A world of difference

We're Family

2011-11-14T21:09:00.001Z

When we were young, not so young, but young enough, my Nan and Granddad had a shed in their back garden. This shed was wide enough and wired up so that they could teach us darts and play music to us.

I have some very lovely memories of these times. Mostly the fact that I was particularly awful at darts and couldn't treble numbers on the odd occasion that I needed too. I won't forget Granddad telling us to always pull the top dart out first or Nan making that funny noise when we'd nearly got treble 20, only to hit treble 1. I understand the rules of darts because of my maternal Grandparents spending Friday evenings teaching us how to play.

Times have changed, last night my brothers and husband were teaching my Nan how to play darts on the Kinect. After discovering that I do not have the patience for such a game, Nan and Mum both hit their strides and were scoring well (until the Xbox over heated). I was demoted to back up and apparently Christmas arrived and it was New Years day by the time I'd thrown a dart!

How different is family life now?

No longer in a cold shed throwing sharp metal objects at a cork board, we're now throwing imaginary darts at an expensive TV.

Nothing in that statement is bad, just a comment on how over the last fifteen years technology and family have changed. And fifteen years ago I couldn't have imagined how yesterday evening panned out and couldn't have predicted how fun it was! (I beat my youngest brother at baseball!)

Observations

2011-11-06T15:32:00.003Z

This isn't a fully formed thought, but I thought that I'd try and verbalise how I'm thinking.

I was in church this morning and one of the girls was looking into a mirror during the worship time. The first thought that popped into my head wasn't one of annoyance or anything like that, but it was an obvious way to show how I sometimes come to church, to worship.

I can only speak from how I personally feel because I don't want to make assumptions of everyone around me. But do I sometimes go to church just to look at myself in a shiny bit of glass, examining how beautiful/ugly I look, depending on the mood I'm in or the week I've had?

It's not always the way I come to worship, and there is nothing wrong with a self-examination, that's what the Confession is about. We have to look at ourselves and see the flaws and imperfections, but not to be consumed totally by them.

God works in amazing ways and He's the one who makes us clean and whole. We can't do that under our own strength. We can have a really clean mirror, however it doesn't affect the object that is reflected.

Eventually I have to put the mirror down and focus on the cross. What is worship for, to glorify God? to get my vocal chords stretched so I can lead children's church better? to spend my entire time wondering how I sound or look?

I know it's the first one and I'm also aware that it's the last two more often than not. It's easy to say that worship is about God and for God, not so easy to do.

Finishing

2011-11-02T16:46:00.002Z

Little updates here and there, but most of the people who read this should know this by now. I'm finishing up as Youth Worker at St Hugh's at the end of January 2012.

As you might have noticed, I love my job and the family at St Hugh's. People keep telling me how much I'll be missed and they are beginning to wonder what youth work will look like after I leave. I'm honestly trying not to worry about that too much. I know church will still look after the young people and they will definitely have to keep going to church, they have responsibilities! Whatever happens, I know that God will be teaching those involved.

I'm sad to be leaving, however leaving means that it's time to explore and create paths which are wide enough for me and Robert to walk side-by-side. What the specifics of that path is are yet to be determined. A move is in there somewhere, possibly over an ocean, and eventually children etc...

It's an exciting time. I never thought 18 months ago that this is where we'd be, let alone I. I remember talking in our family years ago about the boys moving to America and living the dream, who've thought that would actually be me?!

So that's where we are, more up dates and thoughts to appear soon.

Communion

2011-09-13T22:10:00.001+01:00

This post is about a year old. I don't know why I never finished it... any way 2 for 1 today!

I recently had my first experience of Messy Church. Have a look for it on the Internet if you don't know what it is. At St Hugh's we've done this style of worship before, it just hasn't had a name at all.

The thing that really struck me about the way Messy Church was delivered was the formality of communion. The lady in charge had very much stuck to the Church of England liturgy. And she wasn't afraid to do so. Granted we were in a room of adults and all CofE so no one minded the liturgy, but I still wondered how that would come across with the 200 or so children and adults who attend the Sunday session.

This might have been the first time since May that I had attended a communion service outside of St Hugh's. The last time was at St Alban's Abbey. I know that Abbey services are short and purposeful, but this one felt a little bit cold and too succinct. The one at Messy Church was nothing like that. Still, we used the same words and they are celebrating the same thing.

It's amazing how different settings can provoke different responses and feelings.

Tiny Update

2011-09-13T22:10:00.000+01:00

Things have been happening since august, I promise. It just feels like no one wants to hear about what's going on. Twitter and Facebook have fallen foul of busyness too though, so don't feel left out.

One big bit of news is that we finally took some time to celebrate our birthdays.We went to the Royal Albert Hall to experience the Proms and I introduced Robert to Wagamamas. Which inevitably he loves.Good celebration date.

We've also been to Essex a lot to celebrate a wedding and a birthday. I think it's always really fun hanging out with family, especially if there's pictures and stories to tell.

This is the new Mr and Mrs Harmsworth-Blyth

This is the still new (for one more month) Mr and Mrs Litton being very happy.

This is one of the many roses which has appeared in our garden over the summer. I think this is the last decent one I've seen. we have a tonne of pears and apples too. Our garden is fruitful!

And as far as life goes, that's it really. Work is busy for both of us now. So we're adjusting again. Both doing 40/45 hour weeks and trying to work out who has the car and when we are going to see each other.Happy life, fun life.

Making new friends and experiencing new family

2011-08-08T22:43:00.002+01:00

It's been a busy 3 months, Robert got promoted, I have been busy at work. We had to go to America for a family funeral, and just this weekend we were down on the coast with friends to help out and see them get married, on the way back we stopped in London (not Tottenham, but whilst we we waiting I caught up on the rioting. More on that later) to meet up with some American pastors.

Our trip to America was on sad terms but we had a good time meeting up with family, some of whom I'l never see again (mostly because Robert hasn't seen them for 10-15 years). We also caught up with friends and met their families too. My net for friends is expanding, I feel more and more welcomed in America every time I go.

This weekend we hung out with two other families to celebrate Pete and Katherine getting married. Mr and Mrs Higgins were very welcoming of us, and it was good to spend time in their home. The new Mr and Mrs Higgins are now in Vancouver for their honeymoon. It was an absolute privilege to be part of their plans and preparation for the big day and to help out in some little way.

Then on our way back we spent the afternoon with some Pastors and leaders from America, Robert knows one of them, he is the minister at the First Baptist in Piedmont and his son was in the Blue Knights when Robert was teaching there.

We had some interesting discussions around the church, why it's the way it is and what's the insight from someone who is as in the thick of it as I am. I wouldn't say indoctrinated is the right word, but I would struggle to find another word suitable for the way I feel about the Church of England. It's what I know, where I grew up, what I find most familiar and comfortable. Any one got a suitable word?

I did most of the talking, I now conveniently can fit a description of how CofE works into 5 minutes and think I articulated the vision for my family quite well. Robert sat and imparted his knowledge for the bits I couldn't articulate. It is good to see how we as England can inform the church in America, and this is the churches that we might have recognised 20/30 years ago. Interesting discussions.

The riots have shocked me to be honest, but I don't want to complain about them, as that feels as though I'm jumping on a band wangon. This weekend we met the leaders of the Eden project, though the rioting has not reached them yet, it must be devastating for those working as community development officers to see their area of town up in flames, being looted and destroyed by a mob who aren't happy with something/one. so my thoughts and prayers are with those left homeless, those who have to pick up the pieces and my new friends in Bow who might not be safe. Also for the church and other religious leaders who will be asked to deal with the mental and spiritual fall out from this.

And selfishly for my town. We've had our fair share of violence and protests already this year. Lutonians do not need this. We will not stand for this. And yes, I say this from the comfort of my own home, however I think there plenty of other issues to be dealt with first than clearing up after some mindless rioting.

back to the blog

2011-05-07T18:35:00.004+01:00

Twitter and Facebook have definitely killed my blog. Sorry about that. And even to that point, married life has taken over and is more important than the need to share my feelings with the world.

The best news of all is that Robert has secured employment! He's working at Luton Hoo, a very posh place not far from home and they treat their employees very well.

We've really settled into the house, it feels like home now. We've made it our own over the last 6 months and we're likely to sign a longer contract, maybe a year. I can't believe we've been here 6 months, and have been married for 6 and 1/2. How time flies when you are having lots of fun!

I've been practising my best housewife impression, which mostly includes baking. So, I've tried making Cinnamon rolls, Banana Bread and 5 minute chocolate cake. All of which have been successful! Feel happy to be baking (and Blogging) again.

Firefox vs Chrome

2011-03-04T00:37:00.003Z

I've moved. Firefox was doing my head in. Too slow, always breaking, and never quite ready to go.

So I downloaded Chrome (after my husbands pestering, and of course he's right) and will try out Google's offering for a web browser. So far, so good. Much alike between the two, but already, there is a speed about how Chrome works. It's zippy. I nearly threw my laptop out of the window today, all I was trying to do was purchase chocolate for mother's day, and every move of boxes, firefox would go into 'not responding' mode and be there for about 15 seconds. I'm pretty patient, but I like to work efficiently. Waiting 15 seconds for something, every 10 seconds, is rubbish.

Right now, Chrome is working really well. I don't like ANY of the themes, it'll take a while to get used to, but I can cope with that more than getting totally impatient about a simple purchase.

Settling to Normality

2011-02-18T17:42:00.006Z

Life is much more settled now than it has been the last 6 months. Wedding, Wedding Blessing, moving, having house guests, getting back into the swing of work.

Now living in routine (as much as possible). Wake up, go to work, come back from work, eat, sleep. Sounds boring I know, but then I suppose that is what being an adult is all about. We are happy, I am happy.

Family life goes on, of course it has it's ups and downs. Life wouldn't be have as fun without those.

I know I promised images last time, so here are a few pictures from the wedding blessing to keep you entertained.

Americans, Wedding Blessing and New family

2011-01-05T22:15:00.002Z

The last week of 2010 was a very busy one for Robert and I. We spent some time in Essex celebrating Christmas with my family. I love them all very much and it was really good to have Christmas at home.

Our first Christmas together was uneventful and very much a Fisher Christmas. Church, eating, sleeping, eating, drinking, opening presents and sleeping some more. We were at home for Boxing Day too, and managed to walk the dog, which was really lovely.

On Monday TJ and Val arrived from Atlanta and we had our first house guests. TJ and Robert have been friends since college. These two have supported Robert (and now me). They are lovely. I really enjoy their company. Tuesday we had an epic day and drove to Stonehenge. It rained the whole time, but was made entirely bearable by having a lovely husband and some very good friends for company.

On Wednesday Robert's mum and brother (DJ) arrived. We spent the day wandering around London seeing the sights. It was lovely to have my mum and dad with us. The 8 of us sat down to lunch in Nando's in Victoria. A very small Nando's but a lovely time eating with family and friends.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were more chilling out and shopping days. The girls and the guys split up and did their own thing for the most part. Guys enjoying Xbox360; girls shopping. It was good fun to hang out with the girls.

On Sunday Robert and I had our marriage blessed at St Hugh's, with my St Hugh's family, extended essex family and friends and two very special guests from Cardiff. It was a very exciting and stress-free day. This was the big white dress and suits day.

Hopefully we'll have the pictures very soon. The most overwhelming thing was that everyone was there. We had people from all the different parts of our lives, joining together and making friends. It was amazing to see and to be there. I really can't believe how much support we have and how blessed we are.

On Monday we said goodbye to TJ and Val, we'll see them again in May. And on Tuesday we said goodbye to Mum and DJ. Now we have a house all to ourselves. After a week of having a full-to-the-brim house, it's strange to be by ourselves. I do miss my new American family and friends. They are very good people.

The best thing to see is my family and Robert's family getting along and getting to know each other. It is such a blessing that they all we chatting and doing a great job of making everyone included. God's really done a good job with us all.

On to married life proper. Nothing before us, nothing to plan for, nothing to work towards, except being married.

It's been a while...

2010-12-09T22:09:00.006Z

Sorry about that!

Lots has happened in the last few months. Robert and I are now married to start off with! We got married on 13th October at First Baptist Church, Lithia Springs.

I suppose I had better tell the story of what happened, as I know it the best.

We applied for a Fiance Visa in mid September, which to our dismay was denied. From there we had two options, apply for the visa again and risk the money (which is a lot) or tranfer my ticket from thanksgiving to early October and get married and apply for the visa again.

As you could guess, we went for the second option! Here is a photo of us just married.

