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Sandpaper and Songs

Posted by Robyn Stoneham on Thursday 2nd October 2008

Hello, what a delight it is to scribble my thoughts on a challenging, refining and exciting week of the internship…!

This week, we have been enlightened by the world of Myers-Briggs personality types, with letters like "E" for extrovert and "I" for introvert, "J" and "P" swimming around our heads as we go about our activities. Analysing our own behaviour, sanding out our imperfections and grappling with how to act in group situations has mostly resulted in short explosions of laughter such as awkwardly deciding who should pray first… However, whilst growing in self awareness at a rate of knots, we have also been participating in placements all over the area, developing confidence through visits to places such as women's prisons and various school CUs.

On Friday, we ventured out to investigate Newton Hall, a housing estate about three miles outside of Durham where we will do some mission work and outreach over the coming year. The estate is a large, seemingly blank canvas, but as we prayer-walked the area on a cold sunny morning, seeds of inspiration to bless this community appeared in our pockets (more to come, we hope) which will be prayed over before planting. I'm excited that there will be more to report on this estate as the coming year unfolds. Please pray for this estate, that our budding plans would be aligned with the Lord's.

It's also been a race against time this week to complete decorating the Appleby Rooms, stripping bogey-green gloss paint with sandpaper, whilst bopping to "guitar legends" or our own rendition of Christmas carols, led by our fantastically gifted soprano Tims. (Both have an astonishing ability to be mistaken for talented female singers.)

It seems apt that a substantial part of my week has been chipping away at old paint, preparing for a fresh coat of a superior coloured paint (well, better than bogey-green anyway…) when inside, I'm praying through aspects of my character and life, the bogey-green bits that need a fresh coating of better paint. It's good to note though, that a great deal of singing, dancing and bopping goes on in this process in the Appleby rooms and a great deal of singing, dancing and bopping is going on inside – the Lord is good, and he has great plans!