Check out this little movie courtesy of Mosaic.

The worship leaders' retreat at the weekend was in Lee Abbey, in Devon, right by the sea. It's always nice waking up and hearing the sea rather than the motorway. We were only there for about 30 hours, and the weather had broken on Thursday night, but it didn't stop us making the most of walks to the sea, or nearby cliffs.

On Saturday we hooked up with Pete Beaumont and visited the local pub at nearby Lynmouth where they were airing Wimbledon to the soundtrack of Ace of Spades by Motorhead - a unique combination.

The Banquet in the Bearpit was great fun. I took a bunch of people into Broadmead Shopping Centre and we wandered around offering prayer. Whereas last time we went out giving cards which offered prayer for healing and waited for people to come to us, this time we went to people and explained who we are and what we were doing and had quite a few good opportunities to pray with people. I love that stuff.

Well, another week of being pretty slack on the blogging front - apologies to all. It's been another whirling dervish of a week, from 'running' down the steep slopes at Castell Coch with Dave and Emma on Saturday to the coming weekend which will include both a Worship Leaders' Retreat and the Banquet in the Bearpit.

The weather is awesome and made playing of more Kubb and Ultimate Frisbee possible on Sunday afternoon at the Downs (none of that 'touch rugby' for me).

Monday night we had a Point Break night at Emma's place which included the use of the in-house 'Swayze' (a scruffy blonde mullet wig reminiscent of Patrick Swayze's hair in the film). Check out the gallery for more on this one.

Last week I had a dream that Jack Johnson turned up at one of our Sunday meetings. The funny thing was that it was Zoë who pointed him out to me and said "hey, look, it's Jack Johnson." I went over to him while he was getting a coffee and doughnut and introduced myself. He was like, "cool man," and decided to hang out with us in the afternoon when we were playing frisbee in the sun.

I didn't tell him that I knew who he was because I didn't want to look like I was putting him up on a pedestal.

This week has been strange and I haven't felt much like blogging. There have been some great moments and I know God has been completely at work, but at the same time some confusing times.

For example last night Chris called me to let me know that one of the guys we were in college with died in his sleep at some point last week. I was by no means one of his closest friends. We had had some great conversations while at college and I would certainly consider him more than just an aquaintance. The thing that really hit me about his death was that life is so fragile and that the people we know and love are so precious and deserve to know that.

I was left feeling pretty confused as I cycled home - what right do I have to piggy-back my emotional journey on the back of this young man's death? How should this inform the way that I live? Am I just a hopeless melancholic?

Friend's photos:
Mark Churchill
Emma Nordeborn
Mark Evans

I seem to have been learning tons about myself in the past fortnight. At times it's been painful, and at times liberating, but I think the overall effect will be good. A lot of it involves relinquishing control, letting God direct my life, instead of holding things tightly like some spoiled child.

It's interesting being surrounded by people who are on a similar journey, of quesitioning, listening and trying to quiet the voice which says, "take control, it's your life." It's time to quiet my hectic inner life.

No more cake
When I said I was trying to give up control I didn't mean self control, but with the amount of cake flying around the office the last few days it's been difficult to resist.

This weekend I learned another new game. On Saturday we went to a field overlooking Clifton Suspension Bridge and played the Swedish game of Kubb, which involves throwing pieces of wood at pieces of wood in an attempt to knock them down.

I was stoked because I was reasonably good at it and my team kept winning (which never happens the first time you play a game like say [the cursed] Settlers of Catan).

We got asked to move pitches because the five of us were making too much noise for the 80 or so people who were watching an open air production of Shakespeare's As You Like It, and soon noticed that as people were walking by they were rubber-necking at this unknown game.

Eventually Emelie invited some guys who were walking by to join us (hi Jamie, David and Richard) for some increasingly multinational play (African, Scottish, Welsh, Swedish, Danish (natch), and English). After many hours of Kubb and the obligatory exchange of national songs, dances and swear words we retired to the pub for drinks with our new friends.

You spin me right round baby, right round
About a month ago I sat down with Andrew and told him of my plans to move back to Cardiff, to do some web-design and to find some cheap accommodation. I figured it was time to make some decisions so that's what I did.

Today all I can say it that God has messed things up. I don't know what I'm going to be doing next year, let alone where. And for now that's all I can say. It's exciting and scary (when isn't following Jesus exciting and scary?) and I feel my sense of adventure coming back!

Going to love You through the pain
I'm trying to be like You
You're the truth I can't deny
Gonna find my peace in You
Gonna love You when it hurts
(and) Put my trust in You
You're everything to me
I give it all to You
(Falling in love with You - Sam Lane)

The houseparty was a lot of fun. Team USA (Steve's ministry team) taught us Ultimate Frisbee, which I managed to corrupt fairly quickly into Ultimate Frisbee Extreme - a full contact version of the original (think Rugby meets Frisbee). No Risk playing took place as it was 11pm before a game could potentially begin and no one was up for 5 hours of world domination.

Steve had some great things to talk about, including how fear-based-thinking holds us back from kingdom risk-taking. As an example he used The Spartans, who trained themselves against fear and had success beyond their numbers when fighting the Persian army.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures for ever.
(Psalm 118, The Bible)