We had a really good day. Robert's family and closest friends were around and we even had a little reception where we put cake in each other's faces! It was really brilliant to have Mum and Dad around too. They flew out especially. It wouldn't have been the same without them.

We applied for the marriage visa as soon as we could, and a few weeks later Robert moved to Luton! He's now been here a month, and it's really great having my husband with me. I still can't believe how crazy the last few months have been. I have a husband!

Oh and this is the ring...

It's it beautiful?!? I couldn't quite believe it when I saw it for the first time. It fits me perfectly and every so often I look down at it and think 'oh my word, that's a diamond and I'm married to my best friend who is awesome and he brought me this ring, which is a diamond...' and the whole process starts again. It's brilliant.

And on the first day we were married this happened...

Robert'll tell this story much better than me... but the first time I was in ATL I DIDN'T want my picture taken with the polar bear. So we take Mum and dad to the World of Coke and Mum drops me in it. She quite innocently says 'Karen, why don't you have your photo taken with the polar bear?'. Robert bursts out laughing and I concede. 9 weeks after I refused, I'm having my photo taken with the bear. I love my husband very much.

We are celebrating out marriage with a wedding blessing on 2nd January. That's the day for suits and big white dress as well as all my family and friends. We'll have some special guests from America too. I'm just as excited about that day as I have been about every day since I booked the tickets to fly the first time.

The last 5 months have been epic, but lots of fun. God has definitely been working in the both of us and now we are together! It's still crazy. But here we are approaching our first christmas together.

Thank you to every one who has prayed with me, supported us and just been there from before the word go. You guys are amazing. We vaule your support more than anything.

And here we are as of last night...

Big news!

2010-09-13T21:55:00.003+01:00

So as you may have picked up from Robert's, Dad's and Liz's blogs, Robert and I are getting married. This is exciting news for us and everyone who knows us.

My American Adventure has turned my life around and upside down. I never thought that I'd marry my best friend, that God would be so generous and gracious to me. robert and I have known each other for 5 years, ever since Cardiff. He has some stories about the time we spent together, I have very few memories (a great way to start!). Since then we have kept contact via email and skype.

I'm getting married! All the years I've prayed and prayed and got impatient and prayed some more. It's finally happening. I'm so excited! If you want to find out more there is a website. I'm really looking forward to the day. Please keep us in your prayers.

Celebrations

2010-09-06T22:32:00.003+01:00

There were lots of celebrations going on this past weekend.

On Saturday we celebrated Kirsty and Ed getting married. A brilliant day was had by all. The bride looked beautiful and the groom was smiling so much his cheeks hurt. There were lots of people around to help them celebrate. I think that's how weddings should be, family and friends around all laughing and smiling. It was a long day. My favourite moment was being able to pray for the couple during the ceremony (and dancing with the bride's half sister to Justin Beiber, but don't tell anyone else that - it's one of my guiltiest pleasures!).

Then on Sunday I went to Essex to celebrate Mike turning 21. It's really hard to believe he's turned 21, it makes me feel quite old. In time old tradition, we were retelling stories of past family gatherings, especially ones which involve everyone, but mostly the boys telling stories of nights out. We also have new stories to tell. Especially ones that involve injury to one or more of the parties telling the story! We are an accident-prone bunch. I shared my news with them. They all were very excited. It lasted about a minute, and then moved on to talk about much more recent events. I'm happy that they know now.

Soon we will celebrate Mum and dad being married for 27 years. I think I'm home that weekend as well. Mum pointed out that two years ago when we were celebrating their Silver anniversary was probably the last time I saw my other cousins. I'm gonna have to rectify that one. It's hard having family scattered all over the place, but a time will come when I will be more than just a car journey away, that should be interesting!

All in time

2010-08-31T15:52:00.003+01:00

I don't often blog, so I often get out blogged. Dad always does a pretty good job of blogging about events in our family, before I get the chance to switch my archaic laptop on and wait for it to warm up (no - I will not buy a Mac). so he has already talked about the weekend's events.

On Sunday Mum, Dad and Liz met Robert for the first time via the loveliness of Skype. At this point in my life I really love technology, it keeps me in touch with the people I care about the most. I especially love it when it works.

This was a momentous occasion, and probably one of the strangest in my life. But it was really, really good. We had a good meal at a pub recommended by a friend, Dad's written about that too. And the joys of google maps helped us find the place. I could have found it without a map, but better to have dinner than be lost!

We are all back to work for a short week this week, ending in Mike turning 21. Which is scary. Yet again a reminder that we are all growing up and moving on with life. I'm looking forward to celebrating with them and seeing family again.

But before that there is time for one last fun thing as the summer comes to a close. On Tuesday we visited Adventure Island on Southend sea front. This is a place me and my siblings were taken to as a treat. I love it. It's a small theme park, packed with rides and loads of people, with hardly any queueing time. We were on and off rides like you wouldn't believe. The girls i was with managed to get me on Rage. I was terrified! I'm not doing that again any time soon. I had some of the best conversations of the day strapped into a rollercoaster, it makes you a captive audience.

The summer has been full of adventure! Not least this one: this is it!

Surviving

2010-08-24T23:06:00.002+01:00

The last two weeks have been particularly busy, first week was LCET camp. If you haven't heard of LCET before click the link and find out some more. They do amazing work with young people across Luton.

I went on their summer camp for the first time this year. We took 60ish young people to Alton Castle (that was a fun part of being in America, getting to tell everyone I was staying in a castle) which is near Alton Towers. So near that you can hear the screams from the rides! It was a beautiful castle, lovely grounds and great young people. We had a very good week, listening to the LCET staff talk about the young people, you can hear their passion and empathy. God is really working through them.

Then young people from St Hugh's headed off to Soul Survivor for the week. We had a few success stories throughout the week, young people becoming Christians, hearts being broken for new ministries and me being able to mass cater for 16 hungry people! It was a brilliant week, St Hugh's family really does tranplant to wherever it is taken. We had a very family based week, which most of the young people responded to well.

It's been a long two weeks for a number of reasons. Time for some sleep.

A Little Adventure

2010-08-07T22:11:00.012+01:00

I love a bit of adventure. And I can make an adventure out of the tiniest thing as well (like driving in London or putting on a Holiday club). If you enjoy a little bit of adventure ever now and then, it makes life a little better.

So I went on a little adventure last week. All the Way to Atlanta, Georgia and back. "What's in Atlanta?" I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you! My best friend is in Atlanta.

Here's some pictures from my first (but not last) trip to the States.

Penguin up close and personal
The Sea turtleThe "Finding Nemo" part of the Aquarium
Jelly Fish
The CNN centre and it's vastness. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it! I literally gasped. I'm in the bottom right corner. It's a bit mental for something to be that huge, but then that's my general impression of America anyway!Here we are at the end of the Atlanta Braves baseball game. The Braves lost, but it was a good first experience of baseball.
Sweetwater Creek State Park. A very beautiful placeMe and my best friend!
I really liked my first experience of America. It was lots of fun and an eye opener in many ways. And there are many more adventures to come, but more about that later!

end of term

2010-07-23T18:36:00.003+01:00

Well, the academic year has come to an end for children in English schools. We are now on summer break. And when I say break, I don't mean for the youth workers, nor the teachers.

While this year has been a challenge, we've also had some amazing things happen. I won't bore you with the details, but my young people always surprise and encourage me. They are brilliant and well disciplined. They turn up to events, pull out all the stops to welcome others and become more of who God created them to be each time I see them.

We have natural leaders, preachers and the faithful. It's an excellent mix.

So here we are. I've been at my job for 4 years this August. And as visions go, I'm pretty clear for this year. But God can change those things too.

done and done!

2010-07-15T17:37:00.003+01:00

Cycling is over!!! Wohoo! And a few days in advance as well, very proud of myself!

I cycled 400 miles in 35 days and last night I had a dream that if one person reposted this I would get the money for it!

Later I'll put a picture up of the moment I finished, though it won't be of my face, because I was far too hot and tired!

Please sponsor me http://www.justgiving.com/nerakjf

Schools Work

2010-06-26T21:45:00.002+01:00

It's that time of year again where I spend most of my days in school working with younger children. This year I'm going on the church trips, the river trips and going in to teach year 8 about Christianity.

It's really good to see the children working together, behaving well and actually learning while they are going. Museums Luton do a brilliant session at the River Lea which is on my home patch, so I get to spend the day hanging out at the river and enjoying learning about it all. I think if i ever went into formal education, I really wouldn't mind schools work with a museum.

I'm not massively looking forward to teaching Christianity this year, but I was encouraged yesterday that even by being who I am, accessing the authority given me by God and being real, I can and will shine the light of Jesus to the children I come across. it's time to take a deep breath and run into the arms to God, knowing He'll carry me through, be standing up with me and working by his spirit.

I am no loved more or less, and I'm glad that love from God is unconditional. Here we go again...

JM Pics

2010-06-15T22:21:00.002+01:00

This is my desktop picture. It is lovely. And a testament to modern technology! Enjoy!

Seaside Rock Holiday Club

2010-06-05T21:48:00.002+01:00

Yeay! Only one more session to go of Holiday Club, which takes the form of Sunday@11 at St Hugh's.

I'm so glad it's over, but sad at the same time, all that we have been working towards over the last 3 months was done in 6 hours!

The theme was Peter's encounters of Jesus. We took on the drama in typical St Hugh's style, doing our own thing and being really relevant whilst doing so. It seemed as though the drama's went down really well. We had about 30 children, half Reception age, the rest up to year 6.

I've a lot to learn about running a holiday club, but also I've learnt a lot. It's been a good week. I'm pretty exhausted, but really looking forward to tomorrow morning.

JM Wembley Arena 27/05/10

2010-06-05T21:39:00.002+01:00

Well, what can I say? As always John Mayer is never one to disappoint. I don't really like Wembley Arena as a venue, it's not at all intimate, but somehow Mayer just pulled the whole crowd up on to the stage as if he was just playing to me.

He opened with Why Georgia, and it just got better from there on in. We had Your Body is a Wonderland and Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. There was one point where he stopped and got a girl in the front row to sing Edge of Desire with him, and the whole of Wembley Arena was silent for a minute while they sang. It was incredible.

He closed with Half of my Heart and encored with No Such Thing and Gravity.

I have never been to a better gig. Definite 5 stars.

As a support act Ellie Goulding was good, though not as big a stage presence. He music passed and there wasn't a lot to it. Though she can play guitar and drums! Pretty fun to watch.

400 mile challenge

2010-05-26T18:42:00.002+01:00

Cycle 400 miles in 40 days? Easy! Done it before, but can I do it again?

This time Liz is joining me, we're in a competetive twin mode!

So here's my fundraising page

And where I'll be mostly talking about it - twitter

And who I'm raising money for - The Chilli Children Project.

Massively gonna enjoy this and hoping to get £1/mile. sponsor me please!!!

Worth blogging

2010-05-09T23:17:00.002+01:00

The rise of twitter is really having an adverse affect on my blogging skills. And since I no longer write essays, I am really out of practice with writing.

But something comes along that is definitely worth blogging about.

My young people are amazing. There's nothing quite like sitting back on a Sunday morning and having 3 young people preaching, one leading worship and the average age of everyone talking is about 16.

And it really was nothing to do with me. As well as being proud of the young people, I'm also really proud of my co-worker. He's an encourager, and so pro-active. He's done so much with the boys, I'm really impressed.

God's still doing quite a lot with all of us and we are all trying too.

I should be lookng for more things that are worth blogging about.

It's all over!

2010-04-27T20:27:00.005+01:00

April has been a long month of celebrations!

Here is my mum at her birthday celebrations.
The boys brought her the delightful hat! We had a really good time, just the family and extras.

Lades and Gentlemen I present to you, Mr and Mrs Campbell!

Yeay! Rob and Mandy got married on Saturday. Brilliant ceremony and party afterwards. All the preparations and plans well laid, we finished dancing late in the evening, and the photographer was still there! Looking forward to all the pictures and honeymoon stories.

Here's Buff and myself in our roles as bridesmaid and supporter of the bridesmaids.

I think you'll agree we look gorgeous. Especially since she dragged me out of bed on Friday to do crazy exercise, which actually set me up for the day. Just enough strain to get the blood pumping and work up a sweat.

After all the certainity of April, I look to May with no idea what is happening! I even forgot we have a bank holiday next week. Definitely gonna enjoy that!

All My Ladies

2010-04-13T22:11:00.003+01:00

This is the lady of the moment, right in the middle of everything. Mandy's getting married at the end of the month and at the weekend we all went out to celebrate her last moments as unmarried!

