greenbelt 2nd comments

stuff that was amazing ...

meeting my friend Russell after a gap of a few years (his fault he slipped off our radar) ... and having a quick update, leaving him to do the thing he was involved in and slipping off into my evening feeling inner joy that we had found each other again

sitting with an 18 year old and hearing him tell me all the reasons why he couldn't be a christian and having the sure still knowledge that it would take very little effort on my part to introduce him to the awesome loving stunning God that i serve ... within one hour he wanted to become a christian ... leaving me personally blown away by the presence of God and the feeling that maybe my darkest times are behind me and that i am back on track ... tempting fate fearlessly there :)

being asked to interview Nick Page (editor of a new youth version of the bible) and spending all afternoon sick with nerves and my head full of all the things that might go wrong ... stage fright of the worse kind just prior to going on ... only to find he was a great man ... funny and repsonsive and intelligent and we seemed to start with a rapport that made it so easy to chat with him ...all that worry for nothing

trying so hard to stop smoking (for deep reasons that i might explain one day when i am feeling brave) ... failing miserably ...hating the feeling of failing and being determined to keep trying ... so have instigated a rule that if i do smoke i only smoke in the garden or the car ... that way i reduce the number of times i will light up even if i succumb ... hopefully the onset of winter will help me to reduce my intake ... or else i will be taking lots of little trips in the car :)

weird things that happened ...

pre festival running my car battery down and having dave 'saab basher' cullen drive around the corner who stopped and laughed ... a lot ... and then helped but not before he had obtained maximum pleasure of the sight of me stranded ... i sometimes wonder if some christians have ever read the story of the good samartian ... i don't recall anyone laughing at another's misfortune with unadulterated glee being a central point of the narrative

the little old dear who stopped me as i came out of contributers patio and asked me 'are you someone' causing me to look very confused while i struggled to find the right answer ... was swamped with the feeling that surely i was someone but not confident enough to assure her i was at least somebody ... she only needed help finding something

getting home and finding an email from someone telling me off because he had been told that the bread and wine for our holy joes service had been blessed beforehand in secret and how underhand it was to do that ... what actually happened was that dave t was unloading stuff from his van beside me and i had jokingly remarked how handy it was to have mates who are vicars and said he could do that vicary thing over my bread and wine ... he then jokingly waved his hand about over it and muttered 'in the name of the father ...' i then went off laughing ... he didn't finish ... i wasn't serious and we don't do that kind of stuff at holy joes ...but how did that get told to that person ... are we such a wasps nest of buzzing gossip that a slight funny exchange in a car park between friends becomes a subject of spiteful comment