COOL

Ferry to work

2012-02-06T18:51:00.001Z

My first trip of the year to Applecross Primary combined with my first ever journey to work by ferry, thanks to Highland Council providing a temporary service to avoid the closed road along Loch Carron. A very clear and bright day gave perfect conditions for both the crossing and the journey over the Bealach an Ba to the ten children in Applecross, to deliver the first of three assemblies on Easter (Palm Sunday today) followed by the SU holidays advertising.

It might seem early in the year for Easter, but the theme of welcoming the King worked well with it being 60 years to the day since Queen Elizabeth II became Queen.

Off to Malcolm's this evening to catch up following the Celebration on Friday.

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Getting 'otter

2012-02-04T14:08:00.001Z

I don't often see otters, but spotted the first one of the year running across the A87 on the way home from church last week (me, not the otter). And today the weather has risen 10 degrees overnight too!
January has been busy in the office, getting up to date with youthwork reports, newsletters and the annual report, the latter of which are available on the website. And of course the mad dash getting things together for the annual celebration quickly came upon me... 3am video editing on Thursday, but we did have ten years to cover! An excellent evening, well attended and a special thanks to Calum and Highland Council for putting on a ferry for us from Lochcarron with the road still being closed. It did seem strange not having our chairman present, sadly due to the death of his mother in law, but Roddie led the 10th annual celebration very well. I am concerned however that his church may not a get a sermon tomorrow, given all the effort he put into the songwriting to mark my ten years! Hope the recording worked. Andy Bathgate brought a great message from Mark chapter 1, reminding us of the good news which we bring, and everyone else did their bit to make the whole evening a success. That even included a last minute change of venue due to a burst water main in Dornie! Thanks to Fiona for getting the school opened for us. Three prayers from young people, including Joshua Mockett, a Bible reading from Jackie MacLennan and Colin Carmichael, and worship led by Tony, Mary and Heather. Thanks to all and more. We even had a message by video from the chairman, and he managed to limit it to just over 7 minutes; not bad!
After all that, I was truly surprised to be showered with gifts: a brilliant photo collage from the years (right up to last week in Glenelg youth club) thanks to Bethany Lane and others. And then prevents for Joshua and Keziah, flowers for Ruth, a meal at Kinloch for the two of us and a rather nice, though thoroughly undeserved, iPad. Guess I've no excuse to update the blog more regularly now!
Thanks to everyone; I only wish we could give iPads out to all, which would be a more accurate mark of our first ten years, as COOL truly is a community project which we've worked on together. I like to think too that our presence has played a small in bringing the churches together, as well as all the young people we've worked with over the decade.
Back to some youth work now, which includes numerous primary assemblies, some deep thinking to do regarding our discipleship, Alltnacriche weekend planning and a couple of days with SU next week... here starts the next ten!

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Listen

2011-12-05T15:44:00.001Z

Highlight of November was this year's SU Scotland staff conference at Lendrick Muir, with teaching from Tommy MacNeil of Stornoway. A highly significant week both personally and corporately, calling us back to a place of depending on God and yet, when hearing from Him, away from being swayed by well meaning onlookers. Lots to digest over the weeks and months ahead, but the one pohrase that sticks in my mind was that 'Scotland needs its leaders to lead'. Hmm.
As aprt of the planning team this year, I was privileged to work with Gavin, my colleague from Dundee, to MC the main sessions. I also prepared a seminar but due to unpopular demand, was very blessed to be able to spend it with a couple of friends drinking coffee and reflecting on Tommy's input.
So, back up the road (200 miles) on December 1st in time for a Take One Action film night at the school, then off to be with friends following a family death. Long day, Thursday!
Commitments in Kyleakin for school assemblies and youth club followed but today the snow arrives for the first time this winter, and so my Applecross booking for this afternoon inevitable was cancelled. Still, a few things in the office filled its place, including a very rare moment of letter writing — by hand! Off to SoundWaves team meeting this evening before meeting with Malcolm in the morning as we consider a few things for the months ahead.

