Christian Faith

October

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This month seems to have past by quite fast.

I only have one regular commitment in the week because my working weeks and days for locations are never the same. If I could do three days working from home and two in the office I could have regular commitments.

Healthwise, I try and squeeze in going to the health club either morning before work at 6am or in the early evening after working from home about 18.45pm. My daughter goes twice a week so I can go with her. A bit gruelling after work but easier going with someone else.

Spiritually –

keeping strife out of my life ‘requires willingness to constantly communicate and confront issues… prayerfully ask for the Holy Spirit’s help to be a person who avoids strife and restores peace everywhere. It’s not a simple task, people have their own inner convictions on what is right or wrong for them.

I have the calling on my life – Servant Leadership – selfless love in everything – : “(Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others”

Galatians 5:14 – Love your neighbour as yourself – have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit.

(John 13:34-35).

Love one another as I have loved you.

My daytime job as public servant in the local government requires me to uphold their services and not be judgemental which is in line with my faith. Not to discriminate against anyone even though I do not always agree with their way of life.

I walked another ten miles to raise money for Tear Fund – a charity my church – All Saints Church supports. – Tearfund Disaster Relief is a Christian charity working in more than 50 countries 🌎such as the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis, the East African food crises & the Pakistan flood crises. I raised £90 thanks to the generosity of my friends.

A great contrast in weather conditions here in Eastbourne . September was really lovely weather and I really caught the sun and it was sweltering hot.?This walk was a challenge with the blustery wind, rain and muddy conditions.

Someone gave me a bin bag to put over my head. 😀

Have to keep the fitness regime going as I’ve committed to walk again next September this time 50k this time up in London walking along the Thames.

Yesterday I walked into my town and back.

Now the clocks have gone back and it’s officially Autumn/ Winter it will be important to take a walk lunch time every day while the sun is shining or even if it isn’t otherwise the mornings will be dark and evenings too. Shorter days.

This Tuesday is All Saints’ Day (Or All Hallows’ Day in old English) which means that Monday evening is All Hallows’ Eve – known by nearly everyone these days as ‘Halloween’. Traditionally All Saints’ was a day to remember and celebrate those who have “Died in Christ”- those who have lived lives reflecting Jesus’ love and have now “gone to glory.”  Indeed, in countries such as Poland, All Saints’ Day is still celebrated by families gathering together to put candles on the graves of loved ones – and by Monday evening Polish cemeteries will be aglow with the light of millions of candles.

Our British Halloween traditions originate from village communities where local children would dress up to mock the “powers of darkness” on their last evening of influence before their defeat when All Saints’ Day dawned. 

These celebrations weren’t a sign of evil’s power – quite the opposite – they were a celebration of Christ’s victory over evil.

But modern Halloween celebrations seem to have turned in a much darker direction, with shops filled with increasingly dark and unsettling costumes. Gone is the light-hearted teasing of a defeated enemy. Instead there seems to be an embrace of wickedness, with none on the light of All Saints’ Day.

We live in a world where evil and pain really exist and whilst many will see this years Halloween celebrations as harmless fun, it may come at an unseen and unintended cost. Are we looking towards the light or are we wrapping ourselves in darkness?

See you in November….

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Regrets, I’ve had a few,

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the opportunities that I thought were for me, only to discovered I didn’t have what it took to bring them to fruition.

Sins – thought, word and sometimes deeds.  I am not perfect but I am thankful that by the grace of God my sins are forgiven when I am repenting and renounce my sins

The relationships I tried to cultivate with non-believers that made me angry because of the lack of commitment, distrust and no inner peace.

I am grateful now i realise that all these situations taught me wisdom and instilled in me the discernment to know that in all situations God has to be first.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “

In relationships – 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (Adapted from The Message)

“ Don’t become partners  ( close relationships/ in business) with those who reject Jesus as God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:

“I’ll live in them, move into them;

I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.

So leave the corruption and compromise;

leave it for good,” says God.

“Don’t link up with those who’s ideas go against God’s will for your life”

It is of great benefit when I spend time in the word each day, even in my busy life I know it is important to still  make time for God. My smart phone is my best resource to have the Bible app, subscribe to daily prayer and bible readings, listen to podcasts from inspiring speakers. and enjoy listening to inspiring worship leaders on Spotify.

I am a member of All Saints Church, Eastbourne  and attend a home group every week and get prayer support for my needs.

