Adam White

This is the kind of testimony that really stirs something in my heart:

My foodbank story all started at the beginning of this year. I met Kellie in January and we soon got together in February, I was homeless whereas Kellie was in emergency accommodation. Our benefits were getting delayed and we were struggling to feed ourselves. A friend mentioned to us that there was a company called the foodbank that could help us out, at first it seemed to be too good to be true. We went to the law centre in town and received a voucher entitling us to 3-5 days worth of food that we couldn’t afford to pay for ourselves.

So off we went to the foodbank one day and were given around six bags of food and met some wonderful people in the process. Over the coming months we visited a few more times, during this time the council finally found me a flat, as I was homeless however I had no furniture and hardly any belongings to move in with. Richard and his wife Sandra pointed me to the furniture project that was run by a member of their church and within a few months I had everything in place that i needed.

However during this time I had to make regular visits to the foodbank to just be able to feed myself and Kellie. Whilst we were choosing the furniture we were so touched by the generosity of the people helping that we decided to attend their church as a mark of thanks and respect.

The Sunday morning we attended something struck deep within us, seeing all the people there so friendly and passionate in what they believed in. It left a lasting impression on us and we started attending more and more often, soon after we were invited to join a small group from the church to learn and gain a wider understanding of God.

On 22^nd November 09 Kellie and I were baptised and in a way our story all started with a visit to the foodbank to receive help that we wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere else. In the long run we both know it was God’s plan for the both of us and we’re planning our wedding at the church early in 2010.

This is our story, I hope you enjoy it at much as we are!

For more information about Swindon Foodbank please look a their website at http://www.swindonfoodbank.co.uk

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I’ll be honest with you; I find reading my bible difficult and unless I am willing to sit down for an extended period of time and get into to some proper study with additional books for assistance I very rarely do it. With the new year I am hoping to get into some regular study time as I know it is nothing but help but I find that listening to people talk about the bible is a lot easier.

This is where my faith-based podcasts come in. I was first introduced to some preachers from around the world when I first started getting into God properly and haven’t stopped listening since.

I have dabbled with a number of different speakers over the years but below are the ones I listen to regularly and try and keep up to date with:

Andy Stanley (North Point Community Church)

http://www.northpoint.org/messages

Andy Stanley (along with the brilliant Louie Giglio) was the first preacher I listened to from another church. He heads up one of the largest churches in America and is a very gifted speaker. He is in his 40s and is very down to Earth in the way he speaks. I find the topics he covers excellent for new Christians and even though he is usually quite light on the doctrine I still find his talks excellent to listen to.

John Piper (Desiring God)

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/

I would describe John Piper as being at the opposite end of the spectrum to Andy Stanley. I first came across him when when I was still new to the Christian world and found him to be a little heavy and hard to listen to. Coming back to him years later I find him amazing. He seems to know so much about God and the bible and this shows in his very comprehensive messages. He is currently preaching his way through the book of John and has been for well over a year now. Full of doctrine and a definite pick for anyone that wants to learn more about their bible and God.

Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church)

http://www.marshillchurch.org/

Where would a list of preachers be without Mark Driscoll. A man who is still very young for a preacher in his late 30s he has an approach to God and the bible that just rubs off on any of his listeners. He is the only person I know who can bring humour and deep conviction to a message with ease. He is very tough and holds nothing back in his messages but talks with such love that you can’t help but be gripped. He has recently started a series with the aim to preach through every chapter of the book of Luke in 3 years. A stunning speaker and highly recommended to everyone.

Matt Chandler (The Village Church)

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/

I have only been listening to Matt Chandler for a little while and found him to be a very good speaker in the Mark Driscoll mould. Sadly, late last year, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and understandingly hasn’t been speaking for a while. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and young family.

Mark Thornett, Nigel Howarth and Colin Thornton (Gateway Church Swindon)

http://gatewaychurchswindon.org.uk/audio/

And how can I complete a list of preaches without mentioning my own church? While I don’t listen to the online recording often as I usually listen to it first-hand I do recommend it to anyone in the Swindon area if they are interested in finding a local church or just getting an idea of what our church is like.

View the entire series

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Ever since I started to come to Gateway Church Swindon (then it was called Swindon Family Church) over three years ago I have been serving.

Within a few months of attending I was asked if I would lead the projection team and take over the running of the IT requirements as the current tech-master was heading off to New Zealand. I felt like this would be a good thing to do so I said yes.

Over the years I have continued to say yes to things and in the end I was not only leading the projection team and heading up IT I was also in charge of the church website, producing the CDs and creating the podcast of the Sunday morning message (and any other recordings we did), running a monthly film night, fixing any computer problems that people had and leading an Alpha discussion group.

Then about three months ago I was asked I would take on the role of Alpha administrator which would mean taking control of all the things that was needed to be done to get the Alpha course going. I prayed about it for a while and didn’t feel like God was telling me not to do it so I said yes.

Then about two months later my kitchen ceiling started to leak.

Then I cracked.

