Tim & Ali & Dan's Blog site

Future of church?

2008-09-09T09:20:00.002+01:00

I was sent thing video, very amusing at first, but actually a very good serious well produced video. This is why we need more youth workers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lkmvHVtekA

Proud Daddy

2008-09-06T20:00:00.003+01:00

Well a new term started, Ali back to school and slightly more scary is Dan starting school. There he is in his uniform, happens to be the very same uniform I wore when I started at that school 23 years ago!

I am also very proud of his grasp of complex theology. I know he is only 4, as far as we can tell he hasn't understood enough about life sin and Jesus to make a commitment to him yet BUT, as i was putting him to bed tonight something quite profound happened. Every night we share things that have made us happy and sad and then we pray about them. Today's sad thing was all the rain which meant we couldn't play outside. So I prayer for some sunshine tomorrow. As soon as we stopped praying, he looked at me and said

"God made the rain and the sun, he can do anything"

As if that wasn't enough, he then went on to explain that there are three bits but 1 God.

"A mummy and daddy and the holy spirit. "

I said 'close!',
Dan said

"oh yeah, sorry, Father, Jesus and the holy spirit. but they all make God."

Okay so some of you reading would point out there are fine details of 1+1+1=1 but he is 4. I haven't ever explained it to him! Maybe it was vegetales?

I read a BOOK!!!

2008-08-26T21:33:00.002+01:00

It is Very Very rare that I bother picking up a book, my preferences are things that will provide much amusement (Tabloid Bible), or trying to understand people better (When generations collide), occasional a biography especially if it is a testimony of someone seeing God at work in their lives. Whilst at Soul Survivor I had the great privilege of getting to know a chap by the name of John Robinson. The first contact i had with him was having to ask him to move his chairs from our area so we could get set up. Unlike previous exhibitions we have been at, he was very polite apologized that all their lounging around and slowly shifted the chairs and stuff! We had some great times, Singing annoying songs to each other from the main meetings, I nicked his spot lights (1 x 500w flood lights!) He called a medic for me, I stole his phone and sung that annoying song as his ring tone, which finally played when John was in Tesco with his bags full of shopping. He got the whole tool shed to sing happy 55th Birthday to me over the PA system, we moved his entire display on the last night to on top of a wall in the corner, manging to extent our display all over his patch! Haha, we had a GREAT time. He was also part of the prayer ministry team in the main meetings.

Along the way, I discovered his tattooing gang based history, amazed by what God had done in him I loved joking with him even more! 1 VERY slow afternoon I started to read one of the books on his stall I discovered it was a book he had written about his life. Well at the time I only read the first half chapter then the book was lent to someone else. I eventually bought the book, and i just read it in an afternoon, man an addictive read, i genuinely couldn't put it down!

Nobody's Child is Johns book written whilst he was running the bus ministry for the message trust in Manchester. An Easy read, which suits me, but an AMAZING testimony of God at work. John was in and out of children's homes and eventually in and out of Jail, and a failed marriage, but in amongst all of that God was calling him all the time. My favourite quote is in the last chapter when he was reading all his childhood notes, and he says he remembers speaking to one of the Psychiatrists, who said

I am at a loss as to how i can help you, I've never met someone who has suffered so much rejection and abuse who hasn't managed to kill themselves.

Go read the book hear more about what God has done!

Summer is finally calming down!

2008-08-26T20:53:00.004+01:00

Well I have finally finished my epic summer. Togo, 5 days, WYnet Camp, 6 days then soul Survivor. Many, many highlights to share but I will restrict myself to a couple from each place

Togo: Getting 205 Ntcham New Testaments into the hands of people who need them ,also the epic journey to the top of the mountain :) A whole lot of stuff already posted about Togo... go read it!

WYnet camp: Definitely Thursday evening, getting all the leaders releasing stuff in prayer over all the peeps who were at camp. It was an amazing privilege to stand there with a bunch of wonderful amazing young people all desperate to see God move in them an through them. Also amazing to see Young people desperate to see God working in their lives and that they were prepared to be open to God using us. Okay i say us, i am really thinking wow God wants to use ME. I somehow lost sight out that the last couple years. All the routine of summer camp, easy to organise and put everything in place, but being open to God using you, that never fits into a plan! It sort of revived my desperation to see God move in my life and to use me at every given opportunity. Thanks gang for being open to that, thanks campers for being open to God!!!

Soul Survivor: Going into 10 days of Camping and exhibiting already tired is NEVER a good plan. Thank you Steve for putting up with me and helping me get through! This was the first time I have thought, maybe i am actually getting to old for this job! I hate camping at the best of times let alone in Gale force wind and flood producing down pours. We made a lot of good contacts, had a LOT of great fun with our Neighbours from Ellel Ministries in the Tool shed exhibition. A lot of the time was blurred with the news that Christophe one of the translators in Togo had died. I knew it would happen, he had stomach Cancer, but trying to deal with that, a colleague of 10 years, and 20 people to call and inform was not easy in the middle of exhibiting.

Glory fills the earth

2008-08-06T09:56:00.005+01:00

Don't get me wrong I love hearing and finding new worship songs. The thing is, sometimes I wonder how much is spent on finding nice words that fit the melody vs words that are scripturally sound and appropriate.

for example, listening to a CD from a popular youth orientate church meeting, and 1 lyric "The train of his robe fills the temple" now to you or i who are aware of the monarchy and what that might look like it is fine. The the less educated / foreign, trying to relate the 1036 to Bristol into worshiping our lord Jesus could be a bit harder.

"Washed by the blood of the lamb". NOT knowing the full context of that statement does conjure up some rather disgusting images akin to gladiator or blade ...

I was in a meeting yesterday busy singing a newer song that i actually quite like, but then i can across a line in the chorus ...

