Well this is it - the first lot of official church publicity for X:site is complete. Here is a sneak preview of the front sheet. Tomorrow I'm off to Divisional Head Quarters (sounds like I should be meeting with Miss Moneypenny or Q!) of the Salvation Army to photocopy the rest of the info that will go out along with this. We heard this week that we have received some money from a key church and so this means that we can start moving forward with things that have been on hold - like sending out this publicity, and having an official email address. We are really thankful for this gift.

I am also in the process of writing personal support letters to try and raise funds to cover my 2 days a week that I will be devoting to working on X:site Birmingham, but also assisting with the national coordination. I hate this kind of thing (asking people to support me, not the work itself!), but it has to be done.



Kind of wierd to see it all official now. Makes me realise that this vision is becoming a reality! Scary. But very exciting.

I got the job! They phoned yesterday at 10am and offered it to me. Wahoo! I will start the first week in July.

I'm waiting for a phone call. Apparently they will call or write to me today to let me know whether I have the job or not. It's a pretty fast decision but I guess they want to get on with it.

So how did it go? Well I arrived in plenty of time (after much fervent prayer whilst sitting stationary in a traffic jam on the motorway on the way there) and I was taken straight into the interview room. There were 3 folk on the panel - the director of Venture and Falcon Camps (the are I would be working in) the coordinator for the Falcon camps and one of the three coordinators for the Venture camps. The latter two were lovely ladies who were encouraging, smiled and nodded whilst I was answering the questions. The director however just seemed like he didn't want to be there. Whilst the ladies were asking me questions he was looking out of the window, fiddling with his pen, anything but looking at me. Maybe it was some high powered distraction technique to see how I coped, but I think not. I felt like I answered all the questions fairly well, even the one "so what do you think you won't like about this job?" which kind of threw me and was hard to answer since I don't know all the details of what the job entails.

But they asked me one question which I really flounderered with. They said you are obviously very enthusiastic about the work you do and about administration and organisation, but would you do if you were working for a manager who isn't. So I started to explain about a situation I had been in before at the GP practice where I was really enthusiastic to change things, to organise systems and others weren't, because they wanted to do things they way they always had, and how I had worked with them, gained their trust and respect, explained clearly what my ideas and intentions were, made sure I heard their thoughts etc. And then they ask again, yes but what if it isn't that they aren't willing, it's just they aren't passionate about that kind of thing. I explained that everyone has different passions and that is ok, so long as I'm passionate about my job. Then the man turns and says yes but you will be working for me and to be honest I'm not hugely passionate about administration. So I tried again: well I think that's ok, because I'll be the one doing the administration surely? And as long as I'm passionate about what I'm doing that's what matters right? But I just didn't feel like I was getting the question or something, because it seemed kind of obvious to me but they didn't seem to get it. The director also said that they hadn't asked for huge amounts of qualifications or experience and I obviously had both so why was I applying for this job and how did it fit in with my career path. A good question but he had already asked me why I wanted the job, what interested me about it etc. And I told him that I don't have a career path mapped out. I know what things are important to me in a job and I know the area I feel I'm called to work in and that is with children and with something that involves organisation. That's it. I kind of felt like he was saying you've managed an office, what do you want to do admin here for. But right now this is where I feel would be right for me. Yes I might not have huge responsibility at first, but for one I have that in other areas of my life and with the work I'm doing with X:site, and also I'm sorry but I don't see administration as a low-life job, but something that underpins everything else that takes place there. My experience of work has always been that I've entered into an organisation doing the seemingly "menial" tasks and then as I've proved myself in them, I've moved up. I thought a christian organisation would be different in terms of expecting people to be desperate to get on up the career ladder. He also went on about how far it was to come (it takes 40 minutes). I tried to explain that it wasn't really an issue for me and that actually it can easily take 40 minutes to get across the other side of the city centre to a job, and it's quite a nice drive out of the city actually.

Anyway I don't know if it was just me feeling insecure with this guy and like he hated me, because the other two ladies were lovely. After the interview I had to a small scenario test - just putting tasks in order of priority and giving reasons for your decisions. Then another lady in the Ventures team showed me round. She graduated 2 years ago and has worked there since and seems really lovely. The place is all open plan and everyone is equal - the director of the whole CPAS organisation just sits at a similar desk across the room. There is an optional prayer time each day at 12 with different people leading it. It was pretty quiet everywhere (felt like I had to whisper!) but everyone was really friendly and as Laura was showing me round they all stopped and chatted to me.

