I just came off Skype having talked to my son Matt, the first decent conversation since he left Chicago for Oxford. Due to some problem with his camera (couldn't possibly have been mine) I couldn't see him, but we heard him clearly.
He's having fun in Alan's old stomping ground. It's really weird. Matt will write on his blog about the things he has been doing and the places he has been visiting, and Alan will comment that he used to do that too - Alan went to Oxford University all those years ago. Interesting huh?
Matt was working in the Sunday School at St Aldates and someone came up to him and said she had recently met his aunt, my sister Christine, in Northampton ... how random is that?
I was at a wedding this past Sunday chatting to all and sundry, as you do. I sat next to Jon from England (who had been flown in to 'do' the wedding) who was talking to this other person I did not recognise. I introduced myself, because I'm polite like that, and this guy looks at me and says 'Alison Doo?', I say 'Yes', because that's my name, he said 'I stayed in your house nine years ago' - blimey! And I thought I could remember everyone who has ever been through our doors! That's embarrassing. People who have taken refuge within these four walls have now been relegated to the same treatment as the location of my car keys. I have no idea about that at all! Now, I'd heard about this guy, Paul, from other random people. And these random people would say - do you know Paul? and I would say 'no' because I didn't - but actually, all that time, I was lying, because actually I do... we go way back. That's interesting.
There are some people I knew in London who now attend the church where Matt is. I told Matt to look out for them - but St Aldates is a big church... Anyway, when I was talking to him today, I reminded him to look out for Nick and Leslie. Matt asked if I meant Nick the Warden, and I replied 'yes' because I did, so Matt said he knew who Nick is and is going to say Hi - who knows it might be worth roast lunch on a Sunday!
We kept noticing wasps in the front room, but there was a fan in the window and we thought they were getting in there. So Alan removed the fan and closed the window. But the wasps kept appearing.
They were no trouble. They didn't keep flying around the house trying to dive bomb us, in fact they made no human contact at all. They didn't seem interested in any fruit in the house, or any food at all, really. The wasps would congregate by the window in the front room and try and get out.
I would count about 15 on any given day. Unless it was cold, then there weren't many at all.
It took me a while, but eventually I realized that there were no windows open, and there were numerous wasps inside our house, maybe, just maybe, they were getting in from the outside somehow. I know, I'm a slow learner, but what can you do?
So, my good friend LoAnn and I went and investigated around the outside of the house, and there we spotted it. Well them, really. Lots of them. Flying into what must have been a gap between the ceder siding on the outside of the house and the brick. Aha! There must be a nest in the wall of our house. Comforting to have figured out the problem, but rather disturbing in that there was now a problem to be dealt with...
Alan, my hero, sprayed some wasp killer up the hole one evening after they were all safely (!) tucked up in bed. The following day, they were just flying around as if they had had a really, really good night out and were now suffering the consequences.
He tried it again.
The same happened.
So, we had to call out 'the guy' - you know, the one who charges a lot of money for a few minutes work and then shows you all the small print that explains that even if the house falls down as a result of his few minutes' work, his company is not liable...
So, the guy came and sprayed some stuff up the hole. His stuff was white and the wasps didn't like it much, but they still wanted to get to their nest. I expect they had left all their important stuff there and received no warning about their impending eviction. You have to sympathise with them... at a distance, of course.
I didn't see any the following day.
Maybe they have managed to find somewhere else to live.
I didn't want to kill them, I just wanted them to choose another location. I don't know how you negotiate land treaties with wasps. I just hope that some nomadic wasps don't assume squatters rights and move into the now vacant wasp's nest...
New things are happening...
It's the first day of school for the three of the children. Josh is now a senior at High School - what he will be doing next year is a mystery to all of us. He'll probably end up doing engineering of some sort at some school somewhere.... We're not quite sure at the moment!
Esther really doesn't want to be back at school at all. It's a rather tortuous affair. The thought of three more years at High School is unbearable to her. However, she bravely went off this morning. I said many a prayer for her as I thought of her suffering at the hands of her educators.
Nathan is in his final year at Middle School and also would have been quite happy to never go back to school again. Not that there have been any terrible experiences there it's just that the getting out of bed in the morning is rather difficult...
For Matt, big changes are afoot: Next Thursday, he leaves the country (well, he can't take it with him!) for almost a year to do the School of Ministry at St Aldate's Church, Oxford, England. Check out www.staldates.org.uk, click on 'Courses' and then on 'School of Ministry' for more info. He is going to be focussing on Youth Work and will get to hang out with Oli who stayed with us for a few months one summer when he was a Youth Intern at our church. It's going to be a really busy year, but an amazing experience I am sure. We shall just miss him, a lot!
For me, a new era has started. I finished VLI in June, and am now starting 'work' (I don't actually get paid - so does it still count as 'work'? discuss) as a Pastoral Intern at Evanston Vineyard. I'm still checking out what I think is God's calling into ministry, possibly planting a church.
It was my first 'day' today and I cycled there, it only took 20 minutes which I don't think is that bad. With temps of 90+ degrees, that was a very pleasant (albeit sweaty) way to travel. So, like I said it was my first day today... well, it's part-time (20 hours) and since I am involved in a lot of stuff at church anyway: Alpha, SHAPE, prayer ministry team, audio team, woman's group, Cross-Current, housegroup... there's not a lot of time left over. Ha! Anyway, I was there today. I picked out my cubicle - hitherto known as my cell and I got a new email address: alisond@evanstonvineyard.org, so I'm totally official now!
Along with everything else, I'm going to be working on a proposal for implementing a Discipleship Year at Church, starting next Fall. Watch this space.
I'm writing this Blog instead of working on my talk for Alpha. I'm doing the talk at the celebration dinner on 14 September. It's rather scary. I'm feeling rather uninspired at the moment and think I need to spend some quality time in prayer asking God what he thinks people want to hear. Put the burden on God, I say!
