Saturday, December 31, 2005
Morning!
I had the little man for a day which was awesome. We had such a great time together and he comandeered my hat by the end of the day and refused to hand it back to me! See the picture to the right!
Apart from that it has been uneventful....oh except for our delightful noisy neighbour, Big Will. I am shattered! He plays his music and TV at 3 O'clock in the morning and I have to go round there to ask him to turn it off. Last night I was so tired and for some reason couldn't get to sleep. I had just managed to nod off at 2:30 after a large Baileys and reading a cookbook!!!, only to be woken up at 3:20 by his blaring TV. Nice-ities have gone out of the window now though and I stormed around in my PJ's, dressing gown and slippers and told him to turn the music down, I nearly swore I was so angry! Esther and I are hoping to deal with it and get it sorted this week.
Hope that everyone is well and getting their sleep, I'm off to bed for a nap now!
Blessings
Ems xx
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
E-Bay queen!!!
See Amy/Kendra......it's not only the shops I can get a bargain!!!
Now lets go and see what else I can find....... :)
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Nothing I can say really!
Monday, December 05, 2005
Yeah, I'm an Aunt again!
Mum, Dad and little Lowri....just missing the Little man in this picture!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Another one of these, but thought i haven't done one in a while!!
07:45....madness for a Sunday but I'm not really sleeping.
2. Diamonds or Pearls?
Diamonds
4. What is your favourite TV show?
West Wing…love it!
5. What did you have for breakfast?
Coffee and Rice Krispies
6. What is your middle name?
Louise
7. What is your favourite food?
Mmmmmm at the moment Esther’s caramel slice! Otherwise pretty much anything…..Sunday roast, fajita’s, all day breakfast…..
8. What foods do you dislike?
Sprouts……ugh!
9. What are your favourite potato chips?
Sensations are nice….the Chicken and Thyme or the Lamb and Mint.
10. What is your favourite CD at the moment?
Soul Survior 2005! Yeah….so cool…..so many memories!
11. What kind of car do you drive?
Fellula the Ford Fiesta!
12. Favourite sandwich?
Hmmmm……probably Brie and Cranberry or Bacon and Brie
13. What characteristics do you despise?
Constant self pity, degrading others, racism, pride
14. Favourite item of clothing?
Hmmmm…..all depends, at the moment it’s my jeans….so comfy
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Right now, Michigan….I miss you guys so much….others include, Boston, San Francisco, Whistler, or anywhere hot….I need a holiday!
16. What colour is your bathroom?
Blue
17. Favourite brand of clothing?
Anything really, I just won’t pay a lot for it…..George, Peacocks, Next….anywhere I can get a bargain
18. Where would you retire to?
Martha’s vineyard, Cape Cod
19. Favourite time of day?
Home time from work!
20. Favourite Dessert?
Bread and Butter pudding, or Anne Jones’ Rice Pudding!
21. Where were you born?
St Asaph, Wales
22. Favourite sport to watch?
Don’t know, enjoy football; don’t really watch that much tv.
23.Who do you least expect to send this back to you?
No one as I’m posting this on my blog!
24. Who do you think will send it back first?
See above!
25. Coke or Pepsi?
Diet Coke or normal Pepsi
26. Are you a morning person or night?
Either, at the moment it’s both……not getting much sleep.
27. Do you have any pets?
Nope….the house I just moved into said no pets but has a cat flap on the back door…..interesting!
28. Any new and exciting thing you want to share
Not really. Had a lovely walk this afternoon through Greenfield Valley with Dad and Esther and I cooked Sunday lunch. Apart from that nothing……my hair is longer than most people have seen it, I’ll have to take a picture!
29.What did you want to be when you were little?
Depends on what age I was I went through phases. I wanted to be hairdresser, fighter pilot, lawyer, politician….now I’d love to own my little book shop like Meg Ryan’s in “You’ve got mail”
30. What should you be doing right now?
Nothing, I’m watching Esther clean the living room, I already did the bathroom and kitchen!
31. What is your favourite colour?
Red, blue or pink…..depends on my mood.
32. What is your favourite flavour?
Chocolate, Vanilla Latte, Cinnamon, Fresh coffee
33. Red or White wine?
Red wine
34. Do you have any tattoos?
No, praise the Lord I can’t stand pain!
35. Do you have any piercing?
One in each ear, once again couldn’t stand the thought of more pain!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Awesome song
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Moving...
Well...This is it....I'm moving!
Esther and I are renting a house together. This is it on the right.
I have been thinking about it for a while now and I just felt God confirm that I was meant to look. We saw this one going for £425 a month (plus Council Tax, Electricity, Gas etc on top). So we went to view it and we knew that this was where God wanted us to be.