So I came away thinking of all the things I could have said, should have said etc. I think that everyone always does that. Fiona had prayed on Wednesday that I would know when I was there if it was right and that would match whether I got the job or not. I came away completely down the line. I mean I liked it, I liked the place, I liked the people. I think I would like to work there. I don't see myself there for the rest of my life working as an administrator, but for right now it's perfect. I felt like the director didn't necessarily like me, but that could be me and it could be the situation we were in. But on the other hand if I didn't get the job, I bizarrely feel like that would be because God doesn't want me there. Because I did the best job I could at the interview and I am more than qualified (in fact my over qualification seemed the problem!) And perhaps it wouldn't have worked with him. But now it's just the waiting......

I have a job interview this morning (10:15) at CPAS. This is the Church Pastoral Aid Society and they are an evangelical Anglican mission agency working with churches and communities across the UK to "inspire and enable churches to reach everyone in their communities with the good news of Jesus Christ". They have a large emphasis on children and youth. The job is the for the position of administrator for the Falcon and Venture residential holidays they run for children and young people. It's a good job. It's 3 days a week, so I will spend the other 2 working on X:site. In some ways it is very similar to Scripture Union and the people I have spoken to at SU who have good contact with the guys at CPAS, so it's a good organisation, nice people and a lovely office environment. I think I would like this job. I know I do, but I'm scared of thinking like that too much in case I don't get it.

The thing is I've never had a proper job interview. The only interview I have ever had was to get into nursing at Birmingham University. Apart from that it has always been by word of mouth, or by working in one capacity and then be given a better higher up job through that. I know I can think on my feet, I know I can come across quite well. But I am still scared. What happens if they ask me to think of a scenario when..... and I can't? They are not trying to catch me out I must remember that. I must just be myself right? I've read through my application form, I've thought of some possible questions and their answers, I've read through the information on the organisation, I've prayed. There isn't anything else right?

Oh man I feel real queasy and nervous. If you are of the praying variety - please pray! Will let you know how it goes.

Well I said I would start writing again here and then haven't for 2 weeks! Sorry!

Things have been busy with lots of work for X:site. This is the children's event I'm involved in setting up. This has been quite a journey and I'm going to tell you about it now! Just over a year ago, after Spring Harvest 2005, Julie spoke to me about X:site Leeds. Julie works for Scripture Union and is the one who really got me into children's work properly. I met her when I first volunteered at Spring Harvest in 2004 and she just believed in me, encouraged me, and involved me in lots of different things. Julie set up X:site in Leeds in 2004, following a real passion to see children from across the city coming together to develop a relationship with Jesus, to get into the Bible, to pray, to worship and to have LOTS of fun! And it had to be relevant, interactive, high tech, cool and appealing to the kids (aged 7-11). So X:Site Leeds was born. In May 2005, after hearing lots about X:site, I went to one of the events, and loved it. And I found myself thinking "wouldn't this be amazing in Birmingham" But I really felt that I couldn't do it. I didn't have any contacts, and who was I anyway - I'd only been a Christian for 5 years and I didn't know how to run an event like this.

So I went away from there, but kept thinking about it. Then I met Emma, who had volunteered at Spring Harvest too, and lives in Birmingham and she came to X:site and loved it and thought "oh wouldn't this be amazing in Birmingham"!! But the two of us still didn't think that we could do it. Partly because we both felt completely inexprienced and partly because we didn't just want to run it ourselves, but we wanted the whole philosophy of it to be whereby people from across the city "owned" it and ran it. And we didn't know anyone across the city! So we kept on thinking about it, but that was it.

Since then Emma and I have been involved in helping to lead the children's programmes at the World Baptist Congress and Spring Harvest and have discovered a lot more about what it takes to run an event like this. But we still didn't feel it would work. We kept thinking, if only there was someone else - someone who knew people in the city, someone who had these connections. Then along came Anne! Anne is a children's worker at Riverside church and happened to be sat at the dinner table at a Scripture Union conference, next to Jan who helps lead X:site Leeds. Anne was saying how she had a desire to see children coming together from across the city but she didn't know in what format, how, who etc. And Jan said X:site and gave her Emma and my phone number! So we met and Emma and I both then felt that it was right now and we should get on with it! So we started meeting and praying, and we put together an information pack and sent it out to churches and christian organisations to try and recruit a core team.

Well we now have a core team of 12 and have the event dates booked! Our first event is January 2007, which feels like a long way away, but I'm sure that time will fly. We have just designed the church publicity and are having a very exciting envelope stuffing party in 2 weeks! I am doing all the administration (funnily enough!) and am actually planning on taking 2 days a week to work solely on X:site stuff (I've just applied for 2 jobs both 3 days a week). As X:site has taken off in other locations too (Calderdale, Sutton, Gloucester, Preston), Julie has moved to coordinate it nationally and I'm working with her and Mark (from Leeds) on issues at a national level, which is really exciting. I'm on a steep learning curve, but am really loving it.

