Sunday 24 May 2009

Last Conference - gasp!

Gartmore House 2005, near Aberfoyle
It's hard to believe that this coming week I'll be attending the Final Training Conference of my Ministry Training Programme. It will be at Gartmore House, near Aberfoyle, and it's a very beautiful and peaceful setting.

The photo above of Gartmore is from April 2005, for that is where I was accepted as a Trainee. So this Final Conference at Gartmore will be almost a full circle; back to where it all started.

It will be great to see all my trainee colleagues again. Most of us have been together since we began training in Summer 2005, although some started the year before, or the year afterwards. This will be the last time we are all together.

At least one of us has already passed through their Final Review. Others will have their's in the coming months. Mine is not until August, but that is not very far away! And my supervisor and I have our Final Reports to write during the next few weeks.

After Final Review, we all hope to be cleared to apply to congregations that have a vacancy for a Minister. We get to choose where to apply, and they get to choose who to accept! Currently there are more vacancies than applicants, so it's usually easier for Ministers than for Congregations just now.

My regular readers will have noticed a reduced frequency of updates on this Blog in recent weeks. Partly that has been due to the Lenten Blog, but also because the intensity of working has significantly increased.

It is likely that I'll continue not be posting so often, but I'll try and keep you up-to-date with the main milestones as the rest of this year progresses.

Saturday 16 May 2009

Kite-Surfing at Silverknowes

Kite-surfer at Silverknowes Bay
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon on Friday so I decided to drive home from town via Silverknowes and look out over the bay. There was a strong North-Easter piling the waves in from the North Sea. In amongst the white horses there were three wind-surfers and a kite-surfer.

Although I had seen kite-surfers before (on Lake Geneva in September 2006) they had been far off in the distance. This one was very close, and looking down from the hillside gave me a wonderful view.

The photo above shows the surfer creaming along across the wind. But I was amazed to to see that at the end of each run he was able to maneuver the kite to lift him right out of the water, as you can see in the photo below.

I only watched for 10 minutes or so, but it certainly brought back my enthusiasm for sailing again. It's a pity I'm so busy I hardly have time to Blog, never mind sailing or golfing!

Kite-surfer lifted into the air