cathers is on her way home. the journey has started and tomorrow she has a job interview in houston so pray for her lots! we're still having fun - the conference is now over so we're relaxing for what feels like the first time in ages! we've had great fun and God has been so inspiring and my eyes and ears have been opened really wide to new stuff. thanks for your prayers.

tonight we're going to a biker bar with a guy called greg and then drew who is a harley biker and got ordained today! i've also painted my nails a new colour - metalic pink! very cool. i feel a bit wordless - so much happening but not really the ability to function in a literary way. sorry. i do love you all though!

hi everyone. the party at the ranch was fabulous. the wind died down a lot by the time all the details such as candles and flowers were set up and although it was cold there was a respectable sized bonfire which gave out considerably more heat than most people could stand if you stood too long by it! we've met some fab people - i spent a lot of yesterday afternoon driving in my car with an artist called anita and although we are both talk-aholics, some how we managed to share the air waves and had the most incredible conversations. anita is staying closish to where we are staying - so, really just down the road - about 5 minutes!! this is what the texans say for any journey - it must be an incurable habit forced into being by the fact that their state is wider than 800 miles and so really a 20 minute drive seems like 5 minutes!!

keep praying for us. today we have a gathering at first baptist church on 9th and trinity (in case any of you crazys decide to look it up on some detailed map!) which starts with breakfast and then we have some teaching and discussion and all things such like. this afternoon 'the english' are serving afternoon tea and scones although i think i'm getting out of it because i'm going to talk to anita whilst we journey to walmarts. this evening, the house that's been rented for this event is turning into a worship space and the bit i'm loking forward to is erika's facials where she will impart some "J love" to us all!>p>
love you all!

hi ya'll!

well, the day that i last blogged we went out to a ranch to put up a tent and i managed to not only get sunburn which is still killing me now, i also managed to get mild sunstroke i think. i really didn't feel very well - i was cold and shivery but with an intense heat coming off my shoulders and back! having underestimated the power of the sun i am now learning to stay fully covered or using massive sunblock! on wednesday evening we went out in 80s prom dress to celebrate mine and derek's birthdays. it was really funny (even though i felt crap) and i wore the most awesome dress with hideous red shoes and white ankle socks with pompoms on! the plan was to get to karaoke but in the end we all went home to bed!

people are starting to head in now for the event this weekend. it feels really exciting but there is a lot of nervous anticipation in the air. it's all God's thing so it will give him glory whatever which is the most excitiing thing. i feel like God is telling me not to build new relationships but to grow the ones i already have. this is really releasing as i've been dreading having so many new people around and now i know why.

i had an amazing day hanging out with God yesterday by myself - all day. caroline, you would have been soooo proud of me!!! he really made me laugh because i had gone into a coffee house to meditate on a verse which han drew my attention to before i came out: exodus 14:13-14, and the last thing i had written in my journal when i turned to it, which was entered in october, was "from a place of rest in God is where you find strength to withstand evil". so God is obviously reminding me that i forgot about what at the time had been a real inspiration to me, but i had forgotton all about it. so now i am going to try and stay in that place of rest and allow God to fight for me.

today i'm heading out to a retreat centre to help pack up food for the weekend - we have this massive party tonight out at the ranch. the weather has cooled down considerably so it feels more like a day in sheffield than one in texas!! bless you...

well yesterday nights party was certainly amusing - unfortunately, i'm still unable to post any pics up, but the outfits were truely horrific. i personally went in a top gun-esque, white trousers and shirt, raybans combo, which did me no favours.

anyway, need to get onto people about the possibility of tubing.

just to say, i have given it to God and am not obsessing about it, but holding it lightly....

han - your prayers mean so much. thank you to all of you who are praying for us - i'm praying for you too. (you need it!!!!!!!!)

thank you andrew jones for being brave enough to check out the #1 Christian Porn site and then to blog about it!

hello peeps! how ya'll doin'?!! a particularly LARGE greeting wrapped in tremendous amounts of love to ant, caroline, ben, baby, si w, fran, steve, joy, isla, gee, mark, han and helen.

