Yoblog - Musings of a Church Youth Officer

Once you reach a certain age, maybe in your mid twenties, you realise that it doesn’t really matter what beauty products you buy, the marketing is mainly hype and they are unlikely to change your life or looks as promised.

I’ve just moved onto the next stage of ‘realisation dawning’. 

It doesn’t matter how perfect, shiny and beautiful the plants look in the gardening catalogue, I am never going to produce a specimen bearing any resemblance to that in the picture.  This is Scotland, land of storms and slugs.  Not a sub-tropical corner of Cornwall!

I’m now wondering what the next round of marketing will bring and will I fall for it??  Will I want one of those walk-in-baths or stair lifts??  Maybe I’m not that old yet!

Having got out of the the bath and streaking round the house, my 1 year old managed to pee all over my copy of the SEC Child Protection Handbook.

Is there a message in there somewhere?

There’s nothing like a bit of competitive spirit to make things a bit more interesting.

There are two church events next Saturday - one is the National Gathering at Ingliston which I have been promoting and the other is the Bishop’s Sexuality Listening Day in Stirling.

I am pleased to have poached a Sexuality attendee to come to the National Gathering instead! 

And to anybody else, I think you’ll find my tickets are cheaper than the “Sex  Conference” ones! 

And you’ll have more fun, I’m sure!!

Well, I hope the fact that the weather is absolutely miserable today bodes well for the National Gathering at Ingliston next weekend. 

The rain will have run out by then and the tented village of storytelling tents will be basking in balmy spring sunshine.

I will not get wet, nor muddy.  I may get a bronzed glow.

Having realised there are a few worky things like this that I need to drive to in the next week or two, I went and panic bought fuel this morning making sure I had a full tank. I had resisted the urge up to now!

This blog makes me laugh.

It is a great source of topical and quirky cartoons that may or may not offend, depending on how sensitive you are to fun being poked at Christianity.

Does anybody (or any church) have a music version of Junior Praise at the back of a cupboard somewhere that they would be willing to donate to a newly started toddler group in Edinburgh??

It costs around £35 new which is pricey for a group just starting.  Any gift gratefully received!

It is supposed to be an honour to be immortalised in a portrait.

I just wish this portrait of me had not been done on the back of our sofa!

I was asked if I could think of a Christian ‘circle song’  (ring o’ roses type thing) for closing a toddler group with.

I was stumped for inspiration.  Can anyone help?!

I think it has already been pretty well publicised, but in case you haven’t heard, the Scottish Government have an Event on 28th April in Glasgow for 16-25 year olds to dicuss issues of faith and belief.  Register by Sunday if you are interested!

Faith and Belief in Scotland- Young People’s Consultation Event

“By participating in innovative workshops based around creative thinking and theatre you will be able to explore and discuss your views on how the Scottish Government should take forward its work on faith and belief.

This is a historic event. It is the first time that the Scottish Government Equality Unit has used creative theatre as a way of developing policy and it will not simply be another talking shop - your views will be used to directly influence the development of Government policy in this area.”

I’ll be curious to see what the outputs are and how many 16-25 year olds are able to attend on a Monday during the day!

Sometimes life in the church appears to be a lot of talk.  It all makes sense and you believe in what you are doing.

It becomes a bit scarier when you are faced with signing contracts for events when you know you will never break even financially and you don’t have funding in place yet to cover the shortfall.

When faced with a binding contract it makes you think a little bit longer about whether it is a good idea or not.

Is this taking a chance or faith??!