Thunderbird

Ever since I got the internet back, my RSS feeds don't seem to be received by Thunderbird.
All you guys have obviously written loads in your blogs, but every time I check for new messages thunderbird says there are no new messages.

Any thoughts?

Have tried unsuccessfully to search their knowledge base.

Back

The internet's back!

Thank you everyone for your prayer and support :D

Beyond Dead

And the internet is still dead.

We are now into our fourth week of complete switch off, and over three months of intermittent connection.

I hear you say why not change ISP, but unfortunately it appears that the problem is more likely to do with the line, therefore we are awaiting BT.

How much longer?!!!! I am going mad.

It interests me that it causes me such issues. For a while I beat myself up that I couldn't cope without the internet. I can cope, just I've used the internet as a good way of winding down and destressing - maybe I need to find an alternative.
On the internet I run my website, moderator two discussion forums, keep up with my college work through WebCT, research my dissertation, keep in touch with people, randomly search in google my random ponderings. There's so much to do!

I do miss it.

I'd really like it back. I guess what troubles me most is the frustration of not being able to solve the problem. Surely it's just one switch that needs flicking or one wire that needs reconnecting? Why can't they figure it out? Why do they have to keep passing the buck when the only one that suffers is me (and my housemates)?

Sigh

Dead

Well, my internet has been completely dead for over a week now :(

So that would explain my lack of posting.

And many other things

Look what you can buy for 49p

You gotta love charity shops

Thunderbird

I was just wondering if anyone else was having the same issues with RSS feeds on thunderbird?

For some reason, some of my feeds keep randomly stopping working, then a week or so later they'll work again.
Then at other times, I'll get all the posts of a blog sent to me again. It's just this minute happened to almost al l of my blogs! Now I have up to 4 copies of each post on some peoples' blogs!

I thought it might just be the people that have updated to Beta, but that's not the case now.

Murdery Mystery

This is my beautiful Angel and me at Pasta, Passion and Pistols :D


















I think I make a good bloke!

Morris Dancing

Look what my friend Sarah and I found in the centre of York (wonderful filming Sarah ;-))



MorrisDancing on Vimeo

My hand

I had a fight with a craft knife today.

In short I've got a deep cut in my hand, managed to cut some muscle but thankfully no tendons. Been stitched and sorted.

Please pray that it heals as good as new and quickly especially as in my job I need both hands!

At the moment my thumb has restricted movement and it hurts!!

Cheers

Clutter!

Well, this is my new room with my stuff in it.

Seriously need some shelves!

Here comes the bride...

Well, today is the big day!

Don't they look gorgeous!

Stand

I want to be a true woman of God.

I want to stand for God's Truth even if it will cost me my reputation or my friends.

I want my security to be in God and nothing else.

I want to be known as someone in whom people see God, so when I leave a room I am not remembered for anything other than God in me.

Shame it's easier said than done...

My New Room!!!

This is my new room at uni. As you can see it is currently uninhabited as I've not been in it yet! My housemate took the photos for me and sent them. It is almost finished. It's a loft conversion that's been done this summer. It's weird having a brandnew room that no one's used yet! This is the only time it will be tidy!

I have a great view of the chocolate factory out the back through the big window, and an interesting skylight the other side. I wonder if I can sit in it.... I'm also intrigued by the random bit of space next to the banister - think I'll have to put a suitcase or something there. Unfortunately the en-suite is not finished :-D

Avoidance

We had a visiting speaker at church today.
He spoke about the miraculous. There wasn't a great deal that I hadn't heard before, but I felt it was good as a church to hear it. He spoke about how we are often complacent about the miraculous (in western culture) and don't expect it to happen much. Or we go to the other extreme and say that if you're not healed there must be something wrong with your faith etc.

He talked about how God's put us, and we've put ourselves in the city centre where a lot of people are moving to now and where there is a lot of 'sin'. So basically saying we've got great potential to make a difference and show God's love and see the 'miraculous'.

He also picked out two passages in Acts.
Acts 2:42-47
'They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord's Supper and in prayer.
A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They
sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity - all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.'
Acts 4:32-35
'All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had. And the apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's great favour was upon them all. There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need.'

The speaker used these verses to encourage us to be like the 1st century church meeting together, being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, seeing miraculous things and reaching out to the non-believers. What interested me was that the verses about selling all your things, sharing and giving the money to the poor was completely ignored. Part of me was pleased because I find that idea quite challenging and would rather not think about it, but I wondered greatly why it was missed out. Are we not supposed to do that, are we being picking and taking the bits we want? It just made me think.

Momentum

Well back from another week at the good old Bath and West Showground. Haven't got much time now, but it was a good week, marred by bad weather, car problems and illness, but we survived and God is amazing!
Here are some random pics of Sarah and Emma on the last day in the main venue.

