treated her as I normally would, did all the happy to help criteria, asked her about how her day was, had a generally nice chat, processed the transaction etc. and she turns round to me and told me about how she really feels that God has amazing things planned for me, how he's going to work in my life in ways that I won't believe possible, as long as I give my heart entirely to him. And all this is before I even tell her I'm a Christian and I go to a church in Brighton and everything. I just find it absolutely amazing how God can speak to us in so many different ways, and I know that he does it subtly all the time, but I just love it when he speaks to you in ways that gives you goosebumps. It just serves as a reminder of how amazing he actually is and how much he has his hand over everything (Including Asda!)

Just a quick note for tonight ;)

XOX