I constantly am trying to convince good people to come get involved in what we are doing in Colchester. (if you have been the target of my 'move to colchester movement' know that I think you are cool, that you have a great passion for jesus and you could be used here to some pretty great stuff!).

Steve and I love getting to be a part of our Boiler Room Community on our normal, little estate. It is so ordinary but so lovely. We are really blessed that the people that live around us are so generous and accepting. WE LOVE PEOPLE... and we want to help to make good things happen for people here on this estate. WE LOVE JESUS... and we are desperate to find good and relevant ways to share his story, pray for people and make spaces for people to have their own personal Jesus encounter.

There are lots of reasons why we love Jesus so much, but honestly its better to see that love in action than talk about it, so you will have to come visit us if you want to know why and how we love Jesus so much!

Plus, Colchester is an up and coming town I have no doubt. We can get a fast train to london in less than an hour, the music scene is exploding and I am not joking (every time we go to an open mic night or gig somewhere the talent is phenomenal). We have a few secret hidden gems for wining and dinning. Plus WE HAVE A CASTLE! wink wink.

So if you have ever fancied living in a missional community, if you have been thinking to yourself you need a move or a change but can't think where to go, if you need a good job and don't really care where you live, if you are coming to colchester for uni but don't want to live in greenstead, if you fancy moving to a neighbourhood where you can meet neighbours, do good things and get yummy roast dinners on sunday.... then think about getting in touch with me and lets see about working out a way for you to move here to Malborough Estate.

Also here are some killer job I have recently found on line that might help make you see the practical big picture of how you are going to make this happen!

Behavior Support Worker: work in schools to help model positive behavior
http://www.workingforessex.com/details.aspx?nPostingID=16176&nPostingTargetID=168854&option=52&sort=DESC&respnr=1&ID=QZUFK026203F3VBQB8M8MF60R&LOV1=6178&Resultsperpage=20&lg=UK&mask=external

School Crossing Patrol Officer: be a lollipop lady! (or man!!)
http://www.workingforessex.com/details.aspx?nPostingID=15987&nPostingTargetID=168499&option=52&sort=DESC&respnr=1&ID=QZUFK026203F3VBQB8M8MF60R&LOV1=6178&Resultsperpage=20&lg=UK&mask=external

Business Sourcing Placement Assistant: help process applications for colchester borough counceil
http://www.workingforessex.com/details.aspx?nPostingID=15798&nPostingTargetID=167859&option=52&sort=DESC&respnr=1&ID=QZUFK026203F3VBQB8M8MF60R&LOV1=6178&Resultsperpage=20&lg=UK&mask=external

Trainee Chef: make great food
https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/GetJob.aspx?JobID=1535027&JobTitle=Trainee+Chef%2fCommis+Chef&rad=5&rad_units=miles&pp=25&sort=rv.dt.di&vw=b&re=134&setype=2&tjt=&where=co2+7qw&q=&AVSDM=

General Assistant: help serve customers and run touchscreen till
https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/GetJob.aspx?JobID=1743528&JobTitle=General+Assistant&rad=5&rad_units=miles&pp=25&sort=rv.dt.di&vw=b&re=3&setype=2&tjt=&where=co2+7qw&q=&pg=2&AVSDM=

Before and After School Club Chaperone: possibility of extra hours as a playworker
http://jobsearch.essex-eyjobs.co.uk/pages/job_search_view.aspx?jobId=3696&JobIndex=4&interest=-1&workinghour=-1&qualification=-1&location=12&PageIndex=1&Number=7

Get Connected Project Worker: help vulnerable people to computers and internet
http://www.familymosaiccareers.co.uk/job_description.asp?cid=1185

Temporary Catering at Colchester Zoo!: feed people who come visit the zoo
http://www.colchester-zoo.com/index.cfm?fa=about.job.list&section=4

Admin and Reception Duties or Guest Host: work at a Spa near Boiler Room
http://www.claricehouse.co.uk/Colchester/Work-For-Us/Work-For-Us

oh the fun that can be had!!

My husband and I have recently moved in to live with one of our neighbours. In the start of our dating relationship I remember talking loads about living with other people and how we hoped one day we would get to do that. There are various ways that we would love to live communally... our conversations have spun around ideas about opening up a home for homeless young people and sharing life with them, to living with like minded people that love prayer and God as much as we do, to living on farms with people who like to grow things, to sharing a home with artists and poets... basically we like people and we like sharing life with them.

We have ideas about how we would love to live with people, but its not about having all the rules or ideas or types of people you would live with sorted out. Sometimes it just about sharing life. I think we were created that way as humans... to love being with other humans (I know there are some people out there that don't like to have any human contact... so this is a bit general... I know). But there is this great sense of life when humans get together... a great sense of beauty.

