Fair trade

Soon it will be fair trade fortnight, and we will be 'showing off' our labels, in support of fair trade and to promote clothing etc.

So part of that is actually finding something to wear during fairtrade fortnight that fits, won't look to shabby and will allow me to do that. I've already got a tshirt that is branded by fair trade, so that's not a problem, but I wanted a pair of jeans to go with, so that I can show people what the cotton can be made into.

Problem is, I can't find any... I want a skinny pair in black or dark blue and there's nothing :(

I shall search high and low, but if someone can point me in the right direction, I will be grateful... I might tweet this!

 

Valentines Day

I started off late out of bed and arrived at church with the vicar hot on my heels!

Every Monday we gather at Christ Church for morning prayer, which is Bible reading and obviously, praying for the community. This morning, our readings, which are set by the lectionary (I think) were from 1 Chronicles, Psalm 44 and John 15.

John 15 is a very famous passage about vine and branches, but of course with it being Valentines day, what stood out for me, was entirely different, yet still in the passage.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

A good passage for today! 

Love is some times a hard thing to do and sometimes it's the most natural thing in the world, but knowing that the love I have comes from God is really helpful for me. It's a gift that I can share with others and I hope I'm doing some good by doing so.

It's all fun and games at the moment. We headed to the cathedral for SOLID Remix, which was a really good night. we had a few little glitches but actually, the young people enjoyed it and gave some good feedback on the night about how they would like it to develop! I do love that my young people are so engaged with everything and I'm hoping that it will continue throughout their lives. 

Saturday was the most relaxing day and recharging after a pain in the neck stopped me from being able to work properly (though I think I tried too hard), a chance to go to the football and spend some time with Chris. Sunday was the launch of the quest for volunteers for Fairtrade fortnight.

I'm hoping the next couple of weeks will be fruitful... looking forward to a half term recharge in Brizzle!  

Blogging more often

You know what? I can be a numpty sometimes. I thought I had a problem but I don't. I wish I paid more attention to what is really going on. Although sometimes, I'm too switched on to miss anything and end up over thinking something.

I haven't been sleeping well this week, probably because I stayed up to watch Superbowl on Sunday night. I got to half time, but still that is 1am and the knock on effect means I didn't get to sleep til two this morning, and that was only after deciding to read my Bible for a bit, in an attempt to pray myself to sleep - which works for me, as does counting!

I was watching 'Young, Unemployed and living at home' too last night as well, as the last bit resonates with me (I'm not young and I'm employed) and I wanted to see what Greg James looked like, as he'd been talking about it on the radio during my travels yesterday, constantly. It was interesting to hear about how many young people are struggling to find a job. My family are fortunate, my sister and both of my brothers have jobs that pay over the minimum wage, I think, and although it is tough sometimes, we all have a skills set that could get us a job elsewhere, when the time comes. Unfortunately, three of us are still living at home, because it is just not worth moving out. We all work in Billericay or commute to London, so prices are high, because we live within 40 miles of London. I would live with someone else, but finding the right person or people is difficult. And I'm not living with my brothers!

There were occassions during the programme when I wondered how the young people Greg James' was talking to were unemployed or struggling. Most of them were on job seekers allowence, which is only £50 a week, but some of the circumstances they find themselves in, makes you wonder why they aren't claiming more, or what help they are getting from the government. I could say more about this, but I have never been unemployed for more than 6 weeks, so I can't really say very much about the situation.I have been very blessed in my life with the jobs I have done (most I fell into or was asked to do).

Any way! I have to get back to finding out more about India for SOLID Remix on Friday!

'But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.' Rom 8:25

Wonderful blogs that make me spend my money

I have a little obsession with something the webworld would call 'noms' and 'squee' - in regular terms, well made, cute food and well made, cute items. I am semi-concious of things being ethically sound, fairly traded etc... so when I come across websites that combine these things I tend to get very excited and normally end up spending some money on things that reflect my personality or things that I would like to define a little bit of who I am in the future (I have a pink bible I'm known for and at one point, I had a felt covered bible). So let me point you in the direction of some of these, that I visit regularly, to aid my sense of self and deminsh my money pot!

