ange's musings

This week has been timetabled as 'Easy week' and the name says it all. No Via days are scheduled in and its ours for rest, reflection and all that good stuff :-) Being rather short on cash at the moment, I thought I had made the smart decision of accepting some extra shifts this week at the cafe where I work. However, Sunday morning arrived and I realised I had acquired a lovely viral thing from my friend the previous night. Like a fool, I just assumed I wouldn't catch his horrible cold, cuz I am normally quite fortunate and his doctor wifey hadn't managed to get it even though he'd been ill and off work for a whole week! As a result I managed to have my hours reduced on monday (as I was a clumsy mess, and created many minature disasters all morning) and I now have the rest of the week off. It may seem a rather fatalistic view, but I do reckon that my acquisition of this horrible URTI was all down to God trying to tell me to bloomin well rest! And I was reminded of

Climate change We know how it happens. We know why it's happened. We know how to slow down the rate at which it is happening. So click on this link, do some reading, make some promises to yourself and an online community. And remember to aim high. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,1934452,00.html We owe it to people in our world today, tomorrow and the next. We were given the responsibility of stewardship. Lets live up to that responsibility together.

So this afternoon at Tom and Nic's was "Huddle". This is basically an opportunity for us all to gather in Tom and Nic's lovely but sometimes rather cold lounge with cups of tea (of all varieties, seriously any tea from any nation lives in their kitchen cuboards!) and chat, in a hopefully honest and open way, debiting and crediting from each other's "trust accounts". Its a time where we work out where each other is at with God, themselves and others, pray for each other, give and receive tissues (sometimes boxfuls, then we have to use toilet roll!) and give and receive hugs, lots of hugs, of which I am particularly thankful for! So today unbeknown to me, Jesus had decided in advance to do some of his stuff with me. So much stuff that I am feeling very thankful to now be taking breaths of a relative normal duration when I compare them to the breaths I was managing to fit in around all the crying I was doing earlier! I mean, man alive, did I cry, but it was

Recently I've been thinking about the difference between my subjective ideas of how eager I am to do stuff, and how eager I actually am objectively. If that made any sense at all, I will add that I am also realising that there is a lot of work I have to do before my inner enthusiasm actually breaks lose, gets over its hang ups and makes a difference, objectively, in reality, in chronos and basically in life! Yesterday, as I walked to house group, the green light of the traffic lights shimmering off the pavement (yes the tarmac really was shimmering) caught my attention. The lights were bright, didn't seem to be changing to red any time soon and they cast a light on the ground ahead that was beckoning me to come towards it and as I needed to get to house group which was north of the traffic lights, I yielded to its beckoning like a moth to a fly. But as I passed by I considered how learner drivers tend to approach traffic lights, even green lights when compared to more experienc

Today on the eve of my 24th year as I sit here typing away, I am pondering just how exceedingly unpredictable God is in his wonderful ways. Only 6 weeks ago, I thought that at this moment in time I would be in Malawi, East Africa shadowing a lovely Canadian doctor called Chris in a small rural health clinic on the shores of Lake Malawi! I thought I would be learning lots of tropical medicine and making (I admit) a miniscule difference to the health of the people of Malawi, whilst taking in the breathtaking beauty of that nation. What an image is now conjured up in my mind. (I pray and hope this is still part of my plans for next Autumn!) As usual, God, in his wisdom had entirely different plans and in the last month he has demonstrated to me the truth of those verses that describe how His ways are higher than ours. The last few weeks have been transforming, spiritually, mentally and definitely emotionally. I knew that character formation was a key component of this year, but I didn'

Today's lunchtime rush hour was absolutely mad at work. You couldn't see the floor for the buggies and it was literally an obstacle course trying to deliver lattes and mochas and hot food up and down the steps between the levels to the various mothers with their toddlers. There was one table surrounded by mothers and ten babies at one point, most of them looked less than 6 months, I've never seen anything like it. The funniest thing was that even though we were so packed more mums were trying to park their three-wheelers and even bikes with baby seats in the cafe! I have to say it makes for an interesting working environment and we had fun attempting to serve everyone, and certainly made a lot today, which is encouraging for our manager too. I've really enjoyed getting into the cafe/waitressing lifestyle and its quite a nice laid back place to work. One of my coworkers and I had an interesting conversation today, she was explaining how she became first interested in bu

I just got back from an amazing via day, God taught us so, so much. This afternoon we were out and about on Gloucester road seeking to bless people in some small way. I have to admit, I left Tom and Nic's feeling pretty apprehensive and feeling that I wouldn't know what to say to the recipients of our inexperienced attempts. But God had plans, and as Mark and I entered Somerfield with a ten pound note hoping to bless, Jesus had his hand on people before we even met them. Some were overwhelmed and intrigued, one lady was so thankful and accepted our gift with a smile. We prayed for her as we left, realising that sometimes we may just be a small link in a chain of God's work in someone's life. But what an honour it is to be that for him. The main thing I realised was that, people are dry, they're thirsty and they are often searching, asking the big questions. And on a quiet, wet October afternoon, they may be waiting for someone to show them some love, sometimes in a

Watch this short video and come up with your own definition of beauty. Great campaign.

Fourteen days have passed by since I began this new journey with God, a journey to a place I don't know, along a path I don't know, with friends that slowly but surely, I am getting to know. These first two weeks have been focussed on these new relationships and for that I am glad. And as overwhelming as it all is right now, the knowledge that we do all stand together and are for each other is good, even if I do sometimes find that hard to believe due to my own insecurities. What has been even better is our constant remembering that as we gather on our v ia days, we gather around Him, the one who is greater than our hurts, the one with the power to heal. For some of us (including me) He's been delving around, dredging up stuff that quite honestly seems more painful than anything else and if I'm honest seems rather (forgive me) brash of God to dive straight in, pretty much on day 1 as He did with tears before noon (and man, those tears just kept on coming for some of us,