AWESOME!

Today has been awesome. We held an hour of prayer at Stanford le Hope Salvation Army at 12 noon it was good to see folk from the Army and it was great to see people joining with us from other churches in the area. There were various prayer spaces encouraging people to pray for local churches and schools, the Jubilee Celebrations and the Olympics. There was also an opportunity to send a card to someone to let them know that they had been prayed for. Finally there were 60 one minute prayer prompts on a PowerPoint presentation from Fresh Expressions. Meditative music was played in the background as people prayed silently. I have attached a few photos for you to see.
Life as a Salvation Army officer is varied, this afternoon I did a funeral pastoral visit, and then to finish the day off did the cash books and counted money with my treasurer.
After dinner this evening I have spent time cutting out 'crowns' for cup cake wrappers for the weekend. I have managed to cut out 25 so only another 75 to go!!!!!!

A Day of Variety

Today has been a day full of variety, this morning was toddler music and mayhem, there was a good crowd in once again. I then received an email from personnel telling it might not be possible to do two of the courses I have applied for, hopefully this might get sorted in the next few days.
I spent the afternoon getting ready for worship on Sunday, We shall be celebrating Pentecost and also the fact that I have been a Salvation Army Officer for 29 years. This weekend is Congress meetings at the Royal Albert Hall this brings back many memories as this where I was commissioned/ ordained.
I also spent some more time on the Jubilee Celebrations, I also prepared an hour of prayer which will be taking place at the Salvation Army Corringham Road Stanford le Hope, hopefully this will be a sign of things to come.
Tonight I have had a new experience as I spent some time on the Bar n Bus, which is run by local churches in the area. The bus gives teenagers an opportunity to socialise and share in conversation, the adult helpers are Christians and are there if the kids need to talk. It was a good experience and I hope to help with this on a fairly regular basis. I have attached a picture of the bus which was parked up in Corringham.

Gift boxes and more.

Today has been another day of training so it was an early start travelling to Hatfield Peverel, the training lasted all day and on my way back I called into Basildon Hospital to visit one of my folk.

This evening I have spent time cutting out gift boxes for our Jubilee Celebrations on June 3. I managed to cut out 26 boxes, so with the 20 I made up last week I only have another 54 to go. Mind you it's not just the cutting out but the folding and the making of the boxes as well, but I think I will have some help with that, thank goodness.

Churches Together

We had a good time of worship this afternoon it was good to share in fellowship. We took time to think how we can make ourselves and our Christian experience relevant to others. We also thought about our relationship with God by praying through the day everyday.

Tonight has been our Churches Together Service at Stanford Methodist Church Rev Shirley Clayton prepared a well thought out and helpful service of readings and meditations challenging us to work together and worship together.

On my return home I have spent the rest of the evening preparing for Craft Group on Wednesday here is a photo of the card the ladies will be making.

Printing,printing and more printing

Yesterday I was out selling the War Cry at Morrisons Corringham, then spent some time at the Coffee Morning which proved to be time well spent.

In the afternoon I had the pleasure of visiting two ladies who want to help with our Jubilee Celebrations. It was good to meet with them and share some time in prayer. We are hoping that by September we will have set up a monthly inter denominational prayer meeting. There seems to be some exciting things happening at the moment and it is good to have the opportunity to network once again.

It is my hope and prayer that the churches in Stanford and Corringham will be be able to work closely together in the future and that great things will begin to happen.

I had a few hours off this morning and then spent several hours doing the print outs for the activities and competitions for the Jubilee Celebrations. I also managed to finish and print off the feedback forms and information sheets. The last task I completed was the production and printing for the Open Air Songs of Praise.

Things seems to be coming together nicely I am now praying for nice weather or at least a dry weekend. Keep on believing.

Quick Post

Just a quick post tonight as I need an early night!!

Still planning jubilee celebrations and found these boxes as a free download so think I shall print and make some of these up. The free download is from crafty ferret.co.uk

Contacts! Grays! Jubilee Celebrations

Well today has certainly been a day full of variety. Firstly Parent and Toddler group and whilst at the hall I had a lady come to see me to discuss Christian networking in the town. Had the privilege to share with another person who needed to talk.

This afternoon I led the Ladies Meeting at Grays Salvation Army, I was able to share with the ladies my love of Scrapbooking and let them see some of the scrapbooks I had created.

I spent time talking to them about my cancer journey, sharing a reading from my personal journal and showing them my Scrapbook I made during cancer treatment. It was a real privilege to share with them especially when three of the ladies came to me afterwards to share their own journey with cancer.

After the meeting I went shopping for our Jubilee Celebrations, I was looking for prizes for the competitions we will be running. I managed to get some great items including Drink Bottles with images of London, Jubilee mugs and key rings, flags and I bought some notebooks and have made covers for the using the 'London Rubber Stamp Set' from Barbara Gray. I have attached a photo to show you what they look like.

