Hi!

I was struck today by a revelation of sorts into sheer power of the human mind. It all began on my way to work. There I was merrily cycling down a bit of a hill (a hill which I often enjoy cycling down) and I then turned off onto a road on the left only to suddenly find my bike going sideways across the road on a nice patch of black ice. At this point my conscious mind thought "Oh pants. I'm going to end up on my bum and it's going to hurt" whilst my unconscious/subconscious (delete as appropriate, I don't know which one it is) kicked in and my foot was suddenly, without any thought, on the floor keeping me balanced and also hopping backwards to keep up with the bike! I eventually stopped sliding after what seemed like a long time but was, in reality, a second at the most. I somehow managed to stay on the bike. How does that work? In a fraction of a second my mind had figured out what was going on, that I needed to put my foot down, where my foot needed to be put, and then had managed put my foot there in time to stop me falling! It did this a few times as I hopped backwards! What is this immense thing that God has put into my head?! It truly astounded me today. How can anyone doubt the existence of a designer when such an incredible thing as the brain, unique to each individual, exists in every animal!? God is truly awesome. I know I take my brain for granted sometimes. Do you?

Anyway. After that little rant. I think it has been two or three weeks since I last wrote, those weeks have been fun filled and exciting (you'll be very glad to hear!)

So, the last time I wrote was just before the Youthwork Conference in Southport I believe. I said I would write a blog the next week about it..sorry about that! The conference was excellent though! I went with Andi and Becky from CROSS and we met up with some people from Leeds Faith in Schools who Andi and Becky know (and I do now as well!). We took over nearly an entire B&B! It was good. The conference itself had 4 main sessions and then other seminars and teaching sessions offering practical as well as spiritual teaching (for example, there were sessions on keeping on fire for God and also on how we could use technology, eg mobile phones and social networking, to connect with young people). The weekend was quite "full on" if you know what I mean by that. There weren't many breaks or times to go off alone although the talks were entirely optional. There was a lot going on and I found it tiring but challenging and definitely worth going!
An amazing thing I would like to mention happened on the Saturday evening. The CROSS project and Leeds Faith in Schools people went out for an indian at a restaurant just down the road. I wasn't with them to begin with but joined them later. I felt I needed to spend some time in prayer so I went and did that and then had some chips and went to join them then. I got there just as they were finishing eating and had some of Andi's chicken korma which she couldn't finish. It was yummy! Anyway, the waiter came around then and asked if we would like some drinks on the house (apparently this is normal when a lot of food and drinks are bought..) so I got a free drink! I enjoyed it very much! Some ladies who had joined us then had to go so they went and paid for their food and left (after they had brought us back the after dinner mints). We sat chatting for a bit and then someone asked for the bill and the waiter said, "It's already been paid."...We were a bit confused by this but he explained that the two ladies who had left (who we had only met that weekend) had paid the lot. There were about 14 of us and it must have cost about £120-130 so we were sat there in stunned silence. Someone rang them and they said they wanted to bless us with it and it was no problem. So the whole meal was paid for. What could lead these ladies, who we barely knew, to pay? The only conclusion appeared to be that they knew God. They had experienced God's amazing generosity in Jesus and had wanted to pass some of that on to us. The question is, why is it such a surprise when a Christian is generous?  Surely, if we are wanting to be like Jesus (who has given us quite a bit!) then it should be normal...? This week we're looking at St. Nicholas in the lunchtime groups and how he gave to the poor without anyone knowing it was him...When we give, what are our motives? To look good or please God? To satisfy our egos or to give God glory? Just a few thoughts. It was a truly humbling experience to see such generosity (even though I hadn't got anything at the indian!) and I think the whole idea of Jesus giving His life can become so normal and off-hand (and by that I mean it can be so easy to say "Jesus died for you" without thinking) when actually, when you think about it, it's an absolutely MASSIVE thing for God, as Jesus, to become human to die to take all our sins on His shoulders. How awesome is our God?!