Esther lives at the top of Holywell at the moment. It's inaccessible for a number of reasons. She lives by herself so as a youthworker the young people are unable to call around as it's against child protection policy. It is also seen as the posh area of Holywell whereas most of our young people live in the more working class and council owned area. This house is great because if you head up the road about 50 yards you're onto the High Street so we are central for everyone.
Just a couple of prayer requests though.
- As we are just off the High Street please pray for protection. As with many small towns in GB there is a high drinking and fighting culture at the weekend. We may be subject to the fall out of this.
- God will really use us where we are and that we will influence those people around us and the young people will feel they can call around and share anything they need to with us.
- Dad, although he came to view the house with us and seemed pleased about the choice, is taking it badly. He is drinking very heavily. Things have happened that I can't really repeat here. I am looking forward to moving out and living with a fellow Christian (to be built up, study the bible and pray together) but there is this weight of guilt and fear that I feel I am buckling under at the moment. I think it would be easier to handle if I knew that he was drinking so heavily as he was angry with me and wanted to get back at me, but it's heartbreaking as he is doing it because he is so depressed and sad. All this coincides with the 10th anniversary of my mum's death on 9th October. It's been tough on him but he cannot seem to understand that the drink will not help. It doesn't help that one doctor tells him that he is an alcoholic and then another one tells him that he isn't. Please pray that I'll entrust him to God and know that God's plan is perfect; and for the strength for me to get through the coming week. I'm definitely moving, I just feel as though I'm on autopilot at the moment.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Ow!!
My mouth hurts
I had my tooth out yesterday
The same pesky tooth that has been giving me problems since half of it chipped away when I was eating peanut brittle in America 5 years ago
My mouth hurts at the moment and it's still bleeding 24 hours later
Ow!
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Monday, September 26, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
More random photos of weekend
I survived!
This photo is from the campsite we were staying on looking West and through the valley over Llyn Ogwen. Sadly I am not a hardy camper at all and whereas you had other people camping in little 2 man tents and cooking outside whatever the weather; Esther, Jon and I were in a 6 man tent with duvets, sleeping bags, airbeds, camping cooker and coolbox!
While we were there we began to see the effects of Jon being by himself for a period of time. Not only was he obsessed with the flies around the tent (going into great detail explaining how they attacked and got into the tent) he had also named the sheep on the footpath behind the campsite and the horse that was in the field over the stream. I now introduce you to Herbie the sheep (Sadly I didn't get a photo of Steve the horse!)
Though it appears that the weather was bad, and it would have been lovely to have done some walking up the hills, the way the clouds shifted and changed was amazing and the views it created was spectacular. Sadly I am not very good with a camera and I don't think that a camera could fully show the amazing colours we saw, but here is a taste.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Madness.....
Well we've just had pretty much 24 hours of solid rain and Esther and I are heading up to a campsite near Capel Curig to camp for the evening. We are joining Jon who has been up there for 5 days already.....it's misty.....cloudy.....and I think we've lost the plot....but we want to try out this hardcore camping and walking so that's why we're heading there. It's in Snowdonia Park where the highest mountain in England and Wales is. Should be fun! I'll post on Monday when we get back!! Picking fish and chips up on the way up there.....mmmmmm! PS the camp site is somewhere down by that Lake, Llyn Ogwen.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
The Vision and The Vow
I'd never heard of "The Vision" (posted below) until a friend of a friend recommended Pete Greig's book 'The Vision and the Vow' to me.
I bought the book the other week while I was in Soul Survivor and started reading it once I returned home I started reading it (sadly reading didn't really happen while we were away at camp. I took 8 books with me for 10 days-living in cloud cuckoo land I know-and didn't read one of them!). I am near the end now and will post a full review once I've finished but up to this point I have only one thing to say - GO AND BUY IT!
Esther has practically read the book as I kept reading exerts of it while we were tanning on the beach on Saturday!
Hopefully I'll finish it tonight so I'll post more tomorrow!
Love Ems x x
The Vision
'THE VISION'
So this guy comes up to me and says "What's the vision? What's the big idea?"
I open my mouth and words come out like this… The vision?
The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure. Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose that they might one day win the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.
They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground.
The whisper of history in the making.
Foundations shaking. Revolutionaries dreaming once again. Mystery is scheming in whispers. Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground.
And the army is discipl(in)ed. Young people who beat their bodies into submission
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain". Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners. Martyrs.
Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them?
And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mould them.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.
On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.
Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don't you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.
They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know?
Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of
God.
My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself.
And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.
Pete Grieg
Friday, September 02, 2005
Momentum 15th - 19th August
Momentum was amazing. This is a picture of myself, Rachael and Heather, 2 of the girls that were camping with me. It was a great 5 days. A real time of getting to know God a better, spending time with friends and getting to know myself better also. The things that I hold close to my heart... some good... some bad. Some views and opinions that need to be changed because they are not in line with Gods word and I've been putting them off for a long time.
