lukes blog

Hope

2007-03-24T00:41:00.000Z

Hello!

Well, i know its been a little while since i last posted, but whoever wrote...and i quote...."zzzzzzzzz" on my wall.....well i never!! I suspect it may have been Lisa?! Shocking!

Sorry for the lack of postage...things have been rather busy, but still, no excuse i guess! How is everyone? I hope you are all doing alright! Im coming back to the land of essex tomorrow in fact, oh wait, its today now...i should go to bed soon.

Its crazy how its easter already! I cant believe how quickly this year has gone already, I have 4 more weeks of lectures, then about 4 weeks of exams, and then it sthe summer break! How time flies! This year has been a bit insane for many reasons. The intensity of work has been a bit crazy, and the intensity of life in general has matched it. If i were to go into everything that has happened since my last post, i would be here forever and day, and you probably arent really interested, so i will highlighty one or two!

Firstly, i have been asked to be on the executive committee of the CU, under the role or Praise and Yoda co-ordinator. Whether you are familiar with starwars or not, the use of the term yoda is, im sure confusing. Basically, a yoda, in the context which i deal with is a mature student, eiether a recent graduate, a church student worker, or a 3rd year, who have experience both in life and CU, who is to support the small group leaders who run small groups in all of the individual halls of residence. I have to organise them (there is a yoda per small group) and organise people in order to facilitate the praise in teh CU meetings.
Its great to have been asked, and im already well into my time in the role. Things are going well, and it is keeping me very busy, but all is good! I will post more about the CU soon i hope, as its quite exciting whats going on! A lot of stuff is happening in manchester, which leads me nicely onto point 2!

Hope '08. This is an initiative being mainly run by the message trust (the people who do eden in manchester (what matt copsey does). It is a year long mission, in 2008, over the entire country, involving all christians, in every denomination...showing the love of Jesus to every comunity. You may have heard of city wide missions like 'Festival Manchester', or 'Soul in the City', or more close to home, 'Love Southend'....well these were social action projects majoring on one city over the time span of a few weeks. So much was accomplished in those weeks, so just imagine what can be acomplished in a year...everywhere! Imagine what it would look like if the whole church united with one purpose...no demoninational differences or exclusions. Just the people of God, being the people of God. Oh my life!!! Imagine!!!
Well, that year is 2008, and its been called hope 2008. I went to a launch event in manchester a yesterday, and it was so exciting! So much is planned already. Social action stuff, like cleaning streets, parks, running kids clubs, etc...partnering with the police, seeing stuff change! There has been a prophesy from a bunch of guys in Nigeria i think, that this next year will be a year of revival for England...and oh how we need it!
What can we do in chelmsford? In what ways can we serve the community, how can we get the youth groups out doing stuff in the surrounding estates, what events can we do in the parks, that are fun for all the family, where the gospel is preached...who can we get involved, organisation wise...lets do it! Lets see Chelmsford being transformed.
Love Southend was a year, last year where the churches really got together, and did pretty much all that. There were year long projects, and also a summer mission for a week, which was ended by a big party on the beach. During the year they had Street pastors that went out every week on a friday and saturday night, going round town all night long halping the homeless people, the people who had nowhere to go, and nobody to turn to...they were Jesus to a rejected people group. So much stuff happened that year. I know they are already planning for another similar year next time. They are right on our doorstep, why dont we do some similar stuff in chelmsford? Hope 2008 is a real opportunity to go for it...bridging the denominational gaps, and taking the love of Jesus to the streets,...im well up for it! What kind of stuff can we do?

Wow, that ended up being quite long! Sorry!

Right, im pretty tired now, so im heading to bed. I hope you are all doing well! see you soon!

Take care

Luke

Great North Run

2006-10-07T10:12:00.000Z

The day of doom arrived, and went! It was a good laugh! Dad came in at 2:13, and me and charlotte both did it in 2:15....soooo close!! :-)
Oooo, was I hurting on monday, i could hardly walk!! oh well, heres a pic of the trio! It was good to see Andrew Emtige, and Alan Webb, and Tim from uni too! ooo, and Carol Vordaman! (ran past her)

Manc!!

2006-09-29T14:28:00.000Z

So, i got back to uni 2 weeks ago...all is good thus far! I have moved into my new house, which is really cool. I did enjoy Oak House Halls last year, but it is so good to be in a house. I feel more settled! Im living with Ralph, Scott, Tim and Naomi who are all really really cool people! They are all involved in CU too which is cool.

I am leading the cell group in Oak House this year with a girl called Becky. We are both really excited about that this year. We have taken all the christian freshers who signed up to CU and are living in Oak House, out for a drink the other day. THey are an amazing bunch. They all seemed to get on really really well with each otehr, its so exciting!!! We had opur first official CU meeting on wednesday. It was amazing! There were soooo many poeple there, i reckon in the region of 200....hopefully the nuimbers wont drop off this year. There was an incredible presence of God there. Lat year the meetings got a bit dry, with not a great number of people there. There seemed to be a real lack of passion and enthusiasm. Almost every second and third year i have spoken to in CU has got a real expectancy about CU this year. I get butterfly's in my stomache when i think about what could happen this year. There is so so much need in manchester uni. The CU does so much stuff witnessing around campus, but there just wasnt the support last year....this year will be different i reckon!! Its well exciting! We have our first hall group meeting on tuesday, which im well looking forward to muchly!

Lectures have been going a week. This year is going to be a lot better than last year i think, course wise, although i think it will be a lot harder. I feel like last year was just an extension of Alevel maths and physics, but this year it feels like we are going to be getting on with some proper engineering stuff. The subjects seem a lot more interesting than last year. Except.....i have got to do statistics....NOT impressed at all!!! i really dont like stats. oh well!

Well yeah, so this weekend its the great north run...i havent really done a lot of training, so.....should be interetsing...hmmm. it will be good to see dad and charlotte again. its always a good weekend.

thats about it from me!

Let me know how you are all doing!! it will be good to hear from you all!

luke

since cambodia...

2006-09-29T14:09:00.000Z

well, since cambodia, there has been a bit of a lul really. I went to soul survivor straight after getting back from cambodia which was cool, really good to hang out with the youth, and be a part of an amzing conference i have been to many times before. Then i went back home to having not much to do...i was doing a bit of part time work as a gardener for one of mum;s friends,...i wasnt very good at gardening :-S...and unfortunately i still had another 4 weeks of these crazy malaria tablets, which weren't too good at all. They were messing me about a bit really, but they are over with now which is good, and ill know not to go with them again in the future. It was good to be able to be a part of the first Deep Impact meeting just before i went back to uni. Its really exciting to b ein the new buliding. I hadnt had much to do with it since i have been back for the summer, which is a shame, but the place was buzzing the first meeting which was cool...loads up from discoverers...really exciting!

next post,...uni.....

Cambodia!

2006-09-29T13:14:00.000Z

How cool is she!

This is in Touls lang prison. A former school that Pol Pot took over and used for interregation and murder. Thousands died here. An eye opening experiencing walking round

The church we went to first of all run a sponser a child programme called ..hmm, i cant actually remember, anyhoo....they go and visit the kids who are sponsered every week, and this is one of those such visits, THe mist rickety walk way i have ever been on...above swamps of rubbish and...well, yeh..

We visited a street kid school, and chilled out with them for the day, we did face painting :-)

We went to another church during our 3rd week, and spent the wek doing various lessony stuff with them. Here i am doing some guitar lessons...one out of tune guitar between 8 people of very differing standards! :-)

This is lucy. We were on our way to see a buddhist temple. As its the rainy season, all the rice paddy's are flooded, so we had to get a boat in about 2 foot of water over the rice to get there

We went exploring in the jungle ...barefoot...on an island off the south coast...quality fun!

This is my team!! front row.....lucy, joey, jenn, rose, miriam....beck row, jon, mat, and me! on an island on teh south coast!

me and insy winsy :-)

cambodia....the end approaches

2006-07-31T06:00:00.000Z

well, its all coming to a close now, we have started with our final church now and tomorrow is our last working day! We are working at the church of christ with pastopr Maes Thavy...he is a hoot. He will just randomly start laughing, and its not even a subtle laugh...its absolutely halarious!! I am wondering how i am going to feel copming back to England where is it cooler, and things like people walking around in p'js are not the norm. We took friday afrternoon off and headed down to the coast down south, for a little break. We stopped off half way down to visit a few temples. As its the rainy season the only way to get to the temples is to takle a half an hour boat ride over the flooded rice paddy's It was incredible. You are speeding along in about 2 foot of water, with grass and trees poking out. The temples were interesting, but i much preffered the boat ride :-). When we got to kep we stayed overnight in a little place in the middle of the jungle. For the star wars fans around, it can be likened to a litte ee-wok villiage. It had little cane huts connected by wooden walkways all lit up by lanterns. It was such an amazing place. We stayed there for the night with the sound of crickets and all kinds of other animals all around. In the morning we headed by boat accross to an island with the most amazing tropical kind of beach. It had amazing sand, beautiful palm trees. We trecked bare foot for about 30 minutes through the jungle exploring. It was great!!

