Grrrrr

While I used to love spam fritters when I was at primary school, I don't appreciate the kind of spam that has been appearing every so often in my blog comments! Now I don't get that many comments so when an e-mail appears that says someone's commented I'm rather chuffed - but of the last few comments left, several have been spam - and not the good old fritters!
The one I've just deleted from somewhere back in the depths of the Teapot managed to fit in more links than a gold chain, and there was me thinking only the big blogs with lots of comments were targeted. So for the time being it's comment moderation for my moderate number of comments!

Bad Blogging!

I haven't posted the same thing on both my blogs before, but having got a bit out of the blogging habit, and being undecided about which blog to post my first-for-a-while random thoughts on, I've gone for both as a kick-start back! So apologies if you've read this somewhere before!

I'm currently on a fortnight's holiday and to-ing and fro-ing about a bit. A good part of the bank holiday weekend was spent in Cromer having a very relaxed time at a friend's flat and enjoying the pace of Norfolk life (until the car journey home when my London-style driving is slightly at odds with the meandering Norfolk kind!).Over the last week I've thought of various things I'd quite like to blog about, but without the motivation to actually blog them... for instance the closure of Walthamstow dog track. I join the distraught crowd who wanted it to stay. I'd been hoping to get there for the last Saturday night but unfortunately couldn't make it. I can't imagine the North Circular without the glow of the Walthamstow Stadium sign... the place is an institution (in the positive sense of the word!). The following information may bring my parenting into disrepute but when TeenSon was little we used to take him in his buggy, along with a bunch of friends, and spend a fun Saturday night in the 'cheap' side of the dogs. Not a huge gambling risk seeing as our bets were of the '50p to win' on, for example, number 4 - dog chosen because its name had some peculiar appeal or tentative link with something or other! And we spent TS's 14th birthday there too - for the first time ever in the 'posh' side. And now it's gone.
And the other thing that caught my attention (rather delayed) this week was the fact that retired athlete Jonathan Edwards has announced himself an atheist. Now I know all this happened sometime last year - but I managed to miss all that and it was only watching a bit of Olympic commentary with TeenSon the other day that I caught up when he said, "he's not a Christian anymore". I was rather disbelieving I have to admit, until I resorted to the trusty Google and read the interviews. I really was rather shocked, Jonathan Edwards having been such a visible and 'public' Christian. I felt quite sad for him as I read that when he'd retired from athletics he'd discovered quite how much of his identity was wrapped up in the sport and when that was gone other aspects of his identity came into question as well - including the Christian aspect. And it all seemed to unravel for him. Of course, I, along with others, can only speculate on his faith as was and as is now, wondering if this was the first ever real questioning and doubting he'd applied to God, life, the world and all. But I felt sad for him and pray that he'll keep exploring and questioning. Was he someone who thought that having God in your life made everything ok? Faith built on the 'rock' trusts God when the storms are blowing all around, but some seem to acquire a faith that thinks God extinguishes all the storms instead of enabling us to stand through them (and him standing with us in them). One blogger commenting at the time referred to the parable of the sower where the seed sown on rocky ground springs up but because its roots don't go deep, it doesn't survive the heat of the sun and is scorched and withers away - equating to a faith that springs up joyfully at first but when trouble or persecution comes the faith also withers away. (Or the seed sown among weeds which is choked by the cares of the world). Perhaps there's something of this in the experience of Jonathan Edwards... or perhaps not - that's between him and the God he's no longer sure of, but I pray that God will reach out and take hold of him once again.
And now I'm off to do more holiday-type things, like read a bit of Cadfael and fall asleep (well I did get back very late last night!).

Rev Gals Friday Five

It's a long time since I actually joined in with the RevGalBlogPals Friday Five... but here's one for summer (though here where I am today it's grey and drizzly - not completely unheard of for the UK in August!)

