This is not a "niche" blog. This is everything that makes me, me - or at least the bits I write down. There's no such thing as a "niche" person.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Next Sunday's Celebration (2)

Yesterday I was reasonably calm and happy about doing the talk next Sunday evening; now I'm more nervous. I know it's not a big deal - there will be maybe 20-30 people there, most of whom know me well and aren't going to be critical; on the other hand it is a big deal: I've been given the responsibility of giving people something that will be be important, because even though it's me standing at the front, it's me standing at the front.

I'm starting to realise that although I can probably talk for forty minutes, I'm not sure I have the theological depth to talk coherently and meaningfully for more than about ten. And judging by last night's post, I have a tendency to nastily split infinitives.

Would those of you who read this please pray for me? Thanks.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Next Sunday's Celebration

Peter V phoned me today and asked me to do the talk at next Sunday's Celebration. All the times I've listened to talks in church, and thought what I would do if it were me at the front; now's my chance to not try and compress everything I've ever wanted to say into one completely garbled 40 minute rant. When I do have any ideas, I'll see if I can put them on here.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Pentecost

Didn't manage to get to church this morning, despite it being one of the major church occasions, because we were back at The Point again to watch Rachel dancing her modern solo. Not really any pressure, since this isn't a qualifying festival, and she's already taking this dance to the Regional Finals next week, but we learned some things about what not to use for Rachel's hair. But apart from seeing my daughter on stage, one of the best bits of today was having a Sunday afternoon spending a couple of hours not doing anything much. No school uniforms to wash, too rainy outside to do washing in any case, nothing urgent at all. We'd already decided that we were too tired to go to the quiz - too many late nights and early mornings - and then it was a real bonus to have the boys asking me to play a game with them and just say "Um. Yes. OK then." Lovely.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Test

This is a bit of a trial run. I'm writing this on my new Nokia N95, just to see if it will work. It's a bit fiddly, but as long as it posts OK then I can blog from anywhere. Superb.

[Edited 25th May to add link]

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Update: work

By the way, I'm already getting used to my new office, and it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm not surrounded by people who all know each other and ignore me - in fact, so far there's nobody at all sitting at the desks adjacent to mine!

Off-Road Disciplines

I've just finished reading Earl Creps' "Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures For Missional Leaders". Although it's a book about the North American church, a lot of it is applicable here. There's a thread running through it about keeping Jesus as the focus, making sure that we're doing his will - checking that we're trying to get involved in Jesus' story instead of trying to make him part of ours. I've got it on inter-library loan, and I also have Dan Kimball's "They Like Jesus But Not The Church" to read, but the Earl Creps book is definitely one that having read it very quickly (I got it out of the library yesterday) I'd like to take my time over reading it again.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Moving at work



We're moving out of our old office at Central Health Clinic. At the moment I'm in the corner office on the first floor - the small windows in the brick wall at the front corner in this picture are to my right. I face the wall and can turn to my right if I want to talk to the other people in the room. Today we went over to Cumberland House, which is the building with the tree next to it. Again I have a corner office on the first floor (the windows at the front corner of the building that have no ground floor underneath them), but there's a big difference when you get inside. This is the inside of my new office - but this is only a small part of a huge room that has several islands of desks in it. My desk is the one furthest away, so that I'm sitting with my back to the corner, and can't look out of either window without turning round. I'm therefore looking at everyone else in the room. Even worse, all the other five desks in this island belong to the same team, so they all know each other. I'd turn the desk round so that it faces the window, except that the phone is plugged into the floor just underneath. I just hate the thought of being stuck with a whole load of people who know each other but whom I don't know at all, in huge open plan office, and no way of avoiding contact, not even a screen between the desks. There's no wall to stick anything up on, no way of personalising my space, no privacy.

I don't know whether I wish I'd done what most other people have done and been over to visit a couple of months ago, so that I was used to the idea; or to be glad that I haven't found out what it's like until now so that I have less time to dread it.