Half way

Lastnight was the half way mark for Alpha. I'm still really enjoying it. As the weeks go on it's clear to see how everyone has come out of themselves and are more comfortable speaking in the group. I have felt so blessed throughout the past 4 weeks, i love listeneing to other people's opinions and I love hearing people's stories. I love that people feel comfortable in sharing some of their life experiences with us (John and I).

I have definately learnt alot myself. Sometimes I think it is so easy for a Christian to let on that they know it all, but what I have learnt over the past few weeks is that no one has all the answers and it is so important not to pretend that you do. People respect you alot more when you hold your hands up and just simply say "I don't know".

Lastnight we were talking about Prayer. During the talk at the start the point was made that the best way to pray is to stay true to yourself, not to try and impress God by using all the big words that you don't understand, God knows your heart and He knows your prayers. Praying is like a conversation with God, just speak to Him the way you speak to your friends, that's what He wants. Alot of people, when they hear prayers from the front of church, think that they are never going to be able to pray in that way. But it is so important that we don't compare ourselves to other christians. We don't have to impress God, there's absolutely nothing we can do that will make Him love us any more that He does and I love that.

In other news...my Hutch got engaged to Mr. Wylie on Thursday and for the first time in my life I get to be Bridesmaid...I'm soooooooo excited!! Love those guys!

That's it for today

Love love love!

Oh the weather outside...

Right, It's the 28th October, i'm sitting in my living room looking out at the SNOW outside! It's coming down quite heavy in Moira. This is making me feel quite excited because it's a clear sign the winter and Christmas is on its way! Now I know that when people read this I will be slated for mentioning Christmas and that we should get halloween over first, but I don't even care! Was just reading Scotty's blog about Halloween and I have to say that Christian or not, Halloween is just something I have never bothered with! I never organise anything for Halloween night, prob the cinema or something. I'm not off uni so it's not a holiday for me. So I just look past it and think of Christmas. I just love the whole run up and the buzz. My dad and I have had a long running thing that we do (sad I know), we have a competition to see who spots the first Christmas tree (only the ones in homes count, not shops!), and also who can spot the first showing of the infamous coca-cola advert, (you know the one, Holidays are coming,holidays are coming!). I'm a child at heart.
Sorry to go off on a bit of a rant about Christmas. This year it will be particularly exciting because the day after boxing day we go skiing!!

Fun times.

Love love love!

Youtube

Can anyone tell me how to upload youtube videos onto my blog??

Alpha

Lastnight saw the first night of the Alpha course at church. John Mac and myself have been put together to lead a group and I have to say both of us are extremely happy with the group we have. We have a mix of Christians and Non-Christians which I am loving. I was quite nervous about it yesterday and when I arrived at church I had a real sick feeling in my stomach, but I prayed all day and I really couldn't have been happier with how it went. The format will be the same every week, there is a 20 minute talk at the beginning then we break into our smaller groups to discuss in a bit more depth and people are free to ask whatever they want and we will try to provide the answers...in about the 5th week there is even a wee residential!
The topic lastnight was, quite simply, "Who is Jesus?". Steve McCready lead the talk lastnight and i thought he did a great job, simple, easy to follow and in my opinion, answered the question very well using historical evidence that Jesus was an actual person, who walked on this earth 2000 years ago, not just this mystical figure who lives in the sky and helps people (which is what I thought when I was a child!) He pointed out that this evidence is also documented in non-christian history books. This is the sort of stuff that I would love to have heard when I was a non-christian. It makes it all very real and I think it is so powerful.
I think we got alot of the "big questions" put to us lastnight, eg, Why is there so much suffering?, How can an all-loving God condemn people to hell if they aren't saved? These are questions which both John and I knew would come up. Over the next 10 weeks of the Alpha course we are going to try and give some answers to these questions, but I do know that it's going to be hard and there are some things that neither of us are going to have the answers for. I'm really looking forward to the journey though, and I am really looking forward to learning more myself.
Prayer for the Alpha course would be great also!!

Love love love

Mistakes

I do realise that there are alot of spelling mistakes in my last post but the reason for that is simple...my nails have got too long and they keep pressing the other letters!!

Bad Blogger

Ok so there it is...another 6 weeks or so since my last blog!! I'm terrible at this!
So what's new with me? Well, i'm back at uni to repeat one of my modules, once i have, i can graduate. It's a European Studies module and I hate it to put it bluntly, but it has to be dome if I ever want to see the back of university life! Saying that though, i'm enjoying haveing routine back in my life. I love September when everything starts kicking off again, school, uni, Church life, cell etc. I may be one of the few people in the world who actually preferes autumn/winter over spring/summer! I love that we are soon going to be wearing our winter woolies and hats and scarves and all the rest of it. It's such a cosy time of the year.

Another exciting thing is that I have been asked to be one of the group leaders for the Alpha course which will be starting in chruch on 6th October *plug*
This is something which I am very excited about, but also extremely nervous about. I am excited to be a part of a great group of people who I will be working along side with for the duration of the 10 week course, I am excited that I may touch someone's life and make God real to them, I'm excited to form new relationships with different people and try to help them as they seek God. This is also why I am nervous. Christians know that there are some questions we just don't have the answers to. I'm nervous about being faced with one of these questions and feeling inadequate. I'm sure everyone who is going to be involved are being faced with the same fears. I'm praying about it though, I know that God will see me through and set aside my fears and replace them with a real passion to bring people close to him. So if you know anyone that you think might benefit from Alpha please give them the time and the date (6th October 7:30pm Emmanuel Church)

I really promise that I will try and be a better blogger from now on!!

Love Love Love

Another year older

Ok so what has it been, 2 months since my last blog?? I keep meaning to write but I always seem to forget! So much has happened in the last couple of months, mainly my trip to Uganda in July, which has to be (without sounding cheesy) the most humbling, thought provoking trip I have ever made.
Alain rang me on Saturday evening asking if I would get up in church on Sunday night and be interviewed about our trip, which i agreed to, even though the thought of getting up to speak infront of that many people scares the pants off me! I did my best but I couldn't help but feel a tad frustrated afterwards because of all the things I had in my head to say I hardly said any of them! I could have talked all night about my experience (my first in Africa) But i barely even touched on the surface. The whole time I was there I was just so aware of God around us. He was in each and every child that touched my hand, He was in the teachers who were so happy to see us there, I have never felt so surrounded.
I really feel so proud and so privilaged to have been a part of the building and I am definately going back..no questions. You really need to be there to understand why I am finding it so hard to describe it. I'm not going to talk a load of waffle trying to, so please come and ask me about it and I will happily chat to you for hours about it!
On another note, it's my 24th birthday tomorrow! Scotty and I are heading up to Portrush to his caravan for the day and we are going to try a apot of body boarding, then head out for a wee bit of dinner in my favourite restaurant...The Ramore Wine bar!!
I will try to blog a bit more frequently from now on...i never stick to any routines in the summer!!
Love love love!!