Today I met up with Lyndsay at Chislehurst YFC before zooming off to Bluewater to meet up with Leesa and get my mac sorted.
I’m really going to miss this aspect of my job – traveling around the country meeting up with excellent, creative and inspirational people.
Today I want to thank these people as I have been truly inspired and experienced God in our conversations.
Good to see my good friend Jeremy blogging over at Greenwich Pilgrim.
Jeremy has been a great friend throughout SEITE and I think he is going to be sharing some exciting stuff as he develops new things on the Greenwich Peninsula.
Keep an eye on his blog!
It’s been great to spend the evening with friends tonight. A massive bonus of being in YFC is the quality of friendships I have developed over the years.
Tonight I am staying with Paul and Nia in Cheltenham and its simply great being with people who have a wonderful gift of hospitality. It’s so easy to feel comfortable here and I appreciate that.
It was also great to pop out tonight, meet the new chair of Cheltenham YFC and grab the end of the football – I was a neutral but felt immensely sad for John Terry – sometimes it is a cruel game …. as many Gillingham fans will agree
Tomorrow I’m off to Taunton to meet up with Lucy and do some training with the Taunton YFC trustees … don’t think they have internet that far south!
Friday I’m off to Bath YFC before traveling to the Teenbridge Project near Torquay.
Quite a few miles still ahead of me!
Its been a busy few days where I have met with lots of people; eaten good food, drunk coffee, win, beer, driven a few hundred miles (not after the beer and wine drinking!)and shared, listened, thought and laughed.
Highlights of the weekend
– lunch with Becky and Becky which they paid for – although it’s a highlight for the conversation, not just the food!
– facilitating a training session with trustees of Waltham Forest YFC
– chatting with Simon after years!
– Paul and Nia, good friends from Cheltenham YFC, joining us for dinner on Saturday night
– hearing peoples stories at harvest
There has been a good bit of chilling and chatting over food which s always a special thing to do, and I almost always think it’s quite a Godly thing to do as throughout the Gospels you can read about Jesus eating with people in different circumstances.
Lowlights of the weekend
Gillingham losing 4-0
Liverpool being knocked out of the FA Cup
Driving
so the weekends over … bring on the work – well 2 days of it until i take some holiday/TOIL
It’s been another SEITE weekend looking at how to manage situations, people and such like.
AS is always the case the highlights are always the chats and late night conversations over a few bottles of wine, or in my case some special malts. The conversations this weekend were special, which is probably something to do with the fact that we realise the end of the course is in sight and soon we will all be going our separate ways.
The major highlight of the weekend was surprising Jeremy with a celebration of his 50th birthday at breakfast this morning. We secretly had all planned to bring a couple of silly presents, with the idea to shower Jezza with 50 little gifts. The moment was special and it was fun to see the look of shock on his face and watch him sped the next hour unwrapping presents!
I had a few meetings in London today but had three particular highlights.
I experienced the good side of facebook, which we used earlier in the week to enable me to meet up with Mark, my best man, for lunch at The Chandos. I haven’t seen Mark in years and it was great to catch up over a couple of beers and lunch. Between meetings I managed to pop into the Louise Bourgeois exhibition and I ended the day with a ‘swift half’ with Jeremy before catching th train back to Medway.
I enjoyed my time to wander through the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at the Tate Modern. I find some of her work quite sinister, but it is amazing to enter into the dark sinister-ness of her pieces. On one of her works she had written the following:
‘It is not so much where the motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive‘
As I traveled home, I mulled over question after question, but came up with very few answers…
As I think to developing something new in September I wonder how I will enable my motivation, and the motivation of other, to survive?
How do you feed motivation so that it stays with you?
What does motivation need to survive?
What marks out a ministry of motivation?
How does God motivate?
How did Jesus stay motivated in the gospels?
I feel an essay coming on!
It’s the start of Epiphany today, a time when we remember the 3 wise men visiting Jesus and bringing their gifts.
For me, Epiphany is all about revealing Jesus for who he is. The wise men brought gifts, and in that act tell the world that this is the Christ child, God incarnate.
Epiphany (the time from now until lent this year) is a time for me to consider what I can do to to help those around me to be able to make the connection that this child was God incarnate.
Epiphany is a time for me to think about the ongoing mission of God.
This morning in church Sam was baptised. This amazing 11 year old who we have had the pleasure to see grow up shared that following his baptism he was praying that he would have more opportunities to share Jesus with his friends.
What better time than Epiphany is there to make such a commitment! Excellent Sam!
Today has been a great day for catching up friends, but that is not what I had planned.
I had got the tasks I needed to do out of the way over the last few days with the plan of popping up to London to catch the last days of the Turner Prize exhibition at the Tate Britain. That plan failed as Joe was ill and off school.
The day has been great though, as well as getting future tasks done, due to technology of various parts (facebook, email, telephone) I have been able to catch up with a friend I last saw some 20 years ago, another friend popped in for a cup of tea who I had not seen for ages and spoke to still another on the phone for longer than I would have done if I was wandering in London.
I feel ‘relaxed and content’ after an unplanned good day at home.
Making plans is not all what it’s cracked up to be ya know!
Sometimes it is right to make plans and work within them.
Other times it is right to sit back and wait to see what God brings along.
I do more of the first, and sense I need to do a little more of the sitting back and waiting.
This U Tube video made me smile, and not only because my wonderful friend Laura, clearly has the best voice in this school staff Christmas spectacular. It’s a great idea – well done this school!If only TOTP was still going!
The weekend was a time of great experiences.
I had fun drinking with friends before the football match.
Gillingham’s new look team won.
On Sunday I had the privilege of joining St Mary Magdalene church for worship. As part of my training I am going to lead a service here after Christmas (worryingly for me this may also be my first experience of robing!)The service was superb and I felt able to connect with God in a fresh way. I also enjoyed seeing how a Jesse tree was being used at the front of church to help remind us of our story.
Sunday afternoon we went with more friends for a Chinese buffet at lunchtime and laughed and ate a lot.
(did I mention Gillingham won?)
After that Landmark joined us at home and then went to church after trashing my house nd leaving me there to tidy up … but it did not matter, I was not bothered one iota cos, did I mention that Gillingham won?
An amazing collection of rich experiences in one weekend.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 