When God said this, I've always taken it as his plan for marriage. However we find the apostle Paul living as a passionate single, but also very aware that it is not good for man to be alone. I wonder if that's why he shared his life with so many men, living together and working together.
Jo's been gone for a week and a half now, and John left a few days later leaving me on my own. At 1st I enjoyed it to some extent. I could walk around in the buff (something I've done with various room mates in the past!), eat when I wanted to eat, sleep when I wanted to sleep and generally do whatever I wanted to do. Recently I've found it harder to keep a rain on my thoughts, on my discipline, on what I watch on T.V or being intentional with my time. It's not good to be alone. I would encourage those of you that are single to share life with others by having good room mates, ones who have similar beliefs and values to you. And those of us who are married I encourage you to actually live with your spouse! It's incredible how we can end up living alone even when we share a house with someone.
I'm so grateful for my family, and looking back I'm so grateful for my various room mates. They are God given, they help breath life and purpose into my existence, they give me the intimacy we all long for and they remind me that life is about more than just me.
To check out our latest newsletter go to: www.tomandjo.org
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Moving on up
Hi!
What a few weeks! Wow! I hardly know where to start, and I’m sure I’m gonna miss something out.
The church is going places. Really going places. A few weeks back we spent a while as a leadership team working on our vision and values. Flood San Diego had some really helpful workshops for us to go through. Anyway we came up with :
Vision: To connect up & coming generations to the life-changing person of Jesus
Values: Compassionate Service, Multiplication, Raising Leaders, Lives of Worship, Authenticity, Creative Relevance, And Inclusive Community.
We still operate under the 3 environments: Encountering God, Growing in community & Impacting the world.
Tomorrow we have our regular vision night and it will be really exciting to share this with the church and look at how we can implement it. We are also launching Growth Group leaders training and I’ve been working hard along with Mafunase to come up with some really good material. We’ve written, re-written and adapted material and can’t wait to kick of the training. We regularly get 200 people worship with us on Sundays and have 70 people in Growth Groups as we speak.
Our home is as busy as ever, with 12 people at its peak all living under one roof! For us it really is the way to live and we feel it stretches and motivates us like nothing else! I thoroughly enjoy getting together with everyone we share life with to chat, pray and read the bible. I’m also so impressed with Jo how she copes. She stretches the budget in a way that no one else could, we always eat well and enjoy her food, and she organizes the cleaning and looks after everyone so well. At the same time she raises our little daughter magnificently!
Things in the village have been really fun recently. We were invited to stay with the chief a couple of weeks back, and it was a real privilege to sleep in his house/hut with his family and share a little in their life. Having said that it always makes me grateful for my bed as sleeping on a bamboo mat is not very comfortable! We are also going able to give Mosquito nets out to all the families in the village thanks to an artist who raised the money from San Diego, and have started educating on Malaria before we do so. On top of that we are able to give all the women bibles thanks to a Christian missionary who was passing through and got inspired by what we are doing. On top of even that we sent the women’s guild (40 of them) on a 4-day conference and helped them show a film outside the church building using our churches generator and projector. So you can see we’ve been really busy there!
So, things are really moving on and I’m so thankful to be a part of it. It feels like a dream sometimes. To be a part of something that is growing so organically – it’s not due to finance or strategy or anything except Jesus. It’s all about him and seeing him change lives is a humbling experience.
Tom
Monday, 2 August 2010
Monday, 5 July 2010
Not sure how much this is followed these days!
I've been using our website more and more recently and have realised I've neglected our blog.
Check out the latest news on www.tomandjo.org
Check out the latest news on www.tomandjo.org
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Kudoko Childrens Centre
We had such a wonderful day at our children's centre this saturday. Go to our website: www.tomandjo.org to see pictures and read some more.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Spring Newsletter
Our latest newsletter is available, follow this link to download: tomandjo.org/news
Friday, 12 March 2010
Please Pray!
http://www.tomandjo.org/Tom_%26_Jos_Gallagher/News/News.html
Loads going on our lives and the lives of our church.
I particularly want ask for prayer for the health of people with in our church. I have abscesses again, we have 2 people in South Africa having ops, but on a much larger scale our friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer. They were working here in the clinic we attend and James was our doctor, he was also a very committed member of our church. They've rushed back to the states with their 3 kids who are all under 10.
We could really do with some prayers for this x
Loads going on our lives and the lives of our church.
I particularly want ask for prayer for the health of people with in our church. I have abscesses again, we have 2 people in South Africa having ops, but on a much larger scale our friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer. They were working here in the clinic we attend and James was our doctor, he was also a very committed member of our church. They've rushed back to the states with their 3 kids who are all under 10.
We could really do with some prayers for this x
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Church, church & more church!
I really can't get enough of God's great rescue plan right now. So many people respond to that by saying surely you mean Jesus?! And while I do mean Jesus, I mean more than that, I mean Jesus' beautiful partner - the church. And no, the church is not YOU or ME it's 100% US!