so we've arrived and the weather has been changable - there was an amazing storm last night - some of the lightning made the sky light up in neon pink! i was driving during some of it in the awesome jeep/SUV that has been hired for us and i was really reminded of the power of God and his creativeness. a bit like when eminem weilded a chain saw in one of his performances - so dangerous and yet so safe (or maybe not!).

last night i was at a stamping party with shelly and delanie (andy and i are staying with john and shelly berryhill and their kids) which was cool. i have ordered some creative bastilling stuff so hopefully i'll be back into making cards and stuff soon - i need encouragement cos i think i lost a bit of confidence somewhere along the line.

today we're off out to a ranch to put up a large tent - the description makes it sound like a marquee, and we're also going to build a bonfire. this is all for the event on friday night - some kind of party where we all get together to meet and make merriment.

our sleeping is still a bit screwed up - i woke up at 6.15am today which is not pleasant and the night before i slept from 9.15pm til 8.30am with a few wakes in the middle - please pray for our sleeping so we can slip effortlessly into the texan way of life. God, it's good to be back here - just missing you all loads as well.

and we're now in austin - it was kinda wierd on the way over, getting used to american road systems first, and then it started raining which was kinda odd too.

anyway, we're now at the berryhills' house, and are going to see shannon in a couple of hours, before coming back for a stamping party/ something else.

unfortunately, (as matt p has mentioned) lycos stuff is briefly down as they relocate, so i wont be able to put up any pics until the 30th march or so, which is kinda annoying, but there you go. maybe i can come up with some other way of doing it...

well.

bea and i have made it to texas fine - we spent last night with frans brother, greg, which was cool - got to experience an old mans pub (like the ones in walkley), except in brixton, london.

despite the early start, everything went fine - kinda long queues at visa/ customs etc at houston, but that wasnt too bad.

just been back for a good ol' tex mex (incl. nachos, salsa, queso, negro modelo (beer), fajitas etc) with the lovely danny and trish.

also hired an SUV and so will be leaving houston tomorrow, to meet up with all our austin and sheffield friends.

's gonna be good.

and thank you mr parkins - a good read.

i think i got to the point of not having enough to go on, not trusting the media at all, or at least enough to base an opinion on it, and realising there are plenty of things the nation isnt told for good reasons.

given that politicians generally want to look after themselves, i see no reason as to why blair is committing political suicide in insisiting on the war unless theres a VERY good reason.

i also think the media, being ultimately controlled by a certain someone downstairs, will want to paint a very bad picture of blair.

and to be honest, what real alternatives are there? it seems saddam has just been using weapons he claimed he never had, so i really dont trust him at all.

on a slightly more amusing note, outside the uni the other day, there was a peace demonstration where everyone was blowing whistles and shouting lots, and there was this guy playing a drum, like a marching band drum, and he was actually playing a marching band style rhythm. i mean its either slightly ironic or pretty stupid to be playing something that gives impression of calling people to war at an antiwar demonstration.

and then there was the cnd/ peace flags being waved at yesterdays demonstration (that felt more like a cross between a school field trip and glastonbury!). i mean "ban the bomb"? isnt that what this war's supposed to be about? getting rid of the threat of nuclear war?!

maybe i'm just missing the irony of it all, but it all just seems like a bit of a joke to me really.

andy and i went to a meeting this morning with a lady called jill from the Princes Trust who was really helpful. my tummy kept rumbling all the time and i was desperate for a sainsbury's bagel which was only a matter of metres away, but unfortunately the meeting went on too long and we had to rush off to lectures for work.

last night at huddle we talked about stress in a kind of let's talk about stress, baby... let's talk about you and me kind of way. it was good and we prayed for the unborn clifford which was cool because i got to share the testimony and that was amazing. God is doing such great things in SOFA - woo hoo! it seems that God's word to me about sacrifice in relation to evening prayers and general serving is revealing itself through the unity that we're experiencing as a community, and also the healing that we're experiencing. bring it on! you SOFA people not going to texas better keep on with all the meeting together and devoting yourselves to the fellowship because it is amazing what God is doing - so incredible!