Keep Praying

2011-11-17T21:18:00.001Z

So we come to the end of another week of Prayer for Youth meetings, each evening in each of the four parishes I cover. Been a great week getting to grips with some of the issues we're facing, from illness to spiritual apathy, and standing beside younger brothers and sisters to seeing exciting developments with Engage, our new Bible reading club. It's also been a useful week to catch up on some news I've been out of touch with around the parishes, such as one or two groups struggling to find leaders, or getting low in numbers, to desperate situations with individuals facing life's toughness.
A few primary assemblies to pad the days out, and managed to get quite a bit done for the SU Staff Conference which I'm part of the planning team for, and leading a couple of sessions at. But having every evening out this week, my employers will also be very pleased to hear that on a couple of afternoons this week I have found time to make the most of the good weather and go and spend time in my heavily overgrown garden!
Our secound Engage club met yesterday lunch time, with a couple of new faces, and everyone, although not finding it easy, still enjoying and committing to the next six week of Bible meditation together. Great to see so many young people wanting to go deeper and it's a mutual benefit. Lunch today also saw our second planing meeting for Alltnacriche with 3 out of the 4 young people on the planning group turning up. Allowed us to make some progress thinking about the teaching program and a few ideas that were thrown up for the next meeting...

Very Engaging

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000Z

After a few days holiday (no email, no planning, no worries!) getting back into things can sometimes be a little slow. Good trip to Applecross for their monthly assembly on Monday, and whilst we take whatever is given us, it is so relieving to have a good bit of dry and clear weather. So, good to catch up with 10 kids in the school and crack on with the series from Jesus Kids Club; one more to go.
Tuesday was one of theose days when focusing the mind was hard going all day. Sometimes when I have fifteen diffetrent things to going on to think about, attending to one is really hard without the other fourteen distracting me. Deep breath and get on with the task in had, which yesterday was SoundWaves. Perhaps as a result of that, and technical issues with the PowerPoints, it lead to completely manic hour and a half, but lots of fun and we were still smiling at the end. Just one of those nights when I was glad to make it to the ened, though the 20 or so lively kids seemed to have a good time.
Back into the 60 Second Club yesterday with plenty of kids to split into two groups for our time of prayer. Then the relaunch of Engage, this time at lunch time for about half and hour. We thank God for His provision of Selwyn Hughes notes on mediation, which last for six weeks. Fell into my hands at just the right moment to relaunch the club, with exactly six weeks left of term. An answer to prayer. Good times to, as 10 of us have committed to helping one another through the daily readings and meditations between now and Christmas.
As well as some time spent preparing some notes for Engage, a visit to our Headteacher with his freshly broken leg, and quite a bit of time praying and thinking through some of those other events crowding for my attention, I know I'm back at work, but glad to be here.

