Jesus is my rock

We are back from Snettisham (Norfolk) where we have been since last Saturday. That night, Alan a friend from dad invited us to a chinese restaurant nearby and we had a great time. Alan and dad are catching up with old time stories. Alan sings in a choir and in the evening we listened to one of the choir cd. Great stuff.

On the Sunday, we met up with June and her husband Frank; June is dad's niece and Steven's cousin.
They came all the way from Leyland and installed their caravan next to ours and we had a bbq that evening. Our sister Pauline arrived a bit later, all the way from Wales. She was caught in a huge traffic due to an accident and went the wrong way. Finally Steven gave her directions on the phone and she found us! It was a little bit blustery.
Monday morning more people were to come, auntie Wendy and her husband Peter, Colin and Peter, Colin is a very good friend of dad. Steven and Franck put up the gazebo and at about 1ish, the birthday party started. 
Late in the evening Steven started to play the guitar and this was brill!
We had such a good time. Praise the Lord!
More to come!

More photos!

Meet Dad in Norfolk.

These otters are waiting to be fed. We saw them in the sea life Center in Hunstanton. We had a great day even though it was pretty cold!

This is Cromer in Norfolk.The first time we went there, we actually had to buy the 'famous' Cromer crabs! Freshly prepared.

As we are preparing to go to Heacham next week to celebrate Dad's 90th birthday, we may go to Cromer again. I praise the Lord for those past holidays. May our next holiday be blessed too so that we can all meet in peace and appreciate our time with relatives and friends. In Jesus-Christ.

One of my favourite songs!

At last, it's the week-end! I have had a bit of a busy week as on top of the normal load of marking and planning, i had the honor to do the assembly. Though I am used to talk in public and in front of a assembly of students and their parents, I never did an assembly. First I asked my form if they liked singing and they all panicked. You should have seen their face! No way, we can't sing. Questions were coming fast ! Miss, do you mean, we have to stand up and sing. Well you'll sing along with everybody else.

Finally the IT technician said I could not have a cable as his last two were not returned to him ..so this was not good news! Then I thought i'd better talk to one music teacher at least. He said: our students are very competent at singing. However it depends on their mood.. I wouldn't say it's a safe option for a first assembly.

So in the end, I jotted a few notes, got some inspiration. You would have guessed that I prayed a lot for inspiration. Two of my tutees accepted to meet me at break to read their parts. One did not turn up! Never mind Emily was still happy to do it all. Finally she found Rachelle, another tutee who first had said, no way, I am not talking in front of everybody. Both read their parts beautifully.

I have posted the song I wanted us to sing. It was in You tube and I hope this is legal. If anybody knows it is not, please let me know!

Praise the Lord!

More photos!

So last night, we had a PCC meeting and as it was only my second meeting, I was quite excited but trying not to show it! We all met at Joan, who kindly provided us with wine, coffee, cake and biscuits. We are so looking forward to the day when the portocabin will appear so that Christian outreach can fully develop in our village!



On the left, here are Stuart and Steven looking both very happy at the end of the meeting.

















And here is Geraldine and she won't mind me saying that she is a famous local painter.Now, somehow, as I am blogging now, Joan's and Jenny's photos are blurred ! I can't understand why! You have already met Jenny in my posts on the kerygma's bus so I have added this photo of Joan and Geraldine. They came by at home after we all went to deliver invitations for Good Friday talk : why good Friday is good!
It is such a gorgous evening and I am going for a walk or a bike ride, not sure which yet.

Time to plan

Tonight, I went to a meeting at Jenny's, one of our parishioners, who kindly welcomed us with drinks and a strawberry roll. On the agenda, preparing for the 'church fete' on the 9th of June. So a few of us, Joan, Geraldine and Sonia were there, throwing ideas to see how we could organise it! I am not going to bore you with the details so I'll will go straight to the conclusion.

We all agreed that we would take this opportunity to do some Christian outreach at this event.

There will be a prayer wall for everybody to use, a stand where people can read Christian tracts and see copies of the one minute bible, the 'usual stalls' : book, plant and cake stalls, a slide and games for children, a relay race for the adults, a fancy dress 'défilé' with a prize, a stand where the primary school children would exhibit some craft, a painting competition, some musical 'interlude' , songs, and the last but not the least, 'refreshments possibly including strawberries'. I hope that I am not forgetting anything.

Any other tips or ideas are very welcome!

