The end of summer...

..... is now taken over with the Youth Ministry Summer School run by the Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of Ireland Youth departments in Ireland. This is the 3rd year of it's existence but it seems already to be "the norm" for me. So tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'll be leaving Rob and Stewie (and Boomer - my sister's hamster who we're looking after while she's on holiday) to look after themselves for a few days while I swot up on youth ministry once more.

This year Marv Penner and Kenda Creasy Dean will be the keynote speakers. I'm quite excited to hear from Marv about family ministry as that's part of my role in Bannside and something I really want to develop more. Mind you I'm also real excited about meeting with other people who love working with young people too.

I'll be back in a few days but I'm sure I'll be way too tired to post for a few days!

You spin me right round....

...though maybe not with this worship. Yes I'm sure God is pleased with this worship, but I'm not sure I could praise by singing this and being able to focus on God too.



HT to me in my small corner

I'm such a wuss for puppy eyes

I've mentioned before how fond I am of my wee pup (yeah he's a fully grown dog now but he still acts like a pup): I've made him Doggie Treats and Birthday Cake. And spoiled him with other treats like bones, pigs ears and toys and even little bits of bacon buttie. He gets great big long walks and lots of mad fetch. He is a spoilt wee boy who has taken over our sofa, well not only the sofa but the whole house and garden, and often takes over ownership of my lap.

I've become such a sucker for big puppy dog eyes and it turns out it's not only Stewie's eyes I fall for. In the past I've fallen for dogs who've been lost and followed me like "Mustard" and Digger who I couldn't help but try to get back to their owner. In fact I did the same once about 12 years ago when I first had a dog (a cute and chubby little Jack Russell called Mutt) and an old english sheepdog pup followed us home one day - my sister and I loved this wee dog but couldn't help but try and get them back to their owner again.

Today I was driving home from the holiday Bible club and almost ran over a little Jack Russell. I had to pull over and see if I had and if he was ok. As soon as I got out of my car this little dog came running over to say hello. I didn't see anyone around and I couldn't find a tag for a name or number on him so I decided to take him to the vet to see if he was chipped or anything. He was so cute and tiny and kept trying to sit on my lap (I don't think he liked the smell of Stewie on the passenger seat).



It turned out he wasn't chipped, the vet couldn't take him in and the dog warden wasn't answering the phone so I decided I'd bring him home and call the warden later after lunch time, but I ended up driving past where I had found the dog again and found someone who knew where the dog was from. I couldn't help but like this wee dog, he was so friendly and sweet and I admit I did ponder how Stewie and Rob would react to this new dog, but then I remembered how spoilt Stewie is and I'm not sure he would cope with the competition.

Mega Quest

This week our church is running the annual holiday bible club for primary school kids. The past few years I've always felt a bit panicked about it and rushed about prep at the last minute. This year for the half hour before we started on Monday I stood in the middle of the hall and couldn't think of anything else that needed done and it made me panic that I may have forgotten something. The thing was that this year I was much more organised than the previous 2 years. Maybe it was experience or maybe it was that I have become better at planning my time but either way my lack of last minute panic made me panic anyways. Funny isn't it? Perhaps next year I'll have learnt from this and won't be panicking.

We've been using a resource called Mega Quest which we've mixed a little with Desert Detectives. Monday we covered the story of creation, Tuesday we looked at Moses receiving the commandments and today we heard the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. Tomorrow is the disciples on the road to Emmaus and Friday is about what heaven will be like. We're basically covering the Bible cover to cover - something which some of the parents have really appreciated this and how a couple of the kids have been asking where other Bible characters fit into the story. A couple of the younger kids are experiencing worship led by a band playing songs they know for the first time and they've been excited about this - one was asking his mum "will the big boys and girls be playing the fun music again today?" It really excites me that kids are engaging and are excited about what we're doing and it excites me to see what God is doing through our club in these kids' lives. Another thing I'm excited about is how our young people are getting involved and gaining leadership experience through it all too. I need to work on ways to continue developing and using the talents they have and finding ways they can serve God more.

I came across the cartoon on Geek and Poke and couldn't help but add it in here.

1 year blogaversary!!!!

OK so I've been a sucky blogger the last couple of months but hey I'm still posting occasionally so I think I deserve to celebrate my 1 year blogaversary!!!!!! It's been one year today since I made my first post and I don't think I've done too badly this is my 248th post too which would be an average of about 21 posts a month so I'm happy with that.

I've wrote about my life as a youth and family worker, blogged some youth work resources and childrens addresses, talked a LOT about my wee pup Stewie (yeah he may be 19 months now but he'll always be my wee pup), posted some videos that have amused or inspired me and also about my food blog (Ruth's Kitchen Experiments).

To mark this occasion I spent part of yesterday baking (predictable eh?) some Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Chocolate Ganache



Cute eh? And very tasty!!! I took them to youth group tonight and with only 3 of us there tonight we ate 9 of the 12 between us then Lynn took the rest home to her family to devour so I'm sure they're long gone now!

Animation

Well Tech Camp is over now for 2008, but there's still a couple of little things to do before I can say it's officially all done for this year.

It was a fantastic camp and I'm surprised it went so well seeing as I was organising it this year!!!!! You should head over to the PCI Tech Camp 08 blog to see what all we were up to.

Anyways about a week or so before the camp we leaders headed over to NI Screen to learn more about animation and here's the little video Rob and I made on the day - wish we had more time for it but hey not bad for half an hours work!

If people were like fonts....

I'm posting this geek type video because I'm in the middle of Tech Camp and feeling the need to extend the sharing of geekiness to my blog. Someone (sorry can't remember who) Twittered about this video. So very funny, a lot of thought went into this.



It's day 3 and we've been having a great week so far at camp. On Monday we did some filming and editing and went out on a photo scavenger hunt round Belfast - you can see the photos from that on our Tumblr Account. Yesterday we focussed on the internet. We reviewed some church websites and discussed what was good and what was bad about them, then we set up the tumblr account, set up a uStream and a Tech Camp Blog. And today we're working on some animation and making little cartoons which I'm sure will appear on the blog at some point soon.

I'd better head on now though and get some juice and biscuits sorted for break. Ciao!

Tech Camp

I can't believe it!!!! Tech Camp starts on Monday! For the past week I've been sorting out little bits and pieces for it but still feeling that there is loads to do..... like cleaning out my car for a start! I'm really hoping and praying that it all goes well this year, it's my first year organising everything whereas in the past I came as a leader and helped out in whatever way I could. But I'm really excited about what we'll be doing, which I don't want to reveal here for fear it may spoil it for our campers but I promise there will be a Tech Camp 08 blog which I'll add a link to during the week.

I'd best get back to getting this prepared!!!! But keep the camp in your thoughts and prayers please!!!