Wait

I don't know if any of you have children, or have ever worked with children, but there is one thing that I've notice is difficult for them: waiting.

I do a variety of work with children, as a Beaver Scout leader (6 - 8 year olds) and Sunday School (4 - 11 year olds). I've lost track of the number of times that I have felt like I've been pulled in a hundred different directions when the children have all wanted my attention and I've only been able to deal with one at a time. And I've uttered the dreaded word: Wait. Something that is difficult to understand. They want to know why I can't help them that second, why they can have the thing that they've requested right now, why must they wait.

The same is true in my walk with God. Except this time, I'm the child wanting to know why this hasn't happened, or why I can't have that now. When will the perfect job appear, my career path be revealed, other issues much closer to my heart. Waiting is sometimes the hardest thing. I've learnt over my many years of walking with the Lord, that His timing is never wrong. There reason something didn't happen is because... I've needed to grow more, experience something, move somewhere else, learn patience (isn't that a hard one!!).

I follow someone called Louie Giglio on twitter, and recently he tweeted "Waiting is not wasted when we are waiting on the Lord. God works while we wait." Followed by "Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14"

"God works while we wait": he is moulding us, challenging us, changing us to be more like Christ. Waiting is part of the long journey. What do you think a child would be like if they got everything they wanted straight away?

Christmas is only a week away, a time when we remember the birth of Christ. (On a side note, I was delighted that my Beavers seemed to know about the Christmas story, it's an important story that needs to be shared). Bit it is also a time for giving and receiving gifts. That period of time between Christmas eve, and Christmas morning seemed like such a long time, having to wait until you could find out what was hiding behind the coloured paper. The gift seems that much better if you've been able to wait, to have patience.

So we may not always see what is in our future, and why we must wait, but I trust and love God. I know he has my best interests at heart, so like the children that I work with, I must learn that my prayers and requests will be answered in time, just not always right now.

God bless,

Ruth x

Avoiding the most talked about topic of the day

I was going to write a blog post today, then I actually sat down to write it, and couldn't think of a thing to write. 


I could always revert to one of my favourite topics, Formula 1.


This week, Kimi Raikkonen announced that he was making a come back to Formula 1, about 2 years after he left to try new things such as WRC and NASCAR. I greeted this news with mixed feelings: I have followed Kimi's career since 2001, when he was a rookie, driving for Sauber and making quite an impression on the bosses at Mclaren, and myself. It was with joy, excitement and tension that I watch him have good races and bad races, and get with in touching distance of a World title in 2005, before he lost it to Fernando Alonso. 


Then in 2007, he final won the World Championship, much to the disappointment of British fans everywhere, as Lewis Hamilton lost it by 1 point in the final race. I remember watching the race back in second year. It was an afternoon race, and one of my housemates and I decided that we would be late to church, just so that we could see live the end of the championship. I couldn't believe it when Kimi won, and then we had to leave, arriving at church just in time for the sermon I think. I also think that one of the guys on the sound desk has also been following the race so that most of the congregation knew the result before we got there. 


You know what, having go this far I have no idea whether I blogged about Kimi winning at the time or not. Ah well, I'll carry on anyway. 


Things didn't go so well for Kimi in following years, and it wasn't much of a surprise when, despite still being in contract, an opportunity opened up in World Rally Championship for him and he took it. 


And now he's back! I love the reaction I get when I tell people at motor sport event or motor sport fans, like my former driving instructor that I'm a Kimi fan, they groan, and dispaire. Why when we have great British talent, did I choose a bloke who in a lot of peoples opinions has no personality and barely opens his mouth when he talks? To be honest, back in 2001, I picked up my dads Formula 1 magazine and just looked through to find who I thought most interesting (or cute, knowing me at that age...). And followed him ever since. 


When he left the sport, he did an interview discussing who he tipped as a future World Champion. He suggested this young gun, a kid as he was when he first started who'd managed to make quite an impression early on. Now two years on, and 2 World Championships under his belt, you can see that Kimi's judgement of Sebastian Vettel was correct. I just hope that his judgement to come back to Formula 1, with all the barriers that can face any driver coming back will have, is the right one.


