Just checking in!

Seem to have been really hectic recently, hence lack of blog - arrg! We're hosting the Row'd training session tonight, which I'm really excited about - if this gets taken up by the local Churches, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that every year 6 child in the area could have a chance to hear about the basics of Christianity and be given the opportunity to plug into some local youthwork, which I happen to think is very cool, if not quite a challenge for the local Churches!

I enjoyed a rare night to myself last night, so Colin and I took ourselves off to see the film Sahara. How to describe it... an American war ship gets lost in the African desert, (no, really) bringing plauge and pestilence to the area. Or it possibly could be the massive toxic waste dump next door posing as a solar energy plant, (no, really) run by an evil frenchman, (no really),which unless he is stopped by our brave heros (armed with little more than some rope, eyeliner, a few camels and 150 yr old explosives against an army run by an evil African warlord with tanks and guns and helicopters and stuff) risks poisining the entire earth? It was, erm, utterly far fetched, a bit sexist, riddled with plot flaws, cliques and absuritities, and was completely devoid of anything that could be used usefully in youthwork ... however in spite of all of this it somehow managed to be quite entertaining and laugh out loud! More of a 'cheeseburger,' of a film than a pan fried fillet of Salmon on a bed of leaves, if you get me!

Right, off to get row:d :)

Better late than never!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

Normal blogging will resume soon. I have realised I have become a phantom blogger - I've blogged in my mind, but not actually put hand to keyboard - and have also been thinking of comments to leave on people's blogs and then not leaving them which is very antisocial of me!

Some of the more memorable moments over Easter:

Playing 'I went to the shops and I bought...' with a group of yps and one of my vicars (I have two, as I work for two Churches, it's not just that I am greedy!) and the lad before the vicar decided he would buy a man thong, so the vicar then had to say " I went to the shops and I bought a man thong." He's a good sport!

Finding an adder hiding in the materials for the easter garden. Hadn't included that one in the risk assessment! Thankfully it was dead, but there was a moment of 'mild peril.'

Another moment of personal 'mild peril,' when I went into St Michael's pastoral centre, the alarm started doing its 'put your code in before I go off' beeps, but a LARGE spider was sitting over the keypad... and i am really totally truely terrified of spiders - it is a little known fact that they are capable of eating an entire human arm in one bite - even the little ones. However, I really didn't want the alarm to go off, as it would have been just plain embarrasing for the police, vicar and church wardens to turn up with me a gibbering wreck (and minus an arm). So i ended up trying to chuck stuff in its general direction out of my handbag (I knew there was a reason for all the junk I keep in it) in an attempt to scare the spider off. The good news is that I managed to get the spider to move before the alarm went off. The bad news is that I accidentally scored a direct hit, and it is now an ex spider.

A really great Maundy Thurday night vigil. Great atmosphere, a really good giggle, and spiritually it seemed to speak to the young people who came.

A fantastic response at the Easter Big Breakfast. We got the young people to go and hunt for 'pieces of egg,' and outside we hid lots of letters 'E' and lots of 'GG' letters. In the talk we looked at the E standing for 'Ego' and sin being the consequense of Ego coming first, and the 'GG' being either God's Grace/ God's Goodness.
We'd got lots of creme eggs for them, and after the talk we invited them to come and get one. We also gave them the option of bringing their letter E up to leave at the foot of the cross if they wanted to put their selfishness and sin to one side, and receive God's grace. We also challenged those of them who are already Christians about what they doing with the grace they have received. They were asked would they take they chocolate egg home, and keep it on the shelf, and not eat it because the wrapper looked pretty, and they already knew what it would taste like? You can imagine the response to that! So we asked them if they had done that with their faith -not really taken the wrapper off, not really gotten into it, not spending time in prayer or getting into the Bible because they already know what it's like? So we challenged them to unwrap what God has given them, get into giving, serving, praying, spending time with God - and if they wanted to do that, to leave a bit of the foil wrapper at the foot of the cross. They didn't have to, they were able to just come and get an egg if they wanted to - but the floor was littered with bits of foil and letter 'E's. I know some of them will have done it just cos their pals did, and I know some of them still won't have picked their Bibles up - but all the same, it was pretty cool!

Right, I'm blogging off!

;-)