Wow, I'm doing some good rants tonight! I shall try to be a bit more brief in the rest of the blog. The weeks have been good. I have done my first assemblies and some lessons. The assemblies being on different seasons and times in our lives, and the lessons being about worship and we have done one about community.


The weekend of the 28/29/30 November (last weekend), Miriam came to visit which was brilliant! It was also the CROSS project fundraising winter fair on saturday so Miriam was helping in the kitchen washing up and taking orders of food..I felt a bit bad putting her in that position but I think and hope she enjoyed herself a bit! It was just really nice to see her again though and to introduce her to my friends in Wakefield and show her a bit of where I am! It was a really fun weekend!

Ongoing things throughout the past few weeks have been preparation for the christmas lessons. As you might have gathered from my brief diary, things have been getting a bit busy recently. These next few weeks are going to be utter madness, rushing from school to school doing lessons and assemblies and groups all over the place! I mentioned the stockings we are going to give out in the christmas lessons in my last blog, but we are now up to about 400 on those I think thanks to some outside help! I have also been busy making a Christmas Family Fortunes game on powerpoint. It's not quite as good as actual Family Fortunes but I think it's pretty good though I say so myself! We'll see what the kids in school think of it when we use it in the lesson on Thursday (which, for those of you who don't know, happens to be my birthday. Just a gentle reminder to send me lots of expensive presents).

I have been very aware of God's protection of me in the last few weeks. There have been a few close calls (potential accidents on the road) which I won't go into detail on but I just want to publicly thank God for his protection of me (and also Becky).

Anyway. I think I should stop rambling now. I think I've said all I needed/wanted to say so I'll shut up before I think of anything else!

I hope all is well in Oswestry and Cornerstone! I'm looking forward to seeing videos of Dad's beard being chopped off this weekend! Thanks again for all your help and support. I have no doubt that without it I would be finding this a lot harder than I am! You're all amazing!

God Bless

Jim

Hi everyone!

I'm really sorry it's been so long since I last wrote! I would like to say I've been really busy but in truth I have a few evenings off a week and just haven't written on here...sorry! I hope all is well in Oswestry!

I don't really know what to write to be honest, so much must have happened I've forgotten it all! I'll get my diary, just hold on a moment!

....


I'm back! Ok so the last time I saw you all was at half term I believe. I came back to Wakefield on Tuesday so that I could take part in a workshop at the cathedral aimed at school people run by the Grassroots theatre company who are a group of Africans who go around the country sharing their culture and trying to tackle issues with young people. It was really awesome and I now know some African dance moves (but if you ask me to show you when I next get back to Oswestry I will have forgotten, unfortunately!).

The friday I went to Oswestry (I've skipped back in time a few days here..) we had a network meeting in the morning, a gathering of all the schools workers in the area, which was really awesome! We were able to share some resources and encourage and pray for each other and stuff (and also they had a table full of snacks which was just amazing!).

The second weekend of half term I went to visit Miriam in Norwich which was great! We had an indian takeaway when I arrived which was YUMMY!! We went to see the new James Bond film on Saturday in the afternoon and in the evening we went to see some fireworks in the park by the university. Now going to watch these fireworks sounded like a really great idea so we set off in plenty of time to get there all wrapped up nice and warm. It was raining a bit but we both had waterproof coats so it was fine. We walked to the park and met Miriam's friend and then went to find a spot to watch the fireworks! Now these fireworks were quite a big show and there was a fun fair and food stalls there too and quite a lot of people...in a field...in the rain...one word...mud. It was at this point I discovered I have a hole in the sole of one of my trainers. But that wasn't the end of it! We went to find some doughnuts and found that the mud infront of the food vans was more of a large puddle/bog. I sunk about 3 inches, the water came over the top of my shoes. Thankfully none of us fell over so we went and found a solid-ish piece of ground to watch the fireworks from! (We didn't find a doughnut stall after all that!). Then the fireworks started and they were amazing! The best firework display I've seen (although admittedly I haven't had the most extensive experience of fireworks in my life..). They were done to music and were pretty much in time using different fireworks for different parts of the song and stuff. Really cool! It made it worth it. But then..we went home and I took my coat off (my nice warm, woollen one) and it was about twice the weight it had been when I put it on! It had acted like a sponge! I also didn't have any spare trousers so I ended up wearing a sleeping bag (held up by my belt!) whilst my jeans dried on the radiator! It was an eventful evening.

