Pakistan, ordination, first communion...

Pakistan was amazing - see flickr for documentary evidence... i just wish i had had more time to spend in the mountains... still glad i don't live there anymore, even thought the atmosphere around Karimabad (in the mountains) was much more chilled out than any other area of the country I ever been to...

... mad rush into ordination rehearsal, retreat and service... which was ok... not sure what to think of it really!

as for the first communion i celebrated... I had my parents and my aunt staying over, so one of my priorities on Sunday morning was making sure they were fed and watered, since I had already taken care to defrost 4 specially reserved slices of homemade bread for communion and they were ready to go…

However having arrived at church nice and early to get ready it suddenly dawned on me that I left said slices of bread in the kitchen at home ( a 10 minute walk from church) so having commandeered a mobile phone (mine was still at home) I rang back home… my Dad picks up the phone and I direct him to where I’d left the bread… he says ‘nothing there’… and I hear mum’s voice in the background saying ‘we’ve eaten it!’!!!!!!!!!! in the end they found some more bread at home and the youth worker, seeing the look of panic on my face also rushed out for a loaf… so in the end I had enough bread to share communion with the 5000 or thereabouts (if I had decided to consecrate it all obviously!)

The service itself went pretty smoothly considering the pre-service panic! Indeed some were complimentry… which merely proves there is a God and he’s gracious!

Off to Pakistan

Well, having said 10 years ago that I would love to go back and visit the mountains of Pakistan... without much effort on my part my wish is coming true, and tomorrow I am off to Islamabad where my parents (who have been houseparents to 15 teenage boys at Murree Christian School for a year) will meet me, and after catching up and chilling we are off to the wilds of Gilgit and perhaps to Sost and beyond to the Pakistan/China border!
also helps me escape the clutches of Facebook... I can't believe I've given in!

Easter = resurrection!

after leaving up that gloomy post for ages, i feel duty bound to say that things have been looking up recently - indeed one might say God's resurrection power has been at work! Easter Sunday evening i preached and helped to baptise seven guys by full immersion - definitely one of the highlights of my job!!
feeling quite challenged about my future-thinking but i guess since God's brought it up, he'll be showing me how to go about it!!
other than that I'm reading a biography of William Wilberforce which is proving fascinating to a history geek like me - he was an amazing and very likeable man! I have a feeling he has a lot to teach me!

feelin' a bit flat...

just feeling a bit jaded really, doesn't feel like there's a lot of the 'anointing' around at the moment... i think i lost my rhythm of life a bit, not a lot of spiritual rest and reflection built in, and not sure how to make it happen...
or maybe it's just because it's that time of the month, and the aches and pains etc mean i feel a bit out of sorts...
ho-hum

back from France

well, I have experienced my first French wedding... and they are long and, unsurprisingly in French - a language which I gave up for German at 14 (which I also don't speak) which wouldn't have been quite so bad, if I hadn't been absolutely exhausted already (and I'd like to say sickening for a proper head-cold) - man I'm grumpy when I'm tired... I feel like I can't handle tiredness like other people seem to - I just get selfish and desperate for sleep... however despite that having been there (and I'm still glad I went 'cos my friend, who was the bride, is so lovely and so appreciated Val and I going) I can appreciate all the cool things after the event, not during it, an irritating and yet redeeming feature in my life...

it's that time of the month again...

... when i realise i have posted in ages! sorry about that...
well, things are generally going good here, although i am at that stage where time with God of a morning is coming under severe pressure, due to inability to get out of bed and the fact that my Bible reading notes are wading through Joshua... which seems a bit bloodthirsty, and the notes writer doesn't seem to have noticed, or give any kind of recognition that 21st century sensibilities might find it a bit difficult... and 8am is not the time to be digging around commentaries... hmmm.
so, yeah, if you pray about that kind of thing pray for a new lease of life in time with God!

other than that, generally feeling more confident about the day-to-day life of being a curate, although as is my wont i am less confident about how to stay in touch with the big picture and how to gather vision... interesting times all the same!

procrastination

don't worry about yesterday, for each day has enough trouble of its own

Somehow, this new year, I seem to have come up with quite a few resolutions, almost entirely accidently (like learn some French by March - as I'm going to a wedding in la belle France, and I don't want to be the only who doesn't have a clue what's going on!) and maybe take up some spiritual disciplines with faith and hope that God will show me something new.

But probably the most important one is to spend more emotional energy on the now and the future than on the past, which has been my habit.
In other words I need to spend a whole heap less time on counting my wounds and missed opportunities, and a whole heap more on accepting I've been forgiven and have forgiven others, on celebrating my healing and grabbing the opportunities that lie ahead... an especially important resolution in a newish job and home... I have been particularly inspired by beginning to be a mentor for a young person who has loads going for her, and I don't want to waste time thinking 'I wish it had been like that for me', but to enjoy seeing her bloom in the here and now, and being blessed by the fact that God can use even me to be a blessing to her.

So there you go, something to remind me of from time to time!