Today, I ate a boiled egg.

Happy New Year!
It was pointed out to me that I haven't blogged since October, and I felt rather ashamed. Truth is, I have five or six unfinished blog posts lying in the drafts box, ranging from topics of singleness to the book 'One Day' by David Nicholls. Yet, I haven't been pushing myself to finish them. But a New Year is here, and my challenge is to challenge myself. And also to stop apologising at the beginning of each post.

I had a beautiful Christmas, spending time with my family. We're a small and rather tight-knight group, who refer to ourselves as 'The Buzzards' and make frequent bird of prey jokes. It's a little embarrassing how often, when out for a walk, somebody will spot a bird circling ahead, point and shout, "Look it's one of our relations!" The clan has also multiplied considerably in recent years, as both my cousins now have small children, which has lead to hours of Hide and Seek using the only five hiding places in the house.

Christmas Dinner

The World's Oldest Video Camera

My Favourite Brother

It was good to be there. And now it's time to begin again. College resumes tomorrow, and I'm praying for the most amazing, God-glorifying last six months there. Hope you all had a great Christmas and I'm encouraging your use of the comment box this year, so let me know how it was!

p.s. You may be wondering about the blog title. 2012 promises to be a great year: finishing A-levels, hopefully off to Uni to study English, potentially spending all of July in South Africa, being a part of the new Tribe system with our church youth and to kick it all off, after 12 years of protesting that boiled eggs make me feel sick, I enjoyed one this morning. It's an exciting year!

Christmas.

This month, I've been following a Christmas bible plan. It's been awesome. I've been directed to Isaiah (which I still find really difficult to spell) quite a bit, and have discovered all these incredible Old Testament prophecies that point straight to Jesus. My mind has been well and truly BLOWN.

Today, I was told to dive back into the gospels, with a passage from Luke. For anyone who doesn't know the story of John the Baptist's birth, go look it up now! It's found in Luke 1, and is another one of those mind-blowers. The Bible is well and truly packed with them. The passage I read today tells of the priest Zechariah (again, tricky spelling) prophesying over his newborn son John. 

"And you, my little son,
      will be called the prophet of the Most High,
      because you will prepare the way for the Lord.
    You will tell his people how to find salvation
      through forgiveness of their sins.
    Because of God’s tender mercy,
      the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
    to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
      and to guide us to the path of peace.”    - Luke 1:76-79

Now I've read this passage before, quite a few times I think, but I'm not sure how I just skipped over it. "Because of God's tender mercy" <- How amazing is that? Because of God's tender mercy, he sent us Jesus. Not just his mercy, but his tender mercy. He is loving, he is kind, he is our Father. 

For me this was a reminder, that Christmas is about God having tender mercy on us, sending us Jesus. He freed us from sin, from judgement, he gave us an escape to something glorious. God was so lovingly merciful that he intervened, he came down to Earth in his own creation (again, MIND BLOWN) so that he could be reconciled to us. That's our cause for celebration, the reason for the season. The morning light from heaven has broken upon us!

And that's so stupidly exciting, I had to write about it, end of. I've also been watching The Nativity on the BBC, it's still on iPlayer, and if you haven't seen it you need to! I've cried twice already and I still have the final episode left. But then, after all, it is the greatest, most important, most beautiful story ever told.

I hope you have an amazing Christmas.

p.s. Jesus really loves you

An Update, and Some Project 125 Stuff..

So once again I must start a blog post with an apology. I'm just not very consistent with posts. Some people update every other day, and I can only admire and be absolutely baffled by them. But hey, ho!

In case y'all hadn't noticed, IT'S CHRISTMAS! A very good time of the year. Yet, with my first AS exams looming in January, I get a feeling that this Christmas isn't going to be quite as care-free as previous years.
Nonetheless, I am determined to enjoy my holiday amidst revision. Two of my favourite people will be returning from uni, the tree is going up this afternoon, it's my second Christmas with Christ, family are coming to stay with us, the next few weeks of church, lots of giving and receiving of presents and, of course, the Dr. Who Christmas special to look forward to. I'm so excited that I may even try my hand at cooking again, having found a yummy recipe for 'Christmas Bread' by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, whose name is positively spectacular.

Also, come the new year, Beth Rutland and myself will be raising money for Project 125 in a Doctor Who related way. We will be competing to see which sucker lucky person will be able to eat the most fish fingers and custard. Yep, I wrote that right, fish fingers and custard.

For those of you, who aren't Doctor Who fans (although why you wouldn't be is beyond me), you will need to watch this clip for full understanding:



The idea is that hopefully kind people such as yourself will sponsor us, and we'll make a beautiful video as proof that we did indeed eat the fish custard. This is all for the girls dormitory in Serenje, so please sponsor us! If you want to, just leave a comment on this post, or donate on the JustGiving page leaving a comment of 'Fish Custard' so we know that's what it's for.

If I don't get a chance to blog again, although fingers crossed I will, HAPPY CHRISTMAS :)

p.s. You know you want to sponsor us

Merry Christmas EVERYONE xD

Okay, so I know we're still in November, but I'm sitting here listening to Christmas and I'm just in the festive mood :)
I've had the worst day, but it's getting better. Partly because of the music but mostly because of what's happening later:
I'M GOING TO CHURCH!!

Now most people who read that will just be like "urrmmmm..."
Church? Exciting? Fun? I don't think so.
That's how I used to think. I was carted into church for my Christening (still unsure as to why I was christened, due to complete lack of Christian family, but oh well) and forced back there every year or so for Easter service or mothers day. Church was compulsory, and... it was deadly boring. My Dad refused to set foot in church, which left my Mum with the job of setting a good example. The Reverend would talk, and my brother and I would gaze around the building at all the other children, all feeling the same pain, all mentally wishing ourselves some place else.

Of course, nowadays I realise that what the Reverend was talking about probably wasn't all that boring, but to the mind of an 8 year old, it was insufferable.
For the 15 years THIS was my image of church, THIS was my only contact with God.

So imagine the shock I got when my best friend invited me along to her church. It was something else altogether. Firstly, there were teenagers there :O
Real, living, breathing teenagers, who actually looked happy, and not like they were there against their own will.
Secondly, there was worship. You know when you sing a hymn, but you're not actually singing, you're just kinda mouthing the words... and mouthing the wrong words in the wrong places because you don't know the tune, and you really don't care...
Well it was nothing like that. Every single person was singing, singing loudly, singing from their very souls.
I can't really explain to you the effect this had, and still has on me. For someone who had never been really sure of anything, to stand there among those people, who were singing with faith, with love, with purpose. I wanted to know what had inspired this, I needed to know.
The third thing that hit me was the kindness. In real life, strangers don't smile at you, they don't want to talk to you. They don't care about you. Suddenly, there are people I don't even know, and they were being nice to me. I can't tell you how unnerving it was.
That night, I started asking questions, and I was given answers. That night was the beginning of my journey.

6 months after that first visit, and I'm a very different person. I mean I'm writing about God, on a blog, on the internet for all the world to see :)
The church is like my second home, some days I just want to chain myself inside and NEVER LEAVE :P
So to everyone out there who's never experienced a church like that, a church that makes you feel alive, go now and find one! They are out there, ready to be found. God is waiting for you:
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7

Now I'm off to church <3