Toast!

It is week five already and goodness, has it been a busy week! I sang, danced, made lots of toast, ate toast, painted with vegetables, washed up, ran around, pretended to be a bean, drank a lot of tea, held babies, ran around some more, played scrabble, and have helped to set up and witnessed a Dedication ceremony. I love that my role within the church has such a fantastic bias towards the silly and fun!

So much happened this week, I can hardly believe we did so much. The highlights of my week were probably watching members of The Big Green Youth Club doing their straws and smarties relay for crazy games night, baby Nathaniel's Dedication, and listening to the young people at our Think Big Youth Homegroup get so excited about talking about the Bible that they were talking over each other trying to share their thoughts. As hectic as it has all been, the madness of crazy games night included, I wouldn't change a bit of it. I can see God at work in all of the young people that we are blessed to encounter, and it makes me incredibly excited for them - we serve an awesome God! This Essential year just keeps getting more and more exciting!

Perhaps inspired by baby Nathaniel's dedication, or maybe just all that moving around, the theme of journeys has really woven it's way through my week on so any different levels. From the hazy, overwhelming "ahhh!" of last week, it has moved onto quite a mellow and reflective experience this week, as I was blessed to have a couple of really good chats that helped me to put everything into perspective. In life it's hard not to get caught up in all the madness of it all. I think we often find ourselves so concerned about all the baggage that we brought with us banging around in the back of the car that we don't really take in what is passing us by. I often find myself overwhelmed by the grace of God, as I struggle to fathom quite how much He has forgiven me. At times, the weight of what He has planned for my life scares me still. But I know that I serve a great God, one who is capable of the impossible and the improbable, and who loves me dearly. This year is an amazing opportunity to just see where He is at work around me and I need to just enjoy it. I feel like God has spoken this into my life this week, through the people I have encountered, and through the wonderful simplicity of quite what we do at Stepney. As 1 John 4:19 reads, 'We love other because he first loved us", and that's pretty cool.