Home again

"Attention, this is a public safety announcement: There are heart defibrillators at regular intervals in the airport in case of emergency. Please make note of the green and red signs"

That is just one of the announcements I heard about 50 times while in Logan Airport in Boston. I sure had an interesting time getting home! I remember Anna saying just before I left that she hoped my journey wouldn't turn into a Trains, Planes and Automobiles journey, how ironic! :)

About 15 minutes after I'd cleared security in the Newcastle Airport my mobile phone started to ring and I answered to hear "Jennifer Mosher? This is Air France, have you already checked in?....Oh well have you already been through security?...Hmmmm well I'm afraid to tell you that your plane from Paris to Boston has been delayed so you're going to miss your connection to Ottawa. We'll do our best to get you the next flight home, just check in with the transfer desk when you get to Paris." I knew right then this was going to be an interesting journey. In fact I began to get a bit scared because I was afraid that something like this was going to happen on my way home. I'm a pretty seasoned traveler but I've never done such a round-a-bout journey on my own before. Usually I've had direct flights when on my own and my flights this time were Newcastle - Paris - Boston - Ottawa. So as soon as I received this call my heart kind of took a dive and my palms started sweating. It was actually very trying. When I got to Paris and was standing in the line at the transfer desk, surrounded by very grumpy impatient people, I started to feel a bit of panic rising up in me but I suddenly remembered a verse of scripture, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight" Proverbs 3:5,6 and I knew that I could trust God to make this very crooked journey end up straight and to get home safe. I had to remind myself of that promise more than once though!

When I finally arrived in Boston I had to wait in another endless line of tired, grumpy people to get through customs and then another at the Air France transfer desk at that airport. I thought it was so funny they were playing these cheerful, upbeat Christmas songs when really I'm sure everyone was thinking "JUST SHUT-UP ALREADY!!"

I think something that really helped calm me down was the situation another girl I met was during the flight. She was trying to get to Florida for Christmas to see her parents and had missed her connecting flight because of the same delay. In Paris I ended up chatting with her while we were waiting at our gate. She was 19 and had been living in Scotland studying. In a way having her upset beside me when we got to Boston helped me to keep calm and very positive. Comforting her and telling her that it would all work out very much helped me to keep things in perspective for myself. She was very frustrated and very vocal about it so it would have been easy to join in and gripe myself but that would have totally defeated the point of relying on the promise God had reminded me of in Paris.

Anyway to finish this story of endless traveling I ended up staying overnight at the Hilton in the Boston Airport. It was soooooooooooooo nice! Honestly I don't think I've ever stayed in a nicer hotel room. I was a bit disappointed that I only had one night there and I only had 5 hours to sleep in the bed at that - I had to be up to catch another flight fairly early. Honestly the bed was the biggest bed I've ever slept in. I tried to stretch out as far as I could and see if I could reach the ends but I couldn't. It was so comfortable as well. But even though it was really nice, I'm still a lot happier to be home in my own bed....well Phil's bed anyway, mine doesn't exist anymore.

The next morning (yesterday) I got up and took a shuttle to my terminal, checked in and then went through security to find I'd been selected for a random security check. I had to take my shoes off and stand to one side. Then the security guard took me to one side so he could check through my bags. I think he thought I was a bit nervous because he was explaining everything that he was doing but telling me jokes as well. He was really sweet and so I was just chatting back to him. Then he said I could go and as I was putting on my sweater and coat another of the guards came over and gave me a side hug and said " I gotta tell you that you are just adorable!" I kinda laughed and said thanks. It took me by surprise. When I told my brother and Dad and they both asked "How old was he???" He was about 40 or so, so I don't think it was that weird, he wasn't creepy or anything like that so I wasn't too worried.

The rest of the trip went fine, I had an added stop in Newark, New Jersey but I arrived in Ottawa on time according to my flights. I was the first one off the plane, the first one through customs and my bag was the first one off the ramp! Woo Hoo!!! I was in airport within 5 minutes of getting off the plane. How wicked is that?

Oh I almost forgot the other added bonus. Although my family weren't there right away to greet me at the airport I did bump into none other than Don Cherry and Ron McClean!! Who'd have guessed? What a very patriotic welcome back to the Nations Captial. (By the way they the official hockey sportscast moguls for Canada, very well known over here, the equivalent of a famous English football/sports broadcaster.)

All in all it was probably one of the most memorable journeys I've ever had to make but at least I now know that I can do it again if I have to! I'm really glad to be home for Christmas with my family and it'll be nice to have Steve and Heather join us in a few days as well. The squished crickets from the summer have been removed from the basement so they won't be scarred by them.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

The Mysterious Cupboard Cleaner.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day. Not too much happened. Because clubs are shutting down for the holidays things have been pretty uneventful for us but a strange event happened over yesterday and today that is still causing us to scratch our heads.

