Wow has it been that long?
I haven't written a blog for quite some time eh? Well I'm back!
Today, at work, I had my Christian Union Carol Service held at a near by Church of England church. I felt it went quite well. We had over forty come along. I'm not sure about my singing though. Many times I found my self stumbling over the words and how they fitted the tune.
I was a bit self conscious. We had invited the Mayor of the borough to come and he sat with me. It was a bit difficult for him as he is a Muslim. Still, he stood at the rights times. We had a series of carols and readings from the Bible.
The curate of the church gave the talk. It was down to him as the vicar had got caught up with the Bangkok demonstrations. He had gone to Thailand for a break and got stuck there.
We had mince pies and tea afterwards. One of the managers in the town hall had paid for them. It was a lovely surprise not having to get them out of our own pocket.
Yesterday I went to see the Diabetic nurse at the doctors surgery. It had been a while since seeing her and I was a bit nervous she would tell me off. I felt I had let myself go a little lately and indeed it had shown in the blood test I had done a couple of weeks ago. She looked at the the results on her computer and tutted a little. "Are you getting complacent lately?" she asked.
I'm afraid I got a bit defensive about it. I was annoyed that I still had diabetes and still had the restrictions of what I eat. It was only a few days ago I stared at the Crunchy Nut Cornflakes thinking how much I miss them. Though I don't know what I'm worried about, I do eat healthily, normally, and generally I am fine about my diet; but I have been a bit silly lately eating things like chocolate and crisps.
The figures were not serious and had only gone up in minor decimal points. "Just keep an eye on things.", she said. I agreed I would, though I was a bit grumpy about it. Having got home I realize I am relatively in a good place at the moment and really don't have to be fearful or angry. Christmas is going to be a little challenging though.
I am grateful to God for my life and during this time that that I have the blessing of a job. I still work for a local council in the Council Tax department but I have felt a bit tired at work recently. We have been short staffed with sickness and that has left us pressurised to take up the slack. Things have eased after they took on couple of new staff.
I am still feel I am living in the good what I had written in July, and with further recent prayer things are even better. As an outworking of that I now take a group in church teaching and encouraging them to grow in their gifting. Sometimes I am amazed how God is using me.
I haven't written a blog for quite some time eh? Well I'm back!
Today, at work, I had my Christian Union Carol Service held at a near by Church of England church. I felt it went quite well. We had over forty come along. I'm not sure about my singing though. Many times I found my self stumbling over the words and how they fitted the tune.
I was a bit self conscious. We had invited the Mayor of the borough to come and he sat with me. It was a bit difficult for him as he is a Muslim. Still, he stood at the rights times. We had a series of carols and readings from the Bible.
The curate of the church gave the talk. It was down to him as the vicar had got caught up with the Bangkok demonstrations. He had gone to Thailand for a break and got stuck there.
We had mince pies and tea afterwards. One of the managers in the town hall had paid for them. It was a lovely surprise not having to get them out of our own pocket.
Yesterday I went to see the Diabetic nurse at the doctors surgery. It had been a while since seeing her and I was a bit nervous she would tell me off. I felt I had let myself go a little lately and indeed it had shown in the blood test I had done a couple of weeks ago. She looked at the the results on her computer and tutted a little. "Are you getting complacent lately?" she asked.
I'm afraid I got a bit defensive about it. I was annoyed that I still had diabetes and still had the restrictions of what I eat. It was only a few days ago I stared at the Crunchy Nut Cornflakes thinking how much I miss them. Though I don't know what I'm worried about, I do eat healthily, normally, and generally I am fine about my diet; but I have been a bit silly lately eating things like chocolate and crisps.
The figures were not serious and had only gone up in minor decimal points. "Just keep an eye on things.", she said. I agreed I would, though I was a bit grumpy about it. Having got home I realize I am relatively in a good place at the moment and really don't have to be fearful or angry. Christmas is going to be a little challenging though.
I am grateful to God for my life and during this time that that I have the blessing of a job. I still work for a local council in the Council Tax department but I have felt a bit tired at work recently. We have been short staffed with sickness and that has left us pressurised to take up the slack. Things have eased after they took on couple of new staff.
I am still feel I am living in the good what I had written in July, and with further recent prayer things are even better. As an outworking of that I now take a group in church teaching and encouraging them to grow in their gifting. Sometimes I am amazed how God is using me.
As an example of that, I was asked to meet the new youth worker at the local Church of England church in Spitalfields. We met in a "Sausage and mash" cafe, it was delicious! There were four of us and we got talking. I felt very passionate about working with Bangladeshi people and told him some of my experiences. He had a lot of ideas how he wanted to do things. First was a mini football tournament. On the Saturday we gathered and I volunteered To referee. I was surprised how well it went. People have always said I have gifting with the young people but I have never felt confident in it. They seemed to do what I asked with very little dissension. We played three separate games of varying lengths, but the longest was 15 minutes a side. The quality of football was amazing. I think some good things will come out of this. Andrew wants to do something regular with the boys.
