It's been an odd sort of week in a way, as some plans have come together but not necessarily how I expected. In particular, I now know when I will be visiting the place I first lived - the second week of May - but the thing that has meant this is that I will be travelling there for a Family Funeral. Sadly, I'm now at that point where it seems the thing that brings people together sometimes is a funeral; this particular side of my family have had quite a hard time of it over the last few years, and this is will be the third time in the last five years that I've travelled down there for this reason. I'm going to make a couple of days of it, before then moving on to the Supers Conference in Oxford.
I'm not going to do a day by day report on the week, but there are a couple of highlights. One was on Sunday, where I had offered to help out with the local Junior Parkrun at Hemlington Lake. I've done and volunteered at Parkrun quite a bit (97 runs and 37 volunteers), but this was my first experience of Juniors; this is partly because it's always on a Sunday, and for some reason I'm usually busy! Technically, I could have been helping out there before then going on to lead a service - as it's usually done and dusted well before 9:30 - but anyone who has seen me dashing in with about 10 minutes to go will know that being ready enough early enough to help is not me! Juniors was a wonderful experience though; Parkrun is about including and encouraging, and that goes double for Juniors! I enjoyed cheering on the about 20 youngsters as they came past my marshalling point, a couple of the younger ones even wanted a high five from me, and it felt well worthwhile. I'm already down to help out again, and I think I'll probably be doing a few more over the next three months.
Tuesday saw me spending most of the day sitting in front of the Computer, as there was a day of training as part of the New Supers Course; but possibly the highlight of the week was myself and Fiona going away for the night in Helmsley. With the "Children" now both officially adults (21 and 18!) we went and stayed, had a meal, and wandered around the town before returning home to the delight of the dog.
In some ways it was also an opportunity to do a little reconnaisance; starting and ending in Helmsley is the St Aelred's Pilgrim Trail, set up by the local churches. I was already aware of the trail, and someone had picked up and given me the Guidebook for Walkers and Pilgrim Passport. I now know where to find the stamp for the Passport in All Saints Helmsley, though I did resist the temptation to mark it off!
There were quite a few resources about Pilgrimage around All Saints, and the card in the picture was one that particularly spoke to me as I explore: "Finding Where We Belong". In some ways, I belong nowhere: I've lived in so many different places that I'm not sure how to answer the question "Where are you from", because in many ways it depends on what you mean! For the last five and next five years, that's the Stokesley Circuit, but it's been many other places over the years as well. I've always tried in Ministry to try and enjoy being in the place where I am; maybe that means that rather than belonging nowhere, the answer to "Where I Belong" is "Wherever I am" - or, "Wherever God places me."
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