my aunty sheila sent me a fantastic birthday card and here is why: a chicken is walking through the farm when it sees a horse stuck in some mud. it goes over to the horse and says, "don't worry, i'll go and get the farmer to bring his car out here and we'll pull you out". so off he goes and sure enough comes back with the farmer and his nice ferrari and they pull out the horse. a couple of weeks after that the horse is walking through the field and sees the chicken stuck and he says to the chicken, "hold on to my willy and i'll pull you out". the chiken holds on to the horse's willy and is pulled to safety. you see, the moral of the story is that if you're hung like a horse, you don't need a flash car to pick up chicks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yes!!!

tax refund!! yummy yummy....

thats aprils martgage etc paid for whilst we're in texas, and a big weight of my mind indeed.

and if that wasnt exciting enough, weve got a cluster party/ thanks a lot God thingy tonight with (milk and white) chocolate fondue and nachos (w/ my special homemade salsa).

i've been pretty happy these days it seems. purring like a contented kitten. ptl.

hith.

hi folks. have spent the day looking after ben clifford as caroline was really poorly last night and neither of them slept that well. God has been amazing putting people into place to support them and get them to the places they need to be. it has been a tiring but fun day although ben isn't that well either and has been a bit moany. at least their developing baby is well and in the right place!! tomorrow night (ie thursday) is SOFA round at the cliffords and we are having an evening of thanksgiving for all that God is doing and has done.

bugger it!

failed the driving test again.

i hate driving.

an email sent to us by robby:

I'm getting married!!!

April 25

Evanjelical fellowship chapel

jessup Road

Cincinnati, Ohio.

TO: NADYA GRACE COFFEY

We have tenitive plans to live in cincinnati until further notice. hopedully moving to alaska or a place that Grace can practice midwifery. I appologise for the lack of notice but really we didn't know untill last week or so. Thankyou for all of your suport and hopefully we will see you soon in our travles.

Heaps of love,

Robby Cload

it seems the hot weather has returned then to texas. whilst not being a fan of hot weather at all, its good to know that we can at least go tubing as opposed to ice skating while we're out there. all we need now is robby and some goose island beers.

just been surfing some blogs and there's a new addition to blogger's top ten. as i read through the first few sentences i felt a real urge to get praying for the guy it's about and what he's up to. you can have a read too.
here's a picture cos i haven't put one in for a while:

getting dead excited about going to texas - cant wait!!!

had a mixed weekend - saturday was a flippin nightmare, but then sunday was as good as saturday was bad, in fact probably better.

lovely meal out at the monsal head, beautiful weather, good beers, lots of friends, a pleasant walk across a big bridge, a lock in, karaoke (for some!). ah yes.....

what a weekend! yesterday was my birthday and i turned a quarter of a century. i had the most amazing day (preceded by a really awful day!). we went to a place called monsal head which is out in the peaks and had a lush lunch. then went for a little walk and then stopped at a great pub called the three stags heads for a drink on the way home. last night was karaoke at our local pub, the florist. i was astoundingly awful but i earned back my pharisee points by doing the greatest version of frank sinatra's 'my way' that anyone has ever headr! it was, as sam said, "the performance of a lifetime!".

today we are fasting and praying for the wabisabi event that takes place later this month. we are joining with groups around the world who are also fasting and praying. tonight we're getting together at 6pm to pray and eat so join with us in prayer for all that God is doing. we also need to pray for jen who is already out in texas and who is coming under attack - to her skin/ecsma (sp?) and also just in the time she's had with her flights and luggage and stuff.
SOFA people be informed, if not already, that we are praying for Si this week at the healing service. if you can't make them due to already organised stuff then pray anyway! it's all about sacrifice and commitment - Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

