Monday, January 30, 2006

Full of Surprises

It's been a long and tiring week, with a fantastic end.

I went to Derby on Saturday to see Chris for her 21st. A long trip for a fantastic day. It was so great to see her and Selina!! Very excited to know what's going on and how things are progressing. Lots of prayer points and chatting going on.

We strolled 8 ish miles around Carsington Water Reservoir, it was really good to be outside for the entire day.

Got back into Cardiff having seen the sun rise and set on Saturday, lovely.

Sunday was a Holy Spirit filled day. Lots of chatting and praying again. Loved the whole day. Ended up being a tad confused about what God is doing right now, but I'm sure it'll all be clear soon.

It's starting to see like there aren't enough hours in the day...

Monday, January 23, 2006

Chocolate fon-don't

Many exciting things have happened this weekend.

Porth, as always, was amazing. The guys in the Valleys live as part of a small community and are really going for God. The group is growing and I'm learning a lot about the advantages of detached youth work.

Saturday was a shopping day with the girls... it's some one's birthday soon and I had a lot of things to buy with no money, but it all got done and I'm quite excited now!

The team are starting to get comfortable again, and living in each other's pockets is always helpful. God's grace is getting us through, there are a few 'I'm sorry's flying around, but it's all part of growing up.

Suday was crazy, I was leading the 10-14's in the morning and the 11-14's in the evening. I had two amazing co-leaders and got through both of them realitively unscathed.

The 11-14's small group in the evening is a new thing, so we are building relationships by eating together as often as we can. Which is where the chocolate (siocled) comes in...

8 youth + 2 leaders, 3 bowls of chocolate, lots of fruit and hula hoops (yes crisps) lasts about 15 minutes.

It was great fun, and we even played a few games. So it begins, having ownership of something so fundamental to church life is an interesting position to be in. Pray that we get some male leaders soon.

Sorry (edifaru) - have been a bit slack on the random welsh word front...
God - Duw
Pub - tafarn
(remembering that a single f is pronounced v - you get tavarn, sound familiar?)
until - nes
News - newydd

Thursday, January 19, 2006

To do

Been discovering a lot about time management recently. Starting to write to do lists before I do anything to stop me from forgetting things.

It'd been a tough couple of weeks, suddenly being back in Cardiff and having to adjust. I do such a good job of painting a very rosy picture, I forget to mention that life is hard.

The money has almost rolled in for this term, I love that I can rely on the creator of the universe to provide for me. I still have a way to go, but thank you to everyone who is putting money and prayers in to me this year. My appreciation for you goes up everyday.

Honesty hasn't really been something I struggle with til recently.

Now I'm finding myself in many positions where honesty means that I have to face raw emotion, things I'm yet to address being so young.

One of these is facing the fact that I'm miles away from close family and still finding my church family unbearable on days.

Many of you know my grandad is really unwell and hearing how he is getting on always makes me cry. I love him so much and I'm in Wales. Nothing I can do but wait for news, which is hard to get if the lines of communication are tied up in other things.

I miss people the most. Just having people who really understand me.

I some times wish I could say loads more... but it feels like the person who needs to read it never will.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Good Morning

From a very rainy Wales.

Writing before a really busy week, which includes meetings (again - do they ever stop) and running various youth events. This includes starting an 11-14's small group next Sunday evening.

I'm so excited by the prospect of having ownership of something. This means organising every 2 weeks and being on hand to answer questions from parent and young people alike.

God's moving all over this country and I hope that evryone is ready to take part in that!

Bless you lots this week, I hope you have a good time what ever you are up to.

Friday, January 13, 2006

More News

Just to let you know, my latest newsletter can be found here

And also an end of week up date really.

Its been busy this week, not much time spent just chillin'. And yesterday we started a course within a course at my church.

The Ignite Leadership Academy is something completely different from anything I've done before. I think this is because one of the definite course requirements is to find 5 people to sign the Ignite commitment. Kind of strange just because we don't know much about it, and we now have to find 5 people and get them to sign up.

We'll be doing this til the end of the year (which is 6 months away), so by the weekend away (mid-feb) we should really know what we are talking about.

So far I've learnt to teach Sex education, what my purpose in life is (living for God), critiqued the book (don't get me started), leart CPR and got loads of new friends.

This year is going pretty well and a relatively good week is about to end.

Next week looks more fun, I've got rehearsals all saturday and Sunday afternoon for a performance on Monday. Once that is out of the way we shall be well inducted into Cardiff life and starting to call it home.

Slowly looking at getting a job btw, and realising how important it is for me to be single and relying on God.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Some things just sound better

So having been back at work for 4 days, on Friday Ruth drove her and I to Porth for our first of many weekly visits.

I started Friday with lots of anticipation for what might go on that night. Emma and John had asked the youth to raise money for a church trip to Romania by staying up for 11 hours in the church building.

Sounded like fun, so I agreed.

We had loads of things planned, but just ended up having a laugh with the 10 members that turned up. A good night, but because I haven't done it for a while and am still recovering from being ill, it did me in.

I just finished sleeping for 7 hours on saturday, got up and went out, then had a relaxing day Sunday. Trouble is I couldn't get up this morning and have spent the day at home in prep for a week of meetings.

It's been good to have a day off... watch this space for the productiveness that comes out of it.

Was thinking about a few things in the dark hours of Saturday morning and put them all to order this afternoon. Some things do just sound better... no doubt about it!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

New Year

Well, back to work with a resounding crash.

Arrived this morning without Rachel which was a bit weird, but we coped well.

It's no longer christmas in the office but we still have the certificate up from winning the decorating competition before we left. So that will be a constant reminder that we all had a great christmas.

This is as good a time as any to send out some prayer points as we all get back to routine:

  1. For me and the team as we settle back into working life. Group dynamics have changed a little bit so we've all got to see how it works.
  2. Alot of things are happening in Essex and Luton at the moment, planning and moving around of people, they all need just as much prayer as me.
  3. We all seem a bit ill at the moment (maybe it's just the welsh rain) We all need to be better.
  4. My housemate is still really unsure about what's going on with a new house and the money things surrounding it, pray that she can do what she needs to do.

I think thats it for now. I don't have all the money I need yet either. But I'm sure that'll come in time.

Happy new year to every one, I hope this is a time that you can start anything you need to start and stop things that need to be stopped.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

One final fling

New years eve was great. Had such a laugh with Christine, Liz and Mandy. My most favourite of all people!

We had a dance too... haven't danced that hard in a long long time, it was great to come home with no blisters and a full compliment of memory. Loving it.

The previous few days I'd spent in Luton with other people. Lunching with the ladies (you know who you are), dinner and pub trips with the lads mostly. Funny how the face of church could be going through a slight change.

I'm gonna miss everyone again, life is moving on incredibly swiftly without me and its starting to be an effort to catch up!

So that's your cue to keep writing, ringing, emailing and blogging... over to you!