The day I met Cliff

Posted by Robin Rolls on Wednesday 30 Jan 2008, 09:09AM

Well, sort of met Cliff anyway - I went to Cliff College for a couple of years - way back when, and it changed my life really.  I went to study and to learn, but ended up having so many ridiculous 'God moments', that my thoughts about faith and life - and Baby Jesus - were changed forever.

Moments when God broke through, moments when out of the sunshine came periods of rain, moments of silence, laughter, searching, finding - too many to put in a blog really, but someday I'll tell you all about it!  Anyway the wierd thing is I'm here again now, telling students about youth work, this amazing remarkable brilliant profession.........and it's my job to tell them how good it is and talk about different thingzz - amazing honour really.

Better prepare my lecture, the students'll be here in 10 minutes!

Bobz x

blogging at st botolphs

Posted by Robin Rolls on Sunday 27 Jan 2008, 09:46AM

sitting in st botolph's in shepshed writing this having just met the fabulous cat, sam, and phylis who are playing in the youth band. got up in the middle of the night to be here this morning for the 8am service. I was feeling a bit tired then the presence of the youth band raised my spirits! they're amazing!!! one of the readings this morning is from the book of matthew when james and john are called to follow jesus. the great thing is that they were probably only 17 when he called them!!!! get a load of that - 2 of the disciples were teenagers GET IN!! anyway better go and sort my heed out for the service. st bot*s youth band u rock my world!!

something for the weekend....

Posted by Robin Rolls on Friday 25 Jan 2008, 04:28PM

Had a day off today, which I spent in a marvellous way - essentially I lounged around, drank coffee, then about lunchtime wandered down the road to get a Kebab :)  Splendid stuff.

So nothing too profound today then, just a few thoughts - I wonder what the weekend holds for you?  I'm speaking over in Loughborough somewhere on Sunday morning, at an 8AM service and then at a 10AM service, at the church of a friend of mine - 8AM????*&^$$%^& Good grief, that's practically in the middle of the night - but the strange thing is I'm REALLY excited about it - meeting so called 'ordinary' people is one of the amazing parts of this job - simply because nobody is ordinary, just nobody.

Anyway, I can't think of a great way to end this and I need to start cooking tea and ironing - all in a days work for a Bobzy! Have a fab weekend!

Rob :)

passing on the pizza...

Posted by Robin Rolls on Wednesday 23 Jan 2008, 07:59AM

It happened in an instant - I saw the dishevelled appearance of the 2 rough sleepers, smelt this morning's alcohol on their breath, saw their faces, the matted beards, tired and lonely eyes....... and then in an instant a guy approached - I wondered if I recognised him wondered if i'd seen him somewhere before. he passed by the two men and handed them some pizza in box. They didn't offer any gratitude - I wondered why they should anyway? they simply took the pizza and walked on. There's a verse in the book of hebrews that hints about angels in disguise and I wondered if perhaps i'd just seen one? in fact I think I just saw three..... Have a nice day :)

Filling the hole...

Posted by Robin Rolls on Tuesday 22 Jan 2008, 08:09AM

Morning

Arrived bright and early today (7:23AM if any of you are doubting my commitment to the young people of Leicester :) and had a quick peek on the site - someone has e-mailed to thank me for the ramblings on the blog - thanks ;)

Today's one of those days I think - 6 meetings, lots of whizzing about the place, meeting some people for the first time, others for the hundredth, lots of exciting talk about the future, doing a Christian Union - lots of stuff really, and in the middle of it somewhere is the God thing - the God that inspires, creates, determines, saves, re-defines, and loves with a passion.

I wonder as I'm flashing up and down various country lanes, will I sense that I'm part of something bigger, part of a change in the way we do things, part of a movement of great excitement, part of Young People for Life??

More soon x

reflections from the back of church...

