Having just come back from a week on church holiday I've realised a few things in my life that are lacking....no it's not listening to Pastor Ken and Roy competing with each other for the loudest snores. It's girlfriends who are really close to my heart and my home.
I've been so blessed with the loving family I've found through Christians Together and through the church family here in Cwmaman, but I sometimes wish they were all so much closer. I'm already very blessed to have the lovely and much coveted Stacey living so near but I can't help but think that if a certain Californian lady, a certain Illionois(ian?) lady and a certain Harloweian lady were living nearby we'd be having girls nights in far more often and of a definitely louder level!
I've never before had such support from girls and have just put it down to getting on better with boys but it's definitely something I now realise I've missed out on having spent the week with the aforementioned Stacey, the gorgeously golden haired Helen and the ever so slightly mad Jen & Sam!
I remember speaking to Benny about not having any real girl friends a while back and he suggested that I do the obvious (and of course un done) thing of asking God for some girl friends. Sometimes it's the simplest things we forget to do isn't it! Anyway, so I did and I hadn't realised until last week that God had given me these lovely ladies, I just had to see that they were there and they loved me.
Some of the girls I'd not really seen their full character in the setting of a weekly meeting and the week on a whole was a brilliant learning curve. I saw a side to someone that I'd previously neglected and dismissed and I hope now that we can become firm friends and start again.
Whilst I've been writing this, I've been thinking about maybe hosting a girls night in now at my house so I'll ponder that a little more and have a chat with Sam cos she definitely loves plotting (Dale & the tale of the fixed penalty notice springs to mind).
Anyway, now I've gotten that off my chest and I shall continue praying that God speaks into my far flung friends' lives calling them to Cwmaman I had best tell you about the church holiday.
We departed last Friday afternoon among much excitement, apprehension and laden down with bedding, towels, 'goodies' and 26 portion sized tins of beans, for the fair old county of Devon (international readers might need to google that one).
We arrived after a slight detour through Bristol as both myself and Roy outvoted Dus and Sam when it came to sitting in traffic or taking the scenic route! We checked out our digs (fairly spacious 16 & 12 bed cottages) and suffered the jibes of both the current and ex Pastors about mine and Dus' beds rattling...shocking...you just don't expect it from men of God :P
Our cottage
Anyway, those rota'd set to preparing our dinner that evening while the rest of us tried to restrain our excitement at seeing such a huge trampoline just calling....nay shouting to be bounced on!
Pastor Dale & Roy showing us how it's done.
Saturday we all trooped off to Sidmouth to see the sea or in some cases find a chip shop. Dusband acquired a very tasty 99 and I learnt that cheese and pineapple sandwiches are a delight!
Sunday most of our family journeyed the fair old distance down to Torquay for the day as the AOG regional leader was speaking at the church there whilst four of us took advantage of the local church.
Monday was Show Biz night! Pam and Jen had prepared their 'Duck Pond' performance, Ken told jokes, I did the Bee Song.
Dale did his quiz (hmm) and then Jan and the girls did some puppetry. All in all a brilliant night and out of it Sam's learnt that she'd like to learn puppet ministry and later on in the week Jan bought her a chick puppet (I think it's a chick.. I'm not too good with animal identification!)
Tuesday Dus and I were on the rota for cooking dinner and we had a visiting speaker coming at 3pm! We needed to have all the dinner ready and in the oven by the time he started speaking so that we could serve up and eat shortly after he'd finished so that he could have his evening session and get home before the night turned into morning!
We were of course the ideal team for this task....I love organising things and being extra organised! Poor old Dusband has gotten used to things having to be super organised and we dragged Linda and Jeff along with us on our whirlwind of peeling, chopping, frying and cooking!
(Cottage pie and veg for those who're wondering)
Wednesday I can't really remember what we did...oh yes! Cream tea for lunch at a garden centre Stan and Jenny know the owners of and then we went to Seaton.
Roy is 'bearing' with Helen in this pic.
We once again went on the hunt for chips for a certain Pastor (saying no names and pointing no fingers) then gave up when it became too cold to feel our fingers and Roy adopted his sad face.
Thursday was our last day and Dus and I had been extremely frugal with our spending money so that we could hopefully afford to visit the National Trust site Killerton house & gardens and it didn't disappoint.
