Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Hidden Ministries

As a children's worker I spend a fair amount of time thinking about games and activities etc to do which reinforces the teaching point for the children. There are a lot of good resources out there to use and adapt which is great but the physical preparation of these takes a lot of time.

For the past 18 months my mum has been doing the majority of this preparation for me, be it, cutting out craft activities, going out to buy materials, sticking things together, making costumes...here she is helping me make invites to our all age Mother's Day Service.


I don't know the exact man hours that she has put in over time but it is a lot. And why does she do it? Shouldn't she be enjoying her retirement now? Well she's my mum and wants to help me but ultimtely she wants children to learn about Jesus and put their trust in him as their friend and Saviour. Her doing those jobs helps them to do that and releases me to prepare other things for the children.

On the whole most people 'see' what I do, but not many people know what my mum does. And there are loads of jobs that go on in churches each week that are unseen, that are hidden ministries - the church cleaning, making delicious cakes for Christianity Explored, serving teas and coffee, preparing rotas, doing handy jobs around the church, putting out the chairs for services, visiting the housebound plus many more.

Let's remember to thank God for the faithfulness of those doing these hidden ministries and remember to encourage them in what they do. All ministries in the church are important.

Monday, February 25, 2008

My Favourite People...

I feel I need to clarify, the older post "Some random photos" below shows just some of my favourite people!!! Janette was a little indignant last night on the phone that it was only through her that I know Jon and Owen and yet she didn't even get a mention :-) You know I love you loads Janette x

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Essential tip for shopping:

Always take a list to Sainsbury's - that way you won't forget the chocolate that you went to get in the first place! And you won't buy things that you already have in the cupboard!
Sometimes in life you just need chocolate!

That is my profound thought this evening I thought worthy of putting on my blog :-)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Some random photos

Just some of my favourite people...

Increasing my carbon footprint

This Saturday I'm off to Belfast for the day with my mum. Me and my dad bought her flights for her birthday present. It's all very exciting!

Saturday, February 09, 2008

How old?

It's just hit me after writing that last post...I'm going to be 40 in 9 years time, 9 years!! That's quite scary. I suppose 9 years is a long time, but still!

Before I'm 40

Apparently these are the fabulous things I should do
before I'm 40...

1. Watch the following inspiring films: Little Miss Sunshine, Mr Smith goes to Washington. Good Will Hunting and The Shawshank Redemption.
2. Write a novel
3. Learn a musical instrument
4. Learn to knit
5. Learn a language
6. Dye my hair
7. Spend a whole summer abroad
8. Apologise to someone you hurt ages ago and never made up with
9. Do a friend audit
10. Research my family tree
11. Get out of debt once and for all
12. Go through and sort all my photos
13. Paint a picture, frame it and hang it on my wall
14. Read the entire Narnia series
15. Do an extreme declutter
16. Learn to do one magic trick really well
17. Start a blog
18. Do something for charity
19. Get a grown up jewellery collection
20. Go camping with my family
21. Complete a cryptic crossword puzzle
22. Run a marathon
23. Learn to fly
24. Learn to dance properly

I would like to point out I have already achieved some of the above - starting a blog, and sorting all my photos. I have 9 years left to do the other things.

So to start with I need:

1. Someone with musical ability (and a lot of patience) to teach me how to play the piano...
2. Someone to teach me how to knit
3. Someone to spend the summer abroad with me
and
4. What colour should I dye my hair?

Friday, February 08, 2008

Ros & Dawn in New York

As Philadelphia is not too far from New York it would have been a shame not to visit. So we got up early one morning and got the Amtrak in. I've been to NY once before with Janette and had a fantastic time so was very much looking forward to our little trip. It was very cold but we still pottered around taking in all the sights and of course taking lots of photos of them!

Times Square

Rockefeller Center


Central Park


Ros map reading us around the city

Unlike the last time I was in New York I only took one photo of the Empire State Building, yep Janette, just the one!

The Flatiron building


Then tea in Max Brenner's Chocolate Restaurant...wonderful hot chocolate and fondue. My marshmallows only went on fire twice!

By the early evening it was really cold and we found a nice street market which sold these lovely hats. Now Ros had stopped for many photos during the day...this last one was just one too many!!!

Thursday, February 07, 2008

My trip to America

Thought it was about time I put my photos from America on here. As there are rather a lot of them might take a few posts!

As I was in America just before Christmas I really wanted to go and see how Americans decorate their houses. On the 2nd night I was there, Janet, who loves Christmas as much as I do, suggested we go on a little drive around the neighbourhood. So off Janet, her 2 boys, me and Ros went. Americans do Christmas big!!! Here is Ros studying the nativity scene...was that really what it looked like?
Another house with just a few decorations.
This is Janet's tree in her house which was absolutely beautiful. My 3ft artifical tree simply did not compare. However next year...