Job satisfaction

I'm sat in the sunshine at my computer planning away for the next 3 weeks' worth of literacy. And you know what, I can't wait to get back to work and teach it. I can't wait to get stuck in with all the assessments and focus groups and choir and everything else. And I realise that I am indeed a very lucky lady to love my job quite as much as this.

Church Christmas Card

It's that time of year again - the Church Christmas Card time of year. With Sarah being on staff now she was designated buyer of needed resources. After much work having been done on the foyer of the church we were this year restricted to a much smaller board space (we reassured Dave that we were not going to be stapling to the walls this year...)

It seems that each year we get a little bit more ambitious with our lettering, going from 'Have a heavenly Christmas' the first year to 'We have seen His star in the East and we have come to worship him' last year, to the epic lettering of 5 of our most favourite lines from carols and Christmas songs this year - 'Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies And their hearts believed again for the peace of men Can this tiny light set a world on fire Come, bow down and worship; come let's worship the king'. After borrowing a Big Shot die cutter, cutting out the lettering took most of yesterday evening, but that was only a small part of the job - setting out the words so that they would fit nicely onto the border was a much greater challenge! We had estimated accurately, however, and the words that we had chosen fit comfortably on the available space.

We then carefully fixed garden meshing to the backing by attaching garden wire with staples to the board and then twisting it on to fix it. We made a manger for the middle of the board and attached it in the same way then finally rounded the whole thing off with some wired gold ribbon wound around the whole board. There were moments when I never believed that we would get it finished but Sarah and I are, once again, thoroughly proud of the result!

My mug

Went to All Fired Up to collect my creation this morning, then christened it with a brew at the Chap Centre!

Birthday happenings

Why is it that when your birthday falls in the middle of June it is still not safe to plan for a birthday barbeque??! Yesterday was not my birthday, the real thing was earlier in the week, but a few weeks ago (when the weather was warm and sunny) I planned for an evening of barbeque food and games up at the park; a joint birthday party for me and a friend whose birthday falls next week. On Thursday as the school teddy bear's picnic was taking place indoors I began to doubt whether we would be able to have a barbeque after all.... And so it rained. We rearranged ourselves, rang around and went for a nice meal in a pub instead! It was lovely. I don't go out with friends often enough and should do it more. Thank you to those who came, it was lovely to spend time with you!

The joy of Guiding

Today I have been away at a Guide sleepover with my 'old' or rather 'home' guide unit along with another unit in the district. I have only been able to join them for the day unfortunately as this weekend has become quite a hectic one with birthday parties and school duties. Nevertheless I have thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Guiding can be so completely rewarding, seeing the girls really responding to one another, encouraging each other and working together. Yet it is all in such a relaxed and fun atmosphere that you just don't get at school. The guides have been working towards their 'Traditions in Guiding' badge so some of the activities may seem dated - that's the point! Still, you can have fun without doing a 'glamourama' Go For It (moreso in my opinion). In one short day we have: made patrol emblems and posters to decorate the hut, learnt the national anthem, played dominoes, done pioneering, made a trail and followed it, learnt and used hand and whistle signals, learnt ballroom dancing, made twists and cooked them on a campfire, had a campfire with songs and skits, played a quiz and made a catapult to throw a table tennis ball the furthest as well as set up and washed up after lunch, cooked tea on barbeques and even had free time! That is one activity packed day!

The most enjoyable part of the whole day has been how relaxed it has all been. No targets to fill, no pressure to achieve. But plenty of quality learning and tonnes of enjoyment. Can't ask for much more than that.

Church College Choir Festival

This evening I am off to the annual Church College's Choir Festival which is this year in Liverpool, what with Liverpool being the capital of culture in 2008. As a student I was in the chapel choir and each year would look forward to a weekend away with choir at the festival, for singing and general craziness. It was always such an awe inspiring moment when the combined choirs of around 12 Colleges joined to rehearse together for the first time. Suddenly going from a choir of about 12 to a couple of hundred, the power and beauty in a chord sung in harmony was simply beautiful. I remember remarking to a friend at one event about what it would be like to hear a choir of angels. A bunch shepherds standing on a hillside one ordinary night 2000 years ago must have remembered the beauty of that sight and sound for the rest of their lives.