As I write this I am in the back seat of a car driving between Calais and Lille. Andrea's brother is driving and we are off to visit a Christmas market. We will be staying in a cheap hotel overnight and probably visiting Belgium tomorrow. It is very cold here with the display of the car showing 0° Celsius. Andrea's brother has a left hand drive car and feels a bit different to travel in. I didn't see much of the journey as I fell asleep. The next thing I knew was we had arrived at the hotel. We booked in.
The Christmas market we were visiting was not closing until 10pm so after dinner we traveled a further 20 minutes to the centre of Lille. Everyone seemed to have the same idea as we found it very difficult to find a space to park. As I got out of the car I was worried about losing my way in a strange town but need not have worri
ed.
As we crosse
d various streets and squares to where we hoped the market was we came across a solitary merry-go-round. No one seemed to be on it but it was still going round.
Eventually we found the market, but by now it was raining. Not heavy, but enough to get in the way; we tried to ignore it. The trouble was the rain was getting on the lens of Andrea's camera.
There were quite a few stalls selling different things. Things to eat, things to drink, cheap gifts, expensive gifts; everything.
Through a gap in the buildings we saw a Big Wheel ride so we went to investigate. There in just the next square along was a wonderland of this ride. It was quite spectacular.
It was getting cold and the rain was getting heavier, so we left to find the
car again.
After sleeping at the hotel the next day we took an excursion into Belgium. Where we were was close to the border so it was easy to step across. Andrea's brother Brian took us to various locations.
The first place visited was a town where all the shops were on the on main street. We visited a pet store were dogs for sale! They were so cute! all puppies of different sorts. I wanted to take one home, then I looked at the price tag- 450 Euros! ouch!
One was a seaside town where there were a few shops. On the beach were lots of seagulls. They tended to congregate on top of the street lights. I wanted to a closer look and I was glad to
have Andrea's binoculars in my pocket. "Hold on, what's this?", I said. I thought I had seen a rare "Ring Billed gull". I got quite excited. But I had to check later and found it was not so rare but still a good spot of a common gull.
On to our next location, a little shop out in countryside. While Brian went in to talk to the shop keeper, Andrea and I went to see the river close by. White farmyard Geese came swimming and honking up to us. They were obviously hungry. Or maybe they were protecting their territory. They need not have worried. I was not about to jump in!
As we returned another person had arrived and got stuck in some mud. I offered to help and tried to push. I tried to avoid getting caked in the mud from the spinning wheel and felt I had done quite well. Unfortunately, though, Andrea had been standing by the side watching, and got covered head to toe in the thick dirt. As he had turned the wheel it got her where she thought she was safe! We all rallied to clean it off one another but poor Andrea, the more we tried the more she looked like an SAS commando on manoeuvres!
There were quite a few stalls selling different things. Things to eat, things to drink, cheap gifts, expensive gifts; everything.
Through a gap in the buildings we saw a Big Wheel ride so we went to investigate. There in just the next square along was a wonderland of this ride. It was quite spectacular.
It was getting cold and the rain was getting heavier, so we left to find the
car again.After sleeping at the hotel the next day we took an excursion into Belgium. Where we were was close to the border so it was easy to step across. Andrea's brother Brian took us to various locations.
The first place visited was a town where all the shops were on the on main street. We visited a pet store were dogs for sale! They were so cute! all puppies of different sorts. I wanted to take one home, then I looked at the price tag- 450 Euros! ouch!
One was a seaside town where there were a few shops. On the beach were lots of seagulls. They tended to congregate on top of the street lights. I wanted to a closer look and I was glad to
have Andrea's binoculars in my pocket. "Hold on, what's this?", I said. I thought I had seen a rare "Ring Billed gull". I got quite excited. But I had to check later and found it was not so rare but still a good spot of a common gull.On to our next location, a little shop out in countryside. While Brian went in to talk to the shop keeper, Andrea and I went to see the river close by. White farmyard Geese came swimming and honking up to us. They were obviously hungry. Or maybe they were protecting their territory. They need not have worried. I was not about to jump in!
As we returned another person had arrived and got stuck in some mud. I offered to help and tried to push. I tried to avoid getting caked in the mud from the spinning wheel and felt I had done quite well. Unfortunately, though, Andrea had been standing by the side watching, and got covered head to toe in the thick dirt. As he had turned the wheel it got her where she thought she was safe! We all rallied to clean it off one another but poor Andrea, the more we tried the more she looked like an SAS commando on manoeuvres!
And so back home to catch the ferry. I fell asleep in the back of the car again. It had been a busy weekend but enjoyable.
Happy Christmas!
