funky doo

This week, I will mostly....

be hanging out with my daughter and working in the quiet moments (and evenings, and early mornings!) It's amazing how you can work your 37 hours around times when no-one else is awake!!

 

I've blogged over at www.funkydoofamily.blogspot.com about some of what we've been up to for fun this weekend...take a look!

Andy has some cycling trips planned this week: a full day today up Colchester way and an overnighter on Wednesday to Lowestoft. 

So, I'm working around Matilda and I have arranged a few playdates for her so I can get my teeth into a couple of other 'start of term' projects that require less distraction!

As well as just being at home, playing and chilling and doing crafts and watching TV, we're going to make the most of our Barleylands season ticket on Thursday and towards the end of the week, doing some baking for my dad's 60th this weekend.

I'm feeling pretty on top of things work-wise having had some good stints in the office last week, although I had a few 'desirable' projects like collating my Youthwork magazine back-catalogue so I could find things a bit easier - but that might not happen!

I also have a new boss, as Basildon Deanery, which is half of my job, has a new Area Dean. So one of my afternoons this week will be spent with Margaret who I know well already. It will be good to chat and pray and set some priorities for the start of the new academic year.

So, that's my week - what about you?? How's it looking? Any exciting things happening? Work or fun - or both??

 

 
 

The Con of Christmas...hear me out!!

This post will also appear on the family blog here.

This has been a post in formation for weeks and I was never sure I felt brave enough to write it in a real way for people to see...but Bishop Nick Baines has got in before and dealt with the stick over the weekend...so I feel a bit like I'm jumping on the bandwagon - but hey, we all do that in the world of blogging!

So, check out Nick's post here Grumpy Bishop. He's recently published a book which I'll say now, just like all the media who have entered the scrum of interviewing him, I haven't read yet. But based on this post, he is from the same stable as me - if you'll excuse the pun! (Cos it was probably a cave!!)

My problem with Christmas (I love it really, don't get too worried!!) came with the arrival of M 3 years ago - her first Christmas didn't really matter as she was only 10 days old. But come her first birthday, followed rapidly by Christmas Day, it was very difficult not to get caught up in the assumption that Father Christmas would be visiting our house in the dead of night and delivering presents.

I love the idea and the legends of Father Christmas and the root of it's story in St Nicholas who was a 3rd century miracle worker, renowned for secret gift giving and whose feast day is this Sunday. But I have a problem with the commonly held assumption that Santa (who is a character developed by cartoonist Thomas Nash in 19th century America and then taken on by mighty Coca Cola), who in contrast to St Nicholas is a jolly, red faced, red suited old man living in the North Pole, are one and the same.

The titles Father Christmas and Santa Claus seem to be interchangeable - indeed in the North East where we used to live, Santa is often Santee (try it with a Geordie accent!!)

But the roots of these characters - fictional, historical, the stuff of legend, whatever - are very different and portray different aspects of the Gospel and the Christmas story. Whilst I am not going to go down the extreme line of saying the whole thing is a lie and Father Christmas can't possibly visit every house in the world in one night etc., I am going to make sure that the traditions we have and the story we tell is faithful whilst also being magical and not ultimately confusing to a 6/7/8 year old in years to come.

Ultimately - I want M to understand that she receives gifts, not because she has been a good girl, but because we love her and because we want to celebrate the wondrous story of Jesus' birth and his life given out for her and for us. It always has everything to do with GRACE - and giving gifts is not because we are good, but in fact the opposite - but we are LOVED, by God and by one another and so we can bless one another...that is our call as disciples.

I HATE it when people ask small children whether they have been good this year and if Santa is going to come - of course they haven't been good...they are small children!! But in our house, M will get a small stocking of presents, outside her door, from us to open in bed and Father Christmas will have visited the house overnight - drinking a bit of something, scoffing a mince pie and maybe leaving some gold coins as the original St Nicholas is said to have done. All her other presents will come from us - real people who love her and know her and want to be part of the pleasure of giving gifts as she is in the giving of gifts to others.

