I got a bit behind, then a bit further behind, then I think I just gave up.
SORRY!!! I did want to do this regularly but I think I got into the habit of doing it a bit too regularly and then got in over my head. New school, new term, new semester, new start? So here we go again . . .
A few thoughts/ramblings/ravings from the opening weekend of Spring School.
Cracking sermon from Rob – encouraging us to bring our real selves, not religious selves to Bible school and pointing out that the weaknesses we think disqualify us from God’s service are probably the strengths He’ll use. Nice to know no one in the Bible had it together (apart from God!).
It’s SO quiet! There’s only about 100 students here and there’s meant to be about 155. Everyone’s still stranded although the Germans have decided to get a coach so they should be here on Thursday. Going to be an interesting week!
A girl I knew from the 18-30’s holidays is here! Well, two actually, but one that I didn’t know was coming which is cool.
Saying hi to everyone who’s stayed felt, settling into my room, wandering around the place . . . it feels like coming home. Going home for good is going to be interesting! And yes, that was a potential euphemism!!
I’m in the tower this term. Lower, thankfully! Only 36 steps to climb to get to my bed which was so much fun after doing the canal walk for one and a half hours this afternoon! I’m happy though: I’m in the castle! I had a sneaking suspicion I’d be in the tower this term. It’s really good because we’re a bit out of the way so it’s quieter, the room’s small – which adds up to mean we’ll probably get sleep when we want it. And we have our own en-suite bathroom!!
The introduction session was fun this evening. Dougie got us all to do a children’s song again to start us off on the appropriate theological tone – he always does that! Words (and actions) below:
I’ve got peace (peace sign with both hands) like a river (hands make waves), I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul (point to bottom of foot). I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.
I’ve got joy (push corners of mouth up into smile) like a fountain (pose like a statue on a fountain), I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul (as above). I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul.
I’ve got love (cross hands over heart) like an ocean (surf), I’ve got love like an ocean, I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul (as above). I’ve got love like an ocean, I’ve got love like an ocean, I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul.
I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul. I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got joy like a fountain, I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul. (actions as above)
Sue the registrar made the mistake of saying that she wasn’t going to be married after school and then saying ‘but hope springs eternal’ in reference to one of the students. Said student went over to her and got down on one knee when it was his turn to say what he’d be doing after school.
One of the students also said that his name was Peter Parker, before school he’d been bitten by a radioactive spider and after school he hoped to going back to climbing walls and ceilings and crime-fighting. Suffice to say these two guys got a lot of applause.
The staff all introduced themselves, then the students who had to say their name, where they were from, what they did before school and what they hoped to do after school. Reassuringly, a lot of ‘I don’t knows’ – I’m not the only one!! We have a professional harpist, an opera singer and one girl whose going to study archaeology. I’m not the only one!!
Haven’t managed to get all of my stuff back that I left behind last term – although it’s my own fault because some of it wasn’t labelled. I know, I know – I’m terrible! I miss my violin. Hopefully it’ll get sorted out tomorrow.
Lectures look like fun again. I can’t believe we’ve got another travel weekend this term! Wonder where we’re going? Or if they’re even organising something? There are a couple of open day type things, so we won’t have as many Saturday trips although Lyme Park is officially on the list. WAHOO!!
We don’t appear to have any memory verses this term, but plenty of assignments to keep us busy.
So I only have one roommate at the moment which is a shame because it means the other two are stranded and we’re not getting to each other all together. On the bright side, it means I can get to know one rather than being overwhelmed into silence – as often happens when I haven’t got a clue!
Monday, 19 April 2010
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Another two cracking sermons!!
Sunday 11th October
Can’t remember if I went to swing dancing today. Don’t think I did because I was starting to do my old headless chicken routine getting ready for next weekend.
Anyway, what I do remember from my notes is that we had another two really good sermons. The first one was about Windows & Walls. Basically, the devil will get you to a good thing to stop you doing the best thing and he’ll absolutely love you if you don’t think. It’s possible for Christians to be lied to and for us to believe the lie. One lie that Christians fall for is that they can add to their salvation which is a load of rubbish, otherwise everything Jesus did was a worthless endeavour, yet it’s so easy to think we have to do the right thing or God is just going to smash us like bugs.
I think this all stemmed from the current popular belief that there’s no such thing as truth (is that true?!), or at least it isn’t an absolute anymore.
Daniel Ralph (speaker) pointed out that the first of the Ten Commandments is to do with the mind and the rest are all behavioural. OK, we’re not bound by the Law because we’re under the New Covenant, but his point was that if you’re not thinking like a Christian, then you’re probably not living like one either.
Basically, we need to look at the words that God has given us so that we can see through the windows in the walls that the devil’s built i.e. know the truth that God has given us so we don’t get fooled by the lies of the world.
The evening service was taken by Derek Burnside – who taught on the 18-30’s holiday this year and will forever be remembered for cheating appallingly on The Great Adventure (at least by me). On a more important note, he is a really good teacher and he’s doing a series on the Holy Spirit this week which I’m really excited about because I’ve never had teaching on that before.
His talk was on Nehemiah 4. Nehemiah was a key player in the then latest stage of God’s rescue plan of gathering lost, scattered, sin-ridden people and bringing them back home (to Jerusalem). That’s basically our job. Nehemiah was building a wall to help that, we’re helping build the church so we need to learn the same lessons that Nehemiah had to learn.
He pointed out that halfway marks can be dangerous points – the initial excitement and drive has worn off and though we’re aware of the progress that’s been made, we’re all too aware of what’s left. Having started but not finished a lot of writing, I can heartily agree with that.
Just as what Nehemiah was doing was worth attacking because there were outside forces that didn’t want to see God’s people restored, what we’re doing is so important that it’s worth attacking for the same reason. John Stott realised that the devil’s tactics haven’t changed. If we’re ridiculed, it’s because people are angry and people don’t get angry unless they’re worried. When we’re ridiculed it’s easy to just put our heads down and hope it goes away, but instead we should pray for those people because in ridiculing God’s work, they’re mocking God which is a pretty dangerous place to be in. If we’re discouraged and take the lies of the enemy seriously, then we need to have faith and remember that we’re on the winning team.
