Life on the slopes....

Well I would love to say at this point that I had had a really relaxing weekend, spent loads of time reading books for the course and preparing myself for the week ahead. I would really love that to be part of my life....Sadly it isn't...

The Chaos started really as I left Chester at Thursday lunchtime (I have to say at this point that none of what has happened is bad or negative!!)

I went 'snowboarding' for the first time ever and it was awesome....Yes it was real snow a great place call Xscape at Castleford, www.xscape.co.uk

Friday was filled with the usual fullness of breakfast club, followed by a school assembly, a quick coffee and phoning session then into school at lunchtime for some positive play, stop at the sandwich shop and grab lunch to be eaten at the church community centre where we set up for after schools club (yr7+) Its just a place for them to come on a Friday to release their frustrations of the week!!! Quickly get myself to one of the other churches in the team to help with the Friday Night Chill Out part of the mission weekend, fantastic as it was and with 25 unchurched young people in all hearing the 4points (check out www.the4points.com) it was a privilege to be part of their lives.

Saturday morning football practice....For some reason Colin and I have got 5 teams entered into the Ambassadors In Sport 6-a-side league...yep that's a minimum of 30 under 16's....

sustenance was on hand directly afterwards as part two of the mission weekend kicked in (like the link eh!) St Matthews Big Brunch....Again we had 20+ members of the surrounding community come in and share a free breakfast and hear the gospel.....Well I had to work of the breakfast so there was no choice but to inflate the two sofas...Praise God for the man who invented the double action air pump!! Quickly home for a shower then visit some parents re-football matches in the evening.

Part three on the mission weekend (still Saturday) a Girls' only Pamper day, 2 hrs where you could have a foot spa, a fun face lift, a facial, hand massage, fruit cocktail and not to forget the chocolate fountain....I gave hand massages. This time we had catered for about 30 but where completely bowled over when we had 40+ ladies turn up...It was absolutely buzzing, we all had a fab time and the best bit was once again having the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus not just through the talks but also through the talking...If you know what I mean...

anyway no time to waste...Pick up minibus and head for the football....a mixed bag of wins and losses but all in good spirit and all with 30+ young people who would otherwise would not necessarily have contact with God in any other way.

Sunday - well I thought it was to be a day off....Not quite. A parishioner raised a doubt in my mind that I was preaching at the 10.30am service, this was confirmed by finding the provisional rota for Oct. I hadn't even had this on my radar so was ever so slightly un-prepared...None the less, I read the lectionary readings for the day and prepared what I could in short notice....Up and out with the dog at the early hours to help with the thought process...Only to discover on arrival at said church that the provisional rota had changed (it doesn't normally) so I found myself sitting in a pew slightly shell shocked and with 11 packets of smarties all to myself....

Part four of mission weekend - a mellow cafe with live music - just enough time to grab a bit of toast (nothing to put on it as not been shopping yet!!) then move an electric piano from one house to the church....visit a family then back to the church community centre for 6pm to great my faithful 4 (extreme teen-started 2yrs ago as my first confirmation class and continued to meet!!!)

This is where I thought God was really taking things to the extreme right enough. I didn't have just my faithful 4 but rather another 6 on top. This was a break through 6 of the young people who have been coming to our open club for the past year came in. They didn't settle down completely but they interacted at the appropriate times (mostly) as one of my 4 was leading!

Why do we do what we do.......me, I do it for exactly the reasons given above....over this one weekend we have talked lived and breathed God to over 100 people who are normally on the outside of our radar...we have introduced them, whether they realise it or not, to the most important person they will ever need to know....2 years ago God changed me more than I could have anticipated and as part of that change my heart cried out for the young people of today....not as a mass but one at a time.....I'm living that heart felt desire every day, watching these young people change, deciding that actually it might be better sitting down with these weird folk on Sunday and hearing that they are loved than trawling the streets cold and lost....am I tired, yes, do I want more......bring it on......I love it

The Church and its future

Have you ever sat down and wondered about where all this is going? I don't mean pre-destination/heaven etc...no I mean the here and now or rather the now and then. I do sometimes wonder if the churches that I am asked to go into and try to develop some for of youth work actually realise what they are asking for. My main response is " I can't promise more bums on seats for you! I can't do all the work without you! and the strongest one...I won't spend my time with young people trying to get them to conform to your idea of church adn worship!"