Try to give with a willing heart via tithing 10% of my earnings.

Each and every morning in prayer I bring my daily needs to God and believe that he answers and hears my prayers.  I have a prayer journal so I can look back and see my progress.

I believe that God has opened doors for me that cannot be closed and that he will continue to draw towards me the right people to help me succeed and give me wisdom and guidance. I thank God for the seeds that are being sow and that they are bearing fruit.  I believe that God gives me the Holy Spirit to empower me to carry out the work he has put on my heart to carry out and that he is daily guiding my steps.

I thank God to renew my heart and mind so I can aspire to clearly display the fruit of the Spirit in my daily life – the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

My recent encounter with the Supernatural

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Seemly, it has been quiet but I have been away undertaking a temping role in #Lewes!

Had a contract for a few weeks working in #Lewes – turned out to be working in a haunted building!  The thought would never had entered my head if it hadn’t been for the incident when I was in the ladies toilet, I heard high heeled shoes entering the room, as I was in a cubical I was not aware of who entered but just heard the door open and close.

It did occur to me that it was strange that no sound of clothes rustling then occurred next to me,  but when I was in front of the wash basin 2 minutes later I saw the water run on it’s own.

Well as I had got up two days running prior to the current one at 4am and was working from 6.30am to 6.30pm I was quite tired and the whole scenario never sunk in until break time when the subject of ‘ghosts’ in the building was mentioned and in particular conversation between other staff.

Spooky goings on including hearing heavy breathing and a sharp prod in my lower back incidentally really freaked me out, i used to dread going into work especially on the night shifts when the main fire door would slam on it’s own

As a Christian I would always prayer ask others to pray for me and be in agreement to their prayers.  Great when you are at home, every time I shut my eyes I would be in that large room, well I spent such a lot of time there it was hardly surprising.  Well, perhaps I should have agreed with the others that of course this could not hurt me but the fact of not knowing what or who it the spirit was was the un-nerving thing.

Glad to say that this task is not over.  Lewes is however, renownded for hauntings etc, just Google for more details…

What is your Passion and Purpose? (2)

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Four days in to my new life as a Care Support worker (Nurse)  wasn’t going well.   Basically, I don’t have the strength to man-handle people on their beds to wash them etc.

On the first day I found it very emotional.  I realise that we all take advantage of the freedom we have in our lives.  Most of us have no health issues and can get up and go for a walk when ever we feel like it.  Many of the people this particular Homecare Services take care of do not have that option but are relying on someone to do just simple tasks for them…

I met a lovely Christian lady who knew someone that I know and she only had the use of her right hand and can just about move her head.  She was always very bright and cheerful and intelligent.  I could feel myself getting quite tearful as I could empathise how frustrating it must be for a bright minded person to be trapped inside a body that can’t function.

With only the use of one arm she was keen to get onto her lap-top and communicate with her friends via email and with the use of her one arm could use the phone to call out.

I don’t know anything about MS but have since found this page on Facebook –

http://www.facebook.com/nationalmssociety.

I love “Technology” – I would like to put a project together and raise funds to create applications to help people with MS and other disabilities.

This would be a good purpose that i could give my God given skills to accomplish something that would be of benefit to a great number of people, so it is important for me to realise that in my own strength I can do nothing, I need to rely on the Grace of God to be lead to the work that he needs me to accomplish…

 

What is your Passion and Purpose?

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My passion and purpose is to be an Entrepreneur and to inspire others to use their gifts.  It all started with the fact that our family history on my Father’s side originates from the Native Sioux Indian, via Grandmother who was in the Entertainments Business with Buffalo Bill‘s Circus

Sioux Indian’s are very spiritual – I have to confess to not knowing that much about them sadly but I do know and understand that they were very Psychic –  and my Father had inherited the gift of Psychometry.  He was very good at this and helped a lot of people.  Lots of people came to our home to have a consultation.

I had a really good relationship with my father until my mother and I joined the local Church of England Church and I was confirmed in 1971.  I think following the Christian faith and spiritually it was rather conflicting.  Spiritualism is part of the Occult – Darkness v Light.  after my Confirmation my father and I didn’t get along so well.