Derek pointed out more attacks and counter-attacks that he didn’t have time to explain fully, but he was very encouraging. Everyone here is tooling themselves up to do the most important thing a human being can do and we will be attacked, but Jesus is more powerful. BRILLIANT!!!
Can’t remember if I went to swing dancing today. Don’t think I did because I was starting to do my old headless chicken routine getting ready for next weekend.
Anyway, what I do remember from my notes is that we had another two really good sermons. The first one was about Windows & Walls. Basically, the devil will get you to a good thing to stop you doing the best thing and he’ll absolutely love you if you don’t think. It’s possible for Christians to be lied to and for us to believe the lie. One lie that Christians fall for is that they can add to their salvation which is a load of rubbish, otherwise everything Jesus did was a worthless endeavour, yet it’s so easy to think we have to do the right thing or God is just going to smash us like bugs.
I think this all stemmed from the current popular belief that there’s no such thing as truth (is that true?!), or at least it isn’t an absolute anymore.
Daniel Ralph (speaker) pointed out that the first of the Ten Commandments is to do with the mind and the rest are all behavioural. OK, we’re not bound by the Law because we’re under the New Covenant, but his point was that if you’re not thinking like a Christian, then you’re probably not living like one either.
Basically, we need to look at the words that God has given us so that we can see through the windows in the walls that the devil’s built i.e. know the truth that God has given us so we don’t get fooled by the lies of the world.
The evening service was taken by Derek Burnside – who taught on the 18-30’s holiday this year and will forever be remembered for cheating appallingly on The Great Adventure (at least by me). On a more important note, he is a really good teacher and he’s doing a series on the Holy Spirit this week which I’m really excited about because I’ve never had teaching on that before.
His talk was on Nehemiah 4. Nehemiah was a key player in the then latest stage of God’s rescue plan of gathering lost, scattered, sin-ridden people and bringing them back home (to Jerusalem). That’s basically our job. Nehemiah was building a wall to help that, we’re helping build the church so we need to learn the same lessons that Nehemiah had to learn.
He pointed out that halfway marks can be dangerous points – the initial excitement and drive has worn off and though we’re aware of the progress that’s been made, we’re all too aware of what’s left. Having started but not finished a lot of writing, I can heartily agree with that.
Just as what Nehemiah was doing was worth attacking because there were outside forces that didn’t want to see God’s people restored, what we’re doing is so important that it’s worth attacking for the same reason. John Stott realised that the devil’s tactics haven’t changed. If we’re ridiculed, it’s because people are angry and people don’t get angry unless they’re worried. When we’re ridiculed it’s easy to just put our heads down and hope it goes away, but instead we should pray for those people because in ridiculing God’s work, they’re mocking God which is a pretty dangerous place to be in. If we’re discouraged and take the lies of the enemy seriously, then we need to have faith and remember that we’re on the winning team.
Derek pointed out more attacks and counter-attacks that he didn’t have time to explain fully, but he was very encouraging. Everyone here is tooling themselves up to do the most important thing a human being can do and we will be attacked, but Jesus is more powerful. BRILLIANT!!!
CEILIDH!!!
Saturday 10th October
Kendal today. I’ve been to Kendal before with Filipa, but amazingly we managed to miss the Chocolate House!! I think my chocolate radar must have been malfunctioning that day or something. Anyway . . .
I didn’t realise how close we were to Kendal. I think it only took half an hour or so to get there. Sue and Kim drove us in the minibuses and I was most intrigued when they mentioned the aforementioned Chocolate House. I wonder why . . . ? So I ended up hanging out with Brooke (Australian roommate), Julie (American) and Lisete who is Estonian. First port of call was tourist information where we found out how to get to the castle and more importantly the chocolate shop. Before we visited there though, I introduced everyone to a wonderful little place called Thornton’s. Can you believe they’d never been in one before? I can’t tell you how hard it is educating everyone! J
We trekked up to the castle – emphasis on ‘trekked’. Clearly I haven’t walked up Kiln Lane in a while because that hill was hard work!! The walk along the river was nice, although not a patch on Hebden Bridge! The castle was great fun though. We wandered around the hill it’s built on for a while (managed to get lost) and the views were great even though the day was a bit overcast. The castle was the family home of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife. It’s a bit of a ruin, mostly grass inside, but the walls and parts of the buildings have been preserved so you still get a feel for the place. It was great fun clambering along the walls and in and out of the buildings.
We climbed back down – which was soooooooo much easier than going up – and headed to a church and a museum but decided we didn’t fancy paying to go in the latter and since time wasn’t as much on our side as we’d like, we just headed for the chocolate shop. I think it’s one of the oldest chocolate houses in Britain and the girls were all wearing period clothes. We went and sat up in the chocolate loft which was very cosy – actually, the whole place was! – where there were wall hangings showing the whole chocolate making process, from planting to harvesting etc. They had sooooo many different flavours of hot chocolate and just as many different chocolate cakes. I think I had a King’s Ransom and a King’s Delight because they couldn’t make me a Dungeon. They were all named like that, after 17th century characters. I remember Brooke had a Scurvy Knave just because of the name! It was basically an orange flavour hot chocolate. The Dungeon that I wanted was a dark hot chocolate with dark chocolate sprinkled on top but I had to settle for a rich hot chocolate with marshmallows – the King’s Delight. The King’s ransom was a triple chocolate cake: two layers of sponge cake with chocolate mousse in between made up half the cake, then the top half was chocolate mousse again and the whole thing was covered in dark chocolate chips. The others had the hot chocolate fudge cake which I was very tempted to try, but I didn’t want to be too much of a piggy-wig. It took a few mouthfuls to get used to real chocolate, but it was REALLY good once I was used to it. Total chocolate hit.
After we’d eaten – must get the before and after photos off Brooke – we went down below the café (top floor – chocolate loft; ground floor – café; basement – chocolate shop) and had a look at all the goodies that for sale. I didn’t know Guerlain did dipping chocolate! The chocolate wellies – actually wellies with pictures of chocolates on, not the other kind – were very tempting but the whole place felt a little too expensive for comfort. It was all really good quality stuff though and probably would have been worth it. But I was happy enough getting fig biscuits and rich tea biscuits from Home & Bargain.
