June 13 "Currants, Cake, a Collie and Costa Coffee"

Got a good start today. Very good. Because today is the day that I had toast for breakfast. But not just any toast. No. This was the best toast in the world. That is because this toast was covered in BLACK CURRANT JAM. Yum. Yum.

More assemblies with Alun. I am spending a lot of time observing this and have realized that I really have no idea how to present these stories to children in a way like Alun does. I am hoping that once I've gotten done with my talk for this week, I will have some more time to think and plan for it. But until then, I will observe and assist. After assemblies I headed back to the house and then surprise plans came out of the woodwork!

After much deliberation, Becca and I met up in Caerphilly and got a lift to the Costa Coffee Shop. It was awesome. I had my first real cup of coffee in ages. SO GOOD. Today was just full of culinary delicacies (roast dinner for supper as well- cheesecake for dessert). After that we wandered around and picked up some stuff from the pound shop...where everything is, you guessed it, a pound. It was a great time to talk about our plans and just spend time with each other. I'm starting to learn how essential decompression time is for ministry. Gotta just walk sometimes. As a matter of fact I had a good long walk when I got back to Tonteg! I even met a guy named Richard who was walking his Border Collie. He said he wasn't a church person, but I'm hoping to see him around and maybe suggest a few things.

Then tonight I led Bible Study. I was the youngest one in the group, but no matter. I just swallowed the nerves and the butterflies devoured them whole. We are working our way through a book on The Tabernacle, of all things. I won't lie, I raised a brow at the somewhat obscure nature of the topic, but it just goes to show that every nook and cranny of Scripture is packed with God's perfect word for us. We talked about a variety of things, only getting through 4 of the 10 discussion questions before closing. We got pretty deep. Then we talked more over tea and now here I am.

Apparently Brian heard me detailing my "devil story" (June 7) to Josh last night and I had to sort of clarify what I was talking about. What can I say, I don't really believe in coincidences. But it was good to hear myself tell it again. Day after day God gives me the strength to keep going and to keep growing. He is so good to me. Beyond all that I could ever ask or think.