I want to accept God's love, and thus Him in the same way I accept oxygen. I know that I must breathe and without oxygen I will die. Without God's love I will also die (at least spiritually). I want to think of Jesus as my food and water. Each and every day I breathe, eat and drink. These are crucial to my survival, I don't need to think about them. They are an instinctive part of me.

To wake up in the morning and take that first waking yawn and know that as I breathe in my body is being filled with the Holy Spirit. And then as I eat my breakfast and drink a cup of tea, to know that my day is beginning with Jesus in me. To know this without having to think or question. This is where I am going and this is what I hope to achieve.

I pray to the Lord that He will know my sincerity and help me to achieve this desire.

wow richard - God is doing mighty things in you and in me through you. keep going and pressing in. you are an awesome and wonderfully made child of God.

for the first time in yonks i managed to surf around a few of your blogs and i noticed i have missed out on a crucial quiz! it was anita's blog which inspired me most - her girls are so stunning! (i'm gonna ask andy to change the picture by the way!). a bit scared by kristen's rant - but fortunately i know that it was simply a rant! still keeping my eyes peeled for any grammatical or spelling errors though. been praying for you three. oh, and stacy and brad - so good to see that you understand each other's thoughts and words - i don't even know the meaning to half the words you use! i really love you all. it is great to have caught a glimpse of what's been going on in the blogging world and in the other world which is all of your lives!

back to the quiz - i am very scared - for myself and for you, and for every person i meet...

You are Revelation.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

made an awesome casserole for tea tonight - it tasted even better cold when i got back from a training course we're going to. tonight was really good actually - normally struggle because i find the delivery style (like a lecture) hard to keep concentrating and stay interested.

so much to say - i would love to be able to sit with all of you and chat. real person to person type stuff.

coffee shop developments are interesting - we felt we were meant to enquire about another premises so we did. it's on the same road as the other one, just a few hundred yards along. needs the same permit as we did for the other one and has flats above it which would likely come with the premises. please pray for us as we push this door and for the other door which is still ajar!

my mum and dad are travelling to sydney, australia this weekend so please pray for them as well.

new week, and its raining. ah yes, sheffield.

somewhere between the rain, the late getting up, and the film we saw this afternoon (tadpole - a cross between igby goes down and the ice storm) its feeling very wintery here today - which is pretty far from what it was yesterday where we sat outside in the garden, ate fresh salad and then walked to church.

bruce almighty went down interestingly! my sister was excited to proclaim that 'God is good' when my prayers for God to ensure that we didn't miss any of the film even though we were sinfullly late to the showing were answered! then at the end mogul decided she wasn't sure about the film because she didn't like what happened to others as consequences to jim carey fulfilling his own selfish desires. i explained that i liked that because it reminded me that it's a good job God doesn't just give us everything we perceive we need - this went down well!

sorry to brad and anyone else who felt left hanging on the other day after my announcement of exciting news! i tried to post it but i managed to delete it all somehow! after all the anticipation it will seem very uninteresting!

as you know, i have been leading a faith community (a cluster) called SOFA for about 9 months. i strated it because the overall leader of our church suggested that i get on and 'do my vision' which was and is community. SOFA has grown in many ways and is a really exciting community of people to be part of. we've been having ongoing conversations with our leaders since returning from wabi sabi and there have been lots of tears!

as a result i have finally communicated clearly and everyone involved (including me) has suddenly clicked that my greatest desire is to lead with andy in the vision that we share ie. moogaloos coffee shop and then the general domination of walkley which comes later! one of my leaders stood out and said that they were aware that andy couldn't lead within church's current structures because of how God made him but that their desire is to see us step into our calling so...

the exciting news is that...

i am stepping across from leading SOFA (spending a month handing it on to others) and andy and i are being released to step into our calling with full support of the church (st tom's), even though it means the church will have to work around us cos we won't be able to make meetings and stuff.

so there it is - the exciting news which you praobably already knew because of the indepth intercession that you've been a part of for us!!!

actually, on a serious note, if you feel like God has set you apart as an intercessor and you are committed to intercede for andy and i as we step out, could you let us know so that we can keep you informed of what's going on and what is needed.

i am a butterfly who is free to flutter, not caught in a net! (thanks mags - one of the most amazing words ever!)

lamb and mint sausages with fresh raspberries from the garden between 2 slices of white bread, and a pint of cider, sitting on a sunny garden wall - unfortunately not the kind of lunch i have very often.

ooh! a clean house - my husband is fantastic!