Rome to Kyleakin

2011-11-01T09:48:00.001Z

Ocotber seems to have been a busier onth than usual. I'm used to having time off during the October break which didn't happen this year, but was good to be on top of the prep for this year's S6 Conference ahead of time, especially as no one else was available to plan it this year.
So, another successful trip to Rome with 20 Plockton students. Always good to have a bit oif good weather at this time of year, and after six weeks of rain at home, a welcome relief. Every year is different, and although I think this was the first year we didn't discover anything new, it's the differences in the groups that make each trip unique. We just about know what we're doing now and our way around the city, and everything went very smoothly. Perhaps it's a little too easy to forget what we're caled for sometimes, but this was another year of exciting opportunity to demonstrate something of Jesus to the kids, and we pray that doors will open for the year ahead now, as we minister into people's lives.
Two weeks back in the office gave me a much needed break,, and time to get to grips with some papers on morality, in prepapration for the S6 conference. Lots of reading, which I find struggle with, but thanks to the BBC for their recent program on the Science of Good and Evil, which gave us a really helpful basis for discussions.. So once schools went back, and 60 Second Club restarted, Thursday last week brought us the conference. Great to welcome to the team this year the new priest from Portree, Fr. William MacLean, as well as Colin from SU and Tom, his year out student. Most exciting for me was to share the work, not only with the usual team of local ministers, but also with Graham Patey, a friend from years back when I was teenager. Graham had a significant input into my spiritual development and has the gift of being able to ask just the right questions to get people thinking. I knew he would be ideal for the day and his objective perspective, coming cold into the school, gave me an added insight into one or two of the students which I am praying for as a consequence.
So a really good year group, well up for discussing and sharing their point of view, which made the day really successful. I also had the chance of furthering one or two oncversations as a result on the Friday in Rab's room, as I left Graham to visit the maths department (his daytime job!). Dave's Club gave us the chance to discuss the future of Engage, and it looks like folk are happy to take the Bible reading into Wednesday lunch times, freeing up break times for the usual weekly time of prayer. Still looking for wisdom on how best to run that, but that's for next week now.
Friday Nights had a great turn out, including a new face and two or three who rarely come. Phew. And a fitting conclusion to the month was the excellent joint communion, with about 200 people attending Kyleakin Village Hall as most local churches deferred their evening service to this joint event. A day in Inverness with SU colleagues yesterdaqy, then straight on to a SoundWaves team Bible study... meetngs today and tomorrow is holiday. Be nice to breathe a moment.

Glenelg

2011-10-03T11:18:00.001+01:00

The end ond of a good week, largely centred around Glenelg it would appear.
It was great to be able to share in Calum's baptism in Glenelg Church of Scotland, and a privilege to be invited to pray over him with Colin and Roddy as he was baptised. A really good turn out, including folks from other vilaages followed by the usual high quality spread we've become accustomed to! The school hall was full for the lunch and great to see Calum's family all enjoying the day. A wee get toegther with Rab to finalise Rome details before heading home, after a full Sunday which included our kids' outreach, Sunday SoundWaves, in Kyleakin.
The first of the PHS staff prayer meetings met on Monday and it was good to join with them to share in that, although the group seems to have got slightly smaller over the summer, with some having left the school. Although I can;t make SoundWaves this month, we met for the team Bible study on Monday evening, trying out our new group time with the 'chat mat'. I hope it will develop well, although it will take some time to get used to it.
An unusual event on Tuesday for me was a primary class. Normally I only run assemblies ion the the primaries, but Kyleakin had given me some time to talk about water shortage in Peru, which meant digging out photos from 6 years ago now. Anyway, the kids seemed interested with lots of questions, and we'll see if we can set up some sort of line for them as we head to Ica next summer.
Engage met Wednesday break time, instead of the 60 Second Club, and we're beginning to get to grips with the Bible reading club, though next term it will hopefully improve as we got o once a week. Need to give some thought to how the 60 Second Club will operate. The first of this year's Alltnacriche planning group met with three of the boys at lunch time; hope the girls I invited can make the next one!
Seems I've been out every day this week, which doesn't always happen, but Thursday took me down the road to Sleat to meet with some of the ministers for prayer and fellowship. It's a difficult time in our local churches, with the fall out from this year's CofS General Assembly, but we are wqorking hard to retain unity locally for the wider work, and to seek God's blessing on each individual's righteous response to unrighteous decisions.
Back to Glenelg to plan the youth club for the coming term before a quieter day on Friday, consisting of High School input at Dave's Club and Rab's RME classes. Not quite there, as I was back to Glenelg on Saturday evening for the Joint YF, having spent the afternoon meditating on Daniel 6 for the talk in the evening. I enjoy these Joint YFs and they give me a chance to share some of God's vision for the work with a larger group of young people, in the context of prayer and worship. Thanks to the Glenelg team again for great hospitality!

Off to Applecross now as the gales blow in off the Atlantic, before heading off to Rome this evening... all in a day's work.

Conversations.

2011-09-07T11:04:00.002+01:00

So, see how all Jews have to be circumcised, what about Jesus?
Good red hair going on girls. What colour should Dave's beard be?
Let's talk about the trip to Stirling... and Rome... and plan the year's assemblies... and can I tell you about my weekend...

