Eastingle

This year Easter was wet... That's more for me than you!

This year we ended the Walk of Witness at the Catholic Church, it didn't rain on us, we didn't get shouted at and I found that the service at the end gets better every year. It was really good to see everyone, some who I saw last week, others I haven't seen for a long time.

I ended up going for coffee with some of them, and then headed home to get ready for Eastingle.

For three years in a row, Christ Church has held a service on Good Friday, specifically aimed at children and families, in the middle of the afternoon. We are going to keep doing this and we are going to provide the materials for other people to do it as well, so if you'd like to know a little bit more, write a comment and I'll contact you!

I'm the youth worker at Christ Church, so I get to do some of the fun things... like leading a service. I still panic some times, I get nervous, but apparently I'm very good at hiding it. What I had to say was very important, I can't remember what I said though, I'm sure if I read it back, I'll be able to fill in some of the blanks, but when it comes to telling God's truth, the Holy Spirit takes over and I'm left speechless afterwards!

We had over 150 people this year - we almost doubled in number from last year and we started with 25 people the year before that.

I am pleased... and in other ways I am pleased with this


This is scrumptious Eton mess - yes that is chocolate, strawberries, cream and meringue... yes, only an hour after it was put together, it got eaten by six hungry friends!

Making meringue takes it's time, a serious amount of time, so only do it if you've got a couple of hours to spare - it took 5 mins to consume!

I have a better understanding of cooking every time I'm let loose in the kitchen, I have a better understanding of my faith every time I'm asked to explain it in church, taking time on my own is the best...

It is now time for bed and a well earned day off!

P.S. I'm liking lea & perrins a lot at the moment!

Celebrating Easter

This is a picture of a Seder table (stolen from here) which is the Jewish remembrance of Passover - this Easter I have done this twice - once with my course buddies and once with St John's school.

The importance of remembering the past is huge for the Jewish people and for Christians the world over, though opinons differ as to when it happened, but that's not my point. I said this time last year that I love tradition and I think that I can't really do without it in some respects.

It took 11 months for the work to be done so that I could make use of my DVD/CD holders, and now I'm heading back to Ikea to buy more furniture to replace the stuff that is falling apart after a long time of wear and tear.
A year down the line and I am moving forward... working towards another Eastingle and another week of busyness. I can't really comprehend how I got here, or where I will end up, but I know that I am loved fully by the Father and saved by the actions of his Son.

I also had the privilege of spending 4 days with 3 wonderful people and some guests - Mrs Barlow - actually Miss Deall and soon to be Mrs Campbell, is getting married in less than 4 weeks, so we spent the weekend at Elveden (again) celebrating.


I love this lady very much... and it's scary and wonderful to know that she will be getting married to a lovely man! There are still lots of hen things to do, but it's a secret!! Photos and a blog soon!

Here's to the end of March and the beginning of another busy month!

Easter

This Easter weekend has gone by in a flash, partly because I haven't been able to sit a watch really.

Maundy Thursday was really important this year. We had some good discussions and a little bit of teaching about the first passover, sharing food and sitting together (which I don't think we've done before) ... and the time in church was equally important. We were sat with the young people from the team church across town. It was great to sit with them and listen to what they'd been up to.

Warner spoke about the first passover again and used material from the time when students from St John's school came to church to learn about passover.

Shortly after that a few of us gathered at St Mary's in the High Street to hold a vigil. I had two hours of nothing, to recover and pray.


It was nice to sit and chill... to listen to God and hear words that I've heard over and over again, but with a fresh set of thoughts

"What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

Matt 6 from the Message (and biblegateway.com)

God will provide for us if we look to Him first... obvious really, but fixation on God is the key. often we use this passage as a 'don't worry God will fix it', kind of a 'while we're in the midst of trouble' verse ... but actually it's a verse to remind us where our focus should be inn the first place.

Mini but important...

So Good Friday crept up me. I said the words that Jesus would've said to Pilot and then rushed home to then rush out again to join this

The CTB Walk of Witness. It's two years since I last described it (here) which means I was working in Bristol at the time of blogging (time flies). We almost managed total silence and those businesses that have sprung up since Easter of last year were more than curious to see what was going on (a really clear memory of a hairdresser almost running to her door to see this spectacle is in my mind). No heckling this year, a couple of rude motorists though.

The rest of Good Friday was for Eastingle. We had 85 people in our church, learning what Easter is all about, and realising that I still don't know why the day is called Good. It was a really good afternoon, despite the rain.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with travelling to and from Bristol. It was good to see Kay, and her brother, who both turned 25 last weekend! And to collect and be driven round in Kay's new MX-5! I also saw a very dear friend, on my way home, I haven't seen Mary since I lived in Bristol, even though we used to live a street (or so) apart from each other in Billericay. She's now in Sussex, it was nice to catch up with her and meet her crazy dog, Horlicks!

Sunday came, unusual from previous years, I can't put my finger on it though, but it may have something to do with not seeing Karen, at all over Easter, and I slept for the most part (travelling 300 miles in 24 hours) and then headed to the pub. We were in the Spoons in town and bumped into the other lot from Billericay that are going to Center Parcs this weekend. I also had the opportunity to try Daffy's Elixir from Brewsters. Lovely beer - going to see if I can find it in bottle for soon!

Anyway, it is Thursday, I now feel I need to post this, because the time stamp is incorrect!

Eastingle

I said it last week, that before I even thought about it, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday will be upon us and Sunday would be rushing up.

Well here it is. Holy week is about to over take my life.

After my posts last week, I got myself involved in Eastingle preparations. Which is not more than I can handle, but something I believe is important for the life of the church and the community, though it makes me crazy busy for a bit!

You're probably wondering what Eastingle is...

Well, it's the follow on from Christingle, which is the celebration of the light coming into the world and banishing the darkness.

For the last couple of years, we've had three Christingle services, we get, on average, 500 people through our doors on Christmas Eve, because of this very special service, which involves an orange, a candle and some sweets.

People started to notice that last year we weren't doing any follow up services - Jesus wasn't a baby for very long (Talledaga Nights!), He grew up. Not a lot of people know what Easter is about, which is strange to me because it is up there in importance with Christmas.

So Eastingle involves a hot cross bun, 3 ribbons (purple, red and white) and a straw.

The Straw goes in the hot cross bun and the ribbons go on the straw in this order

Purple - To signify the ministry of Jesus and His triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the king of the Jews.

Red - To signify the death of Jesus, God's only Son, God as Human form.

White - To signify the fact that when we say sorry God forgets the things we do wrong and we're 'clean' through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Just writing it is pretty powerful. We've got readings to fill in the 'gaps' and a specially written version of Give me Joy in my Heart (Sing Hosanna) as well as Colours Of Day to sing through the service.

We're also using Tim Hughes version of See His Love, with a power point presentation to match as a time for response.

It's still in the early stages of development as a service plan, but we hope that it is something that will happen every year, and we're gathering together all the information about how we've done it and what resources we've used so that we can help others reach out to their community during our festival time. I'll post some photos when the event has happened.

It's also time to remember our roots too. Tonight we are sharing a meal and remembering the last supper, which has it's roots in the Jewish Passover. I do love tradition, especially when it goes back further than I can get my head around (I'm sure I've said that before!).

Time to go out and gather some food!