All who believed were together and had all things in common;

they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,

praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

it seems these days my contact with the media is most significantly reduced to seeing the headlines on the papers in the gt news in orchard square as i walk to work in the mornings. whats really starting to piss me off is the continual stream of hate for blair and bush.

i mean pretty much every morning theres a picture of at least blair with some little slogan/ phrase saying how much we should all be hating him/ them - one of todays concentrated on our "prime monster". of course i'm mostly talking about the tabloids which i dont really expect much more from than this sort of stuff, but people do read this stuff and completely believe it.

and for those of you who know what i mean by judgement cycles, its hardly surprsing all this is happening.

and who owns the media, ultimately? not someone who respects authority.

not impressed.

this is posted for matt parkins in particular - a little gem from baldy steve!

there are 10 types of people in life!
Those that understand binary and those that dont!

today has felt a bit frustrating but also quite releasing also. all you budduing music video makers should have been at my house earlier when i ended up sitting in a heap on the stairs and balling my eyes out! teasr of frustration after i found out that our car won't be out of the garage until the middle of next week (they said it would be out by the weekend just gone!). the reason this is so frustrating is cos andy has his driving test which he wanted to take in our car because it's easier to drive and also if you take your test in a 'normal' car the examiner assumes you've had lots of practise and is favourable towards you! it would also have been good to take the test in our car for financial reasons as now it looks like we'll have to pay for driving time for andy to practise and also for the instructor's car to be available for the test.

why is it that we have another car accident/crash which wipes out our car just in time for andy not to be able to practise before his test - aaaaarrggghhhh! please pray for us. God is doing loads and we refuse to let satan try and foil God's plans. i believe that God wants andy to pass his driving test and we hadn't budgeted to need to fork out for more lessons and test time in the car. this is really important.

i just got called away for a fire alarm - how exciting! the fireman truck driver had a gathering of female groupies within minutes of pulling up! nothing too serious though - we're all back again safe and sound.

want some hardcore porn for Christians? go on - i dare you...

Robert de Langeac

"The divine love is a consuming fire. It penetrates the soul to its depth. It burns and consumes, but it does not destroy; it transforms into itself... At times, under the influence of a specially powerful grace, the soul that is on fire with divine love sends forth flames. They ascend straight to God. He is their principle as He is their end; and it is for His sake that the soul is consumed with love.

""Virgo Fidelis", 1931

i found this while browsing through a very long list of surprisingly good Christian links which andrew jones has blogged about. you can go surf the list too, but !!

hello everyone - you are beautiful. last night we went to the healing service at church to pray for my asthma and allergies. this is something i felt God called us as a community to do (ie SOFA) in the same way that the friends battled with their mate on a stretcher to get him lowered down through the roof to get healed by Jesus. it was amazing having my community standing with me because the level of faith just soared through the roof. i've already had partial healing and we are asking God to bring in the rest because he can and he wants to and the bible says that "by his wounds we are healed". afterwards there was training for small group leaders which i was meant to be at as a cluster leader but all our small group leaders were unable to attend and so i got reallly excited about going to the gym (in my new trainers). well, i went to the gym and did a whole workout without using my inhaler once, not even in preparation! PRAISE GOD COS THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT SINCE I WAS 7!!

i am getting more and more of this healing and the word that God has spoken to me is it's about sacrifice. by the way - this word 'sacrifice' is not for all who want healing! it is about SOFA taking the time to stand with each other as a commitment. acts 2:42-47 says that the disciples continued going to the temple together daily and that the devoted themselves to fellowship and to prayer. our sacrifice is to stand together at the healing service each day and ask God for healing for my asthma. ha ha! he is now calling us to more sacrifice cos jen needs healing for her ecsma (sp?) and steve needs healing for his diabetes, joints and sight and i wouldn't mind my sight being healed either! si needs healing for his asthma, ant needs healing for his immune system so that he isn't kept in bondage to these colds he has regularly. who else needs healing? bring on the sacrifice!!

found a blog today that i am linking to but also will check up on regularly. did you know that God made fried chicken?