Right after we moved into our new place our new roomie Tracy invited us to join her and her family that was visiting for one of our first shared meals together. There wasn't enough "traditional space" for all of us to eat up at a table, but this didn't stop us. Tracy whipped out a blanket and said that we would have dinner picnic style. She then served us this lush meal of chicken, potatoes, salad and of course garlic bread (now we know it was a good thing). In an easy moment, it felt like we were all of the same place, the same family, the same purpose.... eating and sharing life together connected us in a way that was extremely basic and at the same time extremely complex... the beauty of being human is that there are loads of these moments that at face value are completely basic yet if you look a bit deeper are highly complex.

People have to eat to live... yet people live to eat as well. Its a basic need for survival, yet a time that humans use to connect, to love on each other, to include, to grow, to connect with each other, to be creative, to experiment!

Really what I am trying to say is that loads of people thought we were nuts for giving up our own personal space to go and live with a neighbour. They thought we would hate it because we would have to share things and hide away and work to keep things seperated. Yet in reality (well thus far... which I should remind you we have lived here for two weeks so it is still early days!).... but in reality, as I sat around that picnic blanket spread out in the living room, surrounded by a family that oddly felt like mine, I experienced the beauty of communal living, of sharing things, of opening ourselves up to life and people that are around us... and it is a great great beautiful thing!

Recently Pink (the uber awesome and one of my favorite singers) put out a new track called "Just Give Me a Reason". As crazy as this might sound I find myself singing this song to God and just feeling so close to him when I sing it...

Which at first I found really strange. Isn't this sound about two sexually frustrated people that are actually finding themselves less close and less in love? That point in a relationship where most people think "ahhh eff it, this is turning into more drama and hard work then fun and satisfaction". How could I possibly find this song appealing to sing to God as an act of me letting him know how much I care for him and consider him?

Then the Course hits:

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just BENT 
And we can learn to LOVE again

It's in the stars
IT'S BEEN WRITTEN IN THE SCARS ON OUR HEARTS
That we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

Thats when it hit me. I love this song because its real life. Relationships are hard.. and that means hard work, sometimes with amazing pay out and sometimes it just feels hard. I think often the pressure of being a Christians means that I have to be perfect and have my life together. That God and I are just best friends... always. In love... always. But actually its hard work being in a loving relationship with God. I get distract. I feel far from him. I feel broken. I often do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Being in a relationship with God is similar to being in relationships with other people. If you don't prioritize the relationship it will start to weaken. Just think of the friends you are nearest to... how often do you talk to them, tweet them, fb message, go out for drinks, laugh over music video, share books, give lifts, share dinners, watch movies with, travel with, get gifts more.... in fact the more you do that with someone the more you WANT to do those things with someone.

When other things start to get in the way... we can start to feel like we broke it. And in our culture today when something is broken.. we don't take it to the repair shop- we just chuck it away. Our society as gotten so use to being disposable we even start to treat relationships in that way. Somewhere around 45% of marriages (supposedly one of the deepest relationships two humans can have) end in divorce. If it starts to get hard the message the majority of people buy into is "scrap that broken shit and get a new model".

Again this song really sticks out to me because it pushes for people to stay committed, to realize the importance of sticking it out. That love is worth fighting for. I love that. I love songs that remind me that God is worth loving. That our relationships is worth fighting for. That even though sometimes I feel distant, far way and broken... that, that isn't how God sees it. That he remembers the good times. That he always wants to be in a relationship with me.... even in the hard times.

There is a verse in the bible where God wants all of humanity to know how into his relationship with them he is. So he makes them a promise that goes something like this:

This is the brand-new promise I will make with my children when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!” God’s Decree.

In the end when I sing this song that Pink so generously belts out ... I remember this promise that God made with us... with me... that he has written on our heart how much he loves us and all he wants is for us as humanity to respond to that beautiful love... it better than any cheesy song or romantic comedy or fairy-tale. It real... its hard.... and its worth it.

So a few months ago I got a terrible cough... which was combined/followed by a terrible snotty cold.... which was combined/followed by a horrific viral throat infection.... ahhh English weather.

Right before said cold/mutation took over and conquered my body I was on such a fit streak. I was running 3 to 4 times a week and had worked myself up to running on average about 4 to 5 miles (now for this chubby girl that is like saying I was doing a marathon)...

However, this is not reality. NOW I do nothing. For the last couple of weeks I have been saying that as soon as it is sunny I will go out and run again. So today is a sunny day. Today I finished work early.... today I could go for a run....

Today I chose to eat left over chocolate and be lazy on the couch.... I'll live to run another day.

Unwrap me another chocolate egg hunny bunny! And when I can wear an outfit like below (which I am sure will happen way easier by me eating more chocolate and moving less!) I will go out and enjoy good weather and a good run!