The people that started it all are the wonderful world of icanhascheezburger.com where you can find noms and squee to your hearts content - it's a little addictive I warn you! (Some of it is also not safe for work, so please be careful bloggers, and small children!) I love IMMD and LFMF, you just need to type these into google and there are hours of good/bad short stories of how to make people happy and how to get away with not doing stupid things!

I visit cake wrecks on a regular basis (just for Sunday sweets mostly) and less often I visit Epbot which is the sister site to cake wrecks and often directs me to another site to have a look at, so the writer came across Dude Craft which put me on to loads of websites (I would go three or four pages in to see some really amazing paper/book craft and I so want a steamed wood coffee table when I'm all grown up!) which has just blown my mind... now you might be put off by the amount of adverts on the site, but I emplore you to click Cosa Verde which is all about things that are ethical etc! And that is where I came across my latest purchase from REDSTARink. So gutted that they don't have a UK shop, but hopefully that will change, because there are some amazing stationary bits to be had!


Also I love Pink Whisk which is a blog of one of the finalists from The Great British Bake Off from the summer. I'm going to try macaroons soon! 


I'm sure there are plenty of other blogs that I haven't come across, but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for some more wonderful food blogs and ethically trading etc blogs/shops.


And if you haven't come across Heaven's Attic please have a look and see if you can buy something for your family from there, it's a eally worth while cause.


I'm done!

More from Twitter and life to challenge me!

I thought that since we were nearly in February and I hadn't said a lot, that it was time to talk about January and all of the exciting things that have happened in the last couple of week, plus the things that have reminded me of who I am and what I can do. I've only got half an hour so I'll be short!

Like I said in my last post, I have an addiction to twitter. I don't have normal conversations with people any more and Chris and I often chat abut what's been said by people we both follow, or sometimes I'll talk about the slightly more obscure people/ideas that I follow. I am currently proving that I can exist outside of 140 characters, so that's really good news for me.

I follow Twitturgies which is 140 or less characters of pure God gold, now they don't tweet as often as everyone else (I think it's meant to be less than once a day) so it becomes exciting when they have done the deed. And it is always challenging, which is why most of the time I will re-tweet. Yesterdays was interesting as it fitted nicely with what I was watching on TV. The BBC has a habit of showing Open University programmes after the 10 O'clock news and last night was about pain and pleasure, the things that cause it and the things that stop us from feeling pain. The final statement was 'The greatest pleasure is sharing things'.

'Right' I thought, 'I'll tweet that'! And so I did. I didn't get much of a response because it was late at night, but hey-ho. I looked at twitturgies and they had this 'I set aside hostility to practise hospitality. I journey from exclusion to embrace. Help me God to find your grace in every face I see' which in a way speaks more to me more than the final statement of the programme I was watching. (it's called Pleasure and Pain with Michael Mosley and will be on iplayer for a week! and you can follow twitturgies here)


'Help me God to find your grace in every face I see'

It's a challenge for me, because we are all human and some of us are nastier than others, yet of course there are some real saints in the world. It's easy to see God in the things we like, what we enjoy doing (I love my job, but what about those that don't?), who we like but what about the negative aspect of all our lives, where can we see God in that? 


I don't know the answer. I'm trying to figure it out for myself as it is regularly something that smacks me in the face and well as the sort of human I'm called to be in God and that nagging voice in my head of 'you shouldn't' or 'don't do that'. I am free, I know that, but I'm not sure how to live it and how to make a difference by living it.


I think that is something that a lot of my generation struggle with as Christians from a church upbringing. We are the generation who could probably put down our faith and not really be bothered. The rest of the world has, those in their 20's are not really fussed about attending church (making it hard to find someone for marriage!) and those who do attend often don't have the teaching background to further their faith or aren't passionate about what Christ has done for them, or they simply don't see the relevance of their faith to let it shine though, for fear of being ridiculed or put down, or being asked tough questions.It can be something we just do on a Sunday because it's something we have always done.


