New year New me

Happy new year everybody! I actually can't believe we are into another year, where did the last one go? I'm usually on a downer at this time of the year, christmas trees and decorations are down which makes the house look so bare, work starts back, I feel sluggish after over indulging on all the festive treats.

We are just back from our skiing trip to Bulgaria which was class (apart from the lack of good snow), and on our last night (2nd January) Kerry ann, Laura and myself found ourselves in our room reflecting on the year gone past and the brand new one we are entering into. 2008 was a year which had many ups and downs, Scott's mum was diagnosed with breast cancer, his dad attented 2 funerals including that of his father in the space of a week, my friend Aaron Montgomery had his life taken in Feb. On the up side though, Scott's mum kicked breast cancer's ass, I got to experience Africa for the first time (one of the highlights of my life not just 2008) and we got to see lots of our friends get married.
2009 is a brand new year and so the 3 of us decided that instead of the usual resolutions we all make, we are going to make a list of 3 things which we must strive to do in the next year, and at the beginning of Jan 2010 we are going to see how we have done. I will tell you what 2 of my things are, but the 3rd will have to wait til Jan 2010 (sorry!)

1. I want to spend more time with God, in His Word, talking to Him, talking about Him. I want to grow so much in my relationship with God. Last night at church Alain was talking about "Shalom" and I want to feel that. I want to Rise up and go from here and experience more of God every day.

2. I want to be a healthier person, be more active and get outside more (hopefully i will lose a bit of weight in the process as I have the most beautiful bridesmaid dress to fit into in April!)

And above all, as Alain said lastnight, I want to do everything with a thankful heart. I want to spend less time worrying about myself and my situations and start thinking more about others. I want to live out 2009 like this...

..."Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with eachother and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdon, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

I hope everyone has a happy and blessed 2009.

Love love love!

Act of kindness

I was in work today, i was only in til 1:30pm to cover the morning. A woman came in with her grandson and she wanted to buy him something nice for Christmas, she settled on a lovely little Timberland outfit which one little boy was modelling the night of the fashion show. We started to tell her about this and she said that she had heard about the fashion show through a friend of hers and asked me how it went. I told her that it was a fantastic night and that we raised quite a bit of money for Uganda but that we still had a bit more to raise for the school to be opened in February. We talked for a while and she showed great interest in our trip to Uganda during the summer and wanted to hear about that. It was great talking to her as I love sharing my Uganda experience with people. As she was leaving she opened her purse and handed me £10 and told me to put that towards the fund. I couldn't believe it. This was a total stranger handing me money, I couldn't thank her enough and I actually felt a wee bit emotional (it doesn't take much!!). It was just such a lovely thing for her to do and it really made my day!

Also today, Scotty text me this morning when he got into school as he always does, but this wasn't his usual "good morning" text, all it said was "I might be going to Botswana". Now surely that has to win a prize for the most random text! lol I haven't heard too many details about when and where exactly and for what reason they are going, but what I do know so far is that it is with an organisation called "Dreams and Teams", and they have a link with a school in Botswana. I think it is class that he wants to go and that he is excited about it, especially because of his recent interest in church etc. Obviously I have been praying every day for Scott and i can finally see my prayers being answered bit by bit!

Love love love!

More updates and ramblings...

I don't know if you have read "The Shack" by William P. Young, if you haven't I would highly recommend it. It kind of takes a while to get going but please persevere with it as it is one of the best books I have read in ages. It made me think about God a wee bit differently, which you will understand when you read the book.

I am surrently in the middle of week 9 of university, only 3 more to go then the dreaded exam in January. I am feeling a bit more prepared this time for the exam as I have really tried to focus myself in classes and take proper notes instead of my usual day dreaming and scribbling random sentences on a page! Hopefully this will all pay off in January.

I also found out that I am going to Uganda again next year which I am sooo looking forward to. This time we will be away for 3 weeks and it will be a smaller team, I am looking forward to that as it will be a change from last year. The fashion show went really well on Saturday night and alot of money was raised which is going towards the Uganda fund. Everyone looked so well and the boys got a few laughs from their dancing and goal keeping skills! I have to say that the wedding dress I was wearing (it was the one that looked like a meringue!) was gorgeous, but was quite hard to walk in and I have no idea how a bride could sit down in it to eat her meal! I loved wearing it and I did feel like a bride with the veil on but I really don't think that it wiuld be the style I would go for (you can breathe a sigh of relief now Scott!) It was a fun night and it was all for the kids so it was worth it all!

Oh and on a final note, just to make you all that wee bit jealous, it's 5 weeks on Saturday til we go skiing!

Love love love!

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