And so tonight a friend and I go to hear the combined choirs again, and to hear the individual choir pieces and to reminisce of times gone by and all that we have sung together, and we will look forward to July when we will be joining with another, larger combined choir to sing Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace in The Royal Albert Hall. I can't wait!

The tapestry

A Day of Creative Expression

We had an interesting day yesterday at our church. The women’s group, Oasis, runs occasional events specifically aimed at women. Yesterday’s was ‘A Day of Creative Expression’ involving weaving and movement (not at the same time!). There were 2 giant looms set up between pillars in the church and piles of strips of different types of material for those that fancied working in a team and creating something large and smaller looms on forked sticks for those that would rather create individually. I gravitated towards one of the large looms and we started to create… slowly at first and not quite knowing what we were wanting to make or how it was going to come about. Gradually our weaving started to take some kind of shape, an observer commenting that part of it looked like a waterfall, and so a picture emerged. Debbie spraffed extensively about the meaning behind the colours and shapes and over 2 hours a cave, a waterfall, a sun and a pool of water (complete with fish and sea weed) emerged. It was so much fun weaving and creating and I particularly enjoyed being a part of something greater, working together and chatting as we went along. Besides which, our final creation was rather wonderful! Photo to follow when my computer will allow!

In the afternoon was a ‘movement’ session… not normally my thing really and at times I did struggle not to giggle but everyone joined in and danced the routine at their own pace but all together. Relaxing and calm. A very enjoyable day.

New Wine

I have returned from a very wet week at Newark - New Wine North in the Midlands... It has been a fabulous week despite the weather.

I have been working on team again, working in Boulder Gang, the kids groups for 10-11 year olds which joined up with Rock Solid (8-9s) in the evening. This year I was given some responsibility after 2 years of being a group leader and was this time round an age group leader - taking responsibility, along with another, for the 10 year olds and their leaders. In some ways I missed the daily contact with the same 30 children, learning their names and really getting to know them, instead I found I learnt very few children's names. A week is a very short period of time to get to know so many children even as a group leader when you fill in the register every morning and evening, but learning 4 times as many names without this advantage is somewhat of an impossibility. However, I did feel that I got to know the team this year. In previous years I have only turned up to do my bit, got to know the children and other leaders in my group and then gone back to the tent at the end of the session. I have never really felt to have been a part of the team before, and as such was most surprised to have been asked to take on an age group leader's role. It has been a real privilege to get to know other members of the team, where they are at and a small part of their story.

Most of all, though, I have learnt so very much from the children. As the week progresses you see them settle into the programme and the worship and can almost visibly see their faith grow. One girl in particular made an impact on me, I prayed for her in the morning as she was distressed about her home situation and at the end of the evening session she came up to me to tell me of how God had spoken to her that night with words and pictures of encouragement that he will always be with her. It bowled me away.

It has certainly been a tiring week, working on team doesn't leave a lot of free time and I have spent next to no time with my church at all, but I wouldn't have swapped it for anything.

Assemblies and all that jazz

I seem to have had no thoughts worth blogging of late... only thoughts of support work and whose facebook profile I can look at next!

Today I was at Ripley in Lancaster as a guest speaker, giving an assembly about my time in Africa. High School students don't give any instant feedback when you speak... no smiles, no laughs, no obvious sign that they are taking in anything at all in fact, or any indication that what you are saying is vaguely interesting - though maybe it wasn't! Quite a lot harder than any of my talks so far, but it was good to do it nonetheless I think. On my way in I did meet 2 old friends about to help out at the Year 10 spirituality day, though, so that was nice :)

Whoop whoop whoop!

I have a job! Cest tres exciting!! It is at Goosnargh CE School in Preston and I am bouncy bouncy bouncing!!