I was privileged enough to be asked to join my friends on a weekend away to Longleat for Momentum Weekend. It was exciting, I love centre parcs a little too much sometimes, so spending a weekend worshipping as well as being in the middle of a forest, yes please! Also, one of my favourite speakers is part of the Momentum movement, though he does go on for a bit! My friends were introduced to the delights of Mike Pilavachi and Andy Croft - who have a wonderful relationship and a go at each other now and then to show that off! Their teaching was fab and it was a great encouragement for me to see 300 young adults (and 2 babies!?!).


They started the weekend with this video but also got us talking later on in the weekend about how we worship as a church and when our worship occurs. I came away with a greater understand ing of my faith and my friends, and hopefully an opportunity to take them to momentum or Soul Survivor later on in the summer.


I have now talking about far more than I wanted to and the blog has fallen into Friday afternoon, rather than Wednesday before school (all the best things take God's time). There are plenty more things to discuss... like the creeds from the early (300 year old) church at CCS and the new phone I have and how I can't find an app for anything I want to do, as well as the ridiculously small manual they sent me and the work we are doing in school and at Shaken Up.


Any comments...??

Twitter addict

Maybe it's time to add my twitter feed to my blog as I have already tweeted over 500 times since joining up to the thing just before Christmas. I am a fan of tweetdeck although it doesn't really help me to type in names of people I want to tweet, none the less, it does spell check for me... though currently I'm sticking to simple words and just replying to people I know.

I'm still not 100% sure on etiquette for twitter and sometimes I feel as thought I am breaking some unsaid rule about what I'm allowed to say. It seems that my facebook friends know be well enough to know that I occasionally ramble in scripture or chat about what God is doing in my life, whereas the twitter friends I have are all by some sort of motorsport association, so it's interesting to me when there is loads of reaction on facebook, but barely any on twitter. Still there are things that will always be taboo, no matter where you are and what you are doing.

The life of the youth work carries on (and every so often explodes) I have found myself in bed for the most part of the later half of this week, working out a cold that has taken over. My body was waiting for the 11th Jan to completely break down on me, having fought off every other thing going to get me through the Christmas busyness and New year celebrations, plus a weekend away at Centre Parcs with 300 young adults (well 18 - 30's (why would you bring babies on this sort of weekend)). So the last couple of weeks feels like it's taken forever, yet it's now really far away. We're already up to the third Sunday.

God, in His infinite wisdom (yes, surprise!) Has taught me a lot about love and worry in the last couple of weeks as well as mission and Biblical perspectives on things that I never thought I would understand. Amos keeps cropping up in my life and has done since I turned 16. I would say that it's odd, if I didn't know any better!! But I do and I'm grateful for the work that God is doing in my life and in the life of those around me to work for His glory.

I have an over-riding sense of the Holy Spirit resting on my life right now, like He's waiting for me to catch up with Him, to figure out what I'm actually doing and where I need to be in the next term or so, to have those moments where I learn from God and gather myself for another wave of work.

Right, I need to get my sleeping sorted, otherwise I'll never get well!!

Christmas Day 2010 (2)

Quick Christmas

December has come upon us rather quickly and without little notice it must be said! I have had a few moments of dis-belief in the past month or so.

The first one is a wonderful moment though. As part of my job I get to go into school and run lessons. It is always really interesting to see how much students know... It's a lot of fun to get students thinking about things from a Biblical perspective, the new things that we can teach them about the Bible and the characters we can read about. Recently we were talking about New Starts and the story of Nicky Cruz. One class we spoke to knew so much about the questions we asked them that we sailed through the lesson and felt truly elated at the end of it. I feel to my knees at the end of the lesson, knowing that God was working in all of their hearts and minds, teaching them about His goodness and grace. Today we were in a different school, but still came away feeling the same, Christmas lessons are always good when you get questions that enable you to tell your story and God's story in more depth.