1. What is your sweetest summer memory from childhood? Did it involve watermelon or hand cranked ice cream? Or perhaps a teen summer romance. Which stands out for you?
I don't know about 'sweetest' memory - but I can think of a handful of summer memories from childhood (and isn't it hard to work out sometimes if you remember the actual occassion or feel as though you do because you've heard the stories and seen yourself in the photos!).
There was the holiday in Somerset with the visit to Cheddar Gorge (where I am most familiar with the picture of me and my brother standing by a big cliff!) and that's the year, I think, where a vicious swarm of biting ladybirds chased us off the beach!
And I can remember loving a holiday in the Isle of Wight - mainly remembering Blackgang Chine, that my dad said a very naughty word when someone nearly crashed into us at a crossroads and that I loved it there.
Then there was the only holiday I had abroad with my family - in Ibiza - when I was 17. I do recall there being a nice bloke there, but it was also not long before I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease and the symptoms were very problematic - highs and lows!
But most familiar are the many daytrips to the seaside at Walton-on-the-Naze with the occassional stay at the Martello caravan park there too. Lots of memories of the beach, the pier, crabbing, the 'front'... and then later taking TeenSon too for day trips with my dad, from when he was a toddler - very happy memories.

2. Describe your all time favorite piece of summer clothing. The one thing you could put on in the summer that would seem to insure a cooler, more excellent day.
Hmmm... that one's hard for me as I'm more of a winter person. I much prefer winter clothes and could easily give you a list of the snuggly jumpers, big boots and comfy clothes I love in the chillier season. I struggle a bit with what to wear in summer - preferring to keep my legs covered and sticking with jeans even when I get too hot. But I suppose 'comfy' is the key word again so I unglamorously wear baggy t-shirts and baggy, cotton trousers!

3. What summer food fills your mouth with delight and whose flavor stays happily with you long after eaten?
Strawberries and ice-cream spring straight to mind or a nice refreshing ice lolly if it gets really warm (not the chocolatey ones though - the fruity ones!)

4. Tell us about the summer vacation or holiday that holds your dearest memory.
Well, it was actually a winter holiday until we arrived and then it was a summer one! (We left the UK in December = winter and arrived in South Africa where it was their summer!). That was in 2002 when we went to stay with friends and spent Christmas with them in the north of the country. It was wonderful for many reasons: seeing the very dear friends we'd missed so much since they moved away, being in Africa which held a certain magic for me, the long weekend we spent on a game reserve where I saw my beloved elephants up close and in their natural habitat, spending Christmas in shorts and sunshine, being there with people who lived there rather than on the tourist trail and having a feel for day to day life - first on the farm plot where we house-sat for a week or so and then back in the small town where our friends lived. Awesome!

5. Have you had any experience(s) this summer that has drawn you closer to God or perhaps shown you His wonder in a new way?
Not this summer specifically - we're just approaching though the first anniversary of moving to where we live now so the whole year has been full of changes, challenges, blessings and wonderings about what God is doing in my life, in my church... and whether I'm doing alright!
Yesterday evening though, a very involved member of my church, as we left a meeting, said "we're so glad to have you here as our vicar - lots of people think that but they don't say it!" That was a real blessing when I've wondered with God how I've been received here.

Bonus question: When it is really hot, humid and uncomfortable, what do you do to refresh and renew body and spirit?

Cold water or my little face spritz spray; and for the spirit trying to remember to always look to heaven and pray, pray, pray!

Well, it was good to look back... but I can also look forward as in just over a week I've got my two weeks off. Though I probably won't go away I'm looking forward to the rest and refreshment.

Almost a year in...

It is fast approaching one year since we moved here - new home, new parish, new church, new people, new college for TeenSon... I can't quite believe how time's flown by actually, it's been a bit of a whirl in some senses and as I think back it's hard to remember what my hopes and expectations were for this first year? I suspect they weren't actually that richly defined, but along the lines of 'get to know the people[in my church and beyond], walk alongside them with God, see how things work here, pray quite a lot and see what God seems to want'? I don't have one of those tales of supersonic-church-growth or doubled income (though who knows what time and God will bring here?) but I do have a love of these people I share a lot of life and ministry with. And for me that's one of the joys of ministry - I enjoy less the pressure of producing measurable results - some (pressures) that come from beyond me and some from within. 'For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven... a time to sow and a time to reap.' (Ecclesiastes 3) This I don't have trouble believing, but fending off the niggling doubt that I won't create anything reapable as well as trying to convince others to be patient is another story!
God can do great things, I just hope he'll do them in us, and that I won't get in the way! It's all too easy to find the discouragements under every stone when the real challenge is keeping eyes fixed on God and trusting him.