Week One

What did you do this week? 

I spent the week on an outdoor camp. It was exhausting, challenging and pretty amazing. It was great spending time with the kids, it’s amazing how as adults we over-complicate everything and often there is so much drama. Chatting to the kids on camp was a huge relief from this, where things were a lot simpler and happier. Kids don’t judge you like adults do, they want people to give them quality time and really appreciate it when you do. I was able to take two for coffee at the end of the week and just chat about life and God, it wasn’t much but being able to show them that I was interested in them meant a lot.

 

Did anything interesting happen?

I ate a fish eye. This was possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever tried (I don’t recommend it,) Although I was slightly pleased (proud) of myself.

 

What did you learn about yourself?

I spend far too much time worrying about what other people think of me. On Friday night I had a good conversation with a guy I’ve been friends with for years. He made me see that I worry far too much about what other people think of me and compare myself to others. I often think too much about how I fail. I’m thankful to have friends who I can be honest with and just be myself around.

I’m stronger than I thought. Sometimes things are hard and you have to take risks even though you’re scared of the outcome. This week I learnt to just rest in God, some things are always going to be out of my control. Life isn’t easy but I have an amazing God.

 

 

 

 

I Heart Joseph Carpenter

It may be a bit far into January to wish everyone a Happy New Year, but as I’ve been absent from blogging since early December, I’ll do so now… I hope you all had a lovely time over Christmas. One of my favourite presents came from my younger brother. I’d been nagging him for weeks and finally on Christmas Day I opened my ‘I Heart Novak Djokovic’ t-shirt! ‘Bit of a cheesy present’ you may say, but as a huge Djokovic fan, I loved it!

 I spent New Years at my friend Katya’s, in England, with her family and our other good friend Coralie. I hadn’t been there v.long when talk turned to my favourite discussion – ‘Which Biblical character would you marry?’ I blogged a few months ago about how my number one choice is always Boaz. Whilst I still think Boaz would make a great husband, I’m starting to see more and more that Joseph Carpenter (Carpenter to separate him from Joseph dreamer…) would also be an excellent choice. 

After my last blog post centred around men not assuming responsibility, I thought it would be nice to write a post contrasting that. Joseph is often the forgotten character of the Nativity story, yet he played a major role in leading his small family. Hurt and humiliation must have occurred at news of Mary’s pregnancy, but he still tried to protect and look after her – 

‘Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.’ – Matthew 1:19

He trusted God and through the scandal took responsibility of Mary and the unborn baby Jesus, though he had no legal or social obligations to do so. He was committed to her and to bringing up the child as his own despite what other people in his community would have said.

When God spoke Joseph took action, he didn’t ask questions or make excuses, he didn’t wait to do it later. He was obedient to God and led his family with God’s will at the centre. 

‘An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt’ – Matthew 2:13-14 

Joseph, though he is mentioned little in the Bible, is a great example of Godly living, obedience, leadership and responsibility. 

‘I Heart Novak Djokovic’

New Years with Katya and Coralie

 

 

 

I’ve spent the last two weeks sleeping in a tent in North Wales. Crazy wind, rain and visits from a number of badgers didn’t dampen an amazing time.

 

 

I’m not a particularly outdoorsy sort of girl, so washing in a freezing cold stream or hiking up a mountain isn’t normally my idea of fun. But, this is the eleventh year that I have spent my summer in this beautiful valley. I began as a very young camper, and now get to look after a tent of kids of my own. It’s great to see how they change year after year and it’s amazing to be a part of their growth.  I guess I’m supposed to be helping them but most of the time they are the biggest encouragement to me. Even in their early teens they have such a love for Jesus and desire to know more and more. This can sometimes be a little daunting as a tent officer when you get asked questions you don’t have the answer to but it’s also completely amazing.

 

These three have become some of my best friends!

 

Winning the argument

Whenever a group of Christians get together for a few days you can always predict that a controversial debate will be started. I always seem to be discussing issues such as predestination or which bible translation is best.  I’m a pretty opinionated person and generally quite like debates (I blame this on coming from such a big family, where you had to have an opinion).  Lately, however, I’ve been really challenged about it. Is just winning the argument more important than maintaining a good relationship with someone?  I still think it’s good to have opinions and to talk those through, but could my time be better spent?

I met up with a good friend of mine last night who had just got back from a church week away. He’s just as opinionated as me but said that after a week he was tired of debating the issue of election. Again, a group of Christians together spending hours debating. Even though he likes debating he didn’t want to talk about it any more. Often large debates, like this, can be more confusing than encouraging. People can get offended which can lead to a split in the group.

Maybe the wisest thing would be to keep quiet. To not give my opinion in every argument that occurs around me. Instead of arguing with a friend over different forms of worship we could talk about our struggles, praying for each other. It would be a more beneficial time to build each other, growing in Jesus than dividing over smaller issues.

Anyway random thoughts and I just realised that I’ve spent the last 10 mins debating the issue of not debating…