Firstly, I just realised I haven't written on here since May! MAY! Shocking! Really sorry about that. Anyway, the start of the summer was marked (as ever) by my annual pilgrimage to a small boarding school in Salisbury for SUbmerge! This year was one of my favourite ever for multiple reasons, the most profound of which - in my opinion - was the Prayer Room. In keeping with the recent 24-Hour Prayer movement, we attempted (and completed) a straight 36 hours with the main hall dedicated entirely to prayer. I for one often struggle in my prayer life, but the time I spent in that room have definitely made it easier. Really really cool. I won't go into details on here to save you from having to read loads, but come chat to me about it if you're interested.
The next S is actually SS, another seemingly annual pilgrimage, this time to a large field in Somerset to find a few thousand other teenagers and worship God. Cool. This year was super-super-awesome, due hugely to a number of the Lakesmere guys coming along (yay!), all of them making a commitment (super-yay!) and a large number of them having a definite experience with the Holy Spirit (I missed this bit for a reason I will explain shortly, but YAAAAY!). I sadly feel a little as though I have outgrown Soul as a delegate although I will certainly return as a youth leader, or reprise my role from Week C and become a steward! I was dreading it on Day 1, but by Day 5 I had met some lovely people and frankly wished the week wouldn't end. Although I'm glad it did in some ways because I was shattered. Highlight of that week was definitely throwing a frisbee from the main stage in the middle of a deserted Big Top. Superb!
Swanage: just got back from there. It's a very quaint seaside town in Dorset, not much goes on there, we couldn't find a chippy open at 6pm, however we had a lovely relaxing time playing Pass The Pigs, doing jigsaws, and listening to 6music. Oh, and we found a little second-hand bookshop where I found Tolstoy's War And Peace for a mere £3.99 - all 1400-odd pages of it! Bargain! Tori also got some lovely literature as well.
Finally, marking the official end of my infamous gap year, I have been recently inundated in university-related paperwork, some being from the university itself, some from NatWest, some from UCAS (mostly spam, naturally), and some from Fusion, whom I recommend to any Christians starting uni, they're very nice people. I've also recently bought a MacBook and Logic Studio (the latter of which was nearly 70% off! Find me another DAW for £120 and I will tip my cap to you). I'm writing from it now. It's rather nice, and I got a free printer with it as well.
And some comes to a close my blog. I move to Guildford in less than a month, Tori moves to Madrid in less than a fortnight, and my gap year - I think - has come to its proverbial perfect cadence.
I'll leave you with two things: firstly, I recommend you read the book Into The Wild by John Krakauer. It's a true story and was adapted into an utterly fantastic film a few years ago. I'm nearly finished on it and I am LOVING it.
Lastly, "A year has passed, I'm a little older, I'm a little wiser, and I'm starting to get hair in really weird places man. I feel like I'm turning into Sasquatch." No, that's from Wayne's World 2. Really though, I do feel hugely benefitted from this year, and I must thank you all for living it with me.
Signing off,
God bless
Julez
[edit: As promised, my next blogs:
http://julezatuni.blogspot.com will document my life at uni.
http://juleztalks.blogspot.com will document anything that is not specifically uni-related, i.e. music and films I'm liking, or socio-political commentaries I'm not qualified to give.
Enjoy.]
