SUbmerge, Soul Survivor, Swanage, and an impending move to Surrey

This will more than likely be my final post on this blog. Rest assured my online presence will not be dropping to zero, as I will give you a link to my next blog as soon as I can think of a witty name for it and change the URL accordingly. Now, to business:

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.]

Recent times/Revivalism

Where were we? Oh yes . . .

Right, so firstly, read my blog Julez Goes For A Walk for details on that ridiculous venture.

Other things that are happening right now are the things I've been doing all year: The Net, Lakesmere, and now an extension of Lakesmere that takes the form of The Silver Ring Thing:

There's been another set of new guys at the Net this term (sort of): one guy from last term who has stayed on - he's a bit of a monkey, but absolutely lovely with a mind as sharp as a knife. The second returner is someone from my first term who is wonderfully pastoral but at the same time a little naïve which lends itself to some noticeably unbalanced mediation if there's a fallout. The other two guys are completely new, and both ace. It was one's birthday on Tuesday and there were depleted leader numbers so he got to take most of his cake home with him (lucky!), and the last guy is in Year 9 and about 5mm taller than me. He's also the most placid person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Onto Lakesmere: Matt's been in India for the last 2½ weeks, and John's in Singapore, so I've been doing both Tuesday and Thursday, as well as The Mess on a couple of occasions (that's a faux-CU thing at Wyvern), and it's led me to see multiple aspects of the Youth Network that I've never encountered before. In just over a fortnight, four of the girls at Lakesmere have come to know Jesus, and what's more have been publicly talking about their faith, which makes them better than most 'churched' teenagers (maybe a reason why the Church is in the not-great state it's in right now). There have also been a considerable number of the guys who have shown serious interest in coming to (and some already booked for) Soul Survivor with us in the summer. Now, I'm no theologian, but to me this appears like a big arrow pointing towards a revival . . . I could be wrong, but either way, it's very exciting what's going on.

This openness of faith and revival movement began with an NHS lady coming to talk about sexual health and all that stuff, and Lauren and I (and the other leaders - I forget who else was in the room) noticed that the underlying message was 'it's okay to have sex with as many people as you like as long as you prevent yourselves from getting STIs or pregnant' and that there was no mention of the alternative of just not having sex (obviously if people are having sex, we totally endorse the use of contraception). Anyway, this led to us getting a Silver Ring Thing pack and putting on the promo DVD in the background one Tuesday night to see if the guys were interested. More than being interested, they actually us about what Christians believe about sex. We began by explaining that Christians do actually have sex (and enjoy it, contrary to popular belief), and then responding to that age-old classic 'how far is too far?' (although the language used to ask that question was a little more . . . colourful). These conversations led to some seriously deep philosophical and theological discussion, covering such behemoths as abortion, killing as part of military service, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, Hebrew law (that's right. Leviticus was discussed!) and various others that I can't fully remember. From there, we have now started to run Silver Ring Thing sessions with the guys who want to come, and, as I mentioned earlier, we've seen four of the girls come to Jesus, and several more girls and guys wanting to come to Soul Survivor.

I'm really sorry that was as long as it was. I'm just hugely excited, and thought it worth sharing with others. Please pray for those who are new Christians, and for those who are on their way!

Much love to you all!


Fin.

More on that fabbo idea

I made a separate blog about it, so if you don't care you don't have to pay attention to it - I'm that thoughtful.

http://julezwalks.blogspot.com

There it is then. Love you all

I have had a fabbo idea

I'm considering making a separate blog for it, even though it is part of my gap year...should I bother? Any input on it will be gladly welcomed.

It involves walking a really really long way with a couple of mates, it's inspired by Into The Wild and Geohashing, and I'd probably blog every night to keep people up-to-date (as well as the odd tweet). I'll also make a Twitter hashtag when I've thought of a cool name for the expedition.

So, new blog or keep on this one? You tell me!

A Leap of Faith

Some of you may be wondering where I've been for the last...*checks blog time tag*...month and five days! Now I realise it's been that long I'm wondering myself :S

Last time I was saying how the jobhunt had slowed down considerably. Well, last week it got to the point that I was getting pretty down, not because I couldn't find a job, but that I was on benefits because of it and I frankly wasn't feeling the love. In honesty, I've felt pretty horrible about claiming while being as well-off as I feel I am - with good reason of course; tax-payers aren't paying for me to sit and get bored.

