I know this is a bit late, but we had a good Easter weekend. It began with a gathering at our place on Friday night where we ate a good meal and broke bread. We mingled among the people there catching up and praying for one another. Later on a few of us had a bit of a jam in our front room.

My Dad and Rob were working from Saturday through Monday on our back yard. I joined them on Saturday and Sunday, but revised on Monday. We've managed to clear all the concrete and have ordered our third skip to fill with the remaining dirt. Once the ground is level and we've layed adequate foundations the slabs will go down.

Today is Chris' 21st Birthday. We celebrated on Saturday night at the Brasserie with some of his family. Happy Birthday bro!

For some reason I've felt a little like a zombie the last few days. I think it's partly the after effects of the head cold, the manual (non-aerobic) labour, and a few late nights. Last night however I had a great night's sleep and am feeling back on form.

Great news...The Beastie Boys have a new album coming out on June 14th!

Banksy makes me laugh - he's the guy who paints warning signs on bridges that say "warning, concealed trapdoors" among other things. His pieces are often made using stencils, which allows him to capture more detail in a shorter time. This time he's actually managed to install a piece of his work in the Natural History Museum!

One of those days...
Do you ever feel like your brain is one step behind the rest of you? That was me today. I felt a little like I was somehow 'tuned out' and couldn't quite get tuned in. I think it was half the muzzy head of the cold mixed with a broken night of sleep. All I can say to those who I came across today is I hope I made sense!

sniffle
I'm on day 4 of a headcold. Hopefully it'll break soon - I'm getting sick of the constant flow from my sore, red nose. Lemsip really is proving itself to be a good friend.

Tomorrow Billy and I are off to Bristol to visit Andrew, but for now the joys of Trust Law.

Prayer needed
Yesterday I received the email below that Emma forwarded to me from one of her friends. The first operation that she mentions is today.

Hi Guys,

O.k. I am writing to you all with a very specific purpose. Prayer. I am pretty certain that most of you (but not all) know about my mother and the fact that she has recently been diagnosed with cancer.

Well, her first major operation (hysterectomy) is this tuesday. It's going to be a big load of surgery and to say the least my family and I are all beginning to feel very strained. What I am asking for is mass prayer for a successful operation on tuesday, that nothing will go wrong and that they won't find the condition any worse than they already suspect. I would like for you all to pray for peace and comfort for my mother and the rest of my family and that we will all continue to be strong.

For those of you that don't know my mother's name is LINDY and it is ovarian cancer which had spread to the liver that we are dealing with.

I thank God that I have all of you in my time of need.

I love you all.
Rachel xxxxx

Wheelbarrows
Today was a different day - spent outside in the garden. My Dad and I (and later Rob) have been moving junk, concrete and turf into the skip at the front of our house. It's nice to do some non-legal work and to be outdoors.

These new glasses of mine are taking a while to get used to. I've been feeling pretty disorientated for about a week now. Went to the opticians earlier and it turns out my eyes are just getting used to a flatter lense. The joys of myopia!

update (Friday): today my eyes are feeling much more normal!

I just took a look at my site stats. It turns out someone recently came across this site after typing elven intentional communities into a search engine. Do those things really exist outside of Middle Earth? Perhaps this is the vocabulary that I've been looking for to describe what we do.

I saw The Passion last Thursday. I haven't really blogged about it because I needed time to work out what my response actually was. For me it brought everything back to reality, down to earth. It's made the reality of Jesus' life that much more tangible and as a result it has meant that I can better imagine what it means to be His follower.

That's it really, no major epiphanies - I don't think the film is particularly controversial, and I don't imagine it would be very accessible to individuals who don't already know the story.

Eastside vs. Westside
Reading the reaction to both Brian McClaren and Rick Warren’s comments on The Passion got me thinking. McClaren spoke out against the hype of regarding the film as “the best evangelistic tool in 2000 years,” arguing that it is the long-term living out of followership for people to see that really demonstrates something to live for.

Warren, on the other hand, argued against discrediting The Film altogether. He describes it as “a wave” of contemporary culture which, if the Church does its job and does some explaining, can draw people into relationship with Christ.

Now much of the dissatisfaction with Warren’s article was down to emphasis: the mention that “Mel” showed it to him, and that Saddleback have invited “leaders of communities” to watch the film at a VIP screening. He spoke of the numbers (3,000) added to the Church as a result of The Film. I was saddened that people got so riled at his language, while he may not envisage Church the same way we do, I don’t think that renders his perspective invalid. I also don’t believe he is ‘missing it.’

