Please pray...

Not blogged for a while - been busy with the last few Chunky Shows of the Season ( 2 more weekends to go...)

Would appreciate prayers for Chris, though. As we have only space on our very small drive for 2 cars, Chris parks his Micra just around the corner. So it was that, having not driven it all weekend, he went to go to work this morning only to discover that both his Number plates had been stolen.

Not a huge deal, but he had to report it to the police and get replacements today. Petty crime is not always petty when it happens to you. Mind you, although Chris was annoyed, I think he handled it better than we did - we're feeling very angry on his behalf.

Many thanks

Thank you!

Just a quick note of thanks to all who prayed for me - the session today with the couple mentioned in the last blog actually went really well - we managed to work out an agenda, and they have now decided to work with me after all - a huge turnaround!

Special thanks to all who prayed, and a very special hug to someone specal who took time out to write and give me the most wonderful card - I shall treasure it always!

Arc of Distortion....

I know that as Counsellors we are often accused of waffling on, using “psychobabble”. However, sometimes you come across a word or phrase that sums up something so well – and this is one of those phrases.

An “Arc of Distortion “ is what happens when one person tries to communicate something, but the listener hears something very different indeed. It’s not always that I get to experience this so vividly, but this week I started counselling a couple, and although the problems they presented were very difficult (I guess if they weren’t, they wouldn’t need someone like me!), I thought the session had gone pretty well.

Well, I got into work yesterday, to discover that this couple had phoned in, asking for a different Counsellor. They then listed all the things I had apparently done wrong in session - Not easy reading.

My problem, though, is that whilst it seems that I had obviously pressed quite a few buttons for them, their specific objections are actually not true – they managed to distort what I had both done and said because of their underlying problems. In my work we have to be highly ethical, and also spend a lot of time and energy evaluating exactly what we do with clients – so the evaluation is not the problem. But this was deeply and intensely personal, and just, well, wrong. They have agreed to come back for another session, so I would value prayers.

Got me thinking, though… When we feel God wants us to do something – big or small – the temptation is to mis-hear. Usually it’s because we have a different agenda, or a different time-schedule. We delay, prevaricate, or fill our time with really good stuff – but it’s not actually what God has asked of us. Jonah is a great Scriptural example of this.

As I watched all of the poor people yesterday caught up in the chaos at airports, I wondered how many plans had been ruined, in just one day? And whilst I appreciate the importance of the security measures, I guess there were a lot of disappointed and frustrated people around.

But once in a while, I wonder just how frustrated God gets when His plans for our lives have to have a "built-in” delay factor”? We try and distort His plans, yet He is so very patient, waiting for us to just be quietly obedient.

Pat’s Thought for the Day:
In our desire to make sure we fully understand what God has asked of us, do we keep Him on hold? Sometimes I think He would rather a touch of what we might consider misguided, quick, enthusiastic obedience, than a lot of waiting and deep sighing, wondering if we heard right……

The Globe

Thanks Helen and John for help in posting a photo!

Birthday Blog....

Thought I’d best update a little re; my birthday – my 48th, if you REALLY want to know! The Big Five-Oh loometh ever closer….

Anyway, John simply told me that we were going to London on the Friday before my birthday on the Sunday, and that he would sort out lunch. There we were, happily poodling off on the train towards Liverpool Street, when he suddenly says at Stratford, ”we’re getting off here”. Another first – a trip on the Docklands Light Railway, though the maze of Canary Wharf, and then we stopped off at the Cutty Sark. This led onto a fabulous and leisurely trip up the Thames by boat to Westminster. Then we got the tube back to St. Paul’s, where John “wanted to see what they’ve done since they cleaned up the front of St Paul’s”…

So I’m busy looking up, when a voice behind me says “And what are you doing here, Mrs Kennett?” Nearly jumped out of my skin, and then realized it was John’s elder brother David! He was there with his friend Celia – all p-re-planned of course – and John took us over to a small grassy area just outside St Paul’s for “lunch”. Out of his rather heavy (I should have been more suspicious) rucksack, he spread a wonderful picnic, Mary-Poppin-like, for the 4 of us. He then produced a DVD of modern Shakespeare plays for me – in the back of which were two tickets to that afternoon’s performance at The Globe of “Comedy of Errors”! Needless to say, David and Celia also had tickets right next to us!

Thoroughly enjoyed the most wonderful farce on stage, even though it was staggeringly hot. Then we went for a listen to some brilliant Street musicians at Convent Garden. This was topped by grabbing something to eat at a local pizza express, followed by a leisurely walk to Trafalgar Square, and then onto Westminster. It was lovely seeing folk just dangling their feet in the fountains beside Nelson’s Column, relaxing at the end of s working week, or a hard day as a tourist.

Fabulous day out – and then we went to see the film “Storm breaker” to round off a great weekend. (Highly recommended – a 14-year old version of James Bond, who gets his mission gadgets from a backroom in Hamley’s! Brilliant!!)

I will try and post a photo of the Globe with this, but if not, can someone advise me how to post pics up here – seems to have thrown a complete wobbly on me for weeks on end now. Any solutions, Bloggers??