So, it's officially two weeks into my wean-off period and time to decide whether to stick at alternate days for another week, or move down to every third day.

I've opted to stick for another week or two for a couple of reasons...

• the transition effects are now wearing off, so there is little nausea, less intense nightmares and fewer (though no less intense) flushes.
• it's Holy Week, and I don't want to risk the resurrection of the Monster in a busy and demanding season of the church year.

Overall, I am fine, liking the non-drug days better than the drug ones, and, except where justified, not irritable.  So at least one more week of alternate days and then a further reduction in planned.

Watch this space!! 

Bit of a pause from posting, as I've been in Englandshire interviewing people who are exploring calls to ordained Baptist ministry.  So, late in the day, a post about our Palm Sunday service.

Just before the service began, I commented to someone that things were a bit chaotic, to which they replied with title quote, 'just another typical Palm Sunday at the Gathering Place'.

It made me smile, and it gave me pause.

In the end it was a wonderful service.  One of our 20-somethings had written the script for the story-telling, and another sang 'I Don't Know how to Love Him' as the culmination of the 'anointing at Bethany' scene.

The hotel room doesn't have a sufficiently high ceiling for us to erect a cross, so we used a horizontal one, around which emblems of the story were arranged.

As the strains of John 19:42 died away, you could have heard a pin drop.

Another typical Palm Sunday?  I looked back recently at the first Palm Sunday and Easter services I led here... straight forward preaching services, with children and YP going into Sunday School at the usual place; a cross was erected at the end of the Palm Sunday service, but otherwise nothing multi-sensory.  Somewhere along the line, an all age experiment morphed into a tradition, and now this is what we do on Palm Sunday.

Thanks to E for her scripts, C for her solo, P for the music, K for the photo - and all who participated in making it what it was.