If you want to find out more about X:site you can check out the website: http://www.xsite.uk.net and soon there will even be a specific Birmingham section! But I will keep you updated on how it goes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!!!

I've decided to restart blogging here, and my opening blog is a tribute to my incredible friend Melanie who got me blogging in the first place back in March 2004 and whose birthday it was yesterday.


I met Melanie in February 2004 and despite her living in Canada and us only spending 9 days together in those 2 years, my life has not been the same since! Here are just a few things that I have learnt, discovered, experienced in this time:

1. Pears and peanut butter
2. How to abide by the ER rules (I think the threat to have me deported from the country if I broke them helped!)
3. Crazy cycling along the beach in Belgium
4. Tree climbing
5. Ice tea, dill pickle dip and chips
6. Immense unconditional love
7. Falling asleep whilst listening to M writing essays through the incredible invention of Skype
8. Swimming in the ocean together
9. A window into the world of an awesome archivist
10. Crazy levels of grace
11. Painting together on the apartment floor
12. Brutal honesty
13. Some of the intracies of Tour de France (and cycling in general!)
14. Side splitting laughter
15. Tears
16. The world's worst ever sunburn
17. Phone calls in the middle of the night
18. The toilets in the chaplaincy
19. Brennan Manning, Vinyl Cafe, Sara Groves, Great Big Sea
20. Being heard, understood and known

There are more, so many more (like me driving Melanie and Nathan's car - I have never seen M quite so scared!!!) Melanie you are loved, treasured, appreciated, heard, wanted, enjoyed, and celebrated by myself and many many others. Happy Birthday my friend.

I think one of God's greatest gifts to humans was enabling us to swim.

Since starting work at the GP practice on Wednesday I have been running once and swimming twice. I don't know why, but the routine of work has encouraged me to get back into doing exercise again. And not really for physical reasons, although sitting at a desk all day does make me crave the pool, but it always really helps me psychologically. When I swim my head is clear and I just focus on my breathing and my lengths. I tend to work 8-4 so it means that I can go swimming after work. Today I had planned to swim, but then felt really lethargic. I decided that I would appreciate it once I'd been so I forced myself to go and once in loved it. I was in the fast lane (as someone decided to use the medium lane for learning how to swim!!) with these two guys and so decided to show them what us girls are made of! I did 50 lengths in just over 25 minutes, so was well pleased. Plus the guys ended up being your typical male swimmer - blast up and down for 2 lengths looking all athletic and then stop and stand in the shallow end for about 5 minutes talking about muscles and six packs! This is my pool:

Its really old fashioned and the showers are open ones at the end of the pool, so I usually have a VERY quick shower. Today I stayed in longer because I was watching a funny scene. There were these African women in the pool who wouldn't get out at the end of the session (I swam until 3:30 when it closed). The lifeguard was getting very irrate and in the end I suggested hooking them out with the lifesaving pool. Thankfully, for them, he didn't resort to that.

After swimming I went to Cafe Nero (for the second time as before swimming I had met a friend there) and read and journalled. Cafe Nero has now become unconsciously associated with quiet, calm and safety. So whenever I go it helps me to find those things.

I'm off now to create a financial budget for myself. Oh the exciting world of being grownup!

I'm back. Sort of in one piece. I seriously don't think I've EVER felt this tired. Up at 6:45 and not sitting down once (except for a couple of 10sec toilet stops!) until lights out at 10:00pm. Then another meeting until 11:30. Finally falling into bed at midnight ready to start all over again the next day. We didn't even get to sit down to eat a meal as we would be serving and clearing away the entire time. I enjoyed it, there were some fantastic moments, but I did struggle with not being able to get any time to myself. No time to think, to reflect, to just be. But it was a learning experience.

These are the kids from my group when we went to flamingo land (a rather tacky theme park).

This is the entire group outside the castle.

Well I finally have a date for my job interview - 20th Spetember. Up until then I'm going back to the GP practice where I worked last summer. I enjoyed that last year so I hope it should be fun.

So today I am off to do a week long children's camp up in North Yorkshire (thats the top right bit of England.) I'm working with Scripture Union again (the folks I was working with at the World Baptist Congress) We have 54 kids going aged 8-11 years. We will be doing games, craft, trips outs, Bible teaching, small group work. So it should be great fun, but shattering as it is pretty much 24/7. If they don't sleep, we don't sleep! We will be staying at this VERY posh boarding school, that is run by Benedictine Monks (although I'm not sure they will be about whilst we are!). Tons of famous folk - although I can't remember any names right now - have gone to school there. It's in the middle of nowhere. Check out these pictures of it:







It's all very English. Looks like the setting for a Harry Potter film!

See you in a week!