Special Evening on Prayer - Sunday 29th April 2012

Our gathering with enthusiasm to learn more about the prayerful life on the special evening on 29th April from 4 to 7.30pm at River Court Methodist Church at Hammersmith was an exciting time within LTCC. We were able to remind ourselves who am I and How am I taking efforts to walk with my Risen Lord in my life.

36 people including 25 adults, 3 youngsters and 8 children gathered together on that day. It was very colourful to see all Age group sharing the definition for what is prayer was also remarkable one! Some said,

· It is communion with God                                      
· Asking God to help
· Listening to God in silence
· Trusting God totally
· Praising God
· Being in His presence
· Talking with God
· Talking to God

People were asked to remind themselves when and how they pray? What kind of postures and some models of Old Testament prayers. Importantly they were able to understand how did Jesus pray and example he shared with his disciples. Then they were divided into 3 adult Groups and a group with young people and another group with children. How can we intercede as a church with the people in Sri Lanka was well discussed in the groups and particularly with Adult groups and youngsters group with Group leaders. We worshiped together with the prayers from the groups.

The questions raised on that day were:

Do we need to pray or do we need to work or do we need to extend only financial help to have my relationship with God and people.

The above questions are the realities today. The answers were

Yes of course we need to pray. We need to have Family prayer and personal prayers in our life journey.

Yes of course we need to do our work but we need to have a communion with God with thankful heart for the work we do and show the total commitment to Him in our work which is also a part of prayer while we work.

Yes of course I need to pray, and I need to give financial help because the help which I can’t do God may be able to raise from another person to do it.

Yes of course I need to pray because I become God’s co partner in God’s creative and redemptive work. So we all agreed to Practise to pray without ceasing in our daily lives..

Here I am...

A reflection from the January Bible quiz

Here I am.........This sentence appears 8 times in the book of Genesis.

Abraham: His conversation with God, with his son Isaac and with Angel
Easu : His conversation with his father Isaac
Jacob: His conversation with his father Isaac, with Angel, and with God
Joseph: (In some translation) with his father Jacob
The response “Here I am” always expresses a person’s readiness or willingness to say “yes” with Joy to do things. But at the same time in some cases it shows the humbleness/hypocrite of the people as well.

Please reflect:

Who are we when we say ‘Here I am’ to people and to God.

What can we make up of ourselves when we develop our character

A big difference in learning together at Hounslow

On 2^nd Sunday of Epiphany in 2012

On 15^th January nearly 12 people including 2 children were gathered to worship the Lord at the United Reformed Church, Hounslow. We decided to sit in a circle. We sang and prayed together. During the time of sermon we were able to discuss about the 2 lessons of that day from the Bible (I Samuel 3:1-10 and John 1: 43 to end)

Description from the passage:

1. Samuel as a small lad and Elai as a elderly priest: There was encouragement , teaching of a prayer in a polite way and also understanding, “how God can reveal the situation through a small child”.
2. Philip and Nathaniel as friends would like to meet Jesus together: But the first invitation was extended politely and patiently from Philip to his friend, Nathaniel who had a challenging question.

The following thought provoking questions were asked to the congregation:

• What could we learn from these passages ?
• How and where God can reveal himself to us today ?

Following inspiring thoughts were shared to learn together:

1. God can reveal himself to us despite different situations, ages, gender and ethnicity or nationality.
2. God’s loving nature was revealed through Jesus. For e.g. Jesus pointed out and appreciated Nathaniel as (an innocent) truly an Israelite in whom there was no deceit.
3. Here Nathaniel expressed the human nature of love in a sarcastic way. For e.g. When Philip pointed out Jesus as a Nazarene, Nathaniel sarcastically said can anything good come out of Nazareth.
4. Do we need to be innocent like Nathaniel always in our life? Here Jesus’ teaching with his disciples from the Gospel of Mathew was reminded. (Mathew10:16) The message was shared as a good Christian disciple we need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Continuing thoughts for the week:

• God’s love is so amazing and his expression of His love through Jesus Christ is also incredible
• God’s ways are creative not destructive. Jesus’ conversation with Nathaniel was creative because Jesus was able to recognise Nathaniel’s good characters and pointed out to bring creative relationship with him. We can understand here Jesus ignored Nathaniel’s ill feeling about him and also to helped him to understand his continuing revelations as well..
• Epiphany reminds us God’s revelation overcomes all the differences and God’s nature of true love is expressed among all kinds of people in a creative and mysterious ways. .

A Day Out by the Seashore

Bank holiday on 29^th August 2011 was a great day at the Littlehampton Seashore for LTCC. It was really a fantastic and excellent experience. We had more perplexion before we saw that day; how many of us will join? In the end many turned up with great joy! Driver offered a lot of generous hospitality. The Coach journey to and from was full of fun, music and dance!     
Shared meal………Food was brought by many and it was a shared meal. People prepared the space with mats and sheets to lay the food beautifully and respectfully. It was well organised. That was the great characteristic of LTCC! No one was prepared to eat before giving thanks to God. Health and safety rules were observed too. So Hand Gel and Serviettes were distributed.

Fun began with some excellent games. A family and Community concept never gets rid off from LTCC gatherings! That is our Culture too…. Games were played with all age groups. Cricket brought all men together! All games spelt out beautiful reflections from the participants.

Six married couples were chosen to play a secret game. Wives answered the questions separately away from their Husbands and then husbands were asked to join their wives to guess what would have been their wives’ answer to the same questions. It was a great fun when they said the same or different answers. This gave a reflection at the end by asking the question as to how I can compare a couple who have been married for three years with a couple married for thirty six years.

It was a fantastic reflection to hear years do not matter, but the love and desire matters in married life. God’s love is also like this!

Some went for a walk; some had a rail journey; some had time in the Sea; some had Coffee fellowship. There is no doubt that all had a relaxing time which helped us all to recharge our batteries!
Surrounding Greenery there inspired us that God’s creation was bright and beautiful! Our togetherness enabled us to feel we are all one!

All glory to God who had given this great opportunity and joy!

Fun Day

Organised by LTCC Youth on 9^th July 2011 was a real joyful day for every one of us in the park!

I was so serious many days due to pressure in my work but Fun day makes me to release my stress and makes me to laugh. Do you know how it was funny to me?

• Costumes (Sari).ah ah ha that is for everybody…both men and woman..no gender bias
• Games (foot ball) inclusive whether you know the rules or not.
• You can play as you like. You learn the rules with laughing together.
• In all games gender, age or Rules are not the first but people are first to take part.
• nobody is excluded but the choice is ours
• We can change our group if we are not comfortable!
• Eat as long as you want but don’t forget to pay!

Friends! I am happy to learn from you in this site. I welcome you with your answers
If you consider Fun day as a stress release exercise then
how often will you go for it?
What do you think about God in “Fun days”?