New Year

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Been wanting to post something for a few days but unsure of myself and what I was up to, where I was and how I was. I had a great break over Christmas, and it was good to see the new year in with friends at our roadsign party. Today we went down to the beach for a short walk. On the journey down we were chatting about the letting go and letting God kind of thing, balloon metaphors ect. It struck me that often we are to let go of stuff for a time and not for ever, maybe like a message in a bottle to God who will take it out on the tide but bring it back at the right time.

May the Lord of the tides, who has navigated the seas of human emotions,
Help us know your time and your way.
Hold us afloat, in our inner being and walk with us on the path of life.

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Christmas

Just for info I have added a new category to keep the various advent and Christmas thoughts in one place, and thought James’ God Giggled was worth a repeat.

It was the first Christmas and:

God giggled
God farted
God burped
God gurgled
God needed a cuddle
God was a baby¦

Christmas reminds us:

That we don’t have to find God, he finds us in our humanity
We don’t have to go up – he came down
We find God in the physical, in our bodies, in material, in humanity.
God became one of us.

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year, to everyone.

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Encountering the mystery

There is new book out published by YTCpress and supported by International Association of Youth Ministry that I have written a chapter on Church on the Edge. Edited by Paul McQuillian in Australia it draws together several key thoughts on as it says on the cover “discovering God with young people in a secular world”

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Campaigns about positive images of young people:

www.metro.co.uk/19under19

19 Under 19s is a campaign by the Department for Children Schools & Families (DCSF) aimed at revealing the true image of our nation’s teenagers.

Local authorities and community groups were invited to nominate young people, aged 19 or under, who are making an active contribution to their local area and, crucially, a positive difference to their own lives. From these nominations, DCSF selected the most inspiring 19 to become the face of real youth in England.

Not only does each of these 19 Under 19s have a great individual story to tell, but together they reveal an important, but too-often overlooked, truth about today’s teenagers.

Namely, that rather than hanging around on street corners or engaging in anti-social behaviour, the majority of young people are instead using their free time to get involved in a huge variety of positive activities. These range from sports coaching, dancing and drama to vital roles in local youth groups and community action projects.

Through Aiming High for Young People and the work of the Youth Taskforce, DCSF is investing a total of £679 million in creating opportunities for young people at a time and a place that suits them, including Friday and Saturday nights.

ACTION: Consider nominating any young person you have given an Alternative ASBO to.

www.good-hood.co.uk

This is run by the Member of Youth Parliament for Birmingham. It is becoming a fairly aggressive campaigner (in the best way, not negative!) for the Press to change their representation of young people to become fairer and less discriminatory using the Press Complaints Commission.

ACTION: please visit the website and keep an eye on the website. Maybe you’d like to get in touch with your Youth Parliament and ask them to link on this campaign.

www.youngpeoplessunday.co.uk

A positive response for the Christian community to use – to encourage engagement and prayerful support for young people, highlighting the contribution young people make in your community. FREE downloadable resources – sermons, prayers, images, creative ideas, video clips etc.

ACTION: get downloading now and give to your Vicar, Minister/Youthworker and organize a Young People’s Sunday service.The X-Files: I Want to Believe psp The Moving Finger the movie

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The spiritual task in the wait of advent

Finding God in the wait of advent, admist the chaos of the commerical christmas is a particular task. I came across the Augustinian notion of God in memory a few weeks back and and been reflecting on this for a while. Paula Fredrikson writes on Augustines take on God and Memory that “memory is nesscessary not simply for recollection, but also for cognition and persception. It is through the exercise of his or her memory that the individual – time bound, imperfect, mortal – is enabled to know and to recogize both him/herself and most especially Truth….. Put simply memory is the site of our illumination. Memory is our bridge to the world outside ourselves, to ourselves, and to God.”

In the wait of advent even in my most disciplined moments christmas memories (time bound, imperfect, mortal) creep in. To borrow from the traditional christain language I wonder if this is the devil invading the space I seek to encounter God. So is the spiritual task in the wait of advent to exercise the memory of Truth, and exorcise the memory of the time bound, imperfect, and mortal, redeeming these memories and preparing us to experience the renewal that the new birth of christ brings.Fist of Fury (aka Chinese Connection) download

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Scotland

Good time with ICC students in Glasgow if you are trying to find the notes they are on the FYT site here

. Good to meet Chic and hear about stuff going on in Perth and great to spend the evening with the fantastically grounded Hot Choclate Ben movie full and chat to the team. Still here but on my way to aberdeen.The Hills Have Eyes film

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Scotland Tour

I am off to Scotland next week and have 9 training sessions booked in from Glasgow to Aberdeen via Perth and Dundee

Below are some of sessions slides I will be using

ICC
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Hot Chocolate
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informal education and semi-detached work
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Randomness

There is a link between creativity and thinking outside the box, I have often used edward de bonos ideas for creativity thinking for youth work, and it is great for coming up for ideas for parties but when you explain such random ideas to your friends on the invites you do get the odd strange look. Anyway following on from last years weird beard new years eve party this year thanks to creative thinking processes we are doing One for the road – Come as or with your favourite roadsign!

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