Weekend away

Well I am really looking forward to this weekend. I am off to visit my younger brother at university for the first time. I do not always get along with my family great as I have been somewhat of a black sheep in the past and certain people in my family seem to resent that. However my younger brother and I are close and are more like friends than anything else. We talk on a regular basis, to the point where we bought our new phone contracts together in order to be able to talk as much as we want for free. We also spend a lot of time together and as often as we can include each other in our plans. Throughout my time at university despite him being 5 years younger than me my parents would allow him to travel to see me regularly. And so we would have a lot of fun and laugh a lot doing our usual stupid stuff together. Now he is an adult himself and off to university it is my turn to reciprocate and crash his student house in the same way. Since he left things at home have been tough as I have no one to offload to or go to for help with things that are bothering me. I have had no one to do things with,watch TV with, or until I get my car insured no one to drive me around. So I am quite excited to go down and see him in his new environment, with his new friends and experience his new life. It will really be the first time that we will be able to go out to pubs, clubs and bars and so should be quite an experience for the both of us, something of a new chapter. However, although I am looking forward to this weekend there are some things which I know are going to be hard. In the past I was a somewhat heavy drinker and generally a pretty bad example of a Christian. Since Lent though I gave up drinking and have been trying to live my life in a much more Godly way. There have been tests and trials during this time, yet I have always had my Christian friends close by to help me stay strong. This is the first time I will be encountering the "old" lifestyle I used to live without help and support close by. I know my brother is there, but he seems to me to be going through a wilderness period at the moment in which he struggles to see God outside of the Church environment. I am sure I have the strength to avoid slipping in to the "old" habits but I know it is going to be a real test, a real trial of fire. In addition to everything else this weekend I will also be going along with my brother to his local Church. There are two reasons for this, the first is I am curious as to what his new Church is like. The second is that I know how hard it can be leaving home and trying to build a new life in a new city where you don't know anyone. In this environment it is easy to let Church fall by the wayside, especially when faith is a struggle to begin with. I hope that my brother will be able to start to feel at home in his new Church quickly and that it will be a source of support for him in his 4 years at uni. I know that I regret not returning to the Church earlier and if I can help him find one where he can belong then I can hopefully save him some of the pain and suffering I endured in my years at university.