The exterior of the main Killerton House
The drawing room at Killerton House
The Killerton chapel on the estate
The eagle lectern inside Killerton chapel
The stained glass window in Killerton chapel
Thursday night I developed a cold and by Friday morning I'd all but lost my voice. Saturday I spent on the sofa whilst Florence Dussingale nursed me and by the time church came round last night I almost completely had my voice back to normal I was just slightly deaf. I countered this with asking the lovely Stacey next to me to poke me if I was singing really loudly and out of tune!
And that brings us up to today. Today on my list is going to Wilkinsons and buying some broccoli seeds & crocus bulbs, posting out my sold items, writing a quiz for tonight, going to the docs to get the results of my MRI scan, searching for a pair of daps to replace my holiday damaged ones, writing a proposal for junior church and now it seems organising a girls night in!
Til next time lovelies
Samantha xx
I've been so blessed with the loving family I've found through Christians Together and through the church family here in Cwmaman, but I sometimes wish they were all so much closer. I'm already very blessed to have the lovely and much coveted Stacey living so near but I can't help but think that if a certain Californian lady, a certain Illionois(ian?) lady and a certain Harloweian lady were living nearby we'd be having girls nights in far more often and of a definitely louder level!
I've never before had such support from girls and have just put it down to getting on better with boys but it's definitely something I now realise I've missed out on having spent the week with the aforementioned Stacey, the gorgeously golden haired Helen and the ever so slightly mad Jen & Sam!
I remember speaking to Benny about not having any real girl friends a while back and he suggested that I do the obvious (and of course un done) thing of asking God for some girl friends. Sometimes it's the simplest things we forget to do isn't it! Anyway, so I did and I hadn't realised until last week that God had given me these lovely ladies, I just had to see that they were there and they loved me.
Some of the girls I'd not really seen their full character in the setting of a weekly meeting and the week on a whole was a brilliant learning curve. I saw a side to someone that I'd previously neglected and dismissed and I hope now that we can become firm friends and start again.
Whilst I've been writing this, I've been thinking about maybe hosting a girls night in now at my house so I'll ponder that a little more and have a chat with Sam cos she definitely loves plotting (Dale & the tale of the fixed penalty notice springs to mind).
Anyway, now I've gotten that off my chest and I shall continue praying that God speaks into my far flung friends' lives calling them to Cwmaman I had best tell you about the church holiday.
We departed last Friday afternoon among much excitement, apprehension and laden down with bedding, towels, 'goodies' and 26 portion sized tins of beans, for the fair old county of Devon (international readers might need to google that one).
We arrived after a slight detour through Bristol as both myself and Roy outvoted Dus and Sam when it came to sitting in traffic or taking the scenic route! We checked out our digs (fairly spacious 16 & 12 bed cottages) and suffered the jibes of both the current and ex Pastors about mine and Dus' beds rattling...shocking...you just don't expect it from men of God :P
Our cottage
Anyway, those rota'd set to preparing our dinner that evening while the rest of us tried to restrain our excitement at seeing such a huge trampoline just calling....nay shouting to be bounced on!
Pastor Dale & Roy showing us how it's done.
Saturday we all trooped off to Sidmouth to see the sea or in some cases find a chip shop. Dusband acquired a very tasty 99 and I learnt that cheese and pineapple sandwiches are a delight!
Sunday most of our family journeyed the fair old distance down to Torquay for the day as the AOG regional leader was speaking at the church there whilst four of us took advantage of the local church.
Monday was Show Biz night! Pam and Jen had prepared their 'Duck Pond' performance, Ken told jokes, I did the Bee Song.
Dale did his quiz (hmm) and then Jan and the girls did some puppetry. All in all a brilliant night and out of it Sam's learnt that she'd like to learn puppet ministry and later on in the week Jan bought her a chick puppet (I think it's a chick.. I'm not too good with animal identification!)
Tuesday Dus and I were on the rota for cooking dinner and we had a visiting speaker coming at 3pm! We needed to have all the dinner ready and in the oven by the time he started speaking so that we could serve up and eat shortly after he'd finished so that he could have his evening session and get home before the night turned into morning!
We were of course the ideal team for this task....I love organising things and being extra organised! Poor old Dusband has gotten used to things having to be super organised and we dragged Linda and Jeff along with us on our whirlwind of peeling, chopping, frying and cooking!