The trip to Norwich was fun though! I would like to point out that, despite how it may appear, the whole experience was a lot of fun!

The next week was pretty normal. We had a new group at the mentoring on Thursday at Horbury school and we got moved to a different classroom because they were having some kind of intensive study week or something so noone knew where they were! That was fun.
Also on Thursday we helped Andi (CROSS team leader) in her other job doing sex ed lessons at a different school. I didn't do any teaching there because I didn't know half of it!

The weekend just gone a group of Careforce volunteers all came to Wakefield from around the country so it was really awesome to see them again! There were only about twenty of us but we all crammed in to Ruby's (a careforce volunteer originally from Wakefield) house and were taken care of most excellently by her mum who was amazing and cooked us all food and put up with us! They all arrived on friday afternoon and we spent the evening together. Then I went home (as did Mel, the Careforce worker who lives and works just down the road from me!) and I caught back up with them on Saturday afternoon. We went to town and some people went shopping and some of us went to the museum which was quite interesting. There was a Teletubby there for some reason. On display. It was a display about the nineties. Teletubbies were after my childhood and there was one in a museum! I'm starting to feel old and I'm not out of my teens yet! But yeah, it was really cool to see them all again and be able to discuss things that we're struggling with at our placements and pray for and encourage each other. The family atmosphere between all the volunteers never ceases to amaze me, the way everyone cares so much about everyone else. It's the way God meant it to be yet it's a surprise when it's actually like that! I find that very sad. This world needs to know God so badly.

This week things have been back to normal again really, although now we're starting to prepare for christmas lessons and someone had the bright idea of giving out little stockings with a chocolate in them to each student. We realised after we'd started making them that we need to make about 600 in 3 weeks! So every spare second we've had this week has been taken up sowing little stockings together. If anybody would like to offer to make some and send them through the post you're most welcome to! Just ask and I'll tell you more about them!

This weekend coming up I'm off to the Youth Work Conference in Southport with Andi and Becky which should be fun! I'll have to write a blog about it next week if I remember!

To sum up and round off, these last few weeks have been quite busy but God has really been blessing me and hopefully working powerfully through me! I feel like I am where He wants me to be, doing His will, and I pray that His love will shine out to the kids in the schools through me. I feel so privileged to be here doing this for a year and I really thank God for his faithfulness to me! One bible passage that amazes me every time I read it is Philippians 2:6-11, I'll share it with you..

"Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

That verse just seems to put things in perspective a bit. Yeah, so I might be here seemingly working with no visible results. Jesus became nothing for us. He came from the glories of Heaven and took the position of a slave, just in becoming human. He then went a died the death of a criminal when He had done nothing wrong, just so that we wouldn't have to die that death. But then! He was raised back to life and was elevated the place of highest honour! He is the ultimate power and authority! Why should we struggle to show God's love when He just wants to show it through us with His power and authority! I just need to trust that God is showing the kids and teachers that I come across just how amazing He is, and that passage reminds me of that need for trust and prayer. It reminds of me of Jesus' sacrifice, love, resurrection, glory and power! He is truly an amazing God and I get to serve Him!! How cool is that?! Anyone with me?!

Anyway, after that little theological wander, I think I'll finish. I hope this is long enough and entertaining enough a read for everyone! I didn't do very well and summing up and rounding off but never mind. This whole experience is amazing and God is really blessing me through it and I really feel like I'm growing faith which is awesome!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support! It's really encouraging knowing that I have people behind me looking out for me and caring about me and what I'm doing.

I hope to see you all soon!

God Bless

Jim