The other dis-belief was a bad one - in fact things come in threes and I understand that a little more after having a wingmirror broken, a dead laptop and a maxed out overdraft (due to paying for a new wingmirror and paying to fix the laptop). It was a bad week for me.

Any way, the laptop is still not back, after the problem was not fixed the first time around, so I'm working from the home laptop, hence the lack of posting and general quietness.

In a few days we will definitely be in the run up to Christmas, there are carol services to be had, there are talks to be done and there are parties to attend.

Shaken Up has finished for 2010 and we will be back on 14th Jan.

There are lots of things happening over Christmas, new things to do. Things we will do once, things that will start new traditions. I'm apprehensive about this Christmas, but that's mostly because I will be in Church for three days in a row. Three Christingles, one midnight communion, one Christmas Day communion, and a Boxing Day service at 10am.

I would like it to be over so that I can rest! I've had one cold so far and seem to be really tolerant of illness at the moment. I'm praying that continues.

Sorry

My plan was to blog this afternoon, but life has taken over. I am thinking about what to write about and I hope that I will be able to do it soon. Apologies for the silence... I'm thinking and I will put it all down soon!

4 years ago

Today is the anniversary of my last big break up. I split from Henry, who was my fiance. The last four years have been difficult to put it in a word, though that doesn't explain why or how, or how different things are now. I'm still really rebuilding my life I guess.

It's sent me into a bit of a wobble really. I was blogging nearly every day at that point, so re-reading the account is hard to do. I still can't learn a lot from it and it seems like this time of year is the moment where I step back at take account of what I've done, who I have surrounded myself with and where I am with God. I wish I knew how to put it all into words, but I only have sounds right now and a sense of wanting to give up.

I always underestimate this time of year. Last year I had a wobble, almost out of nowhere and almost lost someone close to me because of it, the year before was not great either and in 2007 I was decorating my room this weekend with two wonderful friends who are now married.

The next couple of weeks is looking good for being busy and having space to think too. I'm working this weekend, so I've got a day off in the middle of the week. Seeing a good friend too for quite a lot of the time!

Remember, Remember

It's November and the world is changing, colours are now oranges and yellows, there's a breeze running through the house every time you leave a door open and there's an unmistakelable chill in the air, that won't be gone until mid-May! (I really wanted to say April, but I would be lying) It's that time of year when I lack motivation for wanting to get out of bed too early, though this week I have felt the benefits of early nights and early mornings, happily! I think the clocks going back has helped this a little, but my enthusiasm will soon die, I think!

Once again, we've had a debate about switching the clocks. In the spring, it's because the animals get caught up in traffic when the nights get lighter (and not in t good way) and during the autumn it's all about trading hours for business people, as I understand it. Now I don't normally listen to the news very carefully, but it seems that this time around, in 2010, there have been some lengthy discussions about taking action - do we stick with GMT or BST. The days get longer no matter what the time is, we definitely get more sun in the summer and less in the winter, but the system is so old that it would be too different. And it's not something you can change at half an hour a time, or even by fifteen minutes! I don't know what the solution is, but I know you can't please everyone, so you've got to put up with it. It's not the reason the economy is failingg, if that was really the case, we'd have gone bankrupt a loooooong time ago!

You may or may not know that my sister is married. To Robert, who is an American. He's living here now after what must seem like an age of waiting for my sister. It's been an interesting time, but I'm going to meet him on Saturday and we'll see how things go. Sorry if I caused any alarm with my last post. It was the night before they got married and emotions were running high.

As time goes by

The last ten or so weeks have been a rollercoaster for my family, in it's many different forms and ways. Maybe one day I'll write about it in full somewhere, but for now, please pray, if that's what you do. God knows what is going on and if you could just say my name to him that would be great.

Thank you to every single person who has already prayed with me or for my mum and dad, who I'm missing so much already. Your support is invaulable and of the highest praise, so please, if I don't thank you personally, take this as some way towards a thank you. It is times like these when I know I couldn't do things on my own.

I thank God for you.