 

Ok, so that's the Santa bit done...

Now a quote from Nick Baine's blog, referenced above: Now, some commentators say that Christmas is about sentiment (feeling), nostalgia and ‘magic’. They say that simple carols are great for children to begin to learn the story. Absolutely right. But the people arguing this are not children, but adults who want to stay as children when it comes to matters of God and faith and so on. Think like a child when you are a child, but, for goodness’ sake, grow up when you are an adult.

 

I find it ironic that for the rest of the year, a majority of our population want nothing to do with Christian tradition in any way but suddenly at Christmas they become hugely defensive of anything being different or changing or being criticised. The depth of understanding of what Christmas and this huge celebration are really all about is missing - and I see 2 reactions as I go about my work and experience life.

Some churches and Christians do nothing to celebrate Christmas...no carols or Christmas services or trees or anything which is vaguely pagan or rooted in tradition - everything just carries on as normal until the BIG DAY. Missing out Advent, in my opinion is the real shame here...but that's another issue! 

On the other extreme, there are many churches and Christians who do everything traditionally and don't question 'why' or whether it's helpful. I remember one of my first parish posts and the whole of December being taken up with either visiting or hosting Carol Sevices or nativity plays - by schools, Townswomen's Guild (yes seriously!), nurseries etc. You did want to tear your hair out by the end and it had slightly lost it's magic in the repetition.

 

My reaction is to try and do something in the middle - I love Christmas carols but hate Away in a Manger and the 'How silently' verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem. Mary was NOT silent in labour, OK!

We'll be having a tree even though it stems from pagan tradition...(!)because it forms a focal point in our home for Christmas celebrations and it is a precious family occasion to buy the tree and decorate it. We will feed people, host people, visit with people - mainly those we know or are related to, although when M is older we endeavour to be spending time with those who don't have the advantages of Christmas traditions and family that we are blessed with.

 

The difficulty of taking an extreme reaction to Christmas traditions and popular culture is that you get bah humbuged by everyone else...which is difficult to take, in what is supposed to be a season of goodwill after all!! But if we Christians can't communicate seriously the true meaning of Christmas, then how can we expect those who only take part in the traditions once a year to really know what we're all about??

+Nick continues: The ‘magic’ of Christmas is fine – up to a point. But ask any clergy and they will tell you about the ways in which Christmas is hard for many people and how the ‘magic’ makes it harder. It is for them that the reality of Christmas hits home: that God has not remained a million miles above contradiction, but opted in to the muck and messiness of the world and meets us where we are – in the vulnerability of the baby in Bethlehem. To tell that story is not to be miserable – but the opposite.

I am just not prepared to encourage people to live in a fantasy world, but doing my job as a Christian bishop in calling people back to the original story. Grasp it – and then celebrate hard and fully. I’ll be belting out the carols and watching the nativity plays along with the rest of them. But I will also be living in the real world and engaging my brain.

+Nick - I'm with you. I'll be doing mobile carolling on 20th December, going into London and experiencing the Christmas lights and soaking up the excitement. I'll be making mince pies and sausage rolls and wrapping presents and sneaking about on Christmas Eve, stopping Andy from squeezing presents and we'll probably be eating and drinking too much. But I hope in the midst of all that, I'll be reminded of why we get to celebrate this amazing event - because it changed the world, it changed my world and I want it to change the world of my daughter and her friends and our families and our community because we tell it how it really is...if you take the 'text' out of 'context' - what are you left with??

Comments awaited!!

Youthwork the Conference

I'm heading off to Eastbourne today for Youthwork the Conference, the main national Christian youthwork conference and training event in the UK. I've been twice before, the last time 2 years ago, so I'm looking forward to going back for some input, reflection and refreshing as well as some fun with my colleagues and friends from the Hub youthworker gatherings here in South East Essex. A bunch of us have block booked a guest house a short walk from the conference venue and so we'll be eating together, learning together and sharing life a bit over the next few days which will be great! Last time I was a bit of a Billy with no friends as I decided to go last minute, so some company and a chance to react and connect on the teaching will be excellent.