But God was right there with me. The day before He had brought a bible verse to the mind of a very good friend of mine. They thought it was for me but it didn’t seem to fit. That was until I told them about my leaking ceiling. Here it is…

If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks. – Ecclesiastes 10:18

At first they thought that I am neither lazy nor is my house leaking so they ignored it but once I told them about my latest house disaster they decided to share it with me.

It really hit me. While to the outside world I was anything but lazy actually I was. I was so busy all the time that I never did the things that really mattered like being a good steward of the things that God has blessed me with like a home and a family.

That weekend I was going to visit my brother and my mum. I had originally planned to quickly pop up for the day as I needed to get back to do the 100 things that needed doing. In the end I stayed for the weekend.

In the pursuit of doing lots for God I have ended up being an incredibly bad witness. My family only ever saw someone who was always busy. How appealing must that have been to them: “Come and know God and say goodbye to your free time!”

It was time for a change.

I met up with one of the elders of my church, told them how I felt and said I needed to give up everything I was doing.

So I am now on a mission to give up everything I am doing by Christmas and then sit back and spend some time with my family, my house and, most importantly, God.

Already my house is clean and tidy and a much nicer place to live in. I feel less stressed and am on the way to having time for people instead of doing things all the time.

God knows what is best for us and while we may think we know what God wants from us (lots of service, to live by rules) actually all God really wants is for us to love and spend time with Him and each other. The more we do stuff the less time we have to do these things that really matter.

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A motley crew of 7 joined together to become the Gateway Church Swindon cricket team and through cold wind and rain became the undefeated United Churches Cricket Cup champions for 2009!

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I was looking at the traffic to my site the other day and I spotted that someone had found me on Google by typing in How to get baptised in Swindon. The page it led them to though wouldn’t have helped with their very important question so I thought I’d write this post in case anybody else goes looking!

I am a member of Gateway Church Swindon and we have around three baptism services a year. We would love to do more but we can only baptise those that God brings our way. We even have a special baptism pool for the job!

Being baptised is a big decision though and not something we take lightly. We make sure everyone we baptised is cared for by a small group and fully understands the commitment they are making.

So if you are interested in getting baptised or just want to hear more about God why don’t you come along on a Sunday morning at 10.30 and talk to us?

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Just over a month ago I had a moan on my blog about about how I had no spare time and how I always felt under pressure. So how have I got on with freeing up some of my time?

Well, for a start I have made Saturday my day off. I try and get out and go somewhere if I can, recently I have visited Donnington Castle and many Swindon parks with my best friends. Last Saturday however I spent most of the time tidying my house but I didn’t count this as working as I felt good afterwards and it was a day well spent.

I have also now devoted my Sunday’s to my church. I didn’t want to call it my God day as every day is a God day really. By devoted to my church I mean I spend the morning ensuring everything visual is set up and working (I am regularly one of the first to arrive and last to leave). When I eventually get out of the building I try and do the minor church related jobs like the website or IT bits and bobs. And now Alpha has started again so from 4.30 until late I am back at the building doing what I think God wants me to do and leading a discussion group.

Another thing I am trying is I have always considered Sunday to be the last day of the week. This means I end the week with church and God and start it with my job. I’m trying to treat Sunday as the first day of my week now so that I kick off my weeks with church and serving God before I go and serve BCS on the Monday. It takes some getting used to though but it is a good mindset to be in.

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Every day is struggle for me at the moment. It is not illness related; I am blessed with good health and the only thing I can complain about is dodgy eyesight and a receding hairline. It is not money related; I have a great job that pays me well, the only debts I have are with my house (that I own).

The thing I struggle with at the moment and what is at the root of most of my troubles is time.

I’m not going to complain at needing more time as I get 24 hours in a day like everyone else. It is how I use those hours that is at the heart of the problem. I have worked out after 27 years of trial and error that I need around 8 hours of sleep in order to feel refreshed the next day. I can get less than that if necessary and be okay but after a couple of days of late nights and it really starts to affect my energy.

This leaves me with 16 hours a day. This does sound like a lot but then take away another 9 hours for work and that leaves me with 7 hours, 5 days a week. The time between waking up and getting to work can also be considered as a write-off. So that leaves me with 5 evenings of around 5 hours each.

Now, one of these evenings is always taken up with a small group meeting. Normally it starts at 7.30 so it is not the whole evening gone but by the time I have gotten home from work, checked my emails and eaten dinner it is time to head off anyway.

What about the weekend though? Surely I get time then? Sadly, being so involved in church activities pretty much means that Sundays are a total write-off as well. Church starts at 10.30 but I am regularly there by 9.30 to set up the projection requirements for the service and then I normally end up staying until 1.30 in order to get the day’s “message” onto CDs and run around doing all the other jobs that need doing. It also looks like I am going to be heavily involved in Alpha again starting at the end of February which takes my time from 5.30 on a Sunday night for the rest of the evening.

That leaves me with 5 hours a night for 4 weekdays, all of Saturday and 4 hours on a Sunday. Now what do I have to squeeze into these 48 hours…

I have three passions in life (as highlighted by the sub-title of my website): God, my job and films. I want to grow my knowledge in each of these areas and that takes time. The most important one of these is obviously God and I would love to spend far more time praying, reading my bible, listening to sermons and reading books and blogs. I pray on my way to work in the morning and I try and listen to a preach on my way home from work each night but I would love to find more time to pray and read my bible at other times in the day as well.

