Monday, December 03, 2007

2 years on...

bizzarrely having not been much of a blogger recently i'v logged in tonite and realised it was about 2 years ago i entered the land of blog and initiated myself!! it's amazing how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same! changes incl:
- getting married
- moving out
- starting new jobs
- some amazing new friendships
- a new, definitively more mature approach to shopping
- getting involved at a new church
- falling in love with tropical fish!

- not having a computer of our own, thus spending more time than is normal in internet cafe's!!

which leads nicely to me finishing this, as in 4 mins i will be charged an additional £1 for another 15 mins of their time!!

so, in the words of a wise man called jamieson, that is all.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

nothing in life is certain.

so, tonight it suddenly hit me all the changes that are taking place just now. in 7 weeks i am getting married! MARRIED! what a huge life-changing event! that also means that i will be moving out, for the first time, in a few weeks time... which is indeed about time! we were trying to choose things for our gift list over the past couple of weeks and its so hard cos we a) dont know where we'll be living or what our home will be like, or how much space we'll have; b) are not entirely sure of all the things u actually need, e.g. does anyone ever really use a slow cooker, or a george foreman grill, or a picnic basket!? c) have differing tastes and ideas of what will look nice! to be fair most stuff has been relatively easy to agree on, other than the phone (he won), an amazing vase (I won) and a picnic set which neither of us could agree on (no-one won)!

in the past few weeks i have lost my job, got a new job, been for another interview, didnt get that job, been offered another job that i dont want, and find myself back at my original job where i started out all those years ago! which has been great, for now. but what is going to happen in the future? nothing is ever certain. i've recently become addicted to watching Grey's Anatomy and have observed that no-one in that hospital ever expected to be there. who ever expects to get sick? or to need surgery? or to have your boyfriend's wife show up (thankfully i am still referring to the show!).

i have no idea what the future holds. i have ideas based on all the plans and decisions i have made. but things keep changing, making me very aware of the fact that because nothing in life is certain it's important not to miss opportunities. and not to put all our hopes in one person, or one job, or one single event.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Present day Persecution

tonite at Deeper (at St Silas) the focus was on persecution, and the ways in which Christians in the UK have been subject to this, despite it being a free country here. A lot of it is indirect, jokes, sneers, comments from people, nothing too drastic compared to the suffering undergone in a number of other countries and cultures. Africa, Central and South East Asia, the Gulf, Latin America and the Middle East are all areas identified where Christian believers are tortured, imprisoned, abused, and killed. Where bibles are burned, families are ripped apart and people have to go into hiding and meet secretly in order to spend time with other Christians and have fellowship together.

I was inspired tonight to do some more research into the persecuted church worldwide and the various ways that we can actually provide support, encouragement and help. Open Doors is a Christian charity, originating in 1955 when Brother Andrew secretely smuggled a suitcase of Bibles into Eastern Europe. His passion and ministry grew enormously and now Open Doors work to meet the practical and spiritual needs of those living under threat of persecution, or indeed those being persecuted. There is information on how we can get involved, on a small or large scale and can be as simple as sending an email to encourage those who are suffering.

It becomes so easy to forget that not everyone has the luxury of freedom in faith, speech and actions, and i remember reading the book 'Jesus Freaks' by DC Talk when i was about 15 and feeling incredulous at the reality some Christians are facing around the world, even in our modern day and age. But the passion and total conviction these people had, their faith in God and the amazing things they had seen Him do were so inspirng and have never quite left me.

So take 10 minutes out of your week and say a prayer, or send an email, or contribute some money to pay for a bible that someone will appreciate more than we'll ever know.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

Saturday, February 10, 2007

oh how the tables turn

well here's a twist of irony. the honeymoon period i revelled in at work is well and truly over, and as of last week i am officially unemployed. how totally crap. this whole week i'v been trying to stay positive about it all, but now, in the harsh reality of 2 in the morning, it is just crap.

we ended on surprisingly positive terms. i'm getting a full month's pay, glowing reference and the assurance that if anything guidance-based comes up i'll be first in line for the job. the past 6 weeks have been hellish. i cried almost every day after work for the last 2 weeks and spent my evenings job hunting for a new job more suited to what i really wanted to do. which at the end of the day is to help people work out what they want to do and how they can realistically get there. what i did not want to do was to shove people into jobs for the sake of hitting a few targets, even if in my professional opinion it was not in the persons best interests. i did not want to create false information in order to claim outcomes that we had not actually achieved, or be forced to offer people false incentives to register with us so we could get their details and claim them as a target. it goes against everything i believe is true, and useful, and person-centred. so in theory i am happy to be out of there. i just hate that it was them that let me go and not the other way round. and i know that's my pride taking a hit, and i know i can deal with that. and i do know that something better will come out of this and that i'll probably look back and think, yes, what a blessing in disguise that turned out to be. but for now, in this moment, it is officially crap.