well, i'm in the mighty 'nam (cheltenham) where i'm staying with my folks and my sister and brother who are around. today i went to see Granny in hereford - she took me to see where they had buried poppy's ashes (he died on boxing day last) and then we went around a few 'open gardens' which is organised by the village church and is an opportunity to explore some local gardens. kind of cool but very proper! granny has given me a hosta and somne foxgloves to bring back to our garden.

this evening i'm off to see bruce almighty with my sister. she let me pray for her neck today - the first time i've ever offered a memeber of my family prayer! she didn't get healed immediately but i thought the opportunity itself was a miracle! pray for us tonight as we watch the film together.

gotta dash. am tired as sleeping alone was hard but back with andy tomorrow!

a weekend of sausages and cider, and a little peregrinatio for its own sake.

an unusually late night, a refreshingly early start, and a long but full day

an intriguing variety of films yesterday, a clean house this morning, and who knows what this evening.

kate rusby sang the soundtrack to yet another day, with dreams of coffee shops and an absent wife, cross genre music bends as new housemates are to be welcomed.

its been another good day today.

lots of good films today.

oooooh - the blogger editing screen has changed - how exciting! i'm quickly taking a break from sitting in the sun while children play in their paddling pools! isla needed a poo so i thought i would quickly log on while she went about her business!

things are good. i have some news to tell you but as i need to get out to the sunshine and also to check up on wimbledon i shall let you know later - and no, i'm not pregnant!!

well, we've finally got our phone system sorted out, in the end plumping (!) for ntl - this does now mean free internet all day, everyday - far more exciting than any phone packages.

also changed is blogger - openning it up this afternoon, its gone all blue colours - very nice

welcome to ruth and lorna to the blog panel...

hi everyone. i'm at ant and caroline's so i thought i would take advantage of high speed internet to blog a little! life is fine - we have teresa and steph staying with us at the moment who are heading off for a day trip to manchester today. last night we watched 'saving grace' again! fantastic film - not sure the americans get all the little jokes which rely on slang and language. the question "will you give me one?" certainly has a different meaning over here than in the usa!

i love the design andy has done on the blog.

please please please pray for the coffee shop - andy is going to phone the owner today to find out if there is any news. also, we really need to crack on with the business plan and that requires prayer to help us get going!

off now now to entertain a three yr old and a 1 yr old!

...and
on the way home, teresa, steph and i popped into the (hopefully) coffee shop
premises to be - the back door was open, and the landlord said we could have
a look in sometime - the place is huge - the main shop front space is about
15 paces long (my paces that is - 20 of steph's) and the about 6 deep - not
sure what that works out to be...

the unit itself has 3 more rooms behind this one - one has what looked like
an old chimney breast, then a middle room that looks like it has loads of potential
for retreat space/ sanctuary/ quiet room etc, then another room on trhe right
hand side that has a toilet and a tiny kitchen in it and a bit more space in,
these three rooms being about 4 paces deep.

anyway, it's amazing - and we really need you lots to pray it in if we are
to get it - for those of you who don't know, someone has already put an application
in to have it changed to a curry house (as if we need another!) and they find
out if they get it hopefully tomorrow/ monday - we really want
it.

so here's a pic to show you what its like inside.

had
another brilliant day today - first off, we got a few drinks at some random
sports bar in hillsborough (we being cathers, teresa, stephanie, mark-olivier
(sp?) and myslef) as part of mystery shopper visit - the pot smoking in the
carpark/ beer garden didn't go down well...

then we went on to the cliffords as cathers had bought a load of food to have
as a picnic in their garden - chicken wings, salad, pineapple juice, malt loaf
and, as you can see, chocolate.

ben was obviously enjoying himself... he even had his paddling pool out.

and another wonderful day - sorted out a few little things with the blog (hopefully) and then spent the day with ant, wandering round town - had a brilliant time - life's soooo good.

so is God.

the parting photo as elly left us this morning - we had a brilliant evening - after (a very yummy) lasagne, we went to town and visited whats becoming my favorite pub,the devonshire cat - they now even have chimay white on tap (i was a little disappointed it was the white - why do pubs always have my least favorite ones on tap? - like leffe blonde - you should always have leffe brun and chimay blue when there's the choice...) - and i'm certainly looking forward to dans birthday there next week...