anyway....i need to go now! Hopeyou are all well, and im sure ill see most of you when i get back on thursday!!

luke

Cambodia! - week 2

2006-07-22T04:32:00.000Z

hey everyone!! time for another update! We have spent this last week working with another church called the 'Followers of Jesus Church'...to the point i guess!
This church is a lot smaller than the last, but is still doing some cool stuff in the community! They have a street kids school a little bit outside of Phnom Penh the capitol. It is a free school, and there, kids who would otherwise have no chance at an educatiion get one for free. They get washed, cuts seen to, hair washed and de-liced. Its great! Their playground is just one bigh sand pit. The kids loved to play. We played football, catch, made paper aeroplanes, painted their faces, and loads more. We visited them for two mornings. Yesterday we visited the church's orphanage, and did roughly the same thing.
We went to Phnom Penh university to do some cold conmtact evangelism. It was an amazing day. We had to go through the exit, one by one, staggering it so that we wouldnt get noticed. How someone who is roughly 3 foot taller than the tallest cambodian, white with ginger hair cannot get noticerd, i really done quite understand, but there we go....we spent the day going round in pairs just walking up to people talking to them about general stuff, then telling them about Jesus. We invited loads to come to the church's youth party which is tonight, so hopefully we'll see some of them there...they seemed really open to it all. Mid afternoon, we were talking to some people, and a guard appeared ..we got aksed to leave..."we're not allowed to talk about Jesus" So...the whole day was rather exciting.
We went to the high school on morning and hung out there. We played some volleyball. It was soo hot, but well fun. It was teh school vacation, but it seemed to be the place to hang out as it was packed!
In cambodia it is the rainy season. We had our first experience of Cambodian monsoon rain the other day...its amazing! It started to thunder and lighten last time i was in the internet cafe...we waited but it didnt let up. Wehn we went outside, the roads were literally rivers, and we waded our way home through about 5 inches of rain. The church almost got flooded. It was about 10 at night and we just hung outside in the rain, it was soo much fun!!! One of our cambodian friends was out there too, he had got stranded at church. We all had a go at driving his moped....it was more like jet ski. Great fun!
On thursday afternoon we went to the killiong fields. An experience i dont want to forget, but i dont want to remember too vividly either. We gained an idea of what happened a week ago when we visited the old khemer rouge prison. I wasnt expecting what i saw, so it really hit me hard. Going to the killing fields i could try and prepare myself. Walking around, reading stories about what went on, seeing the holes that were once mass graves, and other more horrific things than that, you have to almost detatch yourself from the reality of it to get around the whole thing. One of teh girls has a book about the pol pot era and the khemer rouge. Some of the things i have read i think will stickj with me forever. I honestly cannot imagine how any human being, let alone teenagers can be so sadistic for such an extended period of time. It is sickening,...there are no words to say about it to truely sum up the gruesomeness and extent of what went on. It has effected the country massively and it will take a long time to recover.
That is about it for whats been going on...next week we are working with pastor sammy and his church, although we still have many friends and links with the original church we stayed at, so we see them a lot in our free time, as the place we are staying is just accross the road.

So far i have eaten some interesting things....we are still waiting for an opportunity to try spider and cricket :-)

Hope you are all good!

See you in a couple of weeks!

luke

Hey from Cambodia

2006-07-16T06:44:00.000Z

Hey everyone! im in an internet cafe again, so i will need to make this a quick one! Things here are really amazing! Life is so crazy!
Going from the airport to our apartment on the first night we got here, we were riding on the back of a pick up through the streets of Phnom Penh, the sights we saw were incredible. The roads are insane! Like for instance, a family of 4 on a moped riding with no lights in the night, down the wrong side of a dual carriage way. There are no rules here, its quality! The heat is crazy, like ive never experienced, and its constantly humid as its the rainy season, so we are constantly sticky, but thats something that we have got used to now. The food is amazing! Weve had a variety of Thai, cambodian, chinese and a little western too. Eating out is a lot cheaper than in England. All 8 of us can go out, and be satisfied for about 35 american dollars.
The cjurcj we are based at is called new life fellowshi, and its just amazing. It does everything, meeting so many of the needs out here. It is lively and very hillsongý style in the worship. There is a massive need in cambodia. The atrocities carried out by the Khemer Rouge, and Pol Pot are still very close to the hearts of the people out here. Their lives are still very much affected by it all. 50% of the populatiopn are under the age of 18 due to the genocide, and there are little skilled people like doctors etc as they were the people who were wiped out. The church aims to meet the needs of the poeple, and id say they do it rather successfully. They hold English classes, which hold a huge amount of weight. They hold classes in basic helth care, and micro-enterprise, to help people get started with their own businesses. They run a child sponsership program called Children at Risk which is amazing. It funds the kids to go to school, provides a uniform, food, and tesches them, or a family member a skill to use to get money for tyhe family. for example, we went into the slums to visit some of the kids on the programs, they are so cool!! One we saw... her mum was taught how to sow, and the church bought her a sewing machine so she could support her family. The program aims to run for no longer than 3 years with each child, so the emphasis is on helping them to support themselves.
A few days ago we visited the church orphanage. Words cant describe what emotions you go though when you hear about the child who has been holding your hand for the entire morning witnessed his mum murder his dad becuase the physical abuse he gave her got too much. His mum is now in prison so the boy now has no-one. Other stories are just as bad. With many of the kids, they dont know english, but communication is never a problem. All they want to do is to hug you, or hold your hand, or jump on your back.The only response you can give is just to love them. I cant descibe it, but that day at the orphanage has affected me in a way i dont think ive ever experienced before, and may never do again.
Im running out of time, but we are working with another church this week, which is a lot smaller, but our schedule is just as packed. It includes a visit to the killing fields on thursday, which i am not looking forward to.

I hope you are all doing well back in England! Let me know of any news!

So, until i find another internet cafe!! jon rhiab sur!

Luke

A WEDDING?!?...oo how exciting!

2006-07-04T19:36:00.000Z

Well, i have to start by apologise. Considering it was only 6 posts ago that alastair and vicky got engaged, my posting irregularity has finally become clear for all to see....oh well.

Saturday 24th June was the day, and i have to say it was an amazing day! The wedding was at 2pm, so we had a good chance to chill out and relax before we had to get ready. We were in a b&b about 15 mins away from the church and vicky's house (which are about 200m from each other) in a small place called Sion Mills near Strabane for those who know Northern Ireland. The surroundings are staggeringly beautiful! I was so surprised, i must admit i wasnt aware that it was such an amazing place.

I was best man, and Charlotte and Vicky's sister Catherine was bridesmaids. There was a large possy from imperial college as thats where they both went/go. The day started off with charlotte making her way to vicky's house for a hair appointment...at 7am!! hehe!!! whilst the rest of the house slspt on. Those remaining went and had a leisurly full english northern irish breakfast at the b&b where my nan, aunt, uncles and cousins were, which was nice. We then found a chemist as i was suffering terribly with hayfever, and could harldly talk.

When we were back at the b&b where our family was staying, al, mum and dad went for a walk while i went over and finished off my speech.

Then we got ready, and headed off in the car to the church...

The service was very cool!
When vicky and her enterage emerged, i was choked, they looked absolutely stunning, vicky and the bridesmaids too. Its quite weird being best man, i havent got a clue whats its like to be the groom in that position, so cool! One of their friends from imperial spoke on love (bit of a strange topic for a wedding, but there you go!) and he was excellent. we sang a few hymns. When it came to the vows they had memorised them, which was cool, so there was no repeating after the vicar. I had a scare of two with regards to the rings. What i was unaware of when i put them in my pocket, vicky's ring fit exactly inside alastairs it was that much smaller, so when i reached into my pocket, i could only feel one ring.....ARGHHHH!!! but all was ok... phew!

anyway, the rest of the day was amazing! I had so much fun! everyone else did too, there was such a great atmosphere the whole day, it was amazing!...so happy

so...here are some photos for you...

nan, dad and mum, al and vicky, and avril (vicky's mum)

Charlotte, Vicky and Catherine

catherine and me

Alastair and vicky ready to go to the reception

holidaying in northern ireland

2006-07-04T17:27:00.000Z

the view at 10:30 pm from our b&b....cool eh!

carrick-a-ride (rope bridge)

random rocks

charlotte looking very contemplative at giants causeway

giants causeway - my unc and aunt, john and christine, then stacy (cousins gf) then my cousin alan

a random deserted beach somewhere....me, and alan and gemma, my cousins

Worship?!

2006-05-04T18:03:00.000Z

Ahhh! procrastination, you gotta love it! hmm!

Anyway, i thought id take this time inbetween dinner and dessert to share some thoughts, or questions rather that ive been thinking about over the last few days in regards to contemporary worship, and mainly, the role of a 'worship leader'.

I guess a 'worship leader' is rather a new term, and role, starting out, i can only presume when a young guy....maybe called kendrick...picked up his guitar, complete with rainbow strap, and started to lead poeple in contemporary worship. It really has completely revolutionised the way and style in which we worship our God. Why the change? Before contemporary worship songs, there were hymns...good old classic hymns. I guess what i have been thinking about, is why the need for a worship leader. Christians seemed to get on well enough without one for quite a number of centuries, however now, it seems a necessity. I realise that with the nature of the songs we sing nowadays, we really need someone at the front guiding people in what to sing and when....but then should our songs be structured differently?

