the a-z of housegroup leaders' meetings

The house group leaders at Coventry Vineyard meet together every month. Yesterday was October's meeting and, over lunch we discovered that a few of us were experiencing an end-of-half-term reluctance to go. So we decided to make it more interesting and challenged ourselves to answer through the alphabet. There were 4 of us "playing" - Rob, Michelle, Dan and myself. The idea was that every time one of us spoke, we had to start our answer with the next letter of the alphabet.

The evening started off well with a few superlatives and throwaway single word comments.... "alright", "brilliant", "cool". Things got a little more challenging when Nick asked Rob a direct question about a DVD. "Don't think that's mine" - successful reply!

We carried on through the alphabet, stifling our giggles and straining to hear each other's answers and keep up with which letter was next. It was made easier by Nick's decision to show us the new series of weemee style caricatures that have been produced of us all (if you want to see them, you'll have to come on a Sunday morning) so we were able to react to the images with appropriate lettered comments which saved us from a few tricky moments with direct questions I think.

There were some amusing moments and a few quizzical looks from Rob, Michelle and I when Dan said "Red!" He claims he'd already done O, P and Q but the last thing I remember anyone saying before that was "Needs some colour in her hair"

The piece-de-resistance came right at the end though, having got through X and Y, we were all waiting for the perfect opportunity to slip in a Z word (there really aren't that many!). Nick pressed the button to reveal the last pair of caricatures and Dan shouted "Zebra!" - Sarah has drawn Dee wearing a fantastic black and white stripy top. It couldn't have come at a better time.

So, Nick, if you were wondering why we all dissolved into uncontrollable laughter at that point, now you know!

seder

We celebrated Passover at church last night.

Nick and Vicki took us through all the traditions of the meal and the symbolism behind all the different foods and stuff. (Read about it here)

It was really interesting to experience and the clips from the Prince of Egypt helped put it in context. There's loads of symbolsim in it all so its a great opportunity to take time to think about God's rescue of his people and of us today.

passion and creativity

We watched the Passion of the Christ film at church last night, 2 years to the day that Dan and I first saw it. It had far more impact on me second time around and I found myself wincing at every blow on his body and seeing myself in the various characters he meets along the way. I was particularly struck by the way the film portrays Jesus reaction to Judas' betrayal - as the guards surround him, he looks at Judas, his face full of disappointment, love and forgiveness. Its a very powerful image and I know I've done the same thing many times - let him down, had to face him and seen the same mixture of emotions.



Also want to show you two brilliant creative offerings from a couple of friends' churches this Easter.

First up is Ben Bell's Easter Card that St Stephen's Canonbury are distributing in their area. A brilliant use of contemporary imagery to depict an Easter theme.

Secondly, Chris Curtis' church is encouraging their local estate to stop and think about Easter this year, using the themes from the stations of the cross

Both so fab they had to be shared. Enjoy....

all clean and sparkly

On Sunday, the house group we're in all came to our house and we spent the morning washing cars for our neighbours.

It was great fun and I got to meet loads of people who live in the street which is fab.


(I didn't take any photos of my own so I nicked this one off the church blog. It's one of gemma's

we're not heroes, we're from Finchley...

What a weekend! Very busy so I'm going to bore you with the details. Nothing profound, just my weekend news.

Friday night - off to Barry and Sharon's for a fab home-made curry. Great food, nice wine, good company and some quality time with the dog.

Got home to find Anna and Stu in our house (we were expecting them) so drank lots of tea, ate yummy Green&Black's chocolate, talked lots and went to bed far too late.

While the others slept, I was up early Saturday morning to sit my Driving Theory Test in town. Unusually for me I was a little nervous as I hadn't had any time to do any preparation of any sort. I had managed to sit the two online practice tests which hadn't helped as I'd managed to score one less than the minimum pass mark on both occasions. In the end, the test wasn't so bad and I passed. Hurrah.

Bought a frying pan and headed back home for breakfast with Dan and Anna. None of us could be bothered to move so we just sat in the lounge all day. Anna and I did manage to get Naomi's wedding invitations finished which is a great relief.

Stu returned and we hit the pub on the corner of the road for a cheap and cheerful pub meal. Discussed the multitude of ways in which we could dispose of the irritating chirping Christmas birds behind the bar who were movement-activated and shrilled nasty arrangements of Christmas tunes incessantly.

Then to Narnia. Well, actually, to the cinema to see Narnia but you know what I mean. Great film - much more true to the book than the BBC dramatisations which felt a little rushed and certainly fairly dumbed down for a younger audience. A must-see this Christmas.