The conference begins with a retreat for 24 hours, hosted this year by Jason Gardner and Jenny Baker. I didn't do that last time, as M was only 11 months old and I didn't want to be away for 3 nights...but this time I am dead excited to be able to be here for the whole event! (looking forward to uninterrupted nights and maybe some shopping?!)

So, the programme came through and I thought I'd just make an initial response at some of the seminars and events I think I'll be heading for - all subject to change of course!

Friday night - I'll be at The Story so Far in the After Hours venue with my friend Elin who is performing her one woman show with Lacey Theatre Company.

Saturday - I'm thinking I'll probably follow the Take me to your Leader Stream of workshops...or maybe the Culture Shapers...not sure yet.

I'll probably also take in the age specific stream about 11-14's and the Essential Mentoring 1 session as well as attending the Sophia Network reception for it's 2nd birthday!

I'm looking forward to Vicky Beeching leading worship and hearing some of her new material aswell on Saturday evening.

Sunday - I'm a bit torn as everything looks good - so I'll probably go to whatever seems to be most interactive based on the speaker and get the audio for the more lecture based sessions. I'm veering towards Worship and Justice but might go for the Adolescence session...

In amongst all that, I'm hoping to finish a book I'm reviewing for the Sophia Network site and start on the review itself...as well as looking round and browsing (!) all the great resources which are always available! I expect lots of tea to be drunk, thinking to be done and laughing to be had...bring it on!!

So, if you're there, be great to see you! I'll let you know what I went for in terms of workshops etc next week and will do some reviews and recommendations of sessions you might like to get hold of too!

Fort Hood

It's been a troubling week in the news with the Fort Hood massacre and the shooting of British soldiers by one of the mentees in Afghanistan.

I was reading some reflections on the Fort Hood tragedy and was taken with this comment from Brian McLaren

I hope every reader of this blog will respond to the Fort Hood shootings (and every act of religious bigotry, racial intolerance, sexual stereotyping and prejudice, unequal treatment of gay folks, etc.) by rededicating themselves to follow the example of Jesus: move toward "the other" with love and respect. Don't fear, avoid, dehumanize, stigmatize, or allow bigoted statements to go unchallenged, but instead, have a cup of tea, take a walk, exchange dinner invitations, hear their stories, and treat "the other" as you would be treated. Learn to see "the other" as your neighbor, and respond as Christ taught.

Couldn't have said it better myself...praying, praying, praying above all else.

Evening Services at All Saints Maldon

Our friend Alex from Falcon Camp has been piloting a new format monthly evening service last term at All Saints in Maldon, which is continuing this term. My hubby was involved in helping with the sound etc and preached on one occasion.

The publicity and such info appear below - so please do spread the word, give it a go and let us have some feedback on here as Alex is a regular reader...!

what's new??

Silence has descended here on funky doo for a wee while because - well, I haven't felt too funky!!

2 weeks ago tomorrow, I managed to injure my back and have been struggling with mobility, pain and general frustration ever since. Without going into all the horrendous details, the main trigger was just pure and simple parenting...putting M into her buggy at the park, twisting and bending at the same time to sling her shoes into the basket at the bottom and.....owwww!

I laid out for a couple of days, had the doctor over when it wouldn't go away, got some Valium (which was nice and soothing!) and thought it would all go away in a couple of days....ha ha ha ha!

I just got back driving today, 13 days later. I have had to cancel a lot of work commitments because I couldn't get there or even if I could, I wouldn't have been able to set up/speak/present/stand to do what I had to do...I never cancel, well not for something like this where I am perfectly well apart from being unable to get up or sit down!

