An Unexpected Birthday (And Another One)

And so I went back to work the day after coming back from New Wine, to have a surprise in the afternoon. My mum came into work with her brother, my uncle, who we hadn't seen for 15 years. And still I recognised him. To be fair, he hadn't changed all that much-he had no hair (well, a shaved head), and a white beard; but, other than that, he was pretty much the same as I remembered him.

So, we had a brief chat, and I discovered that it was his birthday a couple of days later; the day before my niece-which is why he'd come down for the week. Anyway, I had the next day off, as usual, so I worked out meeting up with them in Gloucester. I met them in a Costa, which was nice. Those are always nice places to be, and as well as that, I got some points added to my Costa card; which was also nice. We chatted about what they had got up to earlier-they went to the docks, and he went round one of the museums, as he's interested in military history. That was something new I learned. And then we went around town, to go shopping to buy Phoebe's birthday presents (I already had her card). I did try to get something for him as well, but that turned out to be impossible, as he pretty much has everything he wants-but I did get him a badge which proclaimed that it was his birthday. I didn't manage to find anything for her, even though I stayed in town for a while after they went home.

Next day, I was back at work; but, as I had been encouraged to use up my flexi time, I had no problem in getting the Thursday off as well. And so, I went to see my niece on her birthday. My mum had suggested getting clay, so I went to The Entertainer, and bought a bunch of various art things-and a couple of Little Miss books. I managed to get to where she was, somewhere I'd never been before. My sister had put together a 'treasure hunt' starting at her house, and going to another relative, who lived round the corner. I got there VERY late, officially the party had finished, but there were still quite a few people there. and still plenty of noise and chaos was made by the few partygoers who were still there. They even got together and put on a play that they came up with themselves. I'm really not sure what it was about, but it may have been something to do with Monster High. I think. We then went back to my sister's house, where the girls then watched the (a?) Monster High film. Which actually looked quite good. But I couldn't stay too long, as it takes ages to get home from there. But now I know I can get there easily enough, even if it does take so long.

First Impressions - And The Rest

Well, after all the time it took to get sorted to get to New Wine, it seemed to come upon me very quickly. I kind of thought I would have loads of time to get ready, and then Sunday was upon me. At least I knew what it was like, and what I needed to take-and I wasn't taking a tent, which would be all ready for me when I got there. So we left Cheltenham shortly before 6, and got into Somerset just after 7-pretty good time, all told. probably because there was no other traffic most of the way at that time.

We got onto the site after the main meeting had started, but as we wanted to unpack, we didn't intend to go-so we had a fair bit of time to relax. The tent I was staying in was already up, so it didn't take me long, and I knew my way around the site, so I got to go into the meeting after all. And then after it, I popped along to the marketplace to say hello to my work colleagues (I was working in the art gallery) and find out when I was supposed to be in.
I was in at 10 a.m. the next day, though I didn't have to be. However, I wanted to have the evening off. It was a bit different from last year, when there were only 3 of us. Now there were 6, as there was supposed to have been last year, that meant we got time off. Which came as something of a shock to the system. And the way things worked out, it actually turned out that I had most of Tuesday off, as well-I was just on in the evening. So, in essence, I basically had 24 hours off. Which worked out really well for me. On the Monday evening, after the evening meeting, there was a quiz night, which was what I wanted to go to. I got in a team with a couple of friends and their friends, and a good time was had by all. We didn't win, but we did pretty well-and it was great fun. On Tuesday, God wanted me to fast during the day, which meant I didn't need to get to breakfast, so I had a leisurely shower, and got into the morning meeting a bit late. During which God told me that He wanted me to rest. Which I thought meant just that day, but actually turned out to be the theme for the whole week. So I didn't try to get to any seminars. I went off by myself and read some of  'The Prodigal God' for a bit-which naturally led into prayer and worship. In the afternoon, I went and spent some time with friends on the campsite, just chilling and relaxing. I felt like I got to know them a bit better, and really enjoyed it. A very good day, all in all.
The next day was the actual day off, and a whole bunch of us went into Castle Cary for a pub lunch, and then the girls went off shopping. The rest of us got back, and more chilling and chatting was the order of the day. Which more or less continued for the rest of the week. Most of my memorable moments were chatting with friends, including a good few gatherings in various people's tents after hours-and an idea for a couple I know to take on putting on my birthday celebration next year. Well, ours. We have one other friend whose birthday is the day before mine, so it looks as if it could well be a large joint celebration. Which I'm fine with, as long as I don't have to do most of the organisation.

Something God has been nudging me continually for some time now, is the importance of relationships; and, for me, that's what New Wine was really all about this time. I loved it all.

Turn Off The Dark

Turn Off The Dark

When you are surrounded by Darkness,

Covered, smothered by the Dark,

It overwhelms-

You can be deafened by Silence,

Crushed by the feel of Nothing;

All you want is for it to go away,

Or to go away yourself.

You cry out for it to go, to fade, to disappear;

But it does not:

 You cannot turn off the Dark.

Darkness is not a Thing,

It has no presence, no substance,

It is (merely) the Absence of a thing.

In the same way, silence is where Sound is not;

Nothing is no Things,

As there is 

blankness in the spaces between the letters and words.

You cannot turn the blankness off,

But you can put something in it.

It does not matter much how much

You do so,

But when you do, it is that that is seen

And remembered.

And, in the same way, that is how to defeat the Dark;

You can never turn it off,

But you can fill it with light.

Even one match, one candle is enough to fight the darkness;

And a flame can spread like wildfire.