Sunlight didn’t exist in Edinburgh all of yesterday. Just clouds. Dark greyness. Cold. Rain. Wind.
So I think I might need to make this my desktop background once again, to remind me that sunshine really does exist. Even if it is just in beautiful Cape Byron. Ahhh.
Back in my student days, my friend Liz introduced some of our Assent cell to the wonderousness of poi. Raz got addicted, I got addicted, and by the time Imagine rolled round one of my fave people from City Church, Kath had her own set of flag poi. I got a set in Australia and since then have taken poi to Imagine which has been a great tool to reach out to some of the youth on the fringes of the event.
I took it to Cornwall, onto the beach after the surfer’s blessing and the next thing you know this is going on…isn’t it good that the BrunetteKoala paparazzi was on hand again? Tee hee hee!
Baby T found the Daddies poi display mucho amusing…
As did me and their significant others – bring on the joy and ‘Lucy’ (Mrs Rev gor renamed when the girls informed her that she was their big sister)…and a couple from the Rev’s church who we met later that day and shared these pics from.
Who knew The State That I Am In or The Rev were closet happy clappy charismatics?!! Grace and peace to you brothers…grace and peace…because you knew this post was coming…. 
2 Sundays ago I was strolling and poi-ing on a beach in Polzeath, Cornwall. I think this photo of Bring on the Joy and her mini-me is my favourite photo from that day.
Someone at MBC thought I was Miss S’s older sister a few months ago. No. BOTJ is not my Mum. She isn’t (and doesn’t look) old enough for a start.
The guys in Bombay Feast think that BOTJ is my sister.
Miss S said on Monday that apparently I could be her sister “because we have the same hair“.
I’m confused. My smallgroup has become very incestuous sounding all of a sudden.
Anyway, I love that photo anyways. Wellies and beaches are amazing.
More pictures from our road trip down the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.
that's me attempting to cartwheel, in case you're wondering....
Yep, another pre-scheduled post. You can see if I’ve managed to find a computer in South Africa to update how things are going over at the South Africa blog.
So I’ve mentioned before about how our church is restructuring to start this new thing called missional expressions.
Well, some of us thought of a beach/surfing/camper van one.
And we are of the smallgroup that started The Art of Joy.
So we decided to create some scenes for you to show you how it works…
It all starts with the Ocean, waves, sand (ie God’s creation), a surfboard, a VW camper van with Jesus at the centre. And Barbie apparently (wondering if she’s there to represent the night time camper van use as a care van for the ladies of the night…hmmm).
Along comes one of us…with a barbecue. Because food is an important part of building community…(at least I think so!)
Oh look! Here comes TheStateThatIAmIn back from a surf and manning the barbecue. Who wants a burger from the barbie? (ooh we’ve gone all Aussie in our speak!)
Hey! Someone else has come to join us…welcome!
Where did they go? Oh…they’ve gone surfing. But someone else has come along too…with a skateboard.
“Wow. I can’t even skateboard on a pavement, never mind on sand.” says Brunettekoala
“Me neither” says Bringonthejoy
“GRANNY PANTS!!!!!!” shouts Miss Sweetroot to the Beetroot as she scores a goal in the beach football competition.
“Granny pants?! Where did you learn that Sweetroot?” says thestatethatiamin
“La la le la le la la….honestly who would teach such a phrase to children?!” says BK staring at the sky
For a step-by-step guide on how to create your own missional expression community (or if you live in Chorleywood, a ‘Mission Shaped Community’) head over to learn from the wise words of Bringonthejoy
So the last time I remember the weather being warm like this in Scotland was the summer of 2006. The summer I spent finishing off my dissertation on providing culturally appropriate maternity care (the word ‘transribe’ still makes me shudder just like ’statistics’ and ‘SPSS’ do). The summer I started training in pregnancy crisis counselling. The summer I graduated after 5 years at the University of Aberdeen.
It was the summer where I introduced my friends to the wonders and fun of trying to cartwheel on beaches.
Aberdeen as a city has many down points (mutant seagulls, smellyness, sleazy oil riggers, general greyness due to all the granite buildings, dark and subarctic winters…) but it’s beach was a major plus point.
Though I remember some of the Aussies in Byron Bay laughing when I told them about our 2006 heatwave when the temperature in Aberdeen reached a record high of 29.5ºC (85ºF) which made headline news (seriously 4 page spreads in the newspapers and everything). They also didn’t believe me about the mutated nature of the Aberdonian seagulls.
Trust me on this. The Aberdonian seagulls are about 4x the size of your average seagull. They even shoplift. And divebomb you in the middle of the street. They are evil. Yes. EVIL.
Other Travelling Tuesday blogs
Yeah, ok, I know it’s actually Wednesday. But there was a lot going on yesterday!
These pictures are of one of my favourite and I think one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the world. And my photos don’t come CLOSE to doing it justice.
This gorgeous beach – the white sands – is on the North(ish) West Coast of Scotland near Morar. Morar is a tiny place between Arisaig and Mallaig. On a clear day you can see the islands of Skye, Rhum and Eigg. You get amazing shells, and the water is clear and blue. On this particularly day we took a canoe out on the water, and it was simply gorgeous.
White sand and clear water also reflects the sun’s UV rays and all of us (despite using sunscreen) came back to Edinburgh from that trip extremely sunburned. I just remember my friend’s Mum and sister practically peeing their pants with laughter at the sight of us lobsters on our return!
More about this area of Scotland in future blog posts to come, I’m sure.
What I’m listening to…
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