#guild6

[tabledallasdave-blog]

Mike Clifford, Founder of Capacity Ministries is our guest tonight at The Guild. I can’t wait to join in a discussion with him about practicing the presence of God.

[tabledallasdave-blog]

Hands-on training to integrate discipleship and change into your life.

I have been doubly blessed this semester by the work of Mike Clifford and his team at Capacity first in the one day retreat during our Spiritual Formation Advance this past summer, and this week as our special guest at The Guild.

Mike’s passion for ministry and for serving the Kingdom simply radiates from him and energizes me each time I encounter it. I especially love how he follows up the retreat practices with weekly post-retreat activities that foster the development of different spiritual disciplines. 

His time with us in The Guild helped me further understand the inner workings of the ministry and some of the challenges and opportunities before Capacity. Mike and talked at length about working together in the future in some of the work he hopes to do here in the DFW area. My life has been impacted substantially from his investment in our MEI cohort.

Mike and I are in conversations about how we can potentially do some work together here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I’m looking forward to what God might do in this arena.

My only pushback to the work we’ve done with Mike and his team would be that it feels a bit contrived at times. I recognize that it is difficult to do spiritual formation within a larger group in a short period of time, but at times I felt as though the live session and the follow-up weekly lessons were something less than organic. Perhaps my sense is discomfort is because I have been a long-time practitioner of many of the disciplines we engaged and these engagements did not have the same impact. 

[fasterthanyouvidia-blog]

Fighting or Training || Self Para

“Faction House. 7pm. Don’t be late.”

Vidia looked at the small card that was delivered during dinner. She knew who is was from. Or at least she thought she did. Trina was the only member she didn’t see for training, with the exception of Helen’s attempt at getting Vidia to be friends with everyone.

****

As Vidia was blindfolded and brought to the faction house, she tried to think of the different possibilities of what Trina had to teach. What could the bean pole of a woman have to offer petite little Vidia Ligeiro? More tips on how to be a bitter bitch? Maybe she'll try to get Vidia to quit. If that were to happen, Trina was in for a rude awakening. Vidia was a competitor. She wasn't the type to run away because something was too demanding or challenging.

The still air of the Faction house was unique and Vidia instantly knew she was there. The men who escorted her took the blindfold off and led her the rest of the way to a training area she had never seen before.

“We're working on flight combat today,” Trina held out a broom for Vidia as she spoke. “As you learned from Claire, sometimes we're called into situations to help with disagreements. Sometimes we need to fight. Today, I'll assess your skill level then we will work on where your weak points are. I have a feeling there will be many.”

Vidia’s grip on the broom handle tightened as she fought the urge to beat Trina with it, “you would be very surprised what I can do on a broom.” And with one, she thought to herself while recalling the memory of the time she used her broom to defend herself in a fight.

“Whatever,” Trina rolled her eyes and motioned for Vidia to follow then took off into the air. “Keep up.”

Vidia had to give it to Trina. The girl was fast and stealthy for someone so tall. Vidia knew from experience, the taller the flyer the more work it took to stay streamline with the broom. There were the added wind resistance and the extra weight in comparison to the shorter fast flyers. Although, Vidia wouldn’t attribute her height to why she was such a good flyer. It did help though.

Trina dipped and dodged around pillars of the darkened room. Any light that had emitted from the far reaches of the room was extinguished by Trina as she flew by until the room was so dark, Vidia couldn’t see her own hands around the broomstick. She stopped and hovered. Trina wasn’t as quiet as she thought she was. Maybe she needed to do training with Rodney that didn’t involve getting horizontal.

Vidia heard the other witch as she flew over head. She also caught a whiff of the floral perfume she wore. Vidia knew it was Trina because the last time she smelled it, Vidia noted how disgusting it was. It reminded her of old lady church perfume. No one under the age of sixty-five should even own it, let alone wear it.

