Tale of Two Cities (Well, a city and a town...)
Hey all. I know I promised this update yesterday, but I just didn't get around to it so I'm squeezing it in today between being in Malpas Church Infants this morning and SMASH this afternoon, and then between SMASH and choir this evening. I can't really think of much to say after being at home last week doing nothing, so I have a feeling this might be a shorter update.
Half-term
We had our half-term in Newport this last week, a week after most of the UK including Aberystwyth, which meant I had very little to do and got to go home for a week which was great. Jen and I (never know what to do here - "me and Jen" seems wrong, but "Jen and I" feels a little posh - oh well!) celebrated our own Valentine's day last Monday, and she gave me the new Snow Patrol CD which I had also gotten for her and for Dad (whose birthday was a couple of weeks ago) which I'm currently listening to writing this, and the film "Accepted" on DVD which is amazing - I really wanted to see it because the trailers looked great and I missed it at the cinema.
I also got the chance to see everyone again at Cell on Wednesday night when I dropped in for a bit to see everyone, which was fantastic - I love hearing from you guys on myspace and stuff so keep sending me stuff.
I was sent home for Half-term with two things left to do that week for St. Mary's, a drama and the talk, which I gave, for the Yout h Time for Praise this Sunday.
Time for Praise
Sunday went really well. I decided to step back from playing guitar (Sarah led worship) to focus on the talk and just get the chance to worship from the back. I know some people like to maintain that they can worship just as well from the back as at the front but I will always be of the opinion that worshipping is always more about the back than the front and so ideally, we should be spending more time at the back than we do at the front. Playing every week it's so easy to just burn out, which is something I really don't want to do, so it was refreshing to be able to just worship, no strings attached. Also, I think it was John or Charles Wesley who said about his preaching, "God sets me on fire, and people come to watch me burn" so it's always good to give God the chance to set you on fire before you speak.
So anyway (I think I've ranted a bit), it went really well. All of the other guys from 24-7 were fantastic as well. We had about 80 I think, which was the roughly the same as the 9:45 and the church is getting fuller and fuller week-by-week.
SMASH
At Smash today we were looking at Jesus raising Lazarus, and it went really well. We were maybe a little low on numbers but that's probably because of it being the first day back from Half-term so they should pick up next week.
Youth Club (Trip)
Just realised I haven't actually talked about the Youth Club Trip last weekend. It was amazing. We did loads of fun activities, played some football, basketball and hockey, and got to talk a fair amount too. The Amelia Trust Farm turned out to be quite nice, although the accomodation was a little basic. We had the whole of this lodge kindof place to ourselves with a common room, boys and girls dorms, leader's rooms and a kitchen, with access to a slightly bigger meeting room in a different building.
At first it was a little bit difficult to get everyone involved in everything, but eventually over the weekend I think we managed to win people over. On the first night we played a lot of circle games and had a big game of Sardines around the farmyard, and took everyone out to explore the farm and into the woods so G could tell a scary story.
Saturday, we gave everyone a lot of free time during the day, but had a couple of sessions booked in the farm sports hall (sounds weird to right that - but actually the sports hall was top-notch) for the sportier guys... so I ended up doing a lot of running around. Then, in the evening, we went over to the meeting room and had a little evening meeting where we talked about the things that worry us, and Frieda talked a bit about Jesus saying "Do not worry" from the Sermon on the Mount. It was a really good evening, and everyone got involved and seemed to get a lot out of it.
We also did a midnight walk on Saturday night that I can't remember much of at all except for having to pick frogs off the path so that people wouldn't step on them.
Then Sunday morning I was whisked away back to Malpas, had a quick shower and then led worship at Time for Praise - which went really well as well. It was just a really good weekend all-in-all, even though with travelling back to Aber on Monday morning as well I was absolutely exhausted.
Well, thats about it, really. I was hoping to tell you I'd written a new song, but its not quite there yet. I get the feeling it might take a while, because I really want to get the lyrics exactly right because musically I think it sounds really good, so I want the lyrics to be up to scratch too. So, I might find something to do another update on sometime during the rest of this week, otherwise I'll try and write alot more next Monday.
