Nervous now..

Right - I'm nervous now. The mighty shrimpers are on the brink of promotion to the championship, but even though we're 6 points clear at the top and only 3 games to go, I still think they could blow it!

Donny Rovers at home on Saturday, in the meantime here's a Freddy Eastwood goal from earlier this season - I sit in the front row, just above the corner flag where he hit this shot from, one of the best goals I've ever seen.

Encouraging Easter

After a real downer on my Mashbury ministry last week, Easter proved a real encouragement for me.

For the Good Friday meditation, I had focused on the last 7 utterances of Christ(inspired by the book "Seven Words for the 21st Century" - see link below).

I had a guest soloist, Nicola a friend from work and member of the ISS, who willingly gave of her time on a bank holiday to assist in the service.

I also had a 6-foot wooden cross, made for me by a fellow bandsman at Chelmsford.

Despite the PowerPoint not working exactly as I had wanted, the atmosphere that I had wanted to create was created. I had two phonecalls from Corps members at home that evening thanking me for the service and another 5 came up to me on the Sunday specifically to thank me for it. I felt that God had really blessed my preparation and felt really encouraged.

Easter Sunday was also encouraging, a young family from another church who had come on Good Friday came along on Sunday too and our congregation had almost doubled from Good Friday! With the visit of the UrbanArmy clan on Sunday afternoon/evening it was a good day.

Today I had arranged a bank holiday ramble. I'm always worried on occassions like this that nobody will turn up, but today there were 40 of us, taking advantage of the good bank holiday weather and we had a 3.5 mile walk in the countryside which surrounds the Corps. It was a good chance to chat to fringe members of the Corps who are infrequent attenders. Here's a photo of us outside the hall before we set off.

When ruralarmy met urbanarmy...

Spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening with my old pal Gordon (http://www.urbanarmy.blogspot.com) and am seen here introducing him to the joys of allotment ministry!

The frustrations (and blessings) of ministry

I'm a full time employee of The Salvation Army, most weeks working in excess of 50 hours plus 1.5 hours commuting each way.

I have a young family (2 kids aged 10 and 8).

I also have a life - I have friends I like to meet, a football team I am passionate about (attending all home games as a season ticket holder), a house group I participate in and I also like to watch a bit of telly!

My ministry at Mashbury is also important to me, but it takes place in the context of the rest of my life. Meeting preparation is time-consuming, but also rewarding and last Sunday was no exception to normal. I did my research on Palm Sunday over a couple of evenings and on the train to and from work and wrote up my sermon on Saturday morning and evening as well as planned out the service.

My research taught me what a hugely significant day Palm Sunday is, with its links back to old testament prophecies by Daniel, Zephaniah and Nehimiah.

So important and significant is it that eleven people showed up for my meeting on Sunday.

Eleven!

We're not a big corps, but eleven is about 30% down on normal attendance.

Perhaps it's me, perhaps they don't like my preaching or leadership style? Perhaps they just can't be bothered!

When only 11 people show up, I reflect on the preparation, on the hours that could have been spent with my children, my wife, my friends or just chilling out.

I wonder if it is all worthwhile. Whether The Salvation Army would be better off just shutting the Corps and bussing people to Chelmsford.

I hope the eleven got something out of the meeting. I'm glad I got something out of the preparation, otherwise I would have been really naffed off!

Southend 2-1 Blackpool

http://www.soccerbot.com/fa/tables/uk2div06.htm

It was the "bucket and spade derby" today as our seasider friends from the frozen north visited the Essex riviera. I took my customary spot in the South Upper, Row A, Seat 143 (My season ticket seat) at 2.30 pm and readied myself for my favourite way to spend a Saturday afternoon - at Roots Hall watching the Shrimpers.

We played OK in the 1st half but gave away a sloppy goal (scored by a player on loan from Essex rivals Colchester!) and went in 1-0 down at half time.

Second half we were much brighter, first we equalised through our star player, Fredy Eastwood - another fantastic goal - beat 4 defenders and picked his spot. We got the winner with 4 minutes left, a good run down the left from our sub. Mitchell Cole (like Eastwood and ex- Wet Spam trainee that we plucked from non-league Grays Athletic) and stabbed home by Luke Guttridge, the diminuitive midfielder who was arguably our Man of the Match (although the sponsors gave the award to Eastwood).

Points to note:

• All 3 goals were scored in the goal I sit behind - that doesn't happen very often!
• Crowd of 8180 is great compared with previous seasons but a little disappointing considering where we are in the league
• All the other results went for us today - Brentford drew, Huddersfield, Colchester, Swansea and Oldham all lost. We're 9 points clear of 3rd place with 5 games to go.

I love football and I love Southend United! (Irrational I know but there you go!)

In the beginning:

This was first published in The Salvationist in 2002:

"HERE’S an interesting story from CSM Leon Owers, who’s responsible for Mashbury Corps. Leon tells me that some weeks ago a woman, with her husband and a couple of friends, was driving through some Essex lanes and passed Mashbury corps hall. This was of particular interest to her, as her grandfather had been involved with the commencement of the Army’s work in that area. The group contacted London North-East Divisional Headquarters, who put them in touch with Leon. As a result of this, and subsequent correspondence, the party of four attended a meeting at Mashbury. After looking at a number of photographs it was confirmed that the inquirer’s grandfather was the late Major Isaac Watson, and during the same meeting the granddaughter’s husband read from a Young Soldier report of Major Watson’s 1950 visit to Mashbury to conduct 60th anniversary celebrations. The article relates how, along with seven cadets, Major Watson left the training garrison in Clapton with three horses and a caravan bearing the inscription ‘Faithful’ to take the gospel to the county of Essex, commencing their work in the villages of Mashbury and Good Easter. Also recorded is Major Watson’s diary entry regarding the start of the Army at Mashbury in 1890, when 90 souls were won in seven weeks. CSM Owers took the visitors to the field where the party ‘opened fire’. In all probability this was the field where the photograph reproduced here — showing Major Watson (seated, centre) with the cadets — was taken."

Amazing service

Saturday evening saw a service of recognition (NOT RETIREMENT!!!) for my 80-year old Corps Sergeant Major at Mashbury. He can be a bit miserable from time to time and I think gets a bit frustrated by me (my administration is really nowhere near his standards), however his service is absolutely exemplary - he has run the Corps for the last 20 years, and in all honesty still runs it!

He was called on to give a speech on Saturday night and although he had prepared copious notes, unwisely decided not to stick to them. 35-minutes later, the DC had to step in to shut him up and he'd only got as far as 1967 and had got rather bogged down in the finer details of the construction of the hall (how many cement mixers, whose tractor they borrowed to dig the trenches etc. etc.). Picking the bones out of this speech was not easy, but what struck me was the devotion of him (and his colleagues) in spending their evenings and weekends building their own SA hall. I have some involvement in the construction of new buildings now and never have I seen this level of commitment recently.

On my office wall I have a picture of the original horse-drawn caravan that came out of the Clapton training garrison and planted the Corps at Mashbury. It has painted on the side the inscription "The faithful" - that spirit still lives on.

A bit about me

...well I suppose I'd better let you know a bit more about me:

• Age: 38
• Occupation: Work for The Salvation Army
• Hobbies: Southend United Football Club, Divisional Envoy responsible for Mashbury Corps, Long Distance Running (have done 2 marathons)
• Family: 1 wife, 2 kids (1 of each variety), 2 chickens, 2 guinea pigs, 1 hamster

More will undoubtedly follow in the course of this blog, but that will do for now