Thought…
“Hold on to heaven… & don’t let Satan in.”
A friend sent me this in a message today… its stuck with me for some reason, can’t work out what it is about it…
Discuss!
Making Your Mark
I was away on a “pupil leadership training weekend” organised by SU the weekend past there (as in I came home yesterday!). It was fantastic! There were about 55-60 people there from 14 different schools around N.Ireland, and we just came together to talk and share ideas about our CU’s and connect with each other.
On Sunday morning during our last session, a guy called Mark said something during an ‘open mic’ time that I will never forget. He was talking about his specific situation in school…
“We have 5 people on our SU committee – thats nearly half the 12 disciples, and if they touched the whole world and we are only trying to reach one school – I think we can handle it!”
In Academy, we have 10 people on committee and 2-4 teachers involved at different stages… thats more than the 12 disciples… and we are only trying to reach one school… BRING IT ON!
Stupid Internet…
FINALLY getting to update… live from the Wash Basin lol. My internet connection from home seems to have packed in, and since I’ve actually been in school very little this week I’ve had to forgo blogging.
What a waste of time yesterday was. I went up to Queens University (Belfast) open day with school. I already knew I didnt really want to go there, but as I’ll probably be appling in case I dont get into the ones I want to go to, I went to see it anyway. Pretty much just confirmed what I already knew. I missed the only talk I wanted to go to (maths) as we arrived too late, so we had a wee nosy around the campus and then headed into town for lunch, swiftly followed by coffee at Starbucks… best part of the day.
Today was a little better it must be said, went to Methodist College (a school in Belfast) for a ‘higher education convention’- basically a lot of universities from mainland UK. Had a chat with a few of them, got some more prospectuses (is that even a word?). MOst importantly, I found out about BUNAC. It’s an organisation that runs gap year programmes and work abroad programmes. I got to have a chat with a lady about taking a year out to work in New Zealand, and it turns out that she had been on the programme in NZ too, so it was really useful. It’s still expensive, but is a lot more afordable than other options I’ve looked at, especially because you can work your way around.
Yesterday afternoon was also the first CU meeting of the year – my first in charge! – and from the feedback I’ve been getting I think it went pretty well. We had quite a lot of 5th years along, and probably about 60ish in total. I was actually speaking at it, only for about 5 mins like, but i was still a little nervous. Its strange, because I knew that I was saying something God had told me to say, so I wasnt nervous about that, but I was still just a little nervous about actually getting up there and speaking! I think it went ok though. I shared a little bit about our vision for CU this year, in aiming to be a loving community (see Matt 13v34-35). Heres hoping lots come back next week…
iPod, therefore…
Started reading this book yesterday, and am really enjoying it. It’s subtitled ‘A personal journey through music’, and its all that and more. It has set me off once again on my own journey, sometimes back through music I havent listened to in years… has also convinced me to make time to put more of my music collection onto my MP3 player, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages and just never got round to!
So thought I’d post a list of whats currently spinning in my CD player (or if todays been anything to go by, on my turntable…)
Rattle & Hum – U2
The Sound Of White – Missy Higgins
Blackened Sky – Biffy Clyro
For This Cause – Hillsong
The Needle In The Haystack – Frances Thorburn
Know Your Enemy – Manic Street Preachers
Bleed American – Jimmy Eat World
Sonicpraise – Sonicflood
Vs. – Pearl Jam
Fun!
Back to school…
Today was my first day back, and I have to say, it was kinda strange.
I am now in the oldest year group in school – that means we’re the ones the little ‘uns look up to and think are cool and stuff. I remember how back in the day we thought 6th years were the coolest thing since sliced bread! It also made me a bit sad, just to think that this is my last year – I have to make this one count! I know we all complain about school and homework and whatever else – but I really have been blessed in this school, with wonderful teachers, friends and subjects I (mostly) enjoy. It will take some getting used to as I begin to move on to fresh pastures…
Stirling…
So I’ve just booked flights to go see Stirling University in September… ah scary biscuits!! So begins the crazyness of UCAS forms, more dull university lectures, and pressure from parents and teachers alike… I don’t know what I want to do, thats not a crime ok!!
I will most likely end up doing a joint maths & computers degree… purely because I enjoy the subjects, but i’ve no idea where that will lead to. I’ve also been looking into some gap year options, but its crazy money. But then so is uni… so i’d never notice another £4000 debt!
Heres one of my crazy ideas…
Servanthood…
Friday night past was our Exodus recommissioning service – sending us out again, but this time into our homes, schools and workplaces, to be Jesus hands and feet here at home, not just on a two-week summer missions trip. The guy that spoke, Jeremy Gardner (youth pastor at High Kirk, Ally’s church) spoke on servanthood, and I really connected with something he said for the first time…
Is servanthood the best way to live?
A ‘successful’ life, as defined by the culture we live in, is one that is self-focused, all-about-me, and insular. It’s one where your world gets smaller and smaller.
A life of servanthood, by contrast, is one where you give yourself away. A little here, a little there, all over Ballymena, Northern Ireland and the world. It’s one where your world gets bigger and bigger.
Is servanthood the best way to live? Of course!! It’s logical – your world increases in time, not decreases.
So there you have it… something I’ve been thinking about over the weekend.
Lightbulb ministry…
When we were in Holland the main thing we were involved in was an outreach with the church called Lightbulb ministry. (Just realised I’ve never said what the church was called! It’s Living Water. You can check it out an www.levendwater.nl) This was basically us going around the doors of a local area called Tanthof, giving out free lightbulbs.
The neighbourhood of Tanthof has a population of 60,000 people – roughly 10% of Delfts population – and there is no church there at all! We were not necessarily going out to get long , God conversations with people, but simply to touch them with the love of God. Over two days we gave out about 1100 lightbulbs, and had some awesome conversations. One lady even came to church!
We got to keep our funky tee-shirts too – Ist er licht in uw huis?
Holland…
Holland was amazing! I’m still kinda taking it all in, reflecting on it and working out what it really meant to me. There are so many bikes everywhere, like seriously!! I know I expected it to be flat and there to be lots of bikes, but I guess the full extent didn’t really hit me till we got there… this is the view from Leiden train station, where we had to change trains to get to Delft.
Man, I miss Delft. I had got used to cycling my wee bike around – one gear, peddle backwards to brake – and kinda gotten to know my way around too. The church gave us bikes to get around on while we were there, and i’d guess we cycled about 5 miles a day on average. We had gotten so used to cycling into the centre to have pancakes or whatever… the picture below shows the cathedral in Delft, it was so beautiful. We climbed up to the top one day and took a whole pile of pictures, I’m hoping to put together a panoramic one when I get the time.
It’s been too long…
…i’ve missed blogging!!
just got back from my Exodus team last night, flew into Belfast at 5.45. Ah where would I start with it, the guys on my team are fantastic, like family, I made a lot of new mates and got closer to old ones, and God did a might work- both in our lives and in the lives of the people we touched. Many seeds were planted. The picture below was taken one day when we went to Antwerp (in Belguim) and did some street worship and dramas, just talking to people. Its our whole team plus people that joined us for the day. I shall post more as time goes on, but God has indeed done a lot in my life and taught me soo much, I couldnt possibly post it all at once. So that’ll do for a start.
I’ve also been hearing great stories about Deep Fish, an outreach programme running from the Wash Basin at the minute, today is the last day, and so far I hear there have been about 70 people become Christians! I had to ask them to repeat it a few times, I thought I was hearing them wrong! How awesome is our God guys, seriously!!
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