when things don't go to 'plan', for the better.

It is interesting yet frustrating how sometmes the plans you made don't work out for whatever reason. It is even more interesting, and perhaps a bit more gratifying or satisfying when in hindsight you see and understand WHY those things didn't work out! Particularly when the delay between the two is small.

Spring is coming!

 I had one of those situations this weekend.  I had planned to go to newcastle to catch up with some friends up there, and as you may have guessed that didn't end up happening! I have a little bit of a reputation at times for not being completely prepared, or for being too laid back and not paying attention to departure times of flights/trains/buses.I was out with some work friends in Liverpool on Friday night, and when I got home I thought I should probably check what time the bus to Newcastle actually left (as I had already bought my ticket). Only to discover that when I had bought my ticket, I'd accidently bought a bus ticket up to newcastle leaving at 0745 on SUNDAY instead of Saturday! I didn't think it was worth the hassle of 5 hours on a bus up to Newcastle, a couple hours hanging out with friends to catch a 3hour train back...



Lady Lever art gallery in Bebington



The gardens at Lady Lever art gallery



Mersey ferries against liverpool

Muddy Mersey

Streets in Birkenhead

So I decided to stay in Liverpool for the weekend and was rewarded in many different ways. The sun came out!! On both days, though not for the entire day. Saturday I spent wandering around Birkenhead for a little bit where I walked to the ferry point and had a look around the Mersey river from that side. I now know where Birkenhead park is but I didn't end up there this time. Apparently Hyde Park in New York is based upon it. Then I went into Liverpool and wandered all around there as well.

Bombed out St Lukes church

I learnt quite alot of things that I didn't know previously. For example, I went to St Lukes church which was bombed during the war adn learnt about life during that period. The church is beautiful, but only the outside of the structure stands. The council bought the church and it is now used as a place of peace and serenety after the destruction of the war, with urban gardening inside. You can do as much or as little gardening as you want.

Down at Albert Dock there is the Maritime Museum, the Slavery Museum, the Tate Art Gallery and a fair few other things. I only managed to get through part of the Maritime museum, so will have to go back down there again to get through some more of them as they were all pretty fascinating. I learnt that three major ships that sunk within three years originally came from Liverpool - the Titanic, the Empress and something else that I forgot the name of. There was heaps of memorabilia from the different ships and tales of life during that period, particularly during the war.

The entrance to China town

However, the main reason that it was good in the end that I didn't go to Newcastle this weekend was that I found a church! First time lucky! :) I was googling 'liverpool, church, young adults' and came up with a few different options, two of which I decided to check out. One of them, the one I ended up at today had on their young adults page, the numbers of a few of the leaders of the various groups. So I sent a msg to one of them yesterday and got a few messages back from them, which was a promising start! It was raining a little bit when I left the hospital (where I'm living) this morning. I'm currently relying on public transport to get around, which is both good and bad. If you miss the bus on a Sunday though, you have to wait an hour for the next or catch a few buses to end up where you want. Luckily for me, when I ran to the bus, it was there waiting and I got straight on and managed to find the church straight away. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming and wanting to chat which was encouraging as well.

The message though, that was what really sealed the deal for me here though (as well as the friendliness!!). I found it to be really challenging, practical and beneficial as the stage of life that I am in. And I guess just following on from things I've been reading and learning this week as well. It all just seemed to fit.

It was on 1 Samuel 17, and about facing your 'goliaths' - the things that sap your hope, undermine your confidence, intimidate you. We have a tendency to only focus on the strength of Goliath and the weaknesses in our lives and then feel inadequate to overcome it. We need to take Davids' example, face our giant, raise up and conquer it, by replacing the giant focus with a God focus.

David's immediate focus is on God - he mentions God ten times and Goliath only twice, a factor of 5:1. We need to face up to the things that pull us down, keeping the focus on God. The armies of heaven are with us.

You are my King and my God.
You command victories for Israel.
Only by your power can we push back our enemies;
only in your name can we trample our foes.
I do not trust in my bow;
I do not count on my sword to save me.
You are the one who gives us victory over our enemies;
you disgrace those who hate us.
O God, we give glory to you all day long
and constantly praise your name. Psalm 44:4-8

Goliaths try to come and steal our happiness. We need to then need to magnify God, make him the biggest thing, the centre stage, doing whatever it is to get our hearts singing again and worshipping God. (Might I add that I am missing my guitar like CRAZY right now....)

It is incredible how a little bit of refocusing on what is actually important can completely change your mood. I am blessed.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

Changing my perspective

I really really don't like having nothing to do. It never seems to work out well. It was disappointing when I arrived last week to discover that nothing was prepared in terms of training or IT access, and starting on Monday (as I'd asked) would have been perfectly fine. That was hard, finding out that I could have waited a few extra days and spent more time with family and friends in Australia. An empty weekend forced me to begin to acknowledge and deal with all the changes that have occurred in the last few weeks of my life. Attempting to learn how to relax and rest, which I am definitely not good at. I've cried most days and wondered on multiple occasions whether I have made the right decision returning to England, or if I am making a mistake. I guess time will only tell. I'd like to think though, that God will use every situation I land myself in (voluntarily or not) to teach me, help me grow, change me. I've been reading alot of Ecclesiastes and I think that I'm going through a bit of a season of having to let go and just wait.


Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 A Time for Everything


There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

The sunshine I woke up to

I'm learning to appreciate more and more on how blessed I am, and stop focussing on petty little things. I have it really good, and I need to refocus my perspective. I have a good upbringing and education and good health and safety in the environment I am in. Yesterday morning, just when I needed some warmth, the sun came out for the hour that I went walking in the morning, and it totally made my day seeing that tiny bit of blue sky and some warmer rays. Today the sun was shining all day! God is good.

Take the Congo, for example. Women and children there are being raped by militia using it as a weapon much cheaper than bullets. NGOs believe that one in three females have been raped. One in three! And then, thirty percent of those women are infected with HIV, a condition they will have for the rest of their lives. In comparison, the things I don't like about my life are minescule. http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2009/congo/index.html

On a 'lighter' note. It am enjoying working in a hospital again, the little things that make you smile. If you've watched scrubs before, well most of the time it's a pretty accurate depictation of some of the silliness that can go on, the funny things you can overhear, the shenanigans that patients get up to... the chasing around trying to find patient notes, the patient who can't recognise the nurses who have been looking after him and think s they are all gorgeous, the patients who tell you they are eating when they actually aren't, the smile on patient's faces when you as a dietitian are ENCOURAGING them to eat even more cheese, chocolate, cream, butter, biscuits, chips... the irony of people with lung cancer standing out the front of the entrance of an oncology centre with their drip stands chain smoking...