Anyway, long story short, I had a chat with JC about it, and got the feeling I should sign off jobseekers. Being a Western Society human being, I naturally wanted a solid bit of evidence that I should be taking this leap of faith that I wouldn't be skint for the rest of the year (I know this contradicts the definition of faith, however...). No sooner had I asked Him for some clarity, I turned on my computer and my Gmail Notifier "pinged" at me saying I had received the latest Miracle Street newsletter, entitled "Leap of Faith!" - clarity I think, yes?

Better yet, not a few hours later I got another email (who says the internet is Godless, really?!) from Tavcom - whom I have worked for a few times in the past - saying they've got a bit of work for me, and on attending that on Friday, they gave me some more.

All in all, God is good.

Aside from that cool story (I'm sure it'd be cooler had I paraphrased it), I'm booked up for Soul Survivor B and C - chyeah! The Miracle Street touring thing looks set to go ahead, but I get the impression it might not be as extensive as I previously thought. I will hopefully be returning to SUbmerge again this year (i.e. I've written and I'm waiting for a reply). And Matt and I are considering a road-trip to Madrid to see Tori in September, but that depends on uni stuff as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sure I've bored you enough now - don't read blogs this long so I doubt anyone else does.

Fin.

What to tell...?

Well, the jobhunt went well for a while, but has kind of slowed down a little now sadly. A few little temporary jobs in the last month have built me up a little spare cash wish is nice, but your prayers are still welcomed; I'm hugely appreciative to those of you who have been praying for me throughout this year.

I had a chat with Steve Lee on Sunday after he gave an inspiring talk at St Tom's, and we're both super-psyched for the events in the summer, beginning with the Normandy Beach event on the 5th-6th June.

There was a slight panic over some statuses on my UCAS site, but after some hectic emailing and calling the admissions tutor at the Tonmeister course, I am definitely definitely going there in September, so panic over there.

My excitement is growing exponentially for this weekend, which is the Youth Network Weekend Away (which is probably one of my favourite things in the whole year ever), which this year includes lots of awesome things, very few of which I'm not allowed to disclose. There'll be a TV with the Saints/Pompey match for sure, and some new skins on my drums which I put on yesterday and have been breaking in this morning. There will also be a tuck shop, for which Lauren and I are going shopping in 20 minutes.

Minor news, I'm now attending proper Russian lessons (отлично!). Oh, and I've started reading books again, so if you have any suggestions for me, fire away!

Much love, and God's blessings to everyone!

...And Hello 2010!

It's been a few weeks now...I'm a few weeks older, wiser, I'm starting to get hair in really strange places... Jokes! That was a Wayne's World 2 reference, if you weren't sure where I was going with it.

Anyway, Christmas brought some fun times - Dan Viv did his annual stint at my house for New Year's Eve and a night either side (which this year included a Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition marathon viewing), an amusing poker game, and eating chocolate liqueurs while pretending they were shots. Heh heh heh.

Of course, the snow last week provided some mighty-fine entertainment in multiple forms, from the obvious - sledging/tea-tray sliding down icy hills at stupid speeds - to the less obvious - laughing at the over-confident Ocado man trying to ascend our road after ignoring our warnings. As is our custom, both Tori and I managed to injure ourselves (Tori slipped and fell, I less-glamorously pulled a muscle in my shoulder) so we spent a nice day or so sitting at home watching films. We'd collectively recommend Garden State (for its arty goodness) and warn against The Heartbreak Kid (which is just awful).

Onto the serious stuff, I am now on Jobseekers Allowance, which if you are unclear means the government pay me to find myself a job. As such, if any of you know of anyone based in my area who have any vacancies please give me a shout with some details (I'll love you forever!).

Your prayers would once again be appreciated, both for my job sitch, and also the matter of selling our house. Thank you for your continuing love and support for the fam and me.

God bless, love Julez xx

Goodbye 2009...

Ah, I have a little more time to write today, although also a little less to say.

Last Wednesday - as I mentioned in my last post - took me on my first trip out with the Miracle Street mainstage, and it was a really rather fantastic day, despite it snowing/raining/sleeting most of the day and night, and being awake 06.30-01.00. Tiring but excellent. For a more relevant rundown of what happened than I can convey, have a read/watch of Steve's blog. [Bonus points if you see me walking around in the background]

This Christmas is going to be a strange one for me (and my family as well, I'm sure); it's the first for a long time that my dad hasn't been around (he's in Hanoi now...not sure if I mentioned that before or not), and isn't back until February as far as I know. Despite his frequent trips abroad, he is usually around for Christmas. An equally strange prospect, however, is that this will almost definitely be our last Christmas in Willow Grove, a house that I have lived in since I was one year old (except the obvious few years in India), so that's a big change on the horizon.

