http://tpickering.tumblr.com/
This is my other blog. I update this a LOT more often.
It does get the work stuff thrown in as well, but it's more just my thoughts and pictures.
Monday, 2 November 2009
October 2009
There is no way that I’d trade my life right now. I’ve now been here for 2 months and it’s been probably the best 2 months of my life.
I’ve been ill once and I’ve lost a family member. Both these things have sucked, but God is keeping me going.
2 months of solid enthusiasm I never plan to end.
The thing I love the most is worship leading. When I’m up there, I’m nervous as but it’s fantastic to be there for God.
I also love my room-mate. He has been my brother, my friend and my mentor and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. I’ve never had one specific best friend in my life before, but I think this is about to change.
I’ve been ill once and I’ve lost a family member. Both these things have sucked, but God is keeping me going.
2 months of solid enthusiasm I never plan to end.
The thing I love the most is worship leading. When I’m up there, I’m nervous as but it’s fantastic to be there for God.
I also love my room-mate. He has been my brother, my friend and my mentor and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. I’ve never had one specific best friend in my life before, but I think this is about to change.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Sometimes life throws a curve-ball at you. I got mine today.
I’ve been doing a damn good job at being as enthusiastic as I can about this gap year I do working for a church and sure as hell am I not going to drop it all year. But some days just don’t feel as good as other days. Today, I was …upset. I don’t know why. I don’t miss home and I still love what I’m doing, but I’ve been struggling on sleep recently. I just can’t seem to get any. It’s 1.20am and the only thing that’s keeping me going is Colin Hay’s “Beautiful World”, which is such an amazing song BY THE WAY!
I’m so tired mentally, but not physically. My enthusiasm is catching up with me. Half term is next week and I get a week off too. It’s going to be good, restful and VERY MUCH NEEDED!!!
I really need to stop running monologues through in my head, too. I’ve always done it and passed comments in my mind about life, but now I’ve gotten REALLY into Scrubs, I do it even more. I like it, but I think it’s weird. Hell, I don’t care. I’m an escapist Christian, or whatever the heck it is. I like being me, I like doing childish things and sure as hell do I not care what others think.
I love my life. I just won’t let it catch up with me. No way. I’m on fire for God and that’s how it’s staying.
GET DOWN SATAN! HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM CAJONES?!?!?!??!
Friday, 9 October 2009
Saturday, 9th, October, 2009
Today has this list of things to do.
- Set up Visual for the Renewal Conference and Go:Free at Lichfield Cathedral.
- Plan worship for L8.
- Practise worship for L8 with Aaron.
- Plan Bible reading for 8-11's Xstream group on Sunday morning.
Well tomorrow I'm at the Renewal Conference ALL DAY so now is the only free time I have.
I found out a few hours ago that I'm expected to do the Bible stuff for the group. I planned L8 first and then did as I was directed for the Xstream stuff, went on the scripture union website and KAPOW! I haven't got an account. I'm not making an account. I'm not paying! The resources I need are all at church, but I can't get to church until earliest 9:00am to get them and then plan it from scratch.
Judie is going to give me a hand in a sec.
I'm literally going from 7:45am (leaving Shrewsbury to head to Lichfield) until about 10:00pm (arrive home from Lichfield), so I literally have no time to grab the stuff!
I'm in a spot of bother; quite like Pooh when he got stuck in the doorway at Rabbitt's because he ate too much honey!
Prayer pointers :-)
- L8 worship goes as well as we've envisioned it!
- The Conference doesn't destroy my energy levels.
- The Conference is in God's hands.
- I get the well needed sleep I need tonight.
- I get the planning for Xstream done before Sunday morning!!
I KNOW I'm in for an exciting weekend! Pray to God it goes as He plans!
Monday, 5 October 2009
Weekly Update
Well I had a day off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 2 services on Sunday (one being a pretty exciting summer talk-back where it was revealed the awesomeness that God had done in places other than Shrewsbury over the holidays) and today (Monday) was a day off.
