rebel against the box

i'm exhausted. just got the train back from nottingham. i love going there to help out and do some 24-7stuff but it's quite tiring and never enough sleep. but hey...who needs sleep eh?

discussing and going through a lot of stuff with god at the moment too which is always exhausting. roll on peace and strength!

having some of the most beautiful times in my life at the moment! feeling so amazing loved by God.

turned 26 yesterday and there was snow covering the ground! the night before it had snowed like i've never seen here in england in my 4 and a half years. it was like a film set! chucked around a few snowballs and had an amazing chat with anna in the falling snow. seems like god is beginning to speak to a lot of us in a way that he hasn't in awhile. season of silence is perhaps coming to an end?
it seems like he is starting to move some of us out. that our time in manchester is coming to an end. i definietly fit into this. i feel like what i was meant to do here/sow into here in manchester i've done. what i was meant to see and learn and partake in i have. my life has changed here and what has happened in my life can never be taken away. the community that i have become a part of here will never dissintigrate. i really believe that we are now beginning to learn what it means to support, love and uphold one another and send each other out to live out our callings. learning how to be community and church scattered around the world.

my time here finishes at the end of june, but i will forever be connected to this place and the people i love here. i don't know where i will go yet...a few ideas but i am praying about all of them. but i do know this...that this next 5 months is a gift. i don't feel a pressure to accomplish loads of things. i just am enjoying my friends and family here and serving and loving.

for my birthday my firends have all pulled together and have paid for my spanish course that i really wanted to take. so amazing! also cooked me an amazing meal of enchalladas and made me a birhtday 'cake' (a whoopass dish of nachoes with candles in it!). they know me.

the 24-7 uk gathering in london last weekend was great. had fun catching up with people connected to the movement. always kicks me into high gear and gets me dreaming when i'm around them. got my focus set in the right place for my remaining months in this amazing country!

off to nottingham again in an hour to hang out, pray, and clean. this time with helen whose just come back from 3 weeks in uganda. so much to catch up on!

here i go...for 2 nights with lynne. pubs, cafes, the malt cross, worship, cleaning to do and new friends to be made. should be fun...but oh the dreaded train journeys.
trains have lost their glamour.

resa is moving down to reading while i'm gone...she'll be missed here in ol' madchester.

having a lot of beautiful times with friends at the moment.

had a progressive meal the other night. appitisers at one house, main meal at another, desert...you get the idea. my house hosted the app's. so in my quest for interesting things to do with spinach i made a spinach dip in a bread bowl. it was a hit. tonight i'm going to make a spinach lasagne...been doing quite a bit of cooking lately. new for me.

had this amazing prophetic woman come and spend some time with us on saturday evening. she had quite a bit to say to me. still trying to process it all and weigh it up. sent my head spinning for a while. really enjoying God these days.

off to london this weekend to catch up with 24-7people hear brother yun inspire and find out whats happening with this global epidemic that continues to challenge me.

came across a martyn joseph song today...his music reminds me of a friend that i used to have a lot of fun with. i miss them.

i like rain but today it's trying my patience.
i'm in love with harmonicas.

damien rice sets the mood.
came across a blog called 'wild hope'....i like the sounds of that.
pilgrimage to trof again....left hours later and full of cherry pie.

times with lynne are always beautiful. with everything out on the table the only place to go is deeper, and suddenly being real and vulnerable has a sweet taste. a sense of freedom takes over my body as i know there is nothing i could hide...and nothing left to say. just me as i am...and thats enough.

scars are beautiful

reading 'life of pi'. i like it.

i think i picture things in words a lot of the time.

i like backpackers.

i want to go to rio, and australia

those who hurt and still love are truly unstoppable

...may look a little like this:

learning to love, spanish, capoira, cleaning in the malt cross.

living outside myself.

reinstating my first love...things got a bit scetchy there for a while last year.

beginning to understand now why god says no to certain things. it's not at all about rules...and everything to do with the fact that they seperate me from him. i was created just to love him...end of story. a light just went on.

want to understand the depth of "those who have been forgiven much, love much."

well here i am...back in the uk after an eventful trip to barcelona. had to leave the country on the 12th of january...immigration shit. spent 2 nights in an amazing city with friends that i know through 24-7. walked around the city, ate tapas, drank beer, chatted with friends, learnt about Gaudi, daydreamed, and prayed. and all of this for less than £100. not bad! i think i'm in love with spain.

arrived back in the uk via liverpool airport only to be interrogated for over an hour. me and this australian girl were questioned, searched, and inspected over and over in this little tiny room. the officers now know everything about me and miss melbourne. it was a very bizarre experience to be sitting there while the officers were in the next room discussing the direction of my future. turns out that i made it in ... but just barely. so i'm here for 6 months and then thats it...i leave. it wasn't until afterwards when i was on the train back to manchester that it really started to sink in that this was it. 6 months left in an amazing country with people that i love. my mindset shifted from thinking i have all the time in the world to do certain things, to one of urgency. now is the time...live in the present. max things out. you get the point.

i've just smiled to someone on the street and they almost ran into a wheely bin (garbage can for my beautiful canadian readers). it's amzing how just smiling at someone can totally disarm them. must do it more often. however learning when to smile is also an art...pedestrian - yes...boring guy in a club - nope (disarms too much and then we have a leech). moral of the tale...know when to smile and when to pick your nose and move on!

i will update you all on my thoughts on 2004 so far as soon as i can. but i'm off now to tribal sessions. have landed myself 2 free VIP tickets and i'm going out to boogy the night away! ...