yikes, have been off this blog for ages...quite unintentional really! Life as usual has overtaken the best laid plans. Lots of good stuff happening in the world of the Smiths and lots of crappy stuff too which I won't write about here...
Had a full work day today, preaching this morning in Billericay and then at a youth group in Chelmsford this evening - final verdict is that I am rubbish at pool and slightly better than rubbish at table tennis, must be out of practice. My last youth group were major Uni-Hoc fans so the 'traditional' youth groups games as per the above didn't get a look in...looking back, perhaps there was a bit of a violence issue bubbling underneath the surface (only kidding any ex-youthy readers!)
We also went through our finances today - really yuksome with a new mortgage and increased child care costs as of last week. Really has made us realise how little impact our money seems to have and how poor our giving is in relation to our spending. Our church had a Vision Offering Day today, and has had for the last 3 years we have been around. The attendance was apparently really low...and the giving was lower than previous years too. We have lots to reflect on now in terms of our outgoings, expenses and giving/tithing and I am haunted a little by my friend Jenny's mantra "Give your tithe first and everything else will fall into place". I confess that it is usually the biggest and most scary item that is paid first (i.e. mortgage) followed closely by food and anything Matilda related...
So, alongside that, we have been saving for the last year as many will know and have today reserved flights for our holiday to the USA in August! Yay! 10 days in New York and 10 days in Knoxville (Tennessee) followed by weekend back in New York when my family will be around and we can spend some time with them.
What else has been happening? I'm gonna write a list and if you want to know anymore about any item, I will expand on it in a later post - sort of like a reader led blog to help me get back in the habit!! So.....I went to a Jehovah's Witness meeting on Easter Saturday - Jesus Memorial meal. My regular meetings with Fernanda have stopped for the moment and that meeting certainly put me off ever being a JW (not that I was thinking about it!) I have also got a bit reimmersed in my Mormon theology reading and am seriously hoping and trying to get some writing done around that which could translate into training...
I have been planning new training for my church on Child Protection
Andy and I had our first night away (together) without Matilda since she was born (we've both been away from her, but never together). I won't give any more detail on that!
I have been planning my birthday weekend away with my parents, my sister and her husband and Andy and Matilda to celebrate my 30th...we are each pairing up to cook an evening meal through the weekend and I have been paired with my brother in law Ollie...could be an interesting combo! My sister meanwhile is paired with my dad, neither of them think the other can cook so it could be competitive in a good way...or not!
The looming 30th has been an interesting process - both in terms of me as a person and also in terms of my job. I have that nagging question of how long I can go on being convincing, authentic, relevant etc as a youth worker...how old is too old? I know so many people who have such a gift for engaging with young people and being alongside them and teaching and stuff that they can almost never stop doing it...a true calling. I have such a sense of calling to work on behalf of young people and I know that I need to keep it grounded by hanging out with yp's like I did tonight. The question came up last week at the regional meeting of Diocesan Youth Officer's...some are looking to the future and moving on, but overall the conversation had such a sense that there's almost nothing left after being a DYO...not that it's a bad thing to be, but it's kinda a dead end in terms of the Church of England. Maybe that's why so many perhaps go onto ordination. That's not going to be me, despite the lady this morning who commented on my sermon by telling me, "you'd be a lovely Vicar"!
I'd only do it to get rid of the mortgage!
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