I think the problem i have, and the reason why i started to think about this, is that many worship leaders are becoming more of a celebrity in their status. This i feel detracts many people from their worship. The way that many worship leaders at youth events have to look cool, and have an amazing band blaring out the music, with all kinds of guitar solos and random effects, maybe to fit in with their contemporary counterparts? 'Worship leaders' doing gigs and tours to promote their latest albums, raking in royalties everytime a songs played on the radio etc.

I have no problem with christians, forming a band and playing christian music, doing tours, selling albums, etc....because they are a band, and i think music like that can encourage christians, and id far rather people listen to bands like delirious, switchfoot, electralyte etc than artists like maralyn manson and the like. Music is powerful...the lyrics should point people to God....however, there is something different if you are playing music with the aim to bring poeple into the presence of God....but then again, where do you draw the line between playing songs to worhip, and for entertainment. Can the same song be used for entertainment and worhip on different occations? Should the same song be used for both? (Sorry, im thinking out loud here)

I just feel that when you are coming into the presence of God to worship, nothing should distract....especially a person who should be leading people in worship? What is more important to us....music, sticking with the times, or worshipping our God. Should we sing hymns, with no worhsip leader, or big band, so as to make sure we dont take our focus off of God. I think that some of the old hymns have a lot more of a worship focus than many of the songs being churned out today.

I think another trap we can fall into with todays contemporary worhsip songs is seeking an experience from the atmosphere and music, than actually seeking God. Surely we can worhsip just as well with one simple keyboard, or whatever rather than a big band, however, i think even i would walk away from a meeting with limited music feeling as though i didnt have a proper worship experience..?!?! which is absurd!

I think we seldom realise what an amazing privilidge it is for us to come and worhsip God, and so often we walk into it with completely the wrong focus which is soo so so wrong! God should have our all!

I may be completely shooting myself in the foot here, as i love some of the comtemporary worship songs, played by big bands like hillsong's and i love leading worship too...absoluteley love it....and i think we can worship God by playing good music...but i really dont want to be doing something, and devoting myself to something that isnt what God wants...if you see what i mean. But then again i think one could say that if it was really wrong then God would have stopped it by now, esp with something as important as worhip, and that i wouldnt feel so at peace about leading. I just think its something that is soo important. Its a concept that is so new and is evolving so quickly...and i just dont like the look of where it is going.

Some wise person once said that there is no other area of service within the church where it is so easy to be doing serving for the wrong reasons than in a worship band (it was said slightly better than that..but i cant remember)

I think we always need to take some time out before worshipping corporately as a church, to check our focus, and to allign our minds on God.

Wow thats a long post...
Man, its almost time for breakfast now! let alone dessert! .....mmm.....biscuits!

im really sorry if all that makes no sense at all...ive just been thinking a lot about it, and i cant write like essays and stuff...i deal with numbers! not written arguments!

please let me know of your views...id love to know...as i said, its a time when i just need to weigh things up a bit, and come to a conclusion about what it actually it is i think....about anything!

in fact, i think it all comes down to a persons heart. And if these worhsip leaders doing tours etc can say with all their hearts before God that they are doing it out of worship for the right reasons, then thats cool....only God will know about their motives.

right!....back to fluid mechanics work!! right after my biscuits

luke

hello!!

2006-04-23T21:27:00.001Z

hey everyone!!

hope you are all well!!

just a flying post from me, as im actually rather tired! ill post something more hopefully a bit later this week!

I have just arrived back in manchester, and unpacked all my stuff from my easter break, which was really nice! IT was good to be home! I didnt quite get as much revision done as i had hoped, but there we go...such is life...ill get over it! I went to culford over the easter weekend, which was, as usual qulity!!! amazing food, teaching etc, there was such a nice atmosphere there this year, it was really really cool. I led prayer group B! Who rocked!! they were such a cool group to have! Led some worship there, which was also great fun! ITs great to look out and see poeple siging with a real passion. We did a crazy new 2 part crazy Micheal W Smith song called 'You are Holy (Prince of peace)' It was crazy, but an amazing song! If i get the time, ill post the words up.

....and in regards to culford, Peter...if you are reading this...you still have my fro comb!!

Ive got a busy few weeks, but in 6/ 1/2 weeks, ill be back again for the summer!! mad!

Errrm, what else to say...ooo, check out this site!... http://www.gmi.org/ow/index.html
Its a cool site based on a book called operation world. It basically has loads of information about hundreds of countries around the world, and it also has up to date prayer points to guide you in your prayers. Me writing this suggests that i use it really often, which, i must confess, sadly is not the case, but it is a really good resource, and i think we should be more international focussed in a prayers sometimes believeing that God can impact nations...which he blaightently can!

This summer, i am heading off to cambodia with a few others from my church. I think we're going to be working with teh street kids, and doing basic building etc. Should be great fun! WE are doing a half marathon to raise some funds, so if you would like to sposer me, that would be immense, and greatly appreciated, and you can do so by...hmm, ill have to think about how this is going to work....ill get back to you!

right, im really going to go to bed now!!

how is everyone back in essex and elsewhere?!

Take care everyone!!

Onions

2006-03-05T22:21:00.000Z

I hate peeling onions..my eyes cant cope, so...i came up with a solution :-)!
Happy days

The Breakfast club - Auditions!!

2006-02-16T15:29:00.000Z

That was the title of a poster i came accross the other day. I thought to myself...wow! i could do that...cant be that hard, what, couldnt be more than 2 full engish's and then 3 bowls of porridge, and maybe a few cups of tea to wash it all down nicely! It sounded like something i would really enjoy aswell....by this time, my hopes were well high! then i read on, and to my horror discovered it was th title of a big-brother style play...not impressed!

Quite a lot has happened this term really...loads of work, a lot of which i need to catch up on. I made the mistake of starting to watch 24. If you;ve never seen it, its amazing! but sooo addictive. There are 24 episodes, each episode is an hour in the day of a major event in the US. Sooooo good.

CU is going well, we had a mission week the other week which was really cool. An alpha course is starting tonight, and my flat mate is coming which should be cool. Im leading my hall group now, as our old leaders got asked to be on the main CU committee. We had a first meeting the other day, which seemed to go really well. We looked at Romans 8...quality chapter.

How are things back at elim and southend going?

I was home last weekend to meet vicky's family. It was a really nice weekend. The girls all went to lakeside to look at bridesmaid dresses. I went to lakeside too, but that was to get a cheese toasty maker :-) We went to town to get alastair a 70's outfit for a party he is going to in a few weeks. Got him some quality things...nice browny zebra type material for charlotte to make some flairs out of an old pair of jeans, and a nice partially see through ladies psychaldelic blouse for him to wear (hahahahahah!!!) and some nice glasses!! and whats best, is that i got pictures!! best man speech here we come!

IVe got a house sorted for next year..hopefully! Its a nice studenty house, and im going to be living with naomi, tim, scott and ralph, 4 poeple from cu. Should be cooool!!

Our kitchen has a mouse :s This is the university's answer of a ""mouse trap""

Thats not a mouse trap!!! Thats a box!!!!

Now, this is a mouse trap!....

Unfortunately, niether have returned results. But...i might add, my home made mouse trap was only up for about 3 days. Another try is called for...ki have the plans, i just need to get round to getting an empty coke bottle..hmm...i will catch the silly little thing!!

Anyway, how are things with everyone else?

Death is swallowed up in victory...We win!

2006-01-23T14:46:00.000Z

Father,

We so often cant understand why things happen the way they do, and for what reason, but we can be sure and certain that you do. In your infinite wisdom, we thankyou that you work for the good of those who love you, and we thankyou also, that Neil was such a person who loved you.

We thankyou for his faith in you, and the way that it shined through for all to see. We thankyou for his smile, and the way that he was just so happy and content with everything, even through the difficult last 2 years.

We want to thankyou for the privildge it was to share life with him, and for the hope we have that we will one day do the same again, but in a much better place.

We pray that you would be with Anna, Joel and Simon. Be their comforter, as they grieve, and support them during this time.

We praise you Father, for you are victorious;

Amen

christmas is here!

2005-12-13T22:19:00.000Z

woah! it seriously doesnt seem like 2 minutes ago i was complaining that the shops in the high street had christmas stuff out, when it was only late september! its not like a week and a half away from christmas day! how exciting!!

Im heading home this saturday courtesy of the luxurious megabus...hmm, ill get off at london victoria, and head off to alastairs flat, where we will both be picked up by mum and dad on sunday. I cant wait to be home. Im loving uni, and the poeple here are great, but im really ready for a break at home now i think. I will be able to catch up with freinds both from chelmsford, and southend.,,im sooo looking forward to paying the poeple at small groups a visit next tuesday. Ahh, its all gonna be fun! mums side of the family are coming round to ours this christmas, so that should be good too!