Harvest pt. 2

My brother said yesterday that he was buying a Euromillions ticket with thoughts of becoming famous if he won... A good idea, but on the fame stakes for the family, I am miles ahead of him already. Two Blue Peter appearances under my belt and various news articles, prove that I'm a little more famous than he is (does infamy count though?).

My latest escapade comes in the form of a newspater article... the last time I had my photo taken for the paper was when I had curly hair! So a very long time ago... but here's the evidence



Don't I look good!?!?! Bear in mind that I had spent a wet afternoon in Norsey woods... but I look happy at least.

Today we have had the second harvest festival from Brightside school. They do a wonderful job of putting things together for an event that, according to the BBC, is dying out. We are living in a constantly changing world - and that shows by not hearing any familiar songs this morning - so children are viewing harvest differently. It's interesting though, school is already different from what I remember. I sound like an old woman :( I guess I am though.

Time to get my act together!

Last night we had J.John chat to us (DVD!) about adultery, which was really interesting. It was a fresh look at some of the things we're told not to do... but positively what we should be doing in our relationships - particularly with those we are in love with. If you're interested in Just 10 - have a look at the website or youtube for a glimpse of how good Just 10 is!

Harvest Festival

The last weekend was taken over by all things harvest-y. A chance to celebrate the things that we count as our own harvest. For me, it's how thankful I am for the hard work of the people around me, that we've created a space for young people to come to on a Friday and in school too. For the relationships that continue to grow and the opportunities that I have to share the gospel with the community around me.

We celebrated this year by holding a scarecrow festival, our first ever festival, which went down really well with the younger families and some of the adults, we had two entries from St John's school so a dozen scarecrows were voted on and the winner is.... ME! My 'Young person 101' got the most votes but it was a close one. I really enjoyed the problem solving aspect of it, but I think that is partly because I have an artist inside me and she quite enjoyed being let loose for a little bit. Here's my young person



Sport loving, laces undone, hoodie and jean wearing! Typical really!

Here's a really scary scarecrow!



My good friends Helen and Emma spent over two hours putting him together! He did a brief preach, before being dismantled.

We had a lot of fun at the barn dance and Sunday morning was about celebrating everything that had happened and was going to happen. I was most impressed with the pathfinders and the brilliant mime that they did to tell the story... Margaret's message was really good too and we held a collection for our mission partners in South Africa. The band were really good and the whole thing just hung together.

After that I walked around a very wet norsey woods with my parents and some others for 2 and a half hours. I got lost, but it's not difficult to find your way again... At the moment the rain is depressing me a bit as is waking up in the dark too. I'd rather stay in bed! But life goes on and so must I. We then headed back to church for the voting of the scarecrow contest. A man from the paper turned up, so I am going to have my photo hopefully in that this week. All good fun!

It's an interesting time of year.

Eating well

Eating is one of the things I love to do. I have always been near food, I have done a little bit of experimenting in the kitchen, some has worked, some hasn't, but I am a follower of instructions, so I find making things really easy. I also get distracted easily, so I'm often blaming my tools when something doesn't turn out right.

I want my own kitchen most of the time, but I love cooking with Chris and Mum though I love it when Chris cooks for me! I'm looking forward to having a house and being able to fill my cupboards with basics and my freezer with meals. I'm hoping that I will have more than 7 meals in my repertoire when I have a family (after I saw the BBC report the other week!). I'm hoping I'll learn something from Chris' mum and my mum too, as well as my Nan who makes a mean roast.

It's interesting to me when I find a flavour that I didn't expect but tastes like something that I've eaten a lot of the time. I found some crisps that fit that description... here they are



The taste exactly like a curry I've had and I think it's the one that Chris' mum makes! It smells divine though and they aren't too spicy, though if you like a mild curry, it's best to stay away. If you can get hold of some Hairy Biker crips, I would recommend them. Full of flavour!

Cadbury

P.S. I've just heard back from Cadbury and they have taken ywo years to get to the point where their pure diary milk products are fairly traded... they didn't really answer my question.

Does an Advent Calendar not count as pure dairy milk?

