Nashira Williams
March 28,2007
Blog #7

I spent some time with one of the prayer leaders of the church. In the service they have a time when the prayer team goes up to the front of the church or infront of the altar making themselves available to pray for anyone. Something I always wondered as I grew was whether or not it took something special to be a part of the prayer group in church and is a person gifted in prayer. I suppose people are because if people have a gift for preaching then they can surely have a gift of prayer. And that is excalty what she said; she felt that prayer was gift. Furthermore, she explained that she was so intrigued and very focused on prayer because it was emphasized in her home since she was little. One thing she emphasized was then neccesity of asking the Holy Spirit to direct the prayer before anything. In, additiion she said that you must be authoritve in your prayer believing every word you say and believing that God will move in the person you are praying for. And in conclusion of the prayer it is important to mention the name of Jesus ;He completes everything.
I proceded to ask the prayer leader what are the most common prayers and in response she said it mainly has to do with children and marraige. Most people pray for their children to follow the Lord and very often parents are praying for their children who are in the world.
She gave me some good pointers/advice:
1. We have to understand prayer is important because Jesus mandated it! Amen he did
2. We must pray without ceasing. It should be engrained in us.
3.Builds community, time for confession, and builds the body up. It is very therapeutic

In, conclusion I would be happy to go to the altar and have her pray for me.lol

posted by Nashira @ 4:55 PM [[ 3 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
Sorry this is #6
March 22


This week I had the privelege to do the praise and worship for children's church. At first I was a bit nervous about it because I was asked the day of but in either case I enjoyed it so much. My initial approach to this was to do Christian camps songs and then one of the other staff suggested oldder childish songs like "Father Abraham" But in either case we did not take that approach and decided to sing actual praise and worship songs. I first started off with a bit of a chant to get the children excited about worship. They had a bit of a competition between the guys and girls in which each side would say" We love Jesus yes we do. We love Jesus how about you?". Then we proceeded in prayer and then praise and worship songs. I had some of the children sing with me and it was just amazing just seeing them worship the Lord. The children were only in the fourth and fifth grade yet they praised the Lord as if they were Christians for such a long time. They raised their hands and they did movements to the songs. They were enthusiastic and excited about singing for the Lord. It seems as though they would have done the same no matter what songs were sung. It made me think about how we treat or show lack of appreciation for the many songs of worship. We want them to be this way and song in this style and then there are the children who worship the Lord no matter what is being played. So this was definitely a blessing.

posted by Nashira @ 6:40 PM [[ 2 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
March 16, 2007
Blog # 6

It was so insightful learning in debt the full role of a greeter. I sat down and talked with members of God's House and they explained to me how they became involved in the ministry. Surprisingly it wasn't quite the story I expected. There was no " I love meeting people" type of answer, but raher joining this ministry was an act of submission and obedience. They explained that greeting people was out of their comfort zone, which is hard to believe because as a couple they do a really good job. But this job has allowed them to grow and be more about serving others rather than satisfying their own wants and doing what is comfortable.

But in either case, their role is about making connections with people who are coming to church for the first time and just making a connection in general. Greeting is about making people feel comfortable because they may feel out of their element. They emphasized that is important to make people feel loved. They said there are two typical attitudes when entering church. The first being cold and "stand offish" and surprised and joyous. Greeting is about meeting these people and making sure that when they walk into church they are prepared to enter the Lord's presence without any worries,without feeling isolated or strange. Furthermore, you have to be intentional with people; greeting goes beyond Sunday and beyond shaking someone's hand or giving hugs. They emphasize learning people's names and showing an interest in learning about the people. They like to call people during the week just to see how they are doing, not to ask them about coming to church the next Sunday.

One thing they said that grabbed my attention was that everyone plays a role in the church community and making others feel comfortable or welcomed. They said we are a whole body.

posted by Nashira @ 9:24 PM [[ 1 comments ]]

Nashira Williams
March 2
Blog # 4

This week I spoke with the women who takes care of the cafe at church. I know whoever may read this is wondering how this purtains to the service. The cafe is right in back of the sanctuary and is opened before service and about a half and hour into the service. This cafe is another venue for fellowship. People usually go there before the service while the announcements are on the powerpoint. It is a wonderful time to talk with people and to hear about what is going on their lives. Furthermore, the pastor also encourages people to go back to the cafe during the greeting period. The cafe is truly a blessings because the proceeds go to their ministry in Zambia.

posted by Nashira @ 9:58 PM [[ 0 comments ]]