We were being very organised and getting ready well in advance for our Wednesday after school club called Xplode. Attendance has pretty much exploded this year too as we've gone from about a regular 25 to 40. What a thrill. We'd done some major shopping for the club since we were throwing our Christmas party for them and had everything ready to go and were on our way out the door when we remembered a few items we still needed. I ran to the kitchen to grab some stuff and then joined Lisa in the cupboard looking for the other items. When I say cupboard I mean big closet...I guess that's just what they call them over here. We were frantically trying to find what we needed but for some reason things had been moved around and we couldn't find anything. We began digging through random boxes and all of a sudden a bin from one of the top shelves came hurdling down and landed between us upside down, the crayons and marbles spilling everywhere! We were lucky it didn't hit either of us. In a fit if hilarious laughter we tried to compose ourselves. We found what we needed and then decided we had no time to clean it and we'd do it when we got back.

The club went fine. It was fun and the kids were pretty well behaved which made it more a pleasure than a chore. When we got back to the church it was well dark outside and the cupboard light doesn't work very well so we decided we'd tackle the mess first thing in the morning. The odd thing was though, when we came in this morning someone had beaten us to it! The bin had been picked up! We looked at each other and laughed at the weirdness of it and then became a bit nervous as to who was going to yell at us for making a mess and them having to clean it! It was one of those moments where you feel a bit like a kid again. You feel a bit of a rush from having made a mess and thinking it was funny but a bit scared because you know you're going to get reprimanded.

We still don't know who cleaned the cupboard but we're going to leave thank you notes on everyone's desk just in case.

Sitting in the office, drinking my water, sending Lisa on a hunt to find me a golden goose on the internet...this has been the extent of my excitement within the past hour. She did find me a golden goose though and within about 2 minutes of my challenge. I was very impressed indeed. Then I sent her on a hunt to find the origins of the word "gratitude" which she also succeeded in doing and I now know that the word "gratitude" originates from the Latin word "gratus" meaning "thankful, pleasing." I think my challenges have been to easy and I'm going to have to start coming up with harder ones.

Challenges...hmmm I could get very deep and poignant with this word and ask myself what have the challenges in my life been lately? It could take a minute of pondering to come up with an answer. I suppose in the most obvious way to me at this moment I'm being challenged to continually put my future in God's hands and out of that comes the challenge to quit looking ahead and focus on what's happening around me now. This is a bit harder than the first of the two because I'm not quite feeling that excited about my life at the moment. I hope that this doesn't make me a horrible person because what I'm doing at the moment is full time ministry and to tell people that I'm finding things a bit mundane almost seems like heresy. So that's definitely a challenge.

The word challenge also brings back many memories of certain people asking me to do the most random things:

"Jenny, go up to that guy and start talking to him like you know him....PLEASE?? C'mon it'll be so hilarious!"

"Jenny, yell out 'TOUCHDOWN' when they score their next goal!" (during a hockey game)

"Jenny I dare you to stick your nose in your glass of orange juice...c'mon all the way!!"

"I dare you to eat that gum off the bottom of your shoe!"

...strange how the requests s that stick out in my mind the most come from a couple specific people! Stranger still is the fact that I'd actually do it! As soon as people find out you don't have that many inhibitions they're eager to start exploiting you. Ah the craziness of it all. I promise I'm much more mature and well behaved now, just ask Steve and Heather!

Anyway, youth alpha is starting soon so I should get going! I need to go and challenge them to all be as mature and as well behaved as myself!

Follow My Lead...

It's Friday afternoon and I'm sitting in the office feeling very much like Josephine March in my wool hat and scarf; freezing as I'm working. All I need now is a candle and a very dramatic story to be writing. Unfortunately all I have are the tales of my daily life which are not as dramatic but at least they're entertaining to some degree.

We had a Christmas party for the first schools club we help Mike with on Thursdays yesterday. There was a pretty highly charged atmosphere as all the kids were like "Christmas and sugar!!!" Always a very good combination for a nice quiet afternoon...HA! We played pin the tail on the donkey and one little girl decided it would be a good idea to pin the tail to me during her go much to the extreme humor of all the other kids. It was actually a pretty cute moment and I had to laugh myself even though I had to question whether she thought I was a donkey....hmmmm.

There have been a few things that I've been meaning to blog about lately but haven't had the time to do so; some thoughts that have been on my mind the past month.

We had a church meeting the end of November and the elders brought forward the suggestion of possibly combining our church with the Baptist church. It was an interesting meeting and I went home chewing a lot over the thought of leadership.