That just about sums up the first ten minutes of lunch time for me last Wednesday, the first question coming even before I got to reception. So how do you deal with this one in a Primary school: "Dave, if you don't belive in God do you go to hell?" Answers on an eCard please...

Great weekend away with ten S6 students to the Take One Action conference at Stirling University. A full on couple of days watching some films that are changing the way governments and individuals think about injustice in the world, and lots of discussion and training on how to make use of such resources in our communities.

Plockton High is really committed to fundraising and giving the kids
first hand experiences around the world, not least through the Vine Trust's Peru trip which we join every couple of years. The challenge now is to host a film night before Christmas.
Good craic with the students too, and got to say I especially enjoyed our night out on Saturday evening. Thanks girls, and sorry a couple of you had to leave beforehand.

Back up the road on Sunday after church in Stirling (Quote of the service: "Jimmy, will ya shut yer mouth? Minister's tryin'o preach!") And the start of an intensive week. Good to get across to Applecross Primary yesterday after lunch with David, the minister in Lochcarron. The school were great and came up with some relly cool ideas in response to the story. So for next month, we're working on not running into to the teacher constantly throughout luinch time to tell on each other... I'll be checking on you!
SoundWaves restarted last night with almost 40 lively kids, but a great start as we try out a new way of running groups, always up against it with only having a handful of volunteers. 1:8 is great in principal, but it can still be tiring.
And finally, my first High School assembly of the year. Thanks to Imagine for the 'Cannabis Plants' story which seemed well received by staff at least. Lunch time I guess I'll find out what the kids are saying... and yes, it would be good if the money that went missing from one of the students last week miraculously turned up. Good choices to be made people...

Video killed the radio star

2011-08-22T09:12:00.000+01:00

So a useful couple of days with Christina from Urban Fox, and a huge 'thankyou' to her and David for their hospitatlity and input. A little light on the practicals, but I'm used to working with video cameras, so the information passed on from this ex-BBC cameraman has been enormously interesting and useful.

A good grounding in all the basics of video, though not overly technical as to become disjointed from reality, and has given me the confidence to have some idea as to what I'm doing behind the lens when I point it at the subject. So day one was lot of technical stuff on how to set up the camera for the dsired shot, and day two we covered other things such as audio capture and lighting. Lots of food for thought. It's difficult to foresee right now how the new knowledge will be used directly in my work but I do find that these things have a way of becoming useful. Video has always been part of COOL to some degree, so even we can produce better videos that would be beneficial (especially at the price Urban Fox is able to deliver this traning to individuals!). Still got one or two edits on the computer to finish off before worrying too much about new footage, but Rome awaits in October.

Autumn Term

2011-08-16T20:05:00.001+01:00

So soon a new term and new academic year begins, and back to school for me tomorrow too. A day in the car travelling to London for a camera training course tomorrow and Thursday before heading back at the weekend for the first committee meeting of the school year.

Not a bad journey and only three stops, with a little time to kill in Oxford services as I've arrived too early for my accommodation, but only another hour's driving. Long day and I miss the Highlands the further I drive from them. I love the space.

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That was the summer

2011-08-10T13:22:00.000+01:00

One week to go before schools kick off again, so grabbed the chance to catch up with the Head at Plockton yesterday. Amidst a building site at the school as the two buildings are joined together (over the next several months, though the new entrance looks great already) it was good to get some breathing space to plan out the year ahead with assemblies and the S6 day.

JUNE
So a feature this year was the arrival of a small team of US students to support the Free Church ministries in the area, and I got to make use of them for holiday club planning. It was great to have Rachel and Kaylan sit very patiently throughout our second day of filming having mucked up the first day with the wrong camera settings! Still, the results were worth it and happy that this year's teaching videos were the best we've done. Still lots of room for improvemnet but we're moving in the right direction.
Amidst all the club writing I still managed to fit in a few assemblies, including two in Applecross. All the P7 visits were finally completed with Sleat althoihg reclaiming three days when I wasn't required for activities week in Plockton was really useful! Wrapped up the season of SoundWaves with a BBQ for the team and a family service in Broadford which was well attended by kids and parents. I also did some video work for the churches during the John Blanchard meeting, and the year end concert for the Music School. So, a bit more editing still to do...

