Oopsy Cakesy

Today we had a "Fun Day" at church and I had bought a High School Musical box of cake mix for the group to make to go with lunch. The girls got into making it while I got o with sorting other lunchy bits out, so they emptied the box and got on with it. Apparently Katie asked me if both the bags of stuff had to go into the mixture and apparently I said "Yes" but I can't recall this conversation. So she chucked it all together, mixed in the butter, water and eggs and poured into the tray then put it all in the oven to bake. While I was clearing up the rubbish I wondered where the icing had gone to and discovered that the icing had been put into the cake mixture and was now in the oven. We worried it all may turn out a little too sweet but left it to bake and we got on with lunch and playing with HSM stickers.



When it came to eating the cake it looked good, smelled good and had a slight glaze on the top from all the sugar in it! It was real good, even with the icing IN it not ON it. So an experiment gone wrong but that turned out good and we had fun decorating it with the HSM rice paper decorations and sugary stars.

my albums

Jools posted this great little "meme" thing-a-mee that I couldn't resist doing - so much so I did it twice!

Here's what you do
1 - Go to "wikipedia ." Hit “random article”
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations "
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on the “explore" tab and select "the last seven days”
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Here's the results of my two.

Happy St Paddy's Day

Very true indeed

Paul Bowman blogged recently to highlight a cartoon by Dave Walker from Cartoon Church which I had seen a while ago and forgotten about.



But there is another who agrees to this idea of where the youth worker falls in the church hierarchy.... Jon Birch from ASBO Jesus posted a similar one today...



I must have moved up a few places seeing as we've no organist/choir master, or vicar/minister/curate! LOL

Free Christian Children's Talk 5

I hesitated about posting this one because its rather personal to our church, but the morning I did this talk in church the convenor for our vacancy was leading the rest of the service and asked me for the details so she could use it in her own churches the following week so it seems right to post it for others to use seeing as it has been reused already.

You'll see as you read this that you'll need to rewrite it slightly but it shouldn't be too difficult.

I've a picture on the screen and I have the actual thing in my hand here, can you tell me what animal this is?


It's a kangaroo! They don't have boxing gloves like this one normally but can anyone tell me which country you'll find kangaroos in?

Let kids have guesses

In Australia! It's very far away from here, you can see on this map.



That blue country at the top in the middle is where we are and the blue country in the bottom corner is Australia - all the way on the other side of the world from us.

I want to tell you about one of the bigger boys in our church called Mark who was in Australia in January taking part in the Youth Olympics shooting some arrows in the archery.



And he came back with 2 of these toy kangaroos, and he came back with 2 of something else too!



TWO GOLD MEDALS! One for the individual mens and one for the mens team! And it wasn't easy because everything was working against him
- Mark was sick and not well when he was in the final
- He was far from home with no family to support him
- He was competing against the junior world champion
- Who also was an Australian so the crowds were cheering on that boy instead of Mark
- The boy Mark was against was 3 years older than him
- And it was tense in his final shot because the Australian was 9 points ahead, so Mark had to shoot a 10 which is a perfect bullseye!

Talk about pressure! But instead of paying attention to all those things and worrying about them, Mark looked straight to the target and focussed on that. He was so calm and so cool that he was able to shoot a 10 and win! He kept his focus.

I want to read from Hebrews 12v1-2
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. " (NIV)

Did you hear that? "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus"? Just like Mark was so focussed in the target not letting anything distract him we also need to be focussed on our relationship with Jesus and not allow anything to get in the way of that.

Let's pray

Dear God, We're sorry for the times when we forget to put you first and are distracted by other things. Help us to be focussed on you and your plan for our lives. Help us to give you your rightful place as number one. In Jesus name, Amen.



If you plan to use this I'd love to know!

LifeHouse - Everything

I first saw this being performed at the MAD weekend in Coleraine back in October and remember quite vividly how moved I was by it. So when one of the girls in the Girls Brigade suggested performing it for the display I was excited to hear that it had impacted her so much that she was still thinking about it almost 4 months later!