...and then on the way home we got talking to these 2 blokes on the bus who then came back to ours and we stayed up talking till 3am! not done that in a while... please pray for them when you get a chance - they're called joe and sean - especially for joe - for (emotional/ spiritual) protection, clarity and for God to touch him in a way he really knows and recognises, and their girlfriends twinkle and beth (respectively), again for protection where they are.

anyway, i've been increasingly finding i've been having a happier, better and more interesting time in life recently - despite having no money, it just gets better. definitely think there something in this life of faith - trusting God to keep you afloat is pretty scary at times but really exciting as he does. starting to see what andrew and debbie jones were talking about when it comes to seeing things you'd never see when you have enough money of your own to rely on. very good for your spiritual life.

i think theres people out there that know what i mean...

on another one of my walks around town again today - and its really windy outside - looking forward to this lots.

taking a design leaf out tall skinny kiwi's blog, (little pic of him there at this years wabi sabi texas, setting up the shotgun revival tent on the friday) i've even managed to set it all up so that each blog has a box round itself, and the writing wraps round any pics that get put up, instead of starting at the bottom - my knowledge of html has certainly been improving in the past couple of weeks since i started learnong dreamweaver/ fireworks.

i s'pose i should once again apologise to everyone who still uses modems to get their net acces, and so has to wait a while for our page to load up - we still use a dial up modem - it took 24 seconds i counted the other day - apparently most people are willing to wait only 20 seconds for a page to load up.

maybe no ones reading this.

most days are pretty good actually - not really much to complain about really - today was good - got a desk for our study (thank you jen!), played some guitar with ant, and then elly (one of beas old school friends) has come up for the night. looking like a good day in all. again.

just to rmind people, if you dont like you're photo at the side, please send one you do like to me so i can change it for you. and that includes people feeling a little hurt thay aren't on there at all - just remember, once cut down, it has to be roughly portrait shaped, and so only one of a couple is likely to make it on...

oh my word - it actually seems
to be working on only the 2nd attempt!!

the buttons over there on the side dont work - no pages made yet.

its been a good day!

and i've put up the new pic of bea at hers and cathers request

hi all. am not blogging much
at the mo as you can tell. this also means that i'm not able to check
up on your blogs. if you blog something that i may want to read could
you copy and paster it to me in email so i can be involved!! crazy how
you can suddenly feel so on the edge of a community as soon as you stop
inputting yourself.<p>for those who prayed for my unfortunate finger
incident, sadly i developed an infection and have had to have it removed.
(ha ha ha - not really - only kidding!).

<p>well, teresa, dave and steph have arrived and flown the nest
all in a very swift manouver (sp?)!! they are peregrinating to scotland
for a few days.<p>we had the most awesome time of God tonight -
i was so desperate for Him and therefore so jealous of the time we had
as a group BUT at the same time His grace enabled me to release control
and allow the group to be where they were at individually. loving Him
and He honours me - woo hoo!! only just found out that the words 'glory'
and 'honour' are synonomous (if that word is the right one!!!).<p>blessings
and butterflies to you all - j'espere que les personnes qui visite a Paris
et a Lausanne, ont beaucoup d'aventures!! (apologies to those of you who
actually speak french!!)<p>we love you neil lambert - be greatly
honoured and illuminated!

again, i dont know what it is about being there at the ceilidh - i mean
in some ways its a little odd there - all the folk people of sheffild
turn out for this night etc but i just dont smile so much like i did tonight.
something basic, primitive, honest, real, open, pure, unpretentious that
make you feel at once at home there, that strangers are friends, and you're
free to dance with them, to twirl and skip, and do things you'd never
otherwise do with people you've never met before. a place where roles
are simple and clear, a place where no one judges - an awesome Godly experience
thats not about escapism from the world and people around you put is actually
completely entwined around them - social.

oh, and i've got the first 20 episodes of "the mysterious cities
of gold", that classic from our childhoods, at home, on the computer,
ready to watch...!...

just been out for food, and they're everywhere - they're taking over!!!

the blue bins have landed!

it was quite a wierd site to go out onto our street this morning and
find all the blue bins lining the street into the distance. the photo
hardly does it justice but, it really was a surreal site to wake up to.

have also discovered rhubarb as a snack - its very sharp but if you like things like that - citrus fruits etc, its great

does God want you to be poor; does God want you to be rich; or does God want you to be free?

or maybe more,

does God want you to be poor; does God want you to be rich; or does God want you to have a total faith in Him to provide everything you need?

yesterday was indeed a very good day, start to end.

well - i didn't sleep unitl gone 2.30am last night and today i was up early to go to a 'releaser's of life' conference in town. it's the toronto team who've come back again to visit us again and it is wonderful.

we have been under so much attack recently in particular, and it is just coming to light that there's been a significant amount of attack on us just because we live in walkley - jen (a true judah prohetess) shared knowledge of whichcraft stuff that hangs around in walkley - it explains a lot of things!!

it looks like most of satan's cover has been blown - i just need some good training in warfare intercession!!

love you all - particularly in love with josh, kristen and judah at the moment - feel like God has you showing us some of the way!

well yet again, Gods providing in the wierd and wonderful ways that he seems to. thanks you again.

