Mark Jones – In His Dust

Well, this weekend I missed Re:hope.

I was away on a residential trip with my main youth group ‘the volunteers’. We were meant to be going snowboarding, but as it is with all Scottish weather, you never get what you need. It was snowing… but really windy.  So, apart from the multiple snow ball fights, where I seemed to be the main target for my young people… we done a number of ‘challenging’ assault courses/challenges/etc. Oh… and I’m also covered in rope burns and bruises.

The best moment was being hoisted up 30-40ft attached to a rope, to release myself into what seemed like a huge free fall and a lot of swinging in mid air. I did have a video camera attached to me, but the battery died while I was being hoisted up. Properly a good thing… seeing as I was yelling at the top of my lungs as I released my rope. However, my youth group seemed to be entertained by the whole thing, so It was worth while.

The place we were staying is called the ‘Abernethy Trust’. It’s a christian run place. Really big, and really good. But, there wasn’t any ‘direct’ input for the kiddies. Had a few interesting conversations with them about God, etc. Was good to see them taking some amount of interest. A couple of them even read an extremely small amount of the new testament.

On the bad side, I was up until 3am both nights/mornings so the little trouble makers didn’t run riot… So I’m not utterly exhausted.

What’s more is I’m working crazy this week too. I’ve got my normal working hours of 9am till 5pm-ish Monday-Wednesday, as well as 7pm-9pm on Monday and Tuesday, then 6pm till 10pm on Wednesday. Working Friday night and this upcoming Sunday as well. Hopefully I won’t get too grouchy.

And what’s even more sad is that I’m only contracted for 35 hours a week…and this week i worked over 70…

Well, that weekend just there was the Re:Hope re:treat! It was good. The guy talking seemed pretty sound, and his ‘talks’ were challenging. It was a chance to chill out with the re:hopians (church lot) and get to know one another better, as well as a time for God. To focus on him.

So anyway, I don’t want to blog anymore on re:treat… for the moment… I’d much rather seek sympathy for what followed re:treat. lol.

Basically, after an awesome church service, I went outside to find my stuff had been nicked (stolen) from the back of my friend’s car. Stuff being my work laptop, ipod video, digital camera, portable hard disk, bible, house keys and 2 journals. I was a bit gutted to say the least. Not so much about the other stuff, cause I can ‘cope’ without them (other than my bible), but more about the ‘work’ laptop. My first thoughts were… Goodbye youth work, hello Re:hope. Having witnessed what had happened when a worker had previously ‘lost’ a rubbishy work digital camera, I was sure that it was now BBQ time for Jonesy. So, after talking to the 5.0. (cops), we decided to go to vineyard. Much to Brian’s shame, apparently. Which I’m sure translates as him wanting me at coffee?

They had a girl talking about Slavery. Oh Joy. How depressing for an already grumpy Mark. It’s fair to say, it felt like my worst weekend ever.

I was off monday – yay! No facing the boss today, but I still had to make a call, letting them know I had taken their laptop out of work (in which case it shouldn’t leave the house), and it had got stolen. The boss didn’t sound happy. Dreading tuesday.

BUT… turns out. They didn’t really care. Where I thought I’d get a ‘written warning’, I got a “These things happen”.

So I guess, God was looking out for me.

But now I’m faced with the dilema of not having a bible of my preferred (NIV) translation. Gutter. I’ve got to use my ‘teen’ bible to read 1 Samual. So, if the next post on my readthrough sounds as if I had personally written the bible quotes, blame it on the theif who stole my bible. Hope he has fun reading my months worth of underlined verses.

I’m not covered for any of my stuff what so ever. But that’s not that much of a problem. As long as work was happy, that was the main thing…