In my time at home, I have been trying to do useful things, which aren't the usual every day things like hoovering and dishwasher-undoing!! That was impossible...but I have been making a claim for my stolen bag a few weeks ago now, getting ahead on some Falcon Camp preparation, lots of admin although haven't tackled the filing tray as that would involve bending! I did get to the Bradwell Pilgrimage on Saturday (Independence Day!) which I was pleased about as I have spent the last year on the planning committee, doing the website and publicity and was coordinating the Youth Zone on the day. In the end, it was more low key than I had imagined but that was probably good for me and everyone else, as it pretty much ran itself and I could observe and heckle from the sidelines!! I was so grateful for Stuart from Bar n Bus Trust and Jamie from Legacy Rayleigh who brought along their equipment and to the brilliant youth workers and volunteers who served that day in the blazing heat!! Phil, Dave, Lucy, Donna, Megan, Shaun, Lewis, Lee and John...thanks a million!!

This week has been slightly better as I have improved each day. Tuesday was a bit of a '2 steps forward, 1 step back' as I woke up in a lot more pain having overdone it on Monday. Tuesday I had to cancel everything in my diary and felt very yucky, upping the painkillers again and feeling generally 'hemmed in' from lack of interaction and activity outside the house. Yesterday, Wednesday, I went out to Suffolk (with AP as my chauffeur!) to the Eastern Region of Diocesan Youth Officer's meeting and lunch, which was very nice. I didn't feel too uncomfortable sitting in the car or at the table so that was an achievement and it was good to catch up with everyone and ease myself back in a little. A wide ranging conversation at Elveden Estate (yummy Chicken Ceaser Salad!) included issues around participation, the new Youth and Children's National Strategy, the Church of England Youth Council and a round up of what is going on in each Diocese and a chance to pray for one another.

So today, I finally feel almost pain free, just needing a couple of Nurofen at lunch time. I feel blessed in many ways to have been forced to slow down. God has his ways of making us hear him when all we seem to be doing is just 'getting on with it'. (Those Kairos moments - LifeShapes Circle! I'm learning!) I hadn't really stopped since half term and looking back at my diary, I had only had 1 weekend off since February, apart from the weekends we were travelling to our holiday. I was initially so frustrated that a weekend off had turned into a weekend of pain and being stuck in bed, but once I accepted it, I have enjoyed some solitude and silence, time on my own which I am not always good at, a chance to read and particularly to continue my reflections on my time in Sheffield, on the LifeShapes and The Order of Mission (TOM). I have been writing some posts on all this and keep thinking they are about ready to publish, but they are not quite!! Watch this space.

Other highlights of the last few weeks have been Andy's cooking of which there has been a lot more (lovely fresh stir fry's and flavoursome marinated meats!!), speaking to lovely Emily King on the phone in Tennessee (who also directed me to this website). We miss them both heaps and hope to see them again in 2011 sometime...that's the plan! Also a very funny night with our Giraffe group on Sunday involving cometitive Jenga competitions and a domino rally too!

As well as that, Hubby and I have had more time to talk, we haven't had to schedule 'money evenings' or date nights as normal because I've been here more and that has been really nice. We will be making sure that when we're at Soul Survivor B in a few weeks time that we are disciplined about having our mornings together when M is at her kids group...praying, talking, chatting over a cuppa and going to teaching. We have a lot to process at the mo - not just the TOM stuff but also planning ahead for youth in the autumn term and dreaming and scheming!

So, I'll sign off for now and go and get my daughter from her childminder - a small thing, but I haven't done that for nearly 3 weeks and it's such a precious thing...seeing her excitement at telling me what she has done at Kiko's and talking and singing on the way home.

Have a great evening! xx

it's feeling like a good day!

Hey! how y'all doing? Good I hope and happy Tuesday!

It's Tuesday night and I'm enjoying a night in and enjoying listening to my husband laughing a lot at our latest Love Film delivery - Young Frankenstein - his choice not mine! I'm waiting til The Other Boleyn Girl gets to the top of our list! He's enjoying it and that's why I bought him the subscription so that makes me happy!

I had my meeting with Bish Laurie and Peter Collins from Traidcraft today...which i think was helpful on both sides. Peter reflected afterwards that although the message about encouraging preference towards Traidcraft in this credit crunch was not realistic, he now had other ideas about how to support the furtherance of the development agenda that is a key distinctive of Traidcraft's work (in contrast to other supermarkets, who sell Fairtrade but don't invest in development and bringing producers out of poverty). The only down side was that my other colleague, Paul the Faith in Action Adviser for the Area forgot to come...I blame nappy brain as he has just added to his family with the arrival of twins to add to his other 3 children who are 7 and under!!

