After the financial crisis

Maybe, just maybe, it's time to pick ourselves up and get to work. The banking system has been dealt a heavy blow and will never be the same again, the British economy was already slowing down without credit availability evaporating as well.

It's possible we've turned the corner, the next few weeks should let us know one way or the other. So what are we going to do now?

It's no good thinking we can go back to business as usual. There's been a financial earthquake, the ground has shifted in unexpected ways, what we thought we knew about the landscape doesn't apply any more. The fault lines have distorted everything.

I think the best thing we can do is to take this as a great opportunity. We in the UK need fresh goals for business, we can't survive on our banking prowess because the banking industry has let us down. We need something new. But what?

For all his faults and appalling acts, Adolf Hitler did some things well. He helped Germany recover from the 1930s depression years and the hyper-inflation that had wrecked the German currency. He put the nation to work building autobahns, steelworks, armaments, power stations. The USA had the same idea, building the Hoover Dam for example. Schemes like this provided jobs for the unemployed, put spending money in their pockets, and got the economy moving again. At the same time they created infrastructure that made agriculture and industry more efficient and in many cases the infrastructure is still in use today.

The autobahns are a good example, and so is the Hoover Dam.

Now, I'm not suggesting that Britain should build armaments, but we could certainly take a tip from the famous Dam. Why not put effort into accelerating our move towards greener energy?

Green projects could get our economy moving again, providing employment at a time when it is showing signs of falling, getting money circulating in our local businesses and shops, and providing green energy for tomorrow sooner than would otherwise happen. Wind farms, the Severn Barrage, geothermal schemes, solar energy for heating and power, wave energy and a beefed up research programme would give us a boost now and put our children in better shape for tomorrow.

And there's an opportunity for export too. If we can develop some of these technologies quickly we may be able to sell hardware or licence our designs. Green industries are new industries and that is where the opportunities will be.

ANNOUNCEMENT - Celebration meeting at Moggerhanger Park

Come and join us to celebrate our shared life in Jesus Christ. We plan to meet at Moggerhanger Park on Sunday 16th November from 16:00. We will provide tea, coffee, and light buffet-style refreshments - probably sandwiches and cake or similar. Do feel free to bring food with you if you wish.

There is no fixed plan for the evening. We are meeting early so that families with small children will be able to come, but we will continue as late as necessary until people need to leave. If you can't join us until the evening that will be fine too. There is no formal 'meeting' time and no agenda, but we expect to have an opportunity to meet and chat with those we don't know and spend time focused on Jesus in whatever way he leads.

This invitation is going out to small groups meeting in and around Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and Northamptonshire. It is also going out to people we know more widely who might be interested in making contacts outside their own area. We don't wish to be exclusive so if you have been invited please feel free to prayerfully invite others. If you are reading this, do consider yourself invited.

For practical reasons, however, we feel it's important to keep the numbers small enough that people can get to know everyone else present.

Please let us know by Monday 10th November if you intend to join us (contact details below). We need to know numbers for reasons of space, food, and seating and there will be a cut-off when the numbers reach the maximum we can accomodate - first come, first served so let us know quickly if you feel you should be there on the night.

Contact details - get in touch if you wish to come, if you are also replying on behalf of others please include the total number.

• Email - chris@scilla.org.uk
• Home telephone - 01480 370459
• Mobile - 07775 805783

Date and time - Sunday 16th November from 16:00.

Location - we plan to meet at Moggerhanger Park near Sandy, Bedfordshire. Their website has directions.

The map below is centred on the Park's buildings. You can drag it with the mouse and resize it to see more, Sandy and the A1 are about two miles to the right. You can click the blue marker to get driving directions.

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Eaton Ford - waiting and calling on the Lord

Ruth told us about opportunities at her local Anglican church in Offord d'Arcy where she is helping to run an art event on the theme 'Angels'. This led us to think more deeply about reaching out to others. We tend to think in terms of doing this as individuals but biblically we need to work together. Chris mentioned that Yahshua sent the disciples out in twos. We are called to be one (John 17:20) if we are to represent Christ in the world. We are his body and he has only one body, if we don't come as members of his one body we are representatives, not of Christ, but of someone or something else.

Ruth read from Isaiah (40:31), 'Those that wait (or hope) on the Lord shall renew their strength'. Hope involves waiting, but it's an expectant waiting. We need to wait in expectation for him to move, moving in our own inadequate strength just isn't good enough.

We were also reminded again of 1 Corinthians 13:1. What is love? The answer lies in the verses that follow, but basically it is selfless and is focused unwaveringly on the other. This is true whether 'other' is Yahshua or anyone else.

Roger mentioned a friend who has leukaemia, we prayed for him and also for Roger to be able to reach him with the good news. Ruth reminded us that we must 'seek first the Kingdom, and all the things we look for will be added to us (Matthew 6:33). She prayed for the youth work next summer.

And Chris mentioned the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36:33-37:14). The entire army was restored, but it was done through the restoration of each individual person. This is just like the Bride of Christ, the Church. She is being restored in our day, person by person, individual by individual. And it was achieved by Ezekiel's obedience in prophecying over the bones. He was also called to prophecy over the breath (spirit) to come and enter them. Like the soldiers in the valley we began as dry bones, we were connected with sinews, the muscles were added, we were covered with skin yet we were still not alive. The final act is for the Spirit to come into us so that we are not only complete but also alive! We need to pray for the non-believers around us in the same way Ezekiel prayed.