A gust of cool air swayed Vidia’s ponytail causing her head to snap toward where it came from. As she did, Trina clipped the front of her broom and launched Vidia forward. Her fingers clambered at the stick as her legs held on for dear life. The tail tumbled over a few times and when it stopped, Vidia’s thighs were clutched onto the broom as the rest of her dangled in midair. “Have to do better than that to get me off the broom. Six years of quidditch and you don’t think someone’s tried that move?” Vidia shouted into the void as she righted herself.

It was silent for a few seconds. “I’ll have to up the ante then, Miss Ligeiro,” Trina chuckled as she said her name. Then more radio silence.

“You must think you’re pretty cool. You get to beat someone up while in the dark. Why don’t you put the lights on? Then we can really have a good time.” Vidia fell silent and waited to hear Trina’s movements. Then a flash of light came flying toward Vidia and if she didn’t dip out of the way, it would’ve hit her. “I didn’t know we were allowed to play with wands? You’ve been holding out on me, Trina.” Vidia slipped her wand from its hiding place and held it at the ready. “Have I ever mentioned I’m in the dueling club at school?”

No answer.

“Well, in case I haven’t now you know,” Vidia moved slowly and silently. She didn’t want to crash into anything to give away her location.

A rush of air coursed through the room. A dim light emitted from the distance and a flash went through it. Vidia raced to it and came to a door. As she hovered in the doorway she could see Trina floating as rain pounded down. Vidia could fly in just about any condition. However, rain was a bit of a struggle. Rain made brooms slippery and that made it hard to hold onto. It wasn't impossible but it required a bit more skills than any other flying condition.

“Scared?” Trina shouted and Vidia took it as a challenge. She wasn't about to let Trina think she was better than her.

Trina jetted forward as Vidia was drenched from the downpour. Vidia looked around to see where they had gone. All she could see was gray. What was the room? Were they even inside anymore?

“Come on, Vidia,” Trina called from the gray emptiness. She was in for it as Vidia dipped low. She wanted to see how far down the place went and when her toe skimmed the bottom she steadied herself and kept her eyes up to find Trina.

“Vidia?” Trina called, “I see your training with Rodney was fruitful.” Vidia went slowly as the voice got closer and closer. She learned from Rodney that sometimes slower was better.

Vidia saw something break through the muted tone of the room. It was a foot. Better yet, it was Trina’s foot. Vidia reached up and yanked the large paddle and watched as she dropped from the sky. Vidia was about to make a smartass comment when Trina yanked her from the broom by the neck.

Trina was tall so she had that advantage over Vidia but Vidia was used to fighting people taller than her. Her feet dangled off the ground as she felt Trina move backward away from the brooms. Vidia's head was getting foggy but she needed to think of what to do. If she was at the gym and in a controlled environment she would have people egging her on and shouting potential moves. She tried to focus on if they were there. What would they be yelling?

Vidia’s heels slipped along the slickness of Trina's legs. The long stems seemed to go on forever but Vidia was able to feel the knobs she had for knees. Vidia elbowed Trina in the side causing the taller girl to flinch backward. The split second gave Vidia a surface to plant her feet and use Trina’s own thighs as a launching pad to flip the girl over.

Trina recognized what Vidia was doing and let the smaller girl go. Vidia flipped and the tips of her toes skimmed the ground. Luckily, Vidia rocked back and her feet planted inside a deep puddle. She jumped around to face Trina as the sound of sloshing came quickly toward her. Vidia didn't have to duck low to catch Trina at her center of gravity and toss her to the ground. Truthfully, the fight would've been harder if Trina was closer to her height. Her experience lied more with the taller opponents than the shorter.

Vidia and Trina rolled around on the ground in a mess of grunts and flying limbs. Trina thought she had Vidia pinned but Vidia's tiny legs pulled up to her chest and sprang outward to launch the string bean through the rainy room. Water sprayed outward as Trina made contact with the ground. Foul words escaped her lips as she threw a mini tantrum, sending more water outward.

Vidia scrambled to her feet and took heavy breaths, “Had. Enough. Yet?”

“Go! We're done!” Trina shouted and the rain stopped. Vidia strode through the water with a huge grin on her face. She might not have knocked out Trina but she forfeited. On those terms, Vidia won.