Here it is for you to watch -

Free Christian Children's Talk 4

It's been over a month since I posted here and I've felt bad about it, yet the longer I left writing a new post the more I felt it had to be something good. It's bizarre the effect blogging can have on you.

With our church being without a minister we have had lots of visiting ministers each Sunday which hasn't allowed me to do children's addresses during the service until recently and here's what I said:

"I have some pictures of different characters here that I want you to tell me who they are. Here's the first one....



...it's Wallace and Gromit. Great work, let's see the next one...



...it's Bill and Ben. A lot of the grown ups will remember watching them when they were young too! Who's next?



...it's Bob the Builder, excellent. And here's the last one...



(the children will probably not know this one, they didn't in my church and I didn't expect them to, so I said....) .... you don't know? Do any of the grown ups remember who this is? Yes, it's Morph. Morph was a little plasticine man who lived amongst the pens, pencils and paint brushes of an artist and he gets into all sorts of mischief, mostly caused by his friend Chas. Let's watch one of the cartoons...

(I had a DVD lined up to show but the guys on the screens couldn't sort it so next time I'll use one from YouTube)

Morph was a very popular character and he must still be today because do you know what I got for Christmas? I got a 'Make Your Own Morph' set. It came as a box with some blocks of plasticine and instructions on how to make him. Would you like to see how my Morph looks? Ok here he is...



..What do you think? Does he look like the real Morph? Well the instructions for making him were really easy looking but when it came to it there's a lot of detail and attention that has gone into making Morph. It took me a couple of hours to get him right! I really wanted him to be just right.

You know when God made us He thought very carefully about how you should look, how you would think, what you be good at and even who your family should be. He didn't stop there though, you see when I made my Morph I put a lot of care into making him, but since then he's sat on my desk at home not doing very much. God didn't just make us then leave us to get on with things, He wants to be a part of our whole lives, he wants to put even more care and attention into our lives, but for Him to do that we need to talk to him and allow Him to work in our lives.

We should tell Him what we’re thinking about, what we’re happy or sad about, what we’re worried about – anything, He wants to hear it all. He promises to always be there for us, listening to our prayers and helping us everyday."

If you're using this talk, please let me know.

Images found through a google search - sorry I can't be more specific. The only exception is the photo of my morph which is obviously my own

chocolate nativity

The Girls Brigade leaders in church decided that instead of buying presents for all the girls and wrapping them, that they would have Thorntons come with a whole pile of advent calendars and lots of icing filled piping bags. I was able to make one myself and was so thankful my name is so short!




It was real hard for some girls with longer names like Christine or Danielle or Rebecca trying to fit their names on. But it was so much fun and the girls all enjoyed it.

I've had fun opening my advent calendar this year, it's been the first year in a while that I've had one.

The first few days started off with chocolate stars and trees and crackers but the last few days have had kings with gifts, shepherds, angels and now today the nativity scene....



It excited me to see that the birth of Jesus hasn't been completely forgotten by a commercial chain store like Thortons. I couldn't help but say a prayer for everyone else opening their Thorntons advent calendar today that the chocolate treat would be a little reminder to them of the reason for the season too.

Christmas No. 1

I'm so "uncool" according to my youth group cos I don't watch shows like Strictly Come Dancing or I'm a Celebrity or even worse.... X Factor!!!!! It makes me the weirdest person ever apparently, but hey I'm not that worried - I kinda suspected it.

X factor just annoys me to be honest. I like hearing people sing and do it well, but I get a bit fed up watching the same people every week and in the end whoever wins gets fame and fortune handed to them on a plate. I just think it's a little unfair given that so many have worked hard to get where they are but it's no newsflash that life ain't fair.