I had a really lovely time, we sang, played games and generally enjoyed the company that surrounded. We were in a casino, but I didn't gamble, I was far too busy chatting to the ladies who came out.

I'm really looking forward to the wedding. It'll be a lot of fun, and nice to be part of a wedding with some very friendly faces we haven't seen for a while. It's lovely to see two friends who I've known for a long time tie the knot and make a whole new family (And I'm mostly looking forward to wearing a handmade dress).

It's been a really good April so far. I expected to be quite tired, but I don't think it's gonna be too hard.

Easter Celebrations

2010-04-07T20:03:00.004+01:00

All of St Hugh's Easter 'stuff' (services, reflections, sleepovers and dawn time gatherings) were well attended. We had a good time hanging out with the young people on saturday night and getting up nice and early to watch it get lighter.

I've always enjoyed getting up for the sunrise at Easter, and it much more exciting when you have a bunch of teenagers to encourage to be awake at such an unearthly hour! We didn't see the sun until later in the morning because it was pretty cloudy again this year, and it just started to rain as we got back to church for breakfast.

Our 11am service was really busy this year, but with some lovely small children making themselves at home, it still very much felt like we had a great time. We read through Luke 24 and stopped at the appropriate places to worship and share communion. The staff team did really well putting it all together.

I haven't had the chance to think a lot about what I thought of the Lent course and our whole Eastertime, but I'm sure I'll have a chance now that I'm not feeling fantastic and am hiding under a duvet! Easter is a lot more hard work than Christmas, that's for sure.

There are some pictures here.

Easter

2010-04-01T14:27:00.002+01:00

I think we should extend Advent... having 6 weeks to prepare for Easter makes it feel as though you SHOULD be prepared! Or maybe we should put all the pressure on Easter and not Christmas?

I've not been hugely involved in Easter prep this year, preferring to be running around London and being in and out of school. It's just been an incredibly busy term. I've almost stopped, and the prospect of a long weekend away is still a way off.

The good news is that all the hard work is paying off, with different projects being awarded funding and the church being fully aware of all the work we do... I just proof read the annual report and we're mentioned quite a lot, which is good. Apprently I'm "excellent" at my job. Wohoo!

I've felt quite the professional this week. What with signing contracts for funding, talking in an assembly and making contacts with family workers for the schools in Lewsey, it's all been pretty good really. The benefits of being in school for 90mins a week are brilliant.

Yes, I'm looking forward to a break, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the sunrise on Sunday morning and the thought of all that is to come for the summer term.

Settledness

2010-03-24T13:58:00.002Z

Life is somewhat routine right now. As much as it can be anyway.

I've been backwards and forwards with work and made a few new partnerships with projects whilst doing it.

It's the calm before the exciement and celebrations of Easter. I'm not paricularly fussed by all the preparations for Easter this year, as I have a pretty practiced plan. I'm just waiting for a spanner to be thrown in the works!

April is gonna be a busy month... I'll be in Essex for quite a bit of it, with lots of family celebrations. I hope there will be lots of pictures.

Apart from the mammouth amount of driving I've had to do, I'm really quite enjoying the routine. It's nice knowing that there is one specific night of the week that all I have to do is watch tv!

So I'm pretty settled as it goes, I know where I am, what I am doing and how to go about it. Doesn't stop God shaking me up daily with the verses that appear on my phone for the Challenge.

Today's verse Luke 12:48 "From whom much is given, much will be required"

My initial thought was, oh ok! I don't think I've been given much, then a small child cried on me at Breakfast Club and suddenly I realise all the responsibility that comes with working with young people. My thoughts went from ok to argh. But it's fine because God knows those thoughts too!

Weekend Away

2010-03-10T20:39:00.003Z

...to end all weekends away!

It seems that the last weekend wins the award for 'most likely to be anywhere other than home' weekend...

Last year I was at home, 2008 was St Albans, 2007 was Alpha with Liz and Ant in Ashby, 2006 was the farm with gappies, 2005 was St Albans... 2004 I wouldn't have a clue, as I only started blogging the week after! Ha ha, suddenly having an online diary seems particularly useful.

So I think the very long winded point I'm trying to make is, last weekend the youth group I co-lead spent time away. We went to Phasels Wood (for Liz). The last time I was there was 5 years ago with TGI's and St Mary's. Strangest thing to be back there again, this time in charge and ultimately responsible, showing how far I have come in 5 years.

Looking back over the blogs I've written, I realise just how far I have come. But that's for another day.

Last time I didn't do Potholing, and I don't remember my abseiling experience (if i had one). This time I conquered my fear and went down the dark hole (earning me the nick name Alice).

The young people who are part of this group are absolute angels. I can't stress how well behaved they really are. This makes my life easier. The only real problem is my inability to give clear instructions some times.

Liz taught us about Revelation. She did such a brilliant job. Pitched just right, and with amazing insight. I'm proud of my little sister!

No accidents or major problems. All in all I survived better than my colleague, and I have made it to Wednesday without feeling massively exhausted. I think I can chalk this up as a success.

Naturally Supernatural

2010-03-01T16:40:00.002Z

St Hugh's 16+ headed off to join a conference at Soul Survivor Watford last Thursday. Naturally Supernatural was all about the Holy Spirit. Ken Costa was speaking on the comfort side of the Holy Spirit.

Once I understood the real meaning of comfort, I have really latched on to it as something that gets me through all days. For the rare moments when I feel as though no one is on my side. And for the moments when it's all going swimmingly well. God is there cheering me on. 2 Corinthians 1 mentions the God of All Comfort.

It's good to be in a different place hearing these things, even if Ken was using words I didn't understand, I got the general idea behind what he was saying. I love the way that God takes the words of others and uses them to talk to every one individually.

The Saturday before last was a perfect example of this, the Spirit of the Lord was upon me and He has anointed me! I used my gift well last weekend and got a bit of money from the community for my trouble. It was enjoyable. God using my words and his convincing to get us some money! Yeay!

May the God of all comfort be comforting you!

Going Home

2010-02-22T21:44:00.003Z

Last week was half term for most schools across the country. Which is a good thing for the traffic. The drive to work takes 5 minutes wth no school traffic. This morning it took closer to 30 cos of the school traffic/heavy snow combination.

It's also good for us youth worker types, because we get to do a different type of youth work. On Shrove Tuesday we had young people in and out of church, wanting hot drinks and pancakes. It was very interesting to see young people and just have the opportunity to sit and chat.

We were busy this last week, but that didn't stop me having some time to go and see my family. And to preach at the church where I grew up. Christ Church is a very lovely place to be. Lots of people of all ages, all very welcoming and I had a good time. I told a joke during my 10am preach, but failed to set it up well, so didn't get a hint of a laugh! Even now I'm still learning!

I'm sure the audio will be up soon, so just keep looking out for it.

I think I left a bit of my heart in Essex this week.

We've started Lent and the new Bishop Alan Smith has set our Diocese a challenge. I'm enjoying it so far... another challenge we've been set is to pray more. Church is gonna be open all day for prayer. So feel free to drop in.

IT

2010-02-08T16:48:00.003Z

I know a tiny bit about IT, just a smidge, bits I've picked up from Dad since I was old enough to have an attention span of longer than 30 seconds, I can generally troubleshoot, but I still have a lot to learn.

Enter my latest 'mistake' - purchasing Norton360 with out consulting the IT gods (aka Dad). I only just noticed how it's little icon in the taskbar had a orange ! and when I tried to open said programme all I got was a blank screen.

So you find me mid re-install just 2 months after purchase. Whilst Windows Defender (on Vista) works against the clock to complete a scan it's been stopped from doing (by norton) for over 700 days. Poor thing, it'll never make it, I've downloaded so much rubbish!

I didn't notice how slow my laptop had gotten after the download of said programme, it seems that my laptop is in fact still speedy. But because I have patience I hadn't noticed how much it had slowed, til now.

So even though I'm mid re-install on a programme which cost a bit of money, I'm still considering petitioning the IT gods for a new an improved (preferably free) antivirus software.

Compassion Fatigue

2010-01-30T17:03:00.002Z

I do not cope very well with international natural disasters. I do not really know why, but as soon as I've heard the story once, I do not need to hear it again, nor can I cope with all the pain and the horridness that comes with it.

Of course, I'm heartbroken when it happens, but after a day, I can't face it any more. I give money, I know that it can help a little bit. But the thought that I'm not doing a great deal, leads me to think less about it and more about my own work and my own area.

I love that the world is now doing all it can for Haiti. I just wonder, how did it get to the point where there is no real army/police, no road signs, no real government? How did the island fall into such poverty? That's the saddest thing to me...

Of course we will continue to pray for Haiti, but compassion fatigue has hit.

Loyalty and Priorities

2010-01-24T17:40:00.002Z

Sticking with the Revelation theme... we'll be talking about the book on our weekend away in March. And whilst I'm thinking on it and have literally a moment to spare in a chilled Sunday (I realise the paradox in that) I was thinking about the positives and negatives of realising a truth, or gaining clarity on an issue.

I have had a few revelations this past week, so I'm starting to not only see the other side of the argument on somethings, but also seeing that I have to make some changes if I want certain things to improve.

We were talking about the 12 year old Jesus in the temple this morning, the boy who knew his priorities (Luke 2v41-end). I had one 12 year old in my group this morning, who's priorities were very different from the others.

I really wanted to encourage them to know that God can be our top priority, we read one of my favourite Psalm, no.84. "Better is one day in your courts, than a thousand elsewhere". We'd also spoken about the gospel over lunch, we should be in awe of it, not think we know it all. God as my top priority makes my life look so different to what it could have been, and here's today's revelation for me. God's slipped down my list a bit, my own fault. I'm not perfect, I find myself prioritising meaningless things.

Working on putting God at the top of the list.

Revelations

2010-01-18T17:02:00.002Z

Quiet moments allow for revelations, travelling is a great chance to think through things. Much like Paul travelling on the road to Damascus, though I haven't been blinded, I guess sitting in your car in the snow and horrendous traffic, gives you chances to think.

I was thinking how long the newness of a new year lasts? A day, week, month, six months? So I'll keep waiting for the revelations to find me!

In other news, it's been an interesting week for the building of St Hugh's, we are currently coping without any heating for the church part of our building. Something broke and tripped the electricity, so the whole boiler needs replacing. Pray it happens quickly and the parts arrive and get fixed. We were pretty cramped in the hall on Sunday.

I'm looking forward to this term, as it panning out nicely and I feel prepared for all the things that could happen. We're really busy, and it means I have to miss a few things, but I'm sure there are bigger plans at hand.

New Year, Old Me?

2010-01-02T21:39:00.002Z

Christmas and New Year's celebrations have been and gone, and it was a great end to the year. At home with family for most of it. So, no, I didn't get snowed in, and in fact it wasn't even a white Christmas. By the time I got home there was no snow on the ground.

I got back to Luton today, and it's been sleeting abit, but not enough to cause any trouble. I will be enjoying Sunday catching up with church family and thanking them for the presents given me.

I haven't made any resolutions this year, but am praying for revelations again. It could be a year of change and a year of new attitudes. Holding on to hope and laying any plans (which are few, normally I have a lot) before God. I think I'll be guided through the beginning of this decade more than ever.

Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year wherever you were. many Blessings for this coming year.

What are the chances?

2009-12-21T17:14:00.002Z

If you've been listening to UK news, or are in fact in Britain you'll have noticed the snow! As I write it's falling again. This will mean nothing to those in Canada and the coldest parts of America. We as a country stand still and watch in awe as the white stuff falls from the sky.

We venture out tentatively and take our flipping time to get any where. We're starting to dislike it, but we still enjoy the white out.

I'll post pictures of the snow duck the girlies and guys made on saturday night. We've had an enjoyable time in the snow, but things suffer, like church attendance and parties. Still the snow couldn't stop us enjoyng the Strictly final on Saturday.

Friends are fantastic. We were all on Team Cola this year. Was much fun cooking, drinking and eating all together. Both dishes made were a hit. The international influence on my cooking is becoming more obvious, thoough I still will quite happily bake.

I love this season, even if everything halts for the snow.

Success

2009-12-13T22:05:00.003Z

I bring you a story of Nativity success!!!

Not that I thought it would be a complete failure. God and the performance nerves helped the whole thing massively. We had a whole church to perform to! It was awesome. I really loved it.