Some strong and sometimes brave things to say (you should meet some of the PCC members - school teachers have nothing on these guys - I love them all of course!!). But what is the future? What should be our areas of evangelism? To whom? and for want of a better phrased question What can we do with the new christians we come in contact with?

If you can take yourself out of what we see as church for just now, can you see what will become of the established church as we know it?

Can you forsee a future where the Godhead is still worshipped?

What can we do to continue God's plan for this world without becoming to self obssessed about what we want?

Lots of questions....open to all discussions...

M

is football intune with nature!?

there is an advert on the tv just now basically talking about the butterfly effect....you know the one if a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the planet then there is a tidal wave on the other...the balance of life type of thing...

well I never really thought much about it until tonight. I have to say that i can see some truth in the point and would even dare to say that I have evidence to back it up.....


there I was sat in the highest point of old trafford stadium (any higher and God would be sitting next to me...oh yes He was - well high enough to be mindful of nose bleeds!!!) watching what has got to be said was one of the most boring games of international football I have ever seen. The final score never reflects the play but neither side really deserved to win so I suppose the result stands.....and as by contrast there as the complete underdogs was Scotland. Faced by no less than the 'auld alliance' who when they last played scotland hammered them 5-0. So what a great delight, nay pleasure, nay overwhelming sense of achievement when the text message came from Scotland telling me that the 'auld allince' had played, dived, objected and been denied all efforts and Scotland were victors to make them the top of their league without question.

So you see perhaps the butterfly theory works, not only restoring the balance of mankind but restoring the Scottish team to the rightful place....at the top of the country!!!

My condolances to Rich...it was unlucky to let in 5 right enough.....

M

Me

Ok so I can upload a pic but can't work out how to make it small enough to post it in my profile....all help gratefully recieved....apparently it needs to be less than 50 kilobytes.....

O by the way this was taken on a train from Edinburgh to Dundee earlier this year....not sure that it does me any favours!!!!!

Moira

Old Friends....sat on a park bench liike bookends...

So here they are the two best boys in the world...best friends too and long overdue a haircut in this photo....if this uploads then I am getting the hang of this blogging stuff.....

Joe is the one on the left and Benson on the right...

where am i...who am i and why!!!!

well thanks to God's amazing (or sick depends on what aspect you take it from!!) sense of humour, i moved from the beautiful borders of scotland two years ago to bolton!! God has been amazing even though i may disagree with his humour and i have been totally blessed by what he has done in my life so far...

bolton is not one of the most desirable places in the uk to live yet i have been given a love for the people here more than i could have dreamt.
currently I have the privilage of working with the young people in Halliwell regardless of their faith/belief or religion. I work with nice kids, even the ones who smack you in the teeth on the first day of term!! O yes he did!! they allow me to be part of their life, and in that i hope and pray that they see more in me of Jesus than the me that is always trying to get out.

We do fun things together, some come to play pool/table tennis/football etc some come because you are there. some come because they want to find out more about God.

so here I am, alongwith a fellow Scot - Colin-(God obviously has a plan for Bolton!!!) to do what ever God wants, whenever He wants it.

o I work for a really funkily named voluntary organisation called H.A.F.W.A.Y Halliwell Action For Working Alongside Youth told you it was funky!!!

This is scary stuff....Not sure what I am doing but never fear....

It is amazing what different challenges come your way in life...Here I am at 37 thinking that really I was pretty up with it but finding that this new gadget is one I should have looked at earlier!!! Blogging? What? maybe I use a different dictionary than people from the North West!! (well that in it's self is a fallacy!!!) maybe a different dialect..who knows...here's to weeks of 'blogging' with all my heart!! Moira