Are you there God...it's me??

I haven't written here in ages and lots has been happening in life with church, college now that im living in Koinonia House and various other things. But i feel the time has come after the past weekend.

We had a Lay Witness Weekend in Seymour Street with a team of 15 fantastic people who came to share with us as a church family. If im honest I was really excited about the weekend, i've had a few struggles over the past couple of weeks, so I was really excited about what God was going to do in our church and in our lives individually. But I was a little let down...the meal on Friday night was great and i believe I was sitting beside the person i was meant to as we had wonderful conversation about things that were on both of our hearts but I left the event feeling a little...empty!! I was really disappointed that God hadn't shown up for me, why when I was so open and excited to receive was I leaving with such a disappointed empty feeling. Or maybe I wasn't as open as I had thought and God had shown up but I just didnt recognise it?!

Saturday came and I went to one of the coffee mornings, a wonderful time of fellowship, friendship and sharing with an awesome and powerful testimony shared very openly with the group and yet i was still asking, "God where are you in this? Why can't I hear what you are saying to me?"

If im honest once more, I was reluctant to go again on the Saturday evening but through the persuasion and encouragement of a good and caring friend I went. After all, how could I expect God to move and give if I wasnt there and open to receive. Again it was an enjoyable time of fellowship and sharing with the Witnesses who very openly shared their story of their walk with God. But once more I couldnt understand why God was being so silent to me. After being so excited and so expectant.

It wasnt until the Sunday that I 'woke up'...during the service on Sunday morning i had such a sense of God's presence and a real sense of being told 'I am with you and I will be there the entire way'

This continued into the evening service which was a true blessing...so many people shared an encouraging testimony/story of what they had received from the weekend. I also received an image of what our church was part of...during one of the first songs we sang during worship "The Splendour of the King", I had an image of our church standing in front of the throne of God which was blazing with light, shining golden and we were joining with hundreds of other people from everywhere alongside Angels and Archangels, all the hosts of heaven in bringing praise and glory to our Father and God. It was a humbling and amazing image and a very special insight into how we as a fellowship are part of the bigger picture of God's fellowship.

So after struggling to find God in what was happening He made it very clear to me that He was there all along. If anything I was depending to much on my emotions and feelings to know that right from the start. Sometimes we just need to relax and know....

Has anyone contacted 'Hello'???

I haven't written anything in a while and I have so much I want to catch up on...So im going to start with the biggest day of the summer!!! :)

Friday 07-08-09

The day of the wedding...it was such a beautiful day in all ways, the weather, the ceremony, the reception and above all the people.

It all started with early hairdressing appointments and a visit to the chemist as the bride called for some 'rescue remedy'...which i felt it was my duty as one of the bridesmaids, to look after for her!! :)

Then it was back to the house for make up and final preparations. We thought we had so much time but that last hour and a half just disappeared and suddenly we were 'fashionably' late as we got Janet into her car and Karen, Jill, Roberta and I climbed into the Limo!

The beautiful Bride ready to go and not a sign of nerves!!

When arrived at the church shortly before Janet with a little time to get some photos taken and then it was time to end the poor Groom's long wait!


The ceremony was led beautifully by Brian and was wonderfully relaxed and enjoyable as a wedding ceremony and as an act of worship.

Then it was on to Belfast Castle a beautiful setting overlooking Belfast Lough. Lots of pictures, smiling and mingling in the sunny afternoon.


Then it was time for speeches, dinner and dancing...even some monkeying around!! :)



The very cute monkey, Janet and Gareth made by Karen!!




And we managed to last right through to the very end!!


A fantastic, relaxed and fun day for a lovely couple, now may God pour out His many Blessings upon them as they start out in married life together.

Big Adventure...

This day last year was my first full day in Ghana and the start of my Big Adventure.

After a hospitable night with the Sims family in Accra, I travelled with them to Amakom and my first sighting of the lake and greetings with the Jernigan’s, Rebecca, Hollie, Michael and James. A very long but very special day.

The view over the lake from Michael's porch

The Jernigan family with their 3 interns

Never has a place, people or community touched me so deeply and made me feel like one of them so quickly.

So what are some of the things that I miss... (in no particular order!!)