May the Lord give us strenght and guide us to use our skills harmoniously in the coming weeks to serve Him. In Jesus-Christ. Amen

Pear cake and brownies

That evening I looked at some pears that were ripening too fast in the fruit bowl and thought I'd better use them before they rot! So, I found a recipe for a pear cake and this is how it turned out. Later on I asked Camille to do her special treat, brownies. She's done them before and she has a special knack for them. They are usually delicious.

Camille mixing up the brownie mixture!
Well, here is the verdict!

The pear cake is edible but nobody has eaten much of it yet !
Three quarters of it are still there intact !

The brownies are absolutely delicious and we are making a real effort not to finish them in one go!

Music trio!

Did I promise more photos? This is a rehearsal in Hixon church! Meet Celia, Steven and Maureen.

Music matters! True or not ?

My hubby Steven is very meticulous when choosing the music and songs to play during a service. I have to agree with him.

I like all kind of music including some traditional ones but my favourite are more modern hymns and songs. Obviously all children love lively music and we are so fortunate because we have a variety of instruments that can be distributed during the service!

Do you know these two:
Our God is a great big God by Jo and Nigel Hemming
and
Great,great, brill, brill by Doug Horley

or this one ?

Thanks the Lord for the Kerygma bus!

Meet the team of the Kerygma bus and some of our parishioners.

Colin, Henry.

We are so fortunate that the Kerygma bus comes to Hixon every Tuesday.

This was Pentecost Sunday and Colin visited us at church. Colin told us he started the Kerygma' bus ministry project in Easter 2006. Together with a team of volunteers, he has used a double-decker bus to deliver RE lessons sharing the good news about Jesus with thousands of schoolchildren, as well as working with detached youth in towns and villages.

Sally and Celia.






Camille, Celia holding 'the bucket' and Jenny.

 

These photos  go back to the 13th Jan 2009 and it was a little bit cold in spite of the heating being full blown. The bus is always full of children .

It comes a time when you have to stop dreaming that you are going to spread the Good News around you, instead you have to get up and do it, you have to do something about it.

Praying and reading the Bible help finding out in which direction the Holy Spirit guides you. Telling people about Jesus our Saviour. Every Christian is equipped with the necessary tools for spreading the Gospel and it is a question of knowing their strengths.

Somehow, I always go back to the parable of the sower. The good soil has been prepared by brothers and sisters in Christ who have not given up but persevered and kept on spreading the good news!

18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 

19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 

20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.

 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

Matthew 13 :18-23

A tour of Stafford

What a wonderful start to our saturday mornings: seeing a pheasant gobbling up seeds next to the wood pidgeons. He flies over the fence and spends quite a long time feeding. Two jackdaws also appear quite often, they have spotted the peanuts in one of the feeder. They are so quick that I have not managed to take any photos yet!

On saturdays, Steve and I have breakfast and do our bible reading in the dining-room facing the garden so we cannot miss the birds!

Later on that morning I went to Stafford and took a few photos of the park and the town center

I must confess that I haven't visited that museum yet ! We have only been living round here since August 2007, that's my excuse.

A surprise bbq

Wow! This morning we woke up and the sun was shining! Steven went shopping in Stone, Imogen was in her pjs watching some tv and I endeavoured to do some housework, i.e. cleaning the car! Tedious job but it's got to be done. I must say, I would rather indulge in my various hobbies than hoover! 1)

My sister Pauline sent me a text with a heart inside which there was this message : best mum! It made me laugh. I forwarded it to a few friends and Annette who lives in the Isle of Man rang me. I hadn't talked to her since Christmas (another proof that time flies!) and it was lovely to catch up. Her daughter Helen who is Camille's friend is waiting to have an operation on her leg and she is constantly in pain. The op should be on the 16th of June! A long time!

Steven came back with a piece of lamb ideal for a bbq, said he. By then the sun was hiding, clouds were up so I did mention that it was pretty cold out there but he dismissed my comment! At about 5pm, he was lighting it and an hour later, we were eating. We had garlic bread, orange peppers, onions and home-made coleslaw, full of garlic and onion! It was absolutely délicieux as they say in Molière's country. Imogen who is a vegetarian had some tomato and basil soup that I bought last week. I must confess that I am not skilled at doing soups maybe because they never taste quite right!
One of the photos show the lovely daffodils in our neighbour's garden. We are separated from them by one of those protected hedges. It needs special attention from both Steven and Phil. The birds love it!

Imogen and I we are still waiting for a desert but the chef says he is missing a special ingredient so we may have to wait for tomorrow.

1) Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry.

Oups, must go, desert is on the menu!