Lil Life Update

Hey there, long time no speak! I've been a tad busy recently with various bits and bobs but I thought I'd fill you in on what's been happening recently in this lil life of mine.

Moving House
If you didn't know, since moving back to Derby in March, I've been crashing at my boyfriend's house, taking up his front room and living out of boxes. For a while I gave up the search for finding a place of my own because I became too comfortable in my own little bubble. I have developed a big fear of money you see...specifically spending money...I'm always worried that I'm not going to have enough, or that I'm going to run out, so not having a house of my own meant that I didn't have to watch big sums of money leaving my account each month. This wasn't healthy for me though; giving into the fear but also living somewhere I knew I shouldn't be. So, a few weeks ago I made the courageous decision to put all my own cares aside, I gave the problem up to God and whaddaya know, he pulled through (as always). On Monday, I will now be moving into a lovely big house, which is just around the corner from Sam's and I will finally be able to enjoy my own space again!

It's a shared house that I'm moving into, which is another thing that I was terrified about. Ideally I would have loved my own little flat but financially that wouldn't have been realistic right now so again, I entrusted it to God to place me somewhere where I would feel safe, comfortable and also be able to make friends. I haven't met any of the current tenants yet but judging by the landlords (who are extremely lovely) I'm sure I won't be having any problems fitting in. I'll keep you updated with how it goes and no doubt be sharing lots of snaps of how I decorate my room!

Sam
This one is an exciting one! I'm grinning from ear to ear as I type this! As many of you know, Sam and I did Alpha together a few months ago and it was an amazing experience for the both of us. We were able to get to know people in the church, learn more about Christianity and also grow together on a deeper, more spiritual level. When the course finished, Sam continued to meet with our friend/Alpha group leader, just to chat and chill and continue their conversations about Christianity.

Well, a few weeks ago, after one of their meet-ups, Sam came home with a big smile on his face and announced that he was going to become a Christian - not that he had become a Christian might I add, but that he was going to do it in a couple of days time the following Sunday at Church. I laughed because I had never heard of someone setting a date to become a Christian before but I was ecstatic none-the-less and it now means that we have that amazing memory of that amazing moment in that amazing church to cherish forever!!

Are you crying? Because I am haha!
Sam is now continuing to meet-up with our friend for bible-study each week and we are also about to begin Alpha again, but as helpers this time. I'm super excited because it's going to enable us to continuing growing our faith whilst also hopefully helping a few others along the way.

We both want to say a huge thank you to those who have been praying for us both - all of your love is greatly appreciated and I just feel so blessed that we get to share this experience with you all. God is certainly good!

Talitha Arts
Talitha Arts is a non-profit organisation combined of artists and therapists who, through the use of creative arts, facilitate well-being, restoration of hope and the re-building of broken lives. Back in May, I was invited by a friend from church, to attend a Talitha training course being held in Birmingham and for a number of weeks we made the journey to and from the big city to learn about the organisation and get a taste of what they do for others.

For me, a lot of what the organisation does and how they work is what I was taught throughout my university degree so it was nice to experience that kind of creative potential and power again and also re-affirm everything that I had learnt before.

Last weekend was the final installement of the course which consisted of an intensive 2 day training program and despite the overload of information, rock hard hotel beds, and expenditure of creative energy, I came away with lots of new ideas, friends and excitement for the future. My friend who I went with wants to one day set up a base for Talitha in Derby along with my help so that's exciting! Derby could definitely do with an organisation like Talitha so who knows? With God's guidance, anything could be possible!

Work
My job has been very full on this Summer. Not that I'm complaining - I like being busy and having lots of tasks to do...it's just meant that things like blogging have had to be put on the back burner for a while.

If you didn't know, I work for the Phase Eight concession in Debenhams here in Derby. We have been going through quite a few changes recently, with various members of the team leaving, so it has meant that we've all been having to work doubly hard to keep the concession working as best as we can. I'm enjoying it though, and since our Supervisor left I've had the opportunity to step up and learn a lot about business management, team leading, visual merchandising and social marketing. I've actually applied to become the new supervisor with encouragement from my manager so that could potentially be an exciting wee venture in the future. I genuinely do believe that I'm capable and I've become very passionate about the brand in my short time of being with the company but If I'm not successful I won't hold any hard feelings - whatever is meant to be will be. God has his plan and if for some reason I'm not meant to become the Supervisor then it's obviously for the best.

In the meantime I'll continue working hard and learning all that I can because who knows...all of this business knowledge may come in handy some day in the future!

Now, I have to get packing...I get the keys for my new house tomorrow and my belongings are...shall we say...not yet in movable condition (ie not all packed) haha!

- S xo