Abraham believe and it was credited to him as Righteousness

Posted by Teen Bean

So this week has been so good for me. It all started on Sunday. i was able to go to an ice hockey game. Go Romford Raiders!! It pretty much rocked my world, the game was amazing. they play on smaller rinks here so the rules are a bit different, but being a loud fan is the same... so i fit in very nicely! 

  Monday is my official "lecture day" and this week we talked about Abraham and then in the afternoon we had a session on prayer. Let me just say, both rocked my world. It was so amazing to hear about how Abraham (who is know as the father of faith) messed up, that God had to re-assure him quite a few times what he had promised, and that things didn't always work out the way we might have thought, but ultimately God came through on his promises! The afternoon session was AMAZING! it was really really cool to hear about how their are different styles of prayer. I guess i always thought that if you were a good christian you would be good at all the ways people pray. so it was really good to hear that naturally we all have natural ways of prayer. It is good to work on the other styles, but its ok to realize they are hard! This morning we went to this park called "one tree hill" (i know how great... my own one tree hill!) and had the most amazing time of prayer. It felt so good to prayer with the style that i know is natural for me and not feel guilty that i didn't prayer in all the other styles. we had a really good prayer morning and we are really praying for the community of corringham that God will just pump into this city and really impact peoples lives! 
  Besides that over the weekend i had this massive craving for chocolate chip cookies. I went to the store and wandered up and down a million different isles before finding the tiniest bag of chocolate chips in the world. i go back to the house and ask charl, my house mate, to look up a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. she looks them up and read the recipe off for me. keep in mind she is british and i am american. so she says two and a 1/2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, three an 1/4 cup sugar, three and 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 cup of butter... etc. so i head to the kitchen and start pulling together all my supplies only to realize that in england they don't use cups and such its all in pints and grams... so i think well i will just use like a coffee cup as a cup and just eye it all. so, there i am mixing it all together and i go to add all the sugar and i am like... "dude this is ridiculous... this is way to much sugar!" i'm like "i am only going to add half the sugar".  i finish that, and am like "man that is a lot of sugar even still, but i already half the amount... so whatever". I finish making the dough and then i had to leave and go to the hockey game.  at the hockey game i am so looking forward to getting home and making some great cookies. i get home and pull the dough out of the frig and seriously you could physically see grains of sugar. i was like "this is not right!!" at that moment, Charl, walks into the kitchen with our host Carla and i'm just like "dude i am not to sure about these cookies, they look really weird and i added a lot of sugar!!" Carla was like "how much did you add?" i was like "well, the recipe said 3 1/4 cup white and brown sugar". Charls eyes get big as saucers and is like "no not 3 and a 1/4... 3/4 cup white and brown sugar!" we all just busted out laughing. i guess with her accent and how they say 3/4 i just totally wrote down the wrong thing. No matter how we tried to save the cookies it was to no avail. we had to chuck the whole batch! and to say the least Charl and I have not been able to live it down. The story gets told at every mass gathering! so cheers to chocolate chip cookies and internet recipes and british accents!! 

2 comments »

This is awesome!

Posted by Teen Bean

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for our house and the gathering of the household needs. we had (and still have) lots of  needs to complete our house and be ready for us to move into on thursday. a couple of days ago we still needed an oven and beds, and other household items, but yesterday we were told that someone gave us 500 pounds towards buying things we need for the house!!!! it is totally amazing, because now we will be able to buy a oven and a washing machine and that is such a blessing! I am so amaze at how money and supplies are coming in to get our house all set up for the year. It is so amazing! so thank you to all for the prayers! I'm here to say that God is actively living out your prayers in my life.



1 comments »

a day in the life of a rockstar

Posted by Teen Bean

This week has been going very smoothly. monday we had our first "teaching day". which consisted of a lecture that covered the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Dude they are not joking around about this whole study the whole bible thing. Monday we had a fair amount hang out time as well so that was fun to just chill and chat with people. on mondays a few other people join us for the teaching day so there was about 10 of us in the classroom. 


Tuesday we woke bright and early to make it to this thing called "Besom". This organization collects brand new (or practically brand new) house hold items to hand out to needy people in the community. It is really amazing how it just all comes together. Ikea donates a lot of they left over products to us. So, on tuesday i spend the better part of the morning putting together wardrobes and then organizing curtains and sheets. Tuesday night it was the transits responsibility to host the community meal so Carla, Charl, and I all had our moments in the kitchen cooking for about 25 people. It was fun, we made spaghetti and the most amazing garlic bread ever. ok, so carla made the garlic bread... and i told her that for my birthday i want her to make garlic bread for my breakfast, lunch and dinner... and i don't care what that will do to my body!!