Still can’t believe we missed that first time around!!
The evening’s entertainment . . .
CEILIDH!!!!
For those of you who don’t know, the promise of a Ceilidh was the reason why I went to Capernwray in the first place. My mum was flipping through the holiday brochure and she sounded very keen on a few of them. Then I was flipping through, came to the 18-30’s section, saw Ceilidh on the timetable and decided I’d go. Then I looked at the rest of it and it sounded good as well. I’ve already been to one Ceilidh because I did that holiday again this year, but they put one on for the students as well! WAHOOOO!!!!
Unlike on the holiday, hardly anyone got dressed up, but I did for the fun of it. It didn’t go on quite as long because they’re a bit stricter about lock up etc. But we still started with the Virginia Reel, did the Gay Gordon’s for far too long! We danced the Macarena as usual and the Cha Cha slide. Then we did my personal favourite, Strip the Willow, which I was so chuffed about. It was great fun doing it with so many people – kept running into everyone in the Gay Gordon’s and the lines for Strip the Willow were so long! Dougie ended it after that with the Virginia Reel again and Auld Lang Syne. I think he and I were the only ones who knew to run into the middle and out again at the end, but it was a lot of fun. Then there was a bit of random dancing for the unofficial ending.
Oh, it was a great evening! Hopefully we’ll get another one although Dougie doesn’t think it’ll be this term. Still, there’s another two coming . . .
Kendal today. I’ve been to Kendal before with Filipa, but amazingly we managed to miss the Chocolate House!! I think my chocolate radar must have been malfunctioning that day or something. Anyway . . .
I didn’t realise how close we were to Kendal. I think it only took half an hour or so to get there. Sue and Kim drove us in the minibuses and I was most intrigued when they mentioned the aforementioned Chocolate House. I wonder why . . . ? So I ended up hanging out with Brooke (Australian roommate), Julie (American) and Lisete who is Estonian. First port of call was tourist information where we found out how to get to the castle and more importantly the chocolate shop. Before we visited there though, I introduced everyone to a wonderful little place called Thornton’s. Can you believe they’d never been in one before? I can’t tell you how hard it is educating everyone! J
We trekked up to the castle – emphasis on ‘trekked’. Clearly I haven’t walked up Kiln Lane in a while because that hill was hard work!! The walk along the river was nice, although not a patch on Hebden Bridge! The castle was great fun though. We wandered around the hill it’s built on for a while (managed to get lost) and the views were great even though the day was a bit overcast. The castle was the family home of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife. It’s a bit of a ruin, mostly grass inside, but the walls and parts of the buildings have been preserved so you still get a feel for the place. It was great fun clambering along the walls and in and out of the buildings.
We climbed back down – which was soooooooo much easier than going up – and headed to a church and a museum but decided we didn’t fancy paying to go in the latter and since time wasn’t as much on our side as we’d like, we just headed for the chocolate shop. I think it’s one of the oldest chocolate houses in Britain and the girls were all wearing period clothes. We went and sat up in the chocolate loft which was very cosy – actually, the whole place was! – where there were wall hangings showing the whole chocolate making process, from planting to harvesting etc. They had sooooo many different flavours of hot chocolate and just as many different chocolate cakes. I think I had a King’s Ransom and a King’s Delight because they couldn’t make me a Dungeon. They were all named like that, after 17th century characters. I remember Brooke had a Scurvy Knave just because of the name! It was basically an orange flavour hot chocolate. The Dungeon that I wanted was a dark hot chocolate with dark chocolate sprinkled on top but I had to settle for a rich hot chocolate with marshmallows – the King’s Delight. The King’s ransom was a triple chocolate cake: two layers of sponge cake with chocolate mousse in between made up half the cake, then the top half was chocolate mousse again and the whole thing was covered in dark chocolate chips. The others had the hot chocolate fudge cake which I was very tempted to try, but I didn’t want to be too much of a piggy-wig. It took a few mouthfuls to get used to real chocolate, but it was REALLY good once I was used to it. Total chocolate hit.
After we’d eaten – must get the before and after photos off Brooke – we went down below the café (top floor – chocolate loft; ground floor – café; basement – chocolate shop) and had a look at all the goodies that for sale. I didn’t know Guerlain did dipping chocolate! The chocolate wellies – actually wellies with pictures of chocolates on, not the other kind – were very tempting but the whole place felt a little too expensive for comfort. It was all really good quality stuff though and probably would have been worth it. But I was happy enough getting fig biscuits and rich tea biscuits from Home & Bargain.
Still can’t believe we missed that first time around!!
The evening’s entertainment . . .
CEILIDH!!!!
For those of you who don’t know, the promise of a Ceilidh was the reason why I went to Capernwray in the first place. My mum was flipping through the holiday brochure and she sounded very keen on a few of them. Then I was flipping through, came to the 18-30’s section, saw Ceilidh on the timetable and decided I’d go. Then I looked at the rest of it and it sounded good as well. I’ve already been to one Ceilidh because I did that holiday again this year, but they put one on for the students as well! WAHOOOO!!!!
Unlike on the holiday, hardly anyone got dressed up, but I did for the fun of it. It didn’t go on quite as long because they’re a bit stricter about lock up etc. But we still started with the Virginia Reel, did the Gay Gordon’s for far too long! We danced the Macarena as usual and the Cha Cha slide. Then we did my personal favourite, Strip the Willow, which I was so chuffed about. It was great fun doing it with so many people – kept running into everyone in the Gay Gordon’s and the lines for Strip the Willow were so long! Dougie ended it after that with the Virginia Reel again and Auld Lang Syne. I think he and I were the only ones who knew to run into the middle and out again at the end, but it was a lot of fun. Then there was a bit of random dancing for the unofficial ending.
Oh, it was a great evening! Hopefully we’ll get another one although Dougie doesn’t think it’ll be this term. Still, there’s another two coming . . .