I can't say I did much except set a few high scores on the Tokyo Drift arcade game in AMF (for some reason, it keeps giving free plays. I didn't pay a penny!!), getting a few coffees and cooking once.
Last week wasn't really an eventful week work wise, but it was still pretty cool; and I got to see my family on Friday when I did a gig as a support act in Coalport, Telford.
Pretty crazy.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Wednesday, 30th, September, 2009
Staff meeting awaited this morning! Discussing church contracts isn't the most enthralling topic, but it's good to know what awaits me if I go into working for a church. Plus, I do need to get used to things in church besides "We love God" (i.e. getting down to the boring stuff).
Assemblies followed this. I love assemblies. This was my first one with any input from me and I got to be the one who gets embarrassed up front leading the kids in children's worship with actions! The younger guys are more responsive to this, but the older ones enjoyed it too. Hopefully, the story of Samson will stick with them, too!
Next assembly I do with Ralph, I'm going to be doing the mini talk. I'm really looking forward to this but need to work out what story it is that I'll be doing!!
(BLOG FINALLY UP TO DATE!!!)
Assemblies followed this. I love assemblies. This was my first one with any input from me and I got to be the one who gets embarrassed up front leading the kids in children's worship with actions! The younger guys are more responsive to this, but the older ones enjoyed it too. Hopefully, the story of Samson will stick with them, too!
Next assembly I do with Ralph, I'm going to be doing the mini talk. I'm really looking forward to this but need to work out what story it is that I'll be doing!!
(BLOG FINALLY UP TO DATE!!!)
Tuesday, 29th, September, 2009
Youth small group night! This is one of my favourite parts of the week, as I love doing this. The youth at Christ Church are so amazing to talk to.
After a (I'm not going to lie) poorly attended prayer meeting, I went BBQ food shopping with Paul Cross. Paul is definitely one of the people I have created a friendship very quickly and I love being around him. I get a great vibe off his ideas and he is full of faith!! He's also highly amusing in pretty much every situation. (And he's buying a 47" TV!)
Youth small group went well! I lead some worship for the guys which was in key (it wasn't the week before) and they got really into their ice breaker in a way where they ended up talking about God anyway and thinking about him. When we got round to doing the activity at hand, they were quite enthusiastic to talk about it at times and it got them all procrastinating.
Rabble praying with them (for my first time doing it) was interesting to see how quickly they got down to doing it and how open they were to accept this, both which had positive outcomes!
Tuesday is probably my favourite day.
After a (I'm not going to lie) poorly attended prayer meeting, I went BBQ food shopping with Paul Cross. Paul is definitely one of the people I have created a friendship very quickly and I love being around him. I get a great vibe off his ideas and he is full of faith!! He's also highly amusing in pretty much every situation. (And he's buying a 47" TV!)
Youth small group went well! I lead some worship for the guys which was in key (it wasn't the week before) and they got really into their ice breaker in a way where they ended up talking about God anyway and thinking about him. When we got round to doing the activity at hand, they were quite enthusiastic to talk about it at times and it got them all procrastinating.
Rabble praying with them (for my first time doing it) was interesting to see how quickly they got down to doing it and how open they were to accept this, both which had positive outcomes!
Tuesday is probably my favourite day.
Monday, 28th, September, 2009
DAY OFF!
Or so it would be normally.
As an exception, I actually worked this day (hence late blogging). I attended the senior citizens lunch (where they put WAY too much salt on their food) which was actually pretty interesting. The first time I attended a Golden Oldie event, they all wanted to tell me about their grandchildren and what not. This time, I was actually talking to them about their hobbies. The guys I spoke to were real down-to-earth and not really what I pre-empted for people who were often very strong with their religious traditions.
Helping Joyce out with some of her work was also pretty good as I had not yet really had proper time to bond with her. It was paperwork, so not enjoyable, but not boring, and Joyce was good company!