Today is "Study day" and as you can see i am being very productive. i actually have to go to morning prayer here in 2 min... so i will just make this one short

oh wait. so last night i was sitting down to eat my spaghetti dinner. there i was innocently chewing away at my food, when all of the sudden i chomped down on a solid piece of MY LIP RING!! I was like eeeahhh???? just to realize that the small jeweled ball on the outside of the ring had screwed off and lost itself only to leave the bar to fall into my mouth. it was quite an uproar at the table as i was yelling "i swallowed my lip ring... i swallowed my lip ring!" to have my ever caring mate Charl practically chock on her food as she laughed her head off at me. Yeah, she just laughed. i could have died and she has to leave the room laughing at me!! ha ha! it was quite funny!

till next time... i have to go to prayer cuz now i am 2 min late!!

1 comments »

New Contact Info!

Posted by Teen Bean

I have a new mailing address:


Baptist Manse
30 Springhouse Road
Corringham, Essex
SS17 7QS
UK

my phone number is 0447531850357. that is the full number (including the country code) that you will have to dial to reach me. but be careful because it will be super long distance. but just an FYI i have free incoming calls!! (which prolly doesn't help much or at all, but whatever it makes me feel good!)


2 comments »

there was an old woman who lived in a shoe...

Posted by Teen Bean

Hello from Corringham. So a little explanation on my living situation. well its nothing like an old woman or a shoe, but that was the first rhyme that popped into my head! I have been living for the last 5 days, at this place that they call a boiler room. Boiler rooms are basically communities of people "that are centered on a disciplined rhythm of prayer and committed to the outward and upward practices of creativity, hospitality, learning, mission and justice." (a direct quote from the book punk monk by andy freeman p 15 yep i've been doing my homework!).  in some parts of the world boiler rooms are not physical place. they are formed by having relationships with people all yearning to have prayer in the center of their lives and pursue the aforementioned practices. Nevertheless my communities boiler room has a physical location a georgeous three bedroom home know by its address at Boiler Room Two One Seven (217).


There is this couple named Rob and Sally and they bought this huge three bedroom home in hopes to rent it out. But before they could follow through on their plans God come in and asked them to donate it to 24-7 Prayer for a year to be used by the community of leaders to continue helping this community live out practices of prayer, creativity, hospitality, learning, mission, and justice. And it is so amazing here. The three bedrooms upstairs are set up to service people who come here to see how this community has gotten itself in to rhythms of prayer, or for missionaries needing a holiday, or even just for a sleep over for girls in the community. 

They also have a huge prayer room set up in what would be the living room. It is an amazing place to be in. The walls are covered in prayer request, pictures of families  and friends, poetry, visions, art... it is amazing. Prayer here is not about just being locked in my room and fasting for 40 days. it about engaging all the characteristics of my personality to build a living and breathing relationship with God. I can go in the prayer room and pump up the music and worship to God in that way or i can grab a cushion and kneel in the corner or i can stand in front of a wall and write my prayers out... it is so cool to pug into prayer in so many different ways.

An art rooms is also set up to give people the ability to be as creative as they want. i haven't spent much time in there. tho we did need a vase for some flowers and i cute a jug in half and painted it pink and threw some glitter on it and wahhlaaaa we had a vase... so that was cool. They then have a room with tables in it that they used for all different sorts of things. Like they have community meals here on tuesday where everyone comes together to eat dinner and then we go in the prayer room and well pray. 

The life here is different and yet strangely similar to the life i had before. The sense of community is very strong here. People come from all different church backgrounds, but here at the boiler room we are of one body. Everyone is very focused on the three principles of Love God, Be Kind to Each Other, and Take the Gospel to the Nations. its not just the leaders that are into that... its everyone... so it is very cool! but what they are doing as far as reaching out to people is very similar to what i was doing at FBC. Hanging out together, having meals together, loving each other, serving the community. There is a healthy dose of active prayer here which is really amazing and i totally love.