I dropped Peter off in Chelmsford to kill some time while I went to my next meeting which was the inaugral gathering of my new support group. This is a different way of organising my supervision and accountability in this role and it was very affirming and encouraging. I'm grateful to those who agreed to be part of this process of reflection and hope it will firm up all I'm trying to do in this role and help me think strategically in terms of it's future sustainability.

A lovely bonus today was that Matilda and Andy came home early from school/childminder's and so while Andy took Peter to the airport, I had the latter part of the afternoon with my lovely daughter. She was in fine form, language and sentences forming at a rate of knots and her sense of humour really developing too! She's now in a big girls' bed and her favourite word to describe it whenever she gets in is 'cosy'!

I also got to speak to my lovely friend Jenny (a different one from the previous post!) who is also Matilda's godmother, just to confuse things even more...maybe we'll have a Jennifer next to make things totally off the wall!! Anyway, Jenny has been in hospital recently with appendicitis which made her very sick and poorly, so she's just recovering and getting back into things.

So, I'm off for an early night cos I can't watch the CSI Vegas while Andy's got his film on!! nighty nighty (pyjama pyjama!) x

having a plan and making it happen

I like a format of regular posts that give an overview of someone's life - seeing the patterns and the regular stuff that happens, the struggles, the lists they have...ysmarko is one of the best and most interesting.

So as a goal for 2009, I'm going to start with a pattern of a weekly (minimum!) post with the same headers and see what patterns come out and give some reflection on the life I lead - interesting and reflective for me and hopefully for you too!

I'm gonna start with the questions that Marko uses, but will probably add my own and see how it develops as we go forward...

the weekend that was: Friday we said good bye to my parents who had been staying with us to celebrate New Year. We had taken the tree down in preparation for an Open House on Friday afternoon, with various church, work and others expected! 3pm rolls round and no one arrives. Andy has a snooze along with the mulled cider he had made...and still no one. matilda was beginning to wonder what all the frantic cleaning and cooking for actually for! Then, 5.30pm, the door goes and the beginning of the swarm came through the front doo, to eat our left overs and toast 2009! Our friend Shaun stayed over since his wife was on nights and she arrived on Saturday morning, fresh from her shift with bacon and rolls ready to cook!! Saturday passed in a bit of a blur until Andy went out for his Street Pastor shift and I tidied up and went to bed. Left Andy in bed on Sunday morning (it had been a quiet night in Chelsmford, but he still didn't get in til 3am) and went to church. Afternoon was spent eating ham broth (yum) reading the paper, doing some preparation for Giraffe (our 15+ youth group) and then welcoming Giraffe at 7,30pm! We looked at goals for our life and how do we measure those against God's goals for us...with a segue into swearing and how we use our money, especially if we are lucky enough to have any. Ended the night talking to my sister in law about booking a short break in the Easter holidays in the Peak District with her, Andy's brother and our neice.

where i am at the moment: in the office, with the fan heater on. It's snowing in Maldon and I also need the heater to dry out my mobile (personal one) which I dropped in a mug of tea earlier!!

on my to-do list this week: clearing the desk, planning for Labyrinth I am doing at the SOLID re:mix event next Saturday (17th), expenses claim and sorting out Equipping bookings that have flooded in over Christmas. As well as that, looking ahead to our Youth Workers residential 21-22 January on the subject of Young People, Sexuality and Spirituality - at St Marks in Saffron Walden. I'm not teaching but it's a lot to organise still!!

procrastinating about: most things...like walking through treacle today! It's nice to have a lcear diary day at the beginning of a new term to get things done, but I'm much better under pressure...so roll on 2 days of meetings tomorrow and Wednesday!!

ho ho hootenanny!

hi! it's been a while but Christmas is my excuse!! I am sitting here, at home, alone while Andy is out and aboutwith Matilda at the sales and doing a few other jobs. I am peopled out! This season seems to have gone on for a long while - beginning with Matilda's 2nd birthday back in the wilds of December and continuing with visits to Surrey, flights to Newcastle, then Durham, Washington and back home again. We then had people for dinner every night between Sunday and last night(Friday)...phew! We did manage to get rid of most of the 'bad' food yesterday at our OPen House which makes today a start the diet day...