On a lighter note, I've started using Twitter again so as to voice my random thoughts without clogging up people's Facebook feeds - how conscientious am I? @mulebeatsdrums if you wish to follow me, and I will put a box on this page as well.

That's about it I think. This will most likely be my last post of the year, and certainly the last before Christmas, so I will leave you all with my prayers of blessing for you and your families, wherever you are in the world, for the Christmas season, and you will hear from me again in 2010 (I'm a poet...)

Love to all! Julez xxx

Six Weeks Later

I am very aware now that I haven't posted anything on here for a long time, and while I am apologetic if you were actually interested in what was happening, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on particularly (oh, except my dad moving to Vietnam for his new job there)

Sally is currently running a stall at the Winchester Christmas Market, which is very lovely and great for getting Christmas presents for parents etc. I helped her set it up last week, and I am jumping on the bus in 45 minutes to help her out again this afternoon.

The studio's been a little quiet these last couple of weeks, but we've had some fun sessions with nato and Joe Gosling among others. nato have put one of the demos up on Myspace, so click and have a listen. In other local music news, last Friday I went to the Sotones Christmas Bonanza at Hampton's, which was a fantastic showcase of the cream of the Sotones acts (Moneytree, The Moulettes, nato, Joe Parker, Fresh Legs and a few others), as well as being right good laugh.

This coming Wednesday I am doing my first roadie-ing stint with Miracle Street. This one is at a school in Portsmouth, but beyond that I'm not really sure what's going on (although I have no doubt it'll be pretty sweet. They also invited me to do another one in Camden on Friday, but I sadly had to turn that one down as there is an event at St Tom's with Simon Guillebaud that day which I'm involved in. If you're around, come to that, it's going to be really cool - there aren't any details on the website yet, but I think it's 7pm at the church building.

Sorry that was a bit of a rambling list, I blitzed it a little bit as I want my lunch before I get the bus.
Love and blessings to you all.

Where do I begin...?

It has been an embarrassing 19 days since my last post. Nineteen!! As fellow (far more interesting) blogger Tom In Egypt stated in his post earlier today, once you stop writing, it is very hard to get back into it. So yes, I am truly sorry for the huge gap in updates, but as you will see, there are some perfectly valid reasons.

I'll get the nasty stuff out of the way first of all: many of you will already have heard, but for those of you who don't, my parents are separating and getting a divorce. I don't think it appropriate to share details on a public website, so I'll leave it at that. The last week and a half or so, therefore have been rather busy, doing numerous painting and decorating jobs on Willow Grove (my house) to get it into tip-top condition before we sell it on to some lucky family.

Away from that state of affairs, there have been some rather nice things happening of late. On October 31st St Tom's held it's first ever "Not The Light Party" in the church building, which managed to take the form of an open-mic night, and although that wasn't the initial intention, it was most enjoyable. There were also various games consoles and a friendly Fairtrade café (incidentally, Fairtrade Dairy Milk ftw). So yes, a very enjoyable evening.

Mad Cow has been keeping me busy the last few days. We had local rock quartet Yogo Kid in to demo a couple of tunes the other week, and I finally got around to mixing Tori's EP which she will be releasing very soon for a modest price to fund her year out at Mountainview International Church in Madrid next year - I'd recommend the CD, it's very good. Next week, nato are recording 8 songs in 3 hours - mission - and Joe Gosling is recording something. If you wish to be record for free like these lovely people, email me at madcowstudios@sttoms.co.uk

Steve Lee informs me that the Miracle Street Christmas Tour isn't really happening now, which is a great shame, but God is in control, so who knows what will happen. The summer tour is taking shape as far as I know, so hopefully that will, in turn, create some good reading for you faithful followers.

That's about all really. I hope I haven't bored you, but alas I probably have. I promise I'll write again sooner and therefore less. As it is now clear what God wanted me at home for this year (I think this is it; He will surely correct me if I'm wrong), I would appreciate your prayers not just for me, but for my whole family.

Do svidanya, druzya!

Another update

Not too much to say this time really. I think the biggest news of the past week is that due to licensing issues, The Light Party has been cancelled. Disappointed as we all are, it has opened doors and revealed paths that God wants us to take, and there is talk of next year being twice as big as this year's would have been. Which is mental. Like, truly berserk (which is currently my favourite word, incidentally).