There were no horrid surprises. Just nice ones. Our Joseph this year put on a class act and got a laugh (he hadn't even said anything yet). The innkeepers spoke so clearly and all the narrators read very well. Angel Gabriel battled out of his sick bed to join the cast and Mary and Elizabeth were fake chatting really convincingly!

It's done for another 11days, we will be working with the children again for the 4.30pm Crib Service on Christmas Eve. All our other services will be on the Facebook page!

And at the end of it all I got a huge bunch of flowers for completing my PgDip! Lovely day!

Mistletoe and Wine

2009-12-12T14:17:00.002Z

As you may well have noticed Christmas is just around the corner.

This week has been my busiest pre-Christmas week. And it's not getting any easier. It's our Nativity play tomorrow morning at church. I can't imagine for one second that tomorrow is gonna be easy, but I'm sure that it'll be very fun.

The main thing is our cast seems to be made up of apathetic actors and actresses; apart from Joseph, he plays his part very, very well. We seem to have lost the real feeling of Christmas. There's joy and elation, hope and relief (probably mostly from Joseph), there's also scared and afraid (though we are told by the Angels not to be). There's no elecrticity in the air of what might be happening. Something much greater than ourselves, something not all about consuming.

I don't want to ban any present giving (I've spent my money) or be grumpy, I just want to understand the feelings behind Christmas.

I love songs too, music is great at this time of year. I have a Christmas CD that has been playng over and over at work and there are more than enough songs about Jesus coming. But we've missed that over the last ten years. My hat goes off to anyone who can make a hit about the real reason behind Christmas (and not just Cliff Richard).

Happy (nearly) Christmas! Enjoy!

Twittering away

2009-11-29T15:02:00.002Z

Twitter has been in my life for a white now and one of the people I follow described it as "blogging for lazy people". Sadly, I'm beginning to think he is right. I have not blogged in a while because writing more that 140 charcters to describe what's going on seems like too much effort!

I have forced myself to remain on blogger for long enough to up date. And as I sit I realise that quite a lot has been going on and maybe that's the reason for not blogging and more tweeting instead.

I went to Youthwork The Conference and came back tired and with a cold, but it was good to be away and hear some brilliant speakers. Pete Grieg spoke on the first night, and was absolutely captivating. He was funny and really honest. Exactly what you need for a first night, in my humble-never-organised-a-conference opinion.

Then throughout the weekend I heard Andy Hawthorn, Mike P, Ruth Valerio and Jim Wallis. I am uneducated as to who Jim Wallis really is, so to hear him was very fun and enjoyable, he brought a very good message.

The rest of the time I spent catching up with friends, family and hanging out by the sea. I love the conference for all the hanging out you can get away with/do.

I came home, exhausted, facing a full week of work, and ended up in bed for 2 days asleep. I travelled to York on Friday to see friends and came home via Jude and Gill yesterday. I was all in for a busy week, but my body had a different idea.

So life goes on inevitably. Trying to have a quieter Advent this year, it starts today with Canon Andrew White visiting us for Christingle! (Not as quiet as I had hoped)

CUF

2009-11-16T16:45:00.004Z

My salary is largely funded by a great bunch of guys at Church Urban Fund. They visited us a few months ago for Big Breakfast, took some information and some pictures.

We're currently "project of the month" on their website. Love it. There's Lauren and me under the rainbow in the hall (on the CUF home page), and then Trina and Dele at the top of the page and Alex at the bottom. Yes we have a wide mix of people at BB.

I cannot tell you how proud I am of all the hard work the volunteers do to put on Big Breakfast every week! It's a massive relief to see some of the work I do getting recognised.

Along with that and something God said to me last night, I'm feeling pretty chuffed right now.

Later this week I'm off to Youthwork the Conference. I'm massively looking forward to a) hanging out with the boys and my sister and b) being away for a bit with a purpose.

Out of the Darkness

2009-11-09T17:05:00.003Z

Check out http://www.albandys.org.uk for pictures of the night in the Abbey.

It was a really good night, there was lots going on in the Abbey and the corporate worship times were brilliant. When we left in the morning it was pouring with rain, we hadn't had a sense of the outside weather at all. Stain glass windows don't give a great view of the outside world!

Vanessa and I were doing the Godly Girl stream, we had about 60 people come across 4 sessions. It was really great to see so many girls and to have the opportunity to share some wisdom with them. How much you can take on board after 12am is to be seen. So I can teach late at night now! I think we did alright.

Hopefully it'll happen again...

Plunged into Darkness

2009-10-29T00:25:00.002Z

We are back to 'normal time' here in the UK, so the nights are dark and the dawn is earlier for a short amount of time. The first week always feels the most depressing. Everyone suddenly realises that winter is much closer than you thought and the chances of having a nice day disappear.

It's great for firework displays though and for all those who will be out on Saturday for Hallowe'en. Not a joyfilled time of year really, but I like it. The trees are changing colour and there is a better excuse to be snuggled up with hot chocolate. And most importantly apple filled donuts covered in cinnamon sugar. Yum!

And for something completely different, Liz and I will be hanging out in St Albans Cathedral from 8pm on Friday to 8am on Saturday, with hundreds of young people and some lovely people from my diocese. I am looking forward to the twilight hours, something I enjoy and don't find creepy, where every one is quiet and you feel like you are the only one awake. The fun thing is I'll have to teach. Have you ever led a session gone midnight? It struck me how unusual this might be the other day as I was preparing my session. I could have so much sugar/caffeine in my system that I'll be non-sensical. Start praying!

Anyway, it should be lots of fun and I hope to make many new friends during the night. If all else fails at least I can say I attempted to teach between the hours of 9pm and 2am. A unique opportunity!

Of course it's not all about darkness, this weekend also includes a 'Light Party' alternative to Hallowe'en for the children at church, and our new bishop is coming on Sunday to confirm (a CofE rite of passage?/ritual?) some adults and young people. then I finally get to see my family for an evening meal. Very happy to end the weekend like that!

Uganda Part 5 - The Aftermath

2009-10-19T15:33:00.002+01:00

So, by now, a whole 6 weeks after our return from the wonderful country, things have settled and friendships across the country are starting to form

But thats not what I want to talk about...

On our way back from Uganda, we were delayed leaving Entebbe only by a few hours, but it made us late landing in Cairo. The plane in Cairo only waited 50 minutes, and we were left in Cairo along with many others who needed to be in London that night. Very helpfully the men on the trip had taken over and decided to sort us out.

Now begins about 6 hours of rollercoaster emotion, not helped by the fact that some of us had been up for 27 hours. First we were all going home via frankfurt, then we were all staying, then we were all going again. Every time the men came back there was a new wave of emotion (not all positive). Plenty of tears.

I referred earlier to being "ripped apart" from some of the team. This came at about 3pm when some of us were allowed to get on a plane to Frankfurt and the rest of us had to stay. Eventually the remainder recieved transit visa's and headed to a hotel in Cairo. We had two other Ugandan families with us and one lady who was by herself and instantly bonded to our group.

We washed and eat and slept and got on a plane on Monday morning, 24 hours late. It was much easier to be in Cairo Airport the second time around, 'cept it sounded like Egypt Air had had a weekend of it. They asked us if we'd like to fly via Frankfurt, even though we had our boarding passes and passports in hand! I wanted to punch the dude in the face, but had done so well up until this point...

The delay gave us a traumatic experience to further bond over. Much to the point when I headed to the Mission Direct office on Tuesday it was all I could talk about.

And the reason why I've written about it is now we are trying to claim insurance back on the flights, but this comes with conditions and things I cannot control. For example, the insurance company would like proof of delay, but with Egypt Air's track record in communication, I'm unsure we'll get written confirmation of delay. And it sounds like there will be a whole complicated back story to why we were delayed.

So I will keep you posted on how it goes, because any money we do get will go straight to the project!

Uganda Part 4 - The Pictures

2009-10-08T21:53:00.006+01:00

Sorry it's taken so long for this one, facebook has almost ruined the art of Photo Blogging.

So here we go, in choronological order I suppose...

This one really speaks for itself. The second time I've been south of the Equator.
Me and 10 year old Joel. One of the proper little brothers of the trip... he is awesome!
The school at the beginning of the trip, the far left of the building is not finished yet, that was our job. The matrons quarters.
The rainbow we made on holiday club day 2. We put up a lot of the things the children had made and it made our meeting space much brighter.This is St John's about 30 mins from Rukungiri. It was really good to see the church and join in. There was an auction after, Joe brought a goat, Stephan brought a chircken!

This is the sewing room in the Mother's Union. They practice on cement bags because it's a lot less expensive than material.
The Life Skills Clinc, where parents with disabled children come and learn how to cope, talk to other parents and teach their children basic life skills. It's part of the 5 Finger project.
The pre-primary school, finished! well, our bit was finished. The roof has been put on now. I'm still massively impressed with what the builders and the team.
This is Benjamin, my builder friend who remembered who I was and asked for me by name. We had some very good relationships on site. The Ugandan people are lovely.
A huge Elephant!
All my lovely young people at a salt lake on the dawn safari!

Uganda Part 3 - That Family Feel

2009-10-06T19:28:00.002+01:00

We had our debrief day on Saturday. Another trip over to Godmanchester, in a lovely part of the country, Cambridgeshire.

This was the first time we had seen everyone since being torn apart at Cairo Airport. Unfortunately we were missing 6 people from our team, 2 married couples who thought it was too far to travel for and 1 mother son team who were too busy. We arrived (on time - big drama last time meant we were late) and had lots and lots of hugs and a few tears.

We really were a family on this trip. Having an 8, 10, 12 and 13 year old on the trip really helped this. We also had a 70 something and everything in between. People perfectly capable of looking after themselves and some who needed coaching through everything (this is regardless of age). Everyone had their bad days and there were space giving moments.

It was massively different from all the other teams who were mostly older and married, or a bunch of young people from school. They each had their own bonding things. We were family for two whole weeks, from the moment we arrived at Heathrow airport, by the time we got to Kampala we were one family (at least that's my perception).

During the two weeks I had some very indepth conversations, we laughed so much around the dinner table, we got irrate with each other, we experienced some life changing things together.

When we had to say good bye on Saturday, I didn't realise how exhausting the whole day had been. I definitely didn't want to say goodbye. So I've promised myself trips to see people. We didn't work very hard on our presentation, but we had lots of fun while we were there.

I know lots of people have been on mission trips this summer, and I can bet they'll all have something to say about what bonded their teams, I can certainly say that our varying ages was the thing that bonded us the most.

Back To Church Sunday

2009-09-25T15:19:00.004+01:00

This Sunday is National Back To Church Sunday, and this year St Hugh's is taking part. The stats say that there are 3 million people in the UK who would go back to church if they were invited.

So I have taken on the task of preaching this weekend. Not really a scary thought for me, I've got used to the idea that I preach probably twice a term. The subject is Adam and Eve in the Garden, we're focussed on 2v18 "it is not good for the man to be alone". I'm still aving lots of thoughts on this one and to fit them into 15 mins might be a bit of a struggle, but so far so good. I'm enjoying the challenge.

I have other homework too, we have an amazing mix of people at church and one of the vicars is a really great preacher. So she's teaching us how to be better at preaching. She set us home work last week; take a passage, read it, work out it's context, work out who it's for and do a 30 word mini-preach on what it means for us today. I haven't even started thinking on in, as per usual leaving homework right til the last moment.

I hope that B2CS goes really well for everyone who is doing it.

Uganda Part 2 - The Importance of Church

2009-09-11T13:58:00.003+01:00

This is the middle of a thought process connecting my 2001 trip to the 2009 trip, it's not finished yet because I expect it to go on for some time, and it'll develop more and more as I change roles within the church.

In 2001 I went to Uganda as a teenager, not really knowing what to expect and as my usual self, not entirely worried and not expecting to change really. I was dragged to church on one of the Sunday's we were there. All that was in me didn't want to go, I thought (like Jonah) that I could hide from God, on the side of a mountain seemed the perfect hiding place!! How wrong could I be? God found me, sitting on a step in a crowded church. *Skewed theology moment* I'm pretty sure He followed me there! But He was really sneaky about it. No headlights or anything, very annoying *moment over*

Being side swiped by God changed me massively. Over the last 8 years I've been working out how, whislt still being changed by God through it all. I consider the trip in 2001 to be the turing point in my life but not a Saul/Paul 180, more like a Peter-still-getting-things-wrong-3-years-down-the-line change. The last 8 years I seemed to have landed on my feet with pretty much everything I've done, it's been tough at times, but God has been there, whether I've acknowledged him or not. I've also had a massive amount of fun, made so many friends from across the world and am generally very happy with where I am and who I am.