JULY

Week 1: Strath & Lochalsh holiday club in Kyleakin Village Hall. I don't think we've had a club as big as this for years, with around 60 children attending everyday, and having to split the P6/7 group girls and boys as they were so many of them. This pattern was repeated for the afternoon teen club. Some days, including leaders, we were feeding almost 40 people and it was great to renew friendships with some of our, now older, holiday club children. Really hope and pray that we can find a place to include them in our weekly provision. So, five mornings of club, then a mini gala sports, wide games, paintballing and a Loch Coruisk trip rounded off a very meaningful time in Kyleakin, and especialy good to see the churches coming together so strongly to provide a packed and fun filled program.
Somehow managed to find space for a summer holiday ths year, which despite heavy colds, gave us a good time camping in the Lake District. Meanwhile, Sleat Free Church made good use of our props and teaching material for their holiday club in Sabhal Mòr.
Week 4: Glenelg & Kintail holiday club in Glenelg (where?!) Village Hall. Ok, it was meant o be in Inverinate but circumstances forced us to change halls the day before we started! Well done to all the folk who managed to get the hall ready in time despite the inconvenience. I took the Sunday off! All turned out well and we had a number of children from Arnisdale who no doubt wouldn't have travlled to Inverinate. Another large club with a consistent 40 every day, followed by a crowd of over 20 teens in the afternoons for Colin MacDonald's week of crazy activities, always wanting to go that extra mile! The Medieval Mayhem teaching material which we had written together, based on the story of the whole Bible, just seemed to work this year and despite a huge amount of effort to prep ot all, the week seemed to run itself once we got going. It was good to get Thursday afternoon off for Joshua's birthday, before heading off to Corran on Friday for the camp over with the teen club. This however facilitated the most exciting part of the week as we opened the teaching time up for the young people to share brief testimonies if they desired. 40 minutes later I had heard something of the spiritual journeys of a number of young people whom I had never heard from about faith before.

AUGUST
Almost up to date, but after the Glenelg club we wer focussed in final prep for Imagine, the Christian festival in Inverurie. It was great to be taking 10 young people from Lochcarron, Kyle and Glenelg this year, along with the whole family and also Angus and Jackie MacLennan. Great teaching and inspiration from Mike Pilavachi and Ants Watts from New Zealand allowing space for God to work amongst all of us. Encouraging to see our young people work things through and recieve and give prayer during the main meetings. The inly surprise for me was not that Kenny laft his bags behind when he had to go for the train, but that his bags left him behind! Still, there was another train 2 hours later and I think all were eventually reunited.
I also got the chance to catch up with Pete Gilbert in adavance of our Discipleship Conference in September, which was really helpful.

And this week is a mixture of making plans for the coming term, High School and SoundWaves already done, catching up on some admin work (such as this!) and also recouperating a bit of energy for the term ahead. Think I managed to pull together all the summers expenses for COOL this monring and onloy took 3 hours (what have I missed!). Training course in London next week, riots permitting...

Still here

2011-07-22T09:17:00.001+01:00

With one very successful holiday club under our belts, support for a second now completed and the third of the summer clubs about to start in Glenelg & Kintail, may I take this opportunity to reassure friends that reports of my death have been greatly misapportioned! Condolences of course to my namesake from Plymouth, I will endeavour to bring followers up to speed with the last month of work shortly, having just returned from holiday, not in the Middle East, but in the Lake District.

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Working 9 to 5...