(Cottage pie and veg for those who're wondering)
Wednesday I can't really remember what we did...oh yes! Cream tea for lunch at a garden centre Stan and Jenny know the owners of and then we went to Seaton.
Roy is 'bearing' with Helen in this pic.
We once again went on the hunt for chips for a certain Pastor (saying no names and pointing no fingers) then gave up when it became too cold to feel our fingers and Roy adopted his sad face.
Thursday was our last day and Dus and I had been extremely frugal with our spending money so that we could hopefully afford to visit the National Trust site Killerton house & gardens and it didn't disappoint.
The exterior of the main Killerton House
The drawing room at Killerton House
The Killerton chapel on the estate
The eagle lectern inside Killerton chapel
The stained glass window in Killerton chapel
Thursday night I developed a cold and by Friday morning I'd all but lost my voice. Saturday I spent on the sofa whilst Florence Dussingale nursed me and by the time church came round last night I almost completely had my voice back to normal I was just slightly deaf. I countered this with asking the lovely Stacey next to me to poke me if I was singing really loudly and out of tune!
And that brings us up to today. Today on my list is going to Wilkinsons and buying some broccoli seeds & crocus bulbs, posting out my sold items, writing a quiz for tonight, going to the docs to get the results of my MRI scan, searching for a pair of daps to replace my holiday damaged ones, writing a proposal for junior church and now it seems organising a girls night in!
Til next time lovelies
Samantha xx
Hi all,
Some of you are aware of what's happened with our church recently and some are not, so I thought I'd pop in a post explaining what's happened, what's happening and what will be happening. It's all very exciting and we'd be grateful of your prayers!
Ok, so when I joined our church I was living on my own in Wales and I'd not long been a Christian. The first time I visited the church had had to 'an the local teenagers from the services as they were coming into the services, shouting across the sanctuary at each other, running up and down the aisles etc during the preaching. They didn't know what to do with the youth, they had no one who could work with them and they were at their wits end. Now although it's very easy to be shocked at this and say that the church was wrong to ban the youth, they did what they felt was right for them at the time.
However, on that very first day, I didn't feel comfortable that there was a kidz club up to age 11 and then we let them go off and expected them to come back when they were older knowing how to behave in church and getting the most out of a service. I knew I had a burden to work with the youth but couldn't see how or when.
I started helping with the Kidz Club in the church and loved that completely!
I then was in a position (last June) that I couldn't afford to stay living on my own in Wales and was going to have to move back to live with my mum in Luton. This was a worst case scenario for me as my mum and I have both learnt that we're at our best when not living with each other! We have a brilliant relationship now as long as we understand that one weakness!
I couldn't understand how God could let this happen. I'd exhausted all possible ways of staying in Wales and I knew with all certainty that I was called by God to work with the youth in Cwmaman.
About a week later I met Dus in Luton and then the following week he came to church with me in Cwmaman. After the service we were having teas and coffees downstairs as is our church's brilliant habit and he was talking to Pastor Dale about his job. He came out of the church afterwards just feeling so like he was in a job he wasn't proud of doing and coupled with a feeling he'd had during the service we started praying about God's plan for our lives.
It took us about a week and a few independent confirmations to decide that yes, we should get married, make plans to move back to Wales and work in the church with the youth and the following week we arranged to pop round to Pastor Dale's house to have a chat with him and his wife about it. During this encouraging time, Dale told us that he'd been wanting Youth workers for so long that God prompted him to just ask for some. Dale did and God obviously provided!
Plans were afoot then to get married 6 months later in January of this year, move to Wales, become proper official church members and begin setting up some youth work. The last youth group that the church had had was about 14 years ago and Pastor Dale was one of the members!!
So we did move to Wales, get married and become full members in the church. We began helping with the Kidz Club again every week and got our organisationirifying sections of our brains into gear ready for a youth group. We made a plan, visited some other local youth groups, revised our plan, painted the back hall, drew up a budget (which we promise we're trying really hard to stick to), printed and delivered almost 1500 leaflets, purchased a wii and some tuck shop stock...and it all leads to tonight.
Tonight is our launch night of almost 9 months of prayer, plans and preparations. We'd really appreciate your prayers and support.