I was musical, was involved with singing and I learnt to play the guitar at school, participated in the choir and our school regularly put on concerts and musicals, both at my junior and the secondary school that I attended though being a Christian at school was another conflicting situation, so I didn’t have many friends and when I left school I went straight into Banking.  I worked hard but didn’t get promotion and then was introduced to a job at the local theatre setting up the drinks in the interval.  For seven years I used to work over 60 hours a week, in the Bank during the day and at the Theatre in the evenings.

In my early twenties I was re-united with my school friend who had chosen to go into the Hairdressing profession and she led me into Network Marketing,  while I was out and about in the evening with Party Planning I met my future husband,

From time to time I had gone along and had the occasional Tarot card reading, which strangely enough from time to time was quite accurate and just before I was due to marry I went and had my birth chart drawn up.  Sadly, I lost the information but did remember that I was told not to get married to this person, that we would be in conflict all the time! Well, it was too late to back out and hurt a lot of people so we got married in 1993 and had two lovely children, who are now teenagers and a great credit to us both, but sadly our relationship didn’t survive and we divorced in 2002.

SERVANT

When i had my birth-chart drawn up I was also advised that I was going to be a “Servant” “Writer” and also a “Nurse”

Well life being a journey and all these possibilities didn’t seem like they would happen to me at the time.

The years that followed the marriage break-up have been challenging and I have been glad of my involvement with the Church as a solid foundation to build my life on the ROCK of Jesus Christ.  I committed my life to Jesus and became “Born Again” in 1997, my son was born in this year and also my Mother past away.

In my early twenties through to my late thirties I was on the committee for a local social club and had a very active social life also so community building is something I have learnt with recruiting people into the club

When my children were at their junior school  I used to be a leader via the church with their youth club, I undertook this position for seven years. This also led me to go into their school with other church leaders for the “Jesus and Me Club”called “JAM Club”

In 2002 – I went back to college as a mature student and undertook the City and Guilds Diploma in IT ( the link is for info – I studied at Sussex Downs College, Eastbourne) and also changed my church and joined the Christian Outreach Centre Movement and undertook the Spirit, Soul and Body Bible School for two years.                                                                                        Within the Church we undertook the D.I.S.C personality test  and this is where I then understood the concept the Servant and Servant Leadership.    

Click on the link above to read the section “Characteristics of being a Servant Leader”

Thankfully due to my working life I have gained the experience to be a good communicator  and I am competent to make decisions.            My Spiritual Gifts give me the discernment to pay attention to what remains unspoken and it is therefore important to listen to my inner voice\affimation from the Holy Spirit.  I can rely on that inner voice in order to understand what the body, mind and spirit are communicating.        I really love technology and I have been willing to follow and learn from the Social Media Experts and Geeks to learn all i can and now my ideal client is someone who is a true Entrepreneur. Combing with my passion for music really gives me the passion to help Musicians though i am willing to extend my services to everyone connected with the Entertainments Industry.    In the past three years I have got involved with the local “Rock Music Community of Bands and Supporters and have made connectiions and new friends via their Community in London and World-wide.

WRITER –

I created this Blog – Daily Ramblings of a Professional Networker  

to portray the “Life of Networking” online and offline. A diary of life experiences.   I have had severe writer’s block for the past two years when i started to combine it with “Encouragement and Life Coaching”  I had started to train to be a “Life Coach” but finding the people who wanted a coach and also the people i wanted to coach was a challenge.  This is something i have had to put on hold temporarily for the time being though I pro-actively work as a Personal IT Coach and share articles and write articles that i share as a Social Media Expert.

NURSE

I am about to embark on a course to train to be a Carer in the Community.  I will be looking after people that rely on someone to come in and help them to remain independant by staying in their own homes.   I will be doing this on a part time basis so i can also continue with my passion and purpose as an Entrepreneur to network with those that have the heart-felt motivation to inspire others to use their Entreprenerial Talents especially in the Entertainments Industry…

 

 

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Following on from banter on my Twitter ac @Stella_Holman this week…

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…I made a new connection in my town who said she had been following me for several weeks and liked the content on what I posted.   Now I have been invited to attend a local networking event on Friday organised by EDEAL in one of our hotels.

Since I have been sharing pictures and events of the group Letz Zep  though out my various Social Media sites I have made lots of new contacts in the Music Industry.  Weirdly enough out of the blue I started to be tagged in the pictures of Letz Zep on Facebook that had been taken by Musikota.Com

The Tribute Band Guns and Roses from Bilbao also seem to be tagged back to me, I think probably my business friends and contacts from church will think I have flipped!!

