The Holy Pasty?

It’s about time that I finished off the story that I left hanging in my last post.

I attended a training day for the schools workers with Mick and Al – whilst there I got on rather well in a group with a girl by the name of Louisa. She laughed at my jokes and didn’t find me totally repulsive. I would love to say that it was the Mick / Al combination and a super-spiritual reason that I started to attend the Redruth Baptist youth group, but it wasn’t. I was in love (queue angelic choir in the background) or at least I really liked Louisa a lot. She went to the youth group, and I wasn’t doing anything on a Friday night and there were few young people in the church I was attending at the time so I started attending. It took me a fair while to pluck up the courage to ask her out, but I did eventually, and she said…

Well actually she said she’d have to think about it. Then she went and chatted to her friend Beth, whilst Beth tried not to look over at me in a manner that was too obvious that they were talking about it. Waiting for an answer was incredibly painful for me, but I cooled off and didn’t mention it again to Louisa for at least a day, maybe two! The next steps of our relationship are a bit of a blur. I know she said yes eventually, but I think that was right before she went away with the church to Treloyhan Manor in St Ives, it could have actually been whilst they were away. I simply cannot remember for the life of me! I planned our first date for when I knew my parents would be away – as neither Louisa nor I could drive this took a lot of skill. We had a meal (which I cooked – oh yes I was a nineties man, and too skint to afford a restaurant meal!) which was Penne, chicken and bacon in a tomato sauce – the height of culinary expertise, followed by strawberries and cream. I can remember the food, but not the details of when Lou said she would go out with me! Then we went to the Cinema in Redruth and watched Volcano which is probably the worst film I have ever seen. Then Louisa got a lift home to Perranporth, which was 20 miles(ish) up the coast from Camborne. This was not the easiest way to conduct a relationship where no-one drives.

As Louisa and I got more serious in our relationship, so did my relationship with the church at Redruth. I was asked to help on the “youth executive” of the youth group along with Louisa, which helped to guide the Youth Group. Around the same kind of time two other things were going on, still involving Mick, Al and Jenny. The first was straight after youth group we would go out on the streets and try and talk to the young people, often school age, that were leaving the pubs and clubs. These nights were always interesting and gave the thrill of something different. It would always be a challenge and this was way outside of my comfort zone, but I loved it in a very nervous way. This sometimes saw me getting home from youth group around 12:30am and then getting up for work 3 hours later and trying to sleep in the afternoons.

The other project was “The Shed” which the same small group, with a few others, decided to run an inter-church worship and teaching session. It was always fun, always different and made sure it revolved around the Bible message first and foremost. Everything else was planned from that, and it was quite meticulously planned. We met in an elliot building which housed Ambassadors For Christ, for whom Mick and Al worked and it was like a large shed. This lasted for a couple of years and I still think it was the best Bible based youth event in Cornwall at that time, and this is where I forged a deeper relationship with someone I still work closely with today.

One of my duties for The Shed was publicity and that I did with Jenny who was a graphic designer. Besides other roles the most practical was ensuring that children younger than our stipulated age didn’t come in, and that everyone had a welcome. I was given one of the Redruth Baptist regulars, Jon, to help me in this role. We often wouldn’t even make it in for much of the meeting as the room was so full, and we kept an eye on the car park, welcomed late comers and parents afterwards and pointed people towards the toilets. So we spent much time talking, already knowing each other fairly well we got a running repartee and a deep love (in the most manly and platonic of senses!!) and respect for one another.

At this time I was still at Truro College in my second year with my A levels coming up and I was devoting time to seeing Louisa, work, Tuckingmill children’s clubs, church evangelism, The Shed, RBC youth group and going out on the streets and I had an exhausting, but fantastic time, but something had to go. I was getting nothing from the services at Tuckingmill, the Pastor at the time was not giving me anything fresh and I felt stifled, so I left Tuckingmill and transferred membership to Redruth Baptist, where I threw myself into the Children’s work. Somewhere in all this, on a rain soaked beach, just after Spring Harvest, I got down on one knee and asked Louisa to marry me, the foolish girl only went and said yes!

There’s much more to this story though. It’s great for me to look back and record these milestones in my personal journey as I end one year and begin another. It helps me see how far I have come and what I have learnt – and hopefully where God is guiding for the future.