We held a dry run on Tuesday this week with our church fellowship pretending to be teenagers and things went smoothly but did bring to light a couple of things to do differently. I couldn't sleep very well last night and today feel like I've drunk far too much coffee, despite me not drinking coffee at all!
The cafe is stocked, the leaflets delivered, the wii charged and the vinyl hefted down to the church. All we need now is some youth and some Divine inspiration for our weekly talks!
The youth group is running from 6pm - 8pm for ages 11 - 18 and from 8.15 - 9.30pm for ages 15+. I shall report back on opening night when it's over and I've recovered!
Samantha xx
p.s. we called the youth group S.T.O.M.P. which stands for Serve, Testify, Outreach, Ministry & Praise. Ambitious with a youth group full of non believers we know!
Some of you are aware of what's happened with our church recently and some are not, so I thought I'd pop in a post explaining what's happened, what's happening and what will be happening. It's all very exciting and we'd be grateful of your prayers!
Ok, so when I joined our church I was living on my own in Wales and I'd not long been a Christian. The first time I visited the church had had to 'an the local teenagers from the services as they were coming into the services, shouting across the sanctuary at each other, running up and down the aisles etc during the preaching. They didn't know what to do with the youth, they had no one who could work with them and they were at their wits end. Now although it's very easy to be shocked at this and say that the church was wrong to ban the youth, they did what they felt was right for them at the time.
However, on that very first day, I didn't feel comfortable that there was a kidz club up to age 11 and then we let them go off and expected them to come back when they were older knowing how to behave in church and getting the most out of a service. I knew I had a burden to work with the youth but couldn't see how or when.
I started helping with the Kidz Club in the church and loved that completely!
I then was in a position (last June) that I couldn't afford to stay living on my own in Wales and was going to have to move back to live with my mum in Luton. This was a worst case scenario for me as my mum and I have both learnt that we're at our best when not living with each other! We have a brilliant relationship now as long as we understand that one weakness!
I couldn't understand how God could let this happen. I'd exhausted all possible ways of staying in Wales and I knew with all certainty that I was called by God to work with the youth in Cwmaman.
About a week later I met Dus in Luton and then the following week he came to church with me in Cwmaman. After the service we were having teas and coffees downstairs as is our church's brilliant habit and he was talking to Pastor Dale about his job. He came out of the church afterwards just feeling so like he was in a job he wasn't proud of doing and coupled with a feeling he'd had during the service we started praying about God's plan for our lives.
It took us about a week and a few independent confirmations to decide that yes, we should get married, make plans to move back to Wales and work in the church with the youth and the following week we arranged to pop round to Pastor Dale's house to have a chat with him and his wife about it. During this encouraging time, Dale told us that he'd been wanting Youth workers for so long that God prompted him to just ask for some. Dale did and God obviously provided!
Plans were afoot then to get married 6 months later in January of this year, move to Wales, become proper official church members and begin setting up some youth work. The last youth group that the church had had was about 14 years ago and Pastor Dale was one of the members!!
So we did move to Wales, get married and become full members in the church. We began helping with the Kidz Club again every week and got our organisationirifying sections of our brains into gear ready for a youth group. We made a plan, visited some other local youth groups, revised our plan, painted the back hall, drew up a budget (which we promise we're trying really hard to stick to), printed and delivered almost 1500 leaflets, purchased a wii and some tuck shop stock...and it all leads to tonight.
Tonight is our launch night of almost 9 months of prayer, plans and preparations. We'd really appreciate your prayers and support.
We held a dry run on Tuesday this week with our church fellowship pretending to be teenagers and things went smoothly but did bring to light a couple of things to do differently. I couldn't sleep very well last night and today feel like I've drunk far too much coffee, despite me not drinking coffee at all!
The cafe is stocked, the leaflets delivered, the wii charged and the vinyl hefted down to the church. All we need now is some youth and some Divine inspiration for our weekly talks!
The youth group is running from 6pm - 8pm for ages 11 - 18 and from 8.15 - 9.30pm for ages 15+. I shall report back on opening night when it's over and I've recovered!
Samantha xx
p.s. we called the youth group S.T.O.M.P. which stands for Serve, Testify, Outreach, Ministry & Praise. Ambitious with a youth group full of non believers we know!