So, yeah i am camped out in one of the guest bedrooms here at the boiler room, but this is not the house i will be living in permanently. God totally provided an amazing house for us about a 15 min walk from the boiler room. It is a 4 bedroom parsonage of a baptist church! (yeah i like to keep it real like that!). So we are really excited to move into that on Oct 1st. the only issue with this move is that the house we are moving to is just that, an empty house. there is nothing in the house, no beds, stove, frig, couches, curtains, rugs, dishes, shelves, dressers... we need everything. So we are really relying on God to provide us with all of our house needs. It truly is a brand new experience for me to have to rely on other people and ultimately God for the basic needs of life. I'm use to getting the things i need when i need them. So, doubt is playing a big part in my life right now. But every day God amazes me with someone calling us or texting us to say they have couches or a bed or money and the other day we got a fridge/freezer so we are pretty stoked to just see the physical work of our prayers day by day. If you could help pray our move will go smoothly and we will get all the things we need for the house that would be amazing!

oh side story... they have people here that they call a lollipop man or lollipop women. they basically are school crossing guards that wear these long neon yellow reflective coats and carry these huge round signs that look like lollipops... my mission for this week is to get a picture with one of the individuals... phase one has been completed: lollipop man has been spotted... now to pull out my james bond moves and get pictorial evidence of this strange yet completely fascinating people group!!!

2 comments »

Southampton!!

Posted by Teen Bean

So i made it to the port of southampton. it is pretty nice there. it was the launching sight for the mayflower and the titanic (just a bit of random fact for you!). So, in Southampton 24-7 Prayer was hosting their international Gathering which they called "HOME". it was truly amazing to just be a part of such an intense week of worship and prayer. In the beginning i helped out with the set up because i new a lot of the leaders from earlier in the week working at the "Round Tables". That was really fun because i got to move behind scenes and yeah i overall just like setting things up and preparing for big venue stuff so i was feeling very much in my element. 

Spending a weekend with people from all over the work has been incredible. One evening they had people from all different countries come up to the front and just pray in their languages! It was beyond cool. i've never heard some of the languages that were spoken and there was something so amazing about hearing them for the first time as they cried out to our God! 

Another cool thing that happened over the weekend was i was able to meet the people that i will be living in Corringham with. Carla is going to be our host at the house and then i also met Charl who is one of the Transit students. they are both really great and i think that we are going to have a really good time learning about God and loving him together. 

The weekend was hard to have end because over the week i connected a lot with people from all over the world and then i was having to say good bye all over again and step into another whole new living situation. But overall i was glad to be able to finally meet the people from the community i will be living with. And let me say they are totally amazing! the moment i said hi and was introduced i was getting hugs and smiles like i was a long lost sister. They are just really great people.

Oh interesting story. so my adapter, that i bought from wal-mart, was pretty much crap and totally went to rubbish after just a few times of using it. So, my laptop was completely dead and i really wanted to check my e-mail. So, sunday afternoon i set out on an adventure to find an adapter. i didn't think it would be to hard considering that Southampton is a pretty touristy town and they are pretty well know for their shopping. so i started out at this store called "Boots" which i've been told is very much like our walgreens. but no they didn't have any. then i went to this "hmv" which is like a electronics store... nothing. Then i went in this mall... nothing..... and then i really had to pee. So, i'm walking all over this mall trying to find a bathroom and finally after going down three wrong halls and taking an elevator i find a bathroom... but a guy was cleaning it so we had to use the handicap bathroom. I say we because by now there is this huge line of women waiting to use one stall in this obviously busy mall bathroom. Then this little girl would not just go to the bathroom and was holding up the line forever and i had to pee like no other and i still had to find my adaptor. (loud sigh!!) finally the girl pees and i use the bathroom. But i still need to find my adaptor so i just continue wondering and then i found the most interesting store. I forget what it is called but you walk in and there is no product on the floor. You walk over to this row of catalogues and look for what you want then you right down the id # and then go pay for it. Then you go to this conveyor belt and wait for it to come out!!! it was really weird. but super easy to find the adaptor that i needed so it worked well for me! 

So yeah. Last night i drove back with people from Corringham to my new home town. It feels good to finally be in the town that i will be living in and all the connections that i am now making are going to be ones that are going to last a little bit longer! I will write more about the boiler room i am staying in now and about the house i will get to move into once i get some pictures and can show you that! 

Some quick prayer request. Just pray that i will really have a heart for this new community that i have moved into and that i will really just feel at home here and ready and willing to do what God has planned. 

much love rockstar
here i found a red phone booth and took this picture to satisfy my inner tourist self!

this is the 24-7 leaders commissioning a team of swedish and then also a team of americans who were going to be starting up new prayer communities in their home towns.. it was really cool they washed their feet 

here is a picture from Sunburry Court. that is terry the lady that worked the kitchen. she didn't want her face to be in the picture... so i honored that. but here we are making food for about 60 people. it was pretty hard work all day long all day strong!
This is a picture of Carla (my host) and me on a pier in southampton. it was really pretty that day even tho it looks cloudy i have learned to find beauty in other things then the sun!!