Koko...fried plantain...it just doesn’t taste the same bought from Tesco
Hobnobs with peanut butter and nutella...and the ants that shared them with us
Greeting people on the road as we walked through the villages
The cries of children greeting us “ mama louey” or Abena Louise
Sunsets over the lake
Open, free and enthusiastic praise and worship of the Lord...dancing in church : )
Random visitors popping in for a chat
Girly nights
Long chats into the night
Movie night...with popcorn and taffy
Fun road trips to Kumasi to gather in provisions
Spectacular rainstorms
Lucas and Luiza’s inventive games
Michael’s bright smile and willingness to help us at ANY time!!
Clear starry night skys
Spontaneous dance parties!!
Days spent in the air conditioning and chats with Andrew
James’ constant and joyful singing unto the Lord
Becca’s French toast and Hollie’s ‘hamburger pie’!!
Becca’s great wisdom and Hollie’s wacky sense of humour
Sunday afternoon football
Banter with the builders

I could probably go on forever but I’ll stop there. However, one thing that was constant was God’s presence, comfort, love and protection through every challenge and predicament we found ourselves in.

Michael and I enjoying a bowl of Tizette with intestines and tuna!!

Me and James...my brother who loves to sing!

Me, Rebecca and Hollie returning from our first 'mudding' road trip in Kumasi

My first taste of Fufu!

My 2 football heroes

The builders!! :)

My time in Ghana and at Lake Bosomtwe was such a blessing to me and a year on I’m still learning from my experiences and making sense of some of the lessons that God was teaching me.



The sun has set on one adventure but I will be setting out on another Big Adventure this summer when I travel to Sri Lanka at the start of July where I will spend just over a month. 2 1/2 weeks working on a research project in Colombo and the rest of the time working with the MMS(I) ViM team, which is travelling to Kitiyawa to work on a building project, alongside continuing work on my research project. I’ve no doubt God has many wonderful experiences and challenges in store for me again this year but I have no doubt He will be walking alongside me every moment of the journey once more.

SNASS weekend - the real story!!

On friday night SNASS headed off to the North Coast for our annual weekend away. We were staying at Sheep Island View Hostel in Ballintoy. We arrived without an hitches and settled in to the accomodation.

Our theme for the weekend was FREEDOM and our speaker Hollie led the first session getting us to do some word association around freedom and there were some interesting ideas that came out. Some recurring ideas were that of chains being broken, release, running through fields, birds flying and eh...nakedness (thanks for that one Jules ;) )

Worship was led throughout the weekend by or resident SNASS band, who are so good at creating an atmosphere of worship and praise leading us into God's presence as we offer our song of praise to Him.

Our activity for the evening was to recreate a famous movie in a different genre with a specific prop. An example was Cool Runnings, filmed as a musical using a saucepan. There were definitely some interesting and very amusing results. My favourite had to be The Lion King filmed as a horror...certainly an interesting take on the Disney film!!!

Then it was time for bed and apparently for my music collection to be ripped apart - thanks for that Jules and Michael. At least I had Pete to back me up with some things!! What can I say I have a wide range of tastes!

Saturday started all too early...granted earlier for some....

The oldest and the two youngest (also the cutest!!) SNASSers who were at the weekend!! Sorry Pete but I couldn't resist.

Events soon got underway and SNASS hit Ballintoy with an interesting Photo treasure hunt and 'Egg dropping' competition at the harbour. There was an evil forfeit thought up by Jules for those teams whose egg was broken on contact with the tarmac!!

A bowl filled with soup...flour and strategically placed jam...containing 4 mini mars bars which were to be found by memebers of the losing teams. Great fun for those watching...but not so much fun for those having to do it...hehe!!!

Our first 'victim'!!!...delightful

The last victim...and what the mixture looked like after 4 people had been rooting around in it!!!...Yum!!

But don't worry our 3rd challenger found something a little tastier to eat not long afterwards!

While the crew had been out, Jo and I had stayed behind to try and get dinner ready...cooking for 28 people ain't that easy...

I don't actually have any pictures of Hollie speaking but she did help to clear up the saucepans...a true servant!!!!

Saturday night began with a further session on Freedom and a panel to answer questions posed by the young people. This gave a chance for a few of the leaders to talk a little bit about their own christian experience and how they cope with issues which the young people are facing. Also showing that even though they are leaders they also have to face these issues and the young people aren't on their own.

Saturday night seen the airing of mine and Helen's big quiz with a difference, including a play dough round, a sports round, a picture round - guess the 'baby' leader and a music round with a difference.

The star of the night had to be Steve and his 33 press ups in 30 seconds helping his team to victory.

The night was rounded up by a late night walk to the park and then a round of Mafia...a game I always beleive brings out a persons true self...hehe!!

