Jenny B's Blog

I have just celebrated my two year anniversary of attending HTB with helping on an amazing alpha weekend.  When I said last time I was really bad at the journaling thing I wasn't joking 4 months have gone by since my last instalment!!!  The first time I went to HTB I got lost and never found the church - i managed to find SPOS (by looking for the spire) and tried to follow the map to htb to no avail - after completely missing the 5 and the beginning of the 7 I decided to give up and go home.  Looking back now it was probably a good thing, why? because I was only familiar with small churches and every time I went to a large one I didn't like it.  I think had I found it that evening I probably would have had that reaction and never gone back.  When I had properly moved to london after getting confirmed in bristol - I determined to try again.  This time I contacted the church and they said they were having the party in the park (2005) and I should come along.  When I arrived I got introduced to a pastorate who were merrily picnicing and as it was near the end of term they invited me to go to their home group which I did.  After spending the afternoon with them I felt so much more comfortable in the 5 pm service than I would have if I had just walked in off the street.  So I went to home group over the summer and then started going to pastorate in the autumn - I also enroled in the bible school pre cursor to bible track and started to fill in some of the blanks in my knowledge of the bible.  In january I helped on my first alpha course with my pastor as group leader which was such an amazing experience.  On the alpha weekend I received the gift of tongues - something I had been petrified about only a year earlier.  In the new year 2006 I moved in with my first Christian flatmate which was a great experience and really helped me to grow in my faith, he was a former htb member who left with one of the church plants.  He had been a pastor and worked for the church so was a great inspiration.  In my new flat I  started up a new small group in our pastorate which is still going.