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Showing posts from August, 2006

The Chikankata challenge...

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"our ambulance broke down, resulting in the death of one newly born baby and severe complications in another delivery case..." Nick will tell you more here 'Two weeks ago our ambulance broke down, resulting in the death of one newly born baby and severe complications in another delivery case. On Friday we were given the news that the Chikankata Hospital Ambulance is in need of an ambulance itself as it is very ill! Basically we need a new ambulance desperately.' Here's the idea... to find 200 people willing and daft enough to donate £10 towards a new ambulance. The 'catch' is that donatees (obviously it should be donors, but donatees seems to have more of a ring!) can only donate £10 and not a penny more ! My role is to find 10 people to feed into Nick's syndicate. Are you up for it? Email me - and I send you an address where to send your cheques to - or paypal me and I'll write the cheque. ----- You can read more of the ministry of this

The meeting of the Clans...

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My Dad is amazing. We celebrated his 80th this weekend and it was great to have the whole family together apart from Ben who is in Zambia or Malawi. We enjoyed each other's company, sharing stories and listening to Dad sharing his and our history. It all culminated in a odd tour up to our office - I am now in the same role as my Grandfather was just before the war! Hence the interest - then a trip up the Training College tower.

The humbled church...

Charles Ringma "There is little point for Christians to pine for a return to the good old days when Christianity was more dominant in Western culture. Furthermore, there is little point in blaming the Enlightenment or science or technology or urbanization. The way forward is both to recognize that the church in the past has also failed and that the present difficulty may well be a blessing in disguise. There is a new opportunity for the church, stripped of a previous power and influence, to exercise the power of authentically living the gospel. A humbled church, like the humiliated Christ, may be able to be a greater witness in our world than the church as the guardian of Christendom." No time to comment I'm afraid, but I'm not sure what more could be added!

The Prayer of Jabez falls short in Africa...

I've been interested in some of the chat that has been floating around regarding God's blessing. I'm sure the Prayer of Jabez fuels some of that thinking but I find myself wondering if the whole concept of blessing may be a tad more profound than health and wealth (whatever currency!). I found this tucked away in my drafts which I found challenging when I read it. The Prayer of Jabez falls short in Africa by David Batstone. An interesting reflection ( here )

Isle of Wight 2006

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A good break - glad we were able to do our bit for the drought stricken south and global warming in general by getting out our tent! Enjoyed getting to know my Sister-in-law's foster kids who couldn't quite equate us as ministers of religion!!! "Vicars don't do that....Vicars don't like U2, Coldplay or Snow Patrol... Vicars don't have sideburns!!" She thought The Salvation Army was a chain of Pubs for old people!! so there were some interesting conversations! Personal highlights again Quarr Abbey where ex-college librarian was a novice monk for a while and is fondly remember by the monks there as the sneezing monk!!! The Garlic Farm which just thinking about it creates a Pavlov experience in my mouth! And seeing Eryn go from being a "oooh I don't like water on my face" to being quite frankly a water nutter!! Good to be back? I feel a little behind the lines!

Isle of Wight 2006

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Here we come .... again!

Ski-ing with the Paradise Zone..

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Well I returned to Poplar a little quicker than I expected. We only left last week but the Youth Club 's final trip to the snow dome was in jeopardy as there wasn't a mini-bus driver. I was more than happy to oblige! It was lovely to see everyone and to have fun in the snow in summer! It was great to see Patrick's face light up when he saw me in Poplar's breakfast club and to stand there as he promised to bring untold rubbish. Oh and Keeley taught me to predictive text!!

Mission as a foretaste...

Signposts quote from The Missional Leader : Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World "The question is familiar: “What do you mean by missional church?” Even though the term is now used everywhere, there is still confusion about it. As we begin this book, here is a brief description of what we mean by the phrase.God is about a big purpose in and for the whole of creation. The church has been called into life to be both the means of this mission and a foretaste of where God is is inviting all creation to go. Just as its Lord is a mission-shaped God, so the community of God’s people exists, not for themselves but for the sake of the work. Mission is therefore not a program or project some people in the Church do from time to time (as in “mission trip”, “mission budget” and so on); the church’s very nature is to be God’s missionary people. We use the word missional to mark this big difference. Mission is not about a project or a budget or a one-off event somewhere; its not eve