Hello world,
Woah! Where has the time gone? Last time I wrote an update I had been in Swansea 2 weeks, and suddenly I'm in my final week of my UK placement. How?? I guess time really does fly when you're having fun.
It has come to that time again however, where I sit down in front of my laptop to update all you lovely people, and I cannot find the words to articulate everything that has happened or how I'm feeling. I am having the best, and the busiest time, and I don't know where to start.
A really awesome thing that we've done since I last wrote is we had a kids club and light party at Dunvant during the half term week at the end of October. We did 2 days where we looked at super heroes of the bible and on 1 day we did Joseph, and the other was on Esther. The emphasis was really on how these people were brave and courageous through God's strength in times of trail. We had a good number and it was a really encouraging time. We also threw a light party on Halloween for the kids who were at the club, where the theme was focusing on light in a time of darkness. We played lots of cool games like Tic Tac glow and dodgeball with a glowstick ball, and made an awesome (if I do say so myself 😉) stain glass window craft with either a cross or a candle in the middle.
That was a hectic week! Since then it's been much more back into the routine here, with structured things like the toddlers, kids and youth groups in Castleton, youth and student groups in Dunvant, regular, manic Sundays and all that they involve, and LOTS of admin and creative jobs, which surprisingly, I am absolutely loving. It's been really cool to able to design new publicity resources like holiday club and light party posters, a new I-Club flyer and new banners for different outreach projects within the church. I've decided that I find that quite therapeutic.
Something that keeps coming to my attention since coming here is appreciating God in the big things, but also finding him in the little, mundane, ordinary things. We've been very blessed in Swansea to have an incredible autumn where we have seen God's beauty and wonder through gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, incredible big moons, and fantastic waves and scenery. But I have also made a big emphasis on seeing God and finding joy in everyday things, such as the smiles of children when they see Alfie in assemblies. (A puppet dog that Steve uses), the frost that we've had to scrape off the car some mornings, surprise Christmas lights in the kitchen, the camera quality and the cinematography of David Attenborough's new documentary, and the joy of good food, great company, and the debate of what defines a vowel. One of my favourite things that I have see God in while traveling around has been through what I call God rays. These are when the sun shines through a patch of cloud to create a visible and distinct ray of light. To me they have always conjured ideas and images of Gods glory, majesty and beauty breaking through the clouds, and I have always loved them. However something about seeing them in Swansea, high on a hill, looking at these God Rays shining onto the ocean and creating patches of gleaming light on the water have moved me in a new way. They are just so beautiful, and I always get choked up looking at them, because they remind me that this is only a fraction, only a tiny taste of the beauty and splendour of our Lord, that we have the privilege of knowing, loving, and one day seeing him face to face.
Phil read me a fantastic quote the other day over a McDonalds breakfast from a book called Happiness by Randy Alcorn, which I will end with. There is a whole section about finding God and joy in the mundane that I won't quote now. However there is one Section where he quotes the great C.S Lewis. In his final book "Letters to Malcom", Lewis writes;
"We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito (…) Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are 'patches of Godlight' in the woods of our experience"