What really annoys me is that every year the winner releases their first single the week before Christmas and are pretty much guaranteed a Christmas No 1. When I was growing up I used to have fun trying to guess who it might be and often bought a single that week trying to help my favourite to number 1. Now though X Factor has taken the fun out of all that given that the past 3 years has been an X Factor winner and now it looks like Alexandra will be number one with her cover of 'Hallelujah' which isn't a great version of the song really.

So now I guess all the fun is guessing who'll be number 2.....

Ammo

Part of what I enjoy in my job as a youth and family worker is that I get to know parents and through them I get to know their kids better too. This past few weeks have been enlightening in lots of ways as I've spoke to several parents and ended up in conversations about what their kids did when they were little. I love it, it fascinates me how parents recall certain events and when they retell them they seem to become more animated and excited. However, with hearing all these stories I'm learning one of the darker sides of parenthood - storing up embarrassing stories about your kids. I wasn't completely unaware of it, sure I have parents too who liked to embarrass me by recalling the stupid/weird/crazy/mortifying things I've done, but I was a little surprised at the lengths some of these parents have gone to in keeping evidence of some of these embarrassing things. Photos, videos, diaries, the items involved in these stories etc all stored in little safe places that the kids don't know about (or at least they hope they don't know about). What's more is that they use these stories as ammo in order to get their kids to do something or even not do something..... it's scary the power people can have over each other.

the real x factor

I want to tell you about 'J'. I first met J in September 2008, I can't remember where we were exactly when we met (though it was bound to be somewhere at church), or what was said but I remember being struck by his generosity and his concern for others, but most of all how alive his faith in Jesus was. As the years have gone on I have heard many many stories about J, stories of how he has gone out of his way to care for others, how he has welcomed people to our church with such great warmth and sincerity which has led them to join our church, stories of his patience in many circumstances, stories of how he has led others to care for various groups of people too and stories of how his relationship with Jesus has led others to faith too.

I have visited with J and his wife M quite a bit and everytime I have they sing each others praises - "he's one in a million", "she's my precious wife". It's refreshing to see a couple expressing their love and admiration for one another instead of complaining about how "my husband doesn't do this" "my wife doesn't care about that", J and M can't help but show how much they love each other and weren't afraid to tell others. This has been a real lesson and example to me because in the time I have known them I have gone from being a singleton to being part of a marriage myself. I learnt from them how to respect and honour your spouse, to speak words of love and how to strengthen a marriage.

A year and a half ago J was taken into hospital. It shocked so many in our church because J was extremely fit and able for being in his 90s. He was always more involved in things than the average person, he always stood at the door to the church on a Sunday morning welcoming people in whether his name was on the rota or not and he came to any and every event he had time for. I remember praying that if ever I get to be his age that I'd be of similar health and able to do all he was able to do too - a selfish prayer, definitely not characteristic of J.

His health improved enough for him to be at home again, however a week ago he was taken back into hospital after not feeling too great and then on Wednesday he passed away. I thought I had already heard such incredible amazing stories about J while he was alive but since his death I have been in such awe of the wonderful incredible man he was. He was humble, patient, kind, generous, caring, genuine and most importantly a true man of God, an inspiration and example to us all.

J had the real X factor in his life - Jesus - and it was evident to all he met and has impacted on them in ways they probably never expected to be impacted. I can't help but think that as amazing as J was and is, how much more amazing is Jesus for J to have followed and served Jesus all his life?

I miss J a lot and have been fighting back tears when I talk to people about him, but I praise God for J and being able to know him for the little while that I did. I'm thankful and excited to think that J is now in heaven amongst Abraham, Moses, David and all those other great witnesses in the Bible and that they're all cheering us on to reach that goal too.

I'm thankful for J, for the life he lived, the love he shown and the example he shared. I hope and pray people will see the x factor in my life too.

Apples on apples

After my last post about Apple Cake I couldn't help but share this pic I came across.