And who will I support? If Kimi and Sebastian happen to be fighting for a win, who would I want to win? Hmm...


There you go, a whole blog about Kimi, sorry for that. I hope that one person manages to make it to the end :)


And I didn't mention the strike once... oops!


Take care,


God bless,


Ruth x

Recently I've mostly been...

Well hello! I'm still here.


I've been thinking (no insults please!), and I came to a conclusion: when I first set up this blog, at the insistence of a few of my friends, it was to keep people updated on what has been happening. Most of my readers then were the people regularly mentioned in my posts because they were there. Now that I'm further away from most of my friends, now is the time that I should be using more. Admittedly I think that my life is a lot less interesting, and my spelling has got worse(!!), there are still plenty of things that I could blog about.


For instance, I am now regularly helping with the church youth club every Thursday. We get anything from 6 youth, to 25+ coming along, mostly from the estate our church is based on, coming along to play pool, video games, air hockey or just hang out, with a short "God Spot". 


I am now driving, having passed my test in February, and am very grateful, that without too much traffic, my 1 hour 35 minute bus journey, has dropped to about a 40 minute drive, in the warm. 


I finally have a pet, after a lot of begging during my younger years, I went out in May with two friends to at pet shop, and came back with an eight week old Syrian hamster, who I names Tiberius. If I ever get another I'm choosing an easier name, like Joe, as my hamster is regularly called Tibs out of laziness!! He's a lovely hamster, who will constantly try to escape given half a chance and bite me if I don't pay attention... but his antics are very entertaining, even if it did cause a few sleep disturbed nights in the beginning with a squeaky wheel.


Some things haven't changed. I am still Formula 1 mad, even if I now support that unknown up and coming 24 year old (how can a 2 times World Champion be younger than me?) Sebastian Vettel. 


I'm still working as a science technician at a school, with all the madness that can come with it, as well as the strange requests. I bought 5kg of salt and a few bars of chocolate early on Thursday morning and Friday saw me grating chocolate, and making fake urine! What a combination!! 


The Beaver Scout colony at which I'm the Assistant leader is doing well. Six to eight year olds can really tire you out though! We recently has a Doctor Who in Space themed sleepover with two other groups, involving a lot of craft, and plenty of glue on the tables, chairs and floors, and lots of outdoor activities. On the night hike only one person fell over...me! How embarrassing. The good thing was that the Beavers had a good time, and were tired at the end, not just us adults.


I miss a lot of the social life that came with being at University. I don't have as many friends that live near here in Bristol, but having a car does help! An I don't see my friends who are living in places around the country as much as I would like. 


I'm going to attempt to post at least once a week, that shouldn't be too ambitious I hope, just to keep everyone informed. It's also nice to have a record so that I can see what I have done, and how God is working in my life. I'm in a supportive church, where I'm starting to feel like I'm part of it, not just an outsider, and I'm anticipating that next stage of my life that He has in store, where ever or whatever it may be!


Take care,


God Bless,


Ruth x

School trips

On Friday, I was lucky (hmmm...) enough to be asked to go on a school trip with the year 7 & 8 science clubs that I help out with. The trip was to a science fair hosted as part of the STEM clubs group (STEM is science, technology, engineering and math, as I discovered!). The fair was an opportunity to show what we had been doing over the past year and meet (and steal ideas from) other schools also involved. Also there were the MoD, the institute of physics, an aeronautics group (involved in the flying start challenge our year 9's took part in) and the Bloodhound team with the scale model of the car they hope will break the land speed record!

It was great fun and good to "network" but it was also slightly strange. It's the first time I'd been on a school trip in over 5 years and the first time I was there as a "responsible adult" (gulp!). It was a chance to get to know two of my collegues better as there was a fair bit of waiting around, and a rock physics lecture (about the physics of rock music, not stones), taken by a Dr Lewney, where Becky and I were in our element! It was also impressive (I think that's the best word) that one of our kids managed to get the number of a girl from one of the other schools!!

