Aroma

Today I started my placement for the Autumn term. I’m working with Aroma, which is the Women’s Bible Study on a Wednesday morning. About 70 women of varying generations come each week, which is amazing! I’m in a group led by Melinda and Hilda, I’m really looking forward to getting to know these women of God better over the time I have here; learning and praying with them.

We’re studying John, and where better else to start off the first week than with John 1;

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood.

It’s the beginning of this passage which, at Advent and Christmas services has always made my hair stand on end, the shiver down your spine. Each time I read or hear it I am blown away by it. I remember it took me a while to comprehend that the Word here is Jesus, and that Jesus existed before the incarnation, and that he had an active role in creation. But once you grasp that, his life on earth, his sacrifice, giving up all that he had with the Father, is so much more powerful.

One of the things we discussed in our group, which I’d never thought about before regarding 1:5. The light shines in the darkness. Light can dispel darkness, but darkness can never dispel light. Amazing.

Breakfast Bible Study

Today I had my first Breakfast Bible Study shift. As much as getting up at 6:30am is a little painful, I really enjoyed being at work for 7am; it was fresh and had the added bonus of finishing the days work at 2 enabled me to have a trip over to Northwood to visit some LST folks 🙂

I was able to take part in BBS myself, I joined a table to do the study. We’re looking at the 10 commandments in the run up to Advent.

I was really challenged by the three verses we were looking at today; Exodus 20:1-3. We as Christians know what it means to love God, but really, do we actually do it 100% of the time? In 2 Kings 17:9 we read that they were ‘secretly’ against the Lord their God. Ironic, that they tried to do things secretly from their omniscient God! They started out blindly following the other nations, until, before they knew it, they were casting themselves idols. We often feel so distant from the Golden Calf incident, but we, even in the 21st Century, even those of us who work for the church, are not immune from idols.

I was challenged to think about what my idols are today. Obviously, we are surrounded by people who want to get to the top in their work, clothes and the latest fashions are many people’s idol, or the latest car etc… I know that my cello has been an idol in the past, but I realised that some of my friendships have been idolatrous, in the sense that I would turn to specific friends rather than to God. I’m working on it, but I still have a way to go.

It’s simple; Jesus instructs us to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength and soul.

I’m definitely going to make an effort to get to BBS even when I’m not working 🙂

Staff Fellowship groups

Today was my first Staff Fellowship group, starting up for the new academic year. I love Mondays; we have Staff Fellowship groups at 12, followed by Staff lunch at 1pm, then into meetings and CA Training.

It was nice to meet with the FG knowing that over the course of this year I’d get to know these people so much better as time went on. As an introduction, we played the two truths, one lie game, which we had played as CA’s back in our first week. As I’m the only CA in our FG, I used the same 3 statements. I obviously have lost my skill at lying, though, as everyone knew which one was the lie! – none of the CA’s thought it was that one!

We decided together a rough plan for the term; we’re going to read The Trellis and The Vine, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. It’s a new book, which apparently everyone is talking about. It’s subtitle is The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything, challenging the way we do church and discipleship. I am looking forward to reading it, despite having a growing amount of reading to get through!

—

I’ve just read the first chapter. Thus far I’m left with mixed reactions; they use the analogy of trellis work being the ‘boring’ jobs that need doing at church; the cleaning, the building, the finances, etc. and the vine work being actual ministry. They acknowledge the importance of trellis work; without it the vine cannot grow, but I felt like they were dismissing it, and thus dismissing the roles countless people undertake in the church. And, surely, trellis work in itself is ministry and a witness, too? Maybe I’m being overly sensitive; after all, my job has a lot of trellis work to it. But I don’t feel I’m not doing vine work, either. I’m probably not explaining myself so well here, and have yet to read the next chapter…

Protected: Weekend in the ‘shire

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Week One on our own…

Here we go; it’s down to us…

On Monday I arrived at work in time for Staff Fellowship Groups followed by Staff Lunch. It was our first Staff Lunch with everyone back after the summer. I love it. We were introduced to the new Apprentices who have just started their year this week. We had our meeting with Dave, reviewing the previous week and looking at the week ahead. Our Monday Training sessions start next week, so we got ahead with prep. for the evening as there was a Fellowship Group Support meeting for all the Fellowship Group leaders.