I feel more and more that God is bringing the spiritual gifts he's given us back into the body of Jesus (the church) and that excites me. I feel sorry that God worked around the church and we had these gifts removed, but so excited that that season has ended and what a shift we are seeing! Of course Jesus never fell out of love with his church and God disciplines those he loves, so all of this is a good thing!
Our village team has grown in such a great way over the last 6 or so weeks. We now have Edith, a wonderful leader on our church, Megan, a teacher at ABC academy, Rachael, an ABC student, Myself, George, our church administrator and Guise, our church worship leader all spending an afternoon each week out there. It's been great fun with the rains we are having. 4 wheel drive has become really important and it's a real adventure getting there and back. We haven't avoided going because of the weather yet. I've been so blessed with how the team has developed recently. The only issue is, more and more women are showing up in the village for council and advice that we don't really no what to do about it!
Well like I said, the rains have really got going and we've gone from asking God for the rain to asking him for it to stop before it ruins the crops! It's rained every day for 16 days straight and here in Malawi that equals a lot of rain!
lots and lots of love x
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
2 weeks on from the last post
Wow, so much can change in 2 weeks!
I wrote that blog 2 weeks ago, but only just managed to upload it, and wanted to add to what was said.
I'm feeling much healthier. That's the 1st thing that's changed. But I've really been challenged on 2 things recently.
1: When we are spinning (I was literally spinning at times) what is our rock? Our marriage? Or Job? something even more trivial like football or food? Or is it truly Jesus and his love? I want my life to be based on his love. I'm thankful for my Wife, she's incredible and truly was a rock during my last few weeks, but I want my ultimate rock to be Jesus.
Something a little broader has come out of me reading 1John 1 v 7. "but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin"
It can be pretty dark when you are feeling like you cannot operate at full capacity, something which I have been struggling with for a while now. But to live in freedom means to have deep relationships, open and honest (fellowship). Only then are we free from all other influences that Jesus and his Holy spirit. Friendships are not an option! You have to invest in them or you are not walking in the light.
These last 2 weeks we have really got our small groups going, called growth groups. I'm so excited to watch people find out the freedom that comes with being open and honest with each other. We held a vision meeting on Sunday evening, and a big part of it was given over to this. What a privilege it is to be a part of this, I can't wait to watch our church become more and more beautiful.
Along with that, we had one of those "ureaka!" moments on Friday. We met to try and find some sort of way forward for the rural work in Kudoko village, and suddenly it dawned on us - why not implement these growth groups there too! This Friday see's the 1st meeting in the village with this focus, and we already have a load of small group leaders chomping at the bit ready and waiting for us to get them going.
Thanks for your prayers, please continue to pray for us here.
Love you lots x
I wrote that blog 2 weeks ago, but only just managed to upload it, and wanted to add to what was said.
I'm feeling much healthier. That's the 1st thing that's changed. But I've really been challenged on 2 things recently.
1: When we are spinning (I was literally spinning at times) what is our rock? Our marriage? Or Job? something even more trivial like football or food? Or is it truly Jesus and his love? I want my life to be based on his love. I'm thankful for my Wife, she's incredible and truly was a rock during my last few weeks, but I want my ultimate rock to be Jesus.
Something a little broader has come out of me reading 1John 1 v 7. "but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin"
It can be pretty dark when you are feeling like you cannot operate at full capacity, something which I have been struggling with for a while now. But to live in freedom means to have deep relationships, open and honest (fellowship). Only then are we free from all other influences that Jesus and his Holy spirit. Friendships are not an option! You have to invest in them or you are not walking in the light.
These last 2 weeks we have really got our small groups going, called growth groups. I'm so excited to watch people find out the freedom that comes with being open and honest with each other. We held a vision meeting on Sunday evening, and a big part of it was given over to this. What a privilege it is to be a part of this, I can't wait to watch our church become more and more beautiful.
Along with that, we had one of those "ureaka!" moments on Friday. We met to try and find some sort of way forward for the rural work in Kudoko village, and suddenly it dawned on us - why not implement these growth groups there too! This Friday see's the 1st meeting in the village with this focus, and we already have a load of small group leaders chomping at the bit ready and waiting for us to get them going.
Thanks for your prayers, please continue to pray for us here.
Love you lots x
Wrote this 2 weeks back!
We haven’t been able to get Internet for a while, so apologies for how quiet it’s been.
On the personal side of things we are doing OK. Sally-Jayne can now crawl very fast, climb up things, stand up using whatever she can get her hands on, give high ‘s (thanks to my sister Jess on her visit), wave and say a few words like hi or Dad-dad. (I have to say the speaking thing seems a little dubious, she pulls of waves and high 5’s on demand, but never speaks on demand!) She turned 7 months this week and is growing up so fast! We are so pleased with her though. She’s incredibly versatile and just gets on with life whatever we through at her. After 5 weeks of living back in our room (while we had visitors) she went straight back into her own room without any problems. Please keep up your prayers for her health and safety, we trust God to look after her.
