A bit of a bitty week - no service to prepare as I'm about to be off for two weeks (but will need to prepare one during the second week which is my 'study' week; train journeys are very useful things).

This morning I took the copies of my thesis to be bound at the nice bindery where the Gathering Place mission church once stood.  I will be so glad on Thursday when I post it off and am finally free of it (of course I spotted a few more typos reading through it this morning but it was too late to change them).

I have just ordered bits of junk ready for our student welcome tea in the autumn.  This time last year I was excitedly anticipating the first one, not knowing what lay around the corner.  I was so pleased that everyone just pulled together to make it happen.  This year we have students coming back early to help make it happen.  Woo hoo!  So glad that this year I won't be feeling 'floppy' at the end of it!

Later this week I will be starting work on preparing for a theological reflection group meeting I am leading in September, entitled 'So what is theological reflection'.  I could, of course write this off the top of my head, but I want to ground it in some re-reading of well regarded texts on the topic.  Should be fun, I enjoy the 'Christian education' aspects of ministry as well as the 'preaching' - the two are very different.

Also I have what promises to be an exciting meeting with a couple of healthcare chaplains and a lay person as part of some work the BUS are considering as part of their public issues focus.  Can't say more yet, but everyone is really positive about it (and I kind of act as the BUGB mole I think!  Not to be confused with Millie, my puppet, the Gathering Place Mole.  Mole to see what BUGB is up to not the other way around).

Lots to look forward this autumn - a NAM-by-any-other-name to mentor, a BUGB student to meet up with now and then for cupcakes, some new (BUS) initiatives to get going and some (G.P.) established ones to build on.  Fun!

This time last year I was excited at the propsects of what lay ahead, and found myself taking a massive detour, yet it has been a great year in which, with God's help, a lot has been achieved and it has, in my view, been a good year.  As I move into the next year, having been told at my check-up this morning that 'all is well' (huzzah! as the saying evidently goes) I am perhaps a little more chastened but no less optimistic that another good year lies ahead.

This corner of blogworld will be quieter as I'm off to Arran on Saturday with my bestest walking friend and then, with a convoluted route to see relies on the way, to Oxford for my 'study week' doing theology with other Baptists.  It will be fun.  Oh, and if burglar Bill is reading and plans on visiting my house whilst I'm away, just be aware that Holly the killer-cat is on guard ;-)