UNi has been good. the work seems to go in spates....wekk before last was as hektic as!! it was craaazzy, i had soo much work to hand in...this week just gone wasnt too bad, and this week isnt too bad either. Unfortunately, i have loads of coursework to do over christmas, and exams to revise for in january, so it wont all be fun and games,

CU is going well, we have just had a room open for prayer 24/7 this week which was cool. I will try and get some photos. people have written loads of stuff on paper on the walls, like verses that they feel are relavent for manchester, and we have world maps, and info about different countries, and their main prayer issues, its soo cool. There is a sign up sheet, and the idea is that there is at least one person in there all the time praying. Its such a good idea. As soon as you walk in the room, there is such a peace there, its incredible!

Charlotte came to visit last weekend, which was brilliant. We went to see narnia at the cinema on saturday. I would well reccomend it... i have so many memories from the classic 80's tv version, and i read gthe book before i went. Its such a cool story,,, well cheesy, but cool in a cheesy kind of way

Preparations for alastairs and vicky's wedding are working out, but not quite as planned...they have had to make a few adjustments, but it will all be fine for the big day! how exciting!!!

Anyway, as PL wanted to see a pic of the old fro, here is a pic from al and vicky;s engagement party!

[Charlotte, me, alastair, vicky, and catherine (vicky's sis)]

Alastair and Vicky Windus..(to be)

2005-11-22T16:25:00.000Z

YEAH MAN!! Alastair and vicky got engaged on saturday at the very romantic location of Paris! (oooooo alastair!)

how exciting is that?! Its sooo cool!!!

They are looking to get married this coming summer too! not long!

arhh!! how cooooool!

anyway, massive overuse of the exclamation mark, but its really exciting!! hehe

rain...oooh the rain!

2005-11-15T11:49:00.000Z

hello!

I thought it about time for an update!
Well, nothing particularly exciting has happened in the last few weeks that is really worthy of note! Uni life is continuing to be enjoyable, although can get a bit hectic at times. It seems to go in spurts, i will go for a week of having to do very little work, then the next week, i will have loads to do! its crazy. Fun though. I have just come out of a mechanics of solids multiple choice quiz. It seems funny to me to go from school, and a level exams, to go to uni, and end up doing multiple choice quizzes. The quiz does count towards my mark for this year however, and it was quite challenging, but i think i did ok!

Christian union is going really well. They are such a cool group of people there. I'm on the worship rota which should be fun...although i dont have a guitar..ill explain later!

I think i have made my mind up about a church, but im not 100% sure. I have done the rounds of most of the manchester church' sand have decided on SMCF..South Manchester Christian Fellowship.

I have been in regular contact with mum, dad and charlotte at home via skype, which is a cool programme!! if you havent got it, you definitely should! It means free calls to home from the comfort of my room.

There is only 4 weeks left in this semester!!! how weird is that. i am almost half way through my lectures for the first year of my degree...that is such a scary thought! I have exams in january which i will need to work hard for over christmas.

I have joined the table tennis society, and that is sooooo much fun!! Its surprisingly energetic, and thus a two hour seesion on a friday evening at the club constitutes for my weekly dose of sport. I simply havent ahd time to go running, and to be honest, even if i did, i really dont think i could be bothered! but i will try next semester...honest!

The story of my guitar, is one which is really getting quite frustrating. I sent my guitar into a cerain embarrasingly named southend music shop on june 20th....and after a lot of too-ing and fro-ing ...its still not repaired! They have had my guitar since i have been at uni. The overnight courier (which should have delivered the part just before i came to uni on the 16th sept, after i ordered it on the 15th)..is taking a very long time indeed. The piano in my halls of residence is nothing but shocking...even by my amateur standards. There are panels missing, and it is horribly out of tune, the keys actually come off, and some of the notes are muted. The lack of being able to play anything properly is actually killing me. I love our paino at home, and anyone who knows me will tell you just how much i used to play it. I cant describe what it is, but when i sit down and play, there is an amazing sense of release...the people surrounding me, being subjected to what can only be described as noise may not feel very released...but i do, so its all good :0) Not being able to play my guitar, is slightly less frustrating, but still, frustrating enough!! I have found myself taking regular trips to sound control and sampling their nice roland rd-700sx for extended periods of time during my lunchtimes. They dont seem to mind, no one else can really hear it. Music is a starnge and powerful thing...i just wish i could play properly, because sometimes i feel very limited in what i can play. There are soo many ridiculously talented people around here. How on earth can you have grade 8 in more 2 or more instruments at 18? thats just amazing!!

aaaanyway, i have rambled faar to long, and put off materials work long enough too!
thanks for reading!

luke

fro?

2005-11-03T23:28:00.000Z

well...shall i? its down to you lot! if by the bneginning of december, the overriding decision is a no, then i will cut it all off, and revert back to what i had before, if the decision is yes however, i will continue growing it until i feel like an absolute muppit....vote away! :-)
leave you comments if you want :-)

IM 19!! AHHHHHHH

2005-11-03T22:49:00.000Z

On the 28th of october, 1986, the world changed never to be the same again. Thats right people, you guessed it...KOB-AM in Albuquerque NM changed call letters to KKOB and KOB-TV in Albuquerque NM's final transmission!! It just so happened that on this momentus occation, i decided to say hello to the world, much to mums relief..... although having been told repeatedly how much i cried as a baby, and how much of a massive handful i was, im not entirely sure if the relief would have been entirely genuine..who knows! lol, but im here!

I had a bit of a party round my flat for some friends from cu, and some of their friends too....so here are some pictures! :-)
It was so much fun! we just chilled, put on a dvd, the classic jonny english, and generally had a bit of a laugh together! twas cooool

Slipper

2005-11-03T22:42:00.000Z

well, it appears i have a picture of every member of my immediate family, except the dog!...so, enter (stage right) slipper....mouth in yoghurt pot!

nothing comes into my dogs head when it comes to food. He will eat anything whatever the risk. So, here he is! He did infact start to lick teh excess yoghurt out of the pot, and got his mouth stuck inside heheheee
....The fact that dad left him long enough to get a camera and take a picure is quite amusing! Anyway, say hello to slipper everyone! :-)

al graduates!!!

2005-10-27T21:42:00.000Z

On Wednesday, alastair, my brother had his graduation ceremony at the royal albert hall! ooooooooo!! Here is one of the pictures of the day! From the left, Dad, alastair, nan, mum, and vicky (alastairs girlfriend)!

He has actually already started his post grad course...a Phd in maths! crazy...i dont understand it, but apparently its fun :-)

Oh my! how Luke has changed since last year!

2005-10-01T19:23:00.000Z

Well, no, i havent grown long hair, shrunk about 2 foot, and made it look convincingly like i can deal with running....charlotte took my place on the run this year!

They both did amazingly considering in the conditions...which werent ideal ruinning conditions!

Charlotte gave dad soo much more of a run for his money than i could have done!

Well done both of you! :-)

Food!!! hehehe!!

2005-10-01T19:20:00.000Z

Well, as you must understand, going out for a curry cant be done all the time, due to the restrictions of the old cash! however, i have been doing my fair share of cooking!! I hope your impressed!! Ill leave it at your discresion whether to use the picture as a prayer point or not :-)

two weeks already!!

2005-10-01T19:15:00.000Z

Well, hello again!

err, wehat to say! my week has been interesting....had my first lectures, some of which were ok, some of which were boring. WWe spent our maths lecture doing gcse level maths, which, not to discredit gcse level maths, for poeple who had to get an alevel in maths, it was a bit painful! THermo, and mechanics of solids lectures were cool. The last week, ive had no real work to do, as all teh lectures have been about introducing the course. During the evenings, lots has been going on. I had CU on wednesday which was coool. We got together in groups at the end according to our halls, so we knew who was in our cell group...i am in the amazing sarah connolly's group, so that should be fun...they seem like a wicked group, i am well excited about the coming year. We had a prayer meeting on friday for manchester, which was cool too.
Its amazing, ive just come chelmsford and from all God is, and has been doing there in the schools, and through love southend, which has been beyond exciting, and to be thrown into a group of people who have the same passion to see God impact Manchester too is just incrtedible!
Yesterday we went out to take a trip down curry mile for my housemate, Pei Lein's birthday. We ended up in Lal Quila. It was so nice to go out as a flat. Unfortunately James and Pete couldnt make it, but it was still fun. That is where the photo was taken....(Left to right) Pei Lein, Lucy, Mei, Chris, Me, Constance.

Ive got some more photos to come!

Thanks for reading my blog!!

Manchester!!!!

2005-09-23T19:25:00.000Z

hey all.