Holy is the lord God almighty
The earth is filled with his glory
Holy is the lord God Almighty
The earth is filled with his glory

It stopped me in my tracks. YES the lord is holy. Can't argue with that, great lyrics for a sound about lifting him him and glorifying him. BUT is the earth really filled with his glory? When i think of the word filled i think about every opening, nook cranny and crevice is filled. there is no gaps, no space, no extra bit can squeeze in. And to be honest i don't think the earth is filled like that. Having just come back form Africa with a team visiting a translation project, we were constantly faced with needs. Poverty was everywhere, illness, death, dark spirituality. How is is possible for me to stand and try to declare to the world that the Lord' God Almighty's Glory is filling the earth?

Togo Team Update 5

2008-07-15T19:12:00.003+01:00

Monday 7th
Our final language lesson with Samuel was good, we learnt about numbers,
money and counting money, which is different from other counting. We learnt
‘power tools’ which are key phrases and questions to help us learn more
Ncham vocab. So things like, what is that called? Where is _____? How
do you say _________ in Ncham? We then headed for a walk around town to
buy a few supplies and practice a few phrases, we even stopped off for a
Coke. In the afternoon the girls had their hair braided and the boys
headed over to visit Samuel's farm. In the evening we did our daily devotionals.
Every evening we look at a part of Jesus ministry as an example for our
own lives and ministries. Each team member takes a few turns during the
trip to lead the devotional, share a bit about the passage and ask a few
discussion questions. We talk about the day, sing some songs, do some
bible declarations and pray before bed.

Tuesday 8th
This was the first of our 2 day family visits. We spilt the team into 2
groups, the first group headed to Madame Pierre’s house, she is the lady
who is doing the cooking for us. They headed out to the market, peeled
Yams, pounded FooFoo, ground Tomatoes to make the sauce and eventually ate
it all. They also made Bean cakes, which are white beans cooked off,
added to flour and water, whisked up then deep fried. The second group
headed to Samuel’s house to spend the day with his family, they also
headed off to the market, then they made the dough for doughnuts so that
it would rise. They learnt how to sweep, to wash and how to cut up fish
to cook, and rice, all done on a charcoal fire! After lunch, everyone
gathered at Samuel’s house to fry and taste the doughnuts. Late in the
afternoon we all headed back to the guesthouse for a debrief looking at
how much vocab we had learnt. We talked a lot about the lifestyle and
everyone’s simple lack of ‘stuff’. Just before dinner arrived, the tailor
and seamstress turned up to take our orders, joy was had in trying to
describe what wondrous creations had been drawn and making sure all the
correct measurements were with the correct designs and the correct cloth!
The prices were excellent and everyone was excited to see how they would
turn out!

Wednesday 9th
Today the two teams swapped houses so that everyone could get a full
experience, but also to be able to compare the two houses and lifestyles.
When Madame Pierre isn’t cooking for us, she runs a hair salon in town
with a good number of apprentices. Her husband used to be the keyboardist
for the translation team but now runs a women’s development NGO in Bassar.
They are quite well off in comparison to Samuel’s family. They are also
a bit older and have been working for much longer! As if the day hadn’t
been long enough, we had an early supper and then headed out by motorbike
relay taking the team to the Church of Pentecost on the road out of town
for a 1800 service. Much fun is had on the bikes and an evening service
quite suits the team! At the start of the service there was literally
about 8 people and the team in the church. As the sun went down, it got
darker, and after only a couple songs it was time for Tim’s 3rd preach.
Just as he started to preach, one of the ladies on the front row handed him
a torch, it became apparent there was no electricity in this church
building! Not exactly a carols by candlelight and certainly a new
experience having to preach whilst holding notes and a torch to see them!
Samuel was in good form and the team appreciated only having to sit through 1
translation this time. The pastor however was not an Ncham speaker and so
he had someone sat beside him translating from Samuel’s Ncham into his
native Ewe! I guess that is not so uncommon here. The motorbike relay
home was a little more exciting, in the dark and also the rain! Just as
the pastor was saying the closing prayer the rain fell, and boy was it loud.
As soon as we stepped outside we discovered it wasn’t as bad as expected,
the tin roof made it seem a lot worse!

Thursday 10th
At every church service we have made an offer to the congregation to
reduce the price of the Ncham new testament to make it more affordable for
more people. When it was first published it was 1000cfa (approx 800cfa =
£1) then they reduced it to 500 because no-one was buying them, so we
made the offer to reduce it to 300cfa and cover the extra costs ourselves.
Thursday morning was the day we had set for people to come to the
translation office to buy the New Testaments or any of the 4 Old Testament
book that have been published. It seemed like a long morning 0800 – 1130
but at the end of the morning, 150 had been sold! It was a tremendous
encouragement to the team, and also to the translators. Word had even
spread so that a few people from the Catholic Church bought some and even a
non-believer who was fixing the car of another guy who was buying bibles,
wanted one! The only downer was half the team getting sun burnt. So
the afternoon was spent slapping on the after-sun, drinking lots of water
and relaxing!

Friday 11th
Due to sun burn problems some of the planned excursions were put on hold,
a few did make it out to visit the bakery. They met with the baker and
then headed out towards the mill. The wheat gets ground in one room, then
in the next room, it is made into dough. Every baker has their own
recipe, and ours likes to add a bit of nutmeg which of course must be
ground before adding. Water and yeast and sugar and salt and a tablet of
bicarbonate of soda is all mixed up and then slowly added to the flour in
the mixer. The mixer has three parts. 1 – the motor linked to 2- car
axle with a fly wheel on it, adapted to take a dough hook instead of a
drive shaft. Which sat in 3- the bowl with a raised middle which sat on
a pillar so the operator could turn the bowl whilst the hook mixed the
dough. When everyone has had a good debate and is happy, it is pulled
out and slapped though a machine that can only be described as a giant
wrangler, which kneads the dough. From there, into a cloth sack and onto
a motorbike, off to the bakers house where it is made into 200 loaves of
bread. Some of which took the form of crocodiles, an elephant and even a
mobile phone! Post lunch was time to rest before we headed out to the
local gospel Radio station. Not something a team has done before, but
GREAT fun. We introduced ourselves live on radio and after a little
explanation as to why the team was here, we introduced ourselves in Ncham.
We then sang a couple of songs and got REALLY hot in a tiny studioesque room
in the back of someone’s house! The station covers 4300km2 which is
pretty large, but no-one can know the number of listeners. Having
motorbike relayed the team back to the guesthouse; Tim and Samuel go off
to the station to record a sermon. A wonderful opportunity to give the
gospel and make an appeal, encouraging people if they have responded to go and
find a church to get involved in. As we settle into Devotions the tailor and
seamstress arrive with the finished clothes. The team are very pleased
bar 1 dress that isn’t finished yet, due to some design questions and
discussion!

