Adam's b-day

We went to the Empire for Adams 18th birthday. It was tonnes of fun. (Even though I'm holding a cigar I wasn't smoking it - don't worry!)

My arms are going to fall off...oh ya, and Merry Christmas!

I just carried Gill (Nathans gold fish) from his house to my house. I'm baby sitting while everyone from his house is over seas. Nathans plan was to put a bunch of food in the bowl and hope for the best, but I offered to look after the little guy. Now 5 blocks may not seem like a long way but when you're carrying a fish, its GLASS bowl that is full of water and rocks, and it's 12am and you're tired then it can be quite the task. The whole time I was worried that some ruffians (and by that I mean 10 year old kids) would come and push me over and kill Gill, but luckily it turned out to be uneventful and I made it home safe and sound.
So tomorrow is Christmas eve and to make up for years of not going to Christmas eve services at home my punishment is to go to 3 tomorrow. 2 in the morning where the kids are going to be singing song for the adults then a really short message is preached. The third is at night and it's a traditional carol service. I have to say though, I do like how the Irish do Christmas services. After each one free mulled wine is given out. Usually one glass of wine wont affect me, but two that early in the morning - you never know. In between services we're all going to Janene and Chris' house for more drinking and eating. Christmas morning Abbie, Joey, and myself are opening presents together and having breakfast. I have to say that I love our tree. It's only 4 feet tall and we dont have any ornaments so we tied thread to anything in the room and hung it on the tree. My personal favourite is a Magners label I tore off my beer. At 10am there is another service which we may or may not go to, then it's off to Joeys host family for dinner. Boxing day I'll be at the children’s pastors house for lunch then another house party. After that I have no plans until new years eve when I think I’m going to a Bluetree concert then James gets home on the 1st so we're having a party at my house, then we go on retreat on the 3rd. And that's pretty much it.
Those are my Christmas plans. I hope you have a great holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Panto pants

I thought I should take a wee moment to catch up with everyone. I've been really busy with the church Pantomime, so I have. For those who dont know CFC is putting on Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. It's a full on production that last almost 2.5 hours. We've been working on it since October and I have been doing everything from props, to painting, to costumes. But what my main job has been is Stage Management. It's been going really well and Bronwen is ASMing and she is such a star. It's been a lot of fun, but I've been putting in too many 12 hour days and staying up way too late at night. I'm going to try and get some pictures of the set because it is really amazing. So ya, I have to go run another show now so I'm off. This is our last one then it's just strike and cast party. Woot Woot.

God has green eyes

The other day in classes we had a lecture on the spiritual discipline of prayer. Precilla Reid spoke. She talked about how living a life of prayer isn't just about closing yourself off in your room for hours at a time every day, because who really has the time to do that? And if you do then that's great and keep it up. But I think for most of us laying aside an hour a week for prayer can be hard enough. Living a life of prayer is more about just communicating with God throughout your day. Paul (or Peter, I can't remember) called it praying continually. It's like having your best friend around all the time. She gave this example. She was driving in the car alone one day and she was praying for someone about something serious. As she drove she saw a massive rainbow stretch across the sky and she interrupted her prayer to point it out to God and to thank him for it. She quoted this guy who said "I never pray for longer than 5 minutes, but I never go for longer than 5 minutes without praying." Isn't that fantastic! Think about it - if you're in that much contact with God throughout your day how much faster will you hear his voice? How much more will you be lead by the Spirit? How much easier will it be to avoid those temptaions and traps that ensare all of us?

Everytime I hear this song I think of God. I sing it to him. So the next time I heard it I pointed it out to him and let him know what it means to me.

GREEN EYES - Coldplay
Honey you are a rock
Upon which I stand
And I come here to talk
I hope you understand

That green eyes, yeah the spotlight, shines upon you
And how could, anybody, deny you

I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you
And honey you should know, that I could never go on without you

Green eyes

Honey you are the sea
Upon which I float
And I came here to talk
I think you should know

That green eyes, you’re the one that I wanted to find
And anyone who, tried to deny you must be out of their mind

Cause I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter, since I met you
Honey you should know, that I could never go on without you

Green eyes
Green eyes

Honey you are a rock
Upon which I stand

Retreat Photos

So here are the pictures you've all been waiting for in livid antisipation. Of course they dont do the actual moment justice, but you'll get the general idea. And there are two of a water wheel thrown in there just for good measure.

Crosslinks Retreat

I spent this weekend back in Annalong with all the kids from Crosslinks. I have to say I was not looking forward to going at all and James, Adam, and Joey talked their way out of coming so I was left to hang out with new people, and really who wants to do that? The minibus ride up was terrible. I wanted to go home so bad. The kids were loud and violent, and annoying. No matter how much I tried to talk myself out of my bad attitude it just wouldn't go away. When we got there we played a bunch of 'get to know you' games which were a lot of fun. After that I got into it and the rest of the weekend was really fun. I appreciated getting to know the kids and realized that they are really good, fun people. I also got to know the other leaders better and am going out with a girl from Sword of the Spirit called Nina on Monday. We had several sessions about identity, culture, unity, and peace. It was really interesting to hear what people from Belfast think about their own city and the situation here. A lot of them said that Belfast isn't a good place to raise a family and that it's still so divided that there isn't much hope for unity. It is really cool to be a part of west end kids, east end kids, and Chinese kids coming together. Lots of the youth here have never mixed with someone from the other side of the city, so what these kids are doing is actually a brave and gutsy thing. Some of their friends wouldn't understand it.
Nina, Elaine and I were sharing a room and I decided it would be a good idea to get up early Sunday morning to see the sun rise. Unfortunately it was really cloudy so instead of a glorious red sun peaking over the water we just got a slightly less dark cloudy sky. But Nina and I went out later around 10 and got some really nice pictures. It was so windy rough I actually got blown off of the boulder I was standing on. The internet is really slow right now, so I'll have to post my pictures some other time.
So all in all it was a really good weekend. I had a lot of fun and made some new friends.