funky doo

funky doo family

We've decided to start a 'family blog' over at www.funkydoofamily.blogspot.com to try and seperate out the personal from the other stuff...so expect to see more pictures, M's artwork, funny stories and some of our family, friends and other randoms mentioned - see if you can see yourself??!!

Also, as we embark on an interesting and slightly scary journey in the coming months and years, having this joint blog will allow Andy to do some writing and thinking of his own in the blogosphere.

So come join us and see what you reckon...comments as always most welcome!!

I'm done already...

OK, so I'm done with the week...it's been a bit of a shock to the system to return to full pelt life in all it's fullness...only 4th September too, hey ho.

No-one's fault, just a combination of a busy few weeks leading up to the end of August - we didn't really stop between leaving for Soul Survivor on 12th August and getting back from my parents this Tuesday - and September biting me hard on the arse (sorry, hiney for US readers!!) I felt as though I had done quite a lot of prep work and getting ahead during the summer but there were some things still outstanding which I haven't done and that has probable clouded my overall sense of being 'in control'!!

We just got back into decent eating routine on Wednesday - for us, that is having our menu for the week planned out so whoever gets in first can start on dinner and we can see if we're missing anything and need to shop. It makes all the difference to our sense of well being and our budget but it's been hard to do when we've only been here a night or two and then away again. Despite having only 1 evening of work out of the house this week, I feel whacked but have had some early nights to no avail...The weekend beckons and I'm grateful, hoping to be a bit more motivated and with it by Monday.

One thing which I'm hoping might help overall is that we employed a cleaner today - which is something I feel hugely excited about but also monumentally guilty too...but I have to be less hard on myself in this respect. This is our reality - I work full time (plus a bit more), Andy works full time, we have a toddler. Andy Street Pastors, we run the youth at our church, we have family who lives miles away and we have tons of visitors which is what we love as well as a number of other responsibilities and ultimately things to keep this household running are not getting done. Those of you who know us well and have visited our home will know we do not live in squalor; we don't leave the washing up undone (often), we don't (often) have piles of washing all over the landing....generally we keep on top of it all, but that's about it! So, my lovely new cleaner lady Christine is going to take care of the deep clean stuff, like the big bathroom clean, mopping floors and moving furniture to hoover under it - stuff I NEVER do!

I get annoyed at myself for feeling guilty about employing a cleaner, cos I know it doesn't make me a failure- so I went back to the notes I wrote at Soul Survivor at the Women in Leadership seminar. I think sometimes, being a Christian woman can be a very hard place because you have huge expectations of yourself anyway and then there are even more from those 'watching you'. My response to the question "how do you do it?" (i.e. have a full time job, care for M, run a house, maintaining relationships, trying not to get fatter, smiling and being nice and compassionate and forgiving to people!) is to try and brush it off as a silly question "Oh you know, you do what you have to do"...when really I am knackered and feel frustrated and disappointed in myself and don't feel like I do any of it well. When I am also a woman in leadership, working for the Anglican Church, trying to be a role model for others, leading and teaching and trying to live this Kingdom life it can all sometimes become really hard work...it's really pants sometimes. Or is it just me? 

I said I was going to write up the notes from that SS seminar and I will - just not tonight, cos I'm tired. Instead, I'll leave you with some of my favourite pics from the weekend just gone, at home in Surrey with my family, having fun and being silly. I feel more rested from those 5 days than I have done all summer if I'm honest, but it didn't last long :-(

catch up Friday

Hey y'all,

A couple of people have mentioned that my Monday updates are lacking of late - sorry but I've been busy! Namely Falcon Camp which finished last Thursday and then recovery...followed by back to work in a house which is most definitely in summer hols mode - no mean feat! So I have been trying to be disciplined and just do work in the office and not other 'non-work but not quite fun tasks' and then go and have fun with my family!

Falcon Camp went really well - great weather, brilliant team, amazing kids and an amazing God at work. We're grateful and blessed to be part of such a thing and although it is a lot of organising and stress at the final furlong, it's something we know we'll be doing for a long time...

We missed our M a lot - and it was great when she returned from my parents in Surrey on Friday afternoon. Fun in the park and a dinner out to Intimo, our favourite pasta restaurant followed and we also had a chilled rest day on Saturday, catching up on some chores and sorting and resorting the Falcon Camp equipment that was all in our garage.

I've worked all this week as normal - a few meetings here and there, getting lots of filing and project work done in this quiet season for me. All the while, the other 2 have been having a ton of fun, going to Ikea, the Zoo in Colchester and playdates in Prom Park...we did have a famil day in London on Wednesday, visiting Andy's best man Richard, his wife Natasha and their new addition (no 2), Albie. Their daughter Eliza is 6 months younger than M, so we had the expected mix of great play and screeching rows about sharing etc! But it was lovely to see them and a great adventure for M, as we left their place at 10.15pm and got on 2 trains in the dark!!