Great Doddington - earthquake and desert

Tonight had a sober tone initially when we prayed for Pete Shortall-Strike, aged 29, who died suddenly and shockingly last week, and for his family and friends. It is hard to make sense of the death of such a vibrant, vivacious young man who appeared to have his whole life ahead of him.

Rachael had a picture of Father sitting in an armchair having a chat with his children. He was saying that His will and our will are like two techtonic plates under a continent, and that when they move in different directions they rub up against each other, and it's not surprising therefore that the friction causes a little smoke, and an earthquake sized shift in the ground beneath our feet, or a bit of a rumble.

A prophesy was heard, that the day is coming when it will rain in the desert, the day is coming when the rivers and lakes will dry up, and the time is coming when Father and His people will stand together, they will see Him and know Him.

Prayers were said for the political leaders grappling with the complexities of the global banking crisis, that they would be guided to make the right choices and that they would inject a moral code into the system to reduce the likelihood of this happening again. We also prayed for Abigail Maynard and her parents Chris and Judy, that the Lord would intervene with Abigail's liver failure and that her parents would be strengthened and their work for the Lord glorified.

Our prayers centred around 'praying' into God's will - being so much aware how easy it is to follow our own will, and sometimes when we translate our will as His; we all felt the need to be at peace with our situations even when we don't understand what is going on around us, our families, our friends...lets face it, the world!

Little Paxton - Caring and giving

Because some of us this evening didn't know about the amazing way Father's been touching us recently, we began by outlining the two strands that we are aware of so far. Jim and Chris explained how the youth camp for next summer and the networking of small house meetings had come about.

Jim read Psalm 115:1,4-8 which had spoken to him during the week. He reminded us that we need to give the Lord all the glory and trust only him. People in our day place their trust in so many idols that have no life. We have heard so much in the news recently about financial catastrophe, money and financial institutions are things many people have trusted greatly and now they are anxious as they see the system's fragility.

John prayed for revival in our part of the country, for Open Door as they move to the Priory, for the churches they have planted out in nearby towns, for The River, and for all the other groups of believers in and around St Neots.

Ruth mentioned the people who are worried about not having enough heat this winter and may not have enough food. She explained that love expressed in care is true spirituality, and she prayed for the spiritually hungry to come to the Lord's feast which is spread out for them.

Chris reminded us that Yahshua told his disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send harvesters. The harvest is ready now, where we live, so we prayed for the Lord to send his harvesters here.

Roger told us that it's good that small groups around the area will be meeting together on 16th November. Jesus prayed that his church would be one. The smaller kinds of groups make it possible for people to relate together more closely and look after one another when there are problems or difficulties.

Jim told us that we have a living faith. When we give our money, our time, or our family to bless others it blesses the Lord too. he can really use that kind of giving, and in the process he always seems to give us so much more back as well!

Chris said that because we had thought and prayed so much this evening about all these things, it would be good to read John 15:1-17 again and it would have even more depth of meaning than usual.

Great Doddington - A white lily

After talking about forgiveness for a while we listened to a track from a Bill Johnson CD in which he tells a story about his (fictional) history as a pen thief. It had us in stitches! But it also spoke to us about the depth and breadth of forgiveness that we have in Christ.

We talked a bit more about condemnation and righteousness and then Jody read Romans 5:1-21. Rachael shared a picture of the Lord's house. There were a lot of people there, having a party, but they didn't know him. They were busy putting up decorations for their party but because they didn't know Jesus they couldn't see him and they didn't realise he was quietly watching them. As they put up decorations and lights and speakers he was following and quietly taking it all down again.

Some of the people didn't realise what was happening and just went round and round redecorating places they'd already done before. Some noticed that what they had done been mysteriously undone, those people turned round and saw the Lord and began to relate to him and have a conversation with him.

Chris thought that we need to do what Yahshua does. We are called to be like him, we are called to do what he does. When people see us and talk with us they need to see him and hear him.

Jody prayed that we'd take him into our whole life, into our family life, life with our neighbours etc. She asked for wisdom to say his word, the right word, at the right time.

Jody also saw a white arum lily, huge but perfect with beautiful, waxy petals. She saw that each of us is perfectly formed and very beautiful, and she understood that we are be ourselves like that during the coming week. People will be drawn to his beauty in us. She shared a word from the Lord, 'You are to go out and invite them in. You are not to reject the world but you are to go out into it and bless them.'

Rachael also spoke out his words, 'The place where I am is like a raging forest fire. It purifies you, and it leaves behind the ash. Go out into the world and share the love and life that is in you - it will not come back empty'.

We shared the bread and wine together, his body broken for us - but in another sense we are his body now. He is building us although we have been broken. There's a kind of symmetry here - his body was whole and became broken, but now we who are his body and were broken are becoming whole. It is a mystery.

In old covenant times the Jews believed that the life of an animal was in the blood, so when the blood was let out in sacrifice, it was the life that was being poured out. So when we share the wine representing his blood, we also share the wine in its other meaning representing his life. And because in reality too we have a share in his blood poured out for us, so we also have a very real share in his life.