I'd been having a rather bad week at work, so being able to do science, get ideas and relax a bit more than normal and get paid for it was a real relief. Next time though, can we leave the kids behind?? Actually, next year I think that it's our turn to plan and host it...we have quite a challenge ahead of us!

We also had a bit of excitment today. One of the year 7 science club projects has been hatching chicken eggs. For the past three ish weeks we'd had these eggs incubating in our prep room, and had pretty much given up all hope of them hatching. The school doesn't have the best track record. So imagine my surprise and excitement when one of the teachers simply said this morning "aparrently it'll be ok to move the two chicks into the incubator in a bit." wow!! Over the weekend four of the chicks had hatched!! And they are totally adorable, but really distracting as they sit and cheep on the side! One of them has a bit of a dodgy leg so has been removed of extra special treatment but the others are all healthy. Now we need to name them...! Any ideas?



That's it for now,

Clare xx

6 Months

I have been meaning to up date this blog about 2 or 3 times since October, but seem to have got distracted by everything else. Really sorry, I'm not going to make any promises about blogging more regularly, as I'm not entirely sure what to blog about. I can keep putting up my news, but is there more that I can use this blog for?

News time then. I am now employed, as a Science Technician in a South Gloucestershire school. I started back in November, (2nd November to be precise!) and I'm finding it great. There are stresses that come with working in a school, no money left in the budget, teachers changing their minds 5 minuets before they need equipment, and kids coming and disturbing us regularly because they need a pen or pencil! But the staff are great. I'm part of a team of 5 technicians, which is higher than most schools, one of whom is part time. We get on, have a laugh and still manage to get the work done. The teachers are also great, as long as you don't catch them in a highly stressful situation. Of course two great things about working in a school are fixed holidays, and every weekend off!

I am still involved in the Bristol Nights project, going out once every 6 weeks to give tea and coffee to anyone in the city centre who is around between midnight and 3 and would like one. A few months back, our generator broke down, it was spitting out sparks and plumes of black smoke, so we were having to use gas to boil our kettles, which slowed the process down slightly. It also meant that we haven't had any external light available. But we managed. The good news is that a new generator arrived in Bristol a few weeks ago, and is being installed on the bus. So we're praying that installation goes well, and we can have electricity when we next go out on the 10th April.

I'm going to stop there, I was hoping to finish on something interesting and thought provoking, but there's nothing that springs to mind right now, but who knows, I may be back soon with something more interesting!

Take care and God bless

Ruth xx

Two Weddings, a Whole Lotta Laughing and a Birthday!

So I have a lot to tell you, September was busy.

I was privileged (I think that's the right word), to be invited to two weddings this September. They were both lovely weddings, and I wish both couples all the best for the future. I'm not sure what else to put for this part, this is the biggest problem with leaving the blog for ages!

I was very lucky to be given a ticket to go see Michael McIntyre, in Portsmouth for my birthday :) It was such a fun evening, not just seeing him live, but spending time with some of my lovely friends. Michael was so funny, really worth seeing live, and with jokes that we kept repeating throughout the rest of the night. It turns out though, that he was live in Bristol the night before!! But it wouldn't have been as much fun on my own. I also went to see the Bristol Comedy Gala, later in the month. This was to celebrate the re-opening of the Colston Hall, and to showcase some of Bristol talent, and beyond. The evening was, dare I say it, better than Michael McIntyre, but that was probably because there was a wide range of comedians, including Russell Howard, and ending with Justin Lee-Collins. The evening was long, just under four hours, but well worth it. There were some jokes that would have been lost on anyone who wasn't from Bristol, such as Peter Andre's signing at Asda, Bedminster.

As the title suggests, there was a birthday. I turned 23 at the end of September, and a lot of my friends are now taking great pleasure in calling me old... :(! I was back in Pompey to celebrate that with more of my friends, and I was able to go back to King's Church. I really do miss that place and all of my friends there, I'm going to try to make more of an effort to visit more often, I just need to find somewhere to stay!!

And finally, (these are turning into a news report :S), I have a job!!! On the 2nd November, I will be starting work as a laboratory technician at Mangotsfield School. It's maybe not where a lot of people would recommend I go, but it feels like a good place, and should be an exciting challenge!