And mostly those things are due to the secure environment church offers for me. I am happiest in a church. My church is my family. They are the people I cry and laugh with. They see me at my best (doing youth work, preaching etc) and my worst (before dwan after a sleepover usually). I don't know what I'd do without church. I hope that there are many people who feel the same as me.

I'm hoping and praying that I'll catch on to the changes quicker this time round! I'll still be thinking through the links for a very long time. I know how this all happened, it's down to God. So now it's next steps for me... where next? What next? And how does it involve going to Uganda again?!?

Uganda Prt 1

2009-09-05T16:56:00.003+01:00

Hello, I'm back! I'm writing after having a few days of reflection, the external processor that I am I have reflected with friends, in writing and going through some of the pictures I have taken. Out of the hundred or so photos I think are good enough for printing, you'll get a 5 minute whistlestop tour of our trip.

Last time I went to Uganda I could talk for hours upon hours about all I had seen, heard, smelt and tasted. This time round I had 8 years life experience and a leaders head on my shoulders. I think this made all the difference.

I'm definitely not that excitable any more, nor was I as homesick as last time. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it most of the time. Uganda is not a familiar country to me really. If you've been to a place once you can't say it's home, but you can feel comfortable very quickly.

As a consequence I wasn't too fussed by a lot of the things we saw, I could quite happily live in Uganda, though I have this feeling that wherever I go, as long as I've got some lovely people around me I will settle and be happy. This was very true of this trip. I was looked after well, as were the young people. We had an amazing staff team, who got on so well sometimes it was hard to break them up! The rest of the team was handpicked by God, that's for sure.

We always had enough people to do enough things. The Holiday Club was well attended, as was the building site. The builders in Rukungiri have lots of English friends now. I have a special builder friend too!! He's called Benjamin and had remembered my name (kinda) enough to ask for me on the day we came to say goodbye. I'm always struck by how friendly the Ugandan people are. I wouldn't generalise it to every African person, cos that's like saying all Essex people are chavs! The Ugandans give more than thay have at church, in their homes and of themselves. It's really something we can learn from.

My surprise really worked! the Vicar of St Hugh's rolled up one afternoon just in time to see the dusk. everyone wondered why he was in Uganda, that took a bit of explaining. And after he'd brought us all ice cream, Josh (aged 8) said "Can I go to Karen's church, I really like their Vicar?" I made it clear that everyone is welcome at our church!

We went to St John's Nyakaina on th middle Sunday. Very interesting, didn't feel long or drawn out (it was 2.5 hours long) and it included an auction to raise money for the church. Anything can be put in for auction including goats, chickens, sugar cane, and honey. I didn't take part in the auction, but most people had a go. We raised some money for the church.

The children of Rukungiri came to Rondavels (where we were staying) for some good old English Holiday Club Action! 150 children for 4 sessions. It was an experience, so now we have no excuses for running HC at Luton.

Also no excuses to turn down speaking engagements. I gave testimoy to 500 people, through a translator in the dark!! Scary stuff, but I think I was more scared of what my team would think.

Overall, it was a really good positive trip. I know my young people so so well now. We have shared this expereince. I'm hoping that I know myself enough to see how this trip has affected me, and I'll know it quicker than the 8 years it took me to dissect the last trip.

Part 2 will include photos and a more formal reflection.

Before I go...

2009-08-10T23:36:00.002+01:00

If it wasn't so late at night here, I'd probably come up with something quite wise to say...

As it goes I can't think right now.

So anyway, we leave for Uganda at the weekend. I'm not really packed, I have a pile of washing that I need to do in order to be packed and I keep remembering things I should buy. Not just things for me, but things for holiday club and things for general travel. The thing I'm most scared of is being loci parentis for some young people while we are in Uganda. I'll leave it at that, for fear of saying something which might mean the young people stay in the UK!

Pray for us. I'll update when I come back, I promise! There will be photo's galore. And my mother is already lining me up for speaking dates... go to her and she'll tell you I'm available for most days! Also I'll post my testimony pre-Uganda.

My experience of Africa (Uganda being the only place I've been) has massively shaped who I am today, no doubt about it. Here's to praying that I learn what God is teaching me in less than 8 years this time round!

Holidays and Broadband

2009-08-03T12:49:00.004+01:00

Not really been blogging, mostly because I've been busy doing admin, making cakes and attempting to get broadband in my house after a massive 4 weeks without (I think Broadband is quickly becoming a home essential).

I'll add pictures to this when I get home, as I've also now put my birthday pictures on FB, so will add those shortly.

I've been the temporary administrator for church whilst the actual secretary is on holiday, it's not vital for me to be doing this job, as the office runs intermittently during holiday times. It's more for my own stability. Last year I hardly did anything over the holiday period, but this time I've got 3 groups sorted from September to Christmas, and have even started to consider Christmas time. We're getting there with packing for Uganda and I think next summer I'll do a drop in during the summer as some of my yp are already bored (they've only been on holiday for 2 weeks).

So when the secretary returns on Wednesday I will probably retreat for a few days to prepare for a busy three weeks. I also am helpfully putting my thoughts on to paper about the coming year.

Look out for pictures they'll be up later when I get home. Have to also write a sermon centred around Uganda, 1 Corinthians 13 and Micha 6:8. So if any one has any ideas, they would be greatly appreciated!

Her's the finished article, 3 Chocolate and 3 Maderia Cakes all 6"x6" - a total of 6 hours baking. It's sparkly and purple... if any one would like to make me a cake those are good things to go with!

A Long List

2009-07-21T14:17:00.006+01:00

Things have been happening since I last wrote...

My faith took another bashing at a Youth BBQ. I can understand the school children doing it, they don't know me, they are permitted to ask questions (however mockingly). But at a BBQ with young people I know quite well, sadly I had to walk away and not be part of the conversation any more, cause I'd run out of answers and patience.

Then we had Lewsey Churches BBQ inside because of the torrential rain and thunderstorms outside. I can't remember having such extreme weather in the UK, it's been such a long time since we had regular decent thunder and lightening. I really enjoyed it, mainly because I wasn't getting wet!

The week wore on; it's that time of year for trips. We have an unusal thing in our youth group where two people were born hours apart, so have the same birthday. They are completely unrelated. I love the way God brings people together. We headed to Laser Quest for their birthdays. During 'dinner' I sat back and realised what a wonderful youth group had been formed over the last year. They, as a group, are testament to how much I have learnt. I love them all dearly and pray that their group gets stronger.

We had breakfast on the car park and a mighty miracle from God to do it. He moved the clouds at 8am and the sun shone through till 9.30am. Everything is possible when you let God work! It was great to see the young people and teachers that day, though sadly no dustbin men or old grumpies. Our community doesn't feel complete without them really. It was a great way to end the term.

During that week I also completed the practice and essay for my PGDip and JNC. So I can now say that "I am a fully Qualified Youth Worker, subject to Exam Board passing my essay and practice file". Not quite as fun as saying I'm a JNC Youth Worker, but close enough for me! It's been 2 years of hard work, but it's all done (subject to Exam Board - it's like a sting in the tail).

Then it was time for me and my sister to turn 25. We went our separate ways for our actual birthday. She hung out with our family and went drinking and dancing, whilst I spent the morning at Luton Hoo, and the evening at Silverstone.

For those who don't know Luton Hoo is a stately home turned Hotel, newly refurbished and reopened to the public. They do a great breakfast. So I and 12 girls (and 1 boy who is so tiny he didn't know any different) had breakfast together. It was delightful!
Me and Christine

Me in my new role as Stately Home owner!

Silverstone is a whole other world. Its one of the main race tracks in the UK and where Formula 1 raced only a few weekends ago. I went up there to spend the evening with a friend who was racing with Formula Student. All the Mechanical Engineer departments in Europe racing cars they have built. Was very fun I stood on the track and in the pit lane. My Dad really lovely Formula 1 so was very jealous. I loved it.

The Home Straight

Me standing with a vacant expression on my face... hoping not to get run over, not really know what to do. I look proper tiny under the Santander Bridge!

The pit lane... apparently still had markings on it from F1 (I don't really know though, I'm a girl!)

Sunday was spent at church with a[n embarrassing] rendition of Happy Birthday, which left me very red and quite embarrassed. Then to the parents for BBQ with family, extended family, our church friends and the boys school/work friends. Was lovely to see everyone and hang out. (will post pics soon)

Monday night I held another Youth BBQ and the new Curate helped out. He's a man and loves building fire, so the job was perfect for him. The YP had brought me a card and cake! They surprised me massively. And again I realised how blessed I am to have all 13 of them in my life. Lovely young people! Brilliant end to a great weekend!

Hopefully life will calm down now. Just Uganda and September term to prepare for! Ha ha... working hard as ever!

Lessons Learnt Pt 2

2009-07-10T14:41:00.004+01:00

Yesterday afternoon was by far the hardest lesson I have ever had to teach. For all the lessons I have taught, this was the loudest and most questioned I have ever been in. Unfortunately the young people were not doing a very good job at listening to the answers I had. After a few incidents of "Jebus" I had to stop and tell them exactly what was bothering me.

Sometimes the things we say offend other people with out realising it. The only place I really pull young people up on their language is Big Breakfast, some of the yp swear unnecessarily and I have a sharp ear for it... but in this lesson there weren't any swear words, but poor Jesus got a nickname. I know he's been called worse things. I stopped, took stock for a moment and when I carried on things weren't much better.

I stood at the front of the class being pelted by some really good questions, "Who created God?" "How can you believe all this stuff?" "Is Jesus really alive?" "Does God talk to you?" Waaah, but I know that there is nothing before God and there will be nothing after God, I know Jesus is alive and God does talk to me (but not in a audible voice). Our children know myths about God, I find this very sad. They believe in very little and are sceptical. One of the teachers said "you can't question other people's beliefs" don't think that's so true, I think you can, but I think you do have to be sensitive to others too and listen to what they believe, even if you don't believe it yourself.

These discussions HAVE to continue... I was dreaming big dreams on Monday and one of them is to always be in discussion about faith and beliefs.

Lessons Learnt

2009-07-05T15:25:00.002+01:00

Christianity lessons are going really well, thanks for all you who are praying/interested! It's been a good week. Though I sit listening to a tennis match I'm completely uninterested in. Sad there's no Murray on court today, but he's only young and Wimbledon happens every year. More chances for him!

Back to the lessons! I had a bit of a mental block in spelling harder words like Crucifixion and even Church at one point! Have learnt that spelling on a board is so much harder when there are lots of sets of eyes on the back of your head. Also had some very intersesting questions. I'm sure evey one else has experienced that moment when you realise there is someone in the room who has just as much knowledge as you, but you expected there to be no knowledge at all...

Happened to me on Friday, there was a JW in the class. Very very interesting to hear someone else pov, but for the conversation to have continued down the interrupted by unnecessary OMG from the tennis stairs afterwards.

I wanted to start conversations with these young people... seems I have done that. The teacher who was in Friday's lesson was very impressed with me. Though I wasn't too impressed with me, but there we go, God works in mysterious ways.

You know though, vodafone have nicked my blog title! They are going to be employing 8 people to work for an overseas charity of their choice next year. You could earn £45,000 for working for a charity under their scheme. Hmmmm not sure what I think of that.

If you are a pray-er

2009-06-30T14:10:00.002+01:00

Now would be the time to do the praying thing... I know it's late notice, but I'll be in school in about 15 mins delivering the first of six RE lessons on Christianity. This is an annual event for me, but it's always different. The young people are different, the teacher is often different (and some times learns more than the pupils).

We shall see how it goes. But if you are praying, pray now. Pray at 2.40pm on Thursday, 1.50pm on Friday and 2.40 Weds and Thurs next week. Will update on the inbetween times.

In other news, it's hotter here than in Uganda. I'm praying that Andy Murray will win Wimbledon (and turning into my mother in the meantime)! And something made my day today, but I can't tell you cos it's a surprise! Yeay! I love surprises!

Shock

2009-06-22T18:20:00.002+01:00

Thought 5: Even the smallest amount of shock messes up my ability to wake up. Eg: Sunday was a very routine day, church in the morning, a relaxed afternoon and church in the evening, but on the way to church I witnessed a car crash, and knew some one who was involved. It was only a small crash, but still I was shocked. then I managed to over sleep by an hour this morning so was late for work.

This happened when I was the victim of a robbery, late for work the following day. When I wrote off a car, got my exam timetable mixed up and went for an afternoon exam in the morning. Shock is horrible, even the smallest amount.

