as if by magic its monday again

It's been a busy few days really. We've had an Art Festival at church over the weekend, which has been pretty good. I've also had to keep up to date with all the latest World Cup happenings. So far so good for the Eng-er-land.

But now I really must get on with my dissertation. For regular readers of this blog it will come as no surprise that I'm gonna be thinking about youth work, and in particular the difference (if there is such a thing) between youth work and youth ministry.

Also, just in case you were interested, I recently purhcased Third Day's new(ish) album - Wherever You Are - it's rather good.

where's the time going.....

I can't believe where time is going at the moment, it can't be nine days since I last posted, and even longer since I wrote something of substance.

Sorry.

Today has been a really good day. Just one of those days that has been full of hanging out with people - both young people and friends. It's been one of those days when I've consciously said 'God, I can't do this in my strength' and God has shown just how incredible He is - not in the big things, but just in the little things, just the peace and contentment throughout the day.

And during communion this morning, I'm really not sure what the choir were singing (but it sounded in tune, which is good), but I just felt utterley overcome with how gracious God is.

I'm not really sure where time is going at the moment. There's so much to do in what my mind tells me is not a lot of time. Guess I'm gonna have to say to God that I'll have to rely on His strength not mine again......

I'm also counting down the days till I go to Taize again - 40 days to go. :o)

i'm so excited....

....about this.

it can't be thursday already can it

Really not sure where this week has gone. It seems no time at all since I was lazing around at the weekend.

Monday saw me out for lunch with some youth worker friends, one of whom is in the process of moving to Solihull. Lunch was v nice. I had Caesar Salad. On Monday evening I played football and hurt my foot when I (accidentally) kicked someone elses heel.

On Tuesday I went down to Birmingham to meet with my dissertation tutor. It was an encouraging and thought provoking time, and I feel somewhat clearer about where my dissertation is going, or will go when I get my head down and do some work. Being down in Birmingham also provided me with an opportunity to have my second Caesar Salad of the week when I was out to lunch with a friend. In a worryingly re-occurring theme, I played football again on Tuesday evening.

Yesterday (Wednesday) saw me out to lunch for the third time in a week (v nice, but not so good for the wallet). Being the radical that I am I broke with tradition and didn't have my third Caesar Salad of the week. Lunch had been preceeded by coffee in the morning with Andrew.

Just to reassure you, I have been doing some work in between these various social occasions. I'm not a complete slacker.....

I'm continuing to do some thinking about where the youth work at church is going, and we've arranged a 'vision' evening kinda thing. The point of this being to spend time together as members of the church family, to think together about the youth work, and how it fits into the wider vision of the church in terms of nurture and fellowship, as well as outreach and service within the local community.

I've got lots of ideas about how the youth work could be developed - nothing that in my mind feels particularly radical - but as ever the question is going to be other people to run activities with. While I am keen to spend time doing some more one-to-one pastoral stuff, I do also really value small group work, and the opportunities that presents for people to learn from one another. In a day and age when child protection policies exist, (and quite rightly so - don't get me wrong here, I understand their importance) there are some new challenges which will force/stimulate/encourage a little bit more creativity in our planning I think/hope.

lazy weekend

This weekend has been really rather nice. I've done very little. I think I deserved it after the energy sapping experience of last weekend (scout camp).

After a lazy Saturday morning, which consisted of me getting up, getting my hair cut, and buying a paper, Saturday afternoon saw me enjoy England's 6-0 victory over Jamaica in the football. Peter Crouch showed us a few moves, video footage of which Moog has found.

That evening me and my housemate went to Blockbuster to get a couple of films. This first of which was The New World, with Colin Farrell and Christian Bale. Basically it is the story of Pocohontas, set in the early years of 'America'. It's a very nice looking film, and it is clear to see the simiarities between this and The Thin Red Line, both of which are beautifully directed by Terrence Malick.

The second film we got out was Seven Swords. Again, this was a very good looking film, though it was in Mandarin with English subtitles. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining, really nicely shot film, with some well crafted fight scenes. If you can cope with the subtitles, and the sometimes slow pace of the story, then I'd say that it is worth a watch.

I've not (really) had to work today either. Sundays normally keep me quite busy, but we decided to cancel both Sunday youth groups with it being half-term. Not having to plan the groups gave me a bit of time during the week to do a bit more thinking about my looming dissertation.

I've got a tutorial on Tuesday, down in Birmingham. It'll be nice to go down to Birmingham, I've actually quite missed going down there every week since lectures stopped at Easter. My dissertation will be something to do with exploring the terms 'Youth Work' and 'Youth Ministry', something I've blogged about before, as have quite a few other people. It's probably something I bang on about a bit more on here over the coming months.

mmmmm tasty

I recently bought this book, from those nice people at innocent.

I've made a couple of the recipes in there so far, and they're tasty. And easy. And healthy. Which is pretty cool.

It's a really nicely made book, written and produced in the same vain as the Howies catalogues. In fact there's a recipe in the book from the people at Howies.