Warren may be a CEO of Saddleback Inc., and there is certainly no way that he pastors 23,000 individuals, but we can’t discredit the work he is doing just because his church is so large that he ends up using figures to describe their effectiveness. I’m sure the number game is a trap that is easy to fall into, and it must be difficult to ensure that so many individuals get discipled and don’t just become consumers. Their mode of presentation may, at times, even sacrifice The Message for the sake of presentation, but I would encourage us to avoid seeing our way as The Way.

Do leaders of communities need people to reach out to them? You bet they do! After all aren’t we supposed to make disciples of all people? Sure, we mustn’t focus on the rich at the expense of the poor, but maybe the work Saddleback does with the rich frees other communities to work among the poor in that area!

We watched The Life of David Gale last night. It's definately worth a watch: a tale of one man's fall from a life of prestigious academia to transient alcoholism, and then some. Kevin Spacey is great and in this instance demonstrates his ability to act true brokenness.****

Hiccups
Yesterday morning, while I was preparing some songs for our evening gathering, I got hiccups. They were the real deep, rather severe kind that linger even after drinking a lot of water. I sat down and chilled out for a while and eventually they went.

Then Lewis came around and, sure enough when I started singing the hiccups returned (grrr). We ran through the songs, amid many a "hic," and then went down to the YMCA to setup. I took the opportunity once everything was ready to just chill, sit down a bit, drink some water and just relax, and they subsided! I got up to lead the songs, got through King of Glory (which was the one that had got me hiccuping the last few times), got through all the other songs and even the rest of the evening with no obvious hiccup.

That evening when I returned home the dreaded hiccups returned and lasted until I fell asleep.

I've decided not to go to my graduation ceremony. It's such a huge money spinner and I'm really not that interested in the whole "pat on the back" side of my degree. I wanted the qualification, but not complete with photos of me in a cap and gown! When the time comes I will be looking forward to hearing how well I've done though.

Starting mid-September, Bristol Vineyard are running a years intensive discipleship programme called Form. If you'd like to find out more, or know people who are looking for something just like this, email Nicola, or visit www.form-uk.org.

Jobs I have done (in order):
1. Victoria Chip Shop - kitchen
2. Cyclopaedia - fixing bikes (work experience)
3. Sunset Cycles - building new bikes
4. ASDA - bag packing
5. Pizza Hut - kitchen
6. Salingers - waiting tables
7. Care for the Family - data entry
8. Care Wales - shadowing manager (work experience)
9. Café Europa - general bar work
10. Lloyds TSB/Blackhorse Retail Finance - 'New Business Adviser'
11. DWP Solicitors Office - admin.
12. M-Store - retail assistant (selling monkey - see right)

Keck is blogging about some interesting things recently, from a lack of practical teaching on ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit in the Emerging Church here, to the need to tell the story as well as live the story here. Check it out!

While walking away from the centre of Cardiff yesterday we were approached by a guy with a beard. He wore a check shirt, a hat and had wild eyes. He started a conversation "do you like the daffodils?" When we affirmed that we did like them he continued "look at the variation," as he pointed in the direction of the flowers, "they're lovely and most people don't notice them...look, the variation." I asked him where he was heading and he said he was off to get some cider, "do you drink?" I told him I didn't and he said "good for you, I drink, but I'm not an alcoholic." The the lights changed and we began to cross the road - "one last thing" he said, "God bless."

Happy Birthday Mum!
Yesterday we celebrated my Mum's birthday. Zoë took her shopping, while my Dad and I looked around music shops for a new skin for his djembe, then went for coffee. In the evening we went out for Burritos and ate Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. It was nice to just chill out together.

Eric, analyse this:

The night before last I dreampt that I was being held prisoner by a serial killer, who had an old house and wielded a machete. The first floor of the house (2nd floor for US readers) had a huge hole in it. The killer was making his prisoners jump barefoot from the first to the ground floor, onto the rough concrete below. Soon the guy became impatient with us and began to attack us with the machete. As he bludgeoned some of us I could hear a banging sound (which I took to be the impacts of the blade). Soon I woke up, but the banging carried on.

It turned out my next door neighbours were having a new kitchen fitted.