"If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito." - Bette Reeves

Good quote from the blog of an interesting bloke: http://www.andylothian.com

They think it's all over...

...it will be at Christmas.

It was announced to the congregation at Mashbury this afternoon that I will be reliquishing my responsibilities there at Christmas.

A tough decision this one, and one which I made over a month ago, but I'm quite comfortable that it is the right one.

There is not one reason behind it, but a combination of a number of factors that have come together.

• It is loads more time-consuming than I ever imagined. I am conscious that the hours I spend in meeting prep. are hours that I am not able to spend with my wife and kids. They are very understanding about this, but I would hate for them to resent this later or for it to damage my relationship with Tania.
• I have not felt valued by the whole Corps at Mashbury, more to the point I am often made to feel (by the senior census locals) that I am inadequate for the job and that I don't do things properly. Whether they mean for me to feel like this, or it is just me being over-sensitive, this has been quite hurtful and damaging to me personally, and quite frankly I've had enough.
• I am encouraged by the new things happening at Chelmsford Corps - both through the leadership of our new COs Alan & Lynda Watters (despite the length of his sermons!) and also by the spirituality in the emerging younger generation. There is an interesting group of young people emerging and arriving at the Corps and I wonder if God has a plan for me to be there with them as an older person to support and mentor them. Whatever the future holds, I am conscious that I need to be at Chelmsford Corps to part of what is going on there.

Intersting that there are a few bloggers among this emerging group:

http://www.ipodupdate.blogspot.com/

http://mattpie.blogspot.com/

http://confessions-of-an-innocent-man.blogspot.com/

So that's the news then - will I have to change the name of my blog at Christmas too? (Can't really be rural army and more! Shall I become suburbanarmy? Actually Gordon hasn't become ivorytowerarmy now he's gone to the training college so why should I change!)

Cardiff Half-Marathon Completed

2:11:59 really pleased with that, I ran the whole way and was just about bang on 10-minute mile pace (except for the mile when I went for a wee!). A great experience on a nice flat course with an outstanding finish in the Millenium Stadium - I, of course, did a big sprint finish for the last 50 metres in front of the cheering crowds!

Big day tomorrow!

Well, I've been in my new job for just over a month and the big day comes tomorrow when I actually have to stand up in front of a group and deliver a whole training course on Customer Care, all on my own!

I must admit that I'm a bit apprehensive, although everyone keeps reminding me that I've delivered far more demanding things to far larger and more demanding groups than this before so I should be fine. I suppose it's the first time you do something, you want to make sure you get it right.

Anyway, to keep Nick happy, here are my vital statistics for this week!:

Days until Cardiff half-marathon: 5
Miles run in the last week: 18
Pounds (in weight!) lost in the last month: 12
Number in congregation at Mashbury last Sun. 13
Secondary Schools visited for Elliot: 5
Schools still to visit before choices made: 2

And finally:

Number of people needed to complete Chik. Challenge: 29 (tell your friends!) and point them to: http://www.justgiving.com/gisatenner

Keep on running!

Did my longest run for a while today - 10 miles - and I felt really good, it took me 1 hour 30 mins. and 31 secs. which is pretty good for me, and more importantly I felt strong at the end.

Sunday 15th October is the Cardiff half-marathon, which I think will be the 5th time I have run that distance, I am trying to fill in the gaps on my times, so this post may be edited a bit in due course. I think they are as follows:

March 04 - Brentwood - 2:11:40
June 04 - Southend - 2:09:00
Sept 04 - Great North run - 2:16:00
March 05 - Silverstone - 2:??:00
Oct 06 - Cardiff - ??:??:??