Ralph also gave me his feedback on my sermon (see yesterdays entry) and suggested areas for improvements and talked to me about different preaching methods.
Or so it would be normally.
As an exception, I actually worked this day (hence late blogging). I attended the senior citizens lunch (where they put WAY too much salt on their food) which was actually pretty interesting. The first time I attended a Golden Oldie event, they all wanted to tell me about their grandchildren and what not. This time, I was actually talking to them about their hobbies. The guys I spoke to were real down-to-earth and not really what I pre-empted for people who were often very strong with their religious traditions.
Helping Joyce out with some of her work was also pretty good as I had not yet really had proper time to bond with her. It was paperwork, so not enjoyable, but not boring, and Joyce was good company!
Ralph also gave me his feedback on my sermon (see yesterdays entry) and suggested areas for improvements and talked to me about different preaching methods.
Sunday, 27th, September, 2009
Back to Church Sunday was bliss! It went so well, we got lots of people coming into church expressing pleasure in their experience..
And we got some new mugs. We need those mugs. We really do.
If anyone wants 1783626836 old, useless, ugly mugs, speak to me.
L8 went very well in terms of worship.
I did the talk and it was an interesting experience for me. It was the first one that I've done at Bayston Hill and I don't particularly want to repeat the style. I had a go at being spontaneous, doing what I felt God wanted me to do and having very little notes. I should have had more notes, but it was good to rely fully on God.
The feedback says I need to be calmer, speak slower and slow down my eye movement across congregation. It was a good talk for youth, but there wasn't just youth there. The range was pushing people in their 80's, so maybe I should have been slower!
All in all, it went quite well, it touched a few people and it was definitely a learning curve for me!!
And we got some new mugs. We need those mugs. We really do.
If anyone wants 1783626836 old, useless, ugly mugs, speak to me.
L8 went very well in terms of worship.
I did the talk and it was an interesting experience for me. It was the first one that I've done at Bayston Hill and I don't particularly want to repeat the style. I had a go at being spontaneous, doing what I felt God wanted me to do and having very little notes. I should have had more notes, but it was good to rely fully on God.
The feedback says I need to be calmer, speak slower and slow down my eye movement across congregation. It was a good talk for youth, but there wasn't just youth there. The range was pushing people in their 80's, so maybe I should have been slower!
All in all, it went quite well, it touched a few people and it was definitely a learning curve for me!!
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Saturday, 26th, September, 2009
I'm still learning that I'm much more wary around my new home than I am in almost any other aspect of my life. I'm learning to be worried and nervous about things, which I don't like, but I'm sure there's something in the "bigger picture". I'm incredibly worried about doing the right thing at the right time in the house (although I don't feel it would be an issue if I didn't) and I'm trying to do as good a job as I can at work, both out of love and slight worry that people are expecting me to do it. I guess I've got to wean out of that habit before I'm made to do everything and anything when I'm available!!
The PCC away day (which I did pre-empt but not pass judgement on being boring) was much more eye-opening than I could have imagined. I really enjoyed coming up with ideas to become a more welcoming church. How do we do this? How can we be more evangelistic? How can we be more holy? Looking at the wider picture of where we envision ourselves in a few years time is great when we make moves on how we can make it there. I am really looking forward to getting involved with some of the action plans that will come through.
God has real plans for Bayston Hill Christ Church and I cannot wait to see them in course. Outreach is going to be the main focus this year, I feel.
The PCC away day (which I did pre-empt but not pass judgement on being boring) was much more eye-opening than I could have imagined. I really enjoyed coming up with ideas to become a more welcoming church. How do we do this? How can we be more evangelistic? How can we be more holy? Looking at the wider picture of where we envision ourselves in a few years time is great when we make moves on how we can make it there. I am really looking forward to getting involved with some of the action plans that will come through.
God has real plans for Bayston Hill Christ Church and I cannot wait to see them in course. Outreach is going to be the main focus this year, I feel.
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