A Japanese farmer put the Apple and the iPod logos on the fruit while they were growing, making these crazy fun looking ones! [via Gizmodo]

"Apple"Cake

It was Rob's birthday recently and I couldn't help but make my Mac loving hubby an apple cake to celebrate....



... it's a Victoria Sponge inside (his favourite) so no edible apples unfortunately.

Thank you Mr Jobs!!!!

Hi!

Well it's been a long time since I've posted on here and I'm sorry about that. If you have been speaking to me recently you will know that my iBook was in with Apple getting some much needed repair done to the casing. I was told it would be 7-10 days which seemed long enough already considering I do a lot of work on my laptop. After it was away for 11 days and I had heard nothing I called the lovely new Apple store in Victoria Square to find out what was going on and it apparently needed a few more days work.

After a few more days and a few more calls I was able to collect my wee iBook - except when I called to collect it there was another problem with the casing so it had to be left for a bit longer with them. A few days later I got a call saying it was almost ready and just had a few more things to sort. The day after I got a call with very different news - the guys who were working on it discovered some more problems with the casing and to save me waiting forever and to make up for the hassle of it'll be ready soon/it won't be ready soon the decided to give me a brand new MacBook!!! I was in shock - firstly cos the guy on the phone seemed to think this was bad news to me, but because I never ever expected that to be the outcome!

Th next day I went to the store and picked up my new MacBook that had all my files tranferred over for me and everything! The past few days have been fun on my new machine playing with new features and getting all my music and photos etc sorted.

hurting

The past 3 years at the Youth Ministry Summer School there has been a lot of focus on teens suffering more hurt and pain than they have in the past. The first 2 years we had Chap Clark who wrote Hurt and Deep Ministry in a Shallow World as one of the keynote speakers. Marv Penner, who wrote Help My Kids Are Hurting: A Survival Guide to Working with Students in Pain was a key note speaker at the last Summer School. So each summer school has featured a lot of discussion around the subject, leading us into the thinking that as youth workers we need to set up communities for young people to feel loved, accepted, valuable and worth something. I have to admit that at each discussion on hurt and pain I was struggling to relate personally because I couldn't remember going through anything similar myself.

When we were in the airport on our way to Egypt a few weeks ago I couldn't help but have a look in the book shop. I'm not much of a reader usually but on holiday I read 2 or 3 books - I ended up reading 4 books and got halfway through another. I left the shop having bought 2 extra books to take away with me, one of which was called Loose Girl. It's a book about the author's struggle as a teenager and beyond to feel accepted and loved. She journals how she discovered a way to be accepted, loved and attractive was to use her feminine powers over men. In a search for attention and love she went down a path full of meaningless one night stands and emotionally unsatisfying relationships. Ultimately using and being used in order to fill a void.

As I read this book I couldn't help but think about Summer School and my own experiences of wanting love when I was a teen. I was reminded of times when I felt desperate for a boy to notice me, not just as someone else in the crowd but as someone special. I remember thinking that if anyone ever did want to be with me that I would have to be someone different than who I am so they would like me. I was insecure and rejection made me feel more insecure. I identified with the author in her quest to work out what it meant to love and to be loved. I identified with her as she dealt with her insecurity and compared herself to other girls. From reading magazines, watching TV, seeing movies and more back then I thought love was about feeling loved and thought nothing about returning love to that person too. I thought about how all this made me feel unattractive, unloveable, unaccepted, useless and worthless. Yes, I had friends who cared about me, but this still didn't make me feel like I could be loved. Thankfully I'm past all that insecurity and am a very happily married woman - though I still have my insecurities but they're not related to feeling loved or valuable anymore.

Thinking through all this helped me to identify more with what we have been talking about for the past 3 years at Summer School. It's helped me think more about how I as a youth worker need to get alongside young people and show them a God who loves them and cares for them as they are and not who they think they need to be or act like. It has helped me to see more of how God has created me and is using me to do His will and show His love. I can see more of how He's using me and my flawed humanity to serve others.