Immensity

So much has happened since I last blogged lots of good things, a couple not so good...


I'll start with bad so we end on a high.


I have REALLY hurt my neck...like imagine you have cricked it but now imagine that intense pain ALL THE TIME. It happened when I was in the shower at my friend Josh and Rachel's house in Cardiff...basically I just bent down to pick up my shampoo and my neck went...I just thought it would wear off but hear I am more than 36 hours later and it's not looking so good. In fact its so painful I am going to the Doc's first thing tomorrow because it can't sleep properly and I want them to fix it! 


Over the last 5 days I have been visiting friends all over the place and now that I am back I am just feeling a little bit lonely*. Like I do have friends here around me but when you see deep friends who you have known for ages it just reminds you how much you love them and wish you could spend LOADS of time with them. Getting back yesterday was such a mix of emotions; I was happy coming back as I was pretty exhausted, but I hated leaving the people I had seen. I guess its always the way with holidays, its sometimes nice to come back to home but you always miss being away especially if you see good people.


* So yes I have been hit by a little wave of loneliness BUT today we had my works "Retreat Day". Its where all 50+ of us get out of the office and spend some time praising, learning, and enjoy being together. Anyway there was a part of the day where we had the opportunity to ask God to speak to us on the behalf of someone else and then to feed back. Well when the person who had been praying fed back to me, she mentioned that the word lonely kept on coming up in her head and she felt that God was saying that I will never be on my own, that he is always there, even when I feel far from him. SUCH AN ENCOURAGEMENT.


Good things:
I HAD SO MUCH FUN when I was away!
> Right so saw loads of people all over the place but basically went to Birmingham, Aberystwyth and Cardiff. All in 5 days. boom yea.
> Highlights included: enjoying the hospitality of the Hendersons, Maynards and Kirsty (and her billion housemates), breathing in the sea air, seeing lots of green, seeing the ex-Sabbs, having the most spontaneous boat ride ever, getting a free lift to Cardiff and seeing Josh in a dress.
> It is SO nice to spend time with people who get you...without any effort.


I bought an actually immense book called "the me I want to be" by John Ortberg. I am into the 4th chapter now and it is just such an easy yet meaty book. I am being challenged yet encouraged by it a lot. 


You know that whole thing that God uses us when we're weak and I'm always a bit like "yea he uses us but it's always a bit rubbish"...well today I was just smacked in the face by how gracious God is with us and how he uses us when we're not even that willing. At this retreat day I was supposed to be leading a few parts but when I turned up I found out that I was expected to lead the whole day...ARRRGHH! Not only was my neck hurting but I was hormonal and tired and just not at all in the place where it was ok to drop leading a whole retreat in my lap. But God is faithful. SO FAITHFUL. and so full of grace. He basically made the whole day come together fine despite me being in tears/close to tears for most of the day. Plus so many people have sent me texts to build me up that I really feel totally unworthy of any praise considering I can honestly say it wasn't me but Christ in me. I don't even know how I got through the day to be honest. 


It's been a cracking few days...bar the neck thing. I'll let you know how I get on at the Docs.


Also just a reminder about my giveaway. Only 3.5 days to go to enter...

GIVE AWAY

Right so I have been saying I am going to do a give away for ages but HERE IT IS!


So basically I am giving away this....

Girls it could be yours, guys it could be a very cheap gift for someone! 

Details - it's a dress I have NEVER worn, I bought it about 6 weeks ago thinking I would really like it but I tried it on and can honestly never see me wearing it....label attached. Size S from H&M, it's got three quarter length sleeves and and elasticated band in the middle. 

So here are some more photos to get you interested:

So how can this dress be yours for free???


Well depending on how many things you do depends on how many chances you get to win...
You will be entered once every time you:

• make my blogs URL your facebook status 
• tweet my blogs URL
• blog about my blog
• convince a friend to follow my blog

Basically when you do something comment on this blog and I'll chase it up and enter you into the draw...then I will draw a name from the hat at random and that will be the winner....the more things you do the higher your chance of winning

DEADLINE: FRIDAY 4th NOVEMBER 12noon.

Boys boys boys

So in my last post I mentioned that I was going to watch an American Football Game at Wembley...well I went mainly because I wanted to spend time with the boys of my family. It's pretty rare that I ever spend time with just them and I hardly ever see Phil properly so I went along not really thinking about the game but it turned out the game was REALLY fun!!

The boys on the way into the stadium

It was a home game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers so we got free flags to wave...I was actually supporting the Chicago Bears as I have seen them before and I guess if I lived with my family in the States they would be my local team.

My siblings and I - Phil is doing a massive grin here because in the first photo we took his eyes were shut so he was making a proper effort to keep his eyes open this time...makes him look slightly crazed! You can barely see but I'm wearing my Bears hat with pride...

So the two teams playing were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs the Chicago Bears - at the beginning of the game each team brings out this HUGE banner which was then passed around the stadium!

Then we sang the American National Anthem

and then, much to my surprise we sang the English one! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but it was just that two American teams had come to play...

Of course it wouldn't be a proper game without proper snacks...

Anyway I had a lot of fun hanging out with the boys and getting into the game - the final score was 24-18 to the Bears woop! Wembley by the way is pretty immense...defo recommend paying a visit if you get the chance

COLDPLAY

I just have to share my excitement about the fact that Coldplay's new album comes out tomorrow!


WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!


Seriously, I've heard a few of the tracks from the EP and I am just like massively excited. 


In other news, today I am going to hear my friend Darach speak at his church and then I'm meeting up with my Dad and brothers to go to Wembley to watch an American Football Game. I'm layering up.


What are you excited about today?

Will my life EVER slow down??

It seems that after my life here in London getting off to a slow start in terms if social life/things to do, now my life is MENTAL.


So this week I reckon I've clocked 37 hours of work in 4 days. On top of that I have also been to a Jens Leckman gig and been to see Johnny English Reborn with Smithy, Davina and Becky. It's been jam-packed.


But all of this is catching up with me. Today has been a struggle. I spent between 8:30-2:30 today helping the Newham team by leading discussions and teaching lessons in school. This meant leaving my house pretty early and believe me my thoughts this morning were not great as I got caught in commuter rushes through central London. However, as I crossed London Bridge I was able to see this beautiful sight which isn't shown in this photo in the slightest but it was so totally what I needed to see. 

As the sun began to rise at roughly 7am this morning I was there to see the sky being a beautiful shade of yellow and was reminded of the fact that God is a God of glory. That he deserves my praise from as soon as I wake up to when I go to sleep, and even as I dream I can be worshiping him. 


I am rubbish at stopping to seek God or listen to him. I'm much more of a Martha than a Mary - I do things rather than just sit at Jesus' feet. But I want that to change - not that I want to change who I am, but I want my hearts desire to be to come and rest with Jesus and to let him speak to me...rather than me power through to get things done.


It's a difficult balance because I want to be efficient and good at my job. In the short-term that means seeing results; however, in the long-term that means investing into sustainable ways of working and I know that for myself I need to be spending more time with God if I am ever to survive.

Manic

Right so I don't have long to write anything of importance but I thought I would post you a pic of my team so you can see the Lewisham crew.

They are trying to lift me higher....as a sign of respect....apparently I'm too short to bow down to.


Will say more when I get a chance.


x

Internet boom.

Today I have got my wireless up and running! Boom. I rang up this week to find out what the issue was with why I couldn't pick up a wireless signal and it turned out that it was in fact a fault of the router....so they sent me a new one....which is now working grandly. 


Anyway, recently I have been getting the bus everywhere and I'm amazed by how the dynamics of buses work. Like you get on a bus and immediately you are looking for a seat by yourself. Always I'm searching to see if there are two free seats that I can sit in. It's only when there are no available two seats that people will sit next to a stranger. This has been something on my mind over the last couple weeks. Not only do I look for seats that are completely free, if I do have to sit next to someone I always sit next to someone I think is safe - generally not the angry man on the phone, or the woman who looks stoned, or the kid at the back of the bus who's got his hood up. 


Now I know why I do it, because to sit next to them could potentially be dangerous. But I wonder what it's like to never have anyone sit next to you. I can remember at school never wanting to be last to be picked for things (and thankfully I very rarely was), but I think that pervades into our adult life as well. We do want to be chosen. Maybe not on the bus, maybe we appreciate space from people. But I think that for me at least I am going to try to make an effort to sit next to people who it might be easy to avoid. If we talk that's cool, even if we don't I hope that Jesus' heart for accepting people exactly as they are will be communicated in some small way.


At the moment something that is really on my mind is that I need to find a venue for a youth club we run after school on a Tuesday. I have found a venue but it's literally on the wrong side of the road over the border not in Lewisham which means I can't get funding from the Council for the club. If there are any pray-ers reading this I would really appreciate prayer that we would find a suitable location in the next week as I really need to have somewhere sorted for next half term.


Thanks followers 

Internet...almost...

Hello faithful followers,


So this week held the exciting arrival of my plusnet router and instructions to set up wireless broadband in my house. Have a managed to work it out....NO! I am so frustrated! Ok yes I am quite technologically inept, but seriously I have gone over the set up manual over and over and I have no idea why it's not working. Basically the internet part is working...I am using it right now - but the wireless part I just cannot figure out. I like to think that I'm good at following instructions but this is flummuxing me. I have resigned myself to ringing the helpline tomorrow.


This week also heralded a wealth of exciting post! I LOVE post - it's so personal and exciting to receive. I want to send special thanks to Ralphy, Kirsty, June, Bekah, Becca, Jop and Rachy - seriously feeling the love guys. I will reply...watch this space.


So this week has been my first with a team and I have been loving it. It's pretty exciting to see how team members get to grips with youth work and what excites them and how God is already growing them. LOVE IT. I have been realising though that leading a team is hard! Just being constantly responsible for sorting things out is pretty intense. Really hoping that God will grow me in that and that I would be a really mold-able vessel - I have so much to learn. 


This weekend I have been down to Bournemouth for a Hen party of my friend Emma who's getting married in 2 weeks. We took part in a "it's a knockout" competition. Possibly the funniest thing I have done in a long time. Imagine 8 different hen/stag groups competing over 6 different events where the aim is just to make people look ridiculous...was just immense. My fave moment was watching my friend Jo charge at an opponent whilst wearing a giant penguin suit. The whole day was a lot of fun as Em seemed to be pretty much up for doing nearly any dare we could throw her way - respect. 


I have been pretty amazed by how God does provide friends and how even though it could be easy for me to feel isolated and lonely, he is just making sure that I am surrounded by people who are able to care for me and include me. Loving it.


Right so I am thinking I'm going to have a give-away in the next week or two so keep your eyes open for that. 


Peace out.