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

Well I had a meeting with the DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands) this morning as I continue to explore where God is calling me in my future ministry. It seemed to go well, some though provoking questions and quite a bit of reading to do now but I think it was positive, I now need to get on and do some reading before seeing her again in July. Thanks to all of you that were praying and I will keep you updated.

• ‘Being a Priest today‘ by Christopher Cocksworth & Rosalind Brown
• ‘Ministry in three dimensions‘ by Stephen Croft

I would be very interested in borrowing them.

Cheers

written by Simo

Last week we had the APCM at church, I had been waiting for this before I felt I could say too much about my thinking on the blog, but now the info is out with that annual report it all become a little easer as it is out there in the public domain anyway.

When I first arrived in Faringdon I was on a three year contract which was then extended for a further two years, this takes my contract until end of July 2009 but for the last year or so I have started thinking about what is next for me. Come that date next year I will have been in full time Church based Youth Ministry for 10 years (all bar a month) and I feel that perhaps I should be heading in a slightly different direction. As many of you probably know I feel passionately about Youth Work in rural churches, I have been frustrated by the focus on Urban Priority areas, not because I begrudge a focus on them but because I have been aware of a need in rural areas that seams to have been overlooked. (There is also a slight sense of irony here as the rural population of Britain is growing faster that any other!)

So I have had this vision for several years to set up a charity (called Not Ashamed, based on Romans 1:16 (I love that verse!) hence my owning the domain notashamed.co.uk) to ‘encourage, enable and equip good quality Youth Work in and through rural Churches’.

At Soul Survivor last year I went to a seminar by Bishop Graham & Jackie Cray called Getting Collard, obviously about ordination, this is again an idea that has been with me for quite some time, and something that had been suggested when thinking and talking about my vision as well. This has started much thinking and praying and as a result I feel I am being called to ordained ministry and that somehow this fits with the Vision, I don’t know how it all fits together, but I truly believe this is where God is calling me at the moment. As a part of this process I have an appointment with the DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands) on the 23^rd May to help start the process of exploring this calling.

At the same time as all this I am also looking around at what other jobs are around, I don’t know about you but it seams to me there is no one place to look for jobs in youth ministry, there seam to be several and not one that has all

I thought it might be helpful to have a list of places to look for ministry jobs and so at the bottom of this post is what I have got so far and I am sure there are several I have missed, especially any outside of the Anglican church, if you know of others please let me know and I’ll add them.

In the mean time I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I look to what the future holds for me and my family.

job search monitor

church of England newspaper

churchtimes

cross rhythms

written by Simo

Where do you go, and who do you talk to when you are thinking about your future, your career or ministry etc, the big decisions?

As most of you have probably worked out by now these are the kind of questions going round in my mind at the moment.

The other evening we were round at some friends, sitting around chatting, eating while the kids were playing upstairs (we had fed them as well!) and we had a Wii going with a brain quiz kind of thing on. One of the things you could do on this game was a series of personal tests and it would give you some interpretations as to your strengths and weaknesses etc and then give you an ideal career. All a bit of fun and those that had done it some of the results were quite funny. So I had a go and the conclusion was I should be a photographer, now I have to admit there have been times when this idea has crossed my mind recently so it seemed rather bizarre that this is what the Wii also suggested. However I’m not sure this is where God is calling and as tempting a proposition as it may be in some respects I believe the calling from above should probably take a higher priority than a Wii but it did make me laugh.

written by Simo

I seem to be doing a lot of looking forward at the moment, within a part my work we are currently reviewing what we do and looking to how we move forward over the coming months and years, it is an exciting time, I have to deliver some thoughts tomorrow evening and then see what comes out of the following discussion.
But it is not only directly within my immediate job that I am looking forward, I am at a stage where I have to be thinking about what the future holds for me, I wrote a while back about a meeting I had sharing some of my vision for my future ministry, things have been so busy that I have not had the time I really should have set aside to move things forward as quickly as I would have liked, but things are happening, I have a first (very rough) draft of a document sharing some of my thoughts that when it is finished I will put up on here but I have also been aware of other things that have come up as part of this over the last few months and really beginning to push at some interesting doors. Don’t know where it is all leading just trying to figure out what God is saying and don’t want to say too much at the moment, but I would appreciate your prayers for His guidance, both in terms of current post and where I met be heading in the longer term. I am currently contracted for almost another two years but this is the church and sometimes things move slowly!

written by Simo

This morning I had an important meeting as I begin to think about my future and where it lies (not that I am thinking of moving on in the immediate or near future for anyone reading this locally). I have been in my current post for almost 3 years, in full time youth/youth and children’s work for almost 8 years and involved in youth work on some level since I was a youth myself of 15. I feel very strongly called to youth work, evangelism and to the rural church, an area so often neglected in so many respects. So this morning I was meeting with someone to discus my vision and ideas, beginning the process of trying to establish in my own mind where and how I feel the Lord is calling me to continue in His service. It is so great to be able to meet with people and just thrash some of these things out, the meeting has given me a lot of food for thought and several people to make contact with as I continue to explore and seek Gods guidance. It is a very exciting time but also a worrying one as it is not just about me and my ministry but about my family the people that God has given me to journey through life with and support and how I do that but also how as a family we seek to follow Him and His call. Things are all very much in the early stages but I would ask that you pray for me and for us as we look to God and His guidance and I will endeavour to keep you informed of the things that are going on and give you more details when the timing is right.
God bless you and have a good weekend.

written by Simo