Am I the only one?

I was watching Ugly Betty... which is something I rarely do, but with all things global, it will inevitably catch me (like Gavin and Stacey has). I only watched for 5 mins and the ads came on...

Yet another tv ad about contraception. The full proof way of not getting pregnant, or getting an STD is simply to abstain. Eveyone can do it, it's free.

I've been thinking this for a number of years... but in the last six months, it's hit me like a ton of bricks that teenagers don't hear it any more. It's a simple truth and easy to remember.

Happy New Year!

No, I'm not a month early. It's the start of the liturgical year for the Church of England.



We celebrate the new year by inviting the community to the Advent Carol Service. We decorate the tree and invite choirs from the schools to join us. The picture is of the church and the dance group.

This year we told the story of the visits of the angels. It was a really good service again. It was well attended and very well laid out. The story is always good, and when you take it from a different perspective you can get a lot more out of it. So I'd challenge you to look at the story from a different side this year.

Warner's message was really good and part of the reason why I'm blogging today.

Unfortunately, I'm really not very well today. I'm full of cold, which really affects my sense of balance and general well being. I've been putting off being ill for quite a while...if I can say that. You know when you just know you can't be ill, but the moment the event that you're building up to is over, you just let it happen...so that's what has happened. This weekend was a big one for so many different reasons. Now I'm taking the time out to recover.

Youthwork: The conference was tough. A lot to take in, more to listen to and lots of resources to read through and use. I love the schoolswork.co.uk playing cards and will be using them in school and youth group soon.

Here's to a fruitful start to the year... and a get well soon mentality...

Time away

Today sees the return to Youthwork: The Conference in Eastbourne. We're heading to the whole of the conference again. Retreat day and main conference.

I'm looking forward to the drive down with Alice and Phil, and then spending time with Karen and the lot from Luton, as well as catching up with the Billericay guys and girls.

I'm apprehensive, I know what happened last year, and I hope that this year I will be able to get the same out of it.

One thing I'm disappointed about already is that there's no party! Last year's was so much fun...I don't know why hey aren't doing one...

Yesterday I spent a whole day in Luton with people from the St Albans Diocese, learning about working with boys. Lucinda Neall is very good, I would recommend her for training to anyone. I got a lot out of what she said can be applied to working with young people, but it's particularly good for working with boys.

I'm going to see if I can get her to come to the Chelmsford area!

Into The Box

This is a picture of the space that we were in at the end of half term, during darkness to light. I love this window. I'd quite like a closer look at it on day. Being at work I didn't get a chance to buy a postcard with a better picture, but Andy and I did spend some time trying to figure out the Latin inscription around it, but neither of us being Latin speakers, we found it a little hard!!

My second picture is of shoeboxes. Rather more colourful and heavier than if they had shoes in them! If you haven't heard of Operation Christmas Child, where have you been? (living in a shoebox perhaps?) It's a brilliant scheme that gets presents to children who don't have very much and often live in war torn countries. I have loved doing this with the students from Mayflower High School, its a shame that it doesn't run for a little longer, but there's a lot to do, once we've done our bit, to get the shoeboxes to the people that deserve them the most.

I'm praying that there will be a lot of shoeboxes arriving at church on Sunday.

I'm looking forward to Shaken Up tonight (last week we had 18 young people) and then on to Saturday and the weekend! Firstly though I have to write prayers for Sunday!

If you click here it'll take you to a post with the opposite name!

Loose Ends

There's a Guinness ad that shows men creating a world... I'm not quite sure I agree with that, because that's not how it happened.

I still haven't found the Catholic prayers I went to in September, so I don't know their names to tell you... I will keep looking... I don't want to get it wrong.

I've got my phone back. It's been upgraded and the problem was the proximity sensor, which I knew, so no big surprises. I'm sure that the Proximity Callibration wasn't there before, so I've done that, but I'm yet to see how this reacts when I make a phone call or receive a call.

Sorry if you can't get hold of me... Please leave a message after the beep and I will get back to you as soon as I can!

It's been a bit of a strange couple of weeks. Chris was told he had swineflu last week so things have been centered around him getting well again. So I've spent a lot of my time with him. He's better now and will be going back to work on Monday.

Before that though, we're heading to Watford to finish...yes...the Christmas shopping. I've never been so far ahead of myself. I've even booked the day when I'm going to do all of my wrapping, and I've got a box to store everything in once it's wrapped. It's absolutely crazy, but it means that December won't be as busy. I have got a lot to do this month and into December, day's off and free time are rare, so for me the sooner the better.

I'm looking forward to it all!

A night out

Friday night was spent in a building that I've never been to before.

If you're ever in St Albans, take the time to wander around the cathedral there. It's huge - possibly one of the biggest spaces I've been in (I haven't had time to check the cubic measurements of St Albans and Notre Dame) - the high ceilings and huge windows are amazing. You get the dizzy feeling from looking up!

Alice, Andy and I were there for the Darkness to Light themed lock in. We were running the labyrinth - which is going on a journey though different stations, some practical, others more contemplative, but all themed.

It was tiring, but a lot of fun to do, a learning experience and a chance to see how a different diocese does events.

I got home at 5am on Saturday morning and slept through til 11am.

Saturday evening came around all too quickly and I found myself in charge of Christ Church's Bowl and Bite at Eddies on Radford way. We had about 50 people during the course of the evening, families, young people and adults all bowling and eating together.

I really enjoyed the evening and am looking forward to doing it again. Hopefully we'll get more people along and have a chance to get to know some of the other people in our church family and town.

Sunday came round all too quickly as well. I lead Pathfinders at church, trying to teach them that God wants us to be nice and polite to our friends and family to make the world a better place.

Sunday afternoon was abandoned to sleeping and watching the Grand Prix - which was almost a parade, apart from the last lap, which was a little exciting.

The rest of the day was spent travelling to Luton, seeing Karen and holding Guinea Pigs, eating good food and discussing various parties and anniversaries that are happening in 2010.

The sad news this week is that I can't currently work in my office because of a leak. It has rained quite heavily recently, and the water seems to have found it's way onto my desk. It's a flat roof above my head and the water is coming in through the light, so it's not safe for me to work there.

Also I'm trying to sort out my phone. Phones 4 you have been useless, and Orange have been more helpful. Though not as helpful as I thought they would be. It seems that I'm going to have to send my handset to LG to get it fixed. So I may have a different number, but I will definitely have a different handset as of tomorrow.

The news is that I'm going to get £20 0ff my next bill. It works to ask the question. So if you text me and it takes ages to reply, it's because I'm learning how to text!!