Just got in from Street Pastoring, a fairly busy night, no hassles just good natured fun and laughter. It's always great to see the town like that. Gonna have a lie in tomorrow, I've got absolutely nothing to get up for. A day to relax, although there's always things to do. Will have to wait and see what the weather does. Am gonna make some soup, some muffins and some cake at some point though. Then it's off to babysit my niece and nephews in the evening, so am looking forward to that.

Ugggh!! I’ve got a stonking hummdinger of a cold and I feel lousy. It’s been a great weekend though despite all that. I was at a Street Pastors Practitioner’s Conference on Thursday and Friday last week, went to ‘An Evening With Henry Olonga’ on Thursday night and a Phatfish Gig at the Fairfield Halls on Friday evening, sorted out the mac and new email accounts etc on Saturday, attended David’s auction of promises on Saturday night and had a good couple of services at Church and a lovely day with friends yesterday. So much going on, all nice and fairly relaxed and good fun too.

We’re going to put the house on the market this week and see what happens. We’ve got to get one of those HIPs done, instruct the solicitors and get the estate agent round to take measurements and photos. We’ve decided that if we get a buyer quickly we’ll put an offer in on one of the houses we saw last weekend, so we’ve just got to wait and see what happens and trust that what will be will be. Last time we moved it took us about two years to sell so we want to try and improve on that this time round! Each time different houses fell through we were obviously disappointed and cheesed off but looking back now we can really see that the Lord had his hand on all of it, each of those others houses weren’t the right ones and the one we are in now was definitely the right one for us at that time.

So, although we don’t always appreciate setbacks and trials they do serve a purpose, and eventually we can see the reasoning behind those little hiccups and thank God for working out His purposes and not our own. We just have to stick at it and keep believing.

We were reminded yesterday that we should ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance……'  James 1:2

Jonathan's daily texts have been very apt and relevant these last few days:

'My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus' - Phil 4:19

'Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD' - Psalm 27:13

We are off to friends tonight for some sparklers and chilli!! Sounds scrummy to me and I'm looking forward to it.

We've got 2 estate agents coming to value our place in the morning and then we are off to look at some houses, we're just wondering whether we can possibly move out of town, a little bit off the main road without extending the mortgage. We reckon it just might be possible, a little juggling of finances here and there.  Gotta also go and deliver a birthday present to my niece, who will be 8!

Looking forward to Church on Sunday, and if the weather's nice we might be able to go for a walk in the afternoon. We have some friends coming for lunch after the morning service. So, all in all a quiet and relaxed weekend ahead, nothing too taxing on the brain or body. Chillin' in front of the TV tomorrow night too. Bring it on!!

I read these words recently in my daily notes:

Everybody needs encouragement. None of us achieves anything without help. The great achievers in history became all that they were because of the people in their lives. The authors of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, were both professors at Oxford University and maintained a close friendship. Every week they'd meet to eat, talk about their fiction-writing endeavours and read passages of their yet unpublished works. It was Tolkien who encouraged Lewis, an avowed atheist, to explore Christianity, ultimately leading to his conversion. And it was Lewis who encouraged Tolkien to continue writing fiction and to seek publication. Were it not for their friendship and mutual encouragement, the world wouldn't have received the finest writing in apologetics of the twentieth century, nor one of the finest fantasy works ever written.

Everyone, young and old, successful and less-than-successful, famous and unknown who receives encouragement is changed by it. Mark Twain said, 'One compliment can keep me going for a whole month.' A word of encouragement from a teacher can change a child's life; a word of encouragement from a spouse can strengthen or even save a marriage; a word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach his or her potential. Zig Ziglar says, 'You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.'

The Bible says, 'Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones' (Proverbs 16:24 NKJV).

 
"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." - George Washington Carver

'Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit' - Gal 5:25

Wow! What a God we serve!   We've had a really encouraging weekend, a good turn out at our fireworks evening on Friday. It was nice to have a little bit of time with 3 of my nieces and nephews there, they make me smile and are all so lovely. We had some great conversations in town on Friday night while out street pastoring, it was quite lively and lots of celebrating, all good natured fun though. 

On Saturday I managed to hem and hang the curtains in Kelly's room, spruce it all up, clean the carpet and clear it out. John assembled the desk and it all looks wonderful in there now. We put the PC together and it's all now ready to be used as office space when Kelly's not sleeping in there!

On Sunday morning we had a packed full Church with 5 new families represented, it was great to see the place full of children all playing together after the service, and also to hear what they had been learning about at the Holiday Bible Club last week. So many of them remembered the memory verses and learnt the song, it was great to see and hear. God is at work and it's so encouraging to be part of it. We had a lovely lunch after the service and it was great to chat to some new people. I enjoyed a quiet afternoon home alone, it's very quiet when John's at work, Kelly's at uni and Amy's out - nice but I'm still not used to it. It was good to chat with different folks after the evening service and discuss all the recent encouragements. It's such a joy to experience God's goodness and love in so many ways, to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and to share it all with people I love.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds    
              In a believer's ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,    
             And drives away his fear.

           -- John Newton --

We've had a busy week this week. Kelly has been home from uni for a few days. All 4 of us went out for a meal on Monday, which was nice.  
She's had lots of people to visit and catch up with. The evenings have been busy with meetings and stuff and last night we took a trip to Ikea as we'd picked up the wrong thing last weekend.    

I was off work yesterday and went and helped at the Holiday Bible Club at the Church, and then went shopping to buy my niece's birthday present, did the weekly shop as the fridge was empty, did some washing and tidying and it all seems very strange to be back at work today.  It felt like yesterday was a Saturday! The outside freezer has packed up and so we lost lots of food and had to cook a large chicken casserole and some other meat, and I've still got the job of washing it out to do! This morning I got up to find we had no water, oh the joy of it all!!  It makes you realise how much we take even the simplest of things for granted.

Anyway, we have fireworks and a barbq tonight at Church to round off the week, followed by Street Pastoring. Tomorrow I am going to enjoy a lie in and then do some decorating before the X-Factor and a quiet night in.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as
you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13