Saturday 12th
The few who made bread, rise early (see what I did there?) to go and bake
it, but upon arrival we find it has already all been baked, they started
at 0100 and were done by the time we go there at 0630. A little
disappointing, but we did leave with 3000cfa worth of bread we had helped make
which is probably far too much bread for a small team to eat! We didn’t
want that much, but we didn’t have the right amount of money, and so they
piled more bread onto the pile!

Sunday 13th
We headed out early to go to Tatale (tan-ta-lea) at 0730 to go visit a
church. Tatale is an Ncham speaking town over the border in Ghana.
Languages aren’t always restricted to country boundaries in fact there are
more Ncham speakers in Ghana than Togo. They are slightly different
dialects, but the Ghanaians can fully understand and read the Togolese.
We crossed the border fine, and got to the church to find everyone
emptying out and carrying everything to town. After further investigation
we find that one of the church members died early in the morning and the
whole church is going to run the funeral and the burial. So we go and
find a different church to attend and share there instead! We hung out
for a long while eating our packed lunch at the first church waiting for
the pastor to turn up so we can have a brief meeting with him before
heading home.

And so here we are!

Togo Team Update 4 (July 1st - July 6th)

2008-07-08T12:06:00.003+01:00

We have been busy, hot, tired, wet and excited but not all the same time!
Tim’s throat infection has cleared up, and bar a wee headache here and
there we are all in good health.

Tuesday
We managed to get out in the morning to visit all the people we were
supposed to see on Monday. We started with a Mototaxi relay up to the
traditional chief, only to find he had popped out to see the Prefet. 90
minutes later he arrived back to welcome us in his ‘palace’. It is the
one situation requiring the best practised etiquette. The team did really
well, helped by Samuel doing all the hard work for us! From there we
visited the Prefet, he is the government representative in the area,
responsible for the implementation of policy. He is not however a
representative of the people to the government like our MP’s at home. From
there we visited the Police chief, who was very happy to see us, and even
happier to identify that Ryan Giggs who plays for his team, Manchester
United, was from Wales like Richy and Beth! From there we headed up the
road a bit to visit Christof at his house. He is one of the translators
and he has been off sick for 8 months dealing with cancer. From there
home for a late lunch!
In the afternoon we relaxed and played lots of cards!
PRAY for Christof, Samuel’s prayer is that he will get
to know God for sure before he dies.
PRAY for the rest of the team working without him and trying to
sensitively plan for the future.

Wednesday
After a relaxed start to the day and a quick supply run, we headed down to
the translation office to spend some time with the team learning more
about the process they go through to do the translation. They were in the
process of checking the first draft of 1 Samuel 29. The first translator
had translated from French and a couple of other versions into Ncham. The
checking process gets more people involved and compares the text to the
original Hebrew to make sure it is as accurate as possible. There is
plenty of discussion over terms and words and meanings until they agree
the correct way to explain the situation in Ncham.
In the afternoon we started to do some language learning. Basic greetings
are a little complex. There is morning, afternoon and evening greetings
in both singular and plural. There are a few changes required with
respect to generations too! The team did great and then we did a small
walk about to practice our greetings.
PRAISE for being able to start speaking Ncham.
PRAY for patience as we move on from basic greetings.
PRAISE for 1 Samuel now done in second draft!

Thursday
Anthropology is the study of people and culture and at a very basic level
is about observing and for us, comparing. So first thing in the morning we
headed out for a long walk around town, practising all our greetings as we
went. After the walk we stopped and had a fab discussion about the
difference between Bassar and home, and some of the culture we had
observed and how people dress and behave and what work they do. IT is
HOT and sticky by the time we get home, thank God for running water today!
In the afternoon we do our second bout of language learning looking at
things like yes and no, please and thank you, sorry, excuse me, and my name
is, and what is your name. These are a bit harder and take more
practice, but we get there and have even been given Ncham names!!
PRAISE for being able to safely go around town, welcomed by so many people.

Friday
Folks are feeling a bit tired, a bit sick of red sauce and ready for a
break. It is okay, people get by with the delightful thoughts of Kara on
Saturday, a swimming pool and some shopping! After breakfast we do a walk
around another part of town, and attempt to draw some maps. This helps us
to recognise what is at the centre of town and get some idea of what
people might consider important. In Bassar, it is the market! Afternoon
is spent sleeping by most and relaxing by the rest.
PRAY for the energy levels of the team

Saturday
Had a day over in Kara which is about an hour and a half away from Bassar.
Kara is the home of the SIL headquarters in Togo, also the home of
Sheila Crunden. SIL is Wycliffe’s partner in Togo, they are involved in Bible
Translation and literacy work out here. Sheila is a Wycliffe UK
member working here in Togo and she was part of the Ncham New Testament
project way back in the 70’s. It was wonderful to hear her testimony
and hear how God has challenged her and used her here in Togo, a great
encouragement to the team. We picked up Becky that we met on the journey
up last week and headed to the market to buy cloth. It was a nice market,
not much hassle and a vast array of cloth. Lunch was at the hotel Kara,
chicken and chips went down a treat and were followed by a swim in
the hotel pool!
PRAISE for the opportunity to chill out for a day.

Sunday
This morning we were at the AOG (Assemblies of God) church that Samuel attends, it was like 3
½ hours long, lots of choirs and groups singing, 45 minutes of sermon by
Tim, but only because he was translated into French and then into Ncham!
Then there was a massive storm which made it almost impossible to hear
what was going on. We eventually discover the pastor teaching about
communion, which then followed! The afternoon was spent sleeping and
chilling, and the evening meeting we were going to attend got moved until
Wednesday. We also made an offer to the people in the church to buy
discounted New Testaments at the office on Thursday. We shall see what
comes of that later in the week!

