Colchester Boiler Room has recently sent a team of people off to Turkey. Two of the people from our community have plans to move there in the early part of 2014!

With excitement, anticipation and hope we sent them off as they continue on the first start of this journey.

Those of us left here in good old Colchester held a time of prayer for our Turkey Team. We wanted to pray inspired by the culture and people of Turkey...  in the way they naturally live and are... and then pray they would see Jesus where they are currently at.

Hahaha I wil say that I don't know that much about Turkish culture and I aso didn't have an extensive time to look into it, but the hour of prayer that we had set up went so quickly and was really amazing I thought that I would mention some of it here to help inspire those looking for creative ways to pray.

To begin we started outside the prayer room. We asked people to take their shoes off and as they did to really leave behind all the drama, stresses or worries that might be playing on their mind.

We then went into the prayer room. In Turkey a huge percentage of the population practices the Muslim faith. One aspect of this is to pray 5 times a day. Since we only had an hour we decided to still pray 5 different times through out the hour, which basically meat we set a timer for 10 min intervals and prayed every 10 min! We really loved this because when the timer went off through out the hour we would all stand up and we had chosen a short prayer to read out all together. At first everyone was a bit shy, but by the last few times the timer went off we were all jumping up and shouting out the prayer.

One of the things we really wanted to pray for was Hope. We put a water jug in the middle of the room and went and found little shot glasses (wink wink). We talked about how living lives of hope is about working together, being intentional and sometimes going out of your way to make it happen. So even though there was no water in the room we all needed to grab a little glass and go find water in the house and then bring it back and pour it in the jug until the jug was over flowing.... WITH HOPE WATER!!!

As we started we prayed that as we went out of our way to work together to fill this jug with water that it would be our prayer for the Turkey team that they would be intention, work together and create hope that was over flowing.

This was really great and everyone really got into it and started saying their prayers of hope as they poured their little shot glasses of water into the jug. We also let ourselves be inspired by the activity and prayed for people not to be discouraged by the messiness of gathering hope to over flowing (we did have a few spills of water... my bad!!) ... and also we thanked God for the joy of all working together to  create hope as we started cheers-ing the cups before we poured the water glasses as well!

Then we wanted to create a Turkish Rug!!! we didn't have any classic abilities to weave rugs, but we grabbed some big pieces of paper and cut them in to strips and let each color of paper represent a different person on the Team. we wrote our prayers down for each person and then worked together to weave them altogether.

Before we knew it the hour was over and we were really amazed at how God worked together and we pray that the Turkey Team is blessed and much hope and unity is found and overflowing.

Funny things wind me up... and I find it a bit much that things put up on facebook can push my buttons. But the other day one of my FB friends asked on her status "totattooornottattoo?".....

With out realizing what I was setting myself out for I scrolled down the comments (as you do on a night when you are lazy and slobby and not going out) and got more and more agitated. Most people just were like "yeh tattoo" but the negative people just had such a way of draining the life out of the thought of getting a tattoo.

Statement such as "they are ugly" "unattractive" were taken way to personal as I will explain in a sec...

But then people started throwing God into the mix.... making statements that lean on the idea that getting a tattoo was disrespectful and ... dare I say sinful! I think this is when my blood started to boil...

Then there was the classic "you will regret it when you are an old woman"...

I wrote a long and slightly rude/over the top statement, but then realized (after i read it out to my very gentle and caring husband and he gave me "the look") that maybe its not a good idea to be so self-righteous on someone else status.....

But hey!! my blog is my space and I am aloud to be as self righteous as I want!

So this is to all the Tattoo hater:

If you are going to tell me not to get a tattoo because you think they they are ugly or unattractive then I think you just know that wrong tattoo artist... I say artist because all the tattoos I have are some of the most amazing pieces art I have ever seen. Not to mention that the person that did the art work had one of the hardest canvasses ever to work with.. MY BODY!! True, there are some pretty grim looking tattoos out there, but if you look for someone who is truly talent at the art of tattooing you are going to get a piece of art that isn't "on" you, but "is" you which I think is a beautiful way to encourage creativity.

Also, I'm going to be honest.... I am a broken person. I a not perfect and I grew up being a hater of myself.... especially my body. I know that God doesn't like this about me, because when he made me he loved the way he put me together. I haven't always respected my body in the way that I should and that reflects in some of my wobbly bits. Plus gluttony is a problem for me... But I think God likes to use humans as He teaches and heals other humans. For me getting tattoos on my body was a hugely healing process. I learned that beautiful things can be on me.... and if you have ever gotten a tattoo you will understand when I say that it doesn't feel like you have a tattoo on you, but that it because a part of you. So having an artist put beautiful things on me has helped me to see that I am a beautiful person. Yes I was beautiful before the tattoo, but in my broken humanness I couldn't see it.... and I believe that God gifted those tattoo artist to help heal me and remind me "My Daughter you are my beautiful piece of art, even more beautiful then that art painted on your body, but when you see it remember you are my beloved masterpiece! And I love you with an UNCONDITIONAL love"

I think the God I have am learning about and loving was first known as CREATOR. I think he is highly honored when humans are creative and when they express that. Marking your body is a serious thing. God even talks about how serious he is about loving us when he talks about "writing us into the palm of his hand" and "writing promises right into our hearts". These are extreme because when we mark our body it does last FOREVER! I would NEVER encourage someone to get a tattoo spur of the moment and with out researching the tattoo artist and parlor that you are getting it done in or examining the reason for why you are getting this tattoo in the first place.... But I still would say tattoos are great ways of marking important moments in life and re-telling stories and our body is a great places to care those stories around.

