physio and phlute surgery!

Hello,

Things are going well although today was a tough day with a few tense moments involving reversing vans and brick walls! Cast are great and its amazing working and travelling and acting with the same people day in day out - amazing and I'm learning lots! Not least how to drive a white van that is bigger than I can ever remember - although I am proud to announce that I have not an inkling how to park the monster as the first time I drove it I scraped paint off a gate onto the van and most recently parked it ON a school garden with photographic evidence to prove it!

Host family continue to be amazing and so loving and I am excited because this weekend its the first public performance and hopefully mummy will be flying over to see it - if the snow allows her!

Praise the Lord for health, host family, the way in which I have been looked after the past couple of months and for this work.

It's been an emotional few weeks as my friend Fi left to go back to Oz and the flat that once was K, Fi and Rach is now at an end and I miss those girls lots.

Please pray for focus when studying the bible and people to study the bible with - and for godly relationships with the cast.

Hope to see you all very soon,

Rach x

oh and I had my first ever physio treatment this week with an amazing physio called Ed who fixed my shoulder and gave me the treatment for free as I work for Riding Lights - praise the Lord.

And the flute playing I thought had nearly come to an end but alas no! My flute is having surgery this week as its keys were sticking - probably due to amazing flute playing so I have a replacement which I don't love nearly as much but boy does the sound still sound as dreadful as ever! God bless those Yorkshire children!

x

since the last time...

Hello,

So I have now left Cheshire - and what a fun time I had and what a blessing to be away from the city and to walk dogs as part of my job. My friends in Cheshire held a leaving party for me and they were such pets to me and I really wouldn't have remained sane without them - yes folks I did say sane...I am sane!

Last week was a tad scary but God answered prayer as always by providing amazing friends who offered to help store/transport my belongings to York. I threw out 5 bin bags of stuff AND gave 6 black bin bags to charity - seriously how did I have that much stuff to give away! And throw away! Madness and sickening really - too much money spent on things I don't need nor like! There's definitely a lesson there but no doubt the rubbish collection will start again soon when I am living elsewhere...but for now I am living out of 2 suitcases - it should be one - I know- but I still have household stuff in there plus I had to bring my stupid tax stuff up!

Two days into rehearsal for Melchiors Magical Mystery Quest and I am loving it - its daunting - a show will be performed with 5 actors in about 13 days and there are moments where the old flute will be getting an airing except the old flute player ain't too sure if she can play the thing anymore - hmmmmmmmm methinks the kids of York are in for an interesting time!

Have laughed alot over the past few days - hysterically at times but all with good reason. Riding Lights are an amazing company and I am delighted to be working with them. And tomorrow we have a wee prayer and breakfast morning before rehearsals - how ace is that! Always reminding ourselves why the co. exists and why we exist! And I have been blessed with an amazing host family while I am here - Rachel and Andrew Gray are SO generous. I come home from rehearsals and they have dinner on a plate for me!!!!!!!!!! And their kids are great - Emily (13) and Peter (10) - and get this, Andrew is an inventor and Rachel is a professional cellist - obviously I have NOT brought the flute out yet to break their ears - I actually left it in the theatre tonight.

Very thankful to God for this work, for my host family and their kids, for working with a Christian theatre co with some of my closest friends from uni,

Would appreciate prayer for what to do this weekend, sense of direction when in York!!! (every time I walk I seem to get lost!) and energy for the rehearsals as the performance dates get closer and for friends at St Mikes church where my host family go

Methinks that is it for now!

Hope that you are all well

x rach

seriously...

I started this blog and I could not foresee where it might end up and I still do not!

This evening I got a call from Riding Lights offering me a place on their voluntary 8 month tour of the UK with 'Roughshod' a co. that tours prisons, schools and communities performing and running workshops. I was also offered one of their Christmas shows starting beg of Nov which is a few days after I finish in Cheshire!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Lord...I am awe struck and amazed and excited and conscious of praying and settling before making any decisions but basically I have been offered 10 months work where I may not always be earning but I will always be fed and housed, an offer I could never have imagined nor deserve but I am soooooo grateful and thankful to GOD for the opportunity.

Do let me know your thoughts but I think I already know my response to these offers.

Will keep you posted!

Thank you God

Amen!

tiredness

i am tired today and am in york staying with my friends al and hannah and am so grateful to them as they are letting me stay with them while im here to audition for riding lights!

big day tomorrow 10-1230 - workshop
2- interview
5 - audition

really don't know how i feel about this all as im so thankful to god for the opportunity to go but haven't spent alot of time working on it!! So please pray for energy and focus for tomorrow and that I would do a great job with the skills that I have.

thanks

lots of love from a very tired rach!

how to pluck a duck!

Hello

So I am in Shropshire and so far I am loving it despite missing my London buddies alot but so far I've been kept so busy and entertained that I feel like I haven't even realized that I'm away from there yet!

Sandy and Sally are amazing and wonderful and hilarious and so generous! There are 2 dogs, Merry and Molly and 2 cats Mickie and Fritha and an orchard and a vegetable and fruit garden. I feel so at home here and am eating like a queen. It is quite a delicate job to shadow a wonderful man such as Sandy as he is so great and independent and fun that I don't want to stalk him nor make him feel useless so please please pray that I would be a great help to him and that we would continue to make each other laugh throughout the day! Please pray that I would have energy to help both Sandy and Sally with whatever they need help with.

Praise the Lord that I arrived so safe on Monday - it was an amazing answer to prayer - I did not take 1 wrong turn, I felt like I was driving to somewhere I knew despite never having been there before and I loved driving there having little mini celebrations as I followed very calmly!!!(Totally God given) the googlemap instructions!

