Weekend Update!

I rarely have time to post at weekends, so Monday morning tends to bring a bucket of guilt for not having kept you all updated! Anyhow, here is comes:

Saturday
Had a pretty quiet morning, even though I should have been writing a sermon ... are you noticing a theme? I went for a long walk with Laura and Lucky and then the wife and I headed to Sainsbury's for brunch - an all-day breakfast that made me feel a bit ill!

Saturday afternoon brought cricket, and another decent performance. I won't go into as much detail as last week (I had complaints about it being a bit boring...), but I'll just tell those that are interested that I grabbed another three wickets and bowled under pressure at the end as we succesfully defended our meagre 121 all out (to which my contribution was a third-ball duck... no real change there!). One other story to tell from cricket... anyone who knows me will confirm that I am almost attached to my mobile phone. I was denied a clear-cut wicket on Saturday by a young square leg umpire because he was busy sending a text and wasn't watching. Ironic that I was so angry!

I spent Saturday evening working, which I'd rather not have done, but it was my own fault for not writing the talk for Sunday morning earlier in the week! It was a late night, hunched over my desk burning the midnight oil!

Sunday
So it was off to Christ the King (our sister church) on Sunday morning to speak at all-age worship. Once again, I took a selection of the teenagers with me (Emily, Jeni and Naomi) and they were so supportive! The talk was on "being ready for Jesus' return" and went pretty well, I think.

Lunch at the in-laws followed before the termy stress-fest that is the Youth Service...
... which was a phenominal success! It was on the subject of Sex and Sexuality, and had been a real team effort between the leaders and the young people. It was great to see young people who aren't usually involved up the front (take a bow Lara, Becky, Lucy, Cat etc), which Emily and Ben stole the show with their incredibly funny drama. The music was excellent, Naomi and Kelly led with great confidence, but the biggest shout-out goes to Dan Crockford, a Mettle leader who had chosen the topic of sex for his first ever sermon. And he was awesome... one of the young people commented that she thought it was the best talk on sex she had ever heard... and I think I agree with her!

Today
The day after a Youth Service generally goes one way or the other for me... I'm either high as a kite or down in the doldrums. Today, I've set about proving that there are exceptions to every rule! I'm just "ok"... been feeling like that a lot lately! Had a staff meeting which was fine, and fhcu which is always great, but I guess I could do with a lift.

A final thought... the topic of accountability keeps popping up for me at the moment, and I'm not sure why because I have quite a lot of it set up for myself. I keep recognising places that are seriously lacking in it, and I wonder whether God is calling me to challenge this? Pray for discernment... PLEASE!