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!!!
Saturday, 7 November 2009
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 . . .
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