2011-06-12T09:37:00.000+01:00

So I'm trying to analyse exactly what I do at this time of year. Every now and again I try to think through which is the quietest time of the year for COOL, and I always tend towards June, and then am always surprised how much time work takes up during this month.
Well only three assemblies this week and just the one visit to the High School, so what have I done all week? Monday was my annual appraisal followed by a SoundWaves team meeting in the evening, having cooked for Malcolm and Colin. With Ruth being ill for a couple of days it adds some time pressure, but she recovered quickly. Then Tuesday I only had one meeting, which was for the potential HMI inspection of the Skye & Lochalsh learning community. That doesn't officially include us as we don't recieve any public funds, but we're so involved with many aspects of the young people that it's good to be represented. Wednesday was anothe day of filming for the Holiday Club, and it was good to have the help of Rachel and Kaylan from the visiting American team with the Free Church. Another day at home (with the car in for a service) on Thursday before three school visits and the Bible study on Friday night. One more full day of work this week as the SoundWaves team headed to Inverness for a training seminar on Communicating with Children. Good to share a meal together and also good to be encouraged that we seem to be doing ok in terms of how we deliver our children's work on Tuesday nights, though it wasn't a time of gaining much extra info.
So I seem to be right that I have less contact time at this time of year, but the Holiday Club preparation, amongst other bits and pieces of admin, seem to more than compensate. Night times at the moment tend to consist of some film on TV whilst writing the quiz for the Clubs, in my 'pigeon' ActionScript programming. Takes quite a long time when you don't really know what you're doing; the code won't look pretty but it'll work! And then the video processing for the Bible teaching took up another couple of days, with maybe a couple more to go. On the horizon for the coming couple of weeks is some prop making for the club as well as writing the group times. So that's why this time of year is busily quiet! Time spent in front of the PC passes very qucikly and 12 hour days are not unusual, fitting in buts and pieces whenever I have spare time. If we were to block off time to write a whoile holiday club, had immediate access to all the resources (including inspiration) on hand all the time, I guess the team cwould put everything together in less than two weeks. But the real world doesn;t work like that, but we'll be ready for July!

Call to Prayer

2011-06-05T10:28:00.000+01:00

The week of the bi-annual Prayer for Youth meetings always tends to be busy, as I run a prayer meeting in each of the four parishes for four nights of the week. That means full days and out of every evening, with the Friday Night group on the fifth. But is thas been a good week for prayer as God calls us to a new place. Great to see half the meeting on Monday in Ratagan made up of praying school age people, many of whom also come to the 60 Second Club. The main themes this week were prayer for the proposed Bible Reading Club, the Discispleship program and then for young people as God laid them on our hearts, as we considered the access we have to the throne of God. This was partnered on Wednesday night by an open prayer meeting for all the churches to cry out to God. As it turned out, this was dominated by confession of where we have taken our own churches at the expense of the one true Church. A significant time for us in Skye & Lochalsh which we plan to build on in coming weeks.
Another P7 visit in Broadford and an assembly in Elgol looked like a quiet week on paper. But at this time of year as we prepare for the Holiday Club season, there is a lot of work to be done in front of the computer and designing things for use at the clubs, as well as planning the programs. We seem to be slightly ahead of ourselves this year, though there is a lot left to do.

2011-05-27T23:08:00.000+01:00

The pay off for getting round most of the primaries in one week last week is that I managed to book assemblies. Not quite as much as last week, but a fair amount of travelling getting round the schools. So today spent most of the day in schools, from Loch Duich to Plockton Primary (and catching up with one of our ministers in between) before finishing in the High School. Good to catch up with lots of folk at lunch after last week's work experience and also great to see on of the new S1s (on the taster week from the primaries) come along. Not much of a talk this week but an opportunity to be getting the guys thinking about a potential Bible reading group for next term.
I spent the afternoon with some of the RME Higher students revising with Rab for the exam on Monday. I hope they do really well — they do seem to know their stuff, though hilarity seems to ensure in Rab's tutorials. He likes to blame me but there aren't many RE teachers who are able to be explaining about key philosophical or religious characters whiulst making the mental link to Inspector Clouseau in his head.
Home by late afternoon to give me a bit if prep time for tonights Bible time with the Friday Night group. A good turn out as we reflected together on what we believe, how we are assured of what we believe and the importance of the Bible to our lives.
All good; I think I have a whole weekend off now!