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Sauciness
Friday 09th October
Had my first work morning today. I was one of the team assigned to the kitchen so I had to go a whole day without seeing Henry, woe is me!! (sobs) It was kind of fun hanging out in the kitchen. That dishwasher’s enormous!! The other girls were quite lively and there was a nice atmosphere as we were cleaning. Apparently we get the same duty for two work mornings and then we get moved around. I’m hoping that means that next week, I’ll be on the other side of the kitchen, just for variety’s sake. Oh, when Graih (housekeeper) was giving us the run down on what cleaning supplies to use where, I finally found out what all the old newspapers are used for. Capernwray gets two newspapers everyday and they either go for recycling or on the pile in the cleaning room. They’re used for drying windows once they’ve been washed. They don’t leave any streak marks because the paper absorbs all the water and the only thing you have to watch out for is ink coming off on the frames. And it did work really well!
Naomi (from church) sent me a card on Tuesday which arrived today and put a great big Cheshire cat grin on my face. It’s now clipped into my diary along with the other fun things I’ve had in my pigeonhole. Just to cheer me up should I need it.
This evening we had the Capernwray Story: a history of Capernwray as told by Mark Thomas (MD), Major Ian Thomas (Founder), a very old & dead guy whose name I can’t remember but owned the hall in the 19th century, and his maid. Confused? Good. That was the point.
Mark started the story in 1066 with the Norman Conquest and various areas of land being given to French nobles, one of whom was the guy the Martons were descended from. When it got to the point where Capernwray was bought into the Marton estate, Mark took off his jumper (which generated quite the response from the crowd!), put on a half mask with top hat and a shirt front and jacket. Add the walking stick (which he held upside down), and the picture was hilariously complete! I think he was supposed to be John Marton. Then when he’d finished welcoming us to the hall, he went off because he had some business to attend to, then out came Sue dressed as the maid who’d been in the pantry with Butler Bill!! I think she must have forgotten she was at Bible School because she mentioned that quite a few times. Oh wait, she was at the hall as it was then, so it wasn’t a Bible school. That would explain why she gave us a vocal tour of the house as was.
Then Mark came back in dressed in Major Thomas’ uniform and told Sue off because it was 1946 and she was supposed to be dead! So she promptly ran off to find Butler Bill again. Anyway, then Mark took over and told the story of Capernwray being founded by Major Thomas – well, actually he started with how Major Thomas met Mrs. Thomas (before she was Mrs. Thomas, in case anyone was wondering/being finickety).
The talk ended with an old video that was filmed in the 60’s (I’m guessing this is where some of my readers will start insisting that isn’t old, but in terms of film, yes it is!). It was originally a silent film that was meant to be promotional material for the holidays. But one of the teachers who used to come to Capernwray did a voiceover that completely took the mickey out of it – and it was fairly cheesy in places anyway! The voiceover was recorded in the 90’s (I think) so we got both. Actually, it was so funny and everyone was laughing so much that I think we missed half of it! I wonder if we can persuade Mark to show us again . . . ?
Had my first work morning today. I was one of the team assigned to the kitchen so I had to go a whole day without seeing Henry, woe is me!! (sobs) It was kind of fun hanging out in the kitchen. That dishwasher’s enormous!! The other girls were quite lively and there was a nice atmosphere as we were cleaning. Apparently we get the same duty for two work mornings and then we get moved around. I’m hoping that means that next week, I’ll be on the other side of the kitchen, just for variety’s sake. Oh, when Graih (housekeeper) was giving us the run down on what cleaning supplies to use where, I finally found out what all the old newspapers are used for. Capernwray gets two newspapers everyday and they either go for recycling or on the pile in the cleaning room. They’re used for drying windows once they’ve been washed. They don’t leave any streak marks because the paper absorbs all the water and the only thing you have to watch out for is ink coming off on the frames. And it did work really well!
Naomi (from church) sent me a card on Tuesday which arrived today and put a great big Cheshire cat grin on my face. It’s now clipped into my diary along with the other fun things I’ve had in my pigeonhole. Just to cheer me up should I need it.
This evening we had the Capernwray Story: a history of Capernwray as told by Mark Thomas (MD), Major Ian Thomas (Founder), a very old & dead guy whose name I can’t remember but owned the hall in the 19th century, and his maid. Confused? Good. That was the point.
Mark started the story in 1066 with the Norman Conquest and various areas of land being given to French nobles, one of whom was the guy the Martons were descended from. When it got to the point where Capernwray was bought into the Marton estate, Mark took off his jumper (which generated quite the response from the crowd!), put on a half mask with top hat and a shirt front and jacket. Add the walking stick (which he held upside down), and the picture was hilariously complete! I think he was supposed to be John Marton. Then when he’d finished welcoming us to the hall, he went off because he had some business to attend to, then out came Sue dressed as the maid who’d been in the pantry with Butler Bill!! I think she must have forgotten she was at Bible School because she mentioned that quite a few times. Oh wait, she was at the hall as it was then, so it wasn’t a Bible school. That would explain why she gave us a vocal tour of the house as was.
Then Mark came back in dressed in Major Thomas’ uniform and told Sue off because it was 1946 and she was supposed to be dead! So she promptly ran off to find Butler Bill again. Anyway, then Mark took over and told the story of Capernwray being founded by Major Thomas – well, actually he started with how Major Thomas met Mrs. Thomas (before she was Mrs. Thomas, in case anyone was wondering/being finickety).
The talk ended with an old video that was filmed in the 60’s (I’m guessing this is where some of my readers will start insisting that isn’t old, but in terms of film, yes it is!). It was originally a silent film that was meant to be promotional material for the holidays. But one of the teachers who used to come to Capernwray did a voiceover that completely took the mickey out of it – and it was fairly cheesy in places anyway! The voiceover was recorded in the 90’s (I think) so we got both. Actually, it was so funny and everyone was laughing so much that I think we missed half of it! I wonder if we can persuade Mark to show us again . . . ?
Exciting Day
Thursday 08th October
The Transforming Friendship series finished today. Shame really, I was enjoying it and there are loads more encounters Rob could have done. Mind you, I suppose there’s lots of series that could go on for the whole year. Two sessions before the coffee break, both on the woman of Samaria who was pretty well the complete opposite of Nicodemus but they were both looking for the same things. On the surface, the encounter Jesus has with her appears to be very natural, but because He was working to a divine timetable, it was actually a divine appointment. God wanted her to meet Jesus, even though it seemed like He was just having a breather.
