What are the chances?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!