and finally (can you tell its friday afternoon?) something vaguely connected to my deleted post from earlier.

if you read this thing (and i'm not writing to thin air) can i have your thoughts on competitiveness and how its fits in with the whole follower of Jesus bit? (I don't really mean in anything to do with the whole sporting thing)

this post has some starting ideas, but i'm not sure i really agree with the sentiments in the last paragraph - i do think some people are wired to be more competitive and God can use it, but i have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that its not that great, it is one of those long, slow rumbling things that every now and then gets to me.

i guess it could be an individual motivational factor, but its not competitveness that makes me want to see people move on with God, and i've seen lots of what i would think to be negative effects from competitiveness. but thats me and i would kind of like to stand corrected!
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i went for dinner with one of my good friends last night. she has a vaguely catholic upbringing, but has never really been interested. we used to work together and have kept up our friendship; whilst i never push the gospel at her i am always very honest (in a not at all pushy way) about my life and what goes on. last night, i invited her over for easter (i know its some way off, but it came up in conversation) and she asked if she could come to church.
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this weekend our youth group are fasting - a sponsored one, to raise money for the third world, and its going to be interesting. they are all having a sleepover and then we are spending the day together tomorrow, hopefully to take our minds off our tummies, then breaking our fast together with a meal in the evening. although i don't really like fasting with other people (i'm weird like that) and i fear that tempers might fray somewhat tomorrow, through tiredness as well as hunger, i am looking forward to it. most of the gang haven't done anything like this before, and so on when i get the chance i think i'm gonna spend some time with them talking about the spiritual side (not that raising money to give people clean water isn't spiritual in its own way).

i also plan to have some oj/sweets handy just in case we have a fainting teenager!
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the homegroup that i go to was very cool last night. we had some new people, who were made very welcome and seemed completely at ease - which was good. someone led us in a time of sharing which was done so well. i like 'sharing' evenings, but not too often, and it was lovely. the facilitator organised us to share something we are thankful for from the last week or so and something we'd like prayer for. after sharing we prayed in groups and filled in cards with our prayer request on - so i am praying for someone else this week for one specific thing and so on. it was refreshing and a very positive way of sharing, reinforeced by the way i felt like stuff was going to be acted on.

one of the other highlights of last week (for which i am truely thankful!) was thursday. it snowed here (such a rare occurance) and as the Boy and i aren't going to be able to go boarding this we've been a little mournful. (especially since one of the highlights of our 'courting' was going away with others from our community boarding/skiing when few knew what was going on between us, and the Boy dropping his snowboard whilst in the chairlift. he got the lift back down most of the way and then jumped (just by a ravine, with snow not that deep from about 30-40 feet up) he did eventually get the board back, but i learnt a lot about him from the way he jumped (he wasn't injured!)). so on thursday the Boy crawled through the logjam that was the centre of bristol out towards my parents place, we borrowed their sledge and spent a very merry hour or two pushing each other down hills, all wrapped up in snow gear. it was a real gift from God and something i am very thankful for.
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following on from the andrew jones malarky i read this article. interesting.
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i did a large edit as i've been told off by the Boy, and he was right. even if i have been mullling over stuff for a few days i shouldn't post largely out of grumpiness (issues that have made me grumpy/think for a while), and so i'm sorry if there is anyone who actually read the thing. but i might post most of the stuff later in less of a rant!
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on saturday we went (with steve and curly claire) to the training day for dti (dreaming the impossible, a 4 day conference for 11-14's). i wasn't looking forward to it, to be honest as i had better things to do than travel up to nottingham for the day, but there you go.

i'm afraid my fears were largely justified, but there were some saving graces. we met some lovely people. i got some prayer from someone who didn't know me or my circumstances who pretty much read my mail. (i love it when God does this, when its something i'd never ask for prayer for myself, or even mention). i was reminded why i like the event so much. see, lots of camps and stuff have junior leaders, but these are different. dti has the 'service team' (15-18 year olds), and this gang give real strength of meaning to the timothy stuff about 'dont let anyone look down on you because you are young'. they lead the sung worship (Kat is a great example) and help lead just about everything else. most have grown up going to this event for several years, and i find it incrediably exciting to see what God is clearly doing in their lives. it gives me hope for our youth when they ask questions like 'if i shut my eyes for 3 years will i be able to open them again?' (answer given (not by me!) 'why don't you try it?')

on another note:

i was pointed to this article on marriage which i think raises some pretty good points about relying on old testament principles too much, with out bringing in the balance of the new (and i am not necessarily agreeing with what it says, just so you know). 4 months married and she thinks she knows it all. i don't know! ;)

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this poor blog has been a little neglected this week, and i am going to remedy this by working backwards!

this weekend the famous jacqui chan has been back in bristol, on her way to the pastors conference in bournemouth this week. she came round for dinner at our place last night (more difficult that it may seem as our hall is now almost impassable due to the kingsize bed in boxes that fills it), and the Boy and myself were both a bit down as we didn't have the best of weeks last week. the chan had hired a 4x4 for the weekend, but hadn't put it to the test, so to cheer ourselves up we thought we'd go offroading. we picked a spot where it would not be too illegal or irritating to farmers about 30 minutes out of bristol and it was great we spent a happy time taking turns behind the wheel, testing the traction control and reversing up steep muddy hills. chan was having a last go before we headed for home and had been following a track that was becoming steadily more difficult to traverse and thought she a-spied a gate which meant that a turn would be in order. thankfully there was a small clearing in which this could take place. it was then that disaster struck.



the front wheels became stuck in the mud (one wheel at least 6 inches deep, probably more) and the back wheels were unable to get any form of traction. sadly the vehicle was not equipped with anything that could really help us, except for a flare (and we weren't that desperate) and it was now that we discovered that we were infact incrediably close to the main road and the gate was not really a gate. the Boy and chan attempted to gain some traction with plastic bags and random twigs as i attempted to get the thing going, but it was to no avail, we were stuck. it was at this point the Boy realised his wedding ring (just 4 months old) was no longer on his finger.

then we remembered that james and rach lived close by (they are members of our community), unfortunately chan was the only one with a phone there and didn't have their number, so there then ensued a period of frantic calling to anyone and everyone to get their number; eventually this paid off and we got the number and got through to james. he rushed out to find us bringing snow chains and a spade, but still there was no shifting the darn thing. it was now getting on for midnight and well below freezing. james and jacqui went off to find a farmer who could be persuaded to bring their tractor out to rescue us at that time of night. the Buy and I stayed with the car and he continued to try to dig it out and we searched for the missing ring. a few minutes later an engine rumble was heard and shortly after that our bright, bright lights appeared over the brow of the hill signalling the arrival of our rescuer. the tractor made short work of the mess, and we were soon heading for a very welcome cuppa.

we made it home for 1ish, only to get up at the crack of dawn this morning, to go look for the ring with the Boy's metal detector. he was pootling round, had a couple of false positives, and i had a bit of a pray. the Boy says 'why don't you have a look around a bit further off, incase it flicked off.' i wander round about, and i'm stood in a leafy, muddy type area, near where the back of the land rover had been and i feel God say to kick the leaves. so i do. and there was the ring. pleased is an understatement. if we'd not had the help we'd never have found it.

that was at 8:45 this morning - i made it into work only 15 minutes late.

the rest of the weekend i'll blog later maybe!
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