Unusual Weekend

Rarely do we have two unique events in a weekend. 

Saturday
Karen came home to visit because it was her Nan's birthday celebration.  She and Liz had promised to cook dinner.  It is Mothering Sunday as I write, so Mum was allowed a night off.  The celebration took place at our house, and the attendees were Karen, her boyfriend, Liz (without hers - he is unwell), Mike, Mum-in-Law, Jo and I.  Andy was at work. That is not a combination we have ever had before.  The location was also new for the birthday celebration.  Initially it was quiet for us, but the conversation soon got going.  Stopping Mike talking about football is an impossible task. 

Sunday
Mothering Sunday at Christ Church was also unique.  Billed as Half Cafe Style, it was really Half 'Messy Church' Style.  Coffee and refreshments served first, and the mothers given cake and a drink.  The regular parts of the service started about 20 minutes in.  Various activities were provided to try to engage the Men and Children.  I am not a 'craft' or 'arts' person.  The start of the service was therefore not something I could take part in.  That in itself is a lesson - there is no such thing as 'all inclusive' in what we do at church.  There is never a service that has been done that did not exclude someone in some way.  The trick is to make it good for most people most of the time AND never to exclude anybody most of the time. I think we do a reasonable job, but there is always room for improvement.  Liz lead the service and did a good job of explaining what was happening - an important part of getting a very different service going well. She spoke about some of the activities but not all of them.  One was an acrostic poem based on Mother Church.  I struggle with poetry too, so I did a couple of acronyms - I'm sure you can improve on them - if you do, leave a comment please.
My
Old
Thing
Has
Eaten
Radishes
                  -  call for the men in white coats NOW!!
Before they get here:
Christ
Has
Undone
Rotten &
Careless
Hurts

I should emphasise that I wrote that only during the time Liz was talking about that particular activity.

Anyway, there followed communion, at four stations around the church, which worked better than I could have possibly imagined.  Here too though there is room for improvement.

We left without having more coffee, because there was none being served.  Its true I wanted to get home for the F1 GP, but still leaving without chatting over a cup leaves me thinking I left 'half' way through.


As it is a very pleasant day, I tried a bit of cycling.  In my quest to get as far as work (and back) by sometime in the summer.  Today's route began an investigation of the lanes behind stock hill, but only just. About 5.9 miles (according to Google) in about 40 minutes, that's just over an hour to get to work - assuming the really steep hills can be avoided.  However, I would not arrive in a fit condition to do any work for at least another 30 minutes!


Time to go with the friendly men in their white coats ...

At Christ Church / Exercise

At Christ Church
I preached at the 08:00 service.  The topic was Colossians 3:12-14, which is titles "Rules for Holy Living" in my Bible.  You can read the text here.  I had struggled with the preparation, but was reasonably pleased with the result, especially as it was delivered after being woken by noisy children at 4am.  When does that end?
We have the new projector in place after some delays caused by the snowy weather.  Warner had prepared some video to show it off.  This was shown at the end of the service and delayed the congregation leaving by about 5 minutes.  There were two baptisms this morning.  We haven't had two for a very long time.  Both were boys and both very well-behaved.  The church was packed. Liz lead and Jane preached.  The service went very well from my perspective.  Prayers were led by Andy and Sue, who also used the projector, and demonstrated that the laptop is at the end of its capabilities.  It took 10 minutes to get the PowerPoint loaded into Impress (openoffice.org), but once loaded it worked fine.

Exercise
After a year of setbacks and poor weather, today was bright and sunny.  I decide to try out the bicycle.  To find out if it had survived being neglected for over a year.  I'm happy to report that it was fine.  My 'short route', the one I always start the summer cycling with if I've had a break, is 4.1 miles (6.6 kilometres) according to google.  It took about half an hour, although I forgot to set the stop watch, so I only have a very approximate time.

I'm thinking about cycling to work, that is 8.8 miles, more than twice my starting distance, and then there's coming home too.

No more teenagers

Today our youngest has left his teenage years. He is getting older. Recently he has been staying at his girlfriend's father's house, looking after the dogs, so we haven't seen much of him. Some things haven't changed yet though. We still get together for a birthday meal (those of us that can). This time we went to the Inn on the Green. Mike's girlfriend joined us, but Andy and Liz were not able to. There are, of course, other birthday celebrations that are not parent appropriate. There is still cake too - and candles. Here you can see the result of Mike blowing out his candles rather too enthusiastically. (You may have to click the picture to get the full effect)
Our eldest, Karen, was down for a few days break after her trip to Africa with her young people. I've linked the first post on the subject, I'm sure there will be others. She spoke in church this morning, and was immediately approached to speak at woman's fellowship.

We have started a series on Colossians, and Jane gave us a very good introduction to the book, and summed it us as "Christ + nothing = salvation". She had also used the image of seeds in her talk to show how the faith can spread. Warner pointed out that Karen was a fully grown seed, off doing the Lord's work at St Hughs in Luton.

For the second week this year I cycled to church. Last time I was half dead on my return, but it was not so bad this time. It is only 2 miles each way! My poor fitness is returning as my shoulder heals and allows me to do more.

More exercise = heavier

So, they tell you to exercise to loose weight. Like so many other pieces of health advice from the so called experts, it doesn't appear to be true. After being the same for the last couple of weeks, I'm going up again. After more exercise, less biscuits and chips, and even missing a meal (not planned). So how does it really work - watch this blog.

Shaken Up had just 9 children (2 boys at least), and was lead by Jen - it went very well, and allowed me to move around a bit, and talk to some of them.

The murder mystery was also a good evening. Our table solved the puzzle (well one did, and the rest of us agreed), and came 2nd on the tie break. We were beaten by half a mark. A good time I think was had by all, and the organisers received a further 2 bookings. Not what they had planned, but 'a nice little earner' for the atrium fund.

Expecting another long week - with meetings in the evening Tues and Wed, so tonight was part homework. When am I going to prepare cell?

Exercise starts Today

The garage door fell apart on Friday night, I managed to secure it, but the lock on the outside is irrelevant.

The garage door is reassembled, all the parts have been found. It only took 20 minutes, so I went for a bike ride for a further 25. First time for about one and a half years. Very short course – very tiring. Ask Mike about this when you see him next.

After that I almost completed the work for this CCS unit.