Day thirty nine #40acts

I wasn't very inspired when I read today's act. It's Good Friday, and Good Friday in the life of a kids worker means being at church all day. Being at church all day means being in contact with Christians all day. I knew I wasn't going to find anyone and change their view of God. However, I decided to look just at the sharing my story bit. I managed to chat to one person about how God had called me into kids work. It's a very small part of a much bigger story and it doesn't convey giving my life to God or anything like that, but it's a story of how God was speaking, guiding and showing me my purpose. Sharing my 'calling' with that one person today may not have done anything for them except they understand better why I'm passionate about my job. It really spoke to me though. In a time where I really need God to reveal to me his plans, it's reminded me of that time four years ago where I also needed Gods direction and he showed up and look what happened! I know God has my whole story written and he's holding it in his hands. 

Day thirty eight #40acts

A very wise person once told me, 'Unforgiveness is like you drinking the poison and expecting the other person to die.' To this day I remember this little quote. It's so true! Someone hurts me, I get angry, I sit with it, I get more angry, the anger turns to bitterness, I keep hold of the bitterness that works it's way into hate. Meanwhile, the person who has hurt me skips about their life blissfully unaware that I'm harbouring all these feelings of anger, bitterness and hate towards them. It's a no brainer as to who is worse off in this scenario yet time after time I do it. I keep hold of yucky feelings instead of giving them over to God and forgiving. 
Today I let rip with God and did some forgiving. Some things were really small but I knew I still needed to let them go and some of them were a bit bigger and even though I've said the forgiveness words, I expect I will need to keep on forgiving until I've let go completely.
I don't want to spend my life drinking the poison and I want to get better at letting go quicker. 

Day thirty seven #40acts

As an extrovert I love spending time with people so really, today's act should have been very simple. Sadly, in the run up to the Easter Weekend you will find me in my office buried under Easter eggs, photocopying, laminating, stickers and curriculum! There wasn't much chance of giving over a chunk of my day to anyone. 
At 1pm the lunchtime buzz begins and at church we are all very good at doing lunch together. Today I had decided to work through lunch in the hope of getting away from the office a little earlier. However, as people began filtering outside I longed to be part of the community, part of the laughs and chats going on, part of sharing life with each other. So I switched off the computer, left my phone in the office and went to sit for an hour and do lunch with some of the best people I know!! 

Day thirty six #40acts

Sharing lunch today was a fail! I didn't even make my own lunch in the first place because I was running late so Ash had made my sandwiches for me. Despite not sharing lunch I did share lunchtime with the wonderful staff team of St Bs! 

Day thirty five #40acts

Today I shared the gospel message in three simple words. The recipient knows the gospel message but I wanted to send her a reminder today. I know this challenge was intended to be bigger and more brave....what can I say, I chickened out. But I really felt my friend needed to hear the gospel message 'GOD LOVES YOU'. 

Day thirty four #40acts

Joy came over me when I read today's act. Planning an event for next Saturday. Well, here I am giving myself a whopping big pat on the back. Although, is it cheating if the community event was already planned ahead of knowing what today's act was? It's not cheating I hear you say, well that's a relief!! 

Our church Missional Communities have been encouraged to do something outreach based on Easter Eve. A lovely couple came up with the idea of running an Easter Egg hunt for the local families and the families that come through our doors for toddler group and our Friday kids group. So, next Saturday we are having a Family Easter Egg hunt round our local park, followed by a bit of craft and a visit to the Easter bunny for a treat! I'm very excited! 

Day thirty three #40acts

Any petition that's going to make a child's life better is a petition worth signing to me! Today I signed a petition to stop the trafficking of Christian children in Bangladesh. 

Since 2005, a special group of human traffickers have been operating in Eastern Bangladesh. They approach desperately poor Christian families in remote areas and pretend to represent a humanitarian organisation, and offer to make their hopes come true by providing a good and inexpensive Christian education for their children.These malicious traffickers then take the children far away and sell them. The children’s names are changed, they are issued new identity papers as Muslims, and then forced to study Islam all day, every day. Children rescued from these institutions report being starved, locked up in closets, and being beaten with live wires and canes if they refuse to learn the Quran. Worse still, some of the boys have been forced into child labor and some of the girls forced, starting at around age 12, into prostitution.
Today this trafficking ring is still operating in Bangladesh. The petition is calling the government of Bangladesh to account and demand they take action to shut down this vile group before any more children get harmed.  

