  oh its such a beautiful day here today. Really blustery, but sunny – bit like in Winnie the Pooh! Just got back from church – I was selling Fairtrade Easter eggs after the service – and people actually did buy some! Was supposed to be going for lunch with a friend. I called her last night to check it was still ok but she was out so I left a message, but she sent me a text at 11 today saying she couldn’t make it (same friend who pulled out of the Cathy Burton thing – is she trying to tell me something? ) – so am back home. Should really do some work but I hate working on Sundays. I think it is a lovely day just to be, to spend time with people, to do things for yourself.
So I’ve decided to blog instead (oh and do my washing! ) So yesterday…. OK at Easter I am doing this thing called Spring Harvest. It is three 5 day camps at two Butlin (er...like holiday camps – pretty cheap and nasty but they do! ) sites in England. I went on a week last year and although went sceptical I really enjoyed it. It is about equipping the church for action, and I felt that the teaching was very real and practical and looking outwards. People come from all different denominations and church backgrounds so it is really interesting. But this year as well as going as a guest, I am doing a week of 5-7 year olds stuff. They have an amazing kids programme with everyone from birth to 99 years old studying the same passage of the Bible each day. The theme is Grace and we are looking at the story of Gideon (hence last nights post) in Judges 6-8. Each day everyone looks at a different passage of that, and all the different age groups just work through it in different ways.
I think it is great that they really value the kids and believe that they are just as capable of reading and understanding the Bible. So anyway yesterday was the training day. The kids place is called The Paint Factory and we have the Brushes, the Rollers and the Ladders (5,6 and 7 year olds) and then we work in small groups with 2 adults and 16 kids known as ‘pots’!
I am really excited about it. It just seemed really well organised and they had thought about so many things. Like each day we work with the kids from 7:30am-1:30 then we have the afternoon free, but we meet at 5pm for debriefing and time to talk over what happened that day and plan for the next day. In this time we are in small groups, but not with the other person we are leading a pot with. So if we are finding them hard to work with we have somewhere and somebody to talk about it to.
So now I just have to read about Gideon and try and make sure I know what it is about!! I have also applied to help at Soul in the City in the summer. Ok should explain what that is too maybe? They normally run this thing called Soul Survivor down near where I live. It’s a Christian camp for young people 14-18. I’ve never been and I’m not sure quite what I think about it, because its good to worship God and have teaching, but don’t think it necessarily encourages people to be active in their faith in actually practically helping people. But this year they are running it in London, with people camping in tent cities all over London parks.
In the morning there will be teaching and worship but every afternoon they will be going out into the local communities to do practical things – like clearing up, decorating community centres, removing grafitti, clearing out rivers, doing repairs and odd jobs. Really practical things to demonstrate God’s love. Putting their faith into action. Now this I really agree with. And Tearfund (who I went to Ghana with) are running Fairtrade Cafés at the different tent cities and need people to help.
So I thought it would be fun to do and also would be good experience for my fairtrade café. Oh I have some VERY exciting news – I MIGHT BE GOING TO CANADA!! Yipee! I have to check the flights again on Monday and just make sure of a few things, but then if I can manage to work for three weeks fulltime I can earn enough money to pay for it and I can go!! Melanie apparently wants me to come (hehe I know you are laughing at this girlie! ) and so I may just have to believe her for once, trust her and go for it. Off for some lunch – and to collect my washing – I do HATE having to go over to a laundry room – oh to have a washing machine again…. 