Enough of that! The new year of work now beckons and it's starting to loom large. I have plans, big plans, to change lots of things, do things better and differently and be more efficient. I could share them with you here...but I haven't quite formulated it all yet...I have cleared my white board tho, so that's a start!

I was instant chatting on Facebook with my friend Phil, a student pastor out in the States and he has just started a new blog www.youthworktalk.com. He's keen to hear feedback and to interact with readers, so do take a look and join the conversation!

That's all for now - I am going to make the most of my alone time and do something different that computering...so Happy New Year and talk soon!

The Christmas letter...

The Smiths Christmas catch up!

Merry Christmas from the 3 of us to all of you!

As we write, we’re getting ready to celebrate Matilda’s 2^nd birthday on Sunday…amazing how time has flown! We’ll be doing our first kid’s party (as parents!) on Friday 12^th with just a few friends from church and playgroup and then spending her actual birthday on 14^th as a family, going out for lunch and getting our Christmas tree! In contrast to last year, Matilda is more aware of all the preparations for Christmas, and especially enjoys lighting the Advent candle and finding the chocolate coin each day in her Advent Calendar with pockets!

We will be up in Northumberland this Christmas with Andy’s parents, brother, sister in law and our niece Ellie as well as Andy’s grandparents and other Smith relatives. Jacki and Gordon moved from Scarborough

to Bedlington in the summer and so we will be flying up from Stansted, eradicating the five or six hour journey with a fidgety toddler! Before flying up, we’ll have a weekend with Alice’s parents, sister and brother in law in Surrey, doing a combined Christmas and birthday celebration.

Work continues to go well for both of us – Andy has now been in the local secondary school in Maldon for over a year and has developed the Inclusion Unit to be a place where young people in the school are making progress with their issues, including anger management, behaviour concerns and self esteem improvement.

Alice’s job proves continually busy with lots of training, church consultations and Diocesan work in promoting and encouraging good youth work across

Essex. 2009 will be an interesting year as we wait to see who will replace Bishop John Gladwin when he retires in August.

While we work, Matilda has 3 days with Yoriko, our fabulous childminder and quite a few other pre-schoolers! She loves her time there, with great activities including music, craft, dress up, and general craziness and playing with the other kids. She is shattered by the time Thursday comes round and has 2 naps to catch up on her sleep! Her vocabulary develops every day – her favourite words at the moment being “finished”, “juice” and “please” with various other indistinguishables! We’re discovering how much she loves music as she spends much of her time singing her version of ‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’, even in bed in the mornings before we go and get her up!

Alice turned the big 3-0 this year and celebrated with a fantastic weekend in Rye in East Sussex, with her parents, sister and brother in law (plus Andy and Matilda of course!!) We chilled out, ate lots, went to the beach, poked around the lovely antique shops and pubs and enjoyed one another’s company.

Alice also finally got a ring on her finger – an engagement one that is! 6 years late, Andy presented her with a beautiful diamond engagement ring which she had never had before…partly because of cost but also because of indecision. It was a fantastic surprise!

Holidays: Our travels have been wide and far this year – as usual! Over the Easter holidays, we took a road trip with the Collins’ family (Baggy, Natalie and the kids) up North, visiting Sheffield Yorkand Scarborough

in 4 days. It was great to catch up with people we hadn’t seen for a while and the kids had fun with each other in each destination!