God bless,
J.
Half-term
We had our half-term in Newport this last week, a week after most of the UK including Aberystwyth, which meant I had very little to do and got to go home for a week which was great. Jen and I (never know what to do here - "me and Jen" seems wrong, but "Jen and I" feels a little posh - oh well!) celebrated our own Valentine's day last Monday, and she gave me the new Snow Patrol CD which I had also gotten for her and for Dad (whose birthday was a couple of weeks ago) which I'm currently listening to writing this, and the film "Accepted" on DVD which is amazing - I really wanted to see it because the trailers looked great and I missed it at the cinema.
I also got the chance to see everyone again at Cell on Wednesday night when I dropped in for a bit to see everyone, which was fantastic - I love hearing from you guys on myspace and stuff so keep sending me stuff.
I was sent home for Half-term with two things left to do that week for St. Mary's, a drama and the talk, which I gave, for the Yout h Time for Praise this Sunday.
Time for Praise
Sunday went really well. I decided to step back from playing guitar (Sarah led worship) to focus on the talk and just get the chance to worship from the back. I know some people like to maintain that they can worship just as well from the back as at the front but I will always be of the opinion that worshipping is always more about the back than the front and so ideally, we should be spending more time at the back than we do at the front. Playing every week it's so easy to just burn out, which is something I really don't want to do, so it was refreshing to be able to just worship, no strings attached. Also, I think it was John or Charles Wesley who said about his preaching, "God sets me on fire, and people come to watch me burn" so it's always good to give God the chance to set you on fire before you speak.
So anyway (I think I've ranted a bit), it went really well. All of the other guys from 24-7 were fantastic as well. We had about 80 I think, which was the roughly the same as the 9:45 and the church is getting fuller and fuller week-by-week.
SMASH
At Smash today we were looking at Jesus raising Lazarus, and it went really well. We were maybe a little low on numbers but that's probably because of it being the first day back from Half-term so they should pick up next week.
Youth Club (Trip)
Just realised I haven't actually talked about the Youth Club Trip last weekend. It was amazing. We did loads of fun activities, played some football, basketball and hockey, and got to talk a fair amount too. The Amelia Trust Farm turned out to be quite nice, although the accomodation was a little basic. We had the whole of this lodge kindof place to ourselves with a common room, boys and girls dorms, leader's rooms and a kitchen, with access to a slightly bigger meeting room in a different building.
At first it was a little bit difficult to get everyone involved in everything, but eventually over the weekend I think we managed to win people over. On the first night we played a lot of circle games and had a big game of Sardines around the farmyard, and took everyone out to explore the farm and into the woods so G could tell a scary story.
Saturday, we gave everyone a lot of free time during the day, but had a couple of sessions booked in the farm sports hall (sounds weird to right that - but actually the sports hall was top-notch) for the sportier guys... so I ended up doing a lot of running around. Then, in the evening, we went over to the meeting room and had a little evening meeting where we talked about the things that worry us, and Frieda talked a bit about Jesus saying "Do not worry" from the Sermon on the Mount. It was a really good evening, and everyone got involved and seemed to get a lot out of it.
We also did a midnight walk on Saturday night that I can't remember much of at all except for having to pick frogs off the path so that people wouldn't step on them.
Then Sunday morning I was whisked away back to Malpas, had a quick shower and then led worship at Time for Praise - which went really well as well. It was just a really good weekend all-in-all, even though with travelling back to Aber on Monday morning as well I was absolutely exhausted.
Well, thats about it, really. I was hoping to tell you I'd written a new song, but its not quite there yet. I get the feeling it might take a while, because I really want to get the lyrics exactly right because musically I think it sounds really good, so I want the lyrics to be up to scratch too. So, I might find something to do another update on sometime during the rest of this week, otherwise I'll try and write alot more next Monday.
God bless,
J.
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