Since it has been cancelled, we have had to scale down quite dramatically, but there is now going to be an event in the St Tom's church building that has been inventively named "Not The Light Party" - inspired. Despite the mildly suspect name, it's going to be proper awesome; cafe, live music of various genres, games consoles, and all for free.

So that's what's going on really. As I said, nothing much happening apart from what I just covered. If you want to book the studio, give me a shout on madcowstudios@sttoms.co.uk (it's still free - woop woop!). We have vacancies on Saturdays from November 14th onwards.

Oh, and if you haven't heard, I got a guitar for £3!

Love and blessings x x x

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Ladies and gents, I am so sorry I've kept you out of the loop for such a long time. You'll be glad to hear that not a vast amount has happened, so you haven't missed out on much.

As I may or may not have already mentioned (probably have) I've secured a job with my big sister in her ceramics business - woop woop! I left my Bible up at hers last week which is a bit of a bummer, and I'm not going up this week as the car is in for an MOT (which I would rather like it to pass).

Later today I am going to The Net which is a thing...I'm not entirely sure what it is, but my good friends Lauren and Tom say I should come, and it's something to do with my Tuesday afternoon, so why not, eh?

Tori and I, along with a gang of 5 others, have formed a band for The Light Party (where we are supporting Flawless of Britain's Got Talent fame - awesome) and we've had a couple of rather fancy practices so far. Well excited about that; you should all come, it's a superb way of spending your 31st October.

That's all I really have to say for the moment really. Thanks, as usual to your prayers and encouragements. I hope all those of you who have just started the educational part of university are enjoying it. Apparently it's not all about partying! Who knew?

Love and blessings

It's been a while...

I do apologise! I'm trying not to group these blogs too closely so that you're not inundated with my ramblings, and in the process of doing so, forgot to post anything. Fool of a Took. Fool of a Mule, if you'll pardon the rhyme

Today I am at stuck at home with a cold. I thought it was man flu a couple of days ago so fought through it, but alas it worsened this morning so I'm feeling pretty bleak. Should clear up in a day or so though. On the up side, I didn't move to Guildford on Saturday (which is when I would've been doing so) so my first weekend so that wasn't tarnished by illness.

Anyway, putting my immune system aside now: last week was another busy one, and things are really starting to shape up. I had a meeting with Steve Lee last Monday, and it is now official that I will be going on a couple of Miracle Street tours with the stages, one around the UK at Christmas time and a European one next summer. I'm also on his radar for stage-hiring and other bits and pieces, so hopefully we will be mutually blessing each other as the year goes on.

Work-wise, I went up to Liphook last week to help my lovely big sister with super-duper pottery business, in the clay-preparation (you haven't lived until you've put clay into a blender) and leaf-making departments. I jest, there are no departments, it's literally a room in her house. I'm going to be going up there to help her out every week or so in the coming months, so life is good. I get the added bonus of seeing Harry and Bryony (my nephew and niece who rock my socks). Incidentally, Sally has a stand at the Winchester Christmas Fair thing (round the back of the cathedral) this year, so if you're around, you should all go and buy her stuff - they'll make great presents for your rents!

So many of you have been blessing me hugely with your encouragements and prayers, so once again, thank you, I really appreciate it. That was a lot of commas. But really, thank you.

Once again I have rambled far more than I intended to, so I will leave you all to get back to your lives for another few days.

God bless, love love love!

The past and the future

So, this past week has been fairly mundane, despite a few bits and pieces. After my little request for prayer on Monday, I not only had some wonderful encouragements from a few people (I won't name you, but you know who you are - thank you) but also a couple of job opportunities. One was up in Reading and would require me moving up there, which would stop everything I am doing around here, so I declined that offer.

The other offer was from my lovely big sister who is super-duper at making pretty things with pottery (take a look here). What with her being a one-woman clay-producing machine (and a mum), she is very busy and needs an extra pair of hands. So next week I am moseying up to Liphook to hang out with her and the kids for a couple of days to beat some clay into submission/leaf shapes :D Should be pretty fun.

In the nearer future, it is my birthday in a little over 1 day (as I am writing this just a little before midnight), so that's nice and exciting. Tomorrow (Saturday), I am recording Nathan Kelly at Mad Cow, which will be a nice chilled-out way of testing out the new operating system on the computer (Jim and I - mostly Jim - killed Vista and put XP on it, if you're interested).