After the break, we had our first visit by ‘missionaries’. Actually, this group came first because they fall into evangelism/outreach/missionary categories so they’d potentially have been a bit confusing in amongst a bunch of missionaries. They were from SWYM – South-West Youth Mission. They do camps, youth work, schools work, all sorts of stuff working with young people in the south west of England and they do training courses to help people get into youth ministry – sort of like Capernwray but with an extra, more specific goal at the end. (Mum, you’d better sit down.) It actually sounded so good and got me so excited, I’ve asked them for more information and I’ve got a lot to pray about now!
The last session of the Transforming Friendship was about the pool of Bethsaida which Rob used to look at healthy and unhealthy Christians – those whose spiritual condition is significantly less than God’s plan for them at their age and stage of Christian life. When Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethsaida, it was with what seemed like a crazy command: he told a paralysed man to pick up his mat and walk. It wasn’t crazy though because “Whenever the Lord tells you to do something that you cannot do, at that moment He creates the ability to respond.” – which frankly is not just thought-provoking but very challenging.
After this we had announcements – where Charity announced that we’re having a CEILIDH ON SATURDAY!!!! – and Sue announced that we needed to find out who our secret sisters were. At this point, the boys were all very confused – until she kicked them out because it was a girl thing. We had to go and collect a name from one of the RA’s as we left the hall. Wouldn’t you know it? I managed to get my own name. Gave it back and I now have a proper secret sister to pray for & encourage anonymously. My secret sister (the one who’s doing it for me) seems to be pretty keen – I had a note in my pigeon hole this afternoon! I don’t have a clue who she is but I’m liking her already.
Oh, curry, naan and rice today followed by jam sponge and custard at lunch; then fish fingers and curly chips for tea. I don’t know what everyone was on about when they said the food here was alright but it wasn’t brilliant. IT’S FAN-FLIPPIN’-TASTIC!!!
This evening was the moment everyone had been dreading: giving testimonies (duh-de-duh!!) Although apparently, it wasn’t everyone who’d been dreading it because three people had volunteered beforehand to give theirs. Then after that, people kept shooting their hands up, so the time disappeared before we knew it and Carolyn (outreach person) didn’t have to put her hand in the bucket once.
Of course, the first thing she did in the next lecture was put her hand in the bucket with great ceremony. She soon pulled it out and everyone groaned at what a rotten joke that was! We were supposed to have our worship/Old Testament reading session, but instead Carolyn gave us a few bits of information about giving testimonies about outreach in general. I think that’s because a team was going on a three-day outreach and they’d given us a demonstration of the drama they were going to use in a school assembly. It was a fun portrayal of Jesus calming the storm with quite an effective trick for getting children to learn how to be quiet on cue – hey, if it worked on us, it’s probably going to work on them!
The Transforming Friendship series finished today. Shame really, I was enjoying it and there are loads more encounters Rob could have done. Mind you, I suppose there’s lots of series that could go on for the whole year. Two sessions before the coffee break, both on the woman of Samaria who was pretty well the complete opposite of Nicodemus but they were both looking for the same things. On the surface, the encounter Jesus has with her appears to be very natural, but because He was working to a divine timetable, it was actually a divine appointment. God wanted her to meet Jesus, even though it seemed like He was just having a breather.
After the break, we had our first visit by ‘missionaries’. Actually, this group came first because they fall into evangelism/outreach/missionary categories so they’d potentially have been a bit confusing in amongst a bunch of missionaries. They were from SWYM – South-West Youth Mission. They do camps, youth work, schools work, all sorts of stuff working with young people in the south west of England and they do training courses to help people get into youth ministry – sort of like Capernwray but with an extra, more specific goal at the end. (Mum, you’d better sit down.) It actually sounded so good and got me so excited, I’ve asked them for more information and I’ve got a lot to pray about now!
The last session of the Transforming Friendship was about the pool of Bethsaida which Rob used to look at healthy and unhealthy Christians – those whose spiritual condition is significantly less than God’s plan for them at their age and stage of Christian life. When Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethsaida, it was with what seemed like a crazy command: he told a paralysed man to pick up his mat and walk. It wasn’t crazy though because “Whenever the Lord tells you to do something that you cannot do, at that moment He creates the ability to respond.” – which frankly is not just thought-provoking but very challenging.
After this we had announcements – where Charity announced that we’re having a CEILIDH ON SATURDAY!!!! – and Sue announced that we needed to find out who our secret sisters were. At this point, the boys were all very confused – until she kicked them out because it was a girl thing. We had to go and collect a name from one of the RA’s as we left the hall. Wouldn’t you know it? I managed to get my own name. Gave it back and I now have a proper secret sister to pray for & encourage anonymously. My secret sister (the one who’s doing it for me) seems to be pretty keen – I had a note in my pigeon hole this afternoon! I don’t have a clue who she is but I’m liking her already.
Oh, curry, naan and rice today followed by jam sponge and custard at lunch; then fish fingers and curly chips for tea. I don’t know what everyone was on about when they said the food here was alright but it wasn’t brilliant. IT’S FAN-FLIPPIN’-TASTIC!!!
This evening was the moment everyone had been dreading: giving testimonies (duh-de-duh!!) Although apparently, it wasn’t everyone who’d been dreading it because three people had volunteered beforehand to give theirs. Then after that, people kept shooting their hands up, so the time disappeared before we knew it and Carolyn (outreach person) didn’t have to put her hand in the bucket once.
Of course, the first thing she did in the next lecture was put her hand in the bucket with great ceremony. She soon pulled it out and everyone groaned at what a rotten joke that was! We were supposed to have our worship/Old Testament reading session, but instead Carolyn gave us a few bits of information about giving testimonies about outreach in general. I think that’s because a team was going on a three-day outreach and they’d given us a demonstration of the drama they were going to use in a school assembly. It was a fun portrayal of Jesus calming the storm with quite an effective trick for getting children to learn how to be quiet on cue – hey, if it worked on us, it’s probably going to work on them!
