Well Le Tour de France is over, and it’s time to try and get back to some normal sleeping patterns…


On Monday night we started our new term of growth group, looking at tough questions, using a Matthias Media book.

Tuesday evening we had our AWESOME planning meeting. I think that it went well, with plenty of ideas coming out around the theme. It was great to see so many ‘non-SALT leaders‘ along, invited by Mike, to help out.

Wednesday evening, Geoff came around for our weekly meet up. We had chicken and sweet corn soup with a BBQ chicken and bread for dinner before retiring to play some more Diablo 3 whilst growth group happened in the lounge.

Thursday in the mid-afternoon I went out to Castle Hill to do some errand shopping at a few places, before heading home. The designated ‘tour party‘ night was pretty lack-lustre; I had no one around for the dinner part of it. I could have just eaten something from the freezer, but in the end decided to still stay true to the tour by cooking a Flamishe aux Poireaux (Leek Tart). By the time people did arrive, I was pretty over it all and selfishly stuck to myself.

Friday was pretty tame. I took my tart into work for the remnant of my colleagues to enjoy for lunch.

On both Saturday and today I have pretty much kept to myself and not done much; just playing games and working my way through television shows (Once Upon A Time and Breaking Bad). Last night I did have opportunity to head to an engagement party or the movies, but I wasn’t particularly up for either of them…

Tonight at graceat6 Mike preached from Philemon 1:1-7 on Knowing God and Knowing Yourself. It was refreshing to be able to go back and look at a small chunk of the bible intricately and exegetically after such a long time trying to cover much ground with the E100 series. There was a wealth of information in these seven verses, reminding us of what a Christian is, and how different that is to the non-Christians in the world. I was challenged to think not only of myself in these ways, but also of my brothers and sisters in Christ, because whilst we are individuals, we are also a community of believers; the body of Christ. We also see in these verses the great effect that Philemon has on Paul and the saints be the way that he loves, bringing joy, encouragement and refreshment. Now we are to strive to do that, but we are also to remember that we can’t do it all the time, and will need others to do that to us at times in our lives, and that is something that I really struggle to accept, and let others do for me.
After church we had a whole bunch of people back at The Flat for the finale of Le Tour De France. I found this was a great opportunity to practice my hospitality, and I hope that it was of great refreshment to my guests. This year the tour was again a testing time. I think I have grown from it, but I’m not sure that I should accept all the outcomes that I have learnt from it.

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