My day concluded by doing some financial work with the treasurer. On returning home I had a phone call from a lady who with her friend would like to help with our Jubilee Celebrations so I am meeting with them on Friday to discuss this further.

Well I am off to bed now for a well earned nights rest before another busy day tomorrow.

Training, training and more training

It was good to have a couple of days off at the beginning of the week especially as life has been full on ever since!

Wednesday was Craft Group the ladies in the card making group were really pleased with the cards they made with the help of the Cuttlebug and Colour Core card. In the afternoon Major Lois Robinson led worship at our Ladies Meeting. I managed to get a few hours to myself in the evening spent a bit of time crafting making cards for people who had ordered them. The pop out butterfly card by Rob Addams is proving to be very popular.

Thursday was time for Toddler Music and Mayhem and once again we had new mums and children. I was visited by my boss in the afternoon then after this I spent some time on Jubilee Weekend preparations. Thursday evening I attended my first Thurrock Food Bank project meeting. It was good to meet some new people and work on such a worthwhile project even if I didn't get in until 23:05.

I have spent two days at the end of the week doing training. The first course on Friday was learning how to Manage Performance of Employees, then yesterday the day was spent on a course regarding Child Safety and Protection.

This afternoon we had a lovely time of worship led by Lois where we were challenged to expect the presence of Jesus and to see Jesus.

Finally this evening I have spent the time preparing for Craft Group on Wednesday, this week the ladies will be using Flower Soft and learning how to use this to decorate their cards. I have attached some samples for you to see.

Time of rest and 'ME' time

Had a lovely day yesterday, busy doing nothing. Well that is apart from making some cards for people who had requested them. It was great just to have some time to myself, and I wasn't really bothered about the weather even if it did rain most of the day.

Been to the Christian Resources Exhibition today and met up with two very dear friends Emma and Mandy Lockey. It was good to share some time in conversation with them. If you are looking for Christian Craft Supplies why not look at their web site 'Timetosow.com'

Well I have a busy day tomorrow so will sign off now and leave you with some pictures of my cards.

Bank Holiday

I am now enjoying some time off and spending a couple of days with my mum. I was hoping to go to about fair tomorrow but I don't think that will happen due to the weather, so I will enjoy a leisurely day of crafting. I had an order for 2 cards for a three year which I have now completed. I attach photos.
Well the Jubilee weekend is only 4 weeks away, so prep for this now in full swing, I printed just over 600 flyers for this event and hope to distribute these in the next couple of weeks.

Day Off?

Well today should have been my day off but sometimes things don't go to plan. I spent most of the morning preparing PowerPoint for worship tomorrow. This afternoon I spent time getting ready for the Craft Group on Wednesday.
I was hoping to spend some time this morning delivering flyers for our Celebrations on the Jubilee Weekend by the rain put paid to that. Anyhow here are some pictures of the cards ready for Craft Group.

Fellowship meal and other things

Today we held our fellowship meal at the Salvation Army, the menu was Chicken Breast, carrots, green beans and new potatoes, followed by ice cream. We had a very interesting afternoon at our Ladies Meeting when Betty Makoni came and shared with us. We then began a new venture which is our Ladies Fellowship Timbrel Group the ladies did very well for their first attempt and I have high hopes for the future. Finally I received through the post yesterday a new rubber stamp, I particularly like the wording. I have attached a photo of a card I made with the stamp.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

Life has been quite busy over the last few days, altough I did manage to visit a craft shop at South Ockendon, Essex on saturday morninng, it was like an 'Aladdins Cave', needless to say I ended up spending a little bit of money.

Sunday I led worship at the Salvation Army Stanford le Hope, and then in the evening I watched some TV and started some preparation on a Wedding Card I need to make.

Yesterday, a Church review was held, thankfully this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Although I did have some work resulting from this, so I tackled this in the afternoon. Last evening I attended some training at Grays Adult Education College in regards to the Jubilee Weekend I am arranging at the Salvation Army on 3/4 June.

Today the day started with our Toddler Group, although it was wet and windy we still had some mums turn up. One of our Toddlers Oliver has come on leaps and bounds over the last few months, and he loves singing a song entitled, 'Our God is a Great Big God. He has now managed to learn all the actions. With the permission of the mums that were present I have uploaded the video for others to enjoy.

A couple of weeks ago I managed to break my Cuttlebug, obviously I wasn't very happy, as I knew it would cost me about £60 to replace it, but after doing some research on the Internet, I found a brand new one on EBay for £18, the reason it was so cheap was that it had no handle. Result I used the handle from my old machine and now I have a nice new shiny Cuttlebug.

Well there is another busy day ahead of me tomorrow, more preparation for our Jubilee Weekend. Then we have our Fellowship Lunch at the Salvation Army at 12:15pm, followed by our Ladies Meeting at 2pm, and Betty Makoni is our speaker.