kate rusby - i've been listening to her for a few months but i defintely think it will go done as one of those albums that i'll always love. like siamese dream, ten, vs and 1000 kisses.

also pray for teresa, steph and dave coming to the UK today (i think - timezones confuse me a little) - safe flight etc..

and just to say, i'm doing so much stuff on fireworks and dreamweaver these days that i'm actually dreaming about it - at least its getting my mind active again!

just had a cool time of prayer - was sitting in our bedroom and basically prayed into or for everything in there or people inspired by things - the dixie chicks, the americans, ant, the things we own, my clothes, my chest of drawers, homebrew, dan, POD, pearl jam, danny and trish, bea, the planet (i saw the energy saving light bulbs!), whoever gave us a painting on the wall that i can't rememeber, my shoes, my stereo... generally being thankful for the things we have and the people we know. twas good.

and someting i thought of yesterday - i've been working on our computer for the past few weeks for long times at a time, maybe 5-6 hours a day, 3-4 days a week and i havent once had to restart it because it crashed. in fact i'm not sure anything has gone wrong at all in that time, and i've had most of the time outlook, windows media player, dreamweaver (plus help files), fireworks (plus help files), paint shop pro, ftp software, and a couple of internet browsers open all at the same time, and our computer was fine with it all, flipping between them all. and its all been great - rarely frustrating.

what am i getting at? why am i going on about our PC?

just thought of nathan yesterday thats's all.

(he he he!)

thankful for our computer too!

blogger on the other hand.... grrr...

hi all. am sharing in the suffering of all allergy prone pewople today. my eyes are itching like crazy and i keep sneezing! tomorrow/today (tuesday) i am looking after isla - please pray that we have a fun time toether. nathan - i'm on a little trip to come visit you in the desert. light a fire for me and crack open some cheeky beers!!

on a good day, even the panel over there on the right is there telling you what we've last watched and listening to at the mo (bluegrass etc at this very moment, dixie chicks' latest album)...

put a couple of more people up on the blog pics side - if you're not on there, please send me a pic of you as i've only put up those of you who i happen to have - ie not everyone who used to be on the lists - our blog directory is still pretty extensive, just not comprehensive

i'm worried to type it but it seems like its fixed after all - i ended up wading through the javascript code using the debugger and finding the problem - well i assume it was as it now seems to be working ok...

we shall see tomorrow...

sorry everyone - yet more problems with it all. if you do want tool at what it should looklike, go to the link a few posts down - having problem with all the pics too.

and its taking forever to download.

you'll just have to put up with the old one for now.

i also chopped the top off my left index finger - very painful. the closest i can describe the pain using my imagination is to say that it is equal to being grabbed by your pubic hair, tied up and then hung from them for a while. or maybe just plucking them out slowly, a couple at a time.

hi folks. it's me - not blogging very regularly at the moment. amazing testimonies of financial provision and being community which is exciting. i'm spending my time leading SOFA and then also looking after isla (3) for a couple of days a week which is hard but fun! God is talking to me about community and church in terms of households, not individuals.

went to York and then on to Fountains Abbey today - weather was lovely. it was so wonderful and the french-canadian who has just arrived in this country and was accompanying us was having kittens at every stone wall and sheep, let alone the sights we were seeing. he said his mother would cry if she could experience what he was experiencing! God help us when the americans descend!!!! i had the amazing honour of a baby bird perching on my hand while we were there - i felt very celtic!

please keep praying for me - feeling fragile!!

IT'S DONE!

or maybe it did. sorry if it took so long to download, your ice creams melted!

oh dear - its going a bit funny...
its supposed to look like this.

and it didnt. quite.

it looks like blackberry ice cream when its right...

if this works, i'll be very surprised. and just a little bit happy too...

You are Andy on guitar. Being the laid back type
you're happy to tag along with the others.
You're very passionate about what you love but
tend to get side-tracked by your thoughts.


Which member of LOFTER >> are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

i s'pose thats a relief...

secretary - a black comedy thats so black its not that comic - i mean it was funny, but i'm not that sure it should've been.

it was good, but hard to watch at times - really really odd.

pete pert would probably love it.

hot dang!!!

in the midst of our financial issues the big man, the J, him upstairs, God, has just put through our door far in excess of what we needed to get the coffee shop change of use put through.

ptl (!)

and a massive thank you if the person is reading this...

You are: Ruth Deller. A slightly random,
independent, prophetic type who is softer than
they first appear.


Which St Tom's member of staff are you turning into?
brought to you by Quizilla

well, i must say, thats one of the coolest quizillas i've done in a while - and who'd'a thought i'd come out as the author herself?

personally i'd prefer to think that i'm not turning into a leader at st toms at all, but there you go...