Welcome to Weekly Check-in number 16! This week is getting 7/10.

On Friday evening, Nathan and I went to our friend Jack’s house to watch the final of Channel 4’s The Circle. Jack and I have been chatting about the series on twitter so it was great to be able to watch the final together over a curry.

Saturday was also lots of fun, as we did an escape room with some of our favourite people, Josh and Ash. The puzzles were really hard, and despite our best efforts, we did not manage to rescue the prisoner (Nathan) from death. Let’s not dwell on that too much.

On Sunday I took the service at St Michael’s. I also did the baptism of a lovely one year old boy, who giggled and gurgled all the way through me reading him his baptism letter. The only issue was that, as St Michael’s heating system is completely bust, three hours in such a cold building has given me back ache. Thank goodness for Deepheat!

Monday was an admin and housework day. A load of jobs had been building up, and I do love a bit of hinching! I also got to work on some of the many sermons & services I have needed to write this week.

Tuesday was much the same, with a whole load of sermons being drafted for the weekend. In the afternoon, I took communion to a friend who is currently having chemo. She is a real inspiration, and it is an honour to walk with her on her journey.

On Wednesday I took two communion services in the morning. The theme for our sermons this week is ‘expanding the table: everyone important’. I really liked that while I preached about the physical and metaphorical tables in church, I was in easy reach of the communion table that we were about to break bread around. In the evening, I had a meeting about Alpha and went to the pub for a drink with a friend.

Yesterday, I did lots more prep and we had a very productive standing committee meeting. In the evening, I led my first Starting Theology session and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

This morning, I took a funeral at the local crem and treated myself to a Starbucks and, yep, you guessed it, more sermon writing! I don’t usually have quite so much to do, but it just so happens that a lot of things have come up at once this week.

So, my weekly star is Jean, who does loads of stuff around church, including volunteering at our coffee mornings. This week, I looked up as Jean was helping a regular attendee by taking his arm, walking across the lobby and chatting to him. I don’t know what was being said, but I just thought how kind it was that she was taking care of him and helping him along his way.

I’ve been having a think and I’d like to add another new paragraph to the weekly Check-in. It will be called What I am praying for this week. Obviously, I am often praying for lots of things, but I thought I’d share one thing that I am especially praying for. This week, it is the families of those people who died in the lorry in Essex. I wonder what their lives are like, wherever they are, and I am holding them before God in prayer.

More next week.

Poppy