Daniel's birthday

Daniel is one! We had a lovely day, with just he three of us in the morning and a family party in the afternoon. One of the only times he got upset was when we tried to prize his helium balloon off him in the balloon shop to tie it to his buggy! Our present was a big success, although he has mastered it already (child genius). He loves his music and was v excited to receive a drum and a guitar! His Grandma and Grandad came with a van full of presents today, including a great tractor and trailer. I don't currently have pics of the party, but here's a picture of a birthday swing.

Stop Look Listen

So, I am looking forward to preaching on Sunday night and have decided what to preach on when I had before me a blank canvas! I am going to talk about the importance of slowing down and listening to God - and hope to use in some way the Green Cross Code - beware the song is somewhat catchy. As I am preaching to adults primarily, I hope that they bear with me through the silliness. It is heavily influenced by an amazing retreat day that I had in London last Monday and will write more about that after the preach. Suffice to say that I found that when I slowed down and searched for glimpses of God, I saw that he was everywhere...

Self Esteem

I am fairly pleased with a lesson for Year 12 girls that I have put together on Self Esteem. Big thanks to Ian for helping me out with trying to download clips from You Tube - in the end I used Miro and it worked beautifully!

I used clips from the Dove Self Esteem Fund, as well as Christina Aguilera's video of Beautiful. I ran the lesson for the first time yesterday and got on to some good discussion, including whether the media causes low self esteem or exacerbates an exisiting problem. I was able to share how my slef esteem is based on how I believe God sees me and read the Message's version of Psalm 139. It is such a vast subject that it was actually really hard to do it any kind of justice in an hour, and I was especially aware of not wanting to open up too many difficult issues that couldn't be followed up. Hope this was the case!

Lovely Day Out

Me and Neil had a lovely day out to celebrate our wedding anniversary and Neil's birthday (both early July - told you we have been busy!) We headed over to uber-cool Hampstead and saw Casablanca at the fantastic Everyman Cinema, followed by a couple of drinks and dinner at Giraffe..

Daniel had a great time with his grand parents and we had such fun just beign together. Daniel, by the way, is just wonderful. He can climb stairs now and, despite still having no teeth, loves to brush his gums - when I do it for him, he finds it really funny. Can't believe it his birthday at the end of the month!

Breathing a Big Sigh of Relief...

I am just feeling pretty good - work and personal life felt like they were spiralling out of control for a while, but for the last few days, things have settled down and I am back on more of an even keel. I really do not believe that my work proves myself to God and I want to spend more time just being, but I am finding that my default position is to work too hard and I am trying to explore why that is. SOmetimes it feels like a vicious circle - I am trying to distribute out some responsiblities to others, but I am too busy with responsibilities to sort it out!!

But things are settling down and I feel like I have more time to the 4 (yes 4!) gap year volunteers based at the church this year. I also can spend some more time reading which I love love love. I am reading Growing Souls by Mark Yaconelli, but I have barely started to be honest. First impressions are that it is very good, but there is lots of overlap with Contemplative Youth Ministry. I heard all 3 of his talks at Greenbelt and they were incredible despite the repetition; as I said to one of the young people I was camping with, it is like 'having my soul gently watered.' Maybe a lot of the stuff he is saying I need to hear again, especially in light of recent busyness!

On another note, being able to read more is giving me space to think ahead for a youth Bible Study next week. This term, we are looking at questions that people have and hell keeps cropping up - is there really such a place, if so why did God create it if he is loving?... ANy suggestions of resources, articles or books? I know Lewis has been thinking about this recently... I am looking forward to the challenge of thinking through this!