Fair Trade Clothes

Whilst at Living Water, Jenny Skivington really challenged me about fair trade clothes.
I struggle with fair trade food on a uni budget, and most of the stuff that is fair trade I don't eat anyway!
Clothes are different though. It's just a matter of choosing to not just buy clothes because their cheap.

Whilst I was at Momentum I was challenged by this further with the 'Ethical Bedroom' in the market place run by Tearfund. They provided me with a directory of where I can buy fair trade stuff online.

I've still got a lot of thoughts around this. At the moment, it appears I can only buy fairly traded clothes online. There is one shop in York, but the clothes are not great. (but is that really a good enough excuse?). Other ponderings include the issue of is it still fair trade if it's in a sale? Tearfund gave me a free tshirt at Momentum. I challenged this and they said that the workers had been paid it was them that were choosing to give it for free. But surely if they can afford to give it for free - they can afford to charge less for the clothes normally? Puzzled.
Another thought is the whole, if we all stop buying clothes from places that aren't fair trade then the workers that get barely anything will end up with nothing... hmm...

In my brief investigating today I also discovered the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), I don't have enough knowledge or time to go into it now, but there is more here.
So that suggests a number of shops that are better to shop in - I don't think they're fair trade, but perhaps they're second best? What do people think?

Living Water

Wow.

Look - our tents are on the Network Norwich website!

The article can be read here

It was my first proper time at Living Water. I went a number of years ago as a day visitor before I was a Christian - I don't remember much about it other than chatting to people on the NYFC stall and playing pretend golf of something with a tree branch with Paul Cracknell!

This year I was working and camping in the youth venue. I camped with Paul and Hannah Farmer and some of our youth from NCBC. (our tents are above - mine being the bent one at the front). We had a great time together - even though our gazebo blew down and broke on Sat leaving us with no where to cook! In the end Fakenham took us in and cooked for us - whoo! We also had to sleep elsewhere that night as it was a washout!

As well as helping look out for our youth I worked in the youth cafe, and did prayer ministry. I really liked the cafe, it was fun - we had a laugh! I've never seen so many people eat pot noodles! I found prayer ministry really hard, but it was good to trust God. All in all it was wonderful to see God work powerfully in these young peoples' lives.

Devon

Had a lovely time at Croyde Bay with the family even though I was ill!

We stayed into two chalets and there were 10-12 of us staying together. Most of the time we just chilled and went body boarding - the beach and sea was lovely.

Can't think of much else to say!

Here are some pics:

New Wine

Wow I haven't posted for ages. Sorry guys! Haven't been near a computer much!

Straight after Reality I went to New Wine with my friend Sarah. We worked for a company called Veritasse selling artwork. It was a lot more hard work than I thought it would be, but it was a real insight into New Wine and the market place and Christian Art. It's so expensive and I couldn't justify buying it, but it's amazing and people are really moved by it and drawn closer to God.

I also bumped into some Norwich and Gateway Vineyard people which was really cool. I love getting to know people from other churches in Norwich better. It's great to see different insights into church and to learn from others. I also saw some people from St Mary's in Leamington Spa where I had my gap year. It was really cool to catch up with them. Lastly I also saw some friends that used to go to Dereham Rd and who's parents are still involved with NCBC. It's so amazing to meet up with people you haven't seen for a while.

One thing I realised this year is that New Wine/Soul Survivor etc can be quite exclusive. This is not a purposeful thing, and I don't know if there's much you can do about it, but being just Sarah and I felt quite weird. People come to New Wine in groups (mainly church groups) and they tend to stick in these groups - so when you're on your own it can be hard to slot in. Coming in a group is not a bad thing - it can be a time of tremendous growth for your church group, spending so much time together in this way. But it did feel quite lonely/exclusive going as a pair. Don't get me wrong - Sarah and I had a great time together, but I just felt a bit like a little lost fish in a big ocean of many unknown fish (for want of a better metaphor).

A good thing about New Wine was that I didn't know any of the songs. Normally I would find that irritating, but I realised it was good for me. So often I know all the songs and take it for granted that others do - but they blatently don't all the time! We were let by Trent Vineyard in Venue 2. Not knowing the songs was a really weird experience, standing amongst many people singing their hearts out and me silent. It did mean though that I paid more attention to what the words were saying and whether I actually wanted to say them.

Anothing I learnt is that the people up the front aren't always what you expect them to be down on the ground...

Reality

Wow is all I can say for now.

God is amazing

I am drenched and have a splitting headache and cycling in a massive thunder storm is entertaining to say the least.

But God is still amazing and has done fantastic things today from putting out fires to saving BBQs from rain.

I shall post more in the morning.