Togo team update 3

2008-07-01T16:04:00.002+01:00

Hey folks we are up in Bassar!

Monday afternoon as we write this email, we are all a little bored and
slightly claustrophobic because it has been raining since 0300 in the
morning and we haven't been able to leave the house yet!

Friday we were still in Lomé, we did some cultural orientation in the
morning then Tim and Samuel ran around town exchanging money and buying
supplies. Bassar has a population of around 40,000(?) but there are
something's you simply can't buy. Jam for example. In the afternoon we
visited the Togo Bible Society office to find our selves in the middle of
their postponed weekly chapel meeting! It was wonderful to find out more
about what they do in Togo, especially as they are partners in the Bassar
project. We then headed off to the Wycliffe Togo office only to find
that the head of the office (Napo) who is an Ncham (the language in Bassar) speaker
was in the north of the country. Maybe we will try him again at the end of
the trip.

a.. PRAY for the Togo Bible society, they are looking to expand their
team so that can do more translation and more distribution.
b.. PRAY for Napo the head of Wycliffe Togo as he travels that he will
clearly communicate the need to have bibles in mother tongues.

Saturday we were up early, breakfast at 6, the bus was an hour late to
pick us up, some would say "that is Africa". We loaded up and headed north.
The driver was very good, knowing all the best places to buy more supplies
especially fruit along the way. We got stocked up with bananas, mangoes,
pineapples and oranges. The first three are not really available in Bassar.

Along the way we stopped for lunch in Sokodé, and met up with Becky Snead
who is a Wycliffe UK member working on a dictionary project. It was a
welcome break from the bus! We arrived in Bassar at 1600 which gave us a
couple hours to check the place out, set up the mozzie nets, get the water
filter going and connect up the newly bought gas cooker. Bar a tap that
wouldn't turn off and a bit of tape required for the window screen, the
house was wonderful.

a.. Pray for Becky, she is trying to get the dictionary in a state to
publish by December.
b.. PRAISE for the safe, trouble free journey.

Sunday was our first church experience. We attended Bassar Baptist
church, which was a wonderful gentle introduction to African church life. The
service was a bit hot, but not too long, and Tim preached for the first
time on this trip. The whole team were clapping and moving in the worship,
even recognising some of the songs we could sing along in English. We even had
a chuckle when they pulled the hymn books out for two songs!

Mid afternoon we popped over to Samuel's house to meet and greet his
family and present the gifts we bought for the kids. It was a warm afternoon
but good to meet the rest of Samuel's clan. A little odd watching Tom and
Jerry in French though!

Post evening devo's Tim and Richie managed to run back to Samuel's house
to watch the last 15 minutes of Spain beating Germany for the Euro 2008
title.

a.. PRAY for Samuel, for protection over his family,
b.. PRAY he finds the time and finance to finish building his new house.
c.. PRAY as he embarks on a pig farming income generation project.

Monday the rain started during the night, lightning and thunder right over
head, somehow some of the team managed to sleep though it! After lunch
the rain actually stopped enough for Samuel to take Tim to the doctor. Tim
has managed to pick up a throat infection which is limiting his ability to
swallow. The doc has prescribed some anti-biotic tablets and some
anti-inflammatory; he should be fine in 5 days time.

a.. PRAY the medicine works.
b.. PRAY for Jenny as she keeps the team working

Togo Update 2

2008-06-27T20:17:00.002+01:00

Well we made it! Everyone and all their bags arrived and made it though the airport! We were delayed 2 hours sat on the tarmac in Paris, they
were having problems with the bag scanning machines, so it was taking FOREVER for people to get through the system and onto the various
planes, air france decided to hold all the flights until the passengers were on. :( But apart from that, the flight was good.
Richie had never flown before and apart from sore ears whilst landing enjoyed himself!

Togo is currently 1 hour behind the UK time zone, and we had a MASSIVE thunderstorm last night, nothing like English storms , far louder,
rain was far heavier, but the plus side is that it brings the temperature down a bit so it will only be 30oC today! As they say it won't be the heat that kills you, it will be the humidity!

Keep praying for the team as we spend time adjusting to the climate out here and visit various people today, and travel tomorrow.

The picture is a quick snap of the guest house where we are staying in Lome.

Tim and the Togo team get set

2008-06-26T20:57:00.001+01:00

Bit of a delay in gettin it on here but here is the first update from Tim and the Togo team . . .

So the team has been together for a whole 30 hours now and we are now
at a hotel right near Heathrow so we can check in at 0530 Thursday
morning. Orientation has gone very well, and we can't wait to get
out there to see African life in full swing.

*Pray for safe travels to Lome (Capitol of Togo).
*Pray for the 1 visa we need to get in the airport!

We land in Lome Thursday 1735, and Samuel who is our contact on the
translation team will be meeting us at the airport and we will head
out to the SIL guest house. SIL is Wycliffe's partner organisation in
Togo and many other places around the world.

Friday we'll be doing some cultural orientation and aclimatisation,
we'll be visiting a couple of other partner's offices and generally
absorbing the African atmosphere! Tim will be off getting money
changed and buying supplies.

*Pray for safety in the supply buying and money changing.

Saturday we will head up to Bassar in a minibus stopping to visit a UK
short-termer who is making dictionaries. She also happens to live
next door to a lady who sells cloth so we will have our first cloth
buying experience.

*Pray for safe travels on the roads

Then we settle down in Bassar for the majority of our stay! I hope
to pop a quick message out to let you know we have arrived okay.

Corporate Silence

2008-06-20T14:54:00.003+01:00

Praise and worship are interesting things. Everyone has their own preferences as to style, instruments, volume, lyrics and even settings. I of course also have my own preferences. However as a worship leader in church and various youth events and even occasionally at work people like to voice their preferences to me.

