Laying down picking up

Pick up sticks, and age old game that I introduced to one of the junior schools that I go into. It's strange how in the age of the Xbox and other interactive gadgets  this simple game has captured the imagination of so many children. I started with two boxes of these sticks and have since expanded to six. 

To play pick up sticks you first have to lay them down.  Theres two ways of this. Laying the down as precisely as you can so they land neatly. That isn't always the easiest of things. They fall how they want to no matter how you try to get them to land . The other option is just letting go and dropping them not caring how they land. 

It's is not just with this children's game we put things down in these two ways. Our gifts, talents, Ministry , Call and even friends and family. 

We can lay things on a alter before God to leave them in His care gently with care not knowing if or when we may return to lift them back up again. The other option is to almost just drop them like the sticks, not bothering. Laying things down comes through differing reasons but how we respond to the reasons really matters. 

 Its possible that both of these actions are done through anger or despair through struggle. 

Sometime ago it the second option seemed the best choice, not just throwing it down but throwing back at God rather than to  lay things down through prayer. The process was one of not wanting to use or have the call and gifts to go with that. At the time there seemed no way out of the situation that was engulfing  everything. There was no joy or life in the gift something that was once enjoyed now was a chore. 

This week the gift and call that was thrown down in anger and hurt was gently if somewhat scarily given back. 

Picking that gift back up started with the preparation a couple of weeks ago. What was amazing was the way in which the enjoyment of the preparation that revitalises and refreshes came flooding back. 

 This week a fresh and new understanding of the words of Jesus 'I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly' (John 10:10) opened up for the first time since throwing down that gift and call once again life felt truly full.

looking back, moving Forward

It's hard to believe that at the end of this week I'll have been in post as the Youth Missioner in this patch for a year...  There's been so much happening in what seem to be all to short a time. Two MA papers submitted and passed with great grades. Moved house again. started a Youth group, a weeks youth pilgrimage, 2 baptisms and 4 taking communion for the first time, a house group started. two holiday clubs planned one completed and one starts in the morning. Trips to olympic warm up games ( we saw Mexico the Gold medalist play). and a weekend brake to Turin. There plenty more I've missed I'm sure of that.

Theres been learning curves some steep, laughter and pain.  whats for the coming year. that together in this little patch in a corner of Leicester we continue to build on the foundations of this year. that we continue to press on together...

None of what has happened this year could have happened in our own strength.  One of the passages that has been a constant this year was psalm 37: 3-7

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 
⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:
⁶ He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, 
    your vindication like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be still before the Lord
    and wait patiently for him;

It's so easy to have plans and ideas that we think are great or good. If we are not seeking after Gods will and vision for the place that we are called to it's like building on sand with no foundation. yet when we seek him and those plans are ideas come from HIM then those projects and plans will move forward not always with amazing here and now celebrations. rather with the laying of seeds in the lives of others.

Top moments of 2011

A friend posted on her blog her top moments of 2011(here) then sent out a tweet to challenge to do the same and STF posted her 11 for 11 (here)...

So my moments for 2011 Hmmm it's been a really hard year for MyPatch in a lot of ways.. but lets see how far we get.....

1.  Hesse (link) with a friend is always good enjoy these trip with this friend a lot...

2.  Trip though the Finnish Archipelago over night with STF and had breakfast on the boat looking out over the harbour in Sweden. playing wii bowling in the children deck very funny oh and Playing M&M poker

3. Getting a second merit for a MA assignment which meant I could go on to the full MA at Cliff College. Thanks due here to STF and My/Our friend and mentor Rev Dr P Meadows. Who believed and encouraged.

4.  Robes project... talking and serving the homeless who stayed one night a week with us in vauxhall over the winter months. For many there were good news stories of lives renewed starting jobs.and new homes.

5.  My New Home and New post in Leicester -

6. Bryan Adams in Concert at the O2 amazing night

7. Cub Camp - eating pizza in Akkalas car that had been smuggled back to camp by her and another leader so the other didn't find out...

8. Little women- Helping with the Lighting at the inner city players production.

9. Tea and home made scones on the patio in wonderful sun in Turku

10. Trip to Greenwich and the docklands museums picnic lunch band in Hyde Park on a hot sunny sunday afternoon Regents park too tea at the teahouse theatre

11. Street party in vauxhall for the royal wedding and wandering round London the night of the wedding chatting and taking in the atmosphere.

Cardboard and Glue Guns

I got home from scouts today to find a e-mail from a friend and former workmate from last summer I guess you could say my old patch. 

We'd worked at a place which mad up cardboard advertising posters and frames the ones you see in supermarkets with DVD's on and those big ones in the Cinema's... the few week's I was there were fun and tough. 

Fighting with glue guns for 8 hrs a day or double sided tape which decided no matter what you did wouldn't stay in a straight line. 

But tonight it was great to hear that some of those guy's have semi perminate contracts rather than the wait for the call on your way home to find if you were needed the next day... they were and are hard working guy's... 

the other side of this was to hear the news of my friends family and how the grand Kids were growing... that he had got a new job...

we never know as we journey through life how lives cross and mingle but what impact they leave on our lives... but even though it was just a few weeks that I was there in Benfleet there will always be a part of that place in me i still have the scars from missing the a and hitting my hand with the hot glue...

I learnt a lot form those guys but most of all to be real, what you saw with them was what you got  and it was great... you got there respect by doing the same by pulling your weight... yeah there were grumbles and jokes I was on the end of a few.... questions and conversations...  one of the ways a question was asked was by starting with I don't mean to be rude but ............ genuine questions from real people 

one of my favourite conversations was a group telling me what they knew of the easter story what we got to was this...

that there were these guys who arrested  jesus and they took him to another guy who was in charge ( pilot) and then loads of people wanted him dead so they got some wood and put him on a cross.... 

we got the story down to the wood coming from B&Q and the crown of thorns well.... we got being made from stolen barbed wire off a near by warehouse fence...

it was a real meaningful way to hear the story being retold as it came gritty,rough and ready and most of all it was very real...

we often as leaders and preachers struggle to find relevant ways to repackage and share the message of the gospel to people day after day last summer I had it shared by those I worked with..

I'm so thankful that I got to spend a few weeks in their patch last summer there's a lot that the church can learn from being open honest and real... not projecting a false image but actually saying this is who we are a group a people journeying together hurting together and after a 14hr shift you hurt laughing together teasing the boss.... and being supportive they may not have got what I wanted to do but the day before I came for my interview there was no place else I'd have been than with that team in Benfleet and after the writer of seethroughfaith they were the first to be told I got the post in my new patch...