Rachael is holding the Irish hand that belongs to Heather and I'm wearing the Welsh bandanas that we had for the whole team when the kids came down. Was such a giggle and amazing how many conversations it opened up! (Sorry Heather, was going to put the one of you and I on here but I look as rough as old boots in it, I'll e-mail it to you!)
Am finishing work now so will get going. Will try and post more on Monday. There are some great stories from the week! Blessings
Ems x x
Thursday, September 01, 2005
I'll allow the pictures to speak for themselves for now!
Very tired and feeling a little smelly at this point! Last night, looking forward to own bed
Still looking semi-normal!! : )
Sadly I have some other great picturesbut they have the kids in them and due to child protection I cannot post pictures of them. The Welsh bandana that Esther is wearing... we all had them...except we all wore them the correct way...as did Esther....most of the time!
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Missing in action......
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Childhood
I went to the cinema last night to see the new CHarlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. It was fab. As soon as the film started I felt as if I had been transported back to when I was 10 and reading the books. The 'fuzziness' was there inside me and I wanted to tour around the factory also. I wanted to cry and cheer for Charlie all the way through the film and howled at the wonderful portrayal of all the other children...they were very similar to how I'd imagined them to be in a film. It was great to see kids in the cinema cheering Charlie along and actually clapping at the movie when it had finished. I hope that this will inspire them to go home and read or re-read the books.
Friday, July 22, 2005
I can only imagine.....
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Only us Brits!
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Well here are a couple of photos that I've managed to upload from my PC from our reunion in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
These guys were my life for the year that I lived in America and I miss them all very much. In the first photo there is Becky Hill (Isle of Man), myself and Ramona (Romania). Then in the second there is James (Kent, England), Becky Rasdall (USA), Ramona, Nici (Germany) and Becky.
It was awesome to catch up with these guys and great to see how easily we were able to slip back into conversation and bouncing humor and sarcasm off one another again.
I'd forgotten about certain traits of everyone's personalities that made them so unique; the way Ramona gestured with her hands when she spoke, the adorable flirtatious personality that Nici has, Becky Hill's infectious giggle, the dry sense of humor of James' and Becky Rasdall's wonderful sense of adventure.
I miss you guys so much and many many more. Amy wishes that she could have been with us and I wonder whether there'll ever be a time when we are all together again.
May the Lord bless you and keep you and may he make his face shine upon you.
Love you all
Emx x
Friday, July 15, 2005
He gave his Son, his one and only Son.
And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed;
by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger,
telling the world how bad it was.
He came to help, to put the world right again."
This verse (well verse 16 in particular) is probably one of the most famous from the bible, but I find that I skip over it at times. I think I know it so well that there is nothing I can learn from it.
But reading it this morning something really struck me and it was in verse 17 rather than 16.
I have often thought of the trinity in a specific way. God is the judge, Jesus is the intercessor, and the Holy Spirit is our guide and comforter. It has therefore been a subconcious thought of mine that God is an accuser as well as a judge and that it is Jesus pleading for us and presenting our case. This verse completely contradicts my thinking though.
"God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger". He sent Jesus because he loves us and wants to help us.
I don't have children but I can imagine that humnanly speaking, one of the most impossible things to do would be to send your child somewhere knowing they were going to be killed. War is bad enough but the number of soldiers that return are always a lot higher than those that die; it is not definite that you're going to die there, even though there is a large risk. But just to send your child somewhere so that people who have cursed your name, rejected you, abandoned you and failed to recognise you may have a chance to spend eternity with you is mind blowing...and he didn't do this to condemn us but because he loves us......wow. That should start changing my perception of my Father in heaven!
I hope that you get some understanding from this and it gets you thinking as much as it got me!
Voice of Truth
Music by Mark Hall and Steven Curtis Chapman
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand
But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"
Chorus:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"
But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
© 2003 Club Zoo Music / SWEC Music (Admin. by Club Zoo Music) / BMI / Sparrow Song / Peach Hill Songs (admin by EMI Christian Music Publishing) / BMI. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
I have this song on a Casting Crowns CD. Such great words and tells us to focus on the only voice we need to.
Blessings
Ems
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Jeremiah 29 :11-13
declares the LORD,
"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me,
and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
This was the first bible verse that I learnt. I never really knew the significance of it, yet as I continue on with my life and on a journey that I am not sure to where it leads, I know that this verse was meant for every journey of my life and that trusting in God is my only hope for a future. That His plan has got to be infinitely better than mine, even when it hurts when dreams and hopes are broken and unfullfilled....they were obviously not part of His best for me...may I continue to trust in Him, seek after Him with all of my heart and find my hope and future in Him alone.
I'm baking!