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Flabbergasting Nobblement
Wednesday 07th October
Mother, be warned: one of the topics for discussion last night in the prep room was: chat up lines.
Was your father a boxer? Because you’re a knock out.
Do you like raisins?
Why do you ask?
Do you fancy a date?
Do you work in a library? Because I’d like to check you out!
In case you hadn’t worked it out, the topic was BAD chat-up lines. So I shared some of the Christian ones that the holiday started with such as “Nice Bible!” “Your bible looks heavy; do you want me to help carry it?” “I didn’t know angels flew this low.” “Excuse me; I think one of your ribs belongs to me.” (for the guys’ usage). It was a very educational holiday this year, by the way!
Family group was fun – not the social night or being invaded (that was a one off) – this time it was an actual family group. Stefan and Hanna, the two staff members who are kind of running it with Mark and his wife. They did the session on trust and started it with that game where you close your eyes, fall back and (hope that) the person behind you catches you. Only with this one, they didn’t just catch you, they pushed you back up and you fell in another direction and the people in the circle caught you. A couple of people ended up falling over, but I think that was owing to over-enthusiastic pushing rather than inability/refusal to catch. Then Hanna brought out a very lovely, very dopey-looking sheep to illustrate the point that we are sheep and we need to/can trust our Shepherd.
After that I got all confused by the lectures. They put the new week’s timetable up on a Saturday and I put everything in my diary so I know where I’m up to. We were supposed to have another Transforming Friendship lecture now that Rob was back from Canada but instead we got ‘Getting the best out of Bible School’ with Ian Ellershaw which we weren’t meant to get until tomorrow. So that confuddlement did very strange things to my poor little vacuum (the one between my ears, not Henry – who’s very well if you were wondering). Aside from some practical bits and pieces which were mostly common sense, Ian took the image of restoring a house and used it to represent our time at Capernwray. Some of us are in the blueprint stage: knowing God’s there, planning life around Jesus but there’s nothing solid, no real foundation. Some are in the falling apart stage: knowing God really well but things have started to deteriorate because we’ve allowed things to take the place of Jesus – He’s started to fade and the worries of the world have taken over. Others are at the ‘rotten inside’ stage where things look OK, but inside lacks reality. Each picture was finished with Ian saying that Jesus is ready to build, restore or refurbish. I thought that was a great way of looking at it, but I was confused again: is it possible to be all three?
Rob was looking at actual encounters with Jesus in his series. Today was Nicodemus. I didn’t realise before, but Rob pointed out that the crowds in the bit before Nicodemus’ visit were following Jesus, but they weren’t really committing to Him, so He didn’t commit to them. Nicodemus wanted unrestricted, uninterrupted one-on-one time with Jesus because He was more serious about wanting to commit to Jesus. Jesus was both sensitive to Nicodemus by using language and illustrations he understood, and straight with him by not pulling any punches.
It was during the first of those last two points that Rob compared God with an old Mac as opposed to an old Amstrad computer. Amstrads (the black screens with the green writing) you effectively had to be a computer programmer to work the things. Macs were simple, easy to understand graphic user interfaces that hid a load of very sophisticated and complex programming. Jesus used language and parables that His audience understood and could relate to and God always talks to people in language they’ll understand. Can’t say I’ve ever heard that illustration before though!
Today was a bit of a weird day outside of lectures. Carolyn nobbled me about what outreaches I’d signed up for, asked if I’d be interested in doing children’s work and the next thing I know, I’ve been assigned an outreach that starts tonight! There’s just two of us helping out at the little church down the road. We’re helping with a youth club that’s aimed at primary school children and it’s run by two girls, one of whom I met last year on the holiday. It was great fun! I got to be a big kid again and do all the songs with the actions and colour in a name badge and play games . . . and I get to do that every week!
The only catch to the outreach is that it cuts into one of our evening lectures, so I missed one half of our last Introduction to the Bible this evening, which meant that when Mark was going on about hermeneutics and stuff like that, I didn’t have a clue what he was on about. Looking forward to playing catch-up! (Groans!)
Other weird thing: I showed Viv (pastoral worker) my stories when we went to hers for tea – well, I gave her a disc with them on that she’s going to look at – and she was very encouraging about me being a writer, giving me lots of practical advice. She also mentioned Sean Callaghan who is doing the optional seminars which I think I’ve already mentioned. She said that he was the person to talk to because he’s much better at that sort of thing than her (she’s had her first book published this year). So at lunch, she and Sean ended up sitting at my table and it wasn’t long before she pointed me out as the one who wanted to be a writer. So Sean was asking me all sorts of questions about my stories, gave me his e-mail address so I could send them to him; and he wanted to know if I’d be interested in going into schools to read them to children if he arranged it? Bit weird. Hugely encouraging. Utterly flabbergasting. (I cannot believe my computer knows that word.)
Mother, be warned: one of the topics for discussion last night in the prep room was: chat up lines.
Was your father a boxer? Because you’re a knock out.
Do you like raisins?
Why do you ask?
Do you fancy a date?
Do you work in a library? Because I’d like to check you out!
In case you hadn’t worked it out, the topic was BAD chat-up lines. So I shared some of the Christian ones that the holiday started with such as “Nice Bible!” “Your bible looks heavy; do you want me to help carry it?” “I didn’t know angels flew this low.” “Excuse me; I think one of your ribs belongs to me.” (for the guys’ usage). It was a very educational holiday this year, by the way!
Family group was fun – not the social night or being invaded (that was a one off) – this time it was an actual family group. Stefan and Hanna, the two staff members who are kind of running it with Mark and his wife. They did the session on trust and started it with that game where you close your eyes, fall back and (hope that) the person behind you catches you. Only with this one, they didn’t just catch you, they pushed you back up and you fell in another direction and the people in the circle caught you. A couple of people ended up falling over, but I think that was owing to over-enthusiastic pushing rather than inability/refusal to catch. Then Hanna brought out a very lovely, very dopey-looking sheep to illustrate the point that we are sheep and we need to/can trust our Shepherd.