Taken Over

2009-06-15T16:43:00.003+01:00

The young people and myself helped church along it's way on Sunday. I spoke, they led games, sorted craft type things and did music stuff.

It's funny how we really are our parent's children on occasions like this. The service was longer than I'd planned... can't really work out where the time went. The things I've learnt in the past 3 years have been good, I've definitely stepped fully into St Hugh's way of life.

I'm at that point in life where people are turning 25 all around, my turn soon. So was in Essex to begin celebrations at the weekend. Really enjoy my Essex friends.

I also hunted down my Uganda memorabilia from 2001! Can't believe it was so long ago now, we all look so young in the photos. What I didn't find was a Health Passport saying I'd had a Yellow Fever jab more recently. Quite annoying, but then there appeared a raging debate on facebook as to whether I actually need a jab at all. To be honest I'd rather have a £40 jab than be really sick! But then I suppose I'm a westerner and money is no object. Selfish? Maybe. Sensible? Yes. Any way seeing my GP in two weeks to sort it all out. Don't particularly fear jabs, more worried about feeling sick in the wake of the jabs. Dr Michael, any suggestions?

Oh, then Andy Murray won at Queens, how exciting!?! Wimbledon is going to be stunning this year. I am, by no means an enthusiast, but tennis is very easy to watch and I mostly understand it. So looking forward to sport this summer.

Tigger moments

2009-06-08T11:57:00.002+01:00

No internet at home means plain blogging for a few weeks. I promise many photo's upon the return of BT broadband to the house (Sky lost out because they were massively unhelpful...)

I'm at work, making massive use of the internet before working on a sermon this afternoon with no facebook distraction! There might be something go out of this lack of internet!

No thoughts worth sharing have occurred in the last seven days. But Good News prevails! Since we joined Mission Direct, had a project to go to and confirmed who was going to be part of the team we have raised the £11,160 we need to pay for our tickets.

This was massively helped along by my parents church, my own church and the local community. Everybody has put so so so much in. I got a bit emotional in church on Sunday. Not a bad thing, I was totally and suddenly overcome by how much people had given! It's amazing. God has been gracious to us, He's given more than I could ever imagine.

There are many minds at peace about this trip now, mine is one of them, but I've felt like this since February, so I turned into Tigger. My security and joy definitely come from God and I'm massively happy at the moment.

Now all I have to remember is to pay the money to MD oh, and get the booster injections and health passort I need to gain entry to Uganda.

Where are we at?

2009-06-01T23:27:00.003+01:00

Half term ended with a bit of a flourish...

Two nights in London, one to see a friend play a gig and the second to be majorly disappointed by the Emerging Culture Salsa event. It seems that the emerging church still mostly caters for women and feels very disorganised.

I would have loved to have salsa danced to a live band with a man who could dance. Is that too much to ask? I would have done it very differently and I was not filled with hope when the organiser of the event introduced herself and said she'd never Salsed (sp?) before. Does this count as righteous moaning?

Then we had a town wide Pentecost Praise on Sunday night at the Calvary Church of God In Christ (COGIC). This was totally awesome, not only was it well attended, it was loud and so relaxed. I really loved it that there was no preach slot, but that leaders from across the town got up and prayed over the town. Hoping for more things like this and for more twenty-somethings to join in.

I was taking it all in and had a job to do, so felt more at home than previously.

Upon reflection of the whole weekend:

Thought 4: I really don't expect my peers (who aren't my friends) to know who I am, even if I know who they are/have worked with them before. I'm not sure where this thought is headed, I've not verbalised it enough. I think I expect young people to know me (I got on the train to London and said hello to two young people) but I never expect acquaintances to know my name, I'm just not important.

Oh and on the Uganda front, we had an afternoon tea this weekend and raised £180 from it! My young people have worked so so so hard towards the fundraising. I'm increasingly proud.

Thought

2009-05-23T22:19:00.003+01:00

Michael's suggestion...

My thoughts aren't very deep and by no means theological and, when they are written down, often sound as though I shouldn't be thinking them any way.

Thought 1:
I go through life making various observations. One such observation occured today. I was on the M25 stuck in a 'for no reason' traffic jam. It only lasted about 10 minutes, so no big deal. I don't think people on the M25 know how to drive on the motorway. I think it's pretty simple and it's hard to tell if I'm in the majority or minority. I just want motorway driving to be simple and less dangerous, without reducing the speed.

Thought 2:
Pimms is nice... But you don't put apple in it. I will invest in a bottle of pimms this summer.

Thought 3:
Is it worth me signing up to Twitter? Or will I just end up stalking John Mayer? Am I popular enough to be followed? Does any body actually care?

Other thoughts include, will I ever own a house? Will I ever be married? 25th Birthday this summer, want to do something, but not sure what... Isn't thought a strange word when you say it more than necessary?

I have lots of thoughts...

2009-05-15T17:31:00.001+01:00

...which I never seem to finish, or go around in circles with.

That is all

Slowly does it

2009-05-11T14:52:00.003+01:00

A trickle still fills a bucket, even if it takes a little longer.

The money has trickled in over the last couple of years and we are nearly at our total for going to Uganda. Tis very exciting! We're three months away from a life changing trip and I've never felt less worried about all the decisions I've made, and been helped to make over the last two years regarding this trip. Now we just have to work out what to do for a Holiday Club while we are there!

Work is at a trickle as well, so while it feels like not a lot is happening, I'm finding ways to fill my time (with work, not fun things!)

The most scary thing is doing Christianity lessons again in MV. This time a Q&A session, I think that's the most scary. Being prepared for hard questions!

I have amazing friends!

2009-04-30T22:24:00.002+01:00

This is my best friend Christine standing next to her own handy work. And there is another line drawing of Europe off to the right of the picture, but it wouldn't all fit in the frame.
It's not finished yet, but I will go back and take a picture when it is.

I have amazing friends. I could never imagine creating anything so huge or beautiful. My friends are great!

All growed up

2009-04-27T22:26:00.008+01:00

Look at us all...

Aren't we a good looking bunch of young people? These are people I've grown up with and now have some really good friends. Essex people are lovely and this group are no exception. Here we are celebrating the engagement of Mandy and Rob. Both of whom I've known for a long time. Mum's is already planning the card for their wedding day! Had a great time partying with them.

As younger girls we'd always have the conversation about who would be married first. It changed depending on what mood we were all in. Mandy always thought she'd be last, but that's all changed! The planning for the wedding has begun with vigour! Should be a lot of fun.

These are my roots, I'm very proud of them.

In other news, it was announced at the church APCM on Sunday that Pamoja has about £6000 in its fund! Very exciting. We go to Godmanchester near Huntingdon on Saturday for Orientation Day. I don't know what it is but I'm genuinely joyful to be going on Orientation! Its a strange feeling, but I can't think of any other words to sum up this feeling. I'll let you know how it goes!

10 days

2009-04-24T17:43:00.002+01:00

It's a long time in the land of the blogger...

I forgot to mention in my last blog that I have in fact cycled 400 miles in less than 40 days (due to having days off and finishing a day before I was supposed to)! If you'd like to give me money the website is http://www.justgiving.com/pamoja09

As a consequence I haven't really done any exercise since. I'll get back on the bike eventually. I can't believe it's done!! Wohoo!

Easter Celebrations

2009-04-14T20:28:00.003+01:00

This year we combined our Christmas and Easter displays, so here is what is on the ceiling at the moment, with the cross positioned underneath it.

The crown of thorns sits lonely on the steps to the dias. Awaiting to be put back on the cross, where it normally is. Apparently it was worn by one of the young people when he played Jesus a few years ago.

I think this was the most powerful thing that we did. At the right point in the story, 3 men raised the cross to standing, with the children sitting at the foot of the cross. It brought to mind all of the feelings over the Easter season. Everything drawn to the cross.

On Sunday morning we walked to the hills and watched it get lighter, the sun rose behind the mist. When you get up that early you kinda feel cheated if it's misty, but nevermind, a good breakfast, services and lunch followed. A good Easter all round really!

Cup Winners!

2009-04-06T17:48:00.004+01:00

Oh yes! Probably the most gripping final of the season, the Johnstones Paint Trophy final was played yesterday at Wembley. Luton Town Vs Scunthorpe... an interesting match.

Luton have won something this season. Which makes a change from being unfairly robbed of 30 points at the start of the season. Yes, we still face relegation from the league, but at least we can go out on a high. We could join a small list of teams who are cup winners and then relegated.

And to take just under a third of the twon to Wembley Stadium is pretty impressive. I'm sure the rest of the town was listening or watching some where. I was, I got home in time for the beginning of extra time and managed to watch it on my parents sky box.

My lovely parents! And the rest of my family. We had a good time celebrating an 18th Birthday. We're all adults now, tis very scary. I can't believe we are already at this point, next thing we know we'll be celebrating our 30's!

Crafty things/Acceptance

2009-03-28T19:01:00.003Z

Today was a great day. There are many things that happend today.

One was a craft fair/coffee shop type thing at church to raise money for the trip to Africa. If you missed it, you certainly missed out (the local radio even popped along). The young people did amazingly. They worked unbelievably hard, and made some money! We are still counting the miles though! (I'm on 270 by the way, only 10 miles behind target)

The other thing was Acceptance. A Girls Only conference run as a town wide event. A very big success. It's very hard to get an event like this up, so hopefully it won't be the last. I was asked to speak and it was such a privilege. Very exciting things going on in Luton once again.

Lots happening tomorrow too, but I'll blog about that later!

5 years

2009-03-16T21:50:00.003Z

and a few days.

An interesting non-milestone.

Lots has happened in five years, thanks for the reminder Michael.

Social Networking has taken over our lives and blogging seems to be a thing of the past, seemingly replaced by micro-blogging. I don't think it'll catch on, but the press seem to be having a field day with celebs micro-blogging their days. It's quite sad, but also funny. I have a feeling the internet may implode on itself quite soon.

Cycling is going well, so far 145 miles. Which is the distance (driving) from Luton to Calais. Only 255 miles to go! Yeay!

Many other things have happened, but you can read the blog if you want to pick up on the things which have been important to me.

iSpeak (again)

2009-03-09T22:56:00.005Z

I spoke at St Hugh's yesterday morning for the second time this year. Was very interesting to preach from a book that's not the Bible, but seeing as I cycle for 40mins a day I had time to read the chapter I was preaching on.

Here's the link for my one and only fan - my Dad.

That's all I have to say for now. Short and sweet.

And as a total after thought, 5 years this weekend!

fun-draising

2009-03-02T22:06:00.002Z

If you know me you'll know I'm on my way to cycling 4000 miles, the equivalent distance btween Luton and Kampala, Uganda!

Scary stuff! But I'm finding it fun. Granted I've only done 50 miles so far... but that is further than I've riden in my entire life I'm pretty sure!

We are going to Uganda with Mission Direct.
If you want to give us any money - oh yeah I have 8 young people doing it with me - click on the link in the title!

{ONEL!FE}.

2009-02-20T11:55:00.002Z

"What else will distinguish us?"

{ONEL!FE} is an organisation designed to support and encourage young leaders. They do this by holding conferences and taking some of those leaders to Uganda in the summer. Many of the young leaders from St Andrew's Chorleywood are on the team, and they did a brilliant job at looking after us while we were at conference A.

This years theme was "what else will distinguish us?" based on Exodus 33 and the transformational leadership of Moses. Not only were there some great speakers (Mark Waterfield, Pete Wynter, Greg Downes, Emily Vesey and David Pytches) there were also some great people to hang out with.

Of course we are distinguished by God, by what he has called us to do and be part of (and did you know that calling is irrevocable? Rm11v29) but it's about letting that call distinguish us in the way we live, lead and work. We know we are different, but we don't live it out much.

Pete Wynter talked about going deeper into the presence of God and taking it with us wherever we go. Hark back 3 months and Youth Work the conference is talking about the exact same thing. Maybe there is something in this deeper thing!

Small conferences are great, big conferences are great (if you know a small group of people). I'll be taking some young people to YLC next year, wherever I might be.

I really love church! I love going to different places across the world and knowing that I can find home there.

Proof

2009-02-11T23:42:00.002Z

Twin-ness is great. I really love being a twin.

And no, we don't have a sixth sense, but our brains are wired pretty similarly. this is really helpful when attempting to find each other in a crowd or when arriving seperately at the biggest shopping mall in Europe/a tube station with a million exits.

We're better friends now than when we were growing up, and the skill of finding each other becomes better each time we meet up.

