U2 at church?

I'm having too much trouble moving this picture so it must stay here.















The following is an article that I saw on the internet that I thought was interesting:

"U2-charist": Bono moves in mysterious ways
LONDON (Reuters) - For Anglicans who still haven't found what they're looking for, the Church of England is staging its first "U2-charist" communion service -- replacing hymns with hit songs by the Irish supergroup.
"Rock music can be a vehicle of immense spirituality," said Bishop of Grantham Timothy Ellis, announcing plans for the unique service in the central English town of Lincoln in May.
A live band is to play U2 classics like "Beautiful Day" and "Mysterious Ways" with special singalong lyrics displayed on a giant screen. Seating for the 500-strong congregation is to be re-arranged so everyone can dance and wave their hands.
The service is to focus on the Millennium development goals -- U2's lead singer Bono is a leading promoter of the targets to alleviate world poverty.

The reason that I found it so interesting is that just yesterday Bono spoke at my church. Not in person of course. It was actually a really neat service. We did the usual singing and then the worship team sang a U2 song. I don't remember which one (it wasn't either of the above mentioned ones) but they did a really good job of it. I was impressed. It was quite a surprise at first to hear U2 at church. After the song we watched a video of a pastor (I can't remember his last name although I've heard it many times but his first was Bill) interviewing Bono. It was nice to have things done a little bit differently. So it was kind of funny to see this article today after our service yesterday.
I've really been enjoying helping with Sunday School this month. I am sad that the month is over and that they only need me every other month. I even asked if they need more help because I was hoping that I could continue. I've been helping with the grade 2/3 class. I like this age better than the gr. 4/5's. They're a little bit more rowdy but also cuter and more fun. I find that it's easier for me to help with the younger kids. I'm more likely to jump in and help where I see a need rather than wait to be told what to do. I am hoping that one day I will be comfortable enough to teach my own class. This past month has been helping me to feel more confident and comfortable. Before the kids go to their classes we have a group time. We often separate into smaller groups during part of this time. I will then have about 6 kids in my group. So it gives me an opportunity to kind of practice with a small group without any pressure. The class that I help with has about 10 boys and 3 girls if we're lucky. Usually there are only 1 or 2 girls. So it's always an interesting class. Anyway it's been fun and I'm going to miss it over the next month.
All the ladies that I work with are doing their best to make sure that I, and the other young people that don't plan to stay at Scott Paper long term, really do get out of there and find something better. Every day they tell us to get out. They even try to brainstorm ideas for me as to what I can do for a job. Their latest favorite is that I should become a teacher. One of the ladies even talked to her sister (who is a teacher) and asked her if I could come and observe her class some time. So, the next time I'm on afternoons I might actually go and see what it's like. I don't know if that's something that I could do or would want to do but I want to at least check out all of my options.
I've been finding it difficult to stay motivated to study for the course that I'm taking. I enjoy the topic but not so much that I really like to study it as deeply as I need to. It's difficult when I don't have any specific time that I need to have things done by. I am already a bit behind the schedule that I had set for myself. I also really miss going to an actual class. I usually enjoyed my classes in college. I always learned so much just from being there and listening. Now all my learning has to be solely through reading. Oh well. I'll just keep plugging away at it. Probably once I take the first test it will be easier because I'll have a better idea of what to expect.

Brig has had a large portion of the past two months off. With the weather and the lack of places to ride or exercise him it has been difficult to keep him going. So finally this weekend I got back on him again. The first ride on Saturday went really well. I was very happy with how it went considering all the time that he's had off. Yesterday was not so good. It was really foggy out and there were dogs running around and playing and people walking around and doing their chores and one horse being led around. It was just too much for Brig I think. I got on and we walked around and around and around for probably at least 30 minutes before he was calm enough to trot. He kept spooking, bolting, running sideways kind of rearing and occasionally throwing in a buck. But in the end I was able to walk and trot on a long rein with him stretching down nice and relaxed. Today was similar although not as successful. I took him out to the ring where he immediately spotted a blue heron, pictured above (of course not the exact one that he saw). Now Brig has learned from past experiences that blue herons are very scary monster-birds. They stay completely still until suddenly they gracefully lift into the air and fly away. Now when this happened the last time Brig decided that he should try to fly away in the other direction. Luckily for me he did not get airborn long enough to make it over the arena fence and so he had to stop when we reached it. But today he was ready. I decided that the smartest thing for me to do would be to get off, tie Brig in his stall and come back out to scare the heron away. But Brig does not forget such things easily. He was sure that the heron was either hiding or had turned invisible. We walked for a really long time tonight. He never did calm down. But we did have a great rodeo moment. Actually several rodeo moments but only one was really great. It was like a real bucking horse only in slow (warmblood aka. dumbblood) motion. He probably bucked about 6 times and traveled 30 meters before I managed to stop him. I even had two witnesses tonight. I've never had to train a horse quite like Brig. I'm finding it to be quite a challenge. In the past I had been getting after him for all his spooking and goofyness but I'm trying a new tactic now since that one wasn't giving me great results. I am staying calm and relaxed now. If he spooks I regain control and focus on giving him as much freedom as possible. The only time I react and get after him is for actually bucking. He can spook, bolt, rear (he doesn't actually rear, just runs sideways kind of rearing) and I just try to calm him down and continue with what we were doing. Yesterday it worked great, today we only had some good moments. After I was able to do a bit of trotting today and get a couple circles of fairly relaxed walk I decided that I should lunge Brig and let him burn off some energy so that maybe he'll be better tomorrow. I still focused on keeping him calm even when lunging. I really hope that he will start improving soon. At least I'm learning lots.
As far as damage that Brig has caused since my last post. He has wrecked two more buckets, he has almost managed to tear his hay feeder off the wall (just one more bolt to go), he has another big rip in his blanket and has ripped off one belly strap and there are many large and expanding holes kicked into the back wall of his stall. Apparently Brigadier is the the horse that no one want to bring in or turn out. The lady that turns him out uses horse cookies to get him outside. It is the only way that she can keep him focused. He has to come in early on Mondays because the people that turn in aren't comfortable leading him (as well as several others). The farrier has to hold Brig when I'm not there and he gets his assistant to trim his feet because no one else will hold him. The funny thing is that I never have trouble leading him anywhere. Maybe three times since I've had him have I had any trouble. But since everyone else seems to have a problem I'm now spending significantly more time working on his ground manners and leading. I have found a couple of problems but overall he really doesn't seem bad. I almost think that everyone just sees how crazy he his in his paddock running and bucking and so they assume that he will be really bad. Because when I ask what he does that is bad (so that I can work on it) they end up saying that he doesn't really do anything. I think that it's mostly that he just doesn't pay attention. And that's a problem that he has under saddle too. It's a tough one to fix.
Well I think that I've made up for some of my lack of posting lately with this long one. It's probably pretty boring to most people though since it's mostly about Brig. But too bad for you, my life is fairly uneventful these days.