After that I got all confused by the lectures. They put the new week’s timetable up on a Saturday and I put everything in my diary so I know where I’m up to. We were supposed to have another Transforming Friendship lecture now that Rob was back from Canada but instead we got ‘Getting the best out of Bible School’ with Ian Ellershaw which we weren’t meant to get until tomorrow. So that confuddlement did very strange things to my poor little vacuum (the one between my ears, not Henry – who’s very well if you were wondering). Aside from some practical bits and pieces which were mostly common sense, Ian took the image of restoring a house and used it to represent our time at Capernwray. Some of us are in the blueprint stage: knowing God’s there, planning life around Jesus but there’s nothing solid, no real foundation. Some are in the falling apart stage: knowing God really well but things have started to deteriorate because we’ve allowed things to take the place of Jesus – He’s started to fade and the worries of the world have taken over. Others are at the ‘rotten inside’ stage where things look OK, but inside lacks reality. Each picture was finished with Ian saying that Jesus is ready to build, restore or refurbish. I thought that was a great way of looking at it, but I was confused again: is it possible to be all three?
Rob was looking at actual encounters with Jesus in his series. Today was Nicodemus. I didn’t realise before, but Rob pointed out that the crowds in the bit before Nicodemus’ visit were following Jesus, but they weren’t really committing to Him, so He didn’t commit to them. Nicodemus wanted unrestricted, uninterrupted one-on-one time with Jesus because He was more serious about wanting to commit to Jesus. Jesus was both sensitive to Nicodemus by using language and illustrations he understood, and straight with him by not pulling any punches.
It was during the first of those last two points that Rob compared God with an old Mac as opposed to an old Amstrad computer. Amstrads (the black screens with the green writing) you effectively had to be a computer programmer to work the things. Macs were simple, easy to understand graphic user interfaces that hid a load of very sophisticated and complex programming. Jesus used language and parables that His audience understood and could relate to and God always talks to people in language they’ll understand. Can’t say I’ve ever heard that illustration before though!
Today was a bit of a weird day outside of lectures. Carolyn nobbled me about what outreaches I’d signed up for, asked if I’d be interested in doing children’s work and the next thing I know, I’ve been assigned an outreach that starts tonight! There’s just two of us helping out at the little church down the road. We’re helping with a youth club that’s aimed at primary school children and it’s run by two girls, one of whom I met last year on the holiday. It was great fun! I got to be a big kid again and do all the songs with the actions and colour in a name badge and play games . . . and I get to do that every week!
The only catch to the outreach is that it cuts into one of our evening lectures, so I missed one half of our last Introduction to the Bible this evening, which meant that when Mark was going on about hermeneutics and stuff like that, I didn’t have a clue what he was on about. Looking forward to playing catch-up! (Groans!)
Other weird thing: I showed Viv (pastoral worker) my stories when we went to hers for tea – well, I gave her a disc with them on that she’s going to look at – and she was very encouraging about me being a writer, giving me lots of practical advice. She also mentioned Sean Callaghan who is doing the optional seminars which I think I’ve already mentioned. She said that he was the person to talk to because he’s much better at that sort of thing than her (she’s had her first book published this year). So at lunch, she and Sean ended up sitting at my table and it wasn’t long before she pointed me out as the one who wanted to be a writer. So Sean was asking me all sorts of questions about my stories, gave me his e-mail address so I could send them to him; and he wanted to know if I’d be interested in going into schools to read them to children if he arranged it? Bit weird. Hugely encouraging. Utterly flabbergasting. (I cannot believe my computer knows that word.)
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Time for Tea
Tuesday 6th October
Curry today!! John is officially jealous because we’re getting it twice this week. Man, it was nice!! And we had naan bread and extremely nice basmati rice. I have a very happy tummy as I’m writing this. Oh! And we get cannelloni for tea, so I’m going to have a very, very happy tummy tonight!!
I’ve noticed that I seem to be using a lot of exclamation marks lately, but what the hey! I’m enjoying myself!!
More walking through the OT, more actions, more craziness. Bought the review cards that Paul brought. There’s one for each book of the Bible with a picture on the front to represent the book and help you remember the key theme of its story, and then there’s blurb on the back to explain the major points. Some of the jokes in the pictures are BAD, but they’re so bad they make me giggle. Also bought a book that will (hopefully) help me understand the Bible more as we have to read it. It’s one of those books that will take you through the Bible in a year, but I’m starting January in October and backdating it to September so date-wise it’s not going to make any sense. Hopefully that’s the only area where it can be said.
Mark’s really making us think in his Introduction to the Bible series! All about the nature and character of God as revealed in the Bible. I’m not surprised we got into the nitty-gritty of theology the other day – he doesn’t half ask for it! He had to cut the second of his sessions short today because he was busy answering people’s questions. It’s very challenging stuff – and not just on an intellectual level.
I am officially gutted.
After the announcements the British Interactive Group had to meet with Bill (Resident Assistant who helped think up the un-auction). It turns out that they’re planning to have a Brit night where we have games and songs and all sorts of very British stuff going on as the evening’s activity. Guess when it is? Friday 16th. When I’ll be in Sicily. I HAVE TO MISS BRITISH NIGHT!!!
OK, that’s a bit disappointing, but I can get people to take pictures and tell me about it – and hope that we do another one in Spring School. Let’s face it: nothing short of the Second Coming would make me miss my brother’s wedding.
John, remind me again why you couldn’t move it up a couple of months? NB I am joking so please don’t take my moaning seriously.
We had cannelloni for tea as I mentioned. My only complaint is that there wasn’t nearly enough to make my tummy completely happy, but I still managed to get seconds so it was alright.
I managed to get started on my reading assignment. It’s a book called ‘Alive in Christ’ by Charles Price who used to be principal here. From what I’ve read so far it’s coming across as a combination of Transforming Friendship and Introduction to the Bible – so a pretty good book thus far. We’ve already had two Raiders of the Lost Ark references and a couple of jokes about his wife. Plus good teaching. I’ll write more when I’ve done my book report and have a more complete clue as to what’s going on.
Have to do my testimonies tomorrow. I think they’re due on Thursday. Still working on managing my time, hence the old last-minute routine. But they are officially on my mental to-do list for tomorrow.
