A bath and a font.

At Gillian and Ian's house last night in Inverness, I had an emotional flashback to my own children's childhood. Their son, Callum, had just had his night time bath and the bathtub still had his toys strewn across it. A powerful memory of days gone by.

Today in Hilton Church water was being used for a very different purpose; to baptise Callum. As a congregation we were reminded of the everyday and essential nature of water. With this common element a sacrament of baptism took place; taking us beyond our ordinariness and the everyday things of life to God who was born, lived, died, rose again, and ascended for Callum and for each of us.

The bath tub reminded me of my children who have grown, the baptismal font reminded me of the God who walks with us through all the days of our lives.

Jen

Ugly and cruel

I was sitting chatting with some teenagers this week. We were discussing lots of questions on life which were on a set of playing cards. One boy read out his question, "If an alien came from an another planet how would you describe planet earth to them?" Immediately 3 or 4 people said, all at once, "ugly and cruel!". That was the initial response, but as we chatted, and answered more questions, it was evident that their life experiences did include much beauty, kindness and excitement. They had people in their lives they cared for, there were places they longed to visit, there were smells they loved (bonfire night!) and activities they enjoyed.

However I was left wondering why did some of them react so immediately with that negative phrase? In 2007 Unicef produced a report on child well being in rich countries http://www.unicef.org/media/files/ChildPovertyReport.pdf. The results of this report showed the UK at the bottom of this table of research in regard to - material wellbeing ,health, education, family and peer relationships, behaviours and risks, and subjective wellbeing. The report is worth reading and there are many issues we need to explore in it, but one of the most concerning to me is that we have the lowest proportion reporting that their peers are kind and helpful - less than half say that is the case, compared with more than 80 per cent in Switzerland.

Was that one of the reasons for the dramatically negative answer to the "alien" question? Does life seem cruel, so often, for many British teenagers because of the way we speak to each other (and this is not just teenagers!). What can we do to change this? Well it starts with me. With my words reflecting the immense kindness and compassion of Jesus. Let's be kind and gentle!

Our young people need us

I just re read my last blog, written at the end of June. My final words "our young people need us" seem incredibly poignant now in the light of the events in England this week. How do I respond, as a youth worker, to the scenes from Manchester, Birmingham and London of teenagers smashing, burning, stealing and generally rioting? I think the only response, is to hold onto that statement, our young people do need us - and they are "our" responsibility - not just the teachers, or the youth clubs, or even just their parents, we all need to do what we can to care and encourage our young people in our communities.

What does that mean in reality? It means showing them kindness at any opportunity, just as we should to anyone of whatever age! Giles Fraser (Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral), on Radio 4 "thought for the day" this morning, spoke of the "copy cat" nature of the violence that has spread across English cities. His challenge was for us to create a "different kind of copying". The twitter feed "Riot clean up" had attracted 90,000 followers by this morning, these followers, and many others, are imitating simple acts of kindness and generous service.

This is what Jesus calls us to; to bring his grace, love and kindness into our communities. I had the privilege of being thanked at Scoughall this summer, by a 15 year old, for showing him kindness during his weeks holiday. What young person could we show kindness to this week? What act of kindness have we received that we could copy?

Another year ends

As we come to the end of another school year, I find my mind full of many thoughts!

I have lots of snapshot images from the last fortnight - children singing songs of endings and beginnings, high schools taken over by visiting P7s, the mania and excitement of school shows, frantic packing (mingled with a bit of fear) for a school trip, a school thanksgiving service for a brilliant teacher and a good man, prizes handed out and certificates awarded, tears and smiles.

Along with all these memories is a strong sense of time passing - how did I get to the place of having children at the end of their school lives? It just seemed like yesterday I was buying Andrew's first school shorts (pause for some tears), and it's always a wee bit of a surprise when the bus doors open at Scoughall each July and young men and women come down the steps who were children the year before! The rapidity of growth between S1-6 is incredible, and sometimes adults struggle with the behaviour of young people in this age group and forget this may be a direct consequence of the growth process they are going through.

I'd like to encourage us to give young people some consideration in these formative years. None of us remember fully how tough it is to "grow up", it's difficult but fun too, if you want a wee bit of reminding listen to Bruce Springsteen's "Growing up", a brilliant song!

If we have the privilege of being with people this age over the summer, give them your support, care and time. Listen to them and create space for them to "grow up" (don't just shout that phrase at them, however tempting!) Organise events which are fun, safe, and memorable with lots of space to discover the God who knows exactly what it's like to "grow up"! Our teenagers need us!

Jen

Loss

As I ran on Tuesday morning, I had to climb under a tree and run around two others. The final tree I had to circumnavigate was a long lived tree. It's trunk was thick and had seen many decades in its hillside location in Stonelaw Woods in Rutherglen. It had been uprooted and lay fallen across most of the narrow hilly park.

The evening before I had received a phone call from a friend in Caldervale High School to tell me that Gordon Austin, a maths teacher, and member of the chaplaincy team, had died suddenly. As I saw this tree lying fallen my thoughts turned again to Gordon. He was simply a good man, full of laughter and kindness. He would do all he could to help and support people around him. For 5 years we have worked together developing RO in the school and building a strong chaplaincy team. I am privileged to have known him, if only in a small way, and the love of Christ that flowed from him has touched my life and I will miss him. The fallen tree seemed to symbolise the end of something good and utterly reliable. Gordon has gone from us, but he walked with Jesus, and now rests with Him, it is not the end for him, or for those who are left behind, still feeling and benefiting from the love and kindness he brought into our lives...

Jen

The bible seems like a very big book?

In a primary SU group that I visit weekly we have shared many bible stories, the children have been fascinated by the stories of Joseph, Moses, Jesus, and Paul. Their imaginations have been captured by them and, I believe, they have experienced the presence of God as they have listened to them and explored them together.

On Monday we sat down at a table and I gave each of them a copy of the whole bible. They were fascinated by the "fragile" pages (a P6 girls own words) and completely perplexed by all the numbers! Where was the page number? What were the big numbers? The little numbers? But with time and attention they managed to look up the story of the crossing of the red sea in Exodus and of Pentecost in the book of Acts. Words that they had been using verbally appeared on the page as a new language - resurrection (how do you pronounce that?).

It was a very precious time. What struck me most forcibly though was their real desire to read these stories for themselves, it was difficult, complicated and confusing - but they knew these stories, and had come to love them, and now they wanted to read them for themselves and discover more. They will have lots of chances to do that over the next few weeks.

Jen

Easter Sunday

Today is a morning of hope. Hope is not about everything being good and right and happy. Life is not like that! It is often painful, uncomfortable and messy. Even if at the moment our lives are content we just need to raise our eyes a little to see the pain of countless others in our world. But today is a morning of hope. I have appreciated travelling through Lent with Maggie Dawn's book "Giving it up", which I commented on in Lent 2010, today I share her view on hope...

" There are seasons in our lives when Lent is a more comfortable place to live, because it reflects our struggles and our doubts. There may be circumstances in your life that make you feel entirely out of step with the joy of Easter Day, but even if joy hasn't materialised for you yet, it's still a promise of things to come that will unfold in time. Easter is a promise that the absence of God has been penetrated with light, and the silence of the early morning is no longer hollow but hopeful..."

On Thursday at Woodside Primary the P6s hung their hopes, dreams and prayers for Easter on an "egg" tree. Big hopes for the world, big hopes for their lives. Whatever your hope today may it be touched by the light of this day of hope.

Jen