Christmas musings

Just wanted to note down a few of my (Wood St. Girl's) musings over the the Chrissie period:

1) I really like Stricly come Dancing - I only watched the final and the Christmas special, but it was really good. The only thing I didn't like was Bruce Forsyth's smutty introductions of the dancers - so cheap. What touched me in particular was when the intense sensuality of the dances contasted with the few seconds of film where Mark Ramprakash celebrated with his wife after winning. There was such open hearted love and intimacy in those few frames that the hip thrusting, bum wiggling dances didn't get close to.

2) I got the Take That album for Christmas and Wood Street Man got a laser guided jigsaw - bring on the power tools and cheesy pop, we're set! I also got series 3 and 4 of Spooks...form an orderly queue!

3) I love being on holiday - today was my first proper sleep in and I feel great. My dear husband however, had 10 days off before i went off on holiday and therefore is past the chilling out phase of holiday and now wants to be productive - he has written a colour-coded priortised list which is now on our google homepage. When I consider the time we have available to do all the painting, shopping, curtain making and cleaning he has listed I think today will be my first and only sleep in. (Note to self: remember to check answer machine at work tomorrow...!)

4) We're off to the Peak District to spend new year with my fabulous friends what I love. I met these guys in Norwich when I studied at my beloved UEA, which in my humble opinion is the best place in the world. Ya boo sucks to anyone who doesn't agree. The hard part for me when meeting up with my uni pals is that they all are doing amazingly well in their careers and climbing the greasy pole with ferocious speed while enjoying themselves magnificently. Up until fairly recently this is what I thought would be doing right now, and although my life is wonderful, spending time with these guys does make me want to get out there and kick the tyres. Is there a life out there for me that's more MI5 than 9 till 5? I hope so.

Recent trip to Oban

Thought you may want to see some photos of our recent (short) holiday in Oban. These are all from a day trip to the Islands of Seil and Luing, just a short drive south of where we were staying in a caravan kindly borrowed from our friends in housegroup.

If you're going to do something...

I was givin' St Silas big love last night! Their annual carol service was stunning. Dark sanctuary, professionally lit stage, smoke machine, 3 screen display - yes it looked like a proper theater/cinema. The singing was good, the procedings unpretentious, relevant, no in-jokes, good nod to tradition, all cheesey Christianness kicked out the door and a slick professional show presented. And the techie guys did magnificently (we're talking video/CD/Powerpoint all going simulataneously on 3 screens without flaw or failure for an hour and a half) - rah rah the Anglicans in the West! I was not embaressed once (which I was worried about as my mate managed to get 10 [well I counted 11] of his young professional unchurched friends along)!
Whether you were protestant, catholic, non-beliver, traditional or a raving charismatic the producers were right on the mark.
Above that the Christmas message was set out clearly and unashamedly - but relevantly, humbly, professionally and simply. There was extensive coverage of the prophetic passages that point to Jesus, which was good and man, I loved the way the powerpoint was done…it was just so cool and understated. Gadget Vicar also did a great job with a strong emphasis on being a seeker and going to Alpha.
For me, the best thing, and this might sound dreadful, is that I didn't feel embarassed by anything that went on. The person that organised it deserves a medal, or a payrise, or something.

Off with the old

Last week was the monthly 'Daughters of Destiny' meeting at QP, and it was, as ever, awesome. I am pretty evangelical about this group and have got 3 of my pals from different churches coming along pretty regularly. DoD (as it is affectionately known) is for 18-35 year old women and is what I would term a charismatic-prophetic-Spirit-led discipleship group, although my experience of that kind of thing is pretty narrow. All the serious theologians will be loving that hypenated term! One of the main things that makes these meetings special is that there is particular emphasis on ministry - and no-one escapes - the leadership appear fully committed to making sure that everyone who attends is prayed with and ministered to - sitting passively is not an option. This also makes it a bit scary, as some of the women have amazing prophetic gifts and an uncanny ability to put their finger exactly on where you are in life at that particular moment. I'm talking hotline to God stuff. This is so encouraging and sometimes a bit uncomfortable if I am having an attitude problem.

Before Thursday however, I'd never seen manky old bras and pants being put on a cross before, but I have now! The speaker for the evening was Sandra King who works with Clive Corfield at Sovereign Ministries. She was speaking on Esther and how she prepared for meeting the King with baths and beauty treatments for 6 months. The focus was particulaly (well what I took from it) on bathing, and when we get into a bath, we don't seem to mind taking off our clothes, but quite often we take off our undies as fast as possible without looking at them and jump into the water; sometimes we can even forget to take them off and put a foot in the water before removing them. The spiritual parallel is that we have grubby layers under us that we can forget to take off when we come into God's presence, layers that we put on each day without thinking about and which we can keep putting on for years because no-one sees them but us. Sandra encouraged us to take off these grotty layers, layers of self-pity, grief, hurt etc. and lay them down at the cross - symbolised by her hanging her own grotty bras and pants on the cross. It was piercingly effectively and what followed was an outpouring of confession, repentence, pain, loss and hurt (which my colleague and I refer to as a snotfest) with bodies strewn on the floor, some overwhelmed by their pain, others by God's Spirit. Anyway, business was done with God and wholesale healing received. I've not hard-core cried at a DoD meeting for a while now, which I think is a good thing, but sometimes God can catch you unawares.
I love meetings that leave you with a deposit of their message that lasts all month, and that was one of them. Bring it on God.

10 things I'll never do

Ok, I'll head the Wood St. World charge, following in the steps of mightly bloggers such as Lynn and Nick....

1. Drink tea with milk
2. Bungee jump
3. Train to be an accountant
4. Buy Nestle
5. Be a teen pop sensation
6. See a baby minature donkey (ask Wood St. man!)
7. Watch a party political broadcast
8. Streak at an ICC football match (despite Sean and Dougie's allegations)
9. Not dance at a disco
10. Do one of these lists again!