Goof afternoon everyone!

Unusually for me, I’m having today (Friday) off, which is the reason for the picture of my laptop on the sofa. I’d give this week 6.5/10 overall. It’s not been bad at all, but I’m not sleeping too well and I’ve had a lingering headache that I’ve struggled to shift.

Anyway, on Saturday we came back from holiday and we were back at church on Sunday morning. I did communion at the 8.45 and 10.45. I was grateful that I wasn’t preaching because it definitely took some time to get my brain in gear! But we had a phone call after the second service asking if it would be possible to arrange an emergency wedding due to a really poorly relative of the couple, so I’ve spent a lot of this week making phone calls and filling in paperwork to try and make that happen.

On Monday I took a funeral, did a visit and then chaired the ministry team meeting. The rest of the week has involved Alpha, two mid-week services, Ashes To Go in the village, deaconing for Nathan at St Peter’s on Ash Wednesday, a Redgate Committee meeting and a chat in Liverpool about new making congregations. Tonight we’re off to see The Red Shoes ballet with Polly and Martin. Tomorrow I’m running a stall at a coffee morning for Fairtrade Fortnight, so it will be a late night tonight and followed by an early start in the morning.

It’s been a full week. Nathan and I sat down one afternoon to go through our diaries from here until Easter and, what with one thing and another, it’s chocka. Two weeks after Easter we are moving to Aintree, and then it will be all change as Nathan starts life as a vicar and I learn how to commute. So, as I said to Nathan, ‘I’ll see you when we go on holiday to Anglesey in June!’.

So, with all that in mind, I’m trying to pace myself. We have both given up alcohol for Lent (apart from a couple of special occasions, like my birthday), and I was starting to feel guilty that I hadn’t committed to doing more. But then, looking at my diary, I think that is quite enough.

Anyway, the highlight of the week for me was Ashes To Go on Wednesday lunchtime. We took the new table into the high street and ‘ashed’ anybody who wanted it. We chatted to people, prayed with people and got to connect to people when we wouldn’t have otherwise. It was just great! I’d forgotten how much I loved this kind of thing. I used to be a part of the Cuppa team at Uni who gave out hot drinks to people as they walked home from the clubs. It can be scary walking up to people and striking up a conversation with them, but it’s just so rewarding when people respond positively!

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My weekly star is Garth. Garth is a reader, and he is wise and kind. But the reason that he gets a mention this week is because he quietly and efficiently gets practical jobs done. Like finding slabs for the new bike rack to stand on, clamping and gluing a piece of furniture that needed some attention, collecting bags of donated clothes to take to Merseyaid, and once making a huge wooden whale for the children to decorate during the sermon series on Noah! What a star!

That’s all for now 🙂