I love developing. I have been a web developer for nearly seven years now and love it. I have chosen to specialise in .NET development. This is a very fast growing technology and it is very hard to keep up to date with all the latest developments in CSS, JavaScript, MVC frameworks not to mention the various C# features I haven’t had a chance to learn or use yet. I try and keep up to date with the latest via magazines, blogs and the occasional podcast. A lot of this I can do at work but if I really want to be as good as I can be I need to take my learning into my home time as well.

And finally there are my films. I use my films as a way to shut down my brain and relax. I listen to Mark Kermode’s film reviews podcast once a week and read the occasional blog about what is happening but I don’t spend as much time on this passion as I used to and I rarely go to the cinema any more.

What I haven’t mentioned so far is all the things I do for my church outside of a Sunday. I look after the IT for the church which involves the website, projection, recording and all the IT equipment. I have a huge list of jobs that either need doing or I want to do.

I also love helping people. God has blessed me with lots of talents and a desire to serve but I can’t help everyone. If I could I would though, I just need to find the time to do it!

I haven’t even mentioned my friends yet. I have always preferred to have a handful of really good friends that I spend time with than lots of acquaintances that I don’t get to know as well as I would like. I could count the number of close friends I have on one hand and that is a good thing. However, when I see these friends I want to spend a good amount of time with them. Even today I spent most of it with my friends wandering around various shops in Swindon. If I could I would spend at least one night a week with each of my friends but that is just not feasible.

Other things that I haven’t mentioned here that I would love to do include: DIY in my house, getting myself fit and, dare I say it, a relationship!

So, I’ve have just written a 1000 word essay on my struggle with fitting everything I need/want to do into my life. I must have needed to vent. But unless I do something about, this situation is only going to get worse not better. So here are my goals to tackle this problem:

1) Use the time I have got more efficiently

2) Prioritise better

3) Start to say no

4) Give up some things

I’ll let you know how it goes…

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If anybody is monitorng my Facebook status they will have noticed that I have been a little busy and overwhelmed of late. Here is an idea of why…

Friday
After a typical day at work it was time to start the weekend. I did this in style by going and stewarding at a Collective concert again in Wootton Bassett. It was a fun evening with very little trouble, even when the older kids turned up around 9.00 and the atmosphere changed. At the end they had a decent response from the youth and six children gave their lives to God.

Saturday
After a long snooze to recover from the night before it was time to start. First off was the last meeting between myself and Gemma to pray for our Alpha group. We have got together every week and as Sunday is the very last session it was sad to have it come to an end.

This was followed by a swift drive through the flooded roads to Purton to meet up with my small group for a ”Christmas” gathering. I spent most of the time playing on a Playstation and beating the younger children. It sounds mean but they did beat me on the first go!

Then, to cap off the evening, it was into my shirt and black tie to run the PA for our church’s youth’s Christmas party. This is actually still going on as I write this (they’re eating so I thought I’d make use of myself!)

Sunday
Now this hasn’t happened yet but I can still talk about what is happening tomorrow!

As usual for a Sunday it is church which will take up my morning. This will be followed by the very last Alpha session of this course. It has been an interesting three months and I’m looking forward to writing about all that I have seen God do and what God has done with me through it.

Then it is back to work on Monday. Although it my last week before I start my Christmas break. Yippee!!!

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This one is all about doing something for God that is way out of your comfort zone and for me picking something was easy as I am still doing it: Alpha!

About three months ago it became clear that my church was going to run an Alpha course. I had been on one when I became a Christian and I have also helped in one at a friend’s house so I felt I knew what they were about.

I didn’t particularly feel the tug to go and help out on this one though but I thought I would sign up for setting up the church each week and maybe by being a waiter.

Come the first training Sunday I was asked by the people running it if I would mind coming along and helping them run a training DVD through the PA system. So, all through the training, I am there and start to get this feeling that God isn’t going to let me hide in the kitchen on this one.

Come the end of the training everyone was asked what their availability was for the ten weeks of the Alpha course. Being who I am I had nothing in my diary at all. So it came as little suprise the following Sunday when I was asked if I would be a part of the Alpha and lead a small group with a girl called Gemma.

After going for a long walk and lots of prayer I decided to trust God and go for it.

Over these ten weeks I have grown so much in my faith it is unbelievable. I have learned how to talk to new people, I have learned how to pray in groups, I have learned how to pray daily, I have seen people saved and come to Christ. It has been amazing!

This coming Sunday is the last Sunday of Alpha and it will be good to get two evenings a week back again. However, I have already been asked to come back and help out on the next course in February.

I have a lot of praying to do before then but seeing how much God has moved me on these past ten weeks and being a part of salvation, can I really say no? Only God knows!

So, what I would say to anyone reading this is if there is an opportunity to serve God in an area that is out of your comfort zone I would say take a step forward and see what God does. You may actually enjoy it!

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If anyone wants to know why my church has recently changed its name from Swindon Family Church to Gateway Church Swindon I think this short article from Swindon Link magazine explains it really well.

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