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Message from Daddy
Have been pretty low lately for a number of reasons. Really questioning my belief and relationship with God. I believed that I was saved but didn't believe that God loved me. I believed that I had *just* made it into heaven but that was as far as I was going. I didn't believe that I shared in the love that other people were lavished with by God.
Low self esteem, self hatred and self rejection were all things that I was battling with and seemed to sream so much louder than Gods love did.
Anyway I was away for the weekend back in May in a place called Cefn Lea which is a Christian conference place where you can stay in log cabins or caravans in Mid-Wales, a beauitful part of the country. When we arrived the ladies who had organised this women's weekend away had left an A4 piece of paper on our beds. It was a 'letter' from God telling us the way God sees us based on scripture. I didn't get a chance to read it over that weekend and just took it home with me to read later. Anyway I put it somewhere and forgot about it.
This weekend I'd been particularly low. Sunday evening came and I knew I had to tidy my bedroom as I have 2 friends coming to stay this weekend so had to make it look like I don't live in a bomb site! I came across the letter and decided to read it before bed. I read through it and know that it is based on scripture which is the absolute truth but found it difficult to shrug off 26 years of wrong thinking about myself and believe these words of Gods.
He knew I didn't believe them and I needed to hear them again because when I came into work the next morning Jon had sent me an e-mail. What was contained in the e-mail.....Oh just the exact same letter from God! He had been trying to get a copy for 6 months for me to read but had only just managed to get a copy on e-mail and so forwarded it to me. If that isn't Gods timing! Awesome.
Anyway here is a copy of the letter below.
May you be blessed by it and know the truth.....I'm getting there!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My Child…
You may not know me, but I know everything about you…Psalm 139:1 I know when you sit down and when you rise up…Psalm 139:2 I am familiar with all your ways…Psalm 139:3 Even the very hairs on your head are numbered…Matthew 10:29-31 For you were made in my image…Genesis 1:27 In me you live and move and have your being…Acts 17:28 For you are my offspring…Acts 17:28 I knew you even before you were conceived…Jeremiah 1:4-5 I chose you when I planned creation…Ephesians 1:11-12 You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book…Psalm 139:15-16 I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live…Acts 17:26 You are fearfully and wonderfully made…Psalm 139:14 I knit you together in your mother's womb…Psalm 139:13 And brought you forth on the day you were born…Psalm 71:6 I have been misrepresented by those who don't know me…John 8:41-44 I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love…1 John 4:16 And it is my desire to lavish my love on you…1 John 3:1 Simply because you are my child and I am your Father…1 John 3:1 I offer you more than your earthly father ever could…Matthew 7:11 For I am the perfect father…Matthew 5:48 Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand…James 1:17 For I am your provider and I meet all your needs…Matthew 6:31-33 My plan for your future has always been filled with hope…Jeremiah 29:11 Because I love you with an everlasting love…Jeremiah 31:3 My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore...Psalms 139:17-18 And I rejoice over you with singing…Zephaniah 3:17 I will never stop doing good to you…Jeremiah 32:40 For you are my treasured possession…Exodus 19:5 I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul…Jeremiah 32:41 And I want to show you great and marvelous things…Jeremiah 33:3 If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me…Deuteronomy 4:29 Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart…Psalm 37:4 For it is I who gave you those desires…Philippians 2:13 I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine…Ephesians 3:20 For I am your greatest encourager…2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles…2 Corinthians 1:3-4 When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you…Psalm 34:18 As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart…Isaiah 40:11 One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes…Revelation 21:3-4 And I'll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth…Revelation 21:3-4 I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus…John 17:23 For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed…John 17:26 He is the exact representation of my being…Hebrews 1:3 He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you…Romans 8:31 And to tell you that I am not counting your sins…2 Corinthians 5:18-19 Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled…2 Corinthians 5:18-19 His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you…1 John 4:10 I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love…Romans 8:31-32 If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me…1 John 2:23 And nothing will ever separate you from my love again…Romans 8:38-39 Come home and I'll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen…Luke 15:7 I have always been Father, and will always be Father…Ephesians 3:14-15 My question is…Will you be my child? …John 1:12-13 I am waiting for you…Luke 15:11-32
Love, Your Dad.
Almighty God
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Facedown - Matt Redman
Ive been ushered into your presence
Lord I stand on your merciful ground
Yet with every step tread reverence
And i'll fall face down
As Your Glory shines around
Yes, i'll fall face down
As your glory shines around
There is none in the heavens like you
And on the earth, who's your equal
You are far above,
Your the highest of heights
And i'll fall face down
As Your Glory shines around
Yes, i'll fall face down
As your glory shines around
Lord Let your glory shine around
Let your glory shine around
King of glory here be found
King of glory
Try and get a copy of this song if you haven't heard this song as it is awesome. Will take you into the presence of God