See you in a week and a half...

Well, the start of 2006 has not been great from a blogging perspective, in that I haven't really said a lot. Normal service (whatever that is) will resume soon but at the moment I have got laods of exciting work stuff going on and the next essay is due in in a week and a half so I am pretty busy. And a lot of my work stuff is fairly intensive at the computer as I am preparing for some training sessions, so what with that and prep for the essay, the last thing I normally feel like doing when I have a spare couple of mins is sitting at my desk! So... my life in anutshell is:

• had a great drinks do before Christmas when around 30 neighbours came around for drinks. Was a great chance to build some community although I haven't seen many of them since... not taking it personally
• Pete and Susie came around for dinner which was great, although there were a few odd and peculiar moments, most originating from me....
• We found a strangled pigeon buried in our back garden next to an egg. Is it just me or is that a little bit weird?
• The young people put together a great worship event on Sunday night. We went for a jazz cafe feel and it was awesome. And several lads turned up that haven't been to an official church service type thing before!
• Thanks Phil for pointing out this great article about young people
• My head hurts cos I am thinking of about a million things at once but I love it and I love studying... woo hoo. Will write reflections on the essay when I have finished...
• We used the JCB song as a prayer/response during Passion[fruit]. It was cool.

Passion[fruit] Blog

Check out the new Passion[fruit] blog...

Passion[fruit]

I am v excited about Passion[fruit]... it is the youth service type thing at Enfield Baptist Church and is really exciting as it led by young people and aimed at them and their mates. The next one is a week on Sunday (15 January) at 7pm. Over the next 3 months, we are looking at the Trinity starting with the Father. Has anyone got any creative prayer ideas based around God the Father? Thank you...

Rize....

Well, happy new year everyone. Hope the start of 2006 has been magnificent...

I was expressing to Lewis the other day that I am unsure of the direction to take this blog. I sometimes think that I am just rabbiting on about stuff I have been doing without much reflection or consideration. However, I try to monitor what I say as I don't always think it is appropriate to mouth off all that I am thinking and feeling as that may not always be responsible or kind, depending on what has been going on or what I am considering...hhhmmm I will continue to ponder this one methinks.

On another note, I had a bit of a cinema and film binge over Christmas. One of the highlights was Rize, which is a documentary about a dance phenomenon that started in LA. It was started by Tommy the Clown, who began clowning to help out a mate and began this incredible movement and dance known as krumping. Young people that would possibly be involved in gangs and drug dealing are instead part of clown sets and get together, paint their faces, entertain and dance. There are artistic differences between the clowns and the krumpers and they settle these by hosting dance contests.

The film was fascinating, as it explored a few different angles to the phenomenon, including some of the spirituality behind it. It was so exciting and refreshing to see young people expressing their anger and emotions in such a positive way and brilliant to see them developing family and community through this. It was also great to see the church portrayed in a positive light. There are some interesting parallels between krumping and the early hip hop DJ battles. It is really worth seeing, especially if you work with young people or you are a young person... which is probably most of the people that read this!