On Tuesday John and I were on duty for the Prayer Gathering shift. All of us Church Assistants were invited to the front to be introduced officially to the Church Family, which ended up being hilarious as ever!

On Wednesday, after being rudely awoken by builders and diggers outside my bedroom at 7.15am, I began early to set up for the Aroma leaders meeting and training session before it starts up again next week for the new term. Mark repeated a talk of his from Cornerstone on the Gospel of John, as that’s what they’ll be looking at each week. The others’ were all painting two rooms upstairs whilst I got on with the ‘normal’ Wednesday duties. Hannah and Oscar appeared to get more paint on each other than on the walls! The others wound up staying late to get the rooms finished, but I’d done all my tasks, so went home and slept… for 4 hours! I felt rubbish, but it was John’s birthday party, had it been any other social I probably wouldn’t have gone, but I thought having slept for 4 hours I would be alright… Oscar had cooked a feast for us, but it was all a bit behind schedule due to finishing work late! We ate around 10pm… Hannah and Maw had made John a birthday cake which was lovely, too. Dave gave me a lift home when the celebrations finished around midnight, but I really wasn’t feeling well again 😦 I wound up being up, ill most of the night, and had to take Thursday off ill. My first full sick day. Sad times.

I picked up again by late afternoon, at which point I had the dilemma of going to the ASO rehearsal for Manchester next weekend. On the one hand, it may well pick me up mentally and physically by getting out the house, seeing people and being productive. I am working next Thursday evening so I can’t make the rehearsal, so I felt I should go this week. Yet I didn’t know how it would look being in church playing my cello, having been off ill all day. And the worry of if I go, I may not be so well tomorrow…?! I decided to go for it in the end, and I’m glad I did; it was the right decision 🙂

On Friday I did my first solo shift at St Paul’s Robert Adam Street. I was working for Jelly Beans, the Mum’s and Toddler’s group which is an outreach of All Souls. I then had various cleaning tasks to do, which I finished early, so I used the opportunity to cycle over from SPRAS to All Souls, using my new Boris Bike key! Initially it took a while to get a bike to come out of a dock, once I did, I realised how bumpy roads in London are! I then discovered that I don’t fully know the one-way systems around the area, and ended up going in more of a zig-zag direction to get back to church!

On Friday evening we were all invited for dinner at the Enns’ house; John Stott’s former home. We had fun times with them, eating very yummy food and getting to know Louanne and Paul a bit more. After some persuasion, Dave offered to drop me and my Cello off at St Pancras Station for a train back to the ‘shire for Colette’s 20th. I found it hilarious that on the way out of the Enns’ flat, Dave caught his shoelace in the door and had to call the buzzer to be freed!

More Anon. Here’s a few pictures from the week;

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Week 4 – Training Complete

We have finished our final week of training.

On Monday, Maw and I ventured to Nottinghill Carnival for the afternoon. It was an experience! We found the Carnival procession and watched that for a while.

It was strange for me, going from my experiences of Radcliffe village Carnival, where everything was pretty organised and strict, to this year at Nottinghill where there were no barriers to prevent pedestrians from walking on the road in the way of the floats! Each float seemed to have it’s own crowd control team and Maw said that although there were no barriers this year it seemed less crowded, we presume because there was no bottle neck at gaps in the fencing to cross the road…?

I really liked the Jamacan food 🙂

The noise was unbelievably loud! We walked past some speakers and the ground was shaking, it was as if there were an earthquake! As I lay on my bed that evening, the ringing in my ears was so intense!

On Monday evening, Maw, John and I went to Melinda and Ross’ house for dinner, it was lovely to hang out and get to know the other staff more 🙂

Tuesday was Monday, in the sense that we needed to do the regular Monday morning duties. In the afternoon we had Fire warden training, which was enlightening, although I was a little disturbed by the video of the Bradford Football Stadium Fire in 1989.