Day twenty nine #40acts

I have a lot of favourite Bible verses, many of them committed to memory. I try to remember the ones that help me out the most when I'm sad, angry, feeling worthless or unloved. The verse I've chosen to share today is from the end of Psalm 23. This little sentence talks about a father's love. A love that will come running after me no matter what I do or how far I've wandered.

Day twenty eight #40acts

I'm cheating a bit today and using something from yesterday as a way of completing today's challenge. Last night myself and Ash decided to help out some friends of ours. It had been a bit of a disaster day for them and we just wanted to offer something to say we are thinking of you and to try to ease the situation for them. 

We popped some money in an envelope and in my worst handwriting (we wanted to be anonymous) I wrote their names on the envelope. Ash then went on a ninja mission to drop it through their letterbox without being seen. 

Unfortunately our ninja mission failed and within 15 minutes we both had a text message to thank us for the money! They had figured out it was us.....FAIL! Never mind, anonymous or not we still provided an unexpected gift that I hope will help our friends. 

Day twenty seven #40acts

I'm not really a flowers person. They are pretty and everything but if you want to let me know you care then give me chocolate! 

I'm yet to complete this challenge. There's loads of people I could send flowers too just because, but I want to send them to someone it will have an impact on, cheer up, or just let them know I'm here. 

So, if you want flowers you need to drop me some major hints in the next day or so!!

Day twenty six #40acts

Today my heart sank. The words 'buy the next person in the line a latte' burned out at me!! I still haven't quite recovered from my Starbucks incident the other week so there was absolutely NO WAY I would be offering to buy a stranger a coffee any time soon. 

I did something very small and quite insignificant. I was in Tesco's after work and despite just wanting to get home and veg out on the sofa, I let an elderly lady go before me in the queue. She took literally forever over packing her shopping and I wanted to cry when she produced a massive wedge of coupons when it came to paying. I could feel myself getting frustrated but as she finished and turned to leave she shot me a big smile and thanked me for allowing her to go first. I don't know whether she will pass it on or whether any of the other people in the queue were watching what happened but it doesn't really matter. I made her smile and in return I left Tesco's feeling grateful I hadn't had to buy a stranger a coffee!!!!!

Day twenty five #40acts

Today's challenge couldn't have been better timed. Yesterday we were on a staff away and an awesome guy called Michael Ross-Watson was speaking to us. I was encouraged by what he was saying but I was also challenged. This guy has some crazy amazing God stories to tell. I was left thinking 'why doesn't God use me in crazy amazing ways?'  I know the answer....it's not difficult to spot the difference between myself and Michael. Michael spends time in the presence of God, he spends time listening to Gods voice and he makes himself available to God by saying 'here I am'. 

I am struggling to remember the last time I said to God 'here I am'. I am busy, there's always things to be done and people to be seen. Often my work for God will get in the way of God himself. I'm just not available. 

After reading today's act I spent time asking God to use me, listening to his voice to guide me. I don't have any crazy amazing God stories to tell you but I know that God was guiding me in the moments I took to say 'here I am' today. 

Day twenty four #40acts

I like today's act! Rather than playing practical jokes on people or laughing at their expense, today was about making someone smile in a good way. 

I didn't spend the day cracking jokes but it did make me remember our Mothers Day service from Sunday. We were looking at The Good Shepherd and I was co-leading. To add some 'humour' to the service we did some research on sheep jokes and I thought I'd share with you the highlights!! *dont get too excited, they are pretty baaaaaaad! 

What do you get if you cross a sheep with a kangaroo? 
A wooly jumper!

Why did the policeman give the sheep a ticket?
Because it made an illegal ewe turn!

What do you call a sheep with no legs?
A cloud!

Ok, I hear the groans, I will leave it there! 

Day twenty three #40acts

As a non coffee or tea drinker I don't often make hot drinks. It was only the other day that I made Ash a cup of tea and he commented that it was the 4th hot drink I'd made him since we got together! Oops!

Today I've been to two meetings both held in coffee shops, so I've spent time chatting over hot drinks but I definitely can't take credit for making those drinks! This evening we had a training evening for the St Bs kids teams and I have learned that a meeting will always be a happier environment with endless tea and coffee! I took on the job of making hot drinks and setting up the coffee station.

It has made me reflect on how little I offer to make hot drinks for people. Even though I don't drink them I could still spend 5 minutes making someone a drink to put a smile on their face. So...if you want a brew, give me a shout!

