Yoblog - Musings of a Church Youth Officer

Spent a fortune supporting a local children’s shoe shop.

But they are fab, aren’t they!!

We did our first ever Godly Play session with the children in St C’s yesterday.

It was fascinating to see how they ‘entered’ the story.  The children started off sitting on their cushions in the circle but after a few minutes had all crept forward with their noses nearly touching the materials.

The children whose behaviour can be challenging and disruptive were engaged and participative.

For the first time in ages I actually would have liked to have had more time - the session just flew past.

Godly Play works.

We had a guest for lunch today.

And I found a ‘guest’ on my carefully cooked lunch - something of the caterpillar variety that had been nestling in the brocolli until a good steaming turned it limp.

Resisting the urge to gag, I had a sneaky peak around the contents of everybody else’s lunch plates.  Having ascertained that I appeared to be the only person with visible extra protein, I courageously ate everything else, hid the offending squiggly thing under my knife and got the ice cream out rapidly.

I think we’ll have pizza next time people are round for lunch - less risky!

I ran a pilot training course on practical child protection for children’s workers last night.  I was expecting a very small group as my publicity was pretty poor due to personal events of the past couple of weeks.

We were an impressive 18 people!

I’m wondering if maybe this is the way to go when organising something - don’t tell anyone and word will get around anyway.  Maybe a secret event is more attractive??

The session was really useful for me in terms of finding out what people’s current concerns are around the Diocese and feedback was positive.  There is an obvious gap currently in information dissemination to those running groups on a week to week basis.  And people want practical guidelines that are in a readable format.

Now we can try and do something about it.

Articles such as Adults ’scared to go near kids’ on the BBC website today do us no favours in trying to dispel the myths.

Hopefully rolling out the type of training piloted last night on a local basis will be a good start.

I led the Sunday Club on Sunday. At coffee time I overheard a Granny quiz her grandson about what he had learned in Sunday Club that day.

He couldn’t remember.

And then got told off for not paying attention. I really wished I could have turned the tables on her:

“What did you learn in church today Granny?

Would you like to stand up at the front and tell the whole congregation??”

I was at the local farmer’s market yesterday and there was a wonderful stall selling “strawberry mishapes”.  Forget boring perfect looking specimens from the supermarket - not only do these taste as good but they were cheap and there are loads of amusing things to be done with them.

I’m still a child at heart!

What’s the best lot you’ve come across in an Auction of Promises?? 

We’ll be having one soon and it is always useful to have some good examples to inspire people to think beyond a bit of gardening.

I get a lot out of reading the really personal blogs where people give an insight into some of their own  struggles often to do with faith, spirituality and vocation and how it interacts with their daily life and family.

I’m not very good at opening up, but I’ll try.  Words can be very helpful and it is amazing how you can come across ‘the right words’ when you need them.

I had it confirmed yesterday in the hospital that I had had a miscarriage.  I should have been about 13 weeks, but I had known for a few days that something wasn’t right.  In fact, I knew from the day that Synod started.  In any other place or job I would have ran for home, but I felt reassured when I looked around Palmerston Place Church that if anything did go hideously wrong quickly there were people who would help me, whatever was needed.  Thanks guys. 

Be glad it went hideously wrong on Monday night instead.  I was up all night.  What I do remember more than anything was suddenly realising in the quiet of the dark night that I could hear birds singing.  It was 3am and the dawn chorus was in glorious full flow.  Somehow it was so comforting and I knew I’d get through this.

Miscarriage is something that so many women go through, but you never learn about what it really involves until you go through it.  A bit like the time when I had a molar tooth taken out.  I thought the dentist would have some clever way to do it quickly, no pain, no crunching and twisting and yanking. No idea.  I fainted after going into shock.  These things are not digital or instantaneous.  It can be a long painful mental and physical process.  I don’t feel angry about it, just sad at the loss of what could have been.  I feel so lucky and blessed as I have two healthy children and can’t imagine the heartbreak if this happens when you don’t have any.

What I do wish is that people would be more sensitive to people of child-bearing age.  It seems like you can’t win.  If you have no children you get “You’ll be getting broody then????” with no sensitivity about potential fertility issues or previous losses.  If you are pregnant, you get the endless twitter about what you are hoping for- as if you had a choice and general commentary about what would be best.  If you then have two children of the same gender it is presumed that you are disappointed and might have third to get one of the other, but oh the risk of 3 the same!  If you have a boy and a girl, people decide that your family is automatically complete.  If you then have a third you are asked “Was that planned?” as if you don’t know how babies are made yet.  All of these are things I have heard and experienced in church more than anywhere and can be so unintentionally hurtful.

I give thanks that I have two wonderful children and a wonderful family around me.  Who knows, we may have more children when the time is right.

These are the words that jumped out at me over the past couple of days:

“God didn’t promise days without pain

laughter without sorrow, sun without rain

but He did promise strength for the day

comfort for the tears and light for the way”

“Before you were conceived I wanted you.

Before you were born I loved you.

Before you were an hour here I would die for you.

This is the miracle of love”    Maureen Hawkins

A young and successful executive was travelling down a neighbourhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door!

He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, ‘What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money Why did you do it?’

The young boy was apologetic. ‘Please, mister…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,’ He pleaded. ‘I threw the brick because no one else would stop…’ With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. ‘It’s my brother, ‘he said ‘He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.’
  

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, ‘Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.’
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. ‘Thank you and may God bless you,’ the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the pavement toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: ‘Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!’ God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.

At least two members of Synod suffered cases of mistaken identity this morning.

One of the many middle-aged, bearded chaps in attendance was mistaken for the train conductor of the train I was on as he tried to move up the coach to get off at Haymarket.  Maybe it was his overeagerness of already wearing wearing his Synod name badge that did it?  Or maybe it was the beard.  Either way, the embarassment of the fellow passenger trying to buy a ticket was most entertaining.

And then a fellow Synod member, who I have never met before, asked me if I was an actress (??!!)

Ah well, a motley band we have been over the past 3 days.  I have enjoyed it far more than I anticipated. Although getting a better understanding of the finer detail of how our church works and governs itself has been interesting, the most fascinating aspect for me has been the people I have met along the way and the stories they have shared.  The SEC contains so much diversity and we should give thanks for it.

So we will all be back in the pews and pulpits tomorrow.  I’m pretty sure that nobody in my congregation apart from othe Rector will be aware that General Synod has happened.  It doesn’t seem to filter down well.  Or maybe it is just our congreagtion that reluctantly reads Inspires??