This is the merch table that i worked really hard to set up at 24-7 Prayer international conference. Then i helped to work the table. i really enjoyed working with this lady named Charlotte Terise. She was really nice and very cool!
This is Charl... one of the Transit students that i will be living with. She is from the UK and is 18 years old. she just finished high school and is taking a year out to just dig into God and find out where he wants here. she is very cool!

here i am in Southampton in the gates that at one point surrounded the town. they don't anymore now they are in like the middle of the town... but it was really cool to see the old old gate anyways... and i gave it a little Rockstar flare if i do say so myself!!!

3 comments »

Sunbury Court

Posted by Teen Bean

So, i've moved from living with James, joya, and nadine to Sunbury court. it is a salvation army conference group that 24-7 is renting out. It is really interesting to be here because everyone who is anyone in 24-7 Prayer is here. I have read quite a few books put out by 24-7 and it is really weird to meet the people that wrote those books. To say the least they are just normal people loving God and listening to him. There are people from all over the world here this weekend. There are about 60 leaders coming from S. Africa, Finland, Germany, Bolivia. Its really cool to talk with all these people (with their funny accents) and just realize how every where all over the world the God we serve is the exact same. 


So anyways here at the grounds i am mostly just working as a behind the seance's girl. This conference is mostly for the leaders, so i have been just working in the kitchen most the time. It is a lot of work and is very tiring by the end of it all, but i enjoy being busy and loving God through the service. Today we made Carrot Soup and i chopped more carrots that i thought the whole of England could have come to tea... (and my fingers are still yellow!).

Last night they had a really amazing time of worship. Half way through they had a time of praise and people prayed in their own languages. It was so cool to hear African, and Swedish, and dutch and German... just really fabulous. They all worship God so freely and openly it was really great. i even had a good laugh because at the end of the service they were telling people all about where they could get tea, and biscuits, and then they were like "oh and the pubs right down the street"...  drinking isn't a big deal here at all... so after the service was over a group of us all headed down to the pub and just talked about how great God is and what he is doing in everyones lives and villages as we drank our beer! it was classic!

well i have to get back to the kitchen. love you all! Trisha thanks for the e-mail i loved reading it! 
rockstar

5 comments »

visual aid!

Posted by Teen Bean

here i am being dropped off at the airport! bye bye daddy walrus and mummy dearest!

my room in Reading... very nice! 

boredom!! yeah a couple days i was left to myself... here i am taking pictures of the street through the doors peep hole!! highlight... all these doors use old style skeleton keys, which pretty much is like my favorite thing!

here i am on the train headed for east london... all my bags and if only the train would move!

hello to all. so i've made it to east london.  i will be staying for about a week. Living in Reading was lots of fun. Catharine, the vicar, and the feeman family will always be remembered as the nicest and most welcoming people. 

One cool thing that i was able to do, while in Reading, was join a prayer group at a cafe. it was small, just five of us... but it was very relaxing to just get together and pray. After the prayer meeting, we went and helped a friend of the groups to clean out his house. This man is quite of a hoarder and was struggling with letting things go (that my friends, is the understatement of the year!). He literally had stuff piled so high we couldn't even open his front door. we worked for about 3 or 4 hours just trying to talk him into letting some stuff go... we didn't get very far by my standards, but i was assured that it was truly a miracle that he let us come over at all... so that is good.

on the not so servant of God side of it all. Pete one of the guys that i met at the prayer meeting took me to his girlfriend shirley's house. She and her roommate carolyn were hosting a barbecue for their neighbors... it was really one of the best nights of entertainment. pete and shirley were just beyond nice, including me into their circle of friends... and you should have seen their layout of food... the meat, in and of itself, was just impressive. 

i've also been spending a good part of my time here reading a book called Red Moon Rising. And if anyone is interested in really knowing what the heck i am doing this book... by pete greig and dave roberts is the one to read. as i am reading it, i am realizing more and more why God has directed me on this journey. some exciting spiritual stuff is going on and i am really going to get plugged into it!

So, that brings us up to today. I again, went to another barbecue with Catharine. again, they had a very very impressive layout of food... this time it was the dessert table that impressed me (they call dessert pudding here! interesting!! at first i thought they really just had this obsession with pudding pudding... then i asked because that seemed crazy that a whole nation of people could be so obsessed with what i consider low scale hospital food... yeah, and then i was told pudding is dessert!) So after that Catharine was going to take me to the train station so i could get my next train to east london. we arrived at the train station to find that a train had derailed and all lines were cancelled. it was a mess!