Now let me just add, I am just exploring this issue, I don't have all the answers, God loves us all no matter what our preferences (unless it involves organs!) that was a joke;).

We have a meeting at work 1 hour every Tuesday, some call it Tuesday fellowship, some centre fellowship, it is a nice time to get together, worship the one true living God, hear about what he is doing over the world and in the office and stuff. The struggle is that our organisation is made up of people all different backgrounds and denominations all with their own preferences and procedures and of late instead of enjoying the variety of what different people bring, one or two have been dropping in and out for the bits they like, or if they enjoy the style of the person leading the meeting they don’t turn up at all (I have been guilty in the past).

Where am I going with this? Corporate silence. One such suggestion made to me of late was

“there should be more corporate silence in said meetings especially during out worship times, after all worship is just about singing is it!”

Ouch. Fortunately I hadn’t been leading the meeting jstu before this email had arrived.

I guess the place to start is why do we do corporate praise and worship?
Is it to wake us up at the start of a meeting?
Get some practice in for heaven? Rev 7

Or is it so that we can collectively agree that our God is awesome and worthy of our praise, to edify one another, and the church, to be encouraged by each other's praise.

Praise and worship are different things. Praise is all about giving God glory, recognising who he is, declaring to the world his attributes and all he has done for us. Worship is about sacrifice, it is about us laying our lives down for him, giving up our own plans, intentions desires to be filled by him. Romans 12 Sacrifice has to cost us, otherwise it is no sacrifice at all. 1 Chronicles 21 but of course applied in the context of Romans 12!

So i had an email asking me to turn the volume down for these meetings and requesting more times of silence as part of the worship time. In themselves perfectly normal requests except i can't get my head around corporate silence. If the purpose of getting together to do these things, then surely we need to stay together whilst we do them? There is a time and place. After a sermon for example, "lets take a couple minutes to reflect on when God has been saying to us." Even at the start of the service, I am not happy about but " Lets take a moment to be still and get ready to meet with God" As though we don't meet with him at any other time of the day or week for that matter, how we must calm ourselves before the storm of the next 30 minutes of song singing. I understand peoples lives are busy, takes time to get into 'it' on a Sunday morning... but I don't understand singing a couple songs then having a time of silence, great for the individuals not so great for the corporate, unless something comes out of it, like a word a prophecy, a vision, a testimony a scripture (the theology of those can be debated at another time!). If you want silence, use your personal devotional time.

HEARING from God is also a thought, we have to be silence to listen properly, true, but listen for the sake of it, do it on your own time, in the car, doing the washing up or the hovering. If we are going to be together lets be together and do stuff together.

"Everybody pray in silence"
Also and interesting concept, how can i agree with my brother if I haven't heard what they have said? Yes God can hear that prayer, but none of the rest of the church nor the rest of the spiritual realm have heard it!

God delights in unity Psalm 133:1 and commands a blessing. How can I stand in unity with my brother if I have no idea what he just prayed?

Let alone the theology of God is in you head he can hear your prayer, my response is shame no-one /nothing else can, including the Devil who you might be praying against at the time.

"Worship is not only about singing"
But God created music to draw us into his presence. It is also handy for warding away evil spirits. 1 Samuel 16
Art is wonderful, dance is wonderful, drama can be wonderful, but singing is something that we do from pre-toddler stage, we all connect with music hear it all the time, and it is I think probably one of the easiest ways for a bunch of people to do to glorify God.

It is an interesting world we live in!
I have also stopped leading said meeting if I can get away with it, I can't be doing with the questionings and abuse!

makes me happy!!

2008-06-09T22:05:00.003+01:00

Please excuse the self indulgence, but it is nice to hear from punter that an event you have helped organise has gone well!

We just had our annual conference - and although it was squished into one day instead of the normal three - I really thought it was great! So many people came - most of whom I had emailed before, but never met outside of cyber-space. So, I spent the whole day taking mental snapshots of my colleagues.

The entire day was very well run and, as always, I enjoyed the insight my colleagues presented at the front, and almost took for granted the smooth operation of the sound and other techie things, except I knew how much planning went into that side of things - and it turned out very nicely Read more ..

...As written by our ED's PA who is herself, a very organised woman!

Dependency

2008-06-07T15:32:00.005+01:00

What is dependency? I had to think about this. All the forms I fill in, they ask for dependents I have to mention my presently 3 year old son. He is dependent on us to supply all his needs. (all bar the need to cause trouble!). As a husband, inter-dependent with my wife.

David Ker wrote a provocative piece ..

Imagine for a minute some beautiful thing that you’d like to do to help the poor suffering people in Africa. Maybe you want to dig wells or hand out Bibles. Maybe you’d like to help protect small children or stop deforestation. Great stuff. Huge need. It’ll never work. In fact, in the process of solving these problems, I’ve seen again and again pie-in-the-sky optimists and goody two-shoes like myself crushed by the Aid Monster. The Aid Monster is this enormous demonic being that waits with its slavering mouth and grasping tentacles to divert aid from the needy and fatten its own belly.
The problem is we’re such easy prey. Idealists and change-the-world kinds of people are always blinded by their own self-righteousness to the human depravity that waits to divert their good intentions for personal gain.

Read More...

I am off to Togo in a couple weeks with a team of WYnet young people to visit a rather under-fund translation project that we've been involved in for the last 11 years. Three translators 1 office, a few churches, a guardian, a few computers, a server, electricity bills and soon The project set up is quite complex, or so I thought a partnership between a committee made up from a bunch of local churches, and the Bible Society Togo. Our involvement is to help with the committee's contributions to the costs. I foresee three problems.

1) There obviously isn't enough money
2) The translators wages are the 1st thing to be compromised.
3) The obvious answer is very root of the questions.

The easy solution is to throw money at it, but i am hesitant. I don't want to continue the dependency. When we were they 2 years ago, we did some travelling around to encourage some of the churches and youth in the language area to get involved in praying and fundraising. They did for a while, but then not seeing the progress made, no more bible yet :( Their interest has wained. There is talk of an income generation project, but a few people I have spoken too have said don't bother, they generally turn out to be unsustainable.