Day twenty two #40acts

So I only read today's act after I'd checked emails, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram....FAIL! But let's face it, was I ever going to keep to the challenge of unplugging for a day...erm....nope. As sad as it is I enjoy technology and don't mind that my life is occupied by it. 

Today's act encouraged conversation, spending time with people (in real life not through a screen!) and playing games or walking. Rather than just blatantly ignoring today's challenge, I decided to engage with this whilst still having Facebook to hand! Ash and I went out for lunch and chatted and watched the world of North Finchley High Road pass up by. We spent the afternoon away from screens and did some baking for church tomorrow (well....I baked and Ash washed up) and then we played card games. It's been a fun day of chatting, being silly and throwing good humoured insults whilst beating each other at Monopoly :)

Day twenty one #40acts

Today I did lots of shooting type prayers. The ones where someone will be telling you something and you quickly and quietly in your heart just shoot up a 10 second prayer to God. I don't often pray in this way, not for an entire day anyway. It was quite tiring but it felt good to shoot up those prayers before I gave wisdom or voiced an opinion or offered help in some other way. To ask God to help first is the most obvious and sensible solution to everything but so often I only ask for Gods help when it's a last resort and there's no other way out. 

So today I've prayed about house moves, surveyor reports, job interviews, dream jobs, nursery places,  tests to be passed, cars to be fixed, colds to be healed, work to be completed, peace to prevail, rehearsals to go well....and the list goes on. 

Day twenty #40acts

Half way through!!!!!

When I saw the title of today's act a sense of dread came over me. The dread wasn't because of what I had to do, it was because of the reaction I feared I'd get. 

As a born and bred northerner I'm quite happy chatting to random people. Up north it's okay to chat to people at the bus stop, perfectly acceptable to engage the checkout lady in conversation and definitely 'sane' to be walking along the street with your head up smiling at passers by! So, you can probably understand the cultural shock I went into when I moved to London. In the last three years I have slowly but surely learned that it is absolutely not okay to even make eye contact with the person opposite you on the tube, let alone talk to them. Engaging the checkout lady will result in one or two word answers and if I walk along the street smiling at people they presume I'm more than likely on 'day release' from the local hospital! 

Despite the fears of the reactions I'd get, I embraced my inner northerner and spent the day saying hello and making small talk with strangers, desperately hoping they were fellow northerners! And you know what....it wasn't that bad. One or two 'do I really have to say something to you' looks, but nothing to deter me from continuing to chat to randomers :)

Day nineteen #40acts

Words are powerful. There's that old saying, 'sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.' I think this playground rhyme is complete lie. Words used against us can be really painful and if held on to they can become a negative part of our identity. It's so important we use words carefully, to build up rather than knock down, to praise rather than constantly critique. Words are important to me and it's one of my top two love languages. I need to hear the encouragement, the 'well done' the 'I'm proud of you' the 'I love you'.....words mean the world! And because they are important to me I try my best to be an encourager and say those things to other people. Words to let them know they did a great job, they are awesome, they are valued and treasured. 

Today's challenge gave me the chance to further exercise my encouragement by writing notes. It felt a bit weird writing it down but it felt good to commit those words to paper where they can be seen and read over rather than vocalising encouragement which can so easily be forgotten. 

Day eighteen #40acts

Until today I had never heard of Charity Tuesday! I donated to my chosen charity from a few days ago....Home for Good. 

Day seventeen #40acts

I'd like to think I'm already quite a polite person. I remember to say please and thank you and try to be aware of the people around me when it comes to holding doors open and stuff. I guess the one place where my politeness has a major downfall is the moment I step into the car! 

The past couple of years have taught me that London has entirely different traffic laws to everywhere else in the country. People are crazy! The other week some guy cut me up on a roundabout so badly that I had to swerve to avoid him hitting me. He then raised a middle finger at me and shook his head like it was MY fault!! I mean...what?? However, I have also noticed that since getting our own car I'm slowly becoming one of these monstrous London drivers who has no patience to sit in traffic jams and NEEDS to get to my destination as quickly as possible! 

Today I took the being polite challenge onto the road. I was patient, I stopped and waved pedestrians across the road, I let cars out in front of me. I even stopped at Amber traffic lights without convincing myself they were still totally green!!!! What effect did my politeness have? Well, I may have got to my destination a few minutes later than it would usually take me but I got there chilled and rather pleased with myself.