Well, i am coming to the end of my freshers week experience! Manchester is coooool man, loads of things to do here!
I arrived on saturday after a loong journey, said goodbye to charlotte and dad (who were on there way to the great north run), then bagan the exciting task of unpacking my stuff...oh what joy. My room, for the risk of sounding negative, is....cosy, but cool. I have enough space for everything, so i cant complain! I am in a flat of 8 poeple all of which seem really nice people. Some are around a lot of the time, and some i hardly see. THe week has just been getting to know poeple really. During the day i have been having all the boring safety talks, etc etc at uni, and during the evening is all teh socialising. ON the first night we were talking to some people from a flat down teh way from us, and i noticed one of the girls there had a wwjd bracelet on, so we got talking, and the next day, we both went to south manchester christian fellowship church, which was an amazing church!! (saw a friend form southend there! how random!) The CU poeple seem really coool! we went out for a drink the otehr night, then had a pub quiz on wednesday which was cool! Cell groups officially start up next week i think, so thats exciting
I was meant to meet my personal tutor yesterday, but he didnt turn up....hmm!! Today i walked all the way into uni, only to find out that what they wrote in the programme wasnt correct, and that it was only for civil engineers, not mechanical, so i wandered into town...very big, and veeery daunting, but i found the wesley owen shop, so i was happy, then had the three mile walk home! Thats another thing! walking,m i dont think i have ever done so much of it in my life!!! the busses are there, and i have a pass, but in the mornings, and mid afternoons onwards they are craaazy, and it almost ends up being quicker walking, so i do! I get to walk past curry mile on my way in, which is cool. Unfortunately my flat, and my lecture rooms are the furthest they could possibly be from each otehr whilst still being affiliated with manchester uni....which is a bit annoying!!

On saturday we have a cu day in teh park, which should be fun, then sunday, i think i will go to a different church, not sure which one yet, then from monday, lectures start!! which is kinda good, cos i am ready to get into a bit of a routine now me thinks!

Anyway, i am off out soon, so i will leave it at that!

thanks so much for all of your prayers...you rock!

evenin'

2005-08-20T18:07:00.000Z

hello everyone!

sorry i havent blogged in a while, theres quite a lot to say, so i will keep it as concise as possibe! :0)

A-level results were cool, and i have my place at manchester, so im really pleased about that! Well done to everyone else as well!

About 4 weeks ago, i was involved in a mission week in southend called "love southend". Basically it was just like a smaller version of festival manchester, or soul in the city. If you dont know what they are either, it was a week designed to actually get all of the christian young poeple (and older too) out onto teh streets to show people that there is a better way to live. The way we did this, was to get out, and start to clear up areas of southend that are a bit grotty and horrible. We all had the same t-shirts on, and as there was about 150 of us all, poeple started to notice us about in lots of areas around southend, and this raised questions. All week we were trying to chat to as many people as possible inviting them to a finale beach bash event on the sea-front, where the gospel message was shared, and the whole week was an amazing success. Ufotunately i couldnt be there for the beach bash as i had to go to a camp, but i am told that it stopped raining at 2:59, a minute beofre it was due to start, and began raining agon at 7:01, a minute after it had finished!! how cool is that! Praise God. I thought that the entire week was just brilliant, for southend, yes, but also for us as delegates. It is so important for us as christians to actually get our there, and live with the passion that we sing of...yeh, it was hard work, but so what, hopefully, through it people came to know Christ, and to be honest, thats all that matters.

Straight after love southend, i went to Ipswich, for Essex Christian Boys Camp. That was a laugh!!! It was soo tiring, but cool. I was a tent leaderalong with a friend of mine called dave, looking after 6 boys aged 10-11. The days were packed with activities, meal times, worship and teaching sessions, and tent quiet times, and lots more. Everyday was just go go go, but it was worth it. A lot of the boys were from difficult backgrounds, but hopefully, the seeds were sown in their hearts. It was a cool week, but i have to say, after two solid weeks of living ot of a suitcase, and not getting a whole lot of sleep, i was reasy to come home!

Oh well, i think thats me done! If you are around in next, on saturdays from 12 - 4, then come and pay me a visit in menswear, and no doubt i will try and sell you some shoes :-)

lackage of postage - sorry

2005-07-30T08:19:00.000Z

hello!! sorry for not posting in a while, life has been a bot manic atm!!
just spent a week doing a mission in southend...soounds a bit weird, but it was soo cool! basically about 200 poeple, under the banner of "love southend" went out onto the streets for a week doing similar stuff to soul in the city, or festival manchester. We have been invitig people to come to the finale beach bash today on the seafront....please please please pray if you get this email before the day is out!
I am unfortunately not gonna be tehre for the beach bash as im off to essex christian camps this morning, which should also be fun...except for the fact, im absolutely shattered! im co leading a group of 10 and 11 year olds for the next week, and i think its gonna be a tad tough, so prayer for that would also be much appreciated. Sorry for the quick post, but i really need to make a move soon. I will post more about both events, and my trip to colchester zoo when i get back at teh end of this coming week..........i promise!!

Exams are over!!!!

2005-07-05T11:28:00.000Z

thats it! no more exams, or revision or work for me ever ever ever again!! hahaha! well, until october that is.
Exams went ook...a couple of them could have been better, especially the last one, but i dont care anymore, they are over, and theres nothing more i can do..the outcome of them is in Gods hands.

Wimbledon was quite cool! glad federer won, he deserved it...he's such an incredible player. I think he is the only person i have ever watched play who can make you go "wooooah!! how the hec did he do that!" at least every 5 minutes. Roddick by no means played badly, but still lost in straight sets..that speaks for itself!

I went to my leavers ball on sunday with rachel which was great fun. Mum was out, so before i went i had to iron my shirt myself!! are you impressed?? i was!!
We got on a coach at my school, which took us to westminster peir where we got on a boat on teh thames. We had a nice sit down 3 course meal, then chilled on the deck above. Was cool seeing the sites of london from the thames, especially when it got dark. There was a brilliant crowd of people there, and everyone had a great time! Here are some of the pictures i took, or had taken:

2005-07-05T11:27:00.000Z

back at westminster peir at 11:55 ready to head back to southend
atl

2005-07-05T11:26:00.000Z

ahh, tower bridge!
atl

2005-07-05T11:25:00.000Z

bianca, dan, adam, (?), (?), and mark
atl

2005-07-05T11:23:00.000Z

me, rachel, ashley, andy, and rich
atl

2005-07-05T11:12:00.000Z

London by night (from teh thames)
atl

2005-07-05T11:11:00.000Z

THE MATHS CREW!!!! front row, then back, left to right....rob, george (maths captain), mike, tom, steve, and me
atl

2005-07-05T11:09:00.000Z

carly and rachel
atl

2005-07-05T11:07:00.000Z

the table down from us....i have a feeling sooomeone is avoiding the photo
atl

2005-07-05T11:06:00.000Z

me and rachel on the boat, just before dinner
atl

2005-06-16T11:12:00.000Z

Here it is!! the long awaited for picture of JELLY MOUNTAIN at kids kingdom!! (re. a few posts back!) man, its soo cool!
atl

woooo...well in a posting mood!!! - new music

2005-06-12T21:31:00.000Z

just making up for my lack of postage...

i have been listening to the david crowder band....absolutely amazing!!

they are quite uniqe but the words of the songs are soo cool, and its one of those albums that if you listen to it really loudly, u can hear all kinds of subtle crazy things in the background, its cool. Really well produced. I would reccomend it to anyone!

theres so much music i wanna get, but it all gets quite expensive!!

Chris tomlins new album
Swichfoot
Toby mac - Diverse city
Coldplay X & Y
Delirious's new one, when it comes out
Sanctus real

man, why is music so expensive!!!!

oh well, thats definitely me out for the day!

have a good week everyone

ok...so im in a posting mood...2 in one day

2005-06-12T21:04:00.000Z

my sister has been away for two weeks in california on holiday. someones got to go there i suppose. she went to vegas, hollywood, yosemity national park. to be honest, i think its a bit of a second rate holiday....this summer, i 'm going to Ipswich! check that out!!! rock on! :-)
Its good she got away, and had a decent break, she hasnt had one for a while, sound slike she had a great time too. Its great seeing the photos! Its good to have her back though.

Today, i was down the church. I finally got round to taking a look at the studio. We will be recording again soon. I got it all working, thank heavens. lots of problems encountered on the way though. Still have a bit to go to get it in complete working order. For those who this means anything too...we are running a pc, with an m-audio delta 66 sound card, with cubase sx, and a behringer mixer, with some cool krk powered monitors. Its gonna be great fun. I love recording stuff.

ok, i think thats about it today....see ya

ive been tagged!!

2005-06-12T20:46:00.000Z

well, it caught up with me, and ive been tagged, apparently quite a whil ago, but what with many many hours slogging away in my books, never seeing the light of day, i just havent got round to it. In fact, im lying, i havent been working that hard, but i realy havent got orund to blogging. anyway!! enough of that, here are the 10 things i most love:

1) Knowing 100% that God's grace has found me just as i am, empty handed but alive in His hands

2) i love my family and friends. Never take for granted those around you. You have all been amazing!

3) i love music. I have it all around me, and its great. I love listening to my cd's, and i love playing. Its great when you can just sit at a piano, and let go. Express yourself through your playing (whatever that really means...i cant really explain it.) Its just so relaxing. Then, just screaming out some crazy tunes on a guitar, truely great!

4) i love reading a book that really inspires you, and spurrs you on.

5) I love the feeling when you are really worrying about something, then you just remember, its in the control of someone who is higher than you.