So what do we do? Knowing that greater buy in from the local churches will result in more ownership, and eventually better use of the translated word. However, the churches don't even have enough money to fix their own windows, how are they going to give more money to bible translation project?

I would LOVE a simple and quick answer, but i suspect there isn't one. Anyone else had to tackle this kinda thing?

new oppertunities

2008-04-26T15:34:00.003+01:00

So Ali and i finally met some of our neighbours! Sad isn't it, our lives are so busy, and being introverts we have lived in our house for 20 months and we only met 3 out of our 13 sort of neighbours. We were out finally doing some gardening, Dan was out playing on his push car thing and he ran up the road to make some new friends. Next thing, parent number 1(whose name we haven't as yet gotten out of her) popped round to check ti was okay for Dan to join the rest of the kids in their garden. COOL! 4 minutes later Dan re-appeared with a new Friend also called Dan, about the same age, and ran into our garden. Parent 1 quickly appears checking if we have both Dans. Awesome. The boys run off again and then Tracey who is the other Dan's mum appears and we chat. Ahh i love the summer sun. (Dan runs back to get his swim trunks. sprinkler in use!) Sooo maybe in the next few months we will be able to chat some more to these folks and get to know them some more!

Minehead so far

2008-04-15T09:59:00.004+01:00

Well end of the second week of Spring Harvest at Minehead, the kind chap from Butlins has just offered to change our sheets ... we said yes.

I have been DOG sick the past 7 days, it all started with a sore throat that didn't go away popped to the doc on site and he was like, umm not much going on, come back if it doesn't clear up, which I did a couple days later to be diagnosed with summer flu and a throat infection. In bed for 3 days, taken FLIPPING ages to recover tried to get out for a couple hours each day, finally feeling better.

So we didn't get as many people, in fact it has taken us 2 weeks to get the same number of contacts as the 1st week of Skeg, BUT it is all good, lots of very cool people, plenty of wonderful conversations.

Embarrassing moment of the week, probably Steph falling on her bum at breakfast.
Frustration of the week has got to be all the publicity of the other organisation. I have to admit i am a little frustrated by how things are playing out, but my high light of the week has got to be with out any doubt at all, Steph popping along to " An audience with Steve Chalke". An opportunity to ask him any thing you like. We had planned a deep challenging question about soem of his Heaven on earth comments, we are going UP to heaven cos heaven is on earth. I know i don't get where he was coming from, but in a moment of all i can describe as pure brilliance, steph asked this.

" I am really pleased the collection is going to Bible Translation and distribution this year, but do you know the name of the organisation that is involved in translation for most of the featured projects along with 85% of the projects world wide?"

His response was " Umm, No but i think you might be able to tell me"

Steph in an over excited manner that only Steph can encapsulate "WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS!!!"

The whole thing invoked a round of applause and a lot of laughs and a rather sheepish Steve swiftly moved on to ranting about another book he has written. Surprising numbers of people popped by the stand to say hi the next day!

Oh yeah, and the winner of this weeks Wii competition, scored 92, yes you read that correctly, 92. Mental.

Spring Harvest week 1

2008-03-31T20:44:00.003+01:00

Springy week 1

Well, four hours of driving, a very large tent that was not there 15 years ago, and a whole lot of rain. Being newbies to the spring harvest exhibition proved obvious as soon as we tried to get into a closed door. Not knowing anyone or really having any expectations of what the place was going to be like we were extremely surprised to find out the ‘exhibition’ is basically a bunch of stands dotted around the skyline which normally has bar restaurants and entertainment stuff. We found our spot, we pop off to the car to get our stuff on getting back to lovely chaps from ‘inyourfatith’ had dumped all their stuff where we were trying to get set up. A hunt was on the exhibition manager. Steve was a great chap. Sorted us out, explained all the ins and outs and got us a space to set up. Things got messy when the computer screen we had for the Wii didn’t work.
We headed off ot the team lounge ot get our info pack and room key, only to discover that they didn’t have us on their list! A couple of phone calls and a conversation with thebandwihtnoname boys and another hour later we finally got room keys to our unexpected apartment with kitchen and lounge. EXCELLENT. A brief trip to Tesco to get some lunch supplies and a TV for the Wii, we got set up and ready to rock. Inclusive dinner in the restaurant was a new experience, buffet roast lamb or about 3 other things, and salad, and desert, we were pretty pleased, then off to open the stand. We had an amazing first night 47 people, we only have a target of 140 for the week, so we actually left at 2300 shattered but very pleased.
The rest of the week, we found a nice grove, of chilling and working hard full English breakfast and meeting loads of new friends, 283 to be exact. I KNOW literally twice our target. I have no idea how the other weeks are going to pan out, but frankly I am excited. By the end of April we may have doubled our WYnet Database, and made loads of new contacts with connect and fro Wycliffe.
High light has to be meeting a guy who started by asking my where he could get a copy of a bible printed especially for dyslexics.( why is that word so hard to spell?) he explained single column, large print and on yellow paper. I said I had no idea, but would do some research for him. We got talking to discover he is based not far from us and is involved in some very high powered computing technology called I2. I can’t go into what he does for a living, but it is WAY cool, and he is working on an idea to 3-D map the bible for people who don’t think linearly and don’t engage with read straight text. Dead herd to explain without sounding like the complete geek that I am!
The winning Wii high score was 55, stevo’s best was 54, pretty awesome, but the wee (no pun intended!) guy was 13 and amazing haha!
Most embarrassing moment was Stevo asking 2 girls if there were over 13 to fill out their own forms, only to get the forms back to discover they were 19 year old twins! A lot of fun, a LOT of hard work, but awesome.

Here’s a wee video of the puppet guy, our stand was opposite them.

Moba Dedication

2008-03-23T20:26:00.004Z

A language group in Togo west Africa have just held the dedication of their new testament! Rob Baker an ethnomusicologist working out in Benin next door to Togo has posted a couple of videos from the ceremony.

you can also go to youtube and do a search for Moba dedication...