The Good Samaritan is not just a story

2011-05-23T21:29:00.000+01:00

Great week last week with Robin on his work experience, though it did mean I was kept going all day, every day, with some evening work as well, plus some time on Saturday. Hard work this work experience! Still, we managed to get round 9 of the 11 P7 groups to deliver their 'It's Your Move' books and have a chat and pray about next year. We managed to cover 337 miles and visit 11 schools; not bad and although I wouldn't normally do them all so close together, really useful to get them done. I also managed to secure a few more assemblies that I've been missing, largely due to the email problems. Robin did a great job of writing and delivering an assembly for Broadford Primary, as well as preparing some thoughts for Friday Night @ Dave & Ruth's and having some useful input to the COOL planning meeting last Monday. As well as spending a full day preparing a video for the holiday clubs, I think he got quite a varied experience.

So, back to the road on my own today, and back to Glenelg and then Applecross. Assemblies all went fine but I hadn't banked on tourists on motorcycles thinking it would be a good idea to drive Britain's highest road — the Bealach na Ba to Applecross — on the windiest day of the year so far. Don't ask me why the car in front of me thought sitting and watching was the best option, but I couldn't just relax as I watched the four Belgians struggle to get their four large (and heavy!) bikes out of the verge and upright again. But with gusts around 70mph today, getting from the car to the bikers was an effort in itself. Only got blown off my feet two or three times, by which time I was soaked so nothing more to lose. Many thanks to Dai the Postie who also stopped to help, and having turned the four bikes round, we all decided the safest course of action was to leave the bikes and head back to Applecross for the night.

Road cleared again for those comfy in their cars to drive passed, Dai and I headed the 5 miles back to the Inn where they found accommodation, and I'm sure some friendly locals who'll take them back up to retrieve their bikes tomorrow.

So thanks to the weather-bound Belgians for a welcome pint of Guinness, a nice cup of coffee and a wee gift which should just about cover COOL's travel expense to the school today. All turned out well and I think I can just about feel my fingers again...

Good Friday

2011-05-14T10:13:00.001+01:00

A successful day in Glenelg with Colin and Barbara going over the teaching fir this year's holiday club and preparing an outline for the video. Now all we need to do is shoot it and edit it. Watch this space. Took up most of the day but good to see the Friday Night group after quite a few weeks. A short study tonight on keeping priorities straight, especially during the exam period, from the prophet Haggai.
Great to hear Sarah has got her placement with Viz-a-Viz ministries all next year. Ella's now off to work with a church in Ipswich for her week's work experience and I'm looking forward to having Robin with me for his work experience. Lots of P7 visits next week!

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Only by prayer

2011-05-14T10:08:00.001+01:00

With the General Assemblies of two national denominations nearly upon us, we are entering a time of potential significant change and a new era if Christianity in Scotland. Met with several of the ministers this morning to share and pray together. Nevertheless, positive times locally as we continue to sense God's hand opening up various avenues of ministry, despite concerns nationally.
A couple of school assemblies today followed by holiday club planning ready for the team meeting for Strath & Lochalsh this evening. Well, thanks to the two other people who turned up; I only hope that the repeat scheduled for next week more convenient. All part of the ups and downs...

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An annual occasion

2011-05-07T20:42:00.001+01:00

Once a year an event happens that has a profound impact on my work... for several days: the Staff v Sixth form football match!
An good start to the day as I presented the full details for the Peru work party in 2012. Fifteen booking forms were taken so I'm hoping that from those we can put together a great team. Lots I'd fundraising ahead!

The afternoon match seemed rather under manned this year, which resulted in the local church's youth worker to have to play the while match, or at least be on the field. Didn't perform too badly when my legs actually moved and a 3-3 score line led to the penalty shoot out. Thanks to the five teachers on the pitch who stepped up to the spot, and the match was eventually awarded to the S6 team (not quite sure what reflection on the score that was, but hey, a BBQ was calling).

