It's Official

I am officially back. I just changed my facebook regional network from Switzerland to Bristol. [Edit: I wrote Geneva instead of Bristol but that would make no sense.]

Interesting observation: I had 50 friends in the Swiss network and 51 in the Bristol one. You know what I'm like with things like that - it just says to me that I have tipped the balance between here and there. Which is kinda what it was like returning...

I had an amazing time in Geneva. I saw friends that I love dearly; got the chance to do things I never thought I would (more to follow on everything that the gig taught me and what it was like, including mental photos!); learnt TONS (was talking to a BRS friend the night I got back and she said that she had felt it was going to be a time of... and we both said together: "accelerated learning" which was so true); got real direction from God as to what He is planning next and a bit about later too...; had a chance to chill; to say goodbye to some people; to get re-encouraged about what was important when I left - like prayer and worship, both of which are really starting up here too, seemingly; to catch the lovely GVA peeps up on what has been going on - which felt like a lot. Indeed, when I saw how much Mia (YAGs 20ish month year old darling) had grown and was talking, making sense and singing worship songs and all it was like she had done the same amount of intense growing as I had these two months! Not that I'm claiming to make sense you understand, I just like obscure imagery. Not the best structured paragraph I ever wrote but I suppose what I am saying is that it was a good time, in a jumbled thought processes kind of a way. I celebrated my 5 month rebirth day whilst there and it was nice to do that there at the retreat where so much had happened the year before (I don't think I ever wrote that story did I! That really has to happen...).

And I felt different. At times like I had already moved on even. Which is right and good and I am grateful that, even so, I still have these blessed friendships. I feel like I am in a place of enjoying it for what it was and letting it be something different as time goes by. Not my last visit for sure but it was the final chapter of something. And the beginning of something new!! :-D

The more I change the more I see there is to change but that is cool 'cause I have a really short attention span!

Coming back my flat was finally a home. It had curtains! Another symbol that I am really settled here now. I have decided on where I will make my home church (it turns out not my sister's chuch but the other one - which is a shame but kinda cool as my church's sister church is my sister's church which makes a lot of sense to me); found a few great things screaming out to get involved in (like co-rewriting the training for the discipleship/evangelistic programme and doing a wholeness course which ties in perfectly with what I've been learning... I will let you know how that goes); reconnected with my lovely new friends (who I'm going away with this weekend!); and changed my network.

Which tips the balance to 51. Also the percentage that gives someone a majority share and priority. My return to La Suisse is over, I am back for the long haul and while the trip was great and I love you guys tons and always will, I am fully at home here.

Until God says otherwise anyway :-)

The Beginning of The Beginning

The UK is not online.

Seriously, I have finally solved the shoddy connection in my parents house by plugging in with a WIRE. It makes me sick. What kind of backwards place is this?

After a week back in the motherland I am feeling rather alright really. I got a little bit overwhelmed the first night (only a little mind) and was kinda worried as, well, life changed quite a lot when I was away and, for a short while, it seemed like it was all a huge incredible dream.

Backtracking slightly - I lived in Geneva, Switzerland for a year and got turned upside - I say to you respectfully that life without Jesus sucks.

That is an *incredibly* brief overview of something that I will/have gone into more detail about. Geneva, City of Reformation with motto Post Tenebras Lux (After the darkness, the light) was the place where I was reformed. And on Monday night I panicked that I'd blown it out of all proportion.

Which I hadn't.

Still I went to bed worried and thinking that I was glad indeed my sister had come over for my baptism as at least then she would be able to pinch me and prove it was true (I'm talking metaphorically please C).

And I woke up in the morning to a surprise visit from aforementioned sibling. Could not have been better timed. Especially as it was on my 3 months rebirthday! We had a BBQ it was lovely (note that the weather in England SUCKS).

So that was a good start to the new start.

Hmmmm. In other news: been thinking a lot about lukewarmness and how much I don't want to do it and how setting up a proper life (instead of the summer camp of before) is going to be more stretching and much easier to fall into bad ways in. That coupled with the overwhelming task of tidying my bedroom and sorting through all the crap (not lit) I own has made for a quick passing and intense week.

Though I have been to the cinema twice (Hellboy II - really quite good; Mamma Mia, singalong, with the company of 9, 11 & 13 year girls - unbeatable) and am getting quite a lot of sleep and rest in. Which is nice. Plus home-cooking which can't be beat.

Oh and Valerie the car is back. Woohoo! Though I did get in the first time, pull out my driveway and terrify Richard with the question "what side of the road do we drive on here?". Genuine moment of blankness.

That's all. Just an update for those that asked really. I will be insightful in due course (be warned).

JC 7-11

Like JC 24/7, but less radical.

I was having a conversation with a friend today about a secular educational trip thingy they did called JC24. I though it sounded amusingly religious and thus ensued a comical chat about JC huit à huit (the French type) and, far more fluid, JC 7-11.

But don't you find that it is a very familiar concept? Or is that just me. I mean, sometimes when I am alone with myself, and God is there but it is too hard to pay attention what with all the distracting temptations of mind take precedent, I am being a JC 7-11. Open in the majority, definitely convenient but 1/3rd of the time I have to take a break.

Something else I discovered today.... Not all Oreos are chocolate covered! Now, call me naïve but shouldn't they be?

So that is my thought for the moment. Why not go all the way and have the chocolate coating? That is how they are meant to be and how they are at their best. It's still an Oreo without the thick layer of chocolatey goodness but it's not nearly as tasty. And doesn't it say "Taste and see that the Lord is good."? [OK, this only makes sense if you have read this.]

There are so many areas of my existence that Christian living has not even had the chance to be expressed. I mean, Britain for a start! I have spent a sum total of 22 hours there since 'the change' and who knows what it will be like to move back and let It permeate my life there. I haven't even driven a car as a Christian yet. Maybe I'll be more careful...?

I hope so.

Yesterday was the first day of the non-contract period of my life here. Bizarrely I realised I feel suddenly different. I feel like I am a visitor. A very happy visitor indeed who cares a lot about the people here, wants to come back for holidays and loves the fact that she is in town for the summer; but a visitor that is thinking quite a lot about the colour of her kitchen at home. That's the thing, I know I will be going back and, whilst unexpected, I am glad that I feel like I will be at home in England. There was the risk that given how much my life had changed whilst here, I was going to feel out of place on return. Yesterday at YAGs we had an international evening where we each took a dish (I chose fruit salad, as in garden party... tenuous but I have tried and failed at scones once already!) and shared a little about our country of origin. After all the Americans, Canadians and South Africans had sung their national anthems I felt like we should have a turn, so me and Sara led them in the first verse of 'God Save The Queen'! I tell you what, I was kinda proud. (Not of anything in particular, but isn't that the nature of pride?!) I definitely still got my Brit :-)

So, I am excited and confident about le prochain chapitre. How can I not be, with the Oreos (chocolated coated I pray) waiting for me. And a 24-hour ASDA...