Saw Hairspray tonight at the Shaftsbury Theatre with said twin. It was brilliant! Especially an ad-libbing Michael Ball wearing a dress. Ben James-Ellis ('of any dream will do' fame) left a little to be desired and he over-acted his dancing in places (didn't know you could do that, but you can), apart from that he was very good. Leanne Jones makes a great Tracy and probably held the Baltimore accent for the longest! Tough work. And Raquel Jones who plays Inez has an amazing voice.

Go and see Hairspray!

Worth a mention

2009-02-02T20:00:00.002Z

It has snowed a lot in England in the last 2 days. So naturally for us, everything has ground to a halt.

The last time it snowed this bad was 18 years ago. Which I remember as one of my most vivid memories.

It was one of those days where we went to school in the snow in the morning. We (sister and friend) got picked up by a neighbour eventually. And got to spend the afternoon at home. The next day I think we played in the snow, dad pulled us around the top of our cul-de-sac on a sled. Our next door neighbour helped the milkman deliver the milk.

The snow plough came up the road and dumped the snow on our front lawn, and we made thrones our of the mountain of snow! We were 5/6 at the time, it was the funnest thing ever.

I'll attempt to go into work tomorrow, but school is closed and it remains to be seen if we do breakfast club on wednesday.

Quiet Time

2009-01-26T15:58:00.002Z

It's been a quiet start to the year. There's been much juggling and sorting out, but we seem to be settled and content with the fact that another year has begun.

Today is Chinese New Year and Australia Day... confusing! So I watched the aussie soaps and have stir fry for dinner.

My new year challenge was to not be so addicted to facebook. It seems to have worked.

The hope I had at the beginning of the year still hasn't died! I'm a little surprised, but that's a good thing I suppose. Hope for lots of things. Especially hope for Obama. Good prayers and speeches last Tuesday.

Hope, there always has to be hope. Faith, Hope and Love. I pray my year has all of these.

On the road

2009-01-12T16:13:00.002Z

I would like to offically announce that I will be going to Uganda in late August this year!

It is a very exciting moment because the group I'm going with are all young people and they have been desperate to go for about 3 years. We will be working with Mission Direct on this project. We are going to be living at Rukungiri Mordern Primary School, which is in the south west of Uganda.

To aid our fundraising we will be running, cycling, walking, rowing and swimming 4000 miles (the length if you drew a straight line from Luton to Kamapla) over the 40 days of Lent. If you would like to sponsor us our justgiving page is here.

I'm massively excited about going to Uganda again! It's such a big opportunity for the young people and for me. The only pressure now is to (raise the money) enjoy ourselves!!

New Year and beyond...

2009-01-05T22:30:00.003Z

I have returned to Luton with the intention to work. I preached on Sunday morning. I'm glad that there wasn't a lot of pressure with this one, the Anglican year begins on the first Sunday of Advent.

It was good. Not my best, but good all the same. There were God moments, which I certainly hadn't planned for and it's just lovely to be back with family and people who laugh when you make mistakes (because they know you, not because they are laughing at you).

New Year went off with out too many problems. Some lovely dresses and well dressed men. I didn't win best dressed, but my parents where the Judges so I couldn't have won. Liz has pictures. I didn't take my camera...

Looking forward to 2009, it's started well, let's hope it continues.

on the other side

2008-12-29T20:01:00.002Z

Christmas is over, new years prep begins.
The shops are manic with bargains and things.
Christmas forgotten amongst the piles of clothes
Is this it? Is this how it goes?

I hope not.

We sat in Wagamamas today, sharing our table with some lovely people and chatting to a woman and her grandson. She was from Lebanon. We got to talking about teenagers in the UK and how there is a huge lack of respect, hope and general politeness. She asked how it had come to this? I would say that I hadn't a clue how it got this way. She was impressed by us though. We were polite and engaged (her granson a little less so). Definitely lunch time chatter going on.

I've lots to think about as the new year arrives.

In the run up

2008-12-22T17:18:00.004Z

We are on the final sprint towards Christmas, in case you hadn't noticed!!

St Mary's had their Christmas Ball on Friday. Was expertly done, by too many people to mention and there was a fantastic atmosphere in the church. It's amazing to think the amount of work which went into it! I hope it continues for many more years. Here's me...

The weekend saw the end of Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC. Many opinions shared about the final result and one interesting one here. It was very good to watch it with friends, I feel that's what it should be about. Reality TV is no fun by yourself!!

Sunday was a little bit random, Church services at different times than normal. Christmas tradition at St Hugh's is great. Carols by Candlelight was amazing. then we watched Scrooged and The Snowman afterwards. It was very christmassy.

All in all it's going well. And I've just agreed to preach on the first Sunday of the new year... Epiphany. Should be very interesting.

A very happy Christmas to everybody out there!

iSpeak

2008-12-15T15:57:00.002Z

To completely and utterly rip-off Apple... oh well, they might never find out.

Anyway, I spoke at St Mary's Luton yesterday, as part of their Movie@Mary's series. It went really well. If you are interested at all in what I said, the script can be found here.

If you haven't seen Disney's Enchanted, it really won't make much sense. But I hope this will entice you to borrow the film from any 4-11 year old girl you might know. I didn't feel like a princess whilst I was speaking it, that's reserved for the ball I'm going to on Friday!

Christmas Traditions

2008-12-12T11:03:00.002Z

Oh it's all change this year, scary stuff! My mum is about to take over thr role of head chef on Christmas Day, it had previously been my Nan.

For longer than I can remember we've always gone to my Nan's for Christmas Day. It's a long standing tradition to gather around her table after church and hang out with my mum's side of the family. But having 10 of us for dinner for the last few years (my youngest cousin is 4, maybe) has obviously take it's toll! So this year she's going to hide at my auntie's new house in London and mum takes of the mammouth task of cooking christmas dinner (something Liz, the boys and i will fight over in years to come!). Mum does have a new kitchen and a family full of cooks to spoil the broth...

It'll be very strange to be at home all of Christmas day. And God only knows when I'll actually see Nan.

The religious bit of christmas is coming along well. St Hugh's has it's Nativity play on Sunday. All the other christmas seervices are coming along.

I'll share a little bit of Farm joy too... broken back windscreen wiper! Christmas lights are out though, so that's proper joy!

Auf Deutsch

2008-12-05T22:03:00.006Z

oder auf englisch?

I've just returned from Germany or more specifically Paderborn, which is north west Germany. Just an hour on the plane from Stanstead.

We landed on Tuesday morning and had German breakfast, meat, bread, cheese and coffee (fleisch, brot, käse und kaffee). Before heading to our accommodation in Borchen about 7km from Paderborn. Stephanus-Haus is a youth centre, much like any youth centre in the UK. Lots of room. We headed to Schloss Neuhaus to visit a school and chat to the teachers about exchanges. We went to met Uwe (oo-ver) and all the paid and volunteer youth workers in the region of Paderborn (but Paderborn is a town as well, following me?) in the evening.

Our hosts, Volker and Konni head up the team and were leading the meeting. A long day and the meeting was long too, but everywhere we went we received a warm welcome and food.

On Wednesday we had breakfast in Wewelsburg, a village with a castle which was taken over by Himmler in WWII. There was also a Concentration Camp just outside the village. It was a very tough day, to face the past and to know that I have learnt nothing much from the history books. When it is in your face, it's hard. If you ever have the opportunity to go, do it. It's very educational.

In the evening we went to a youth service and visited a Youth House, an actual house with lots of space for young people to hang out. More coffee and stollen, so much cake. On to Uwe's for dinner and more chatting. Pictures are on the website. He lives miles away in the east of the region, up in the hills. Oh and it snowed!

On Thursday we spent the day in Paderborn, meeting the Superintendant of the KirchenKreis for breakfast. To the Town Hall (Rathaus) for a meeting with the head of the Youth Service in Paderborn. Two very important ladies in leadership. Then back to Wewelsburg for observing an afterschool project, where some very brave 6-8year olds spoke English to us.

We had 2.5 hours in Paderborn for the Weihnachtsmarkt. I really enjoyed the feel of the Market. We ended our trip back in Wewelsburg with dinner in Ottens Hof. Lovely dinner, great company and it's so lovely to be family across the world.

My love for Germany, for the language and the people has got stronger throughout this trip and I was sad to say goodbye this morning at 5am british time.

Deepen - Youthwork The Conference

2008-11-24T21:49:00.003Z

Youthwork the Conference is always a good thing to go to, it is great if you go with friends or have people to meet up with when you are there.

I'd have to say I felt incredibly well connected with the network this year. It does help that I'm now very established and quite comfortable in large crowds.

We started this year with a retreat day, no main speaker as in previous years, but some how that's much better. People who are on the retreat day are very much geared to valuing retreats and making the most of the time given. We had 2 and 1/4 hours to 'be' with God. I managed 10 mins alone time, my God speaks to me through interesting and deep conversation. Retreat day was definitely not a waste of time. My only problem was that if it takes us 15 minutes to get into a proper attitude of prayer (Richard Bromley said it at the start of the weekend) then why only spend 15 minutes in worship?

Anyway, trees are very good for reflection. Roots, trunk, branches and fruit. I'll look at trees very differently from now on. I made some new friends on the retreat day too.

On to the main event. Opening with Mike P talking about David. He was very good. I've heard a lot about David this summer, I'm understanding more and more about him as I grow up.
The following morning was opened with an hour of worship, led by the Soul Survivor band (thank God they didn't sing the woooooah song). Great way to start the day, and the weather wasn't bad at all.

The rest of the morning was split into 3 streams (first time ever) Soul, Society and Service. I went to Society. Gerard Kelly and Russ Rook discuss the importance of engaging in culture, looking at Acts and how others can teach us to be better Christians.

The afternoon was taken up with just one seminar on Healthy Living. Good illustrations, definitely some thinking points from that one.

Saturday evening Chris Curtis spoke on David's dark side and allowing God to go deeper with us.
And the after hours Soul Party, dancing the night away! (also going to the beach at midnight)
Sunday morning more seminars, one about 15-18's work, and I didn't go to the second one because it was raining, and I'd left my waterproof shoes at home.
Final session was Nancy Goudie. She, unfortunately, ended on a bum note. I know following God isn't all easy, but in the Christian bubble we like to be assured that it is. I left Nancy's talk feeling depressed and disappointed.

Journey home was very fun, Gill and I discussing the sky and how it's really beautiful this time of year.

So to summarise: Good things: retreat day, food, friends, smiles and sky. Things to improve: Final session, weather, and memory (for shoes).

In other news, Christmas approaches, you can have the whole world in your hands with a PSP and I'm going to Germany in a week! Hopefully the joy will be everlasting.

'Tis the Season

2008-11-13T14:23:00.004Z

Except I've not been very jolly recently. And there's been no fla la la-ing of late.

Probably because it's dark, wet and cold most of the time, probably because I haven't quite brought into Christmas yet, but I have brought some presents.

Maybe it's because there is a very large amount of things swimming around my brain.

Anyway, the season has come, and the glory of God is shining around (through the grim wetness of Britain) and we're taling about Glory this evening, along with many other things.

If you pray, keep praying. I'm expecting it to get better soon, not the weather, the less jolly feeling. I'm still searching for answers.

hmmm

2008-11-05T23:50:00.002Z

Well done America for choosing a good man to lead your country for the next 4 years...

Not so brilliant is Brown and Cameron arguing about it in Parliment this afternoon. Boys, get a grip! It's a good thing.

On another note, saw the new Bond film this evening, and will definitely watch Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace back to back, just to actually understand Bond and M talking in code for far too much of their dialogue.

401st post

2008-11-04T22:30:00.002Z

I had to distract myself whilst writing the last post, there was too much pressure to perform! So God and Dad do come as a welcome distraction.

I'm not one to write about anything remotely political, but we stand on the brink of change for America. Well the American's do. Can't say I'm too fussed myself. Will have the radio on tomorrow morning on the way to work, just so I have something to talk about.

Luton is relatively quiet at the moment. It's really strange to be out in the dark, where it's really quiet. I know I've spoken about it being quiet before. It comes and goes, I think the cold snap put off all the revellers.

Anyway, 1 month till the Germany trip! Yeay!

The Father Listens

2008-10-28T22:53:00.003Z

It's great to know that there are people listening to me when I talk.

I moaned a lot that we didn't get a summer, nothing quite near it! So today, it was cold. I didn't quite realise how cold until one of the girls came in this evening and said it was snowing! We've got winter, proper. It hasn't snowed in October for ages... we might evenr get snowed in as it gets colder. Germany won't be the only place I see snow this winter!

God listens...