Tre Shepherd Interview

2008-03-18T21:11:00.001Z

So i finally did an interview with another rock star. Tre Shepherd is the lead singer of onehundrehours and also director of engagehivaids.com ...

Biology lessons

2008-03-18T21:05:00.002Z

As you know Ali is a secondary science teacher and an hour ago there was this huge laugh from the office where she was marking year 7 books. She was marking a section on the human waste system.. this is what one pupil wrote.

"We need fibre in our diet because it helps us go to the loo by helping to push the toilet though"

Seriously, have you ever tried to push a toilet though .. i wonder if that is anything like child birth!

As if that wasn't enough, those last 3 words were in fact her second attempt writen in Biro on top of some white out! who knows what was there before!

High on Mount Sinai?

2008-03-04T21:16:00.003Z

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0444950920080304?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

I could NOT believe it when I read this. Apparently the Israelites were on drugs whilst Moses was up getting the 10 commandments.

Why do we find it soo hard to believe what the bible says is historical truth? why does the world spend so much time trying to disprove it the Bible? Why don't people try to disprove the Koran? My only conclusion so far, is that cos we believe the Bible is the only truth (please excuse me sounds like a fundamentalist) The devil don't like it, i mean us understanding the Bible, because when we engage with the Bible instead of simply reading it, it is a life changing experience every time. People describe the Bible as a living book, sounds a bit weird, but that is because each time you read it, God can reveal something new to you, even if it is a passage you have read 100 times before, he can still reveal something new! WOW. Pretty sure Harry Potter can't do that. LOL

I guess that is why i love being part of a MASSIVE global team getting God's work to people who don't have it in a language they can understand!

How to blog?

2008-03-04T21:13:00.004Z

well to be honest, I have no idea. I am not posting regularly, and to be honest, not much of it is of interest to most people .... sooo inspired by a couple of bloggers that i know ... i am taking a different tact.. lots of ... and links to other peoples stuff!!

Digital Native vs Digital Imigrants.

2007-12-06T10:01:00.002Z

Had a fascinating chat to my Dad last night and he mentioned this idea of Digital natives vs Digital immigrants.

wikipedia define it like this.

A digital native is a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3. A digital immigrant is an individual who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later. A digital native might refer to their new "camera"; a digital immigrant might refer to their new "digital camera".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native

Not saying that everyone born after 1982 is a computer genius, and no-one old has a clue, in fact the digital world was created by apparent immigrants, so how much truth is there actually in that idea?

I think there has to be SOME truth in it, the kids of the 90s do have a different mind set. Encyclopedia Britannica is going out of business because no-one needs to have a bunch of books to look things up any more. You have a thesaurus, a calculator, a dictionary, currency converter and measurement converter all on your home page without realising it. A government petition doesn't mean going down to London any more. Log on anywhere in the world and sign the petition for what ever takes your fancy. (My latest was to give a refund to the people who were at uni 98 - 04 who were done out of grants, and have to pay interest on their loans)

I heard someone complaining about how young people never relate to each other any more, all they do is sit on the computer. But for many people that IS relating, just not maybe how it was done 20 or more years ago. The idea that people can comment on your blog for the whole world to see is a bit scary. Image a news paper reporter who published EVERY response to an article. For starters we could be there for a year just reading the result of 1 column, but it also has a HUGE impact on vulnerability. When you post on a blog you do make yourself vulnerable to the whole world. But there is also a measure of self regulation. If someone was gong to respond to this post, they will probably use nicer language, and a more positive argument simply because the whole world is able to read what they wrote.

For the digital native (I probably am one even if a couple years old) it is interesting trying to work with digital immigrants. We run a few websites and facebook groups and myspace and youtube stuff, sometimes trying to explain why we need to put stuff up there is hard! Personally I find, some people get it and some people don't.

Fascinating. So what about digital immigrants who are trying to build international computer systems that natives are going to be using? How do we work cross-culturally when designing and developing systems? Do we realise that the two groups are actually looking at this form two different angles? The web is no longer a place to share information, it is a part of life. Shopping dating, social integration, game playing Christmas shopping, insurance, auctions, cars houses, pets, children (not auctioning them!) health care!! Digital is no longer PART of life. For many of us, it IS life.

Our God Reigns??

2007-11-04T16:17:00.000Z

A VERY big challenge that hit my as I was giving the seminar, about God loving the whole nation. His desire is fro everyone to know him. Everyone, not just the nice neighbours, or the town kids, but also the bad people. The bombers, the plane crashers, the murderers. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7075584.stm BBC News article about a girl who was murdered in Italy last night, was from Leeds uni where we were today. L ) Osama Bin Laden, he loves Marilyn Manson, he loves who ever kidnapped Madeline mcann,( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7068760.stm ) HE LOVES THEM ALL. But what about my judgement? Am I the same as Jonah who said they don’t deserved to be saved so I don’t want to go and talk to them. Yes I probably am. WOW I need God to break through into my heart.

On the way home I had an encounter. I was thinking some more about this whole God loves EVERYONE thing it really started to get to me. I have not even got close to God’s heart for the lost. Not even a glimpse. Friday nights we have a drop in at the community centre in Risborough and we get between 30 and 70 kids through each night. Some can be really annoying and I just want them to start a fight so we can physically remove them. IF ONLY! But God loves them too. What would he do about it. What would He be talking to them about? I was listening to Delirious in the car, there song really got hold of me. The song was Rain down and the bridge goes, “Do not shut, do not shut, do not shut the heavens, but open up, open up, open up my heart” I rewound and turned it up and listen again then as I thought about those people that God loves and I don’t I start to sing along, then rewound again, then really starting crying out for God to open up my heart and do some surgery and change me and mould me and give me a part for his heart.

The next track was written about the position of African orphans and HIV victims, and the chorus was real to me again. The reprise later in the album too. In fact at a gig they did a few weeks ago, they did this song and by the time they hit the guitar solo Stu G was on his knees, but then end so was Martin and Jon … quite powerful.