* also very thankful for our lovely new TV that many of you may well have watched.

* also got some new trainers the other day, which whilst massive, i love to bits. in fact i love all my clothes. very glad i have them. thankful.

* and we are indeed starting to see good things happen with bea. need to be praying for the rest of us too though. still, got the rest of the week - cant wait to see what we're like at the end of it.

oh my word - just been looking at other blogs and went to abigails who then linked to andrew jones' and there was this picture on it:



sorry to nick it andrew, but its awesome.
anyway, if you lot want to see someone whos seriously into their blogging, check out his site

had a blast from the past yesterday - last night, somehow si wilkins and i remembered the cranberries, their first 2 albums particulalrly, so i went home after our local (bea actually told the landlord that the florist is now our local and "ish the besht bub in walkley" so its now official) and put their first album on - shivvers down my spine, nostalgia, memories etc. and the actual cd itself has a really nice feel to it. took me back to sixth form days completely.

and whilst on musical reminisence (sp?) when bea and i were round our neighbours on saturday night, i found they had that classic, the prodigy experience.

a new week is here.

some more good news:

*

* the weekend was excellent

* i'm not as depressed as i was about my job. i still want to get out of it, but it seems the whole learning to be content wherever you are thing is happening, living above you circumstances, being free, all that good stuff. yay god!

* the cafe ideas are coming along nicely

* i got to spend some time with fran and he's cool!

* we're gonna see some interesting stuff happen with bea this week i reckon.

* sofa are amazing

* we're going to texas soon

felt the need to blog a few good things that are happening right now:

* i've not been blogging cause i've been getting lots of hours off at work (students not turning up) and so have been able to get lots of painting done and really getting to know the guys at games workshop.

* my "tooth issue" is not as serious as i thought it might be and the dental nurse was very reassuring about the situation.

* the worst lecture of the week today, history of architecture, the student didnt turned up - a real answer to prayer (seriously!)

* we've got lol and beth coming round for tea tonight and it smells really good

* the weekend is here and bea and i have another day of fun ahead of us, namely bakewell, shopping, and tea at our neighbours house

* i saw mark in record collector and bought a couple of new cds: kate rusby (little lights) and box car racer

and the last point cant be done yet so you'll have to wait till monday but its exciting!!

something always bothers me when people read the bible and skip through all the names that are listed in genealogies and such. shannon has written an amazing blog today about lots of people - a list of them and it reminded me of those lists in the bible that i have even known vicars/pastors to skim over when reading, but here's the thing: GOD MEANT FOR EVERY ONE OF THOSE NAMES TO MAKE IT INTO HIS WORD AND EACH ONE IS CRUCIAL TO OUR FAITH OR ELSE HE WOULDN'T HAVE BOTHERED. maybe at SOFA tonight i am going to read one of those lists out - a nice long one and we will thank God for each of those people because they are no less special or vastly important to God as you or me.

i haven't ranted for ages - that was great!

spoke to my dad last night and he is just the most amazing man. i ooze love for him and our relationship just keeps growing. bring it on!

i've emailed a letter to a few of you but i thought i would put a link to it here as well - for those of you who love monty python, and for those of you who don't. i don't but i still thought it was a jolly good read!

in case you were wondering how to best pass on your wishes in the event of your death, here's an idea!

well, pancakes were fabulous, particularly as they were made from soya milk to cater for those with a dairy allergy. this didn't actually go down to well with our french guest who fortunately didn't find out until she had enjoyed several already and so didn't have any excuses not to carry on! cathers made her famous bananas and raising fried in brown sugar and butter, i made some fab chocolate sauce which is a recipe i snitched from jen pen and there was also ice cream and lime and sugar and golden syrup and we ate loads!

i have been inspired by cathers' recent blog where she listed 10 things to be cheerful about and 10 things to be prayerful about. so here we go:

10 things to be thankful for
1. i have started growing glorious nails again thanks to some nail polish with diamonds in that beth told me about.
2. today i have bright pink nails!
3. God is fabulous
4. andy is fabulous
5. jen reminded me in a very gentle way that God wants us to believe in order to see, not see in order to believe. (thakns jen).
6. i found a free place to park in the middle of the city centre!
7. my daffodils are all out and bright yellow and gorgeous.
8. only 40 days to easter.
9. the cafe vision is really taking shape in my head
10. i have really good and precious friends who love me.

