Travel highlights from Joy...!

I'm still in Brazil at the moment, in a little town called Bonito which has incredible clear rivers; went snorkelling yesterday and looked to my right at one point to see a camen (little alligator thing) sat about 1.5m from me! We've just left the Pantanal (wetlands the size of France) which has been by far the best bit yet. We stayed in a jungle lodge the first night, with camen, monkeys, thousands of huge birds right outside and there was the most incredible thunderstorm I've ever seen- we walked along a boardwalk into the middle of the undergrowth and sat by the river watching it reflect off the water - seriously impressive but also a bit scary as there were jaguars rumoured to be prowling in that area.

The next two nights we spent on a farm in hammocks. There we went trekking/wading through the wetlands, pirana fishing (no sucess from me, though some other people caught some wicked ones) and the BEST thing so far - horse riding across the wetlands. I told the guy I could ride and asked for a fast one so he put me on a horse called 'Principo' who he told me was very fast. Near the end of the ride he stopped the group and told us we could gallop to the farm. I didn't even have to kick my horse and he took off, leaving everyone else behind and galloped like a crazy thing for about 15 minutes! He didn't even slow down when we dived into water up to his chest; he paused only for a second when he almost trod on a camen; it was the most exhillarating thing I've ever done!! I'm planning to horse ride wherever I can now because it was out of this world. I was really lucky too because some horses wouldn't even trot when they were kicked!

Rio Carnival was pretty insane. The sambadrome parade was spectacular. We danced for about 10 hours in the rain and the whole time the atmosphere was electric. I've never seen costumes like it, or even imagined floats like it- one was an actual dry ski slope! It was really wierd because afterwards they all just throw their costumes onto the street and walk off. The floats are dumped just outside the city too. All that effort then they all trundle off as if nothing has happened.

I took myself to a football match at the Marcana stadium in Rio. They are the loudest and most insane crowd I've ever seen. We sat in the 'party'zone, which we soon found out meant 'dangerous'zone, as in the second half a huge fight broke out about 5 people down from us. The whole crowd stampeded to get away right into us, so we ran but not fast enough to avoid the police who tear-gassed everyone. It was pretty scary; they were properly beating the fighters with their batons.

Rio generally felt pretty safe but I think maybe it was a false sense due to the numbers of people there for the carnival. We're camping most nights at the moment and will be until we hit BA. I absolutely LOVE it! Being in the tent is so much fun and they're pretty big too so we have plenty of space. I'm sharing with a girl called Charlotte who has just quit her management consultancy job and will be training to be a primary school teacher next year. Surprisingly I'm one of the youngest on the bus: the average age is about 26, loads of people have quit their jobs to come travelling and over half the bus are Aussies. We have our one token American, two Welsh girls and the rest from around the UK. Strangely almost all of them either went to uni in, worked in or are from Bristol! We're all still getting to know one another because there are so many of us but everyone seems pretty easy going and up for loads of fun!

His story becoming my story

We finally managed to finish discussing the introduction to Chapter 2! Hurrah. Some of our insights and thoughts were:

If we don’t believe that Jesus was fully human (i.e. that he didn’t get a ‘head start’ or extra powers from God) it robs us of so much. The fact is that Jesus WAS fully human and he STILL managed to live a spotless life in terms of his relationship with God. Wow… what a thing to aspire to…

Jesus has the power to transform us. Whilst the Church is obsessed with Paul who had a dramatic conversion, the other disciples also experienced amazing journeys with their faith. John was famous for his bad temper and look at what he did in the name of Jesus! Discipleship is about following, about living with someone and learning from them. It’s not necessarily about instant change.

The imagery of the 180 degree U turn that Philip uses in the book we found really helpful, especially if you look at it as a semicircle – a journey we travel on which will lead us towards God. It’s about moving towards Jesus – sometimes, it’s only when we look back that we realise how far we’ve come. And it doesn’t often happen overnight!

By the way, Naomi’s getting baptised on 2 March – woo hoo!! The girl’s going public… !

Techno-whizz, Clarey!

Yya, thanks for inviting me! Loving the technology of the 21st century, even though I am only just getting to grips with it!

HELLO JOY!!! Hope you are having fun in the sun (is it sunny actually? I have no idea).

We will update you with tonight's installment, hope all is well. Lots of love xxx

Message from Joy!!

Hello everyone! I love the blog thank you so much!! It´ll be so useful as everything is very different over here. Rio was great, I managed to get some good partying in! We went up Corcovado on a beautiful day to see the Christ Redeemer- it was amazing, the big man really is impressive ; ) I´m not sure how to load up pics at the moment, but will attempt some later on if I can.Love to you all,Joy xxx

And now for Naomi's interpretation!

Brilliant notes from Naomi follow below:

Alpha follow on: The Cross pg 17-24

P18 – Girl in china shop:

Does her father’s response make the girl more aware of her actions, the effect of those actions and what the cost of those actions are to others? i.e. Does this incident have a more lasting effect on her than simply grateful for payment of the vase?

Actions speak louder than words – it is easy to say ‘I love you’, but doing something to show that is often a much stronger message, and means more than the words themselves.