That is another reason why I love tattoos. They tell a story. And this is another thing I know God loves. God loves stories. He loves people telling stories and the power story telling has to connect people and draw them into life changing experiences. The majority of my tattoos are moments in life when I encountered and Gods blessings for me. When I see my tattoos and when others ask about them I have a great chance to tell people the best love story of all.... the one where God and I fell madly and deeply in love.

I think in the bible there are loads of bible verses that we need to take seriously and the ones that talk about not marking our bodies is one that we should take seriously too, but I feel its bigger than just the act of "marking" your body. God tells us over and over again that whatever we do we just need to do it in a way that honors him and loves him. Even Jesus said that the GREATEST commandment is simply "Love God with all of your heart, mind and soul and Love your neighbor as yourself".... I do that and can do that regardless of if I am tattooed or not.

And just as a side note: for all those haters that say "when you are an 80 year old woman/man you are going to hate how wrinkled and faded and ugly your tattoo is"... Just remember when you are 80 year old your boobs will be to your knees (if you have boobs), your butt wrinkled like a raisin and your face a winkled mess of a life well lives. I highly doubt you will care one little bit what your body looks like.... cuz most 80 year old don't give a damn.... the attractiveness of their bodies is the least of their worries... that is a worry of youth.

So to all the haters.... Just remember the next time you start hating on tattoos and claiming that God doesn't want us to alter out bodies.... then maybe you should make sure you your not dying your hair, painting your nails, wearing make up, shaving or cutting your hair, or wearing jewelry either....

Or maybe just realize that God speaks differently in different times about the SAME PROMISES and that above all we should be seeking to honor him, re-tell his story, being creative, helping heal the broken and be about love. If a tattoo can do that then I say

TATTOO!!!

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!

So I don't know about you but I love Easter! And a big part of Easter is obviously the breakfast. And if you are American you know it ain't a real breakfast unless you make an egg casserole.

This Easter I was so excited to serve up perhaps one of my favourite breakfast dishes but was shocked at how many English people had no idea what I was on about when I said "Egg Casserole". I did look up a recipe but as always I mainly do this just to see what the 'ground rules' are and then I do my own thing. Everyone was really loving this dish, even people that normally won't eat at all at our communal meals were asking for seconds. So I thought I would write down what I did. I know this recipe is out there somewhere, so by no means am I claiming to be the inventor (even though making egg recipe 'inventions' was one if my favourite pass times as a kid).

Irish Popeyes Meats Porky Pig: spinach, sausage, bacon egg casserole.

Ingredients:
3 of those big ass potatoes, commonly known as Jacket potatoes here in England or in America Bake potatoes.
1 medium size red onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 generous handfuls of fresh spinach
A bit of salt and pepper
12 (or so) eggs
2 (ish) tablespoons of butter
1 package of 8 tomato flavoured sausage (sainsbury bowwyaaa)
1 package of per-diced bacon
1/2 package of cheddar cheese

Preheat your oven at about 170 degrees Celsius (or about 330 degrees F).

So here is what you do. Grab those bad boy potatoes and using a grater, shred 'em right into one of those bigger rectangle size pans. Then dice up your onion and garlic and combine them all together in said pan. Then get out a frying pan and melt about two tablespoons of butter into it. Fry up your sausages and bacon together in the same pan. Once the meat is all cooked, dice up your sausage links (again for the English peeps, if you are in America just buy a tube of sausage and get on with the frying). In the mean time, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper over the potatoes mixture. Then get out a large bowl and crack all your eggs in there and beat them up real goods. Dump you cooked meat + Butter + greasy goodness on the potato mixture and give it a good stir. While your doing that heap in the the generous handfuls of spinach and make sure it get mixed in too. Then make sure the potato/ meat mixture is evenly spread out in the pan. Slowly pour over you egg mixture. The liquid egg level should come just ender the level of the shredded potato. Remember as egg cooks it will grow so you wanna leave some room for that. Shred about a half a block of cheddar (or a bit more if you LOVE cheese like me!) over the top to make sure it is all covered up.

Then wack your pan in the oven for about 45 to 50 min. Keep an eye that the cheese doesn't burn.

Let it stand for about 10 min when you take it out and then enjoy that Irish Popeyes Meats Porky Pig Egg Casserole!

#americanbeautmeetsenglishholiday

*not suitable for vegetarians or vegans!

P.S. next time I will remember to get a picture. But let me know if you try it and what you think!