On Wednesday we were shown what to do at the Welcome Desk, which we cover each Thursday morning. We then went to St Peter’s Vere Street, the home of the LICC. Dave showed us around the building etc. We spent the afternoon in the Rectory Basement tidying and cleaning ready for the new term. I needed a nap before working the evening shift for the last Summer Bible Study of 2010.

On Thursday we met Jack, the Chef. He gave us Food Handling training and told us all the rules of the kitchen. He is happy for us to use the kitchen ourselves, as long as we obey his rules! Fair play, I feel…

We spent the afternoon setting up the church for the weekend… from now on, it’s all ‘normal’ shifts, and down to us?!

Here’s some pictures from our first month together for you to have a browse:

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Blessings

I feel so blessed lately… small things which just make me smile and know that I am loved.

Last week, Noel encouraged me to keep playing with the All Souls Orchestra, but in a way that I know he values me as a player; I don’t just sit in the section bumbling along… He also said he’d fight my corner if needed with my rota so that I can play for orchestral services and things… which is nice, but at the same time, I am aware it’s up to me to pace myself, too!

We’re also very blessed with food. As Church Assistants, we’re allowed to eat food from the Church kitchen. We also get a food allowance, so that Jack, the Chef orders things in for us and puts it in the freezer. We’re in negotiation as a team (as we have to order the same things each week) It’s looking along the lines of meats. Protein. Nice.

I just wanted to share that with you! 🙂

Placements

One of the things which attracted me to the job I am now doing at All Souls, is because I didn’t have any explicitly church-based placements throughout my time at LST. Part of this was because I didn’t think I was good enough for church work, but as my cousin reminded me a while back, isn’t that the point? None of us are. Anyway, I am really looking forward to getting stuck in with placements here at All Souls.

Each term we have a different placement with a different ministry area of the church life. Not unlike LST, we have to write a report of our placement experience at the end of the term, to help us reflect and learn from our experiences.

There is so much going on at All Souls, which is amazing and exciting, but at the same time, makes choosing our top three for the coming term quite difficult! My shortlist includes

• Christianity Explored – All Souls’ version of The Alpha course, evangelistic
• Discipleship Explored – for new Christians
• Breakfast Bible Study – Small group Bible study for Christians in the workplace
• Springboard – Small group Bible Study for Christians new to All Souls
• Seniors – Service, lunch and chatting with the elderly held at Clubhouse
• Aroma – a mid-week Women’s Bible study

For this term I’ve gone for; Breakfast Bible Study (that’ll be interesting getting up early every Tuesday!), Springboard and Aroma.

I’m now waiting which of my three choices I’ll get… I’ll let you know!

Week 3

There’s not an awful lot more to say, really. We continued to be taught things, like a morning on First Aid, and a morning on Buildings and Health & Safety. Afternoons being shown around London in the pouring rain. Or setting up for various events.

I’m tired…

PA – out of my comfort zone!

Towards the end of my degree, in Worship Clinic, we did personal and peer assessments, which I talked about here. One of the goals which came from my assessment was to do with PA. I’d learned all the theory in 1st year, but because there have always been people with far more expertise and/or enthusiasm, I’d always avoided getting involved with it myself. I sat at the back of Chapel a few times towards the end of term to try and improve my knowledge of how it all works and my attitude towards PA!

It seems that taking positive steps to overcome a negative thought pattern towards a certain issue really does help! Now I’ve started work at All Souls, the PA desk makes the one at LST seem tiny!

Initially Nick taught us how to use the relatively simple PA set ups in St Paul’s and in the Waldegrave Hall, which included how to set up for Sunday overflow services. I’ve had a few chances to play with it for events already, and I’m feeling much happier than I thought I might over PA and also computer/projector set ups, too.

Today, Chris took us through the PA in the main church – there is so much to think about. But, having sat with Chris last night, who was playing with the PA for the Prayer and Praise gathering, I felt like I already understood what was going on. Chris has just installed a new digital mixing desk, which I’ve been told will be much easier to use than the previous one! Easier or not, I’m still kinda chuffed with myself that I vaguely understand what’s going on, and that I’m happy to attempt to use it when next required!

I am definitely stepping out of my comfort zone 🙂