6) i love summer

7) i love the feeling of knowing io never have to go to school for lessons again.

8) i love worshipping, and leading worship

9) i love food.

10) did i mention i love music....oooo yeh!!

maths!

2005-05-23T19:20:00.000Z

Two things to comment on today...firstly:
This morning, i started my alevls with 3 hours of mathematical bliss. A P3 paper, and a P1 paper, for those who that means anything to. Actually, it wasnt bliss, i would have rather spent the morning in bed....or in fact swimming in the arctic with crazy (cold resistant) luke eating pirhannas. It was the hardest maths exam i have ever sat, i had done a fair amount of preparation for it, but still, wasnt expecting that. Harder than any of the past papers i had done. Oh well, its over now. I have a physics practical on wednesday, and a chemistry practical in thursday.....now they will be fun!!! :S

The second thing concerns me somewhat. The other day, amongst the mass of ginerness, i found a hair, that wasnt quite fitting in with the other....do you know why....IT WAS GREY!! im only 18, and im going grey!!! this is not good! Those of you who know my dad know that he has a distinct lack of hair! hehe, lol....well, i have always had thick hair, so i presumed i was safe from that, but going grey at 18!! i had never even thought of that. I must admit, it did leave me in an amount of shock, which i am still recovering from. Oh well, ill hope its a bit of a freak hair, never to be seen again.

have a good week all.

Kids Kingdom!!!

2005-05-09T21:42:00.000Z

It was my friends 18th birthday on sunday, and for her party, she hired out kids kingdom in southend!! oh my life, how much fun!! There was about 35 of us in total, and it rocked!
They have this thing called jelly mountain, which is like a bouncycastle type pyramid thing, and its surrounded by a large ball pool mote. once you get up to the top of jelly mountain, it was absolute carnage with the amount of people we had!! the aim (well, with us lot, it was) was to survive for the longest on top of jelly mountain, people were getting lobbed off, it was great! Its basically like fun house, but less safe, and more fun! (if anyone ever watched that program?)

absolutely amazing!

anyway..happy birthday rachel!

i suppose its time for a new post!

2005-04-15T07:00:00.000Z

isnt it funny, how when you are meant to be revising, even the most horrible of tasks seem soooo fun!!
I mean....picture this...u set aside a day for revision. It feels good, because you know its something that needs to be done, and at the end of it, you'll be more prepared for the inevitable exams! that is good! However....the day of revision comes...it doesnt feel so good after all, and you need something else to do. Something that involves paper, as paper makes you feel like you are doing some constructive work...so i completely organise and file all of my music files, and all the lose bits of paper in my room! what a day!

Having said all of that, i have got quite a fair bit of revision done this holiday, so all is good! :-)

CULFORD!!
Culford, just to very quickly explain...is a weekend away for the young people in essex, held in culford boarding school in bury st. edmunds over the easter weekend. This year was soo cool. There was such a sense of community there, it was great getting to know so many poeple. The worship and teaching was brilliant, and it all fit together really well. What an amaizng weekend. Although i did sprain my ancle! doh!

CU
Cu at the mo, is going fantastically. We had thanks from one of the teachers for the way some of the kids in his form had completely turned around since they started coming to CU. We had given them a bible, and they cant put it down..how amazing is that!! We have seen it time and time again throughout the last 3 or 4 months. God has just moved in incredible ways, in the most unlikely people. Was I prepared for it? no, i dont think so, but God moved anyway. Praise God, we have seen about 15 poeple come into a relationship with him during this last year!! How cooool!!!!

I cant think of anything more to write, but i know there is tons of stuff i had thought of during the week, but i am tired, and startying to ramble, so i will end it there!
Take it easy Everyone!!

ooooooooo, theres one other exciting piece of news...i got my final reply from my last uni application, and i have decided on manchester, to do mechanical engineering! Right, thast it!

Byee

well, i suppose its time for a post!

2005-04-14T22:31:00.000Z

w-w-w-worship

2005-03-19T13:46:00.000Z

just thought id let you know of some cool worship websites that over the years i have found helpful, and one that i found yday! Some are centered on those who are part of a worship band, but most have articles on worship in general, which are really quite cool

www.heartofworship.com (shutting down at the end of the month so hurry!)

www.passionforyourname.com

www.worshiptogether.com

www.pwarchive.com (all the music and lyrics you need!!)

www.insideworship.com

anymore, please feel free to add. Or indeed any websites that have helped you at anytime in your walk with God.

hello everyone

2005-03-15T17:43:00.000Z

hi all!

Sorry i havent updated in a while, ive been a bit busy/ill.

On sunday night, the youth band led worship in main church which was fun! It was my first time leading in main church, which was a bit weird. I thought the band did really well though. We started with small groups about a year and a hlaf ago, and have been doing alternate tuedsays, and the difference from then to now is immense! well fun. Weve been asked to lead again on the first sunday in may, in the evening.

On monday i was really not feeling too good. All day, the only thing i ate was an apple and about 3 grapes. For anyone who knows me, that really is a sign that something isnt right! Well, i was chucking up all morning, and was sleeping most of the afternoon, so it wasnt really that fun unfortunately! Im feeling a little better today, have been able to get a few things done, and have eaten something, but i have had to cancel my interview at imperial tomorrow. Its been rescheduled for next wednesday though! I get to go and see my bro and his g/f, which will be trés cool!

I think ill leave it at that today!

Speak to you all soon!!

Breaking news!!!!

2005-03-04T06:23:00.000Z

naaa, not really, i just thought id get your attention!! hehe!

errm, well, in all honesty, not a lot has been going on!

I recieved the accomodation application from manchester uni last week, did a bit of research thanks to sarah, and my cousin, and i have applied for a place called oak house, which seems really cool! And even more amazingly cool, i will be in sarahs cell! there'll be someone i know!!
Its all getting exciting now! I ve only got like 10 weeks of school left!! i did a bit of a revision plan last night for how im gonna use my last few weeks at school (shock horror! i know, this is luke being organised!) with last years exams i was a bit unorganised, and i need to be ready for these ones, seeing as these are the realy important ones.

CU has been going cool. We are currnetly running a "going deeper" course for the really interested people. This lasts 5 weeks, and at the end, we wanna give the committed ones the bibles we got from the school. We had our first one yday, and it didnt go quite as i thought it would. It was gatecrashed by lots of poeple wanting to get into the warm, so this made it a bit disruptive, and it was difficult to keep it really flowing, as i didnt know really who to aim it at. God has a plan though, and he is in control, so we just have to trust him!
We have an evangelist called tony anthony coming to speak to us on 24th march, so hopefully we'll see some responses to that. He has written a book called taming the tiger, and he's got an amazing story. a world kung fu champ!! how cool!!

Its culford weekend away soon, so im well excited about that. If you dont know what it is, its run by an organisation called ECYA, and its just a gathering of chirtsina young people from accross essex, who come to worship, learn, pray and generally get closer to God, and to each other. Its an amzing time, and im sooo excited!!

So that concludes my news!

Im rather dissappointed with the sky's poor effort at some snow. It been cool when its actually snowing, but it hasnt really settled atr all. Its been more like wet snow, which turns to mush, and you end up using the entire contents of your wind screen washer in one journey. Luckily, the roads havent been too bad, a lil bit icy last friday evening, but other than that, just wet!

ooo, and one other thing....i need some advice :-) about my hair. Im definitely keeping up the whole ginger thing, but i want a new hair style. Any suggestion as to what i should do with my hair would be greatly appreciated! Ive had the same thing for about 15 years, and im bored!! Not being a majorly fashion concious person, and having never stepped inside a barbers b4, i dont have the first idea! (yes, it has either been my mum, or me with some hair clippers at home :p )

mmm, sweets

2005-02-18T06:13:00.000Z

hello all!

I have tatsed a new kind of sweet, and its very nice!

Two good friends of mine have just returned form a 5 month mission trip from india, and they came bearing gifts....of nestle milkybar eclaires to be exact!

They were lush! I love it when you get to teh point that you can just gently bite into them, and you squish all teh chocolate out from the middle, its great!

knowing my luck, now ive said all of this, they have probably been out in England for aaaages, but oh well!

Seee yaz

Luke

morning person?!

2005-02-08T04:36:00.000Z

hello!

How is everybody?

Its been a while since my last post, i like to keep people in suspense...or i jsut dont get round to posting, one of the two!

Today at cu, we had another person committ their lives to God, another one adding to the 5 last week. God is moving, and to say the least, its exciting, but at the same time, without wanting to sound overtly super spiritual, we have been feeling attacks form the devil, who, im sure is a bit miffed with the latest additions to Gods kingdom. These attacks, both collectively, and individually. I read about Jesus' temptation in the desert yesterday, amazing story, and something which i hope to write a post about in the near future.

Afew weeks ago, dad got out his telescope...absoltely breath taking! It was the clearest night i have seen in a very very long time, and through the telescope you could see detail in teh night sky i have only seen in pictures. I saw the ring of saturn, many clusters of stars that just look like a blurr to the naked eye. And the moon was astonishing. It brought new meaning to the line "Our God is an awesome God!" He truley is!