The father doesn’t seem like he necessarily wants any kind of recognition for what he’s done. He doesn’t discipline the child and say ‘You should be grateful, look what I’ve done for you’. He quietly gets on and acts. Although he requires nothing from her, he would be delighted with some form of recognition from his child – otherwise he becomes simply the provider in a one way relationship. If the child showed her appreciation, the relationship becomes 2 way.

Idea of feeling guilty – does the child feel guilty for making her father pay? Does this guilt turn to gratitude, or does it stay as guilt and have an adverse effect on their relationship?
It is so easy for us to take what God has done for us for granted. We can’t comprehend what it cost him and so we undervalue what he did and so don’t respond as we should. If we truly understood, we would be much more grateful and so much more loving of him and others.

P19 – People being evil:

Is it nature or nurture? The argument that sin stems from free will seems to imply that the answer is nurture. However, if we interpret sin as meaning selfishness/being egocentric/‘I’-driven, then maybe it is inherent in our nature. Does survival of the fittest essentially boil down to being centred on self and looking after number 1?

BUT Jesus, although the son of God, was wholly human, and yet was sin-free. He showed us that it is possible for humans to live sin-free lives. This would bring us back to sin rising from our choices, and thus nurture again!

Sin inevitably leads to spiritual death, and eventually physical death. It is like rust – it starts to infect its host, the host decays until it breaks. Jesus is Anti-Rust, and returns us to being shiny and new!

P20 – Concept of ‘sin’:

We decided that sin is not best described as what we do, but our innate character – being sinful equates to being selfish, and all sin stems from that selfishness and a desire to control our own paths through life. Even our response to ‘sin’ can be sinful; - in making a list of ‘external sins’ (smoking/drinking etc) we are aiming to control our external behaviour without having to face up to confronting what’s going on internally, which is what God is more concerned with. We therefore maintain control, thus going full circle back to selfishness and control. We are reluctant to relinquish that control to God.

Sin can also manifest itself as relational sin – it is not disobeying ‘rules’ that make us feel bad as much as the way we treat others and God – this is when we feel most ashamed of ourselves, when we don’t do right by others.

Good way of approaching the concept of sin with non-christians (who might otherwise get defensive and have misconceptions of ‘sin’): Series of questions:

Are you the person you want to be? - No
Who’s in control of your life? - Me
How’s that working out for you? – Not so good
Do you feel lost? Not sure where you’re headed? - Yes
Then look to God to take control!

Following God’s guidance:
Hearing God’s voice is like getting to know a new friend (Bex’s analogy) – to start with, when they ring you, you won’t recognise their voice, but the more you speak to them the easier it becomes to recognise!

Do we have to consult God on every little decision we make? – God gave us free will and he did not take that away from us when we became Christians. Therefore, as free will was a gift, it seems logical that we have God’s blessing to use our free will to make choices. Plus, even if we get it wrong and go down the wrong path, we must remember that God is the Almighty Redeemer, and will always help us out if/when we get lost. If we set off down the wrong route he’ll let us know we’re going the wrong way as long as we are open to hearing him. Also, it is easier to steer a moving car (Dave’s analogy) – i.e. God can guide us more easily if we are moving forward than if we sit still and wait for him to prod us in the right direction!

Actions speak louder than words…

Chapter 2 - The Cross - Introduction (well, half of it!)

What a huge topic this one is!

We talked around the story of the girl in the china shop for a while. Many of us felt that her attitude towards her father would have changed once she understood what he’d given up for her. Perhaps his actions made her think harder about the consequences of her own actions and about how she behaves towards others.

Simon made the point that perhaps the father hoped the daughter would be grateful and thank him. But this is not why he did it. Of course, God loves it when we do thank him, but that’s not his motivation. His motivation is pure love.

We all felt the phrase which Philip uses “We are not the people we want to be” perfectly sums up what it is to be a ‘sinner’. We do, think and say things that we wish we hadn’t. Then we feel guilty and shameful. We talked a lot about sin, about nature vs nurture, about free will and came to the conclusion that it boils down to control… that we undervalue what God has done for us and think that we know best! If we relinquish that control, and have the right attitude and heart, God will guide us to what is best for us.

Some of us found this a bit of a scary prospect! What does it actually mean to give up control of our lives? Isn’t that a bad thing? Aren’t we copping out? But Dave put it beautifully (doesn’t he always?!) – it’s much easier to steer a moving car than a stationary one. It is only when we start to move towards him, through prayer, worship, acts of service, that God can begin to guide us in the right direction.

Something I found really helpful at a retreat I was on this weekend was the phrase “God looks for steady growth, not instant perfection”. How comforting is that?!

Would love to hear what you made of it all... I've emailed you an invitation to become a blog author so you can add posts yourself!! Let me know if you have any problems with it x

Bristol calling!

Hello lovely lady. This is just a quick first message to let you know the blog is 'up' and that we're thinking of you - you should be partying right now in Rio we think!!

Our thoughts and prayers were with you for the big journey and hopefully all went smoothly with the early start and the connections. Do let drop an email to let us know how you're getting on.

I (Clare) am writing this on Saturday night which shows what a wild and crazy gal I am!! I'll post again after Tuesday's meeting to let you know what we made of the intro to the second chapter of 'Up Close and Personal' on The Cross. For my money, there are some tricky bits in there aren't there?!!

Much love and be in touch x