These are the lyrics.

Our God Reigns

40 million babies lost to Gods great orphanage,
It’s a modern day genocide and a modern day disgrace
If this is a human right then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is in a man nailed to a tree.

100 million faces, staring at the sky,
Wondering if this HIV will ever pass us by.
The devil stole the rain and hope trickles down the plug,
But still my Chinese take away could pay for someone’s drugs.

Our God reigns, Our God reigns,
Forever your kingdom reigns.

The west has found a gun and it’s loaded with ‘unsure’
Nip and tuck if you have the bucks in a race to find a cure.
Psalm one hundred and thirty nine is the conscience to our selfish crime,
God didn’t screw up when he made you,
He’s a father who loves to parade you.

Yes he reigns, yes you reign, yes you reign,
For there is only one true God,
But we’ve lost the reins on this world,
Forgive us all, forgive us please,
As we fight for this broken world on our knees.

Written by Delirious? ©2005 Curious? Music UK

As I prayed for God to reign in my heart he broke me again. Hard to drive with tears forming, maybe I need to pick a better time to pray! I can’t get over the need for me to have God’s heard for the lost. I pray he will keep changing me until I have his heart, I hope it will change the way I react to the news and to the annoying kids!

Day in the life of the Next Gen touring Team.

2007-11-04T15:44:00.000Z

Day in the life of Touring Tim & Jess – the Next Gen touring Team! Saturday the 3^rd November.

Having got our selves involved in a new initiative a few weeks ago we had to travel up to Leeds. The New an initiative is superb! UCCF have got a bunch of mission agencies together to try and raise awareness and bible understand of global mission with CU’s in the North east of England. I know we aren’t actually based in the North but any access to Student aged Christians is a must for us.

So up at 0515, in the car for 0530 on the motorway with Jess almost awake too!! Jess has only been working with me for 2 months yet we seem have done a few exhibitions already. Quick stop for some breakfast at Leicester forest east services, eating bacon whilst trucks pass below you is slightly odd at 0700 in the morning!

In Leeds for 0845, straight in and upstairs to get set up, well rehearsed now, done in about 15 minutes flat, compute screen and all. Not too many exhibitors which is nice we have a tiny table, which is not too great but we don’t have to share it like some of the others!

0930 car parked up people are expected to start arriving any minute now. I must go and find a timetable and work out where my seminar room is. YES I get to do a seminar, TWICE today about GO to the nations, it is going to be interesting, not a Wycliffe push, a general mission thing. We’ll see how that goes a bit later!

Before the first meeting has even begun we have names on paper. People flocked, maybe because we are young and not grumpy despite the early start! Very encouraged already!

1st meeting 1 odd song I didn’t know, then Mark Boddington (right) spoke. He is my older brother James’ ex land lord! He was good, very deep and incredibly detailed all about the cross. He also told a couple wonderful stories about being a parent. (ana, and Gus in particular!)

Then a brief break and into my 1^st seminar. Only 8 people showed up which was a bit disappointing, but we had a great time exploring what the bible says about God’s heart for the nations, I have to give credit to Eddie Arthur for an inspirational chapter he lent me about the tower of Babel incident and Acts 2 and how amongst all of that, God created diversity, and yet he gets more glory as a result of our diversity. One day in revelation it says every tribe and tongue and nation will be in his throne room singing ‘holy holy holy’ is the lamb. How rich will that sound be as a result of the diversity, but how magnificent that God is glorified as a result of the diversity he created as a judgement on mankind!

The seminar was good I feel a lot happier with the material and the last minute re-arrangement was a result. Couple more conversations over lunch, including another agency with lots of partnership potential for the future. Both our organisations work in the same place and they are already sending teams who visit some projects that we are involved in!

Second seminar more people turned up, about 20 of us this time, Jess does a wonderful job of putting on EVERY vest for out main players activity, very amusing to say the least, however she was not happy that mentioned lack of CU at uni, on the finding of a boyfriend have started working with us!

That session finished well, some good conversations with participants, and then to the stand, a flurry of people, more names on paper, in fact we have 12 or 13 names, some VERY exciting people we (royal we, I mean JESS!) to get in touch with next week.

SO 1600 next session starts we are told if we want to go we can, so we get on an pack down. Jess is on the phone AGAIN! But recovers well by going and handing out postcards to people.

Get all the stuff into the car, and off by 1700. RESULT we aren’t supposed to finish till 1730 so that is very cool, maybe I will get home to see my family after all!

Jess is staying in Leeds with some mates form uni tonight, I have to drive home on my own. No big deal used to do it to and from Sunderland all the time!

Tomorrow I am leading worship at church, whilst playing bass. THAT will be interesting, I hope I am alive okay!! Haha, need to get he music sorted out before bed, cos it isn’t going to happen in the morning!

Does the search for car insurance drive you crazy???

2007-10-22T22:20:00.000+01:00

YUP? me too! Well mine was due last week, I had received a letter from my company offering me a quote about 50p cheaper than last year, and so the search begun. It started with a fight between me and a previous insurance company about No claims discount awards. I was involved in a car crash last September and it took them a while to decide whose fault it was a so they withheld some no claims discount. My broker said the insurance company wouldn't release it, i called them myself to find out why. they had a computer error and so the automated system would tel the broker they couldn't release it. Have sorted it out they decided i COULD have it. Excellent, things were looking up. You would have thought. Jumping form 2 to 4 years of NCD one would assume a bigger discount. So to start my NEW search i called my present company for a new quote. It came back £250 MORE than the first quote! haha. Amazed, i actually laughed at the guy as i put the phone down. He didn't call back, i jumped on the web.

No matter how annoying the ads on tele are, i did go to 2 separate comparison websites, which did produce fantastic quotes one of which i bought online. that was a bit scary, but i tell you want it was £300 cheaper that the other quotes. A TRIUMPH a huge saving, and suddenly Esure, despite their annoying adverts came out on top. £450 may seem a lot to the older drivers amongst you, to fo rme in a 2.5l Vectra estate, i thought it was a bargain!