So I thought it was about time I tried to write something on here again and as it has been while it will be a reflection back over the Wet Season (that time that a few who have been lucky enough to travel abroad may be able to justify calling a summer!

Although things here have been quite (at least it has looked that way, more on this later!) the time it’s self has been quite busy. It all started when just a few days after writing the last post I was involved in a car accident, the car behind me as I approached the roundabout decided to try and go across the the middle while I was going round! This resulted in a hand/wrist injury for myself (I was the only one in the car so no-one else was hurt) and after two weeks waiting for a verdict the car being written off! (this seams strange considering I was in a 6 year old Renault Espace and was hit by (I think around a 10 year old) Peugeot 307 which was able to drive away from the scene with a bent wing) Now just over two months later the wrist is almost better, although still gets a bit achy and I don’t have full movement in it!

After this we had our Holiday Club in Faringdon, Called ‘The Wave’ we took a different approach this year with some input at the beginning and end and much more activity in between. It worked really well and reversed the trend of numbers lowering during the week as this year everyday had more children and we reached the high 80’s by the end.

A few weeks after this was Soul Survivor, we went week C, maybe not the wettest week there, but at the end of them all and one one of the worst sites, it had apparently been evacuated during another week, we seamed to have a constant stream of mud flowing through the camp which was pleasant and is always helpful when you have 50+ people in the group. Apart from the mud we all had a great time and the group were fantastic.

At the end of the Summer there was a rather sad day when I had to wave goodbye to the Cyberbus, the work we had been doing with it had been dying down and so we felt it was time for a bit of a change. The bus has now gone off to Colwyn Bay and is with a church there so it was great to see it going off to continue in ministry. The work I am now doing is working more closely with local churches many of which have recently started up youth groups themselves, it means my role has changed a little from more Outreach to more Nurture. Its exciting times ahead, we do also have a grant application in at the moment to get another bus next year so we will see what happens.

The blog itself has been busy in the background with a major hit from spam bots, this does mean that now in order to comment you may need to fill in a capture unless you have had a few comments passed before (this should clear you).

I think that’s pretty much it apart from a couple of weeks Holiday, one house swap with some friends in Norfolk and another week staying with my parents.

Oh the other thing that has been going on is the continued exploration of the call to ordination, this has been going well, still quite a lot to do, but positive stuff so far and still enjoying it, please do continue to pray for God’s guidance as I explore this path.

God bless

Simo

written by Simo

If your visiting having read ground level, the profile page in Youthwork Magazine then a very big welcome to you.
Regular readers may remember that a while ago I talked about putting up a video tour of the bus, well I have finally done it, as part of the preparations to put it on the market, so if you want to see it inside and out please click below.

written by Simo

well almost… I have been asked to write a case study on the bus project for Youthwork Magazine and submitted my article at the beginning of this week. I think it should be in the next issue (which I guess is due out in three weeks or so guessing from when I got my last issue). Although mostly focused on the bus and only short I have tried to relate it to rural youth ministry as much as I can as well. I am looking forward to having a copy in my hands and I’m sure I’ll put a note up here when I finally see it in print.

written by Simo

Went over to the bus this morning to go and fill it up with diesel ready for going out tonight and it was a non starter. (non technical technical bit) Turn on the ignition and the alarm goes off for the air pressure, press start button and nothing, not even a click, so now I have to get the mechanics out again and see how long it takes to get it back on the road again. Hey ho!

written by Simo

So MOT due tomorrow, booked in for today, I have to take it over to Cheltenham as this is the closest place that can perform the correct class and has room for a double decker. So I went over this morning having got it back from servicing yesterday and it felt really heavy to steer - I got out and found one flat front tyre. I got someone out to it this afternoon and had to have a new inner tube fitted but have missed the MOT, I now need to try and re-arrange and see how quickly I can now get it done!

written by Simo

I’ve just spent some time cleaning up the bus. After a visit to the secondary school yesterday lunch time I was driving down a narrow road back to the farm where we keep the bus, coming the other way was a large lorry, he had no intention of slowing down and I ended up having to make an emergency stop. When I got back to the farm I noticed the problems caused by this action, everything had fallen out of the cupboard at the back of the bus and spread itself over the floor. Now this has happened before and is not usually a major problem, this time though there was an almost full 5l bottle of orange squash that did not survive it’s meeting with the floor, needless to say most of the squash was now over the floor. To make matters worse I had nothing on board particularly helpful for clearing it up and I needed to get the car back for Gill, 24 hours later when I could next get over to the bus what a nice sticky floor!
Lesson learnt? I need to put a lock on the cupboard door so it can’t open when driving!
Have a good weekend everybody!

written by Simo