What a Week

On Monday lunchtime I was looking forward to a busy week: a couple of sermons to preach, a deanery synod to visit, a potential curacy to visit and a load of freshers to say hello to.

Well, it was a busy week but in a completely different way. When I got home from my parish placement on Monday afternoon, Liz was curled up on the sofa, in pain and struggling to breathe. We already knew that she was going to have to go into hospital for IV antibiotics, but were hoping that we'd be able to wait until term started and my diary was a bit more regular. Oh well, we thought, and decided that it would be best for her to go in as soon as possible.

I rang the hospital on Tuesday morning, cancelled most of my appointments for the week (a grateful shout out to my placement supervisor, Jackie), and prepared ourselves for Liz to go in to hospital. Liz spent most of the rest of the week in bed, not keeping any food down but slowly getting a bit better.

One of the main frustrations was that every day we were waiting for a call from the hospital, not knowing what was going to happen during the day which made planning child care and actually getting anything done really difficult.

Now it's Saturday night, Liz was finally admitted to hospital yesterday afternoon, the sermon for tomorrow night is written and the kids are in bed asleep. Here's to the next week, which is the first week of term and hoping that Liz is home and better soon.

TimC

Everyone back to my place

I've never been into a betting shop. Wouldn't know what to do if I did, not sure that I'd know how to place a bet and, especially being a bloke, I'm definitely not going to ask anyone to go with me.

It's a long time since I've been to a Scout meeting. I used to go when I was a boy, and enjoyed it a lot, my Dad got me into it. But I stopped when I was about 16 when I was meant to move to the Venture Scouts, I went off to do my DofE somewhere else. I hear that the movement is short of leaders and is recruiting adult volunteers but I'm not sure I'd know what to do. All the uniforms have changed, there are badges sponsored by McDonalds, and they've let girls join.

I've never stopped going to church, but I know that some people feel the same way about church as I feel about betting shops and Scouts. They're curious and maybe want to explore but are apprehensive about the alien and unknown, not sure of the welcome, and concerned about making a fool of themselves.

I'm not the only one who knows this. Across the country there are churches that want to welcome people. Many of them are joining in on September 30th as a focus for inviting people back to church and giving a gentle introduction to the local church family. If you've been looking for an opportunity to investigate your local church, this might be it. I reckon that it's a better tip than, "Prodigal" in the 3:20 at Lingfield.

Lake District Video Montage

More on our Lake District holiday - here's a video montage of it:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com