Last month, I flew out to Africa for my third visit in 18 months.
In October of last year, I had had a meeting at Nairobi airport, following five week's teaching at Leader's Seminars, when three Pastors asked if I would return. They even gave me the suggested dates.
The Kenya Airlines overnight flight was excellent - courteous - enjoyable meals - and on time.
On my first Sunday, I was preaching in Soweto, Nairobi. Yes, there is a Soweto in Nairobi as well as in South Africa. It is a large slum area with serious social deprivation and acute financial and material poverty.
During that first week, we held a Pastors Seminar in Soweto, when around 70 leaders from all around Nairobi attended.
Africans like themes and the title announced for these Seminars was 'Essential Fundamentals for Strong Biblical Leadership. Quite a challenge!
Each morning as I approached Soweto, I saw around 30 people scavenging on a refuse tip, searching for something to eat or an article that might be sold for a few pence.
It was my intention to take the Pastors through the first thirteen Chapters of the book of Acts where most of the principles for positive spiritual leadership are to be found. But other themes arose from the various questions posed, and we studied 'Eldership', 'The Person of the Prophet and the place of Prophetic Ministry', and ' The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the Bible and the Church'.
For week two, I flew west to Kisumu, where the pattern was repeated. My base was at the Nyanza Club - a former colonial establishment. The rooms are more than adequate, and the view overlooking Lake Victoria is breathtaking.
Visiting the orphanages is always heart-rending, as is speaking in schools where there is no electricity, no glass in the windows and no toilets.
It had been arranged for me to speak in Kibos prison. Two days before going to prison I received at telephone call. 'Please could we ask you to bring a gift of toilet tissue or soap for 400 prisoners. Our Government does not provide these!'
I decided to buy soap for those in the high security jail, and spoke of how soap washes on the outside, but the Blood of Jesus 샌즈카지노 Christ can wash away all our sin, and give us a fresh start in life. I let the prisoners see the gift of soap which would be handed out once I had gone, to reassure them it was there and to prevent it from being sold off by some guard. Speaking in the open air to around 350 prisoners, the listening was most attentive and the response encouragingly positive. Most of these men wanted me to pray for them there and then. They knew that the only workable answer and solution to their problems was the living God.
A third week of preaching in churches and teaching at Leaders Seminars was based in the north west town on Bungoma, concluding with a day of appointments at Nairobi airport during my 13 hour wait for the Kenya Airlines flight back to the U.K.
Those attending the Seminars would sit through 3 or 4 one and a half hour sessions each day and have a who array of real and deep questions. And some would have travelled quite a distance on foot or by bicycle to attend, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the church building each night. Here was spiritual hunger at a level we seldom witness in Scotland.
It has been good to make reliable contact and meaningful friendships with genuine Pastors who are working in the front line and who can be trusted to share any financial gifts. They experience poverty
to an astonishing degree, but they are so open to the Word of God not for any monetary advantage but to minister to people the mercy, forgiveness, power and love of Jesus Christ.
One man has just asked me, on my return to Scotland, 'What can we do to help?'
My advice is, 'Make sure you are giving through a recognised established relief agency or you will be ripped off'.
Deep tissue massage is a massaging technique that uses slow but deep strokes across the muscle grain to relieve stress in your body. By applying pressure using fingers, deep tissue massage will relieve chronic muscle tension, from those areas of the body which are contracted due to tension and stress.
The massage is focused on deeper tissue structures of the muscle and fascia (called connective tissues). The therapist will work on shortened muscles and will look for distorted postural patterns to work on them. With slow but deep strokes muscle fibres are lengthened and this helps to reduce stress, restore balance and establish the functional integrity of your body. When applying strokes, the therapist uses fingers, flat elbow opposing thumbs, foot heel or hand heel, reinforced finger and the forearm.
You may experience soreness, when you have the deep tissue massage or after it, however, within a day or two you should be feeling better. After having the massage, you feel healthier because it loosens muscle tissue and as a result toxins built up in muscle get releases. Blood and oxygen in the body circulates better and as a result you feel fresh and revitalised. After the massage, drink plenty of water because toxins stored up in the body is released after the massage and these will get eliminated from the body.
Who can be greatly benefited by deep tissue massage? Deep tissue massage [] is very effective for athletes who are constantly using their muscles in an intensive way. People suffering from chronic pain, fibromyalgia, edema, muscle cramping, and even carpal tunnel syndrome, feel quite relieved after a deep tissue massage. This is because the technique of applying slower, but strong strokes on the affected areas increases blood circulation in these areas.
Now-a-days deep tissue massage has become so popular that it is replacing the Swedish massage with which it has many similarities. However, it is not recommended for everyone. Here’s a list of conditions under which you should no take deep tissue massage: