helenellie

"You do not faint, You won't grow weary"

2008-08-03T12:49:00.002+01:00

So I just got home from Nefyn A camp. It was an amazing week in so many ways. To start I nearly didnt even go. If I am honest, I hated A camp last year. There could be many reasons for that including that in myself I was feeling very lost at the time (I had left my gap year placement in Sheffield the week before and gone straight to keswick and then straight to camp so hadn't even been home or had chance to deal with leaving that part of my life behind), which made it very hard for me to settle into the team and the work there and left me coming away quite disheartened and empty. So when it came to filling in an application form for this year I was torn. I had a job lined up which meant because of time off etc A camp was the only one I could actually do, rather than any of the younger camps later in the summer. I do love Nefyn and love being involved in camp, but was worried that if I was going because it was the only camp I could do my motives would be purely selfish and it wouldn't be the right reasons to go. In the end after a conversation with a friend I decided to go for it and see what God would do. And I'm so glad I did!
Since just before I left uni in June I have been struggling with the spiritual side of life. I couldn't tell you what caused it, or why it happened but I kind of started drifting a little bit and then when I came home things got worse. I was still going to church, but only because the rest of my family was and I just wasn't really getting anything out of it (mostly because I wasn't putting anything into it!). It didn't help that my home church just doesn't feel like home anymore, not that it is a bad church or anything and there are so many people there who I know care about me and have been praying for me on my gap year and while I've been at uni, but I am not really a part of the youth group anymore and the fellowship side of it just isn't the same. So anyway....about a week before camp I started to think seriously about what was going on and the sunday before I went over to sheffield to visit the youth service at the church where I did my gap year. The service was really good and Ruth (who helped out alot with the youth stuff alongside me and Dave) did the talk. I actually can't remember what she talked about now but it inspired me to get going and do something about where I had ended up. So over the week I tried to read the bible more and get into a routine of doing it before work (which I will be continuing to work on now I am home) and prepared myself for camp.
Camp this year was sooo much better than last year. The team gelled really well and I felt so at home there (I really didn't want to leave by the end!) I really feel that God was there and that He sent me there just to bring me back to Him. One of the songs we sang a fair bit in the meetings was Chris Tomlins "Everlasting God", which has the line "You do not faint, You won't grow weary" and I think this week has been such a reminder of that. No matter how much I mess up or how much I stray and just ignore God, He is still there walking beside me, pulling me back or waiting for me or even carrying me when I need it the most. He has shown this to me this week in the work of the team despite many things that Satan threw at us, in all the hugs and support that we gave each other, in all the prayers that we all said and that we know others from home were saying for us, and also in the lives of the campers. I have heard this week abotu situations that I would never have believed, and that just made me sooo sad at the state of the world, but then after one particularly bad day God gave us a really clear night and I stood staring at the stars with another leader and was just reminded that no matter how bad the world gets, God is still there holding it in his hands and waiting to be able to rebuild it and restore it to the beauty it was meant to be.

2007-09-13T15:41:00.000+01:00

I think this is possibly the longest I have gone without writing on here......
well this summer has probably been the busiest I've had! It actually feels like years since I left Sheffield already....I went straight from sheffield to the Keswick convention (which was an interesting experience) and then straight from their to Nefyn A camp. Camp was good, it was strange doing the older camp having only ever done the 11-13's, there was alot more free time and it was alot more chilled out. It was a great week weather wise as well which was a bonus (apart from the fact that I had bought wellies in keswick cos the weather there had been horrible lol, but I think I can get over that!).
After camp I had a couple of weeks at home, unpacking and sorting things out post sheffield. then I moved into my sis's room for a few days as we had a couple of ppl stayin over to help with our churches holiday club. Holiday club was great. loads of kids came and heard the gospel and had a fantastic time. I found it kinda hard, I think after doing a year in sheffield then having a few weeks off I hadnt quite recovered and just found myself struggling to lead the small group - didnt help that I was ill on the thursday either!
Straight after holday club I left for Nefyn E camp. I loved it! The girls in my tent were awesome (and VERY good at tent inspection - well done girls!!). I enjoyed the younger camps more than A camp because I like to be kept busy and feel like I am doing something, so having less free time is a bonus lol- yeah im weird.
I got back from camp on the sat and then left for edinburgh on the monday afternoon after a quick change around of laundry (not easy with a broken washing machine!!). Stayed in Scotland for a night with a friend from careforce and then the 2 of us went to gran canaria for a week. It was a nice hot week, I enjoyed sitting in the sun and just chilling out and not thinking about anything or rushing anywhere.
Now I am home again and straight back into things. Tomorrow I am off to Sheffield again for a night to visit people before I go off to Cardiff on the 21st.
Anyway yeah, thats my summer pretty much over the rest is gonna be spent mostly shopping and packing.......:D:D:D

last week

2007-07-16T10:45:00.000+01:00

Wow! the last week is finally here. How wierd is that?! I did my last plan B last night and it all went alot better than I thought it would. the first service I have completely planned, lead and spoken at myself. I was terrified! In the end I didnt "preach", I used a 'Nooma' DVD and did a bit of testemony about how I ended up being in Lodge moor for a year, which linked in with the message of the DVD. (Nooma are DVD's by a guy called rob bell, they are like mini sermons presented in a slightly different way and I personally find them quite refreshing and inspiring).

I had my last staff meeting this morning as well and this afternoon will be my last time in school. My last session with Mr Todd - what a legend! lol! I might have to get a copy of "a little less conversation" just to remind me of tidy up time hehe.

This week is kind of a wierd week. We did 2 weeks worth of kids club planning last week because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make the powerpoints and things we need so now I don't have any planning to do which means I have ALOT more free time. I also dont have my laptp anymore so cant just sit and mess around on the internet when I get bored (its a hard life!). I have offered to help the nursery out though because one of their staff has just gone off ill so that fills one day - woo! So yeah I may be back here a few times if I get bored.......

2007-07-13T09:44:00.000+01:00

ok so I actually have nothing I can do right at this moment and I haven't written here for a while so there we go. I have no idea what I'm gonna write about but never mind lol. Today is kind of a crazy day really, I have to make some plans for the youth service on sunday, then I have kids club and then unity. While all that is going on it is the day of the interviews for the new youth worker so they will be coming to kids club and unity to see what goes on AND Dave is coming back to help at unity tonight. Then after unity we are going to the pub :D
As well as ALL that, it is my birthday today, so there is the added possiblility that I will get cream pied or shaving foamed at kids club, but ah well life goes on hehe - hopfully it wont happen cos i dont think ill have time to get changed after lol.
Well I now have 9 days left of sheffield. It's very strange packing all my things up. I gave back my kids church t-shirt this morning as i did my last kids church on sunday :( I have also now done my last bible study. I am really looking forward to this summer though, hopefully it won't rain the whole time! Anyway I'm gonna go now because I now have the things I need to help me plan the youth service :)

"I like your top.......Now can I have a free drink?"

2007-06-16T11:09:00.000+01:00

That has to be one of my quotes of the night from Unity yesterday (there were far too many to choose an overall winner!). It was insane! Behaviour was even worse than last week and the leaders just seemed to be following kids around making sure they didn't kill each other or themselves - I really don't understand how they actually enjoy themselves doing some of the things they do! It didn't help that I'd had a fairly stressful day already, and so my patience was running low by the time it got to 7:30.
My day started with trying to find extra leaders for Unity because we were 1 short (actually in the end we would have been 2 short) and I didn't know we would actually have anough until 7:30 that evening.
Then I had to try and write my talk for Unity, which was not easy! I knew I had to give a bit of a lecture about the behaviour, but then to try and follow that with a Bible talk just would have seemed very strange so the only way to do it really was to incorporate it. It also didn't help that I was dreading it so much I had to force myself to write it and not just wuss out of doing a talk altogether.
Going to school to do IT for 2 hours was really my refuge for the day, because while I was there I couldn't do anything else and so there was no use in worrying about not having enough leaders or having to do the talk etc which was great!
Then came kids club and I ended up setting half of it up on my own because those that help me had exams so were a bit later than normal. Then the CD wasn't working properly, the mic's broke half way through and at one stage the computer crashed or something in the middle of a song so we lost the words.
After that I had to set up Unity on my own because the only people that were there to help me were the young leaders from kids club and since I was the only over 18 in the building I ended up saying thanks but no thanks.
Then of course we had Unity. I think part of the problem really was the weather. It has been raining for 2 days straight so they obviously had alot of energy to run off! We had to lock the upper roon because some kids decided to start a "mosh pit" in there and threw cans of coke around spilling it all over the carpet. The final straw for me was when a group of boys locked themselves in the "den" (a small room just above the hall) after throwing some bags that the girls had left in there down the stairs. Unfortunately for them I have a key to that room and there was no other way out so they couldn't run away from me - clever! Here's another quote of the night for you - "we didn't lock the door"??!!!!! That's not the worst of it - once I'd opened the door all the girls walked in and started mouthin off at the boys so I got the boys outside and was talking to them, but I couldn't even finish a sentence without one of them talking over me or one of the girls coming out and shouting at them (even after I'd told them 3 times to go in the room and leave me to talk to the boys). And this is only a small part of everything that went on last night. But yeah after the incident in the den I got fed up and called everyone into the hall for the talk. I have to say I think it is one of the very few talks where they were all completely silent all the way through! It is slightly disturbing when that happens lol. I pointed out to them the fact that a few of the leaders have told me they don't want to continue if behaviour doesn't improve and also reminded them of our rule that if we find too much rubbish at the end of a night we close the tuck shop, added in the gospel at some point. And this was the strangest thing of the whole night - they clapped after I finished pretty much just telling them all off, whats that about?! Things did improve a bit after the talk - one of the guys who helps at kids club and is actually well behaved at Unity told me I'd even scared him lol. We only had to ban 1 person (that was a phone call I thought I'd NEVER have to make!) and after an interesting conversation with some boys (the ones who locked themselves in the den) about the tuck shop closing rule they said "can we go and pick up the rubbish?" (another quote of the night!) - can you?? erm....let me think about that for a min.......erm......YES! lol
I am so grateful to all the leaders who come to help out every week, they are a great help and are fantastic for sticking with it even when things get as crazy as they did last night.

6 weeks left......

2007-06-10T15:42:00.000+01:00

So that was my first week without dave. It all went alright really I guess. no better or worse than I would have expected. I managed to not forget to do anything, which is always good. I think I found it quite hard because the majority of my week is spent preparing for friday night it meant I was getting more and more nervous about it. it also seems to have had an after effect, because I was working towards friday today I really seem to have crashed and have motivation to plan bible study for later, which is not good. I will get it done though - don't worry.
The one thing I was most worried about being in charge of was Unity because alot of the kids there are just so badly behaved and I am now in charge of all the discipline, which to be honest I'm not that great at. I don't like shouting and getting cross, but on friday night I really didnt feel like I did alot else. We want the kids to have fun, that's the whole point (well that and telling em the gospel!), but it would be nice if they could have fun without trashing nurserie's toys and their new vegetable patch. It really gets to me when you tell the kids not to do something and yet they just carry on doing it right in front of your face. That and the fact that they then come crying to you when they get hurt. But then I got to thinking, isn't that just what we do to God? I cna complain all I like at the kids doing it to me, and half the kids I don't even know their names! But God made us and knows exactly what we need and what is bad for us, and gives us guidance so that we can enjoy life without putting ourselves in danger, and yet we laugh in His face and do the things we shouldn't anyway and how many of us have sat down when something's gone wrong and said "why God?". As sad as it makes me at unity, how much more sad must it make God? For me, I could just get angry and ban the kids that do it, and God quite rightly could do the same to us and yet He didn't. He gave Jesus to die for our sins, to pay for all the times we have messed up so that we don't have to be "banned" from heaven - so that we can "have life and have it to the full" (john 10:10). As much as I was stood there on friday night thinking "I can't do this, maybe I could just close unity for the next 6 weeks", I have now realised that it is purely because I can't do it that I have to. That may not make much sense, but what I mean is that it is because of the fact that I am such a sinner myself and that I find it hard to be patient with the kids and forgive them that I need forgiveness. And it is knowing that I am forgiven and that God will forgive them that is going to keep me going, keep me following the example of Jesus and not being like the unforgiving servant. Yes it is hard and very disheartening sometimes, but to have to joy of knowing that one day all the talks these kids have heard at unity might actually make sense to them is enough to keep me going as much as it was enough to make God sacrifice His son.
Sorry I kinda rambled alot there, but there you go thats what is on my heart at the moment. Please pray for unity and all the kids that come along.

find out for yourself....

2007-05-14T17:22:00.000+01:00

Hi again!

Thanks for all the encouraging responses to my prayer letter, it has really helped me to keep going and not to give up :)

I can't believe this half term is nearly over all ready. It's kinda of strange, because we are going on the weekend away there is no kids club or unity next friday which means in terms of planning and things like that I kinda finish a week early. I don't really know what we are doing on the weekend away, to be honest I haven't really thought about it since originally I wasn't supposed to be going I don't really know if I'm going to be involved in planning or if dave is going to do it himself. So anyway, yeah, this week is really my last "normal" week working with Dave, which is a very strange thought. 2 weeks on sunday I will be on my own. I am feeling a bit more confident about it than last time I posted (although that is mainly because I have decided to ignore a few sarcastic comments that have been thrown around). I am looking forward to half term though, it will be good to have a short break before I take over so I can come back rested and ready to get on with it.

It's quite strange I was asked to do a talk on "my year with careforce" at monday meeting point today and as part of it I decided to give my testemony because most of the people there don't really know me. It got me thinking about the verse I learnt on a campaigner camp years ago (I think I was 4 or 5 - not really sure lol). The verse is Psalm 34:8 -

"Find out for yourself how good the Lord is, happy are those who find safety with Him"

It amazes me that all my life I have been finding out "how good the Lord is" in many different ways and just made me realise how much I have seen of Him this year, some things I had never seen before and some things that He has had to remind me. It is fantastic to think that God is soo huge that chances are I will never stop "finding out" how good He is (at least not in this life) and that thought just made me smile.
The other verse that came up was Zepheniah 3:17 -

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing"

This verse was given to me by a friend when I was struggling over what I was going to do this year/for the rest of my life and has also been given to me by various other people on various occasions this year. It is soo good to know that whether things are going well or whether things are absolutely pants God is with me and He is MIGHTY - He is not just sympathetic or there to comfort but he is there to save. No matter what happens or where I end up in my life I can know I am safe and I am happy (or blessed as the NIV puts it :)) because I have found my safety with Him and not with anything else.

"monster!"

2007-04-23T20:16:00.000+01:00

This last week has been kinda random really. The problem with the week after holidays is it always seems very slow because some things havent started yet or whatever. So yeah, on that note, Unity started again on friday after not meeting for a month. It was very wierd doing both unity and kids club without Ruth for the first time and kinda made me realise that we are definately gonna need some more leaders once dave has gone or it will just me Nick and I :S. Anyway, we had another youth group come to visit with a theatre group from texas. It was really good they did a drama and a couple of them gave testemonies and then there was a bit of a prayer sesh. The last part kinda scared some of the kids a bit as they aren't really church kids so it was a bit strange to them, but apart from that they seemed to enjoy it. The best moment of the evening was when the americans discovered the tuck shop - I honestly think none of them had seen one before and they were more excited than the kids "Please can I have... one of those, one of these.....erm.....what are these?....go on I'll try a couple of those...." hehe!
Yesterday was the ACM after the morning service and since I can't vote anyway I took s couple of the kids down to the park so their parents could go. We played "monster" (some random tig type game the kids invented) and yes, you guessed it, I was the monster lol. It was actually good fun, but I am ever so slightly stiff today from all that running around and pushing them on roundabouts etc.
Sunday evening I lead bible study and we have started a new series on James. It was hard work. Everyone just seemed to be giggling which made leading very difficult and I came very close to giving up at one point, but never mind we got through it. but yeah I dunno, I know it was a one off and everythin and I don't mind people having a laugh and everything but it really shook my confidence at being able to run things once Dave has gone....we'll see what happens I suppose.

2007-04-17T18:44:00.000+01:00

I've been walking again today. It was great to get out and enjoy the fresh air and warm weather. It did seem very strange that it felt warm enough to be early summer and yet most of the trees still don't have any leaves. Ah well lol, life goes on. The only problem I have found with going walking around here is that until you start to head back home you forget that you live, quite literally, on top of a ridge - ie the last stretch is ALWAYS uphill! It was hard work, but it was well and truely worth it for the nice peaceful walk that lead up to it lol.

Anyway, on a different note, I am kinda torn at the moment over 2 things. Firstly, there is a youth weekend away a the end of this half term as a kinda goodbye to Dave and I'm not sure whether to go or not. You see, originally I wasn't going because there are only 12 spaces and I'm not needed to make up the right number of adults, but now there may be a space left for me anyway (it is still uncertain but it is quite likely) and I can't decide whether to go, or to go home a few days early....

The second thing I need to make a decision about is holiday club. It turns out that the holiday club at home and the one in sheffield have fallen on the same dates. So now I need to decide which one to help with...I don't know! If anyone has any wisdom that might help me make either of these choices, it would be gladly recieved!

2007-04-15T11:40:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd show you where I seem to have spent alot of time over the last term.

So here we are at the beginning of my last term at St Lukes (that sounds kinda scary!). The easter holiday was a really good chance to relax and pull myself back together after last term. I don't think I actually stayed in one place for more than a couple of weeks last term, that coupled with ALOT going on and ALOT to think about meant that I was struggling both emotionally and spiritually. I'm putting it mostly down to lack of routine due to all the coming and going between here home cardiff and chester (and I don't mean that as an excuse for not keeping myself going with God very well - it is a challenge that I didn't do very well at). It is my new terms resolution to get back on track with reading my bible regularly and just generally spending time with God (feel free to ask me how I'm doing with it anytime and I hope I'll have a positive answer!), with everything that happened last term and everything that will happen this term I know I really need to trust God and really follow Him closer than ever because without Him I wouldn't be here and without Him I will never get through this term.

So yeah, I guess I need to explain a few things for half of that to make sense and also apologise for not writing for a while, but things have been rather crazy and some things I would have liked to write about I couldn't for various reasons. Anyway it has now been announced to the church so here it is for you: Dave (the youthworker I work with) is leaving St Lukes on June 3rd to go and work at a church in Leeds. This is going to make huge changes in the youth work at St Lukes. Unless a new youthworker is found over the next month I will be taking charge until July and may also help out planning the holiday club in summer. If I am honest I am excited about it, it is a really good oppertunity and God has really given me compassion for the kids here. I think at the moment I just need the patience to keep working with Dave, even though over the last half term it has been quite hard with him having to do interview prep and alsorts of other things. The other challenge now is that Ruth (who has so far been working through her gap year to fund a trip to Mexico) is flying off this Friday. She has really been a lifeline to me and is also a great help in all the youth and childrens work. She will be greatly missed by me and all the others, although I am certain she will have a fantastic time and will come back with all sorts of things to teach us. OK it kinda sounds like she has died lol didn't mean it to! I just mean to say that we have pretty much been partners in crime with respect to most of our work at St Lukes and I'm hoping I will be able to manage while she is away. I'm gonna have to stop there cos it is lunch time now lol, I may write again very soon. let me know how you all are!

déjà vu

2007-03-20T20:28:00.000Z

Well I am now back in Sheffield after another trip home. As much as I love my family it gets very tiring and frustrating travelling back and forth all the time.
Tonight, though, I noticed (as I was walking home from the bus stop) that the sky was very clear and the stars and moon looked beautiful. It just got me thinking about how amazing it is that a God who made the whole universe should care about me. I mean the universe is soooooo huge, why would He care about a small insignificant person? The fact of the matter is that, no matter how hard it is to understand, He does! He cares about every single one of us. I don't know about you, but I know that, if this weren't true, my life would be completely pointless and chances are I would have given up years ago. However, it is totally true and I am willing to keep going no matter how hard things get because I know He will hold me up and keep me going, even if I sometimes take a wrong turn and He has to follow me and bring me back.

such fun! - hmmmm...

2007-03-15T16:05:00.000Z

This week has been pretty eventful really. I came home on monday afternoon, after eventually finding out that I didn't need to be in school because the teacher I work with was off ill.
Tuesday morning Mum, Dad and I drove down to cardiff and stopped for a very nice picnic on the way. We were staying in Cardiff bay so after checking in etc we went off for a walk around the bay and had a drink on the lightship. In the evening we walked to the cinema and saw "Music and Lyrics" - not really a very good film but kept us reasonably entertained for the evening lol. On wednesday morning we had a drive round to see where some of the halls were in relation to the rest of the city/uni. We also found the most important building in Cardiff - starbucks (although having just worked out student loan stuff i won't be able to afford starbucks for at least 10 years!). In the afternoon I went to the open day and got shown the RS building and the Maths building. It was good to see where I will be studying and hear a bit more about the course from some of the tutors, as well as speaking to some current students about what they think of the uni. I am looking forward to it. It is going to be hard work though and will take me a while to get back into the studying aspect (northern training will have helped because it means I am not completely out of studying!).
So yeah, we got home wednesday night and then this morning I officially replied to my offers and accepted my place at Cardiff University as well as sending off my residences application form - its not easy trying to put 21 different options into an order of priority! The halls I have applied for are really nice and are really close to the uni buildings, which will be great when I have early lectures! lol! After that form came the dreaded student finance form for my student loan - it was very complicated, confusing and stressful, but its all over now and hopefully we have done it all right!
I was going to go back to Sheffield tonight, but since I am not working until 1pm 2moz, plus the fact that after all the form filling in I am not in the mood for sitting on trains etc, I decided to stay an extra night and go to bible study. I feel like I have hardly been in Sheffield recently having been away on careforce conference and then home for half term and now being back for most of the week, I will also be coming home sunday night until tuesday...., but then when I actually think about it the times I am away I am not really actually missing that much because we do the planning on a different day instead so all I end up missing is girls bible study.
Anyway now you all have my life story....lol. I don't mean to ramble on but ah well, its taken my mind off stupid forms! Hope you are all doin well! Please get in touch, I love to hear from everybody!

1 week already!

2007-02-24T22:24:00.000Z

I can't believe how fast (although also very slow :S) this week has gone. It definately took my brain a while to catch up with my body after all the crazy travelling around and stuff, which hasn't helped me this week. For a variety of different reasons I have been feeling kinda tired and down the last few days, but today has been really encouraging. There was an event called "melodies in heaven" at church. The day started with workshops from 3-5pm in things like creative writing, flags and dance. At the same time the worship team were practicing for the celebration event in the evening. I unfortunately couldn't be involved in the worship team because I have been in the "resource" young leaders training course when they had the last two practices and I wasn't involved in any of the workshops, but I was making tea and coffee for those that were half way through. Originally I had planned to do the tea and coffee and then come home to plan bible study for tomorrow night, but in the end I ended up staying and listening to the worship team practicing and then got invited to stay and have pizza with them in between. the evening event was really good. We sang some great songs and heard some testemony and also watched one of the "nooma" dvd's. If you have never heard of them (as I hadn't until a few weeks ago) they are short films that basicly include a kind of bible talk. The two I have seen have been really good. It is Gods message delivered in a different way than from the pulpit and the guy who speaks is just so enthusiatic about what he says that it just hits home and seems real. The dvd they showed today was about being "covered in the dust of your rabbi" and how disciples follow their rabbi because they not only want o learn from him but they want to be like him and they follow so closely that they become covered in the dust that they kick up as they walk. That was a real challenge - am I striving to be like Christ or am I trying to please those who are around me, those I hang round with and those i work for? He then went on to talk about how the rabbi chooses the disciple based on their knowledge of the scriptures and on whether he thinks they will be able to become like him. Jesus chose "uneducated fishermen" to be his disciples - Christ's kingdom is open to all, you don't have to be super clever or powerful or fantastic. Jesus has chosen US because He believes we can become like Him - How great is that! It has really encouraged me and I hope it does you too. He believed all of the original disciples could become like Him. Peter, when he started to sink trying to walk on the water wasn't doubting Jesus, but himself. I have no need to doubt because Jesus is beside me guiding me every step of the way.

Do you believe in Jesus? He believes in YOU!

lost for words

2007-02-19T11:20:00.000Z

Finally I am back in one place! The last two weeks have been quite hard due to the extreme amount of time spent travelling on trains and in various different places. I worked out that within 7 days I spent at least one night in one of 5 different places. It really isn't good for your brain moving around that much! Not only is it completely disorientating (There have been mornings when it has taking me a while to work out where I am - I woke up at home thinking I was in Sheffield!), all the travelling is really tiring, which just makes things even harder. Don't get me wrong I have had a great 2 weeks, I'm just glad I can get my feet back on the ground and put all my thoughts back together and get focussed again.
I went home on monday as it was half term - I think it was the easiest train journey I've ever made I literally just walked onto the platform and the train was already there got on it and I was away, fantastic!

On tuesday I went to chester to visit Ike and also to get a tour of the uni, which was fun. It was really great to catch up with Ike and I had a good couple of days, although I was really exhausted by the time I got home - we did alot of walking! I am not convinced about uni, at the moment I think I want to go to cardiff though and I am going down for an open day in a couple of weeks, which should be good.

So yeah I'm back in sheffield now and things are back in full swing kicked off by "Plan B" last night which was really good.

To finish I just wanna share something that has really encouraged me over the last week that we did at bible study on sunday. We are working through ephesians and were up to chapter 3:

"For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"
(v14-21)

I just found it so amazing to be reminded that it is all about love - Christ loved us and died for us. Love is our base, our roots. Love is where we start from and nothing can take that love away (Romans 8:38-39). Not only that, but Christ's love is soooo GREAT that it takes "power" to grasp just how wide, long, high and deep it is! It is a love that "surpasses knowledge" and yet it is a love that we can know and experience every day! He is a great God, who can do sooo much more than we know and yet we so often doubt Him and put Him to one side. It is so good to be reminded that God is in control and that I can trust Him in anything and everything to do good simply because He IS love and loves us all so much!

I survived!

2007-02-10T20:30:00.000Z

Well, I survived the 24 hour famine and the Unity sleepover. There was ALOT of snow yesterday (I'm talkin ankle deep - and it was still snowing!) so youth club involved spending 1.5 hours supervising snowball fights in the church garden. The sleepover started straight after Unity and 14 kids stayed for it. Because we were all fasting we figured prayer would be a good thing to go with it. We did a few different creative prayer activities every now and again from 930 until 1230 and then the kids were given the choice between going to sleep or watching films. most stayed to watch films and fell asleep in the middle of them lol. We worked our way through:
Over the hedge
Dodgeball
Spiderman
Alien Autopsy
Dukes of Hazard
and finally got to go home to bed lol. Stayin awake all night was kinda good becasue it meant that I slept through the last part of the fast so didnt actually feel hungry at all when it came to the end of it. So if anyone wants to sponser me for doing the famine let me know - I only had like one sponser lol!

toffeeeee!

2007-02-09T10:24:00.000Z

the very mini snowman we made (its not easy wen the snow wont stick together and you dont have gloves on!)

Quinta in snow!

Well, I got back from the careforce conference safely yesterday after alot of worrying that we would get stuck in the snow. In fact I think that was the one time I managed to get back to Sheffield without any trains being delayed or cancelled!
The conference was really good. It was great to catch up with some other careforce workers and to spend time worshippng together. I also discovered some Ugandan careforce workers who know Joseph (careforce worker at St Andrews 5 years ago) and a Kenyan who is friends with Douglas (careforce worker at Stan's 4 years ago), which is cool.
So anyway, This evening we will be starting our 24 hour famine that we are doing with the youth group. We are also doing a "sleepover", which will involve pretty much no sleep. So I'm hoping that all goes well.

the last of the snow :( - and ALOT of mud!

2007-01-30T14:46:00.000Z

lol I've been walking again. It is great fun! I did think I was stuck at one point - I completely lost the path in the middle of a load of heather! I could see exactly where I wanted to get to, but couldn't find a way to get there and ended up walking through a bog - made things a lot more interesting. Eventually I made it across, even if I did end up with very soggy feet.
We all thought the snow had gone now, but I did find the last little bit while I was up in the hills:
yeah I did say it was only a little bit lol
Anyway. this week has been really good. We have now merged all the bible studies to make one bible study on a sunday evening, which will hopefully make it alot easier and better for various reasons - the main one being that there will be more than 2 or 3 people there! Anyway I've kinda run out of things to write now lol just got excited about the last bit of snow hehe.

Snow!!!

2007-01-23T12:57:00.000Z

So it has finally been snowing! could have come at a slightly better time, but all's well that ends well. I went home for a night on sat and was planning to be back in lodge moor by 4:15 as I had to open up church for the youth music group. I had also had a phone call in the morning asking me to lead the youth service as Dave was ill. Unfortunately somebody had different plans. The trains to sheffield weren't running so I had to get a rail replacement bus. This seemed simple the guy at the station said "the bus should be there in 3 mins, it may even be there now" so I went out to the bus stop to find a queue of people all waiting for the same bus. However the bus never turned up. I don't have a clue what happened but there should have been a few buses in the 2 hours that I waited but only one came and there weren't enough seats on it anyway. In the end I gave up and went back to cheadle hulme as there was no chance I was gonna make it back for the youth service and by that time it was dark and I was very cold and wet due to all the snow. fomr what I've heard the youth service went well anyway and somebody else stepped in to lead it. I managed to get a train on monday morning and am back in lodge moor enjoying my day off.
So what do you do with a day off when the sun is shining and the birds are singing? That's right - you put on your coat and gloves and go for a walk! I had a great time! It wasn't a very long walk simply because it is so cold! but never mind it was very pretty anyway!

Woo hoo!

2007-01-18T17:24:00.000Z

yeah unorigional title but can't think of anything else rite now! This week has been a pretty normal week really to be honest. "Potential" started up on sunday. It was a good start, although we were expecting more people to come than did. The girls that were there seemed to enjoy it and hopefully more will come along this week (but I won't be there, which is a shame).
Sixth form bible study ended up getting cancelled again, but we will keep going, it is just really hard to find a time that suits everybdy.
Anyway, onto the most important news of the week - I just got home from northern training and while messing on the internet decided to check my UCAS application and found that I have an unconditional offer from chester university! So yeah, now I am very hyper cos this means that no matter what happens with the other uni's I will be going to uni in september! Anyway just thought I'd let people know that and now I have to go see you all soon!

2007-01-12T10:16:00.000Z

I have to say the new years party was a great start to this year, but right now I am struggling a bit. I don't really know why (although I think the weather is a major cause!) but I just don't have the enthusiasm to do stuff it's just like "o yeah its kids club again". As I said this is partly down to the weather because all the wind and rain keeps me awake at night and then on my day off I can't go for a walk because it is justso wet. I really wanted to get off to a good start this year and get on with things. We were planning to get sixth form bible study going properly. We were going to start a series (as I said in my last post) and do our best to do a study every week, but it got cancelled again last night. I find it really frustrating that if one person can't make it because of work or illness, then everything just kinda dissolves. The thing is one of the group does shift work, so it is quite likely there will be quite a few weeks that she can't make it so we need to just keep going anyway - yes its a small group anyway and its a shame for someone to miss it, but it would be better than not meeting at all! Anyway I gotta go stroke a cat!

woo hoo!

2007-01-10T18:18:00.000Z

today is a very good day - my tutor has finally done my reference for UCAS so my application has been sent off! It is kinda a shame because he had said I could shoot him if he didnt do it before sat and I think that might've been fun, ah well life goes on. Things are picking up again after the christmas holiday and I am starting to get busier, which is great because it is so wet and windy at the moment that if I have nothing to do I am just stuck inside gettin bored.
I was helping in kids church on sunday, but unfortunately dave (who was supposed to be leading) was ill so rachel and I had alot of fun making it up as we went along and playing lots of games lol.
Sixth form bible study is starting again tomorrow. we are starting a series on ephesians and I am hoping that things go better than last term and we will be able to get into it and meet every week.
Also this week a new event is starting at ranmoor church called "potential". It is a 9 week series aimed at 13-16 yr old girls. The idea is to look at a different issue each week such as friendship and self image and confidence etc using games and illustrations and things. a few of the girls from st lukes are going along and I will be helping out when I can (which I think will be most weeks apart from when it is plan b because it is on a sunday evening). Anyway I am kinda just yabbering on so ill leave you all in peace now lol.

2007-01-02T13:17:00.000Z

I am finally back in sheffield after alot of sitting around stockport station waiting for trains on new years eve. It was really good to be home for christmas and spend some time with family. It is quite strange being home now I have got used to living in sheffield, but it is nice all the same - esp since mum gave me the spare double douvet so my bed was extremely cosy! As much as mum said I would I don't particularly miss the cats and I didnt let them in my room all the time cos I miss them, its because I forget that when I'm at home I have to close the bedroom door lol. However, they are very cute when they do this:

I did come back to sheffield for one night on hte 22nd for the christmas kids club and also the leaders christmas meal. It was a good laugh. I left cheadle hulme at the unearthly hour of 7:30, but my lovely mum made me a sausage sandwich for the journey - thanks mum! The kids club included even more crazy games than usual and lots of special guests including "happy" pirate, bruce (the australian), santa's elf, mary, a wise man, the inn keeper and his wife. The kids seemed to have a really great time (and the leaders too obviously!). Being team captain meant that I was involved with extreme amounts of shaving foam (which i am now convinced i am allergic to :S) and water, although the girls water gun wasnt working properly so i got off lightly there lol. There may be pictures to follow but i havent got them yet.

The new years eve party at st lukes went really well. We had 30 kids and everyone had a great time. The evening started with nibbles and champagne (with no alcohol lol) followed by a quiz. Then we had live music from "Intermssion". We also ran a tuck shop and had a bouncy castle (which knoked some of the ceiling tiles out :S oops), sumo wrestling suit things and a room full of playstations. Dave did a talk just before midnite and managed to finish it with 30 secs to go - well done! we were gonna have fireworks but it was too windy so we settled for party poppers and the wierdest version of auld lang syne ever!

I did find it very amusing that we gave everyone lifts home in the minibus - bearing in mind it is the nursery bus and we were drivin round in it at 2am! (there is a pic of the bus on nats blog: http://www.nattypatty06.blogspot.com/). Anyway I finally got home at bout 3:15 and decided to eat my lunch lol (don't worry mum I did have something to eat at lunch time, just not my sandwiches).

So anyway, this week is kinda quiet cos there is no northern training, but kids club and unity are starting again friday as far as i know - woo hoo!

just thought I'd share this while I was here: I saw this poster while I was hanging around stockport station and decided to check it out have a look and see what you think. Let me know.

The twelve days of christmas

2006-12-17T14:55:00.000Z

Just thought I'd share with you what I've been learning today. Apparently the song "12 days of christmas" isn't quite as unchristian as it seems - check it out on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A212202
have fun and let me know what you think, i thought it was quite cool

also look at the cool pictures
http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/ascii/ascii-12.html

Christmas time is here again

2006-12-16T13:10:00.000Z

To be honest I'm not feeling that festive really. There are trees and decorations and christmas songs everywhere but it might as well be any other time of year (aside from the fact it is freezing!). I don't think it will really feel like christmas until I am at home - not long now! I am lookng forward to goin home, especially since this week has been really quiet and I've been very bored.
I did my last session in school for 2006 on monday and got a lovely "happy christmas" from Y5T, which was quite cool.
On wednesday we finally managed to meet for sixth form bible study - woo hoo. We met them at school (that was slightly scary lol walking into the sixth form area in a random school) and then went to Ruths house and had lunch and bible study. We have now set a solid time to have the bible study every week starting in January so hopefully that will all work out. In the evening on wednesday I went to see Bugsy Malone at the high school as some of the girls from unity were in it. It was really good I enjoyed it. It did make me laugh that Fat Sam was like 3 times smaller than his Girlfriend tho lol.
It was very strange not having Norhern Training this week - it completely confused my sense of what day it is! Although it was nice to have a bit more of a lie in and then spend most of the morning baking cakes for plan B with Ruth.
This morning Ruth lead a special Bible study breakfast. There was a mixture of people from the boys group the girls group and the sixth form group. It was really good to have everyone together. I loved the praying at the end too - people actually prayed out loud and we were praying for ages it was cool!
A well I am now kinda tired due to the early morningness, but I dont actually have anything to do until tomorrow now, I guess I should maybe pack for coming home lol. I was going to go and see the pantomime at Christ Church Fulwood tonight, but noone would come with me and now there aren't any tickets left anyway - ah well :(

All in a days work (or rather a day off!)

2006-12-09T16:27:00.000Z

look at the pretty lights! woooo!

Well today is the first day in weeks when I have actually had absolutely nothing to do. I enjoyed a nice lie in this morning before writing some christmas cards. I then had a bit of a walk down the hill to fulwood and back again to get some money. This afternoon Lesley decided was a good time to install their new BT Home Hub and I offered to help her. If anyone ever needs a good team building excersise or just a general test of patience just get a Home Hub and set some people to install it and for an extra test of patience make sure there is some need for them to ring the helpline along the way - they don't really have a clue and you generally end up going round in circles! Once lesley eventaully found the cables we needed (very well hidden apparently!) after a very stressed sounding phonecall to the helpline, we tried again and this time it wouldn't even connect to the internet! As you can imagine we were gettin very frustrated by this point and lesley gave up and went to do school work. But me being me couldn't give up so read and re-read the instructions to try and figure out what we had done wrong. I actually don't know how I worked it out but I had a sudden flash of inspiration, tried rearraging the wires accordingly and it worked! woo hoo! so we now have fully functioning internet on the computer and hopefully very very soon I will be able to get on it on my laptop too - yey! Lesley has now gone out to buy a christmas tree - yey! today is such a good day! Hehe even better lesley just got back and gave me 4 chocolate bars!mmmmm chocolate!

Life on mars?......why bother??!

2006-12-07T19:07:00.000Z

I was watchin the news the other day (Not a regular event, but never mind) and got really annoyed by a bit about them finding water on mars. Forgive me for ranting, but WHY?! Why are they spending loads of money sending probes to another planet that could be used to buy food and medical suplies for those who can't afford it themselves? Why are people so bothered about life on another planet when life on this one is so messed up as it is? To me it just doesn't make sense to be honest. And what are they going to gain if they do find life on mars? what will they do with it? chances are they will just go and mess that up as well!

Maybe im just talking rubbish, but never mind.

"the faster you shout the louder you run"

2006-12-03T22:10:00.000Z

This weekend has been interesting. It is kinda wierd knowing that ppl from St Andrews went on the youth weekend away and I didn't go. I have been on every one (thats twice a year except one year i think) since I was 13 - wow thats a long time ago! - so its kinda strange not going lol. But still.. I led kids club for the first time on friday. I have done the talks and things but hadn't led it yet. Apart from that there isnt alot to report for friday.
On sat I spent the afternoon cooking lasagne for youth lunch 2day. I had great fun (don't ask why cos I don't know), just put some music on and got on with it. simultaneously trying to cook a veggie and a meat lasagne as well as organise a social via text and try and do washing up along the way is quite amusing!
In the evening we watched the matrix. One of the guys commented that it came out in 1999. That means I was only 11 at the time - that is just scary!
Anyway, today was good I actually got to sit in the congregation in the morning service, which was a nice change (not that I dont enjoy bein in the music group or doin kids church). I wasn't going to go to the service at fulwood tonight, but decided to partly because I wudda been bored otherwise and also because I couln't justify not going and then sitting at home and watching tv. I have been finding fulwood hard because I just feel like a complete outsider there. But tonight I sat away from the students and actually got talking to a very nice lady who made me feel very welcome :) It was also a communion service. I was slightly scared at first cos I was like "how on earth is this gonna work there are loadsa people and the pews are everywhere!", but the lady explained the system to me. I was quite glad it was communion because I haven't been to a communion service since I left cheadle hulme. It was quite good, I think with having communion regularly as I did at St Andrews it is easy to let it just become routine, but tonight was a really good reminder of Why I am here - wow!

"as the good book says..."

2006-12-01T11:32:00.000Z

You'll be glad to know I have cheered up a bit since my last post. My talk yesterday went alot better than expected, although writing it was very very stressful! I got some good feedback, although it is very sill because we have sheets to write feedback down on and some people have contradicted each other lol.
Last night I went to see fidle on the roof at the crucible. It was a public dress rehearsal so it only cost £1. It was great! I didn't really know what it was about or anything so i just went for the sake of it really cos i had nothing better to do. I loved the theatre its really cool. Plus I got to meet little baby daniel who is soooo cute!
Ah yes I have also pretty much sorted out my UCAS apllication - woo hoo! I am applying to do maths and RS at cardiff chester and st andrews (yeah I know thats three different countries, but there arent any other uni's that do the course lol). I'm just waiting to hear from my tutor from last year about my reference etc.
Anyway i'd best go get some lunch before I have to go to school.

2006-11-23T18:19:00.000Z

As you can tell I got a bit bored with pink - I hope you like to new green!
Today was a bit of a hard day. I am learning the great value of a day off this year, I know I often get bored on my day off, but I miss it when I dont have it. My day off is normally tuesday , but because of pray day this week it is sat. So I do still have a day off, but it completely throws you in terms of tiredness and just general knowing what day it is. I have been quite tired today and didn't really want to go to northern training to be honest. I am finding it hard at the moment because I am noticing more and more that everyone else either comes as part of a group (ie from nottingham or hull or the group from fulwood) or they already know people there because they go to the same church or whatever. This makes breaktimes very difficult because I keep ending up sat at the table with the people from the oakes or the group from nottingham and then I end up feeling like a bit of a spare part.
I am also finding the talks hard. Don't get me wrong I do get stuff from it, but (especially today when I was tired) there are some talks that I just don't understand and I end up leaving feeling completely stupid. Then you get the theology graduates asking crazy questions, which doesn't help me much. They may be genuinely interested and to them it might be necessary to ask, but to me some of them seem completely irrelevant and pointless.
I have to do my talk in the workshop next week. I can't remember if I already wrote about this, never mind lol. Again todays talk was really good and I still don't really know where I'm gonna go with mine. I told them I'm gonna be off ill next week - they just told me its ok because God is a good healer! I'm just not a person that does talks. I can just about lead a bible study, but I can't put together a talk and present it. I do enjoy learning at northern training, but the whole thing just seems to make me feel kinda small and useless at the moment. I know God is awesome and that He can use me even in my weaknesses. I guess I am struggling being surrounded by people who have alot more experience than me.

Pray day

2006-11-21T22:49:00.000Z

Today was pray day. It was really cool - I loved it. I was at church for most of the day - from 930 until about 730 (I did leave for an hour at lunch time though). The actually event ran from 3:30 until 7:30 and the rest of the time was setting it all up and moving chairs around.
For those that don't know what a prayer labyrinth (yes I learnt how to spell it today lol) is:
it is a kind of journey, a guided path you take that goes through various areas. Todays had 7 different stations along the path. At each area/station there is an activity to aid you in prayer for example one of our areas involved drawing an adult from school and sticking it to a balloon whilst praying for them.
I really enjoyed helping plan and set up for the labyrinth, it was also great to see people taking part in it. I dont know why but it also didn't take much out of me energy wise, which is nice because I was very worried about not being able to manage. Today is normally my day off and I was tired to start with but I think, although it was a very long day, it was a relaxed day.
Now I just have to think about the talk I have to do in my workshop at Northern Training. We are split into small groups for one session each week. In these groups we take it in turns to do a talk (at the moment we are working through Mark) and everyone else will comment on it. I am very scared about it because I am useless at doing talks and the two that have done theirs so far have been really good!
Anyway I think it is now time for bed. I may be able to put some pictures of the labyrinth up at some point so watch this space!

2006-11-20T12:16:00.000Z

last week was quite quiet really. Dave was off on wednesday so we didnt meet to plan kids club, which meant that I spent the day at home. I was going to start looking at the talk I have to do for northern training, but didn't in the end - its a good job thought because my passage has changed now anyway.

On sat I went to York to meet up with two girls from my area group, which was nice. They both got there before me and told me to ring them when I arrived and they would give me directions. The only actually direction I got from them was "walk out the station doors and cross the road.....erm......then guess and we'll ring you back in a few mins". It was really helpful! luckily I have a good sense of direction (despite what mum says) and managed to find them before they found me (and they were supposed to know their way around!). It was a good day and nice to have a chat with Hannah and Lisa too. I have now decided that I don't like Virgin trains anymore - they never have enough seats! I had to stand up most of the way to York and was sat on the floor on the way back. I had to stand up all the way to birmingham new street when I went to the careforce conference too. I sound like a really grumpy old man, but when you are travelling for a few hours it is not nice to have to stand up, plus it hurts!

Anyway..... tomorrow it is Sheffields pray day for schools, where children are encouraged to pray for things going on at school etc. At St Luke's we are putting on a prayer laberinth (yeah I don't know how to spell that!). I am really looking forward to it, I have never done one before so it should be interesting. It does mean I have to cut out about 60 stars this afternoon though, but thats I can cope with that.

Anyway to finish with:

News flash!

Stop the presses, reprint the maths textbooks - Mr Todd has had a revelation!

According to maths legend (cough, splutter), Mr Todd, we have all been doing everything wrong. For those who previously thought a right angle measured 90 degrees things are about to be turned completely upside-down. apparently "90 degrees is ALMOST a right angle". so there you go - trade in your set squares and remeasure your corners. And now just incase you were worried what you are going to call a right angle triangle, seeing as it no longer contains a right angle, there is no need to panic. a right angle triangle is so called because "it has an angle that turns right in it" - simple!

(all quotes from Mr Todd - maths extraodinair)

has it got "ham" in it?

2006-11-14T17:29:00.000Z

So things on friday night didn't go so well. In the end I used a powerpoint thing Dave had used ages ago for a talk on smoking and then added my own bit on the end from the bible. I didn't really like recycling Dave's talk because it is easier to do a talk if you wrote it then you know what you are talking about, but I didn't really know what else to do so there we go. It started ok, but then the powerpoint went wrong, which completely threw me I think I was relying on it a bit too much - lesson learned for next time! Dave did manage to get it sorted and it all went ahead but I forgot some of the stuff I was gonna say and it was a bit of a mess really. ah well. Dave just thinks I didn't plan anything (admittedly I probably didn't plan as much as I should have, but the problem was mostly because I was completely thrown by the powerpoint going wrong), but apparently what I did say in the end was good (I don't actually know what I sed I just kinda wanted to escape at that point!).
Now that is over I am feeling alot happier and managed to have a nice relaxed sat.
On sunday it was my turn to cook youth lunch. It was all good I was cooking pasta bake and was expecting 7/8 people. So I part cooked it on sat and then took it to church only to be told that there were actually only 4 of us! So we had loads left over, but ah well.
Today I havent been very well. Suspicions lie with a tin of tuna Lesley and I had for tea last night. I was going to put it in the pasta bake on sunday but found out that one of the girls doesnt like tuna. Now I'm kinda glad because if we are right that it is the tuna that caused it things would have been alot worse! So there we go sometimes its good to be a fussy eater!

"Even though I walk"

2006-11-10T11:20:00.000Z

The last week has been quite hard. I am still very busy and there have been a few moments when my brain has been a few steps behind my body! It was really good to see people from home at the Fulwood conference last week and I think they enjoyed kids club as well (thanks for helping with sound becky - lol now everyone knows not just lynne!).
On sunday I thought I had to be at church for 4:15 for the "Music Group With No Name" and so decided to come a bit earlier to use the internet. I arrived at what I thought was 3:30 only to realise that it was actually 2:30 and I had 2 hours to sit on my own in a huge church building when the wind is whistling everywhere - it was quite freaky! I survived the 2 hours and then was waiting for people to turn up. I waited for a while and then came to the conclusion that I had got the date wrong - woo hoo way to waste 2 hours!
On monday I went to Sheffield CU with Jennie and stayed over at her house, which was really nice I had a good time and it was good to catch up with Jen. On wednesday I ended up being busy from 930 until 630 when I eventually got home and being tired before I even started didnt help. We did do an assembly at the primary school which was quite good and the kids seemed to enjoy it too. When I got home I had to try and write a talk for the youth group on "smoking" I really didnt want to do it and didnt know how to do it and a combination of that and extreme tiredness meant that I just kept coming up to a brick wall and ended up giving up out of sheer frustration. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing and it is tonight ah well we'll see what happens.
Northern Training yesterday seemed to be alot of group work and stuff like that talking about how to preach and we also started our workshops (where we take it in turns to do a talk on a particular passage and then everyone else feedsback on what was good/bad about it). After wednesday night I was feeling particularly useless and so all this didnt help really I just didnt feel like eing there i wanted to be curled up on the sofa at home nice and warm (yes it was also very cold there for some reason).
Anyway I think things might pick up after tonight once this talk is over and done with. On sat we might be having and informal Sixth Form Bible Study. Ruth has asked me to redo a study on psalm 13 I did with the girls. I didnt think it was that great but they seemed to like it (possibly because of the power point thing i did with pretty pictures hehe).

To end on a cheerful note:
Highlight of ther week: I went to see disney on ice with the brownies on tuesday - I'm such a big kid! But it was great fun! It was nice to escape and just take part in a bit of a fantasy for the nite. It was the Princess collection and you cant really argue with being told the story of 7 different disney princesses (snow white, cinderella, the little mermaid, mulan, beauty and the beast, aladin, sleeping beauty)!

Welcome to Starlight.... (now with pictures!)

2006-11-01T14:55:00.000Z

O yes! it is now November and everybody knows that the end of October brings with it halloween so what do we do? thats right we put on a christian alternative for all the kids! Last night we had the starlight party here at st lukes and after a months planning and preparation we finally opened the doors to 107 children aged 4-11. It was manic! especially since it was actually my day off and by the time we let kids in I had already been busy running around church for 5.5 hours! Dont get me wrong I dont mind giving up my day off for a good cause and all I dont mean to sound really down on it because it was a really good day and i loved doing it, it was just very tiring! We did games and crafts for the first part and then they had hot dogs before going into church for a god slot and then back to the hall for a disco.
Rachel and I spent all afternoon getting things ready around the church and blowing up ALOT of balloons. I was kinda gald because all the business distracted me from worrying about the talk, which I had alot of trouble writing! It all went well though and the kids seemed to really anjoy it. I was so gald to be part of it and I dont thinkg i've ever appreciated my bed quite that much! I got home and collapsed! But I know that none of my energy was wasted and it was all very worthwhile, plus I loved every minute of it (apart from maybe the 15 minutes before I had to do the talk!) so yeah now I am just looking forward to the fulwood conference and the rest of this half term up til christmas.

This is the rainbow I saw on my way to church after lunch - it was really cool and kinda picked me up a bit cos i was really scared about the talk
- woohoo go God with all His awesome promises!

These are just some of the balloons we blew up - yes there were at least 120 of them! that is alot of puff!

This is the really cool 13ft long banner we had in the hall - its really sparkly! hehe :) plus its pink!

last picture i promise - the others have kids on cant put them on net that wud b bad! This was one of the crafts its really cute! they made alsorts of aminals like fish and stuff - awww!

Back in the Lodge!

2006-10-30T16:25:00.000Z

I'm back! It was really good to be home for a week and see a few people again, but I am glad to be back and getting on with things. This week is going to be the busiest week ever! Because we are doing the starlight party tomorrow I am not having my day off and we also have the fulwood conference this week so as far as I can tell I dont really have much free time this week - back in at the deep end I like it! The starlight party is our alternative to haloween, basicly we are going to do games and crafts and things, have a godslot and then have a disco as well as having some hot dogs and things. I am really looking forward to it it should be really good. The only thing I am worried about is that we are expecting about 120 kids and I am doing the talk/God slot - argh! I am pretty sure I have got the talk sorted (it's taken me a while to make sense of what I wanted to do and I have ended up scrapping my origional idea!), so I'm hoping it will all be ok and I wont get too scared and forget what I'm gonna say! Please pray for that because I am very worried about it. Also this week Dave and I are doing an assembly at the primary school - nothin like givin me all the big talky things in one week, eh! I'm not really doing much talking in that so it isnt too bad but still scary. I am really looking forward to the fulwood conference as wel, it should be good. Peter Brain (one of the speakers) preached on sunday night and it was really good. Anyway I'm gonna go now things to do people to see. Hope you are all well feel free to email or post a comment and let me know how things are going I would love to know what everone else is up to!
O yes! these are just a few of the hundred odd leaves I cut out for one of the crafts at the starlight party - such fun!

Home!

2006-10-21T15:59:00.000+01:00

I have finally arrived home for half term! Took me alot longer than it was supposed to due to silly trains - you'd think that they would provide enough carriages for the ammount of poeple, apparently not. ah well I still got here so all is well. It was really strange yesterday wavin Alan and Lesley off from their own house, especially the second time lol - they had to come back. Its kinda wierd being home, i feel like everything should feel normal but it doesnt because i have got used to lodge moor, so it is a bit disorientating. it is also a bit wierd living out of a case in my own room! Yah so this is kinda a sort post because I was bored, but I have nothing much better to write about lol.

2006-10-16T15:52:00.000+01:00

I had a few spare mintues so I thought I might as well update my blog cos I have nothing better to do lol. I havent done it for a while, mum seems to expect me to update it loads but some weeks i am just too busy (yes sam I do work, probably alot harder than you as well!).
It is really wierd how the last week seems to have been really long, it feels like ages ago that I went to leeds! It has been a good week though. Sixth form bible study got cancelled because there were only 3 of us (nomally there are 4, but 2 of us are leaders so one person missing kinda makes it seem silly doin the study) so Ruth came round and we just had a chat for a couple of hours which was nice.
Friday night I did the talk at unity which was very scary! I gave my testemony mainly because I figured it would help the kids to know who I am and not just some strange person who hangs round the tuck shop every week (ok I may still be a strange person by the tuck shop but strange for a different reason lol). It just so happened that the week I did my first talk was the week when the most kids turned up - they jusut kept coming in the doors, there were 26 of them! I survived though and I think it went ok. After that I was exhausted, but I coudlnt sleep which was a right pain! Ah well life goes on. Saturday was fun I went round to Ruths and we made whities (white chocolate brownies - yum!) and other cakes for after the plan B (youth) service yesterday. then pretty much everyone came round to ruths as well as a kinda baptism party for Hazel and also because Kat (last years careforce worker) was coming back for the night. We had a good laugh and played some very silly games (I'm impressed I managed to keep a straight face playing "smile if you love me" - I usually end up in th middle loads!)
Feeling even more tired after that you'd think I'd manage to get a good nights sleep, but I couldnt sleep again and ended up getting really annoyed with myself - oops! So playing in the worship team on sunday morning was made more of a challenge by lack of awakeness lol, still fun. The evening service was awesome! It was the youth service and 2 of the girls got baptised as well. I got to be involved in the baptism (I got to do the prayer after they get out the water so I didnt have to get wet - woohoo!) and also did the prayers in the service. I was so scared cos the church was the fullest I'd ever seen it and I had to stand at the front and speak, but I managed. What scared me more than speaking was that they put a clip mic on me and (even though I knew they wouldnt) I was scared they's turn it on or forget to turn it off so everyone would hear me singing lol!
I still couldnt sleep last night either and after 3 bad nights I turned up at staff meeting in a bit of a daze this morning, but I held it together and managed to cope with the day. I was in Mr Todds class again this afternoon and it was a bit crazy. He was reading a story to the kids, which I'm not sure was the best book to choose. It was written from a kids perspective about how his auntie chain smokes and drinks loadsa gin and then falls over and swears at people, it discribed her peroxide blonde hair and Mr Todd couldnt read the word peroxide (one of the kids who hadnt even seen the word corrected him!) and then he had to ask me what it meant! Then the book talked about how the kids cousin is the son of satan and Mr Todd tried to explain what satan is - where did he get his ideas from?! He definately knows I'm a christian though cos he asked me after all the kids had gone (I leant him a pen with a verse on it a while ago cos it was the only pen I had - i didnt really think bout it lol). I'm off to meet my pastoral carer down at fulwood now.

"A little less conversation"

2006-10-10T10:45:00.000+01:00

lol this is yet another little trick of the year 5 teacher at school. I was in his class yesterday afternoon and just before break he will give everyone instructions for tidying up and then put Elvis Presley on to try and get them to actually do it lol I had to try sooo hard not to stand and giggle for 3 mins! The song did work to a certain extent but after a minute the kids all just started singin along - I wudda hated to be the teacher in the room next door! Anyway it was quite fun being in the class for the afternoon, there were a couple of times I got a bit annoyed at Mr Todd cos I was tryin to help the kids by gettin them to think it through themselves and then he'd come over interupt me and give "subtle" hints, ah well lol he's the teacher.
We had record numbers (20) at kids club on friday - we even had 5 boys! (so far we havent had more than 4). Unity was very quiet we only had 12 kids, but after Dave suggested inviting yr 6's (cos there are no yr 7's or 8's so wen the yr 10's + 11's leave there will be noone left) one of the boys brought his younger bro and his m8 along (who are both in yr 7) lol.
On Sat I met up with my area group in Leeds. It was fun we did a bit of shooping and went to Nando's for lunch. It was good to meet up with them and find out how things are going, even if it takes me longer to get to Leeds than it would take me to get home lol.
I played in the Worship team for the first time on sunday morning (they aren't a music group so im told). It was alot more fun than I thought it was gonna be (I was scared by the microphones lol). In the evening I went to Kate and Lorna's church for their youth service and then afterwards I stayed with their YP group and we ordered pizza (pizza hut are now £103 better off!).

"it's like keeping up with coronation st!"

2006-10-06T15:05:00.000+01:00

I've been told off for not providing the next installment on my blog - not everyone checks it over breakfast mum it's only been 4 days give me chance!! I didn't think it was that interesting but ah well. So I decided I'd add a bit now since i have a few mins before kids club.
On monday I went to sheffield uni CU with Jennie, which was fun we went out for tea to aunt sally's before (aunt sally's is sheffields version of the bell house - 241 cant complain!). So now I've seen the uni too, another place to add to the list of places in sheffield I've been lol.
Tuesday was really boring bein my day off and having nowhere interesting to go I ended up spending the day watching friends and then resorted to lord of the rings (still a good film no matter how many times youve seen it!).
Wednesday we had girls bible study, which went quite well it didnt last quite as long as i'd anticipated but that meant we had some time to chat as well lol.
The heating was broken at crowded house on thursday (that is where northern trainging is held) so it was hard to concentrate at the same time as trying to keep your hands warm! It was good tho, but for some reason they always seem to put the lecture with the largest number of wierd terms last when everyone is falling asleep. Honestly talking to us about tolerance, intolerance, pluralism, socialistic pluralism, philosophical pluralsim and isomerism last thing on a thursday afternoon is never gonna work!
Anyway yeah I gtg now cos i have to set up for kids club.

1 2 3 eyes on me!

2006-10-01T11:50:00.000+01:00

This is just a selection of pics from wen nat came to visit! it was good fun, especially tryin to find my way round town with her wen ive only actually been into town once! hehe! luckily i had pretty much recovered from conference by then - friday was a major struggle as i was still feeling tired and doing kids club and unity with a migrane is not the best idea! still fun lol.

dont really know wot to say bout hte weekend it was cool havin nat over for the nite - even though there were 4 extra ppl in the house that nite so it was a bit crazy! As nat sed it was quite amusing watching chris try and sort out his tea lol.

Anyway ill let you read nats blog if u wanna know more bout it cos i dont know wot to say haha - back to u nat!

2day was quite cool, i went down to school to help with IT, but the teacher wasnt in (there is a seperate teacher to do IT cos the normal teacher doesnt do it he is just in the computer room to help like me) so i offered to stay in the classroom and help there instead, which was fun. I may be going in some monday afternoons to help with the same class as well, because i dont do anything then and often get bored, but that is flexible so if i end up with too much work i dont have to go - nice! yeah nothing really new to report other than that, o yeah I am meeting up with my area group on sat which will be cool - ive never been to leeds before woohoo!

ps just incase u r wonderin bout the title that is wot the teacher i work with sez wen he wants the kids to b quiet and it makes me laugh hehe

2006-09-28T15:22:00.000+01:00

I just got back from the Careforce induction course in oswestry - I can now agree with those who have told me that Quinta is a really nice place! The journey there was a bit manic because the first train I was on was packed, there were at least 20 people standing up in the coach I was on and I think most of them actually had booked seats. I did manage to sit down for a while in a random doorway but that didnt last long as people kept soming through. When I got to Birmingham and found the platform I discovered a huge group of careforce people also on their way to shrewsbury, which was cool!
The week itslef was really good, I enjoyed meeting other careforce workers and hearing about where they have come from and what their placements are like. It was alos really good listening to the talks and all singing together - I loved the fact that everyone was just singing along and praising God however they wanted with clapping and dancing and everything, that was really cool! Anyway lol... yeah I met the people in my area group, who are all really nice and hopefully we will be able to meet up a few times over the year and share how things are going and pray for each other. Right now I am very very tired so im gonna stop now otherwise ill put myself to sleep never mind you!

2006-09-24T20:47:00.000+01:00

Well thats 3 weeks now and i'm still enjoying it.
Yesterday I went down to Christines halls for a bit, which was fun. We watched a video and then went down to the bar for a bit cos there was a pirate party going on - sooo many pirates! It was good fun and im glad christine seems settled and has made loadsa m8s, but i just felt very out of place bein the only person there that isnt a student and sein as everyone is still meeting ppl and automaticly asks u where u live or what u are studying u get fed up of explaining. I still had a good time and it was nice meeting some ppl my own age, even if i did feel out of it. Thanks christine for my tea lol you saved me having to cook!
Today has been hard work. It started ok with kids club in the morning, youth lunch was cancelled because only one of the youth was actually coming, and that meant I came home for lunch and the vicar and a random baptist minister were coming too - scary! So lunch was basicly 2 hours of me sat very very quietly while they all discussed the differences between denominations (ST Luke's being an eccumenical church - 4 different denominations in one - alan leslie and john know alot about the differences!).
I was gettin a bit frustrated earlier too because there are problems with getting my new phone to me and i am a little bit desperate for it because at the moment I have no signal and am running dangerously low on credit, im sure itll all get sorted out and it will be fine it is just very annoying that tmobile couldnt send my phone here cos that wudda made life ALOT easier!
So then I had to go help with the youth music group type thing one of the ladies from church has just set up. Today was the first time they have played together and I wasn't looking forward to it. In the group we have 2 guitarists, a drummer and a singer, and also Kathrine (the lady who set it up) plays guitar - I dont know anything about guitars or drums so quite how I can help I dont know! It was a bit disorganised and I arrived to find them setting up stands and things and generally making a mess, there was music all over the place and somehow one girls music managed to get lost in someone elses music, Kathrine couldnt work out how to use the cd player. Don't get me wrong it is a good idea to do something with these guys as it will hopefully encourage them to come along to church and stuff, but it was literally organised chaos, we only actually ended up playing 2 songs in the hour and i really dont know why i was there cos there wasnt really anything for me to do/help with.
After that I went straight to Fulwood for the evening service. I decided to sit on the balcony and ended up sat next to a girl from China who has just started at the uni. She seems really nice but there was a huge communication issue, we did manage to have a reasonable conversation though. The service was quite good, but the vicar seemed to just be rambling a bit in the sermon he did get a couple of good points across i just struggled to concentrate lol. Afterwards I went to the "spud bar" with the girl from china (yeah I couldnt hear both times she told me her name and i felt a bit rude asking again!). The spud bar is held in the church hall and they just serve jacket potatoes and things for students who cant be bothered cooking and/or wanna stick around and have a chat. I couldnt really leave the girl I was with on her own so sat with her, but by that point we had exhausted all conversation she could manage due to lack of english skills so I was pretty much sat on my own. one guy came to talk to me, but wen everybody you talk to asks "what are you studying?" or "which halls are you staying in?" and you have to answer "well actually..." 4 times in a row you start to feel a bit lost and out of place so eventually I got fed up and made my excuses and left. So yeah I guess i am just feeling very odd at the moment having met loadsa ppl who are my age but all doing something completely different and having to explain wot it is that im doing and why im not a student 600 times. However, I am going on the careforce induction course in Oswestry this week so I will get a chance to meet some people in the same boat as me and maybe some people nearby that i can meet up with in my free time and stuff, which will be really great! so im looking forward to that and getting a short break. I know Ive not been here long but moving to a new place and diving straight into work as well as meeting loadsa new people is very hard work. I know the 4 days will be quite intense and i will be meeting a load more new people but it will be a break from lodge moor (it is such a small place even after 3 weeks it is quite easy to feel a bit isolated!) and will hopefully be useful for the rest of the year.
Wow I just realised how much I wrote! Sorry! im amazed if you got this far! round of applause!

hehe new hoody!

2006-09-23T11:59:00.000+01:00

Yesterday looked like it was gonna be a bit of a rubbish day to start off with. I was kinda tired and not really with it in the morning and knew that I had 9 hours straight of work from 1pm so was a bit worried i wudnt cope. I made it to school and the class was late gettin to the IT room, which gave me a change to chill out for a few mins. The lesson was a bit stressful as the class teacher didnt really know wot he was doing so the IT teacher and I were not only tryin to help the kids but also trying to fix the work of all the kids he'd helped lol. When I left it was raining and on the way home i got absolutely soaked, luckily i managed to get back 5 mins early for kids club so I had chance to go home and change on the way. when I got home there was a parcel waiting for me with a brand new hoody inside, just as if you knew i was gonna get soaked and need some clean dry warm clothes - thanks mum!
After that things got alot better, i dont know why but kids club always seems to get me going - I love it! the kids are really nice and I especially like the "praise party" at the beginning (we sing all our songs at the start) cos it is such good fun. although it is also fun watching people do really silly stuff in the drama, even if for some of them u sit thinkin "I've got to clean this up afterwards"! There were only about 10 kids at unity, which was a shame, but also kinda good since there were only 3 leaders! It did mean it was easier to play an organised game of relievo, but I have now officially decided that there are no decent hidin places in ST Lukes church - still fun tho!

I am in kids church on sunday - not leading this time tho so I can see how it should be done lol. And this week is the first youth lunch of this year (Dave and I cook lunch for the young poeple on sunday, partly to get to know them and also to try and encourage them to come to church - it origionally started because kids club was at 3pm on sunday so it was alot easier for some of the young leadrs who lived further away).

2006-09-21T16:46:00.000+01:00

The bibles studies went well last nite. The boys kicked us out of our room, which was cruel, especially considering none of the boys turned up anyway! It did mean we got the sofa tho - so not too many complaints lol. There were only 4 of us at 6th form bible study, but it was still good. Nick and Chris were alot less distracting than they were at girls bible study last week. We are doing a bit on the Lords prayer (the same book we did in cu last year lol - I am doing it again because from speaking to them it seems that prayer is something they wanna get into more and thought it would be a good way to start the year).

I have been at northern training 2day. I was the second person to arrive this morning lol. It was another case of metting loadsa people and trying to remember names very early in the morning hehe. I did meet Lisa, who is the identical twin sister of one of the leaders of the camp I went on over summer. That was very confusing, there were so many times i nearly called her Kate! I got a bit scared when the person I sat next to took out hor bible it was "parallel greek and english new testement"! She is a theology grad tho lol most ppl had NIV.
It was hard work concentrating on everything today, especially towards the end and in the last talk he was throwing alsorts of terms like "biblical theology", "systematic theology", "exegete", "gramatico-historical exegesis"and "hermeneutics" -whats that all about?! apart from having to force myself to concentrate on the last talk and the fact that Steve Timmis talks very very fast it was good and im looking forward to the rest of the year. Well maybe not the point where I have to stand up and do a talk! I now have the nite off to chill out - woo hoo! im soo tired!

sing a new song!

2006-09-20T15:12:00.000+01:00

lol this morning was very funny! I turned up at church at 9 ready for my meeting with Dave, who is always about 15 mins late anyway - tut tut! And at 9:30 he still wasnt there! I didnt really mind cos I just stood talkin to Rachel for ages, it turned out he had got the time wrong lol. Anyway, he has bought some new CDs for kids club so we spent 2 hours listening to them and making up actions to the songs we liked. That bascily involved me sat laughing at Dave and Jo (daves wife) dispearing of him when she came in for a bit. We are gonna get the young leaders to come up with some of the ones we cudnt do after bible study 2nite, which should be fun! So yeah I was at church for 3.5 hours this mornin planning kids club and then we went out delivering sheets for kids club and now i have 1.5 hours til im back at church again - its all go I love it!

I finally got accepted onto Northen Training yesterday after a few issues with references not appearing! It's all good though and I start tomorrow. It should be cool! Tonight should be fun too. I am going to girls bible study 5-6pm then at 8 i am leading the very first 6th form bible study. I'm excited bout it the 6th formers are a great bunch and they all seem really up for studying the bible - Woo!

It's sometimes hard to understand...

2006-09-17T21:23:00.000+01:00

I finally figured out my kids club "sermon" on thursday morning and managed to get everything sorted, which was amazing cos i was so worried bout it (as u probably guessed by my last post). As far as I can tell it went quite well this morning, aside from a few random tangents due to kids askin questions i wud never have thought of, but thats to be expected lol. My love of kids songs has increased even more as i am learning some new ones, some of the words to kids songs are just awesome when you actually think about them. I listened to one song for bout 15-20 mins on repeat so that I could learn it for kids church this mornin and the verse is great:

Well it's sometimes hard to understand

how the God who made the earth and man

would point His finger down from heaven and shout:

"Hey you! I lova ya!

Hey you! I love ya!

Hey you! you!

I love ya but its true!"

The other great thing about kids songs is you have an excuse to sing as badly and as loudly as you want as well as do absolutely crazy dances - I love it! It is pure and simple praising God with all you might and all your heart (I'm not saying you cant do it stood in a church service singing hymns, but there is just something really satisfying about having a jump around and wearing yourself out!)

We also had 'Plan B', which is the monthly youth service 2nite. I had to "introduce" myself at the front. It was really funny cos i sed to dave he shud do it like and interview cos otherwise i just wudnt know wot to say and wud probably talk rubbish, but dave "forgot" to think of some questions so he asked chris to do it like 5 secs before the service so chris just asked me like 3 questions then ran out of ideas hehe. I also had to do the reading, which was very scary but apparently i did a good job so yey! It was a really good service all about new life, the reading was john 21:1-19 (when Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him) and Daves sermon was great, it was really powerful. straight after the sermon we sang 'Purify my heart' and it ended up being the confession as the worship group sang and everyone else was praying and stuff twas completely spontaneous - wow!

After the service we had SLOT (St Lukes Older Teens) and we basicly just played games like relievo and sardines in the dark all over church - such fun, but I there arent as many good hiding places as at Stans.

btw I have to apologise for using the word 'awesome' so much - I havent turned american honest, I didnt move that far! I think I am kinda in awe of alot of things atm and I dont have much other vocabulary to cover it lol.

help!

2006-09-13T14:51:00.000+01:00

K, I have been asked to lead Kids church on sunday because none of the normal leaders can do it. Kids church is run pretty much like a church service with prayers and a "sermon" and songs, apart from we also do a craft and a game. My passage that I have to do a talk about is Matt 5:1-12 (the beatitudes) and im really stuck as to how to do it with a bunch of kids. if anyone has any ideas they would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

2006-09-12T15:27:00.000+01:00

I have been for another walk lol. I took my camera this time and thought I'd treat you all to some great scenery! I'm loving spending my days off just going for walks and stuff. Today was the longest walk I've been on so far. I was only planning on doing a small circuit, which wudda taken me about an hour, but I took my OS map in case I got lost and then decided I was having such a good time I'd carry on. Origionally I was going to walk to Lower Redmire Reservoir and then walk back, but I found a path that went all the way round and on the way back found another path that followed Wyming Brook to another reservoir and eventually worked my way back to Lodge Moor. In all i walked about 6.5/7 miles! It was fab!

Lodge moor road (this is 2 mins walk from where I live - how cool is that?!)

Sheep!

Don't ask why, but I just had to take a picture of the birdsThis is all three of the Redmires Reserviors. The closest one is upper, then middle, then lower is the furthest away (the one i walked past first)

Wyming Brook

Wow! How gorgeous is that?!This is the last of the 4 reservoirs I walked past (this is the one you can see one the picture I posted the other day)

1 week

2006-09-11T12:52:00.000+01:00

Wow! I went to the evening service at Christ Church Fulwood yesterday. it was great! It was the first time ive ever been to church without knowing anybody, which was a bit daunting at first but once I got there and sat down and the service started it was fine. Fulwood church is always packed (and the students havent even arrived yet!) so the singing is great because you can sing as loud as you like without having to worry bout sounding silly cos your voice just gets lost in the middle of everyone elses - cool! The sermon was really good too, looking at Deuteronomy chapter 4. After the service I went and introduced myself to the student worker, who introduced me to one of the 5 ministry training ppl, who is doing student work in sheffield for the year. He introduced me to the other 4 and some of the other youth/students. so I now know 6 other ppl who will be doing northen training - yey! The girls invited me down to "sunday night live", which is like impact for those of you from Stans. Then a few of us went to the pub - i think by the end of this year I will have seen enough of pubs to last me a life time lol!
This morning was staff meeting, which wasnt quite as bad as i thought it was gonna be. then i went into school to do IT with the year 5's. a couple of the kids in the class go to kids club, which is cool. now I am completely free until wednesday morning.....

picture!

2006-09-09T16:13:00.000+01:00

Ignore the random person who got in the way of the view!! lol this is the picture of me Alan took on our walk on thursday morning because apparently they need another pic of me for the church magazine - hopefully they dont want one every month! I just thought I'd put it on to show you the view! lol i look really silly!

Be Happy!

2006-09-09T11:30:00.000+01:00

lol kids club was fun last nite. i think we had about 15 kids (4 boys bout 11 girls lol). Chris was leading it and he made me team captain before realising that i dont know any of the songs or actions (it is basicly boys v girls so each team has a captain who stands at the front and does all the actions and generally tries to get the kids to join in). it meant i got to learn the songs very very fast - I still maintain that on the song without the words i knew it better than dave by the end! we did sing be happy though - a little peice of home - even if they do do the actions a bit different meaning i got very confused lol. the kids told me i did a very good job considering it was my first time - get in! Apparently I also look like one of the kids called rebecca (maybe its just something to do with the name??)
After kids club it was a speedy tidy up and then set up for unity. we did, however, find time to send dave down to the takeaway to get us some chips. I think there were probably about 15 kids at unity too. I didnt really talk to any of them tho for some reason i ended up spending most of the nite with the leaders, ah well i have plenty of time to get to know the kids.
Then we went for the weekly unity leaders trip to the pub. that was the first time i bought myself a drink in a pub since i was 18! ok it was only lemonade but still! today is a bit of a dead day really there is nothing to do. i am having a couple of the sixth formers round for a video later tho which should be good!

What a wonderful world!

2006-09-08T12:07:00.000+01:00

The fact that Sheffield is so Hilly is not always a good thing, but it does have amazing advantages - ie the view!
Yesterday I got up nice and early ready to go to Northen Training, which is what I'll be doing every thursday, but found out it wasnt on (luckily before I'd left the house!). So I went for a walk. It was only a short 30 min walk, but it took me up a bit of a hill and the view was fab I didnt have my camera so ill have to take pictures another time (after all I have a whole year!). Then this morning Alan and Leslie (the ppl im living with) took me for another 30 min walk with an even better view down into the valley and over the hill on the other side.
All you have to do is walk for about 5 mins in almost any direction round here and you hit countryside - its fab!
I am finding my way around now (its not hard to get lost cos lodge moore isnt really that big!
2nite will be my first time at kids club and unity (the 11-14s youth club ie nxt stop lol), which could be interesting! We folded and posted 150 letters to all the kids on the unity register from last year on wednesday - it could be interesing if all 150 turn up at once! As far as i know the most they have ever had at once has been about 80, which is still scary!

Disciple

2006-09-04T14:17:00.000+01:00

"The choice has been made.

There is no looking back.

I have stepped over the line.

I won't let up, back up,

give up, or shut up.

My focus is clear,

my path is straight,

my God reliable.

I'm a disciple of Christ!"

So this is it, I am away from home, in a new church and working for God! How cool is that!

I arrived yesterday morning for the church service and was commisioned and then went to the vicars for lunch, which was nice. Then we unloaded the car into my new bedroom and a waved mum and dad off and got on with the unpacking - such fun lol. My room is really nice and quite big too which is never a bad thing! It was quite wierd, when I was unpacking the phone rang and I wasnt sure whether to answer it (the ppl i am living with only ogt back from holiday at 9pm last nite), so in the end i decided i cud take a message and it turned out to be the last careforce worker lol. Anyway.. yeah the youth workers wife took me down to Christ Church Fulwood for the evening service, which was good. The church was packed! The service was really good, they just started a series on Dueteronomy. After church a few of us went to the pub and did the pub quiz - it was really funny (you try and make a TV celebrities mane out of "hate is mild"!). This morning i spent 5 hours with dave! He picked me up at 9 and we went to Macdonalds for breakfast - now thats what I call a meeting! lol! then we kinda drove round the town centre and he showed me where some stuff is ie bus stops, shops and the place where the northen training course is. after that we came back to the church and planned kids club which is fun - this term our theme is pirates hehe! We also went down to the school to meet some of the teachers. some of them are very strange but thats probably the same in any school lol. I havent really had chance to talk to the ppl im stayin with yet which is a bit wierd but im having tea with them 2nite so there we go. I got home from church to get some lunch and found a note - "off to A&E for attention to burn!" :S It took me ages to work out what it said anyway cos i cant read Alans writing lol.

Anyway I decided I wanna put a song we sang at church last nite on here because I think its really cool:

The wonder of Your mercy, Lord,

the beauty of Your grace,

that You would even pardon me

and bring me to this place.

I stand before Your holiness,

I can only stand amazed:

the sinless saviour died to make

a covenant of grace.

I only want to serve You,

bring honour to your name,

and though I've often failed You,

Your faithfulness remains.

I'll glory in my weakness,

that I might know Your strength.

I will live my life at the cross of Christ,

and raise a banner to proclaim:

The wonder of Your mercy, Lord,
the beauty of Your grace,
that You would even pardon me
and bring me to this place.
I stand before Your holiness,
I can only stand amazed:
the sinless saviour died to make
a covenant of grace.

You welcome us before You,

into this holy place;

the brilliance of Your glory

demands our endless praise.

The One, the only Saviour

has opened heaven's doors;

we can enter in, free from all our sin,

by Your cleansing sacrifice.

I loved this song! I had never heard it before and it just seemed to sum up why I am here. God sent Jesus to die for me and save me from sin - save my life! It is an honour to be given the oppertunity to give a whole year to serving Him, and that is the least He deserves in return for His wonderful mercy, grace and faithfulness! No matter how many times I have (and will!) mess up all I have to do is acknowledge my own failure and God is there to forgive me and help me through, He is always with me - woohoo!

...(yeah i cant think of a title!)

2006-08-25T13:56:00.000+01:00

So holiday club is over. It went soooo fast! It was great, apart from monday we had over 100 kids every day. The kids really loved it and most of them got involved and they all seemed to listen really well to the storys and dramas and small groups, which is always good! I was leading a small group, i found it so hard mostly due to tiredness and just generally not havin a clue what to say. Today i was so rubbish i cudnt even start it and ended up havin phil do it for me - cheers phil! So yeah im feelin kinda useless today and it worries me that i cudnt tell bout 10 8 year olds the gospel and that is gonna be my job next year. I hope sunday goes better because we are doin the same kinda thing at church which means i will be leading a small group in church but it will be adults as well as kids :S. Anyway I finally get a chance to have a lie in 2moz so hopefully ill be able to catch up on sleep!

Again again!

2006-08-22T08:33:00.000+01:00

lol yeah I wanna go back to camp! I had such an amazing time! It did rain alot of the time but it was still great fun. Thank you to the snowflake boys for being such a fab tent (yeah my tent was the snowflake boys - don't worry i wasnt stayin in a tent with a load of lads it was a girls tent!). It was really great being a tent leader and really encouraging to see you all praising God and being able to join in. I really dont know what else to write about camp lol so much happened and I am still kinda tired hehe. I think my fav activity of the week has to be playing trigger happy tv in haven, that was soo funny! but then there was also wanted which was cool. Don't forget the leaders won at leaders vs campers croquer (how on earth do you spell that??!). Anyway I'd better go now cos its time for holiday club. hope to hear from ppl soon!

Nefyn!

2006-08-19T17:17:00.000+01:00

Hello!
I just got back from camp! It was awesome!
I am however now very very tired and in alot of pain because ive been running around all week and its not done my knees alot of good lol (was still fun tho!) and also it was very wet and due to my feet being wet for pretty much 2 days solid they are now extremely sore :( (again - it was still worth it!)
Anyway im gonna go now cos my eyes arent really workin atm lol, ill tell more bout my amazing week when I am more awake.

I'm not a Learner anymore hehe!

2006-08-04T23:33:00.000+01:00

Yey! I passed my driving test 2day - only just but that doesnt matter lol. The examiner was nice but she had the most annoying voice ever and Eric (my instructer) told me that she can be quite harsh with her marking as well (i reckon if i'd had a different examiner i wudda done better lol - come on she expected me to take corners in 1st gear!) anyway yeah my first drive was so exciting i thought i mite wet myself! yeah rite! lol I got to take some rubbish to the tip - wow! but then I got to drive to work, which was quite pointless cos its just round the corner but still it was my first time driving completely on my own and then my second time driving in the dark on the way home, which is always fun hehe.

We're all goin on a summer holiday

2006-07-28T22:04:00.000+01:00

K I am bored. Super long holidays sound great when you are still at college and can't wait to leave but then after a week the luxury wears off lol. I dont really have anythng to do and I hate sitting round the house not doing anything. I cant wait til camp partly for something to do, also to see people again and because it is just soooo much fun (even if it is exhausting)! I love telling people about God and camp is such a great place to do it and have loadsa laughs along the way. It is great to get to know the kids and the team and make friends. Anyway..... I'm gonna leave you with a cool pic:

64% not too bad lol

2006-07-24T23:42:00.000+01:00

lol this is all nats fault i only did one to start with!

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.
You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

You Are 2: The Helper

You always put on a happy face and try to help those around you.

You're incredibly empathetic and care about everyone you know.

Able to see the good in others, you're thoughtful, warm, and sincere.

You connect with people who are charming and charismatic.

What Number Are You?

You Are 64% Happy

You are a very happy person. Generally, you feel content and that all is right with the world.
Occasionally, you have a down day - but you have the ability to pick yourself right back up.

How Happy Are You?

Who actually pays attention to these things, they are completely random and dont relaly have any meaning at all (they are a good way to waste time tho lol!)

superhero

2006-07-23T14:16:00.000+01:00

You Are Spider-Man

Quick and agile, you have killer instincts (literally).
And that kind of makes up for the whole creepy spider thing.

What Superhero Are You?

whats the story....?

2006-07-20T22:51:00.000+01:00

Well now I have finally made it to the grand old age of 18! Many people have asked "how does it feel to be 18?" and if I am bein honest not really any different (cos i REALLY expected it to be??!). I like the fact that I can be alot more helpful on camp and with things like kids klub and stuff because I am now an "adult", but other than that it doesnt really make alot of difference to me. The only other thing it would have affected would be that I would legally be able to buy alcohol, but since i am not planning ot drink that is really not a major thing (plus I have bought it before anyway- not for myself!)
I realise that I sound a bit like im moaning lol but I dont mean to sound like my life is really rubbish because in truth its not. I have finished college and have a nice long summer holiday, I have got next year sorted out and am really looking forward to all the amazing things I am going to have the chance to be involved in, I have spent alot of this week helping get ready for the "oscar party" at church which has been tiring (and i havent done half as much as others have!) but great fun, and in a few weeks I will be going on camp and helping out at holiday club. I really dont have anything to complain about, the one thing I could complain about (being bored lol) is my own problem because I actually have quite alot I could do but just havent bothered to do it yet, or have started and not finished! lol
So basicly things are quite exciting, even though they are moving a bit slow atm i am gonna try and get on with some things over the next few weeks to help get ready for camp and for next year.
anyway i was gonna put a couple of pics from sunday on but it wont work so ill say bye for now xx

lodge moor

2006-07-04T18:34:00.000+01:00

Wow lol! I know I have told quite alot of ppl all about lodge moor cos i was, well, a little excited lol. I had a fantastic visit last weekend. The ppl were really nice and there is a great group of young ppl really up for everything you throw at them (including water, ice cream and any other random thing that will make a huge mess!) There are also alot of 11-15 yr olds (in the winter they get up to 80!) that I will be able to work with and build on things they have learnt this year, which is really exciting! The onlytwo problems I had there ( both of which are completely irrelevent to my decision to go there so dont really matter) are taht I had no signal on my phone (who needs em anyway! lol) and there were ALOT of insects all over the place, i got bitten loads! Anyway as you can probably guess I have decided that I would like to go there in september and am really looking forward to it!
Here are some pics of where im goin:
Incase you can't work it out (?) this is the church

This is lodge moor. It is a really cute little village just outside sheffield - it even has its own little row of shops with a butchers and greengrocers and doctors!
You probably dont really want to know but im gonna give you a little key (wow im cool!) of where places are:
where the church is is pretty obvious and the vicars house is right next door
red: where im gonna live
pink: the park (we took a bbq there for the youth group on friday nite)
yellow: curates house
green: youth workers house
orange: school im gonna be workin at
last but by no means least purple: the pub (our friday nite hang out!)

anyway if you made it to the end of this post - well done! be gald you werent with me on sunday nite unless you were in which case i am sorry lol. appaerntly it is the most excited daniel has ever seen me!

if u wanna know a bit more bout what ill be doin there check out:
http://www.youthprojects.co.uk/

Freedom!

2006-06-26T13:11:00.000+01:00

I finally finished college today! I did my last exam and now I never have to go back again! The exams havent gone quiet as badly as I thought, although the last one was a bit of a nightmare still not as bad as it could have been lol. I am looking forward to chillin out this week without feeling guilty about ot doing revision or homework, I don't really know what I'm gonna do I'll probably be at a loose end, so if anyone wants to meet up or go out let me know :)

"I recall the height from which..."

2006-06-23T09:39:00.000+01:00

This may seem kinda random but it challenged me so I'm gonna share it.
The other day I found a notebook I used to write in quite alot and in it I found a page I wrote just after I got confirmed when I was 13:

"After feeling seperation from God for a while and coming back to Him I have been overwhelmed by His love. For the first time I am truly feeling what it is like to be a christian and to love God! It is like all these years I have been pretendidng and now my eyes have been opened. It is indescibable, like there is a party in my heart and I just want to sing and dance. Getting confirmed to me is giving my life to God."

Looking back I can remember a few times when I have just been awestruck by God's love and power. At the moment I am struggling a bit with things and reading this reminded me of the letter in revelation to the church at Ephesus:

"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first."

The church at Ephesus was working hard for God, but they had lost their love of God and sometimes I feel the same. I haven't stopped being a christian and it is sometimes hard to notice, but there are times when it is very easy to just slip into a routine of going to church and bible study and losing the passion for it, losing the thirst for God, losing the longing to be close to Him. This may not make any sense to anyone else but I found it a huge challenge to look back and see how excited I got 4 years ago when I got confirmed. For me getting confirmed was a big thing as I realised through it that I'd just been floating along for 2-3 years going to sunday school with my friends and not really paying attention. Coming back to the basics and doing the christianity explained course reminded me of why I was going to sunday school in the first place. It is so amazing to know that the God of the whole universe could love someone like me so much that He would send His only son to die for my sins so that I can spend eternity with Him in heaven!

"I recall the height from which
This fragile heart has slipped
And I remember You
I will turn back and do the things I used to do
For the love of You"

No more maths!

2006-06-16T09:33:00.000+01:00

It's official I no longer have to do maths! Whether I choose to or not is a different matter since i don't know what im gonna do at uni, but still. I handed in my textbooks yesterday and did my last maths exam! It was actually a really good exam, there were a couple of things I couldnt do but when i looked again i realised i was just being dumb lol. I also realised on my way home that I'd had my phone turned on in my pocket the whole time - oops! So now I just have biology and chemistry to go. Why did they save the worst til last??! Anyway I was just wastin time so ill go now and get on with some work lol.

Will the roads ever be safe again?

2006-06-13T15:08:00.000+01:00

lol I don't think so! Sam passed his driving test yesterday - watch out roads of britain! and I just passed my theory test so pretty soon i will be taking my test too - double o no! lol

What??!

2006-06-04T17:52:00.000+01:00

OK This may seem very random, but still I need to know, mostly for my own sanity! Please tell me if this is true about me:

"shes nice and u can get on with her but u have to agree with what she says or else!!! thats bout it really...she doesnt really have much convo!!! shes a bit quiet"

Please be honest, if it is true im very sorry!

Yes mum I have been revising....

2006-06-01T15:34:00.000+01:00

As you can tell I got very bored!

So Just How Northern Are You?

You're a Brummie

Niether here nor there. Not really accepted in the North or the South. Lets be honest, you kind of fail at life.

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Wow! that is really encouraging! lol

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

lol

Driving

2006-06-01T11:36:00.000+01:00

I was quite amused this morning as I got a forward about the real reason for the white and red flags that have been apearing on cars all over the place:
"New Road Traffic Laws

Information Release.

Due to the nature of the quality of driving in England the
Department of Transport has now devised a new scheme in
order to identify poor drivers and give good drivers the
opportunity to recognise them whilst driving.

For this reason as from the middle of May 2006 those drivers
who are found to be driving badly which includes:
-overtaking in dangerous places
-hovering within one inch of the car in front
-stopping sharply
-speeding in residential areas
-pulling out without indication
-performing U turns inappropriately in busy High Streets
-undertaking on motorways and
-taking up more than one lane in multi lane roads
will be issued with flags, white with a red cross,
signifying their inability to drive properly. These flags
must be clipped to a door of the car and be visible to all
other drivers and pedestrians.

Those drivers who have shown particularly poor driving
skills will have to display a flag on each side of the car
to indicate their greater lack of skill and general lower
intelligence mindset to the general public.
Please circulate this to as many other motorists as you can
so that drivers and pedestrians will be aware of the meaning>of these flags.

Department for Transport"

So far I don't have any flags on my (....erm....I mean Mum's) car so I can't be that bad at driving lol. I drove at night for the first time last night, kinda scary but I gotta do it sometime lol. I also parked in a car park for the first time, wow a night of big achievements hehe!

Aside from driving this half term is pretty rubbish really. I am finding it very hard to concentrate on my revision which is really annoying and makes things even more boring because I have nothing else to do. One of my friends very helpfully (depending on how u look at it lol) gave me a link to a website where you can play lemmings. It is so addictive! Check it out: lemmings (don't blame me if you get addicted!)

first post - woohoo!

2006-05-29T19:41:00.000+01:00

Yey! my first post! lol
I used to use my msn space to keep a blog but since everyone else seems to be using this I decided to have a change of scenery. If you are really really bored and want to read some of my old blog go on www.spaces.msn.com/crazyh88
Anyway I dont really have anything else of interest to write atm so...
Aurevuoir (yeah I dont speak french and probably spelt that wron but its the thought that counts!)