So heres is my U.S of A interary…
For those of you who may not know…mainly due to my slightly poor communication, this last month I’ve been in Redding California. Now Redding isn’t a well known Californian tourist attraction by any means but it is however home to some great friends from home in England who are here at school and Bethel Church pastored by one of my hero’s, Bill Johnson.
Since i arrived here I’ve been staying with Josh, Emma & Adam Heather friends from home who i got to know really well last year through doing life and ministry with them for a UK organisation called Miracle Street. They share a house with another couple from the UK: Liam and Izzy who are really awesome and are good friends now. Liams a huge fan of ‘The Office’ too so David Brent quotes are a daily occurance in the house. Its been so much fun even just living with 5 other fellow Brits…i love the english banter and i’ve noticed even just being around the english accent again has resurrected the mother tongue that i started to clearly lose since travelling. Even when i’ve skyped my parents they’ve noticed this weird ‘Aus-zeal-rican’ accent which for those not familar is a cross breed of Australian, New Zealand’ish, American and Canadian. I was on the verge of being disowned by the english language.
These guys are also in their 1st year of the BSSM school (a school of over 1500 students across the 3 years) with Bethel here in Redding. Bethel Church is one of the most influential churches in the world right now and they are seeing one of the most phenomenal movements. I’ve been following the story for a couple of years now and have longed to visit. It measures up to so much more than i could have imagined. Living life here in a culture where the values of this church have transformed a City is incredible and extremely contagious. So even just one example; they hold a really high value of generousity. Redding used to be a City of poverty and so the church positioned themselves to be deliberate, acting the opposite what they were seeing, becoming the change they wanted to see. It’s all too easy to leave the responsibility of change to other people whilst standing on the edge looking at the situation…the problem with that is sometimes almost everybody else is doing the same thing as you and so the result is that nothing gets done. I love the challenge of ‘being the change you want to see’….and I’m not talking about starting some big campaign to fight some big cause but being faithful in the small. Even in starbucks now I find myself asking the person behind me if i can buy their coffee for them. Lets be honest, paying an extra $3 really isnt hard by any means and yet something so simple can change someones day or just even show them that they’re valued. You’ll be surprised by how often people are blown away and light up when you do something so simple like that.
When I knew I was going to visit i contacted Bethel to see if there was any way i could volunteer during the week when i wasn’t sitting in on the seminars because i knew my friends would be at school during the afternoons. I managed to get connected with the guy who manages the graphics and web department at the ‘Bethel Media Center’ and he agreed to meet up for coffee and discuss the possibility of helping. After meeting him on my second day in town he plugged me into the Media Team. Since that day, when i haven’t been visiting the school, i’ve been massively privileged to get involved and work on website redesign concepts for iBethel TV which is their site that broadcasts all of their video media, messages, promos, worship sessions etc… (its basically the window for people from all over the world to see whats going on here). I also got to work on a redesign project for the Moral Revolution website (MR is another ministry they run) and even got to design the promotional ad’s for Bill Johnsons new book coming out. I never would have imagined a year ago that i’d have the opportunity to visit let alone serve Bethel especially in the way that im passionate about and love [design].
Working in the Media Team has been such a real honour and opened so many connections and doors which i know will likely play a huge part in the future. In many ways i regret not blogging more often whilst i’ve been here….theres so many stories that i’d love to share. Maybe as i look back over this trip in the next week or so, i’ll post some individual stories of stuff i’ve seen here.
This whole time here has been a real climax in not only visiting a place i’ve wanted to for ages but getting blown away by the teaching, worship and ministry here, living in a transforming culture, hanging out with some of my closest friends and daily meeting amazing people and then to top it all off, getting to do what i love for people i love. I could safely say [as cliche as it sounds] that this trip has been amazing and life changing.
Wow. Wow. Wow
Tomorrow i set sail by coach to San Fransisco. Heres to the next chapter
Cheers
