Did you know...

Intrigued by Colse's latest blog post (in which he has found a website which lists Woodies as giving free lunches every weekday, "if you don’t mind a mini-sermon and a vague sense of residual guilt" that is,) and as a 'way of spending a spare few minutes so that I don't have to yet do the things I really need to do', I decided to put 'Woodlands Christian Centre' into Google and see what came out ! I found the expected, such as the church webpage, but also made some interesting finds...

I discovered that the church has it's own page on Wilkepedia ! I also discovered this page! This particular review must have been written about 5/6ish years ago as the student flats were being built at the time. It seems this site sends out 'mystery worshippers' into various churches, who then rate the church as to how they found the experience. Take a look! I especially like the answer to the last question ("What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time?") :-D

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2006 !!!

I just wanted to wish all readers of this blog a Merry Christmas !!! I hope you all have a good day on monday; enjoy all the festivities and also take time out to think about what Christmas is really all about. I'll see you all on blogger again in the new year (or after Christmas anyway) :-)

p.s. I've now been home for a few days, and it's been great. Really good to see family and have also appreciated all the sleep.

p.p.s. Try a quick prayer this Christmas, asking God to open your eyes and help you to see something new of him in all the well-known songs and carols. I find I can too often just sing words for the sake of it, cause I have sung them so much before. But I find that God does really answer this prayer !

Carols and other things...

It's not until you start (or rather try to finish) writing Christmas cards that you realise actually how widespread all over the country you now have friends (trying to find addresses for them is interesting). I knew I had a few good friends who weren't in Bristol any longer but I don't think it had hit me quite how many ! I'm so grateful to those friends I have still in Bristol and so grateful to have met so many new people this term...but a term still can't account for having known people, even for 3 years.

And yesterday has left me in a bit of a strange mood really. On one hand, I enjoyed the day so much ! The family service in the morning was amazing, and I felt very privilidged to be able to play Keyboard in the worship band with people who I'd not played with before. Then the carol service was amazing too. I loved having the privilidge of being in the choir (Jonathan James is such an amazing musician) and enjoyed singing. The church also looked SO beautiful with all the candles and lights...was so exciting as it was my first year I've been in Woodies for their carol service. But at the same time, it made me feel so homesick - that this IS the first year I've been in Bristol so late. (Amazing how you can be surrounded by SO many people, including a fair few you know, and yet feel so lonely and not having anyone to talk to.) Recently I've been wondering what I'm doing here. Is Bristol truly where I'm meant to be, or have I just been delaying the inevitable of moving on again ? Is hard, especially as when you're on year team you begin to get to know even more people at church and feel a bit more settled at the church (although at the same time less settled...?) Anyway...I shall stop rambling as I have to get on with the day (cards to write, debate to prepare for tomorrow, the church to clean etc...) Maybe I'm just feeling this way as I'm so tired and it's almost the end of term. I'll be home on wednesday. I'll see how I feel then.*

*Disclaimer: sorry for the ramble. Had to let it out somehow - should probably have done it in my journal rather than on the internet, but oh well. Feel free to just ignore my ramble. I'll probably feel differently tomorrow.*

"Happy Feet"

Saw the film 'Happy Feet' at the cinema yesterday afternoon (a year team trip). Basically, (not spoiling the story), it's about Penguins, and how this one Penguin is different from all the others. Instead of having a 'heart song' (i.e. being able to sing well, and having his own song), he loves to dance and his feet move when he's feeling deeply. But he finds he can't be himself (as it goes against 'what makes a penguin a penguin') and is always being told to try to sing/stop singing - as his voice is awful - and to stop dancing. He's told that what he is isn't natural, and is made to feel like an outcast, and finally banished from the emperor penguin colony. But it all has a happy ending, when he ends up coming back and saving the whole penguin colony. A very sweet and in places very funny film, (although a little bizarre in terms of how the storyline moves). But it also has a lot of thought-provoking stuff in there. (This is the point where my housemates of last year would tell me I think about films too much again...) It makes you think about being different - how it's really hard to be different from the crowd, and also not to be able to be free to express who you are. But the film implies that ultimately it's people who dare to express who they really are and to be different, despite the costs, who will make a difference ! Very challenging. It also brings up a whole load of environmental stuff, about how fishing in the antarctic is disrupting the Penguins' food chain and even outrightly killing some of them by the waste left behind by the humans. Although slightly unrealistic in it's portrayal (for example, I wish all our environmental problems could be solved as easily as this one seemingly was in the film), it nevertheless makes you think. I came out in an odd mood - having enjoyed it, and laughed a lot, but also been very provoked. Anyway...food for thought.

Sorry my blog has become a bit of a diary of events recently. In some ways this reflects my state of mind, that I have been kept very busy and with hardly any time to take time and think about stuff. (And when I have wanted to post recently on more thoughtful things, blogger has been being annoying). But as I have said before, I will try to make it less of a diary - as that isn't the reason I originally started writing on here. But it might take me a while.

Now to have something to eat and try to get a bit of rest before what is shaping up to be a very good but very manic day tomorrow - looking forward to the morning family service and the carol service in the evening (the first one at Woodies I will ever have been to) - the church is currently looking amazing with all the Christmas decorations up ! Oh, and one last thing...you may have noticed I added a couple more links to the sidebar. Do check them out. Most of them I already look at/read, just hadn't gotten round to putting up links before now !

p.s. Another last thing...I am now on blogger beta ! Very strange. Another set of features to get used to. *Sigh*

Bath and other things

As it always is, these two weeks (last week and this) before the end of term are proving manic. So many things going on, and too much to do with too little time to do it in. Good things, just lots of them :-) But in the midst of that busyness, I've had a lovely couple of days this weekend. On saturday we went on a flat outing to the Bath Christmas market. It was fun to wander round, and great to hear the brass band playing and see all the Christmas decorations...we then came back and had our Christmas flat meal - lots of food, a secret santa, then lots of clearing up and a bit jamming session at the end :-)

Sunday (yesterday)...in the morning service several of my friends got baptised, which was really exciting! I was also asked to sing in the worship band, which I enjoyed - recently people have been getting me to sing more and more, and it's great. Singing at the front is never something I thought I could do. But I've always loved singing, and I love the fact that I can give that gift God's given me back to Him, and use it to help other people to worship Him too. It's really amazing ! (And I do feel ever so slightly less terrified singing on stage now than I did, so I can focus on worshipping more than on just hitting the right notes !) Then we had a reception and lunch for all friends and family of those who were baptised. Then a friend who was visiting Bristol for the weekend came round, we had a bit of a jam, then went to the Christ Church carol service together. Day was finished off with an amazing pizza (I highly recommend Pizza Provencal in Clifton), a bit more of a jam, then watching forest gump on tv with flatmates. All in all a good weekend.

And so...monday morning again. Ready to face another busy week ? Well, not really. But I'm sure it will be a good week. Just need to try to be sensible about fitting in enough sleep somewhere there ! :-)

(Bath Abbey, with one of the stalls of the Christmas market in front.)