Relating to the title of my post, i am really not a morning person, but today, the sunrise was amazing. I was driving to school, and going along the a130, you could see the mopst amazing colours. The sun seemed bigger than usual, and it was a deep orange. It was also quite foggy, so the entire sky was just an orange glow. You could see the tops of the trees out of the fog, and it was a real crisp feel to teh morning. I am usually quite dead in teh morning, and really not interested in anything, but today, it was just like Gods way of saying..."good morning luke!" something that was really hard to miss. There is so much ugliness to this world, on the news, peoples attitudes during the day etc etc, it was just nice to see something so pure and so beautiful, a reflection of a beuatful God. Well i muist say, that last paragraph was not a luke kind of paragraph, oh well, theres a first for everything!

Have a good week everybody!

Luke

if microsoft made cars....

2005-01-26T18:52:00.000Z

Occasionally, for no apparent reason:

Your car would just die on the motorway for no reason and you'd have to restart it.
Executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine.
Your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in, until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
For some strange reason, you'd just accept #1, #2 and #3.

Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car. Whenever you bought a new car, you would have to reorganize the ignition for a few days, before it worked. And, whenever they introduced a new model, you would have to learn how to drive all over again, because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive, but it would only run on 5% of the roads ... but, the Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars, which would make their cars go much slower.

People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.

But, there would be some unique features:

The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single General Car Fault warning light.
The airbag system would say "Are you sure?", before going off.
There would be an Engium Pro with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes -- unless, of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a Car 95 or a Car NT. But then you'd have to buy more seats ... and new seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.

We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids, but the packaging would be superb.

If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.

Microsoft wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design, so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.

Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!

If you still ran old versions of Car (i.e. CarDOS 6.22 / CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old-fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!

You would need to by an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other ... But, if you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friend's and then copy it.

All car buyers would be required to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a Microsoft subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more.
And, best of all ...

You'd press the "Start" button to shut off the engine.

Amazing!!

2005-01-18T12:28:00.000Z

Well, not quite...i had something absolutely amazing that iw as going to write, but i actually cant remember what it was, which to em suggests that it wasnt so amazing after all! oh well.

Life in the lovely land of luke is ok atm, plodding along as usual. Went for a chinese on saturday, it was the birthday of my good friend dave. Before i left fop this all you can eat chinese buffet, i found out that my sister was cooking a curry!...well, u can never say no to that!, so much to my delight, i ended up haveing a curry, and two very large portions of chinese food in the space of about 3 hours. It rocked....and added to that, we got free ice cream!!!.

I had my last resit exam today, hopefully i have got a few more ucas points to add to my list, ill find out on 17th march or something. I did statistics AS level exam on friday, im so glad i never have to do it again! its a great feeling.

Deep impact was cool on sunday, my good friend lawrence did the worship, and it was cool, there was a real sense of Gods presence there. It was cool

I really cant write a post on my blog without at least mentioning CU once :0) We decided as a leadership, that we would like to have some bibles to give out to people. This seemed like quite a tall order, so we decided to start with marks gospel, and with the help of church, we ordered 50 copies. We have given out most of them, which is cool. Well, just as a laugh, we decided to ask the school to pay for 25 bibles so we could give them out to people free....this is the school with absolutely no funds at all. We had no heating for the entire winter a last year....it took them over a year to finish fixing it! Well, the school treasurer aggreed to pay for all 35 free NCV youth bibles for us to use!! wooo!! how cool!

ooo, and another thing, the youth will be leading worship on the 13th march in the evening service!! so come along!! should be good fun!

Seeee you all later!!!

Luke

Merry Christmas, and a Happy new year everyone!!

2004-12-24T20:11:00.000Z

Hope you all have a great break too! :-)

What a week!!

2004-12-18T01:45:00.000Z

ooo, well..

Monday - bleh
Tueday - We had small groups, which was a bit of a laugh
Wednesday - i had an interview at southampton, got an offer, which is cool, but i was feeling so rough. We had to leave at 6:30, and i had a well bad sore throat, and that just developed over the day, and by the end, i was totally energyless
Thursday, i was off sick, which in some ways was good, because i got to have a rest, but i did miss Christian Union.....doh, because we had about 25.
Friday, i had another day off, because i was again, feeling pretty rough, and i had to continue going though the Lord of the rings trilogy....but again, i missed CU!! pretty annoying, seeing as we had 40...yes, that woudl be a 4, then a 0....FORTY!!!!

O H M Y L I F E!!!

How cool is that. God is sooo amazing! We are seriously thinking of wither moving to a bigger room, possiby the conference room, or holding multiple CU's during the week. I have only just been told about the 40, so i am still a litlle overwhelmed, but there we go. Still needs loads more prayer..we wanna hit 80!! rock on!

right, thats me signing out, need my rest, im still not feeling very well, and im off to see delirious at shepherd bush tomorrow! need all the rest i can get

Catch ya laterz

oh the silence!

2004-12-05T02:00:00.000Z

howdy all!

i have just got back from an optitions appt at boots...lovely people! and i need some more glasses, so thats all fantastic fun. I have slowly begun to relaise that i cant see, and as much as this livens up the whole driving experience, i guess it would help if i could see something past the bonnet! (slight exaggeration) (in fact, immense exageration)

anyhooo...
i had an interview at mancheter, got a conditional offer, so thats all good. Manchester is currently sitting in my number one choice of unis at the mo, so thats all good. I am re-visiting southampton in 2 weeks time with dad.

Christian union at school is going well. We had 20 people on friday, many of whom are non chritians...even better! They want us to try and get some free bibles to give out, so we re working on that at the momen, but its looking hopeful. We are also trying to orgainse another "urban outreach" prayer event in the new year, which is also good! Prayer is powerful!

Errrrm, anything else to report on....i dont think so so i will love you and leave you!

For those in chelmsford, dont forget that ECYA Sorted is on at tile kiln chapel next saturday (11th dec) at 7:30....elimites need to meet at elim at 5:50 though in order to get lifts off of me and lisa who need to be tehre early for the practice. :-)

Ladies and Gentlemen....

2004-10-27T16:20:00.000Z

I am pleased to say that whilst in manchester, i had my first experience of a subway foot long. Oh my dayz! How amazing. It was actually so good, i bought two! one for lunch, and one for dinner. I had an italien baguette, with cheese, loads of ham, lettuice, some cumber, tomatoes, , oh it was sooo good. Quite expensive, but ill aggree with anna, that it was indeed worth every penny!
So that was my highlight of visiting mancherster.....lol, only joking!
Manchester was great. I went to visit my good friends matt and anna on Ened Harpurhey, and also to visit the uni, and get a feel for the place, as manc is one of the unis ive appled to. I well enjoyed my few days, did lots and lots. I Visited the town centre...huuuuge, went around the uni, went to "space" at the apollo, which is like a more outreachy version of no-compromise, and i saw STEVE...YEAH!!, thebandwithnoname, blush, and the tribe.
So the weekend was fantastic!
The only downer was the journey there and back. I got a cheap ticket on megabus.com, and i left at 8:30 in the morning from chelmsford, and arrived in manchester t 4:30pm.....and on the way back, left manc at 3:45pm, and arrived back in chelmsford at 11:00pm...What a nightmare...my back was killing me! On the way there, i did have a cool convo with a muslim about Jesus, and the bible, which was cool. On the way back, there was some annoying kids playing with their phones and teh ringtones the entire way, it did my head in!

Anyway! Im 18 on thursday! woo

2004-10-04T21:15:00.000Z

me and pa! :-) similar to last years one!! scroll down right to the bottom of the page to see that
atl

2004-10-04T21:14:00.000Z

the great north run crew from elim!
atl

What an eventful week

2004-09-28T02:41:00.000Z

hello!!

ive had a craaazy week.

On wednesday, i was down in southampton, for a uni open day. Well nice place.
On sunday, i was up in newcastle for teh great north run!

Well....the great North run.
We travelled 13 miles to run a 285 mile race. Or was it the other way round....i cant remember, but it was good fun. I am in lots of pain though.
I am proud to announce that i did in fact cross the line ahead of my dad. Granted...it was the start line, but you cant win them all. Dad did in fact beat me by 10 minutes, so well done him. You know, i am not usually one for excuses, but i did in fact have an injured knee which stopped me training for two weeks before the run, but excuses wont surfice. Theres always next year :-)

So, i did the whole thing in 2 hours and 15 minutes, so i am very pleased. It was a fantastic day, but very tiring. I hit the ever famous so called 'brick wall' at about 7 miles (which i where i felt the lack of training) so i ad to stop and walk for about 200m, and then i started back running, and this set off a "walk 200m, run 1 mile" pattern until the last few miles when the crowd support was too great for me to walk.
I have two huuuuuuge blisters on my feet, so im gonna wait until the good old january sales to buy a new pair of running shoes.

It was brilliant meeting up with everybody from elim at the end. Well done to all the other elimites....alan, neil, andrew, anna, and dad.
I saw Luke wordley in the 'dentaid' tent at the end. They had about 50 runners supporting dentaid, which was cool. They both should be in chelmsford at Christmas time, which is cool!!