I think the conclusion that I came to and have come to time and time again is that leadership is not an easy position. The year that I spent leading TC was more than enough proof for me. It was one of the most challenging experiences of my life and I don't think that I would wish for another role like that unless I knew specifically it was what God was calling me to do it. There were some days when I would constantly be muttering under my breath either "I'm gonna shoot someone!" or "I'm gonna shoot myself!" People in leadership are constantly facing the disapproval of the people they're leading and every decision they make is scrutinized and even criticized. I can remember being so distraught sometimes because no matter what I did there was always someone who was unhappy and it used to tear me apart. As someone who has a personality that generally likes to please people and can't stand it when someone's upset at me I was going mental some days. But that said, I think that it has given me a real appreciation and understanding of the people I know who are in positions of leadership and what they're going through. It has also helped me realise how important that it is for me to support, encourage and pray for them because it's not an easy task by any means. I think it is especially important to pray because I want my leaders to be hearing from God and following him even if it means doing things that the people don't approve of and that can be so difficult sometimes. I mean look at the prophets in the old testament. Listening to God meant having to run for their lives from angry mobs sometimes! I know that there are things I don't necessarily approve of at times and the way situations are handled but in the end the bible says people are in positions of authority because God has put them there.

Another thing I learned through leading TC is that leaders are not perfect. I know this because hey, I know me, and I am not a perfect human being despite what some people might think! I made so many mistakes and there are so many ways I could have done things more efficiently and effectively. I am so thankful for the grace of God but I knew sometimes I was wishing for more grace from the people I was leading. Not to harp on them at all or say they were horrible. On the contrary it was really great to see how they grew that year in their faith and to see what they're doing now.

We need to extend grace towards people in leadership and understand they are in fact human as much as we are.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

1 Peter 2:16,17 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

Anyway, as I have gone on longer than I intended and have to head out for our Friday evening youth club I'll have to blog about the other things another time.

Jennaquebolt*

The Lament of A Busy Schedule

Why oh why does life have to be busy?? Living according to a schdule that runs minute by minute until you have to schedule 5 in for yourself to remind you to actually breathe! Sometimes it does my head in. That is my complaint, bah...I'm looking forward to going home for Christmas.

I had a nice time in Tamworth this weekend. I went down on Friday night and came back Monday morning. It was nice to hang out with the folk down there again. I met some new people, neither of them English. In fact one was American and one was Argentinian. Both very nice people. I was encouraged to create an argument with the American. For some reason people thought it would be fun for us to fight it out as rival nations. Crazy English people. I participated in a pub quiz and the team I was on managed to win. I was very proud although most of the credit has to go to Mr. Andrew Passey and his wealth of knowledge. We couldn't have done it without him. I think he coped surprisingly well considering he was on a team with myself (who's knowledge of English news and politics is somewhat lacking), Noellia who's from Argentina and doesn't speak that much English and Catherine. I think we were able to help when it counted though. Fi and John were lovely as usual in letting me stay with them while down. They even took me to their posh gym where they are members.

Anyway, I'm going to leave this blog at this. I'm feeling a bit unenthused at the moment which could be due to the fact I was up at 4:45 on Monday and have been having late nights and early mornings since....the lament of a busy week yet again. Don't get me the wrong way, life is good just somewhat dulled through tiredness.

Until another, hopefully more alert post, farewell.

Jennifer Beth Mosher

My Friend

My friend,

I don't want you to think that I have a heart of stone because I didn't seem to care when you left. I was impacted more than I myself realized but just couldn't believe you were gone. I thought that I could rejoice and take comfort in knowing that you had gone to your real home and that because I was so far away I could hide my emotions in the distance. I was wrong. So often you come into my mind through memories of the past and I have to remind myself you're no longer with us and it hurts. I don't want you to think that because I didn't call or write to your loved ones that I didn't care. I was so far away and emails and phone calls didn't seem good enough. I was so frustrated I couldn't be with everyone during those days, weeks, and now months that I buried everything inside.

I remember youth convention 2001 how you and I went to a seminar on faith. During the session the speaker pointed you out of the crowd and said you were someone who had great Faith and that God was going to use you to do great things. I think the legacy that you've left behind and the number of people that were impacted by you is a testimony to that. You were always an encourager.

I still remember the first line of a song that you had written during a time you spent with God. It started with "Oh my child..." And you performed it at one of the TPA Youth Group talent nights. Your relationship with God always seemed so precious and beautiful.

I remember the times we had giggling and coming up with plans to invade the boys at the Behrendts and I remember the times you'd ask me around and we'd sit and talk and make supper together.

I miss you...you meant a great deal to me and I wanted you to know that. I'm sorry that I wasn't better at keeping in touch and letting you know. I hope somehow through the wall of reserve I hid behind you knew and that one day I'll be able to tell you in person what a great friend you were to me.

For Heidi Jaremy 1983 - 2005