and have been for a while so it's update time I suppose. Both a lot and nothing has been happening since I came home.
I came back on the 7th of June, so I've been home nearly a month. In that time I've been clearing my room, a mammoth challenge, gone shopping and seen a few friends.
The evening before I came back, Ben, Ineke, Dan, James, Hayley, Sarah and I went out for a very enjoyable meal at Tootsies, before most of us heading out to Ben's house in Titchfield Common (hopefully spelt correctly!) to watch The Pursuit of Happyness. It was a bit of a late one, but a very nice way to end to year!
I've restarted my work with the Beaver Scouts every Tuesday night, although I was doing a few things for them whilst I was away. At Beavers we have been looking a safety: Safety in the home - what to do in a fire, chemicals and electricity hazards; Safety by water - going to visit someone at Bristol floating harbour who gave us a talk on keeping safe and the hazards of being near water, as well as a planned walk, but that was called off because of a massive thunder storm. Not that that dampened the Beavers spirits and they would have been quite happy to have gone out in it; Personal safety - stranger danger mainly, who you can trust and who you can't. They were shown some faces, and asked to decide who were strangers. All except one face should have been identified as strangers, only one was...oh well, hopefully they know now; and last night we had an American evening - match the English words to the American words, identify the National anthem and eating cookies and doughnuts, and drinking coke and fanta, and having a visit from a police office and a PCSO (both very nice people and worked very well with the Beavers!)where the Beavers could look at the warrent cards, hand cuffs, pepper spray (not that they were allowed near it!!) and the radio, as well as looking at a PCSO's car, which they all loved doing.
I was also back in time for Meg's baptism. Meg is one of the girls in the youth group that I helped lead last year and it was such a joy to see her go through the waters of baptism and to see some of the people we met last summer come and support her. I just hope and pray that she can keep relying on God's strength to get her through the challenges she faces and will face in the future.
On the weekend of the 23rd, I went down to Ben's house for the Goodwood Festival of Speed. We had been planning it for a while so I was excited, despite the early morning and long day. Ben, Ineke, Dan, Tessa and I had a good day (I think!) and it was great to be around cars (how sad am I???) The only down side (except a painful shoulder and aching muscles and cut ankles...) was the thunder, lightening, rain and hail that descended on the site and turned it a little bit muddy! I arrived at Romsey on Friday and was met by Ben and Ineke, and stayed until mid Sunday, so got to visit Ben's church and meet Ben's family.
I also lead a Bible study with some of the children at my dad's church, that seemed to go well, even if the kid's were a little on the quiet side. But reports back have said the the kids were impressed.
Results are back... and I have officially passed the first year!! Yay, that's a relief, and the good news was that it wasn't as close to failing as I had feared :D.
Final thing: my right shoulder has been hurting, aching and generally being annoying, for a while, but was aggravated during the Goodwood weekend (the heavy bag didn't help... :S). Can you please pray for healing? I am probably going to have to take it to the doctors but feel pray is the permenent solution. Thanks :)
It's my mums birthday today so were going out for a meal soon ish so I should get ready. I hope to see some, most, all (maybe?) of you over the summer before restarting in October (October...?? My dad's not impressed, he thinks it's far to long!) Hopefully the weather will start being more summery.
Bye for now! Have fun! God Bless!
Clare xxx