I was really blessed to get a cheque through the post this week to go towards replacing some of the clothes I had stolen from the train the other month. My insurance claim was declined on the grounds that I didn't have 3 nights pre-booked accomodation in Sheffield. The fact that I wasn't claiming anything to do with my accommodation seems to be irrelevant and I can prove I was in Sheffield for that period by my train tickets - but never mind. I have been living with just 2 bras and 1 pair of jeans, so a little money to replace those well worn basics is very timely!

So, to take us up to Monday when I hope to get back on track with the monday updates - we're at a wedding tomorrow in Buckhurst Hill, and my sister is coming to have M for the afternoon. Sunday will be church and then a BBQ in the evening for all those we're taking to Soul Survivor next Wednesday. Really looking forward to the space to be - and in a caravan!! Luxury!

So, see you Monday - all being well!

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

a 2 day late update...

the weekend that was: this weekend rates as one of the top of the year so far...partly cos it was a low key birthday weekend, but also cos we got to spend time with my little sister and her husband. We had a chilled out Friday night, doing household chores, sorting their bedroom out so the bed could be seen! On Saturday Andy took M swimming which she loved and I pottered in the kitchen, doing some baking and food prep for Saturday night dinner as well as some ironing and other chores (never ending!)

E&O arrived Saturday afternoon and we chilled in the garden, catching up on E's recent trip to NYC and obviously talking a bit about Bompa and the funeral etc. Matilda really loves identifying all her family and contanstly checks on names "where Ellie Ollie?" and wants to make sure she's got relationships right "Ellie your sister?", "Ollie is my uncle". Her accent and way of pronoucning words at the moment is so cute and we keep trying to affirm everything she is saying whilst desperately trying not to giggle!

Saturday night we had a chilled and late dinner - it was suddenly 9pm and we hadn't sat down to our main course...but there was no rush and while I cooked the pud, the boys played a random game with our '1001 films to see before you die' book and updating their LoveFilm lists based on the randomly generated choices. Andy seems to now have a collection of 1950's Japanese films to watch, which should be interesting!! Ollie got Gentleman Prefer Blondes, which if you know my sister, he probably does!!

Sunday morning Andy and M and I went off to church. Ollie was feeling a bit poorly, snuffly and blocked up so they chilled at home and then met us at the Deli after church. Sausage sandwiches for lunch at home and then the boys plus our friend Lewis headed off to watch the Newcastle United match while Ellie and I cleared out my wardrobe, getting rid of at least 1/3 of it's content and tidying up the rest of it, in preparation for the big bedroom project starting the next day. Sunday night we all went out for a lovely Italian meal at Intimo on Maldon High Street before Andy disappeared to lead Giraffe.

So, we got up on Monday and faffed about a bit and then once M was down for her nap, we started ripping out the wardrobes in our bedroom!! 3 hours later and they were in pieces in the garage, ready for a local Freecycler to pick up yesterday and we were all packed into the spare room. Andy is starting on the preparation of the master this weekend, sanding and stuff and then we'll get painting! Very exciting!

Ellie and Ollie went home on Monday afternoon, both exhausted I think from all the DIY effort and lugging about! We're very grateful to them for their help. We've really enjoyed spending so much time with them the last few weekend and wish we lived even closer, but then you appreciate the time you have with people even more when you don't see them as often as you'd like.

where i am at the moment: in my office, focusing on working, obviously!

on my to-do list this week: I have a slightly unusual week. My grandpa's funeral on Friday means I need to be super organised about preparation for training this weekend. Hence today, my 31st birthday, I'm working on session 10 and 12 of Equipping to be delivered this Saturday and will be going through it in finer detail this afternoon with Rachel, who is joining me on Saturday to ease the load. It's great having 3 advisers in the team!! Other than that, I'm going to enjoy my birthday evening with Matilda when she gets home (we're having a picnic) and my birthday meal later on, maybe a glass of wine too?!

I have an Asheldham Centre meeting tomorrow night to continue discussions about our vision and how to develop capacity for the Centre, so hope that's productive.

By Sunday, I think I will be tired.

procrastinating about: writing this blog post and getting down to some proper work!

book i’m in the midst of: Weight of Water by Anita Shreve. It's great.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Martyn Joseph did a fantastic version of Free Fallin, in the style of John Mayer at the gig the other week. So I'm getting into John Mayer a bit and enjoying the chilled vibe and the quirky voice he has. Also rediscovered my Billy Joel album during a clear out, Piano Man, which funnily enough, MJ has also covered...

next trip: well, off to Surrey for the day on Friday, not far but an important trip. After that, I'll be away at the annual Diocesan Youth Officers Conference in Wakefield from 19-21 May and then we go on holiday on 23rd May for a week!! Can't wait, but half term has come round awfully fast!!

stuff I'm into on TV/films right now: The Apprentice obviously! We also got Horton Hears a Who from LoveFilm in the week which we're thinking of using during Falcon Camp this year. My friend Christine bought me Gok Wan's biography for my birthday today, I love his Fashion Fix show!! If only I could have a 24 piece capsule wardrobe...