Making friends with the Hostel's statue!!




Jules monkeying around!!!

I had a short sharp intro to motherhood on Sunday morning when Jo appeared in our room at 3.15am saying her and Pete had to go to casualty (nothing serious and everyone was ok!)...so could I look after the boys until they got back. So I got some back up in the form of Julie and we went in and slept in their room with the 2 boys. The first thing I did before I went back to sleep was to pray that they were so worn out from their busy day with their 'big friends' that they would lie in a little later than their 5.30am saturday morning!! And well they did...till 6.30!! Amazingly both boys awoke with a giggle and a smile on their face, not too bothered about the 2 strange girls they woke up to find in their room. Although it was a little disconcerting when the older pointed at me in my bed and said daddy!!! But we got nappies changed (well Julie did!) when we eventually worked out which one went on which child, without any problems...hehe...well just a bit of a close call!!!! Then we headed off to get breakfast and bobo! At this point we had to try and remember Pete's hurried instructions for making a bottle, and once it was made we discovered they were actually back so parental supervision was handed back to them. But I reckon Julie and I made a fair attempt!!

Just before lunch on Sunday we all piled in to the mini bus and headed off to the beach for a quick walk and a time to take in the peace, chat, take some more pictures and even play some rugby!

We tried to get a jumping shot...not very successfully...but eventually got one of Julie...better than nothing I guess!!

All in all it was a great weekend which everyone enjoyed, good fellowship and teaching, great worship and praise, much banter and many many laughs. They are a great group of young people and leaders and it was my privilege to be able to share with them this weekend and every week on a sunday night.

SNASS weekend

This weekend 28 SNASSers are heading off up the North Coast to Ballintoy for our annual weekend.

Im just home from doing a huage food shop, my car is so full and Im now trying to put final things in place!!

It's always a great weekend of fun, fellowship, banter, a few adventures, undoubtedly some embarrassment and really not much sleep but we love it!!

Anyway, I've lots to do so i'll fill you in on monday with how we get on...that's if I survive to tell the tale!! :)

The Lion King

Today was particularly exciting for me!! :)

I absolutely love the film the Lion King so when Rach asked me if there was a show i'd like to go see when I was over my immediate answer was the Lion KIng. So I was very excited all day.



As i have mentioned before i am emotional little soul and the Lion King makes me well up everytime...even before the actual film starts...the opening credits with the animals all making their way to pride rock for the presentation of SImba to the Circle of Life...wow!! And the musical was no different, it was awesome the way all the animals made their way in and the costumes were brilliant...i particularly liked the giraffes and the elephants.


The best character however had to be Rafiki the monkey, she was fantastic and really brought the character to life.

It was awesome watching the percusion guy up in the gallery playing the bongos etc he was just so full of life and animated...just how it should be. There was such an african feel about the whole thing which was just so good, they really had a wonderful atmosphere in the theatre and really made me feel like I wanted to be back again! :)

All in all it was a wonderful show and I reckon has cemented my love of the Lion King even more.

Happy Chinese New Year...

Monday saw the dawning of the Chinese year of the Ox and what better way to celebrate than going for a chinese in china town??

After a relaxing day and some wandering around shops and of course a visit to Starbucks I met Rachel and 3 of her friends in china town for a particularly tasty meal and some 'interesting' conversation.

There was evidence of the new year all around china town as it was wonderfully decorated with lanterns that seemed to wind for miles up and down the streets. It created a wonderful atmosphere and i thought it looked very pretty.

Reliving our youth...

It's very handy when you know somebody in the media business. Rach is usually able to get tickets for some concert or other and when she got tickets for NKOTB how could we possibly turn down the chance to see them!!


I was never a huge fan have to admit...I was more of a Brosette but I did recognise a few of the songs...the classics, 'Hangin' tough', 'step by step' and the 'right stuff'. I did however have to be told who was who as I just couldn't recognise them. It was quite a few years ago after all!!


Ah the classic boy band all in white ballad...you just gotta love how cheesy they took it!!

And how awesome is that...they are spelling NKOTB...ingenius!!! ;0)

But seriously they put on a good show despite the cheese. But it was unreal seeing grown women screaming and cheering as if they were still 14. Particularly how they engulfed the 5 of them when they came up to the balcony...I was literally waiting for someone to go over the edge!! Alot of them even still knew all the words to all the songs!!! There's just something weird and obsessive about that!!