Blessings

Last Saturday I headed down to the beach at Compton with a few friends. The car park is a little smaller than it was the last time I was there before the recent storms (the rest of it is still there... just halfway down the cliff!). We had a lovely walk in the sunshine along the beach, and just as we turned around to walk back to the car, a storm rolled in so we got a little bit damp!
A dry pair of jeans and a hot chocolate solved that one, and I finally made a start on my essay! 

Compton on Saturday

The reason that this week's blog is titled 'Blessings' is because I've been so blessed this week to catch up with some of the people that I'm closest to. I enjoyed a long conversation on Saturday evening with two of my closest friends in Uganda. We couldn't use Skype, so we messed around with picture messages instead.

Messing around with Brian and Angello on Saturday

I was involved in leading the service again at church on Sunday, and I also lead the Rising Tide youth group as usual. I discovered that the combination of stress and tiredness doesn't make for the best morning when you've got a lot of responsibilities and to top it off, the technology doesn't want to play ball! Fortunately, other than essay writing, I was able to chill out (and eat lots of chocolate!) in the afternoon.

Being half term, this week has been a bit different in terms of youth work. On Monday morning I met up with a couple of girls in my youth group to bake some cakes for a coffee morning. They did really well, and Linda and I were pretty much able to sit back and watch and just give a few instructions. I did a bit of essay writing and spent some time with friends for the rest of the day. On of my friends had been inspired by Lego Movie last week, so his dining table was covered in an impressive Lego collection!

The girls got to sell their cakes at a coffee morning on Wednesday and they were keen to be independent of adult help, so I was banished! After the coffee morning I spent a few hours making preparations for 'The Space' - the new youth cafe that we're opening after half term. I got my weeks share of exercise lugging big foam cushions around to work out how to set up the room.

Another great blessing on Tuesday evening - I left the island and drove up to Esther's halls in Southampton to spend the night with her. I arrived just as her halls' Christian Union was starting, so she took me to join in with prayer, praise and a study on 2Corinthians which was nice. It was really good to just participate in a bible study and not to have any leadership responsibility. Later in the evening we Skyped Clare which was great fun and absolutely lovely.

Esther, Clare and I making silly faces at each other on Skype.

Wednesday was an amazing day.
Esther and I got up at 5am(!) because we had arranged to Skype Brian in Uganda at 8am (Uganda time). Unfortunately there was a power cut where he was, which meant that he had no internet so we couldn't Skype. Never mind; Esther and I decided to make the most of the early start by going out to watch the sunrise.

When I got home I was greeted by a big pile of mugs on my bedroom floor that have been donated by people from my home church for The Space youth cafe. Thanks!!!

In the evening my friends Angello and Brian in Uganda were together and they managed (after much effort) to find some power and internet to Skype me - wow, what an incredible blessing that was! Its hard to explain how much I miss them - in luganda I would say 'nkumisinga nyo nyo ddala' which directly translates as 'I miss you much much really'. To get to chat to them both together was just so special.

Brian and Angello on Skype from Kampala

So all in the space of 24hours I got to spend time with my 'sisters' Esther and Clare, two of my closest friends Brian and Angello, and also my wonderful Mum and Dad. After a tough few weeks, I just felt more and more whole and blessed as the day went on! I really do have some incredible people in my life... they're just quite spread out geographically!

I finally finished my essay on Thursday. I've been writing about 1 Corinthians and the problems in 1st Century Corinth which has been pretty interesting. Now I'm working on a sermon as I'll be preaching on Joshua 1 at the beginning of March.

Prayer Requests
- Pray for The Space - the youth cafe that I'm launching on Wednesday. Pray that we get a good turn out, and enough cakes and volunteers.
- Pray for safe travels down to Sopley and then back to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday.
- Pray for me as I write this sermon.