Youth work done/upcoming: I'm leading the Giraffe session this coming Sunday for our church 15+ group on Kingdom, part of a series for this term we're taking from Scripture Union Substance material. I'm also in the midst of preparations for the 2 TentEvents coming up in June at Bishop Laurie's for youth leaders and young people. Further details on www.chelmsford.anglican.org/youth and then look under events.

What did you eat this weekend?? I made a gorgeous Clementine Drizzle Cake with marscapone and white chocolate icing - almost gluten free as it uses a lot of ground almonds and rice flour. Also made baked chocolate puddings with rice flour which we had after our main course of Slow cooked lamb with white beans and garlic. Our starter was a camembert cheese baked in it's box with herbs scattered over when it came out all melted and some garlic pitta chips (home baked) to go with it.

big bedroom project...

As today is Thursday I was scheduled to be at home with M, working around her...However, I got home last night in mighty amounts of pain (which started on my journey home from Southend) and have since then been on strong painkillers. A resurgence of my previous endo issue which is not a surprise but did make today a little hectic. We arranged for M to go to her childminder for an extra day as I wasn't really able to look after myself or her since I was pretty doped, but I did have to be with it and awake between 12 and 4pm for the arrival of an IKEA van!

I was impressed with the service - we initially had a whole day delivry window, which got defined yesterday by text message so we knew it would be between 12 and 4. An hour before they arrived, we got a further phone call to say they'd be an hour so you had a bit of warning and the whole day wasn't wasted. So we have a new sitting room arm chair and all the stuff for our 'big bedroom project' resting for the time being in the garage. May is the month to rip out the current old fashioned fitted wardrobes, strip the flowery border and repaint, recarpet and then build new sliding door wardrobes and generally make it into a proper boudoir bedroom rather than just a dumping ground for clothes and a space to sleep for the minimum time possible!

When we moved in here, 3 years ago in June, we had a short period of time in which to get rid of the chintz, dust, horrible light fittings and brown kitchen. We did all we could before Matilda arrived and what we did was pretty impressive considering I was between 5 and 8 months pregnant during all the painting, stripping, building, installing etc. Our bedroom was the only room we didn't tackle, perhaps because we haven't had as much sleep as we've been used to since M's arrival! But the time has come...so May will be a working month, evenings, weekends and 3 weeks worth of work and roping in friends...shouldn't be too bad! The biggest delay has been the fact that we function as a B&B for many weekends of the year, hosting friends and family and since we'll have to move in to the spare room while work is happening, we had to wait til the diary is clear. Just so you know, if you're thinking of visiting in that time, we're closed!!

So that little bit of excitement wore me out and I went to bed for the afternoon, waking up very hungry but with little inclination to cook as I was still dopey with drugs. We had a take out curry which was nice and minimal effort and I feel a lift in my body and spirit. We've been watching Rachel Allen:Bake as comfort Telly and I have also been online and joined BookArmy to submit my book choices and gain recommendations for future reading, to try and widen my scope. It's a good site and you can share with friends so I will soon!

Have a good weekend whatever you're up to...

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

a Matilda creation

I began an addiction to a magazine called Real Simple while we were out in the States last summer. Emily (who I miss hugely and who was our host, with her husband Jack for 10 days) had a huge stash of them in her lounge. Her and I had a few evenings in, while the boys went to the flicks or the pub or somewhere else, flicking through the mags and watching Jon and Kate Plus 8...don't ask!! This magazine is full of great stuff - recipes, interior design, organising tips, storage solutions, beauty stuff, fashion, budget ideas for everything -ooooh, just love it!!

Anyway, my sister went out to New York in September and brought me back the latest copy of Real Simple (they don't do subscriptions to it yet in the UK) and one of the ideas in that edition I am really making use of at the moment. Matilda is well into her drawing, painting, making (mess mainly), baking etc. anything she has to wear an apron for! One of the problems we have is keeping a record of all she has made when our fridge isn't really big enough as a display board!

Real Simple suggested taking a digital photo of each design classic and keeping a copy on the computer, displaying each item for maybe just a few weeks and then putting it away or getting rid. It's a genius idea!! One of many that you can get from Real Simple!! Please let us subscribe in the UK!! I might start a Facebook petition!!

If you're our Facebook friend then you might have seen Matilda's gingerbread house before Christmas. One of the other things she brought home for us around that time were homemade placemats, decorated by her and then laminated. So, from our file of photos of Matilda's creations here are some recent gems!

     

Matilda's placemat (above)

A fireworks picture (right)

Daddy's placemat

You never know, these could be worth a fortune in a few decades!

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