JEDI July: Day 14 - The one with my final Holy Smoke

After just over two years being part of the St Andrew's 'yoof', this evening I attended my final Holy Smoke session. Despite becoming involved with the church youth group at a fairly late stage, I have been lucky enough to experience many memorable events over the past couple of years and have witnessed many changes, none more so than the change of youth leader, a gradual process which has taken the best part of this year.

I also have Holy Smoke to thank for helping me to become involved in church life, which has in turn done wonders for both my faith and my confidence. Before I started I was the silent Christian and generally quite a shy person, whereas now I feel able to share what I believe with others as the key principles of what it means to be a follower of Jesus have been confirmed and reinforced within me. It makes a lot more sense and has become real and relevant, something which had not always been true in the past. Being part of the church has also, I believe, shaped and strengthened my personality, helping me to go about my day-to-day activities with joy and without fear. For this I shall be eternally grateful.

For my final session - and the first since before Easter due to the Just10 event - we looked at whether Adam and Eve had a choice when they ate from the tree in the Garden of Eden. Due to our small numbers we were able to have quite a fascinating discussion, with many theories put forward and questions raised.

We decided that Adam and Eve did have a choice whether to eat the fruit or not, as God has granted us free will, and even though he knows the choices we are going to make this doesn't mean he has forced us to make them. This is difficult to get your head around, however if we were meant to understand everything then in the end Christianity would rely more on law than faith - something which the New Covenant was intended to reverse following the resurrection of Jesus.

I'm aware that I'm waffling here but I think it is important that we shouldn't feel obliged to understand everything before we can believe - that's one of the key lessons I learned from my time in Holy Smoke.

As well as the discussion we spent an enjoyable session catching up with eachother's news, praying for eachother and having a good old laugh. Hopefully the same will be true when I move on to the CU at uni next term (though there is still Soul Survivor to come before I offically leave the group).

Outside of HS, today has been refreshingly quiet. I enjoyed a blissfully peaceful morning to myself while Mum and Lydia were in Lymington (though they did bring back a delicious lunch) before accompanying the girls on a trip to Hythe this afternoon. Here I had another ice cream on the prom and managed to find myself a BOGOF deal on fanta. Bonus!

I have also been trying to improve my bowling in preparation for the next church cricket match tomorrow by aiming at some rather tiny plastic cricket stumps in the garden. In some ways this helps to achieve accuracy, although full size would ultimately be more realistic. I do have my eye on a kwik cricket set from Amazon, but I don't know whether I'll be able to afford it yet. In regards to success of the bowling...let's just say there is still some way to go!

Apologies if you have stayed up late waiting for me to finish this (though I'm pretty sure no-one is that bothered). I'll attempt to organise myself better next time, but Mock the Week on Dave was too much of a lure! Nighty night folks!