Thinking about – or know someone who’s thinking about – doing Cornerstone’s Life Team next year? Nicola Pilkington was part of the Life Team in 2009. Here’s what it was like for her.

I joined Life Team on a whim, completely unsure how fundamentally God would change my life. The only thing that I had planned on was being open to what God had for me.

I learned what it means to be a part of the body of Christ; to be involved and make a contribution that is valuable. Not to simply go to church and expect to receive. For it is in my contribution that I often learn and receive the most.

On that same note, we travelled a lot (a definite highlight), we got to see churches that have much and churches that have very little –  the common thread being their indubitable love for Jesus.

I learned how to relate to people of different backgrounds and to be as much of a blessing as I can be. I got opportunities to lead worship and to preach. I got to see what I was good at and was not.

Cornerstone is such a safe environment that allows for mistakes to be made and to be lovingly put on the right track. God used so many people to teach me and to impart foundations in my mind and spirit that will never leave me. On my team and amongst the church I made friends that taught me what being friends actually meant.  Our hearts were knitted and we loved each other in a way that I had never experienced before.

Ultimately Life Team taught me how to serve. Service has such a negative connotation but it is out of that place that one is able to lead. We have a saying amongst all the Life Teamers: “Once a Life Teamer, always a Life Teamer.” Essentially we are saying that we will never forget how to serve. From setting up every Wednesday for prayer meeting, to waking up at 4am to set up for the Breakfast Exchange, to cleaning toilets in the heart of Tanzania and planting grass in Viljoenskroen… Oh and we painted! Everywhere we went we painted! It sounds crazy but we learned to love serving because we learned to see the purpose behind it.

At the end of the day, we saw a man get out of a wheel chair, we (awkwardly) led people to Jesus for the first time, we saw lives being surrendered to Jesus and we learned how radical is this God that we serve!