Perhaps not the best preparation for a weekend at Alltnacriche with 30 kids, but me and the whole family were ready to leave by 4.45pm and arrived just before the kids. This weekend helping out with Colin Carmichael at the Highland Primary weekend.

My responsibilities, other than general staffing, were the Saturday wide game (we eventually arrived at a set of rules that made it last longer than 1 minute per round) and the Saturday Bible teaching on Mark 10:17-30. Good discussion tonight; primary kids have lots of questions!

All going well so far and good that Joshua has been able to join and enjoy all the activities. Keziah meanwhile keeps Ruth and I busy at every opportunity!

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Technological revolution

2011-05-05T00:20:00.001+01:00

1. Acknowledge the problem
2. Initiate a solution
3. Make intermediary arrangements

So a few hours later and several phone calls, and all but one of my P7 visits have been booked, and most for the week of work experience when Robin in S3 will be with me. Result.
A small 60 Second Club due to exams now under way, but also managed to get a meeting booked for those interested in Peru for 2012. Lots ticked off the to do list and almost ready with the next newsletter. Feels good to be productive.

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Still at home

2011-05-03T23:42:00.001+01:00

So, does the technology conspire against us, make us dumber, or did I simply forget?! Turns out I should have been 200 miles away today, but despite having received the program, the event doesn't appear to have made it to, or at least been retained in, my diary. So here I am still at home with time to catch up on emails and other admin after the holiday weekend. Website, some video work and some planning done on the office. Now I need to try to sort out why no schools seem to be receiving emails. Its not quite Terminator, but deep down, I think it's conspiring against us...

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Music

2011-01-20T23:24:00.001Z

After a heavy cold and lots of office paperwork, great to be videoing the high school concert tonight. Two and a half hours of great music. Better do a bit of editing soon...

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Priorities

2011-01-15T15:13:00.001Z

So a day of having to prioritise. Lots if admin work to so for the Trust coupled with some sort of exhausting illness left me cancelling a primary assembly and the first Dave's Club of the year. But the priority was to get letters ready for the weekend and reserve enough energy to do the photo shoot at the senior social. Had also promised to help staff the bus from Ratagan, so a 5.30pm start to the evening.

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Prayer for 2011

2011-01-14T10:17:00.001Z

A morning of prayer and planning with local ministers for the next couple of months in our churches, 'equipping the saints'. Good start to the new year.
Last night taking photos for the junior social in Plockton. They just kept coming for two hours until I started to get low on batteries and memory, but some nice results. Need to get ready fir the seniors tonight.

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To do lists

2011-01-12T23:32:00.001Z

Lots of SoundWaves prep this week but a great evening. Non stop but encouraging with 38 kids including some new ones. Great for the first meeting back!
Today I made great progress on my to do list of admin tasks, but slightly frustrated by running out of toner which will delay things a bit. A little productivity tip: if you come across something that needs to be done that wasn't on your to do list, always add it on and cross it out. Great for morale!
Also managed to make my three Plockton visits today: prayer meeting with a dozen boys, catching up with folk at lunch time and the same in the hostel this evening. School socials tomorrow...

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Happy new year

2011-01-11T00:02:00.001Z

So, a new year and back at work on Saturday. My usual start to the the year included delivering the Bible overview teaching for the SU Year Team at Lendrick Muir. Always a challenge but always enjoyable and good to do.
First day of work was spent preparing for and delivering a quiz to Kyleakin Youth Club. Spent today trawling through a few emails, prayer time with Malcolm throughout the morning then SoundWaves prep. Out to the team Bible study this evening ahead of the group night tomorrow evening.
Lots of things to get on top of this week for the term ahead, but will be dominated with lots of admin work in the office this week.

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New entry

2011-01-09T23:19:00.001Z

Just checking the new facilities...

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Location:Braeintra