I am so blessed to be here but I really hope that I'm not leaving my flat in London and my 2 wee flatmates with lots to do! Wee Fi is back from travelling (hurray!) and I am sad to not see her and K, but I'm sure I will see them soon.

Funny thing happened yesterday - a lady called over to say hello to Sandy and as she was leaving in her car she asked Sandy if he wanted a duck - so he looked in the boot, I was about to leap and bound off the doorstep and go and see the cute wee thing when he pulled out 2 ducks tied together at the neck - a male and female - dead! shot fresh that morning - amazing but as some of you will know from my gelatine marshmallow experience (the marshmallows that tasted of hoof- blurgh!)I am so nearly veggie! I have never seen a dead duck before and all I could think of was that I would have to pluck a duck for dinner! But apparently they will hang somewhere for a few days before eating them - you learn something new every day!

I think in my 2 days here I am struggling a bit with when is rest time and when is work time which is making it hard to know when to read the Bible, I am praying lots though.

Friday (tomo) Sandy has his op so please pray for a good recovery and a safe procedure.
And praise the Lord Riding Lights called and asked if I would like to audition on their Recall day on 22nd Sept and I said I would check with S&S and if it suited then I would love to be there. They are happy for me to go so it would seem beneficial that I delayed the audition so that I could stay in Shropshire to help and yet I am blessed with another opportunity to audition.

So yes miss all of you who are reading this and I really hope to see you all soon.

Rachel xx

Work for 3 possibly 6 weeks!

Ahhhhhh it has happened already - like it does every day but I so often never acknowledge it or remember what I've prayed for!

I am moving to Shropshire for the next little while in the life of Rachel Wilcock where I will hopefully be a blessing to the parents of my friend Anna Tennent who asked me to help her parents move house, and as they are slightly older than I am hopefully I can help them about the house, help them pack and also make sure Anna's daddy doesn't use his arm after surgery this Friday.

Prayer points:

Please give thanks that this job came along and for answered prayer.

Please pray for safe travel to Shropshire - I am driving to Shropshire in Anna's car!

And please pray that I would be a blessing to Sandy and Sally (Anna's parents) and that I would be a great help to them.

Please pray that Sandy's operation goes well and that he wouldn't mind an eejit NI girl following him around telling him he can't lift things!

This could be for 3 weeks, possibly 6 weeks or maybe 1 day if Anna's parents take one look at me and decide 'er...no!' So thankful for this job and am not sure what the game plan will be but sure we shall take it one day at a time and I will just try my best to help them as best I can!

Until next time

Rachel xx

Things to sort: my plane ticket ( hopefully in next few weeks now that I have an income) and when to move and how to move out of my London flat (aw!)

OH and I cancelled the Riding Lights audition - for now I feel my focus should be on helping Sandy and Sally and training in Oz...that is until I write next week and tell you I feel I should become an investment banker!!!!!!!!

workety work work!

ok so I don't intend to write on this 16 times a day but as I am temping on reception and there is NOTHING to do I thought I might write something that is in my head and which I believe is totally answered prayer.

I finished working at St James Clerkenwell on 31st August, and started the week temping in an office in the CITY - ah! ppl wearing business suits! Worked with a lovely girl called Clare but am not due to be back there until 17th September...btw for those of you who know my geographical abilities my job was to field calls from ppl enquiring about shipping freight (seriously enthralling!) and so people would name a town and then I'd have to put them through to the right person depending on what continent the town was in!!!!!!!!!!! I have a feeling quite a bit of freight is lost at the moment! oops!

Anyway then had 2 shifts booked at the market research company I've been working at part time over the last few years - then alarm bells struck! If I am trying to earn money to go to OZ then I am going to need to earn more money and get more work than 3 shifts a week and also possibly commit to one job full time for the rest of the year! So I pray and ask God for help with this -

Prayer answer - got work today for 3 days at Central YMCA on reception - filled a nice unemployment gap perfectly!
I have no work for Tuesday (9th) (yet!).
Wednesday (10th) and Thursday (11th) I am in York at an audition for Riding Lights - my focus is to train but this opportunity arose so I took it, plus visiting York means I get to visit my friends Hannah, Al and Sammy.
Friday (12th) I am looking after my cousins in Charlton.
The following week I start again with the City job for a week and a half and that brings us up to the end of the month. But am still able to work Mon (15th) and Tues (16th)

Have applied to work in a couple of Starbucks near my home, chatted to a friend about working at Arsenal football club ( as a receptionist not a footballer!!!!) and have had some very encouraging talks with ppl in support of my training in Sydney so praise the Lord for that!

I absolutely know that God is in control, and that he answers prayers. I will try my best ( no doubt with encouragement from friends and family) to trust in Him through these next few months as I wait and see what is in store for me.

Please pray for a job for the next few months as I try to sort out Visas/flights/health tests/etc and finance that! Thank you!

Hello, ok please forgive me whilst I try to come to terms with my first ever blog -eeek!

I have decided to set this up to keep a record of what happens over the next few months as I endeavour to train in Children's Ministry in Sydney, Australia. I have set this up as the only way that this will happen is by the grace of God and by answers to prayers, and I am excited to see how they are answered and have no doubt that when they are they will be answered in a greater, huger way than I ever expected. It's also to keep all of you who are supporting me and who are behind me in this venture up to date with the massive ramblings of the girl they call Rachel Wilcock...and because it's a blog you don't even have to reply to the ramblings! SCORE!

My aim for the next few months is to raise enough money to train in Children's Ministry to become better equipped to teach children about God and to use my skills in acting and drama to do so! Reason being that I love God, love children and love acting so a job that enables me to do all 3 would be amazing!