Schools, Jobs and Giant Dogs - Intrigued?

Ok so it's been a while. So just to keep you up to speed, this is what I've been up to the past month:

1) SWSCA. Had a great time at South Western School of Christian Arts helping Claire Brine out with the drama. Although it involved a heavy amount of pride swallowing, it was nice to be able to assist in the drama option as opposed to leading it. Claire and I do things very differently and I learnt a lot from her that week. It was also nice being able to relax and meet some new people. The kids at this school were amazing. I've never known such a close and yet completely inclusive group. The staff team were really cool as well and I had a lot of fun (incase you doubt me, here's a photo of me discovering that peppers can be used rather effectively as fake tongues - this is my impression of Gene Simmons in a sulk):

2) New Job. Woo hoo! New job. My final day at Wesley Owen is on Monday and I start my new job, working in schools with a schools youth ministry in Chelmsford on Monday week. At this point I should give a certain amount of credit to Matt White who found me the job, recommended me to the job and was even kind enough to go to my interview and answer all their questions for me (you think I'm joking). I'm looking forward to starting although I have just over a week before my first day and I still have absolutely no idea where I'm going to live. I could maybe be a little more organised than I am right now.

3) Town Show. Last weekend proved to be a really positive experience for Enfield Corps as we took part in the town show. We made a lot of good contacts and relationships were formed and we're hoping people will start coming through our doors as a result. I did, however, have to spend the weekend inside a giant dog outfit cuddling kids. Patch the Dog went down really well at the show and a lot of people wanted their photos taken (and not just little kids either. Had I known how excited teenage girls get at the sight of giant cuddly animals I'd have spent most of secondary school in costume). It's fair to say that Patch was probably the star of the show, which is fine when you're not actually in Patch the star of the show. I started off doing an hour-long parade through Enfield inside the creature (a trial not helped by my decision that it would be really funny to have a giant dog street-dancing to band marches) and by the end of it I genuinely looked like I'd just been swimming. My clothes were drenched. It was probably not my most attractive moment (although red faced, sweaty and breathless whilst crawling out of a man-sized dog does work for some). But my matyr-like sacrifice wasn't for nothing. It was a really good weekend and hopefully some seeds have been sown.

So there you go. That's been my month. I'll try and keep this better updated from now on although I'm not sure I'm going to have that much internet access once I move (and am living in the streets due to my incompetence in finding accomodation). But I'll try.