Jo’s doing well and continues to read baby books and recipe books every day as she tries to be creative with what she can get her hands on. You can’t go anywhere in the house without finding one open with a notebook next to it. We had these incredible raps the other day, all she had was rough grade mincemeat, some spices and a lettuce, and she used the lettuce leaves very creatively! She also continues to do so well to cook for and love a house full. She still has her weekly distraction where she spends Tuesday evening with “the girls”, a night when I’m left wondering what cook and often just eat some bread! Please pray for her that she keeps on finding deep friendships, that her health stays good and that she’ll continue to develop and grow in her motherhood.
I’m doing OK. I’m still enjoying all my friendships, watching football and the lovely weather here. My health hasn’t been great though, and for a few months I’ve been suffering with cold like symptoms and nasty infections. A doctor told me this week that I have MRSA, so us as a household have to go for treatments to rid us of the nasty bug. Ironically you can’t find this type of bacteria in Malawi and I must have picked it up while in the UK! Please pray for this. Pray that I get over this infection and that our whole household will be rid of it.
We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year though. It was so nice to have my sister Jess with us, and we celebrated in laid back Malawian style with Sean, Tapiwa, Gabriel and Edith, along with Guise and Humphreys who live with us. The girls did a great job with the food, and the boys did a great job with the fireworks! A highlight for me was the personal crackers Jess brought with her that she had made. Her improvisation to make 3 more when she realised we’d be having guests was even more incredible!
Since then stuff has seemed a little slow to get going, I think that’s partly down to me being a bit sick. However the teams are still developing and growing and there’s an excitement around Flood that can almost be felt! We’ve a made a few inroads towards working in the prison and already have a team. We’ve also been getting the small groups within the church sorted and well led. We are still struggling to plan ahead for Kudoko village and continue to run one-off events. We really want to get a plan of action for the village and church there for 2010. Please pray that over the next few weeks God would inspire us as a team and lead us in the right direction.
Lastly finances are looking pretty shaky at the moment. It’s always been such an adventure living here, and we have faith that we will, and we have always been, be looked after. Please pray for this, and if you are interested in helping email me at tomandjo@me.com
Lots of love
On the personal side of things we are doing OK. Sally-Jayne can now crawl very fast, climb up things, stand up using whatever she can get her hands on, give high ‘s (thanks to my sister Jess on her visit), wave and say a few words like hi or Dad-dad. (I have to say the speaking thing seems a little dubious, she pulls of waves and high 5’s on demand, but never speaks on demand!) She turned 7 months this week and is growing up so fast! We are so pleased with her though. She’s incredibly versatile and just gets on with life whatever we through at her. After 5 weeks of living back in our room (while we had visitors) she went straight back into her own room without any problems. Please keep up your prayers for her health and safety, we trust God to look after her.
Jo’s doing well and continues to read baby books and recipe books every day as she tries to be creative with what she can get her hands on. You can’t go anywhere in the house without finding one open with a notebook next to it. We had these incredible raps the other day, all she had was rough grade mincemeat, some spices and a lettuce, and she used the lettuce leaves very creatively! She also continues to do so well to cook for and love a house full. She still has her weekly distraction where she spends Tuesday evening with “the girls”, a night when I’m left wondering what cook and often just eat some bread! Please pray for her that she keeps on finding deep friendships, that her health stays good and that she’ll continue to develop and grow in her motherhood.
I’m doing OK. I’m still enjoying all my friendships, watching football and the lovely weather here. My health hasn’t been great though, and for a few months I’ve been suffering with cold like symptoms and nasty infections. A doctor told me this week that I have MRSA, so us as a household have to go for treatments to rid us of the nasty bug. Ironically you can’t find this type of bacteria in Malawi and I must have picked it up while in the UK! Please pray for this. Pray that I get over this infection and that our whole household will be rid of it.
We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year though. It was so nice to have my sister Jess with us, and we celebrated in laid back Malawian style with Sean, Tapiwa, Gabriel and Edith, along with Guise and Humphreys who live with us. The girls did a great job with the food, and the boys did a great job with the fireworks! A highlight for me was the personal crackers Jess brought with her that she had made. Her improvisation to make 3 more when she realised we’d be having guests was even more incredible!
Since then stuff has seemed a little slow to get going, I think that’s partly down to me being a bit sick. However the teams are still developing and growing and there’s an excitement around Flood that can almost be felt! We’ve a made a few inroads towards working in the prison and already have a team. We’ve also been getting the small groups within the church sorted and well led. We are still struggling to plan ahead for Kudoko village and continue to run one-off events. We really want to get a plan of action for the village and church there for 2010. Please pray that over the next few weeks God would inspire us as a team and lead us in the right direction.
Lastly finances are looking pretty shaky at the moment. It’s always been such an adventure living here, and we have faith that we will, and we have always been, be looked after. Please pray for this, and if you are interested in helping email me at tomandjo@me.com
Lots of love
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