a great saturday

good sleep
hot sun
blue sky
cinnamon and raisin bagel
an old CD (rnb/garage compilation from 2001)
lunch in the garden
beach
corona
a new friend
long conversations
bicycling
cooking
pub with friends ("juice and coffee please")
a good (free) dance

mmm. :-)

the big church day out

well the name of the event is pretty self-explanatory...

but to be more precise, this sunday, over 14,000 people gathered from different churches and different denominations, from all over the country and beyond, in the beautiful sussex countryside under a blue sky and warm sun to CELEBRATE ALL THAT IS GOOD. this was the motto of the day and one i'd like to apply to my life.

i was privileged to be able to help out since a friend was pretty much organising the whole thing. My role was to help welcome the artists/performers/speakers as they arrived... who included Diane Louise Jordan (yesss! my favourite ex-blue peter presenter!), Pete Greig, Steve Chalke, Delerious? (the main band of the event), and a whole variety of musical groups that performed at one of the three venues. i think i prefer being on the "serving" side, as you get a better picture of what's going on and it makes it all more real. so we were there from 7:30am until 1am, which made for a long day but not too strenuous to be honest and being mainly outside in amazing weather made me very happy! there was a really good, chilled atmosphere, with people of all ages and backgrounds.

it felt quite surreal, like a bubble of good vibes... but the point is not that this was just a 'nice day out' , but a prophetic statement of unity between churches in the UK, acknowledging that in Jesus we are family. The church, and by that i mean all people who follow Jesus, is the BODY of Christ - it doesn't make any sense that a body should be so divided. A body is made up of different parts with different roles but those parts need each other. They cannot function alone. Yet so often you find congregations or individuals isolating themselves from the body. Which is pretty much equivalent to self-multilation. Or we hear the different parts discouraging each other because they are doing things differently. But maybe this is necessary in a world full of such variety. Maybe it's OK that we don't all look the same, that we don't all prioritise the same things. Can we not still stand together and celebrate the good, and stand against the bad. The bad not being the kind of songs we sing or clothes we wear, but more like injustice, treating some people as if they are worth less than others, exclusion, selfishness and greed... then, change might begin to happen.

anyways. it was a good day. :-)

beautiful sunset!

God didn't have to make sunsets so beautiful. the light could have just gone off like a light switch. but it doesn't. and they are amazing! THANK YOU!!

let me not remain silent

"is there not an atmosphere of carelessness and godlessness in which we simply can't find the right word and remain silent? Aren't we often enough silenced by false shyness and timidity? Warning and admonition remain unspoken; comfort and concern are denied. How torturously and anxiously does the name of Jesus Christ sometimes come our of our mouth! It takes a great deal of spiritual experience and practise, and at the same time childlike confident faith, to be able to tell "all the ordinances" of God with one's lips without getting into a spiritual rut or becoming an apostle of custom or an insistent chatterbox. Our whole heart must belong to the word of God before we can also learn to put our lips entirely into the service of Jesus Christ"

more Bonhoeffer!! :-)

dissertations are done!!

you gotta love sussex...

300, 3, 16000

Wooooo

Welcome to my 300th post! Wow that's quite a lot of posts for a 1 and a half and a bit year old blog (started september 2007 i believe).

All i really wanted to say is, 3 weeks left of studentdom. HOO-RAY. i am so ready to be outta there.

this time next week my 16,000 words of dissertations will be done and dusted. actually, i already have more than enough words, it's just making them make sense. hmmmm

LOTS to do, but,

WORRYING WON'T ADD ANOTHER HOUR TO THE DAY

i love how common sense the Bible is [sometimes].

however, typing slightly aimlessly on my blog WILL subtract valuable time. so that's all folks for today.

simple

We have been silent witnesses to evil deeds. We have been washed with many waters and have learned the arts of pretence and ambiguous speech. Through experience we have become mistrusting of people and often have not been truthful and honest with them. Through unbearable conflicts we have become worn out and perhaps even cynical – are we still useful?

We will need not geniuses, not cynics, not misanthropes, not refined tacticians, but plain, simple, straightforward people. Will our inner power of resistance against what is forced upon us remain strong enough and our uprightness against ourselves ruthless enough for us to find again the path to simplicity and straightforwardness?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

bright(on) lights

the fun fair on the level, and "fire smoke and mirrors" in queen's park

i puzzle

is it just me,
or do i not quite fit anywhere?

OR,
is it just YOU

and,
there was never any jigsaw to begin with?

made me laugh...