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!

Talented folk!

I'm actually really excited about the Kate Rusby song that our random group of musicians are going to perform at the next band night.
Last night, after an excellent Youth Service music practice, Clare, Ruth, Tom and I stayed behind to have a first run through of Polly, the song we're planning to perform. And it sounded so much better than I thought it would! It's basically a folk song, which is VERY different to anything that's been done at a RE:fresh band night in the past, so we're hoping that people will respect it... I think they will, and that will hopefully open the door to other types of music in the future. We'll see.

But the three guys last night showed what fantastic musicians they are. Clare, who's singing, was worried last week that she "wouldn't be able to sing it as well as Kate Rusby", but she sang it beautifully and the difference isn't as big as you might have thought. Ruth was given my scrawled down version of the violin part just a couple of hours earlier, and yet played it flawlessly, while Tom didn't have any music at all for the bass part, but worked it out on his own and sounded great! Such a lot of talent!

Oh, one more word for Clare: congratulations, welcome to the world of drivers!

Today's a day off, a full, 24-hour, day off, which is, frankly, a miracle. I've spent the morning taking the dog for a VERY long walk, playing with iTunes and listening to some music, and I'm looking forward to spending the night with Laura and bump in front of the telly (still working on those photos by the way... don't tell her!).

Strange weekends and full weeks

That about sums it up really! The weekend was... odd. Not bad, just odd.

I was expecting to play cricket and then go to my friend Karen's birthday party in the evening, taping the Derby play-off match and watching it later.

Cricket was cancelled, which I was gutted about after last week, but at least it did allow me to go to another friend, Shelley's, birthday party in the afternoon.

So I basically hopped from one birthday to the other, and managed to squeeze in the Rams match beforehand too. It was good, it just felt slightly surreal. And birthday parties are really tiring, I think!

Sunday was strange as well. I led RS2 in the morning, and it went really well, but I left my mobile phone at home and didn't know where it was, so I felt really uncomfortable all morning... those who know me will know that I'm surgically attached to my phone and so will understand why! It felt... weird. And then I was in a really odd mood all afternoon. I'm not sure why! Mettle in the evening was great though, and lifted my spirits big-time.

This week has started with a band. Staff meeting, fhcu and a prayer-walk with a friend in the day yesterday, plus DCC (surprisingly interesting) then beer with my mate Murray in the evening.

Today has brought a mixture of despair and joy, stress and happiness and work and... well, just work actually. I'm feeling quite up and down. Do pray for me!

We have a Youth Service this Sunday and a torrent of practices for it tonight in Mettle groups. They're meeting altogether before splitting off to prepare stuff, and it's the first time we've done it like this. I'm in charge of music, which is shaping up quite nicely, but do pray it goes well. It's an attempt to get the three groups working together, so I really hope it works!

Later on tonight, Clare, Ruth, Tom and I are having a practice of our song(s?) for the Band Night. I'm already feeling nervous about it all, and I'm sure they are too.

Laura's bump is progressing quite well... she's very proud if it, which is really nice to see. She bought some maternity clothes the other day which are very practical and mildly amusing. I'll try to sneak a photo on here without her noticing!

That's a very bitty entry ... sorry! But it sort of sums up how I'm feeling at the moment... Not bad, not great, just "bitty".

Thanks for reading!