Tea was really nice. Viv and Trevor live about 5 miles away in a lovely cottage. We had tea and scones with jam and cream on and just nattered. Viv led and kept the conversation going but it was just general chatting about each of us and she included everyone. Then Trevor came in and ate the last scone. He’s a funny chappy.
Viv told us that Spring School is vastly different to Winter School. The students tend to be older because working people can take eight weeks off work but not two terms. She also told us when people are likely to start becoming couples, but for the sake of Capernwray’s good name, I won’t dwell on that. Mum, stop panicking!
We had our last two sessions on Walk Through the Old Testament. I can now (supposedly, though it might be a bit sketchy in places) sign my way through the storyline of the Old Testament. The method pulls out 77 events in the timeline and we have actions to prompt a reminder. Paul took us through where everything else fits into the scheme of things as well which was handy – and he even taught us an easy way of remembering when and who each prophet was prophesying to. That method doesn’t include the order they’re in – I’ll have to read them for that.
Paul said something this evening that’s really been striking me in the last few days, though he put it into words tonight: we’re in an unreal position right now. This year we are living in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people who want to read and talk about the Bible. As I’m writing this, a bunch of guys are talking about Genesis and I’ve heard and even had conversations in this last week and a bit about the Bible with random people who I still don’t know all that well. Next year, most of us won’t be in that position, so make the most out of it while we can.
Something similar struck me this evening: I saw the remnants of a really nice sunset on my way down to the conference hall and remembered the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, so I said thank You to Him for that bit of glory. A few minutes later I realised I’d forgotten a couple of things (typical!) so I went back to my room. On my way, I passed a bunch of people who were just looking at and admiring the sunset. I’m surrounded by like-minded people, roughly my own age for the first time in a long time, only now it’s 24/7.
THANK YOU GOD!!!!!
Curry today!! John is officially jealous because we’re getting it twice this week. Man, it was nice!! And we had naan bread and extremely nice basmati rice. I have a very happy tummy as I’m writing this. Oh! And we get cannelloni for tea, so I’m going to have a very, very happy tummy tonight!!
I’ve noticed that I seem to be using a lot of exclamation marks lately, but what the hey! I’m enjoying myself!!
More walking through the OT, more actions, more craziness. Bought the review cards that Paul brought. There’s one for each book of the Bible with a picture on the front to represent the book and help you remember the key theme of its story, and then there’s blurb on the back to explain the major points. Some of the jokes in the pictures are BAD, but they’re so bad they make me giggle. Also bought a book that will (hopefully) help me understand the Bible more as we have to read it. It’s one of those books that will take you through the Bible in a year, but I’m starting January in October and backdating it to September so date-wise it’s not going to make any sense. Hopefully that’s the only area where it can be said.
Mark’s really making us think in his Introduction to the Bible series! All about the nature and character of God as revealed in the Bible. I’m not surprised we got into the nitty-gritty of theology the other day – he doesn’t half ask for it! He had to cut the second of his sessions short today because he was busy answering people’s questions. It’s very challenging stuff – and not just on an intellectual level.
I am officially gutted.
After the announcements the British Interactive Group had to meet with Bill (Resident Assistant who helped think up the un-auction). It turns out that they’re planning to have a Brit night where we have games and songs and all sorts of very British stuff going on as the evening’s activity. Guess when it is? Friday 16th. When I’ll be in Sicily. I HAVE TO MISS BRITISH NIGHT!!!
OK, that’s a bit disappointing, but I can get people to take pictures and tell me about it – and hope that we do another one in Spring School. Let’s face it: nothing short of the Second Coming would make me miss my brother’s wedding.
John, remind me again why you couldn’t move it up a couple of months? NB I am joking so please don’t take my moaning seriously.
We had cannelloni for tea as I mentioned. My only complaint is that there wasn’t nearly enough to make my tummy completely happy, but I still managed to get seconds so it was alright.
I managed to get started on my reading assignment. It’s a book called ‘Alive in Christ’ by Charles Price who used to be principal here. From what I’ve read so far it’s coming across as a combination of Transforming Friendship and Introduction to the Bible – so a pretty good book thus far. We’ve already had two Raiders of the Lost Ark references and a couple of jokes about his wife. Plus good teaching. I’ll write more when I’ve done my book report and have a more complete clue as to what’s going on.
Have to do my testimonies tomorrow. I think they’re due on Thursday. Still working on managing my time, hence the old last-minute routine. But they are officially on my mental to-do list for tomorrow.
Tea was really nice. Viv and Trevor live about 5 miles away in a lovely cottage. We had tea and scones with jam and cream on and just nattered. Viv led and kept the conversation going but it was just general chatting about each of us and she included everyone. Then Trevor came in and ate the last scone. He’s a funny chappy.
Viv told us that Spring School is vastly different to Winter School. The students tend to be older because working people can take eight weeks off work but not two terms. She also told us when people are likely to start becoming couples, but for the sake of Capernwray’s good name, I won’t dwell on that. Mum, stop panicking!
We had our last two sessions on Walk Through the Old Testament. I can now (supposedly, though it might be a bit sketchy in places) sign my way through the storyline of the Old Testament. The method pulls out 77 events in the timeline and we have actions to prompt a reminder. Paul took us through where everything else fits into the scheme of things as well which was handy – and he even taught us an easy way of remembering when and who each prophet was prophesying to. That method doesn’t include the order they’re in – I’ll have to read them for that.
Paul said something this evening that’s really been striking me in the last few days, though he put it into words tonight: we’re in an unreal position right now. This year we are living in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people who want to read and talk about the Bible. As I’m writing this, a bunch of guys are talking about Genesis and I’ve heard and even had conversations in this last week and a bit about the Bible with random people who I still don’t know all that well. Next year, most of us won’t be in that position, so make the most out of it while we can.
Something similar struck me this evening: I saw the remnants of a really nice sunset on my way down to the conference hall and remembered the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, so I said thank You to Him for that bit of glory. A few minutes later I realised I’d forgotten a couple of things (typical!) so I went back to my room. On my way, I passed a bunch of people who were just looking at and admiring the sunset. I’m surrounded by like-minded people, roughly my own age for the first time in a long time, only now it’s 24/7.
THANK YOU GOD!!!!!
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