How busy are you?

I would post a nice display of my results but I didn’t have an option to do that, but I ended up with 80% busy 20% cat nap, a quick survey/quiz great fun, but I don’t necessarily endorse the product. http://www.wheredidthetimego.com/

Stumble upon

Last week I stumbled upon this great plugin for Firefox (so sorry if your not a Firefox user, but you really should try it!) it’s called stumble upon, it gives you an extra bar at the top of the window, you can choose from a selection of 500 categories and then when you have some spare time (alright then when you looking for a distraction as we don’t have spare time) you click ‘stumble’ and it will take you to a site that someone else has recommended under one of your categories, you then get an option to give it a thumbs up or down and it learns the kind of thing you like, you can of course also add your own site or blog and then others will be brought in who happen to be looking at the categories you have entered it under

Good session

Last night at our youth group we had a guest speaker, Richard is currently taking a year out with Christian Aid, he came to talk to us about the work of Christian Aid and some of the things he has been able to do, it was great to be able to see a video he had made whilst in Nicaragua last year as part of this and also here him speak of what he had witnessed about how fair trade really does make a difference to peoples lives. The presentation was really good and thought provoking, for those of you nearish to Oxford I would highly recommend contacting Richard and getting him to speak to your group, if your further afield then Christian aid have offices all over the country and many of them will have some able to come and do something very similar. This was especially good after the Make Poverty History stuff that went on last year and for the young people to be able the hear about some of the differences that the campaigning they were involved with has made in our world.

scratching

It all started with a cartoon from Dave, the idea that church scratches somewhere other than where we itch. Now it has got a few people talking starting with Phil and then Sarah joining the debate and it’s an issue I am sure most of us can relate to, I wonder partly if those of us within the Anglican tradition feel it more because of the fact that we are a tradition but I suspect that whatever way we worship and wherever we worship at times we all feel like this to some extent. But it’s got me thinking are we losing track, what is church for, do we go for our own benefit or do we go for God, now I’m not suggesting that we are completely wrong in asking these questions or saying that the church has got it right but we need to be careful I have seen too many problems caused within churches because of the ‘well that doesn’t quite suit me’ attitude. We need to be very careful that the question we are asking is what does God want his church to be? Rather than what sort of church do I want to go to? At the end of the day while we spend our time focusing on the latter question (which I think on the whole we spend to much time doing) we are never going to get it right, we need to remember that God is the creator, he created us and this world we live in and it is only he that therefore truly understands the human race, it is only through seeking him that we can find out what we truly need. And yes he did create us as individuals and that might mean that what scratches one persons itch won’t scratch the next persons, but we will also find that what scratches one week won’t the next. I suppose what I am trying to say is that while we keep looking to the church to scratch the itch we are missing the fact that God is the only one who can really reach the parts that all others things we try can’t.

learn the unforced rhythms of grace

A friend of mine from my previous youth group writes some interesting poetic pieces on her blog, yesterdays was quite a thought provoking piece about Grace and our relationship with God and so thought I would give you an opportunity to read it for yourselves.

Ever feel like this?

I think at times we can all feel a bit like this, Dave Walker is the man to help you express your feelings, click here to visit his site and find other cartoons.

Great night out.

Last night we went out for Gills Birthday (today) two things that made it really great, firstly it was the first time we had been to the cinema together since Bridget Jones two so it was great to be able to go out together. Secondly we saw Chronicles of Narnia, not being a great reader of book (major understatement) I found this great, I remember seeing the TV series several years ago and I seem to recall enjoying it but the film was something else, it even makes me want to read the book, don’t know if it will happen but I believe we have a copy somewhere in the house, if you haven’t seen it yet then you really should, it was awesome.

Fat and Frantic!

Just had a meeting talking about printing off some stuff for the local churches together, somehow we got onto talking about my obsession with red telephone boxes, which in tern led to talking about Fat and Frantic and much reminiscing of the good old days of Greenbelt in the late 80’s and listening to Fat and Frantic on the main stage and their fantastic songs, a little bit of digging around and I was impressed to find you can even get one of their songs from itunes, although it was the not forest version of Brian, which while good would not give anyone a real taste of the true Fat and Frantic, you can also read a little about them here but there seams to be a great lack of info on this great band on line so for those of you that remember I thought it would be good to have a little reminisce here, please leave any comments on the subject of the great band Fat and Frantic, I might even see if I can put a proper FAF webpage together at some stage!

Overwhelmed!

Well done to Sarah, who was the first person to email me yesterday, Thanks to little Alice as well, sorry you didn’t get in quite fast enough but it was great to see such an overwhelming response from the two of you!, I shall get the disk in the post to you ASAP.

Free to a good home.

I have one copy of Youth Specialities ‘The Ideas Library’ version 1, this is a CD rom works on Windows or Mac and contains over 2,700 ideas for all areas of youth ministry, this version came out in 98 so it is a bit old but still got some great ideas and does work on all versions, to get an idea you can read details o the latest version here it sells for £99. The first person to email me at youthwork (at) notashamed.co.uk with their name and address can have it.

blank

This morning I had in my mind to blog today, I had a subject and everything, but now, completely blank, it must be my age. Oh well you could always go back to Dave Walkers Calendar again it really is awfully good.

Looking for a host

Among the many things I own are 5 domain names and a hosting package, well I suppose technically hosting is only ever hired in many respects, anyway it’s renewal time with my current host and while things have not been bad, I can only properly host one of my domains on the space they provide and I would like to be able to have proper hosting for all (with the intention of writing something for them all at some stage) however I do need quite a lot of facilities and preferably not to high a cost, any one got any good suggestions? All will be gratefully received.

The only calendar worth having

Dave the wonderful man over at cartoonchurch.com has produced his annual calendar only this year it is available as a free download, get you copy by visiting here.

Back in the Hot Seat

Well may I be (probably) one of the last to wish you a happy new year. We’ve made it through into another year! Christmas and new year were good for us although we saw about 1mm of snow while after leaving ours for Christmas my brother travelled back home with my parents and got snowed in at their house for 3 days before they could take him back to his home. How was it all for you?
So now we get back into things and already it is starting to look hectic but hey it’s good to be back, I don’t do resolutions but I am going to try and be a bit more regular here but don’t hold your breath it’s only an idea not a promise! Take care of your selves!