Posted by Robin Rolls on Sunday 20 Jan 2008, 11:21AM

well this morning's blog is from the back of the church we go to. I was in the band this morning so I whizzed to the back and whilst there's some random talkidge going on I thought i'd blog for a minute or two on my blackberry. it's funny sitting at the back - you can see loads of people and if you're like me and you do what I do, you know all about people's history. I can see someone who's gradually going blind, someone who strayed from their marriage, a full time carer, a youth worker, someone who once was homeless, someone who cares for the homeless........ what keeps this strange bunch together?? probably the fact that we're journeying together. following jesus, struggling, laughing, failing, trying again, being forgiven........ quite like sitting at the back really......have a nice sunday

Quadrant 3

Posted by Robin Rolls on Thursday 17 Jan 2008, 01:14PM

ok, so I'm sitting in this detailed seminar thing on time management right (I mean there was a time back in the day when people didn't talk about time management - you were either busy or not, but hey that's not the issue ;))

......and the lecturer starts to talk about QUADRANT 3 it's the bit where you don't want to be - the bit where the time wasting is, the junk mail, the browsing of unimportant time wasting websites, the messy phone calls, the gossiping round the coffee machine....and I suddenly thought, yeh but I quite like this bit!

so what do i do - stuck in quadrant three without a paddle, I wondered if I was living a quadrant 3 lifestyle, are my prayers gossip, is my web browsing helping me or anyone else find God.......?

just some thoughts.......and dots...........

Shoutbox launched

Posted by Steve Hawkes on Wednesday 16 Jan 2008, 03:57PM

Today we've launched the shoutbox, you can now chat online about all things YP4L, so check it out.

When was the last time

Posted by Robin Rolls on Wednesday 16 Jan 2008, 10:51AM

Just been in an interesting session with w friend of mine who happens to be running the course I'm on.  To be honest so far until this morning, the course hasn't really worked for me - it's fine I think, but not just where I'm at - up until now....

The quote that got me was "When was the last time God did something for the first time in your life?"  Hey whichever way you look at that it's quite profound, I wonder for you reading this, when the last time was? Recently, Sunday, maybe even never........?

The Bishop's Youth Council meets on Saturday morning for the first time, and I wonder if this group might be a great place for 'God things' to start happening in the life of Bobzy - I'll let you know....:)

Raining but not on the inside

Posted by Robin Rolls on Tuesday 15 Jan 2008, 10:05AM

Morning world!

In Sheffield at the moment on a course, having a good time but good grief it's raining hard! Hope you have managed to find your way around the site and have invited some of your mates to join.  Remember you can use the site to automatically invite your Facebook friends, or friends from Bebo, MySpace, etc.

Some amazing feedback from Sunday has made me feel all warm and fuzzy, and it's been good to hear from some of you over the last few days in phone calls and messages.

I think the best bit for me was probably being commissioned by the Bish, when he signed the sign of the Cross over me, I have to say it was very powerful, and I really felt a bit humbled by the task ahead really - but then seeing so many of you having such a great time was also pretty cool.  John Archer was great, and the boys from YFriday did their thing well!

More tomorrow.......maybe ;)

Home again

Posted by Robin Rolls on Monday 14 Jan 2008, 12:33AM

back home in the kitchen again now.  I can't really believe how amazing tonight was!  Almost 800 of us, totally rammed into Emmanuel, standing room only and not much of that either!  YFriday, John Archer, The Bish, Forty More Autumns, Bobzy, Gazzer, the mystery trainer, etc etc what a night!

Better go to bed now actually i'm zonked, it's half 12 in the morning, and it's been a long one!  I'll try and write some more this week and get the photos up for you!

Bobzarella

Tonight tonight....

Posted by Robin Rolls on Sunday 13 Jan 2008, 08:22AM

Hiya

Me and Laura are in the kitchen at home and we're about to set off for tonight's event....I'm very excited indeed!

Welcome to the new YP4L site!

Posted by Robin Rolls on Thursday 10 Jan 2008, 10:03PM

Hellooooooo

Well, here it is, the start of an amazing dream, creating youth work like a Diocese never has before, changing the way we do things, maybe even changing the world!  Today's an amazing day - the site goes live tonight about tea time, and then on Sunday there's the launch event at Emmanuel, Loughborough (7:30PM).  I don't know many of you right now, but as I sit in my kitchen peering through the rain, it's as if we're at the beginning of something totally amazing!

Well, let's see how we go, start challenging your friends off Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hotmail or wherever to Rock Paper Scissors - and the first person to reach 1,000 points will be sent a prize!!  So get your points up, and once you et near that magic 1,000, get in touch with me!

See you on Sunday, I'll try and post a new entry next week.

Bobz