All this tagging on Facebook has made a vast improvement to my Klout scores which took a noise dive to 59 when I added one of my Facebook pages and took off my personal account.. All this recent activity bought it back to 75 and it has since increased to 76 this week – http://klout.com/#/Stella_Holman.

All about “Giver’s Gain”  I couldn’t achieve this without collaboration from other people.

ROI – Return on Investment then is the people that then get in touch with you about either your services or perhaps in my case how what I do could help them with their own Social Media Marketing.

 

Good night!

 

 

 

 

Why do we allow our thoughts to give us limitations? (1)

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The fear of loss is a motivating factor if it can propel you in to action, .however you may in the beginning be paralysed with negative thoughts that stop you changing your mindset and doing things differently…

Life is very challenging for me at present and also I can empathise with those near and dear to me that are also finding that they have challenges to overcome.

We had an interesting morning in our church on Sunday, Pastors Ashley and Ruth Schmierer were our guest speakers. Ps Ashley was talking about how he had been limited as a child by the negative comments his teachers had made about him. That he was the clown in the class and that they didn’t think he would amount to anything. He is now the COC International President.

Ps Ashley, was speaking about how we allow our thoughts to give us limitations on what we can achieve in our lives.

For those of us that have a FAITH /Christianity is about having a relationship with Jesus via prayer, praise and reading the Bible, those that have given their life to him and invited the Holy Spirit to live in them then can understand the scriptures and the power in them to transform lives. It is also important to have Christian fellowship, always there will be people in the body of Christ that you don’t see eye to eye with, but you can also find people that you do get along with and these people will inspire and encourage you in you daily walk and you can do the same for them. I have found FACEBOOK really powerful for this and daily connect and share content with my fellow Christian connections all over the world.

In our every day lives we have to get along with people that have no faith at all and we do our best to get along with them as we care about them as they are our friends.

In the case of the work place we find that we have to adhere to the thoughts and intentions of those of whom do not follow the same mindset. This is where the root of negative thinking starts to rise… Other people’s perspectives start to cloud our thinking.

In the case of the working environment you might have to follow the plan and purpose for someone else’s business…, you might well find yourself in the same situation that happened to me that someone used a rather calculated method to gain my attention and support.

Have you heard about the Chameleon in the Office scenario?

Do read the interesting blog written by my colleague- Blackstar Sharon Egan – I actually I winced when I first read it  –The third paragraph down was in fact the very thing that snared me– “So, when with you, they’ll mirror your beliefs, your values, your attitudes… and, because of that, create fantastic rapport with you. You’d think they were your best buddy..-Apparently, this is a ploy taught in sales and in particular network-marketing.   Of course in my case – I am a “Connector” sitting on a rather a large database of names which is appealing to people that are building lists of people to contact.

My personality in business is Servant Leadership- with the main concern of helping someone else to achieve their purpose and goals…I align myself to the people with the same mindset…

Coming back to the shared mindset and what would actually attract you to work with someone to see that their goal to earn a living happened and what would you feel like when the truth dawned on you that their why had changed so much that you had that gut feeling that now life was treating them so well (not through their own efforts might I add) the initial effort that they seemed to put in currently was none existent…   I can remember when I first got started first words given to me were we are here to build the network and forget about the product. 

Leadership requires patience and perseverance; I also think that to really take heed and respect the circumstances of others is important.  I think back now and wonder why did I align myself up with people that really didn’t care at all about the plans and purposes of others, why did I get swept away with the dream that this was going to be the way forward for me….

There are however, people in this business who are doing exceedingly well and are making the money that gives them the lifestyle that is promised, those with a true heart of a team spirit.   

In the very beginning I know I was on to a winner as the money came through as a result of prayer and it all worked well for the first six months or so, then people that joined the team all dropped away and those that are left are not in it to build the team, just there for the enjoyment of the product.  Fundamentally, core values of a Servant Leadership – not just about looking after yourself but about looking after other people.    Therefore encouraging people that have no surplus income over and above existing expenses to overspend is immoral.  Also, coming back to the beginning regarding negative comments building a team based on “Trusting relationships as the foundation for collaboration and service, affirming that all relationships should be based on trust and mutual respect, not power, status or coercion. Coercion – (like a form of bullying, threats or
intimidation.) 

Taking all of these circumstances into consideration I now realise why that breakthrough that I really needed to happen hasn’t…..