10 things to be prayerful for
1. God to heal my asthma and allergies
2. for SOFA's vision to grow and sparkle and bubble up all over the place.
3. for my nails not to chip too quickly.
4. for our cafe vision to be birthed.
5. financial provision.
6. for freedom from the things that keep me bound up.
7. for more karaoke at our local pub.
8. the wabisabi event in texas starting at the end of march
9. for peace and wisdom in the world, particularly the middle east
10. to know more of Jesus and his love so that he might live more and more in me.

today is shrove tuesday for those of you who have been so consumed with something else that it has passed you by!

the BBC has helpfully informed me of the following:
Pancake tossing is also a very serious pastime for some people - Ralf Laue from Leipzig broke the world record by tossing a pancake 416 times in 2 minutes and Mike Cuzzacrea ran a marathon while continually tossing a pancake for no less than 3 hours, 2 minutes and 27 seconds. The world's biggest pancake was cooked in Rochdale in 1994, it was an amazing 15 metres in diameter, weighed three tonnes and had an estimated two million calories.

if you would like to make pancakes tonight, then the BBC has teamed up with the lovely delia smith to help you out.

have fun tossing! any SOFA girls reading this - we're meeting for 7pm prayers at church and then going to Cathers for a pancake extravaganza! bring a topping!

(mum - if you read this, it's about money and God and i don't expect you to understand!!)morning all. andy and i are heading off to usa on 24th march for 2 weeks. this is really a God thing because he bought all the money in for the flights by a given date but we are not in a great way financially (in fact a little worse than i had realised!). we sat down a couple of weeks ago and worked out our finances and on paper we get in a little more than we estimate goes out but the way it comes in isn't in a regular pattern! we are expecting a largish check at some point from the tax people which would be enough to keep us ticking so please pray that God releases this money from the tax people or from elsewhere. What we need is about £1500 to have us back to a place where we are in credit and able to pay our mortgage, considering our jobs at the uni end just after we get back from usa!

i have just been surfing the blogger top 10 list and have found this.

well everyone, i have finally surfaced from my depths of illness. i don't remember the last time i was that poorly - i had to take a whole week off work and i don't think i've ever done that before, maybe not even for school.

br>andy seems to have told you all about our weekend which was very good. i still don't feel 100% and i found a lot of the weekend quite knackering but also refreshing as well. church was amazing last night - mike talked about money, sex and power from matthew 19 which meant that we had an interesting and heated conversation in the florist afterwards. don't know where the commune got to - more than one of them had said they were going to be celebrating jason's birthday there after church. karaoke was awesome - cathers and i are genius. we sang so well that even si wilkins was proud of us and from a worship leader that is quite a compliment!

what do SOFA people want to do on thursady?

i'm going to the loo and then i'm going to surf for a bit - see what gems i can find for ya'll!

that was a good weekend.

watched fight club on friday night, had an excellent day on saturday lying in, making a wheat beer (with coriander, and a facing heaven chili in it!!) with bea, then getting my hair all cut off, then going to cafe rouge for a drink, calling in at nick and rich's house (and killing some iraqi's on the playstation - how topical), then going to cathers' house and having the most awesome curry with her and gee. then on sunday, lots of people came round for a jason's birthday celebratory brunch (and what lovely weather it was) before going off to yorkshire sculpture park with everyone, coming back, going to church, rushing back afterwards and having beef stew with si wilkins and then off to the florist for a karaoke and a lock in with si and cathers.

all in all a brilliant time!!!

not a lot happening this week... yet.

pancake day tomorrow.