We had a great walking holiday in May half term with our friends Jenny and Paul and their son (our godson) Jack in Ambleside. Again, great food, excellent company and beautiful scenery made it a week to remember. This was also a ‘birthday’ celebration as Paul turned 40 6 days before Alice’s 30^th so we continued to mark it in style! Andy and Jenny presented Alice and Paul with an evening at Lucy’s Cookery School, with a demonstration and tasting of some fabulous Lakeland food, picking up some hints, tips and recipes along the way as well and scoffing too!

USA after months of planning, researching and debating, our big trip finally happened this August! We flew to New York first, for a week long visit just the three of us, staying in my aunt’s home in upstate New York. We did the usual tourist haunts, Central Park, Fifth Avenue, EmpireState, Staten Island Ferry, shopping as well as chilling out in the fantastic garden at the house and enjoying the warmth! We then headed down to Tennesseefor 10 days, visiting our great friend Jack and his wife Emily. Jack is a friend from our Gateshead days who came to be a pastor in the Methodist circuit, around the time our house was flooded. He returned to the States after a year and has since moved over to the Anglican Mission and was ordained, as well as turning 30 while we were with them. We hadn’t met Emily before, but that needn’t have mattered as we all got along so well and enjoyed lots of lazy evenings over food and wine and much laughter. The 3 of us also visited the Knoxville Zoo, FallsCreekFallsNational Park, and WorldsFairParkas well as the fabulous SmokyMountains between Tennessee and North Carolina. It was difficult to leave – firm friendships and special memories made us want to stay on forever! Maybe one day…We returned to New York for a long weekend to see Alice’s family there and then returned to England, enriched, blessed and exhausted! Matilda was amazing during the travelling, sleeping on most of the flights and loving the adventures in between! A real credit to us!

We returned to a tough season in our church which continues as we write. Without too much detail, relationships are under strain and it’s a tough place to be right now. Prior to our USA

holiday we had been praying and considering taking on overall leadership of the youth ministry in church and had agreed to this in July. So September saw us launch the new Sunday night group ‘Giraffe’, and work on the depth, quality and quantity of the other ongoing youth work. We had a weekend away in November and took a big group to AltonTowersin October half term which was great fun.

Andy began Street Pastor training in November and was commissioned last Sunday to volunteer in Chelmsford. He will be out on the streets on Fridays or Saturdays, once a month, complementing the work done by police, town security and the pubs and clubs to make Chelmsford safer. Alongside this is a compassionate, service ministry of tending to people who may be vulnerable, making sure they get home safe, don’t get into violence and talking to them about their life and about faith and other stuff, that often comes up when there’s some alcohol flowing! Andy is enjoying the challenge so far and will continue the training in the New Year. www.streetpastors.org.uk

Falcon Camp has been a part of our summer schedule for many years now. This year saw us plant a new camp down in Essex, on board a converted lighthouse ship! We had 20 young people aged 10-13 on board with us, along with a fantastic team of leaders that we had gathered,  complemented by staff from the ship itself who led many of the activities. The camp is aimed at young people who face disadvantage and who may not otherwise get to have a holiday or experience these type of activities – sailing, climbing wall, archery as well as the old fashioned games, crafts, films, music and good food! It was a fantastic week, and we do it all again in July next year. Please pray for us and find out more at http://www.cpas.org.uk/ then click on Ventures and Falcon Camps and follow the links to Falcon Afloat!

Hopes for 2009 The financial situation in the world dominates the news, media and many thoughts at the moment. In our lines of work, this adds further pressure to many young people’s families and brings increased challenges. We look ahead with Hope, but with trepidation and have a sense of awe as we see how far God has brought us and the awesome things He has done. We pray for our church in this difficult time and also want you to know that you are in our prayers too. Perhaps it’s laziness to write this sort of nameless letter but we hope it enables us to share our lives a little, despite distance and the pressure of time.

Our house, as always, is open for visitors, for an hour or a few days and we’d love to see you if you’re around this way.

So ends the tome! Have a wonderful Christmas, with rest, fun and maybe some gifts too! May the New Year be all you hope for and some surprises too! With our love and many prayers…

Andy, Alice and Matilda Smith xxx

alisssmith@yahoo.co.uk

www.alisssmith.typepad.com