Well, i have a rough figure of about £200 raised for hand in hand, which is good. Thankyou to everyone who sponsered me. Any donations anybody else wishes to make, let me know, and i will include it all together. :-)

See yaz laterz

it been a while...

2004-09-18T23:11:00.000Z

hello again. its been a while since the last post of some subastance, but i havent really had anything amazing to say, but now i do!!!

Well, this week hasnt been too bad at all, in fact ive quite enjoyed it!

On monday, well, that was just school. I unfortunately injured my knee on the sunday whilst doing a training run, and it was a bit painful to walk on, so i was trying to rest that as much as possible in prep for the great north run next sunday. (last min sponsers, let me know!!)

Tuesday was an average day at school, but then, i went round a friends house for dinner, which was great fun! really enjoyed myself.

Wednesday i was sorting out my UCAS application stuff. great fun!! I have put down on my list:
- Imperial
- Southampton
- Manchester
- Bristol
- UCL
- Loughbrough
All to do Mechanical Engineering.

Thursday - Average..General Studies all afternoon :-(

Friday...i had maths first thing, then i was free for the rest of the day, so i went top town with a few friends, and then went back to the Pitcher household for dinner! v. cool. Then i went to Cell group in southend, then came home

Saturday - overslept, so now i dont feel so good, but ive been up for about 4 hours and done absolutely nothing.

So there is my week so far

Faith

2004-09-11T20:26:00.000Z

"In hope, against all human hope,
Self-desparate I believe...

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to that alone;
Laughs at impossibilities
And cries: It shall be done!"

Charles Wesley

what a quality...(err)..thing!

2004-09-01T16:24:00.000Z

me and my nan...if i took one step back, i would have been swimming
atl

2004-09-01T15:48:00.000Z

my mum, nan and i went to heybridge basin for the afternoon, and here are some pictures for you!
atl

2004-08-27T20:24:00.000Z

the entire crowd from elim!
atl

2004-08-27T13:25:00.000Z

the soul survivor crew!!!
atl

Soul Survivor

2004-08-23T21:43:00.000Z

I find it amazing, that you go to these big events, and out of 10,000 people, you can see soo many poeple you know!

I saw laods, Ryan, and chris who i hadnt seen in aaages, sarah in uno!, people form southend, sam from faith camp, poeple who i met at F:M from high wycombe there were looooads! it was really cool.

At ss, God really confirmed what i felt he was saying to me at faith camp. That it isnt about what goes on at these events, its not what happens at church, but its about what goes on from monday to friday, for me, thats at school. Unfortunately, i didnt get to go to Soul in the City, but i did festival manchester, and i remeber getting really excited that this was my chance to do a mission trip, my first opportunity to serve God through misssion, but in reality, my school is my mission field every day of my life, and so much needs to be done there. Many of my friends do not know God, and that saddens my heart. I had always been flippant about it, but i went up to respond during one of the evenings at momentum, and asked God to brek my heart with the things which break his. All i could think about was my school, and all the people there who are broken, lost, and need to know God's helaing power and touch. This next year is my last at my school, and i dont want to leave regretting that i didnt do anything of significance about my faith. Over the last year, as a Christian Union, we have seen so many amazing things happen. The hardest year eleven kids almost on the verge of tears as they began to see a God who was interested in them..... A sinical non christian kid in my year get healed of a serious heart condition....i could tell soo much more, but i really felt God put it on my heart that that is nothing compared to what he is gonna do this coming year.

I have just read a book about Peter and his water walking experience. And i have begun to realise that if i say in faith..."Lord if it is you then command me to come", and if i step out of my comfortable little boat, and look into his eyes, he will take me on the biggest, most exciting water walking adventure of my life.

I cant wait

2004-08-23T13:25:00.000Z

matt, lisa aaaaand Ryan
atl

2004-08-23T13:17:00.000Z

soul survivor.....what a great week. this is the momentum croud (well 6 of us). Momentum was really really good. The teaching was deep and challenging, and there was really something special about the worship.
atl

Joshua and Caleb

2004-08-12T23:43:00.000Z

I was challenged a bit today while reaidng a passage in Numbers (13:1 - 14:9)

God told Moses to send soem people out to explore the land of Canaan which the Lord had promised the Israelites. So thats exactly what Moses did. He sent out one representative from each of teh 12 tribes of Israel, andthose 12 included Joshua and Caleb.

The 12 all went out and did their exploring, taking note of the food, cities, defences and people of Canaan. When they came back, the majority told moses what they found...(13:28) "The people who live there are strong. Their cities are walled and very large". The same people later on, in verse 32 said "The land that we explored is too large to conquer. All teh people we saw are very tall.......We felt like grasshoppers, and we looked like grasshoppers to them"

Caleb on eth otherhand seemed to get a differnt picture. He siad, in verse 30 : "We should certainly go up and take the land for ourselves. We can certainly do it"

(At this point, Joshua hasnt said anything, but going on later verses, we can presume he was of a similar mind to Caleb)

So what was the difference between Caleb (and Joshua) and the other 10 people??
Did they go to different parts and see differnt things? Was Caleb in a bit of a Kamikazee mood that day? Was Caleb daydreaming when everyone else saw these mighty men of Canaan.....NO! The majority of the men saw the people of Canaan through Human eyes. Caleb and Joshua saw the enemy through God's eyes.

When we see situations through our own eyes, they seem impossible, but what we so often forget is that we serve a God who is above the impossible. A God who sees nothing as impossible. Caleb and Joshua knew exactly what kind of a God they served, and they know that the enemy they faced was nothing compared to the Almighty One....a truth that the others hadnt yet cottoned on to.

In numbers 14:9, both Joshua and Caleb say: "Don't turn against the Lord! Dont be afraid of the people in that land! We will chew them up. They have no protection, but the Lord is with us. So dont be afriad of them."

In our own situations, for me, it happens to be school, we can either walk in, seeing our mission to share the gospel as an impossible task in amongst so many giants, and so much oppostion, or we can run into the situation knowing that God is on our side, and that to those who believe, nothing is impossible, and that He will be with us!

Peter, when Jesus commaned Him to step out of the boat knew that in normal everyday circumstances, he would sink, but when was a day with Jesus ever a normal everyday circumstance. He knew the power of his maker, and he took the step of faith, and did something that many of us can only dream about.

Instead of tellig God how big the mountain is....try telling the mountain how big your God is

2004-08-10T13:26:00.000Z

last year, my dad and I, along with 40,000 others ran 13.1 miles through the streets of south shields in newcastle, participating in the great north run. Im doing it again this year for a charity based in Essex called Hand in Hand. They raise money to help children in Kenya and Brazil who have very little. Both my brother and sister went out there in 2001 to a Hand in Hand project in Dagoretti in Kenya. If you would like to sponser me to run the half marathon, please let me know, whatever you can give can make a massive difference. Thankyou
atl

Today

2004-08-10T06:10:00.000Z

hello all!

my day today. hmm, i got up at about 10:30, moseyed about for a bit, had breakfast...followed closely by lunch, and then an after lunch snack. I then went upstairs, and read for a bit, then i unleashed the fury on my noodles for dinner! wow, they were nice.
i then went to a music practice for sunday morning worship which was fun. I havent played the drums for a while, so i was a bit rusty on the old "hitting the drum" thing you have to do when you play the drums, but there we go, it was all fun. and now im here!

isnt there just so much excitement in my life!!!!!!

anyway, i have jsut spent a week away at Kingdom faith camp, which was absolutely fantastic. I got really challenged. I havent been there since i was akid with my parents, so it was cool arriving, and seeing all the memories come flooding back. We had some fantastic times there as a family, and it was cool to go back again.

I was really challeneged about making a difference in my school. The whole theme of the week was the practicalities of getting equipped for what God has called us to in our schools and colleges. Realising that we have God with us, and that we dont need to be afraid to speak out. I have one more year of school and thats it, i dont want to look back on my time in southend with regrets of missed opportunities, so i figure i have nothing to lose. God has started doing amazing things in the southend schools already, and i believe its only gonna get bigger. God never ceases to amaze me, the way he uses everyday people in everday situations to do amazing things. We saw a non christian skeptic get healed of a heart problem, then give his life to christ last year!
Last year God exceeded our expectations of what we thought he was going to do in our shcool, and the most amazing thing is, is that we have bigger expectations this year that i believe God is going to exceed yet again.

The worship at faith camp was amazing, so many new songs, all showing how amazing our king victorious is, and just to be in amongst 5000 peopel giving everything they have within them to God was soooo cool.
One of teh evenings a guy was tlaking about giving a shout for God. And in teh end, enevitably we were all on our feet shouting at the top of our lungs to God, giving Him the praise. We were later told that the worship usually comes to about 90 decibels, the PA desk can go up to a maximum of 130dB......we were all shouting (800 people in the youth tent) at a massive 180 dB. how cool....hope God heard us! lol

anyway, im well tored and want to go to bed. cyaz

atl

how does this work?!

2004-06-29T20:22:00.000Z

test 1

AFRO....shall i?
	yes
	no

Free polls from Pollhost.com