Christmas…. In October?
I had a great weekend this weekend!
Firstly, as every good weekend does, it began with FAYC on Friday night. It was a little sad as my club nights are numbered before I head off in November…
On Saturday I was determined to go kayaking, I had thought of surfing, but the forecast wasn’t great and so my heart was sinking as I knew most people wouldn’t be too keen to go. But thankfully it rained all day Friday and come Saturday the river was nice and high, not so high that it was life threatening, but high enough that it was exciting and there was plenty of potential for fun at the weirs.
So Andy, Tommy, Jake and I set off on a great trip down the river. It is probably the last bit of kayaking I will get to do for a while…
Following that I headed home, got washed down and Jonny picked me up as we headed over to Steve and Emma’s place for a night of foof and fun. I was expecting a chinese take away and a game of cranium or a DVD or something. When we pulled up at the Little’s place, Jonny reached back to me and said “Here, put this on” and thrust a red hat with a white bobble on the end in my direction… Surely not… We walked in and found a fully decorated Christmas tree, Christmas tunes on the stereo, the smell of hot apple punch and a fresh log fire.
If that wasn’t enough, we filed through to the dining area and sat down to a full Christmas dinner, including turkey and ham, sprouts, stuffing, the works! Followed by a veritable feast of desserts. All of this was provided by an array of talented chefs, who had slaved for days, well at least hours, to get it all ready…
After dinner we retired to the living room for a suitably fixed game of pass the parcel.
The most incredible thing of the whole night was that once in the house with the door closed, Christmas music on and punch in hand it actually felt like it was Christmas! It was almost a disappointment when the reality of October would resurface.
The Sunday morning saw a youth club service at the church involving stories of mountain biking accidents, plenty of fun to play songs and jam doughnuts!
In the evening it was my commissioning service. Mark came to speak, I had asked the band to choose the music and I was commissioned as a missionary with OMF to Japan! So now I’m actually a missionary I guess…
It was a great night, a lot of meaningful people took part and my friends and family were there.
Thanks to everyone involved at any stage of the weekend, particular thanks to those responsible for the Christmas extravaganza on Saturday, something I doubt I will forget any time soon, and those involved in Sunday evening, thanks for a special, memorable night!
You can see photos of my commissioning on First Antrim’s website. Hopefully I can get some of the Christmas night to put up somewhere!
Tags: christmas, christmas tree, commissioning, ham, kayaking, missionary, october, OMF, service, stuffing, turkey, youth