My housemate and I had made a pact that we wouldn't turn the heating on til the end of October... I was chatting to Dad about being cold and he suggested it might be a good idea to switch the heating on last night as it would be freezing. Better a heating bill than a plumbers! We did, got too warm, but it seems that had I not spoken to my Dad I wouldn't have even guessed it'd snow tonight.

Dad listens... and not just to me, but also to the weather (when I'm watching Home and Away).

I'm incredibly blessed to have many, many people who do listen to what I say. But I'm especially blessed to know that God listens and so does my Dad.

Questions without answers

2008-10-20T22:12:00.003+01:00

Lots of 'what ifs' and 'whys'... I can't answer them, or if I do I say, I haven't been there, or I don't know.

This last weekend I've been away with my old church (or sending church, or parents church, or family church)... any way I grew up in this church. I got to hang out with the 'next' generation. My parent's friends children were the young people and they had a great idea of what we were talking about.

Two of my passions worked on this weekend, young people and eradicating the word 'stuff' from my vocabulary. So we eventually got to the tangible about Christianity with two different groups.

The funny thing about youth work is the way that as soon as you introduce someone new to a group, leaders-wise, suddenly the young people wake up and start to answer the questions you've been trying to get them to answer for months! Liz said "you are so much better than me" I responded "I'm so much different from you". As we both grow in ministry, we'll find the things we are good at, and things we need to work on. Sometimes I love growing up other times i dislike it intensely.

In other news, I pedloed for the first time ever this weekend, and am watching The Day After Tomorrow, which is making me feel freezing!!

I've always thought of you as...

2008-10-14T21:17:00.005+01:00

My sister said something to me a few days ago which has been wanderng around my head ever since.

She said to me "I've always thought of you as a chunky ring person". We were having a discussion about the ring I'd just brought, a beautiful thick mother of pearl ring. She's right, she knows me quite well it would seem.

It kind of tags on to something I've been thinking about when it comes to God.

I think I'll be pleasently surprised when I meet God (which isn't any time soon... this isn't morbid). I have pictures of God in my head, but they are limited by what I've experienced, what I can see around me and what I've read of the Bible. I know that God is bigger than all that, but my mind can only handle it in very small bites.

The season we are coming in to has become famous for ignoring God, my hope is that I'll see God and all my "I've always thought of you as..." statements will be smashed and redifined, from heaven's perspective, not my own.

Hype

2008-10-12T15:15:00.006+01:00

Relaity programmes are rife at the moment and I just caught the end of last nights X Factor, helpfully replayed on ITV (you know, instead of putting on sport at a sesnible time). It makes me very glad that I have absolutely no desire to be on Television at all.

Girls in absolute hysterics at being kicked off the show, yet they all had perfectly reasonable jobs else where. In fact they were the better band, with an imaginative name, left in the competition is "Girl Band"... seriously? Before X Factor the 4 girls were hairdressers and will probably be hairdressers again eventually.

The hype is all too much, I think we're only in the second week of live shows and we already have crying? We never quite get 'hype' right do we?

NB - I stand corrected we're only on the first week and the girls weren't hairdressers, they look like hairdressers. Thanks L

There wasn't enough hype about the Singapore GP the other week... floodlit driving? What were they thinking? 5-10 years ago they would have got away with it. But now, in the age of ecological enlightenment Formula One decides to race at night? Not a clever move, I wonder why some didn't boycott. And today in Japan Bridgestone are running 'green' tyres. Enough to make any sane person scream. I hope they don't do any night races soon.

"I'm not hyping it up" - some thing I've heard recently, but then there was some significant hyping... Church haven't got it right either. We try.

Autumn has arrived in Luton, SLR out and taking some pictures of the red leaves covering the back wall of my garden. SLR isn't digital though, so we have to wait very patiently for the film to be developed. If the photo's are any good I'll post them It's been a long time since I used a film camera. I also have made pumpkin based food stuffs. Pumpkin pie is quickly becoming my own little tradition.

Going the extra mile

2008-10-07T12:46:00.002+01:00

Being in Leicester is always really interesting... As a class we are very small, so our discussions tend to be deep and meaningful (ususally over food).

This last day or so has been intense discussion-wise. It's the last proper time we see everyone who has started at the same time as us, some crazy people will graduate in a year or so. Others will take their time and maybe never graduate... I think I fall some where inbetween.

I'm dissatisfied with my performance so far, I could do better. I'm starting to realise that (unsurprisingly) I really need help on this one. I really need guidance and most of all I really need someone to spell check my work before I hand it in.

It's great to see people who are really passionate about their own young people while they are here. Stories of lads who've drastically changed whilst in a youth workers care, youth workers who go the extra mile to make sure that the young person they are dealing with achieves as best they can.

I just wish I could write well, even if it was only for a day a week. Then at least I'd pass essays the first time round!!

Passion

2008-09-28T14:04:00.001+01:00

I talked last time about trying to get more passion for something.

Since then I've had some interesting conversations about different things I could get passionate about.

One is glory – of course I want to see the glory of GOD. But I've never understood it, nor have desperately wanted it. I want to see the kingdom of GOD, though hadn't fully grasped how this might change me. That was until I had a long discussion about GOD's glory this week. I want to see GOD's glory in Lewsey, and I want to seek GOD's face first.

Secondly is youth – getting passionate, not angry. People talk about an 18 month barrier in youth work, but I think it's more like two years.

Lastly is 'stuff' – I'm fed up of the word 'stuff' being used to describe things which we are uncomfortable with, or using 'stuff' to make assumptions. My 'stuff' is different from your 'stuff'. Speak in actual words.

I'm hoping that the first one will lead to the other two.

Surprise!!

2008-09-22T15:39:00.004+01:00

Here we all are, including an imposter (but it's Mum's best friend so we don't mind), and missing one person too (a cousin). How the family has grown and changed over the last 25 years.

On Saturday we headed to church to celebrate Mum and Dad's 25th Wedding Anniversary, 'cept M&D didin't know that is what we were doing. We had all afternoon with some lovely church people and friends.

L-R Me, Liz, Andy, Gray, Mike and Adam
Doing wht comes naturally, big posers! Much fun was had by all and it's amazing how we can all pull together to get the best out of each other.

I'm glad it's over, and I'm glad that at the end of the day Mum and Dad were surprised, though Dad says he knew something was going on!

Here's to the next 25 years!!

Matthew Macaulay - As For Me

2008-09-22T15:36:00.001+01:00

There is something about this album that sounds very familiar. It might just be because Matt's led worship at youth camp several times, or that those songs echo some of what I feel right at this moment. It's interesting to listen to a singer/song writer and, especially with Christian music, you see so much of the person's heart with each word and phrase.

I find that some of the arrangements on the album feel a little bit out of place, epic in some places, then suddenly drops off to nothing. The backing vocals are massive on some songs, and you definitely couldn't expect any one with a 'normal' singing voice to reach that height. Though I often do try in my car.

“With all my heart” is the opening track which sets the mood for the rest of the tracks, all with catchy tunes, which resound some of what Christian life should look like. A few of the songs try to fit too much in, but it is good to reflect on how much we are called to do, alongside all God has done for us already.

Matt's website has all the bits and pieces for trying out these songs in church, some of which I will try to get into worship. “The Beauty of the Cross” has a very simple message, and could be amazingly powerful. We'll see. A great first album and I'm very much looking forward to hearing more.

When life works out

2008-09-16T22:11:00.003+01:00

I have, by no means got it all sorted, I cry at silly things, I often open my mouth without prior thought, I gossip and sometimes I'm not a very good friend. However I know God, and I know he definitely has it all sorted. How long did He ponder about making the Earth and all the intrinsic things that we don't see, and won't because we take them for granted. I still take time to marvel at rainbows, and their fleeting beauty.

This makes a massive difference in how I approach some tasks... I know that God will sort out things I can't and will bless the things I try to do.

Anyway the point is, I asked the young people to share how their summer had been, what it sounded like for them. For some it sounded like new music, melodies and words which touch hearts and get stuck there. For others summer made Jesus sound a whole lot bigger than they originally understood. For others there was a loud, clear call to be something more, to become the person they are.

For me the summer was a repetitive sound, in a good way. Not the drip of a tap when you can't sleep, but better than that. I talked a bit on Sunday about Psalm 139, and Doug (who is 'granddad') repeated the verse we'd learnt at camp, with no prompting. Every week as we pray, I go back to the Psalms and search out the verse we learnt at camp, I don't know why but it's comforting.

I'm really proud of what the young people taught church this weekend, and mostly because it fitted right in with the theme of the summer for church - the story of David.

My summer started with John Mayer and two months later its over with an event this weekend which I will not be able to talk about until it's over. And i will post pictures, I promise. i feel I have been a little bit middle of the road about life. It's time to start getting passionate again!!

A victim

2008-09-08T22:26:00.004+01:00

The Luton On Sunday's front page was about the Muslim community complaining about the new HPV vaccine starting when Ramadan is. I learnt something new about the rules of ramadan, if you have an injection it breaks the fast.

The Primary Care Trust responded with the fact that the vaccine will run throughout the year for all the girls who's parent's consent to it. So even if the girls miss out this month, they can get the vaccine from their GP. Though the PCT were called "insensitive" I think that they dealt really well with the claims.

I just think it's just a case of realising the bigger picture. I can have the HPV vaccine if I wish, but I won't. I have to have enough vaccines to go to Uganda in the summer. I don't think I can hack 5 needles in 6 months!!

Searching for Inspiration

2008-09-03T15:04:00.002+01:00

The old has gone and the new has come... bye bye old small kitchen with no dishwasher, hello huge new kitchen with dishwasher! Yeay! Also there is a new office space for me! Woop! Time to measure, paint and furnish. Which might mean that I actually manage my time between work and home better.

Am watching Veggie Tales, as with the kitchen refurbishment we don't have a lot of room, so we'll do some colouring and watch the story. The funniest thing about some of the Veggie Tales stuff is focussed on adults.

So the new term begins, parents are desperately waiting for their children to go back to school, and I'm waiting for school to start too so that I can begin to have a schedule again.

To Resonate:

2008-08-25T16:31:00.004+01:00

"To vibrate or sound, especially in response to another vibration; To have an effect or impact; to influence; to engender support"

I think this is what was happening in the last week. The leadership team responded to God's vibrations, and their vibrations lead to our vibrations and our vibrations helped the young people respond to God's vibrations which they may or may not have been hearing throughout the previous year. By the end of the first night, the young people were shining.

We had a lot of fun, some crazy days and some quieter days. But it was really lovely all the same. I made some new friends, and was really stretched by what God is doing with/for the young people. We have lots and lots to follow up.

We also had the weather on tap, the days where we wanted sun, we got sun. This was especially true of the obligatory water fight on the final afternoon. Lovely BBQ and some chucking water at each other. Good fun really.

An awesome week had by all and we raised some money for the persecuted church in China (to fit with the Olympic theme) by running 45 miles between the 150 of us.

Can't wait for the reunion in October/November time.

A world of difference

We're Family

Observations

Finishing

Communion

Tiny Update

Making new friends and experiencing new family

back to the blog

Firefox vs Chrome

Settling to Normality

Americans, Wedding Blessing and New family

It's been a while...

Big news!

Celebrations

All in time

Surviving

A Little Adventure

end of term

done and done!

Schools Work

JM Pics

Seaside Rock Holiday Club

JM Wembley Arena 27/05/10

400 mile challenge

Worth blogging

It's all over!

All My Ladies

Easter Celebrations

Easter

Settledness

More Weekend Stories

Weekend Away

Naturally Supernatural

Going Home

IT

Compassion Fatigue

Loyalty and Priorities

Revelations

New Year, Old Me?

What are the chances?

Success

Mistletoe and Wine

Twittering away

CUF

Out of the Darkness

Plunged into Darkness

Uganda Part 5 - The Aftermath

Uganda Part 4 - The Pictures

Uganda Part 3 - That Family Feel

Back To Church Sunday

Uganda Part 2 - The Importance of Church

Uganda Prt 1

Before I go...

Holidays and Broadband

A Long List

Lessons Learnt Pt 2

Lessons Learnt

If you are a pray-er

Shock

Taken Over

Tigger moments

Where are we at?

Thought

I have lots of thoughts...

Slowly does it

I have amazing friends!

All growed up

10 days

Easter Celebrations

Cup Winners!

Crafty things/Acceptance

5 years

iSpeak (again)

fun-draising

{ONEL!FE}.

Proof

Worth a mention

Quiet Time

On the road

New Year and beyond...