Sunday morning we were late for church as usual. I'm beginning to think it might be worth us changing every single clock in our house just to make sure we get anywhere on time! Dan was playing and I was doing coffee with Michelle. Managed to flood the kitchen with boiling water TWICE but the insides of the drawers are very clean now.

After church we joined the M1, expecting to sit in long slow queues into the cloud of black smoke that was Hemel Hempstead. We were only going as far as Luton and, as it happened, there was hardly anyone on the road. More yummy home-cooked food, this time my Mum's roast - the usual Sunday lunch but this time in celebration of my other Uncle, Derek's 50th birthday. Ate lots, completed the Telegraph crossword chatted lots...

Then to London, winding down unknown country roads through black smog, to Dan's parents. More tea, more chat, more home-cooked food (fish pizza this time - the best ever) and a few random items to put on ebay, including a programme from a West End musical in the 1930s.

Loooong slow journey back to Coventry up a very foggy M40, a bit of essay writing and a lot of sleep, disturbed only by the open window allowing wind to blow the blind in the bathroom out and push all the bottles off the windowsill and into the bath.

See.... I told you it was dull!

(P.S. if you're wondering, the quote in the title is from the Narnia film)

As I said before, the church we've joined here in Coventry is currently in the midst of a month of 24-7 prayer with another local church. This pic is just a tiny glimpse of some of the stuff in there. There are a few more photos on my FlickR (click on one of the photos in the moving thingy on the right if you want to see)

This week's theme has been Intimacy. The room is amazing. As with most prayer rooms, you can just feel God's presence as you walk through the door. People say they think they'd find it hard to pray for a whole hour. It's hard not to pray in there.

I've spent a bit of time in there this week, although not as much as I'd have liked. It's a great place of peace, just somewhere to go and meet with God. Life's so busy its hard to find time and space to get intimate with God so I've really appreciated having somewhere just for that purpose.

It's changeover this weekend as next week's theme is Holiness. I can't wait...

busy busy busy!

What a weekend!!

I had an idea this weekend was going to be quite full so I spent Thursday and Friday evenings trying to get ahead with all my work and lesson planning. It was a nice idea. In the end I spent Thursday tidying and making birthday cards and Friday evening planning one single maths lesson (wayyyy tooo long!)

Anyway, Saturday came and Dan and I went down to Westwood Church to help set up the room for a month of 24-7 prayer happening there. Westwood Church and Coventry Vineyard (the church we go to) are joining together for this month of prayer. But more on that later when I've got some photos to show you...

Setting up was fun - plenty of the usual prayer room ingredients; bits of tree, fairy lights, white muslin drapes, lining paper... you know the stuff. It was looking good when we left.

We got home at 2pm and set about in a frantic house-tidying whirlwind. Stu got caught up in it and ended up dancing round the lounge with our Dyson. Sent Dan off to Tescos just before my parents, brother and sister-in-law and aunt and uncle arrived. It was great to see them all and just chill out. 3 hours later, Dan returned from the supermarket and cooked up a fab batch of yummy fajitas, followed by a huge chocolate fondue (with additional yogurt dip). Mmmmmm! I love my husband!

After plenty of food and wine had been consumed, we played Cranium. I love that game. If you've never played it, its a kind of cross between pictionary, rapidough, trivial pursuit, charades and a few other things. Very funny. Particular highlights were Dan's miming of "Free Range Eggs" Sharon's humming performance of Don't Cry For Me Argentina. All ended well... my team won. Ha!

The olds left at that point so Gav, Em, Dan and I shared the rest of the wine and played some more games whilst exercising the rats.

Got up next morning to head off to community work at church, making sure I set the oven to roast the chicken in time for lunch later. Gav and Em assured us they'd sort the veg for us. When we returned home to find them sat on the sofa watching the Muppets, I still didn't twig that something was up. In fact, I was clueless until Dan told me that we'd arrived home earlier than planned and Jude, Lucy and Flan were all on their way and we were all going out for lunch! If Dan hadn't told me I'd have been cooking veg, totally oblivious to the plotting and scheming of all my mates!

Nice lunch followed by too much chocolate cake (thanks mum!), some tea and a bit of lesson planning when Flan, Luce and Dan disappeared off to their Halesowen gig and Jude took Gav and Em to the station. After that it was off to church and then home to watch the fab Pirates of the Carribbean with Jude.

And then today...my birthday!!

Thanks for all my lovely presents and, if you came up this weekend, thanks for coming!