Yesterday i had the privilege of spending the morning in the company of some great people. It was the new wine morning for people in leadership. I was unsure about going as i had always thought that the morning was for ministers but after a bit of digging i found out it was not.
The speaker for the morning was Paul Reid the senior pastor of CFC. What he had to say was challenging and also insightful as it gave me a little bit more of an understanding about the church that what i had previously known.
It was kinda in a way a snippet behind the show see how it works type thing.
When you work for a church you hear stories and those stories help you to create a imagine of how you think someone is. You can nearly picture conversations you would have with people or think you know how they would act without even meeting them and i must admit i have done it to.
Talking to the guy afterwards it surprised me how wrong i was. The guy is lovely and caring and everything i guess i had thought he would never be.
So apart form the talk yesterday i was challenged to put everything aside i had built up on people and to start again and to only make an opinion when i had firstly met them and secondly heard their heart or where they were coming from.

i would recommend the next day though!

The day is near an end

As the draws to a close it has been good to reflect upon what I saw today.
I loved the portrait gallery today. There was an old face captured in black and white. It was a lovely photo as it capture the stress and strain that the owner of the face has been through.
Another was of a fast food resturant named cccp.
It was really nice to look into the pictures and to read their story. The phrase a picture speaks a thousand words was so true today.
The day had so many good bits but in the middle of it all the bit I did not like was the pictures at the photo gallery.
I was so looking forward to it but when I got there I was met with a series of old naked ladies. Now I know that the older body should be valued but I just did not like what I saw.
But someone else I am sure will love it.
Now its back to work tomorrow but at least I have my manmouth coffee to keep me going

While in the national there was a school group sitting infront of a painting. One of the resident experts was going through the meaning of the picture. They where highlighting the symbolism that was store within. It was obvious to me that the painting was of jesus praying in the garden the night that he was betrayed. I could see the story it was telling but the kids were lost.
They thought it was showing the parting or the red sea. That the angel that Jesus was praying to was holding strange objects.
It was quite disturbing as I felt it pointed out the gap that exists between us as youth workers and the people we are to be among.

Day two of art

Yesterday and today as part of my course I have the chance to look around and explore a few art galleries in central london.
Today is the national and the photography.
I had to get up early this morning as my bed was going up north for work. So this gave me the chance to walk through all the wonderful places I used to visit. It also gave me time to think.
There is nothing more relaxing that sitting at seven dials with a cup of manmouth coffee and thinking about what you experiemced the day before.
I was always told at school that I was no good at art because I could not draw but as neil helped us with yesterday that's not of God. His point was that if we are made in the image of a creator God then within us all is the gift of creativity.
I felt released in a way.

Over the past while I have been having a tough time. Work has been a struggle and although the issues have not really passed I have tried to move on. They will sort themselves out in the right time. What i have to do is to trust that God is in the middle of everything no matter how horrible I am feeling.

A few days ago I tried to explain to rach my ideas for what i would like to do for the art piece that i have to make for my new module at cambridge. She was getting it to a point and then it was going over over her head. 

What i was trying to do was explain that i would love to use stencil or dots to make a picture. Of what of i don't know but i wanted to these technique because i like the method involved in looking at it.

Yes you look at it the same way that you would anything else but what do we look at? 

What i mean by this is do we look at the colour or do we look at the white / absence of colour.

I found this image that i think illustrates my point. From a distance what we see is an image but that image is made up of thousands of dots of colour and not colour but when we focus on it we don't see the individual elements but the wholeness.

I think there is so much that can be taken from this it could be reflected up from many angles but for the minute i just want to leave it there.

Frustrations

I don't have long to write this but it has been a wee while and as my good mate Brain French says it is a form of therapy.

I have been in post now for nearly six months and what a six months it has been. I would love to say that I am having a ball of a time but that would be a lie. 

You see the thing that I have learnt over the past number of months is well there is more than one. Firstly when a ship is sinking it is hard to find people to help you bail out the water. People lover to either jump shit and swim away or they are too hurt or injured to care. 

The other thing is when someone tells you what state things are in take away 80 % and you are probably looking at the real picture.

Right now i am desperately trying to hold on to that small thing of Hope but its slowly slipping through my fingers.

If you a praying man start playing 

please

So a few days before christmas i went to see what i can only describe as an inspiring film. 

I left the cinema reflecting upon how often do I actually say yes to things.

Over all the film put me in a good mood for what was a busy christmas.