After much hub bub Catherine was nice enough to drive me to another train station and drop me off. I had to wait about a half hour for my train (thanks to Adventures in Odyssey that went fast!) Then just 40 min later and i was meeting up with James. James runs a boiler room in Egham. He picked me up at the train station with instructions that i would be carrying pink bags! (he said he spotted me right off!). Once collected we went to St. Stephens church for a night service. it was really very amazing to be in this extremely old, old church and worshiping God with a full modern worship band. I loved it.. so yeah, then i went back with James and his two house mates Joya and Nadean. They are really cool bunch of people my age who just love God and want to serve him. I've only been here an evening and i feel more at home than ever! 

if you think of praying for me.. the biggest concern on my heart right now is connecting with a really amazing group of friends. this first week has been really great and i have had tons of people being super great... but i miss my friends a lot and could really use a best friend over here! 

Love Love! Mwaahhhh!
rockstar

1 comments »

the nitty gritty

Posted by Teen Bean

well true to form, things here are nothing like i thought they would be. first i will be living here in Reading, England until Sunday. Then i will be moving to Sunburry which is a village that will be near where "The Round Table" will be held. The Round Table is a leadership retreat where all the 24-7 Prayer leaders get together for conference. Then after that weekend, i will travel to the Southamptons for "Home" which is another conference where all the 24-7 prayer communities are invited to join us. That will all wrap up around sept 15th and then i will be moving to Corringham which is the new location for Trainsit. 


Originally the Guildford Boiler Room was going to host us. But The Guildford Boiler Room has been growing quite large and they have a lot of new believers. They felt that if the leaders at the Guildford Boiler Room had to host us as well it would put a lot of strain on them and that the new believers would suffer because a lot of attention goes to training the Trainsit students. So, that is why they decided to let the Corringham Boiler Room host us. So, we will move to Corringham around Sept 15th but for two week we will be living in a house that is not our permanent home, because they house they have planned for us to live in will not be ready until Oct 1st!

That to say, that if you do want to write me snail mail... or sent me packages for the first month the best address to use is the one that i handed out and is posted below:
Tina Aurand
24-7 Prayer
c/o The Matrix Trust 
Albany House
67, Sydenham Rd.
Guildford
Surrey, GU1 3RY
UK
In October i will post my permanent address!

Also I do have a phone number, but to be quite honest it is much to expensive to call. If you are interested in ringing me, i would suggest getting a Skype account. Then we can talk through our computers!! So, obviously your laptop would need a microphone... and i hear that they also do video chat!!! so maybe we can even do that! my skype account name is rockstartina83. Then all we would have to do is e-mail "phone appointment times" and it is completely free and we can talk as long as we want. There is a 6 hours time difference... but hopefully we can work some early talk times out... and the weekends will prolly work out best! 

Well, i want to post more about some of the cool stuff i have been doing, but i will save it for another day because i don't want to wear you out... I also want to get some pictures to put up so I will wait until then! I miss and love you all!

rockstar 






2 comments »

day one!!

Posted by Teen Bean

well, i made here safe and sound. the flight was amazing. thank you to faith and bethany miller for the high recommendation of british airways. it was amazing to just finally be here! i thought i would feel a lot more scared or unsure, but the whole flight God was just really awesome and gave me such a sense of peace about everything. I feel like i am home.... which is totally weird, but amazing. My flight landed at 10am london time. i slept for a few hours on the flight and then we finally touched down. it was quite funny getting my luggage from the belt over to where i would be picked up. at first i tried just doing it all on my own... then i realized that i could get one of these push carts and that just about made my day... thank you heathrow! 


i met up with Andy Freedman and we collected my things and headed back to Reading, England. i will be staying here for a couple of days... i don't really know how long. i'm getting used to them saying things like "brilliant, and chum, and right on". The Freedman family is really nice. they have 5 kids and all seem pretty "brilliant" if i do say so myself. 

After being collected fro the airport we headed to Madejski Stadium, where the reading soccer team the Fixtures play. we got some match tickets for Andy Freemans 5 year old son. then we headed over to Reading. We took a walk about the town and enjoyed some the towns amazing history and beautiful monasteries and church grounds... it was awesome. we ran a few errands and i actually am a bit tired. i head over to the ladies house that i will be staying with "Catharine" around 5:30pm for some dinner and hang out time.... so far so good. it really doesn't seem all that different here from home. i like it and am really happy... and getting really tired. til later

tottles 

rockstar

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