I'm disappointed by the answer I've been given. Booo. Not good enough Cadbury! On with the fight!

We also found out from the Kenyan's about their involvement in fair trade... it seems to be helping!

Time for a breather!

This is my wonderful boyfriend, doing something that he really loves. I am really happy that this is a picture in the public domain... it puts a smile on my face every time I see it, every time I remember being at Silverstone for the very first time, knowing that he was wandering around with a media pass. This weekend he was doing the same thing at Brands Hatch... his work for The Checkered Flag has taken over his spare time. He works his socks off with his paid job and then works twice over at the weekend. The life of a sports journalist isn't all flowery shirts and iPads (take note Eddie Jordan)!



This is my lunch today. I am sick again. Not 100% and grateful that I spent all of yesterday afternoon sat down, doing some cutting out. I hope I haven't given what I've got to anyone else. I feel really rubbish, but I have a lot to do still, so onwards and hopefully upwards.

Yesterday we had the ladies from Ciamanda in Kenya at church. It was good to sit and chat with them, and find out about their youth groups and how thing are the same and different in the part of the world that they have come from. I wonder what it is really like. The last time I went to Africa, they were only advertising mobile phones, but in the 8 years since then, everyone seems to have them!

My parents are on their way home from a weekend away to celebrate their 27th Wedding Anniversary. With a wedding on the way... it's their last chance for a holiday. It's nice to have the house to myself for a bit, but it's always nice to have them back!

Not a word....

I finished Her Fearful Symmetry over a week ago and I was a little bit confounded by the ending. I think confounded is the right word. It finished abruptly and it is rather strange, though the whole book leans to strange. Anyway, back I go to the Phillipa Gregory books that I brought a year or so ago and haven't picked up after being a little bit disappointed by one of a trilogy she had written.

I don't really like being disappointed by books. I find it sad that I can leave a book half way through reading it, but some subject matters just don't capture my imagination, and I guess that you can't please everyone so I am going to be disappointed.

This week has been a week to get back into a routine, although every September since I have been a youth worker (volunteer or paid) has been slightly different from the one before. There are days when I suddenly realise that every week is different from the one before, that I can't possibly think of my life ever being the same again. I am a fan of order and knowing what's coming next. I like to have things planned, even though to some it seems that it's chaotic!

I tell you something that is not chaotic at all, and that's the supermarkets already having their christmas stuff on the shelves. It's very organised of them to be thinking about it lng before the rest of us!

I was out last night, after my first night of my second year at CCS when I came across a whole isle dedicated to all things christmassy. Here's the evidence -



Shocking. I know we say that Christmas gets earlier every year, but this is seriously early... there isn't even any hallowe'en stuff in the shops and they have the Christmas stuff out! Sadly, once again, nothing fairly traded (not even the cadbury calendars) so I am on the hunt to find out how I can petition cadbury (and find a fair trade chololate calendar).

Here's hoping that Christmas won't come to soon!

Ch-ch-changes!

I have a pocket bible that my mum gave to me as I started my first year out, and because it is brown in origin, it has taken many different disguises, partly to disguise that it's a bible, but also to give me something to talk about when I meet people for the first time. I normally carry my bible with me, so it gets a lot of wear and tear.

Here's a picture of another makeover that it's just gone through



Twist your head and you'll find that at t the bottom of the picture is the old skin, and above that is the new skin that was used for the refurbishment.

I love my Bible, it's accessible to me and others, it's got notes of talks I've listened to, important reminders of where passages are that are important to me, how I've put Bible verses into context or they've been broken down for me. I have not read all of it, I hold my hands up to that, it is difficult some times to read it. i try to though and when I need it the most, it's more reliable than anything else!

The view from above

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100918/video/vod-amazing-video-of-workers-scaling-hug-dfc7e2c.html

Have a look at this - I couldn't even watch it all the way through without feeling incredibly wobbly!

There are people in the world who appear to be a lot braver than myself. I guess the only way to get to the top would be to climb up - using a helicoptor would possibly be too dangerous.