We are off to Weymouth for just a couple of days.
Kim is making some progress but is still in need of our prayers.
The children and I are looking forward to catching up with everybody

we’ll bring back sticks or rock and tacky hats no doubt!

Today we had a great day.
Beth went off for the day with her Nana for some clothes shopping at Bluewater as a birthday present. This left th boys to do what they wanted and they decided they would like to go to Knowle.

The house used to belong to Cardinal Wolsey until Henry VIII decided he quite liked it – you wouldn’t argue would you, there would be no point if you wanted to keep you head! Anyway … I digress.

The boys had a great time getting very close to the wild deer and on our ‘off the beaten track’ led by Joe one of the highlights was to find a fresh deer skull which is currently being bleached in a bucket in the back garden.

Following yesterdays car quote I decided to program Tom Tom to take us the scenic route rather than th direct M26, M20 route. It took a total of 10 minutes longer and this is what I noticed:

there was less other traffic on the roads
people drove at different speeds
the road followed the shape of the land rather than straight through it
sometimes you could not see around the bend
this gave some surprising and unexpected views
we did not just see cars
we had to slow for cyclists, pedestrians and those on horseback
there were also junctions and traffic lights
usually absent from th motorway

This journey was far more interesting and exciting and I wonder if God is saying something through this experience of mine?

My first day of being dad went well. I’m tired!

All best plans went to pot due to the weather this morning. We had planned to go out for the day but the rain stopped that, so instead we went to the cinema. Annoyingly when the film finished we came out into brilliant sunshine, but that’s life!

This morning we saw Cars, the latest Pixar and Disney production. It has a well known story theme, selfishness changed by love but this time in the shape of cars, the central character being a ‘rookie’ race car aiming to win the Pitstop cup. (best joke being … ‘He did what in his cup?!’)

There was a key moment in the film where 2 of the cars look out across the landscape and discuss what has happened to Radiator Springs, a town which is dying due to the building of the inter-state, resulting in no through traffic. ‘Once the road followed the contours of this land and so others noticed its beauty; now we are by-passed on the interstate, and just to save 10 minutes they miss out on all this beautiful landscape.

I missed the next few minutes of the film as I thought ‘yeah’ that is what many churches are failing to see by looking for the next quick fix. People jumping on the interstate, the bandwagon maybe, to see things accomplished quickly. All going the same way, all traveling at the same speed, irrespective of the landscape, the climate, the surrounding culture. In fact bypassing and ignoring it all together; maybe even pretending it is not there.

We need to get back to following the contours, to noticing the beauty, to be willing to take the extra time, the more enjoyable journey. If we don’t, we miss out on many beautiful places where God is working and just longing to be joined.

I am looking forward to the next few days as I get to be dad. Last year people made strange comments about ‘how good it was of me’ and so on. I know they were being nice, but I wanted to respond ‘well … no … they are my children!’ As well as that, to be brutally honest to myself … Sarah does a lot with them on her own most of the time.

Sarah is off to Soul Survivor with the youth group and I am staying at home to look after the children. The same happened last year and this year, given the choice of camping with thousands of teenagers or again looking after the children, I opted for the latter.

Recently I have been finding that time slips away un-noticeably. The children are growing up before me and I am missing out on a lot of what they do. This short time of a few days has been looked forward to by me as a time to catch up.

I saw this on Sunday evening and was struck by the openness of the BBC to the occurrence of miracles performed by Jesus. I guess I was expecting a program’s reasoning them away, but was amazed to see the BBC taking the viewpoint that they could indeed have happened, and tried to investigate what the people of the time would have thought about them.

For the last year or so, I have been fascinated by the whole 1st century Israel stuff. By that I mean, the mindset of the time, how people thought, what their dreams were, their expectations and how they ‘read’ the situations of the day. We read these ancient writings with modern eyes and s we red I guess we misunderstand and miss so much. To understand more we need to try somehow to understand more about the world of the people who wrote the words.

It is obvious that we miss a lot of what the gospels tell us, not just through the interpretations of various translations, but also through a lack of our personal knowledge of the culture and mindset of the time.

This programme was an excellent window into that culture.

Some, such as Steven Carr, who commented on my last miracles post here suggest that the gospel writers made up these miracles and repeated what others had written around th new testament prophets. That is a valid argument, although one I do not agree with.

Rageh Omaar, who presents this programme excellently, offers another view. He suggests that if these miracles happened that Jesus was making statements through them. Statements that we miss due to our lack of Old Testament and 1st century Israel knowledge. Jesus was making clear claims, and it was heard clearly by those around, that he was more than leader, more than messiah, more than saviour. The people were hearing the claim of Jesus that he was indeed the Son God.

I’m looking forward to episode 2.

More talking today with people looking at being creative and innovative in their mission. Today I met with a curate at an Anglican church. It was great to hear of her dreams and look towards the future – a real privilege.

The more I travel the more I find that people are saying the same things. What we are doing is not working, what we need is to be more creative, more innovative, think outside the walls of the church. This must be the 5th or 6th curate or ‘person in training’ that I have met with in so many weeks who says ‘I don’t want to run a church, I want to reach people!’ Could this be God on the move?

This really is such a cool job I have!

This looks creative and interesting.

‘The Margate Exodus tells a story of identity and migration, of people crossing borders in search of a ‘Promised Land’. It re-imagines the second book of the Old Testament and sets it in contemporary Margate with the residents playing all the roles in a series of promenade events throughout the town on Saturday 30 September.’

This sounds great and I might pop down to watch!

Great today to catch up with Brian and Karen Senior.
We first met at St Mark’s years ago when Brian and Karen headed up the youth work as our first youth pastors.
Now they lead St Philips in Tunbridge Wells.
It was amazing to realise that Brian and Karen have been there 8 years. It was great to meet with people who live mission and want to be there to love people and introduce them to Jesus in a relevant and relational way, in a way that means something to them, and in a way to which they can relate and respond.
Today was our first get together in 2 years or so, I hope we get together earlier than that next time.

The whole weekend was excellent.
I am not one for weddings usually, but we have been longing to see Chris and Juliet married for quite a while so this was always going to be quite a special day. The children have been desperate to welcome Aunty Juliet!

It was not only special because of great people getting together, friends old and new, family near and far. It was not only special because we spent time together over the whole weekend, Chris and Juliet being with us on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (their first day as Mr and Mrs Mann!)

This was special as the strong and clear love that Chris and Juliet have for each other was incredibly obvious, particularly on Saturday. I say that, but looking back, I guess the love they have had for each other has been obvious for quite a while now anyway. I think I can be right in saying that everyone felt this was a very special moment and that it was a real privilege to be able to be a witness to it and join with them for their weekend.

In his speech Chris spoke of a love that drew the best out of each other, a love that willed each other to excel, a love that they could not live without. That is the kind of love they clearly share.

This was a fantastic day, and being held in a catholic church, there was something hugely significant in this wonderful couple committing their lives to each other at the foot of the cross. God has indeed blessed and kept them safe up to now, and we pray that as they continue to climb, surf, snowboard and so on, that he will continue to do so.

This was indeed a very special weekend.

The weekend starts early this week.

Soon we will all be off as a family to a hotel near Ascot for the event of the year.
Uncle Chris and (soon to be Aunty) Juliet are getting married on Saturday.

This is a day that we have all been looking forward to for months, some maybe even years. Chris and Juliet’s engagement made the perfect Christmas.

If you get a chance on Saturday, especially around the 1pm time, offer up the odd prayer for a great day and blessed marriage.

So, no blogging for the next few days as there are far more exciting things to do.