That's it!

Take care,

Ruth xxx

Remember me?!

Ok, it's been three months since I last posted, and so much has happened that I want to catch you up on, so I'm going to divide the post into sub-headings to make it easier to miss out the boring bits!

University
I have officially finished my degree, after much stress, tears and some hard work. I graduated at the Guildhall, on the 17th July with an upper second award in BSc (Hons) Biochemistry. University has been such a life changing experience. I have learnt so much, both academically, but also it has given me life skills, I can now use a washing machine! Plus I have made so many new friends, people who I hope to still be friends with when we are all old and grey and our university days are a dim and distant memory. But that chapter of my life has closed now, I will probably still visit, but my world will be a slightly different one now.

Silverstone
My parents paid for me to go to the British Formula One Grand Prix this year. If you don't know I am fanatical about the sport, and unlike most British fans, I follow Kimi Raikkonen. My aunt and uncle go most years, as they live fairly close to the circuit, so let me tag along. What a weekend! There is something about fast cars that I find really exciting. And to see these cars and drivers that you are used to seeing on the small screen actually on the track was fantastic. We were in a Grandstand, so had quite a good view of the corner where we were. I took too many photos, but that didn't matter. The atmosphere, the noise, I can't describe it. Most people were supporting Button this year, and would stand up and cheer during the parade lap as he came past. The only downside was the early starts, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. It was about a half hour walk to our stand from where we had parked, but I am so glad that I had the opportunity.

Holiday
The day I got back from Silverstone, I was off again for two weeks of canal boating with family and one of my University friends. This year, mostly at my request, we did the Kennet and Avon canal and the river Avon. This included coming back into Bristol, which was great fun and gave me a chance to see my brother and show my friend how much Bristol has changed. We had a great time, with only one really wet day, the day we went up the Caen Hill flight of locks, near Devizes. We generally had really nice weather, very hot, which gave us more time to explore the areas we stopped at. We had such a great time, we had started planning the next holiday before we had given the boat back. We are writing a narrative log for the holiday, if anyone is interested in the details of the trip!

Family
Due to the joys of no money, whilst I find a job, I'm back living at home. I moved all my stuff back at the end of term. When I moved down in first year, I fitted everything into a Volvo estate. By the end of third year, we used a transit van. So you can imagine how much stuff I now have. To complicate issue slightly, my brother unexpectedly moved back home. It was a bit of a shock to the system, to get used to all of us back at home, but we're getting back into the routine.

Church
Having come back home, it made sense to go back to my home church, the church I've been at since I was 7, and who have supported my during my early Christian development. However, before coming home I was starting to feel that it was time to move on, and after much prayer, this has been confirmed. Given that I haven't regularly been to my church, I'm not sure this is much of a surprise for some people. Last week, I went to a different church, River of Life, based in Hartcliffe. It's further away than my present church, but is on the way to my dads church. This in itself suggests that this is all part of God's plan. I received a really warm welcome, and felt at home. This week I met up with one of my elders for a chat, someone who has been like a second mother to me. She was very supportive of my and believes that this is the right choice for me. I will keep you posted as to where I end up. Can you keep me in your prays, that I will make the right, God led choice.  

Jobs
Right, jobs. Now that I've graduated, I've got to start the fun old process of job hunting...yay! I have already found and applied for three jobs, one of which I got an interview for. It's not looking good for the other two jobs, so I'll keep looking. Eventually I'll have to widen my search, but at the moment, I want to find a science based job. Ah well, I'll keep looking, and hopefully something will turn up.
 
Banksy
As you may be aware, Banksy, famous graffiti artist, opened an exhibition at the city museum and art gallery. Due to popular demand, that queues have been up to 3 hours at times. We decided that it was too good an opportunity to miss. After one and a half hours we were in. It was a great exhibition, well worth looking around. There was one area which was solely his work, but if you looked carefully, you might spot the little touches that he had made to the rest of the exhibition, like new paintings. If you get the chance, its worth going, even if you have to queue.

Right, that was a brief update. I will really try to go back to regular posting! But not promises!!

Ruth xx (I now seem to be back to my birth name!)