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

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

Just heard the news there is a previously unreleased track available over at fatandfrantic.co.uk, click here to go directly to the page to hear it, it’s a must have for any fan of this great band.

written by Simo

An update on Fat and Frantic for you, they are now on Myspace! Well not any of the actual band members YET but a few people who want to hold their memory dear and continue to spread the word and about the worlds best Goffle band! You can find them at http://www.myspace.com/revsoftly.
P.S. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the FAF discussions.

Update: Thought I should flag this up as well as it has only come up in comments on an early post before, the website http://www.fatandfrantic.co.uk is now up and running, lots of info about the band and looking for more. I have some stuff I need to submit when I have got the time to scan, well done to Jez for all the work though.

written by Simo

As seems to be tradition on these occasions (well hobnob (youthblog) and The Good DR have done anyway) I thought I should do a list of facts about myself, one for each year of my life so far, so here goes for my 21:-
1. Although thinking of myself as a Norfolk Boy I was actually born in Bristol.
2. My first car was a blue Austin Maestro.
3. I had a pony tail almost down to my waist for 10 years.
4. Gill and I spent our first Christmas on Honeymoon (having got married 20th December).
5. This year will be our 10th Anniversary.
6. When growing up we used to have a cat called pusca.
7. Before being called to ministry (and yes Christian Youth work is a REAL ministry) I worked in the photographic trade, ran my own part time business and wanted to become a full time photographer.
8. I have 1 younger brother.
9. Of my generation for both my parents I am the oldest of all the cousins.
10. I collect Red Telephone boxes.
11. Gill is going to take me out to Saddlers (the best coffee shop in town) for lunch.
12. The first time I went abroad was to Guatemala.
13. I used to cycle around 100 miles a week (I now do about 10 a year).
14. I got my ear pierced as a thank you gift from a friend 13 or so years ago.
15. I have two children’s books I am trying to write (and several more ideas).
16. My nickname at school was squaksy (I still don’t know why nor am I sure it was a good name).
17. When I was a toddler I had really curly blond hair.
18. I was on the first year to do the PIA course (no longer running but the foundation for a couple of courses now run) at Moorlands Collage.
19. Moorlands is where Gill and I met.
20. I want to go back to Zambia and take the family.
21. I’m not really 21
22. I have both of Dave walkers Calendars hanging up by my desk.
23. I am the only stilt walker I know that is afraid of heights.
24. I spent Monday on a balloon twisting day (and learnt several new models).
25. I am a member of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians.
26. I own 6 different domain names (although one is for sale if anybody in interested in www.thejuggler.org.uk please email me with an offer!)
27. I started doing youth work as a volunteer when still a teenage myself aged 15.
28. Yesterday I broke the blog trying to update to wordpress 2.2 and have had to resort to the older version (I might try again some stage so may well break it again!)
29. One of my dream cars would be Land Rover Defender 110.
30. I had a Stomach Ulcer 10 years ago which means I have to be careful what I eat and drink or else it still causes me problems.
31. I have the original ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ on Vinyl
32. I have been the singer in 4 bands in the past and really miss the whole gigging experience.
33. I am a would be gadget addict (but I can’t afford to feed it)
34. This is my real age!

written by Simo

Welcome to my new home, it’s good to have you here, do come in, make yourself comfortable, grab a feed and soon we shall continue on our journey. As with moving into any new home there is always lots of work to be done and soon I hope to get some decorating done and rearrange things including some major structural work as I make the move from blogger to wordpress and we shall see what else happens.
Thanks for popping by oh and don’t forget to let others know I have moved if you have a link to the old address on your blog or site.
Feed addresses are:
RSS: http://www.onmebus.net/rss.xml
Atom: http://www.onmebus.net/atom.xml
feedburner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/onmebus

written by Simo

Well as announced yesterday the blog has now moved, this is the last entry at this address. I will try and set up a forward at the address to the new one but it may not last long as my hosting has moved and there have been a few issues which might make that impossible. In the mean time head across to www.onmebus.net alter your rss or atom feeds and see what happens next.

written by Simo

But not much I’m afraid, the blog is moving, probably within the next couple of days. I will try and set up a forward at this address but due to technical difficulties it may not work for long. You will also need to change you feed if you read this blog via such facilities once the move has happened, for those of you who subscribe via email you need do nothing as that will all be dealt with at my end. So what will the new home be called I hear you ask, well here we go….
www.onmebus.net

see you there.

written by Simo