Audience of One

2007 in review

In keeping with tradition (2006 and 2005’s entries), I thought I’d go for a round-up of the year, as well as a quick update on the status of this website.

This year began with me agreeing to lead a Christian Union small group in my hall of residence, which entailed staying on in hall for another year. I went through ups and downs with regards to staying in hall, sometimes looking forward to it because of friends staying on as well, sometimes dreading another year of institutional food and no kitchen. (So far it’s been great!) My degree continued, not really interfering much with everything else until the start of my second year, so I was quite involved with different CU activities outside the hall. I took over the hall small group at the end of March, and quickly realised that I didn’t really know how to lead Bible studies after all. (Still not got the hang of it, but I’ve got better.)

Easter brought a fund-raising concert tour for my dad’s work, for which I was employed as a roadie. I ended up going to Word Alive via London and Newcastle. Word Alive with the CU meant talks on the Trinity, Hebrews, and late night telling of surreal fairy tales involving time travel, bad puns and violent deaths.

I went to Uganda in the summer, the experience of which is very hard to describe. A group from the hall CU went to help in a school and a church run by the same guy; my friend Will and I tried to be an African Rico Tice between us (in other words, we were the speakers for a Christianity Explored course), and we also ended up speaking on Ugandan radio and going white water rafting on the Nile!

October brought a very difficult term for various reasons: a co-leader of the hall small group dropped out due to illness; my degree more than doubled its intensity meaning I got behind very quickly, having expected it to be easier; on top of everything, I was having quite an unsettling time spiritually with God teaching me a lot. On the plus side (not that God teaching me stuff isn’t) I joined a new church, one than my old church planted back in April. It’s small, meets just round the corner from my hall, is full of wonderful people and has much more scope for getting involved.

So, 2008. Well, first off I’ve got a blog to get sorted again. My web host disabled my blog software months ago (part of the reason for no updates) and I need to sort that out. I’ve got a lot of reading and thinking to do which I want to be digesting properly, and blogging about it is a good way of doing that. So that’s the plan. My CU responsibilities continue, and my degree will continue to be difficult. I now know more what to expect, but no doubt God’ll bring all sorts alongside that I don’t expect. It’s good to be kept on my toes.

Matthew @ 14:08, January 1, 2008 to Diary | Comments (0)