However, the event I am most excited about by a long long long way is Monday lunchtime, when I am meeting up with Steve Lee of Miracle Street to discuss touring the country/continent as a roadie on their stage. No doubt I will have my work cut out for me, but if that's what God wants me to do, I'm well up for it...actually, I'm well up for it anyway.

This is a much longer blog than I intended to write, so I will leave it at this. Thank you all once again for your continual prayer and support. God bless xx

[[P.S. email madcowstudios@sttoms.co.uk if you're interested in recording for free]]

The Hunt

Alas, this title sounds far more epic than it actually is. The Hunt is just a rather pretentious shortening of job-hunt, which I am in the midst of getting nowhere with. I'm trying to get a part-time job to get me some money in to help support my parents, seeing as I am no longer getting them any government allowance and they are still housing and feeding me.

I am still teaching drums, so if you know anyone who wants to learn, please send them my way. I have some funky little business-card-type-things that you can take a few of if you wish to.

I would really appreciate it if you could keep praying for me, and I know a lot of you are already, so thank you for that. Thank you also for your encouragements, it's great to know that I'm not the only person excited about this year as a concept.

Lastly, and this really is a long shot, if anybody has the Rosetta Stone CD-ROM for Russian, I would love to borrow it. I would buy my own, but it's £380 I just don't think I can stretch to. I doubt anyone has it, but as I said, it's a long shot.

In summary, please keep praying that I don't get stressed about this job hunt. God bless, and much love to all of you

I'm excited

Not least of all because it's my birthday this month, and Porcupine Tree's new album is coming out on the 14th (practically weeing myself in anticipation about that), but because I can tell you at least some of what I'm up to this year.

I had a nice chat with Matt and Jono on Wednesday while Matt and I (with Tom Berry's help) were clearing out and reorganising the PA cupboard in the Stables - it is now no longer full of 4-year-old leaflets, and all the flightcases are now beautifully labelled for convenience. Anyway, there are still fine details to iron out, but the plan at the moment is that I will be running Mad Cow Studios for the coming year. Obviously this is far from full-time, but it'll get me some much-needed work experience and it will hopefully bless the community as well.

So that's one aspect of what I'm up to at the moment. Another thing I'd love to do more of is teaching drums; if any of you know anybody who would like to start learning, please give them my details (if you don't have them, ask me for them on Facebook; I'm not posting them up here).

That's my lot for today I think. God bless you all, and thank you for your ongoing encouragement

Matt Davis, Knower of Doors

Before I left for Spain (had a great time there, thanks for asking), I received an excited text message (if text can convey emotion) from my good friend Matthew Thomas Davis, whom many refer to as Matt. He was inquiring (or enquiring, there's certainly one person out there who will tell me which) as to what I will be doing this year. When I said it was for God to know and us to find out, he made a comment about pushing doors to see if they open, from which I got the description of this blog.

So last Friday, Matt came round to el casa de Reddings and we had a nice chat about doors of the metaphorical variety. As yet, none of the ideas we bounced around are in complete fruition, so I won't digress to much. I will tell you, though, that I am very excited.

I promise I will keep you posted - that is what this blog is for, after all. God bless!

The Saga Begins...

Once upon a time, I made a blog ready for updating all my friends on the goings-on in my life at university. All was going well until the 20th August 2009 a.k.a. Results Day (which is actually today, but you might be reading this in the future). On that day, I discovered that I had acquired a C-grade in Physics, not the B-grade I had been hoping for.

I phoned the admissions tutor at Surrey University, and he said I was unable to enrol this year; not due to my doing badly, but due to a lot of other applicants doing better than expected. Long story short, he offered me an unconditional place to enrol on for the year commencing September 2010.

Now, if you know anything about the Tonmeister course, it is that you don't get unconditional offers for it after underachieving a grade in Physics. Yet here I am, a place ready and waiting for me and an involuntary gap year in between.

There is no doubt in my mind that God has provided this year out for me to do his work. I'm not entirely sure what His plan is (well duh, He's God) but I'll tell you this, I am WELL excited to find out.

The purpose of this blog is for me to tell you, the masses, what I'm up to - or rather what God is up to in my life - in my life in the coming year. I will try to keep it fresh with audio and video etc - you know, all the techie stuff I'm into. I may even grace you all with a podcast, but don't bank on it.

It's been a stressful day, but the outcome has been better than I was expecting it to be in the first place in many ways (not all, sadly). Thank you all for your prayers and encouragements, they have really blessed me. God bless you all, and stay in touch.