Harry Potter Weekend

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It’s been a bit of a Potter weekend in our house.
A while ago for my birthday Tom pre-ordered me Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.
We collected that yesterday from Waterstones and saw The Goblet of Fire DVD for £5 so bought it and watched it.
Today myself and the boys went to watch The Order of the Phoenix which was excellent. Some have told me it was boring and I really don’t know how that assumption could be arrived at. There was a great part in the film where Harry shares his skills with other students – his desire to see others succeed was great to see as I think too often ‘heroes’ seem overly concerned with how they can save everyone. Harry seemed concerned that others would be able to protect themselves.
The book is another great read – and my only complaint is that I have not had time to read more of it!
So the boys in the house are pretty Pottered out at the moment!

12 disciples

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This has been a very encouraging read. Andy shares these journeys of young peoples faith and i like the ‘incompleteness’ of these stories.

By that I mean it was exciting to read of stories that are not the finished product. In fact I am tired of reading stories where ‘people become Christians and everything is happy ever after’. In these stories some are Christians, some are asking and searching, and all still have struggles.

The stories of these disciples are gritty – some made me smile, others made me cry – all speak of the reality of faith and how tough it is to even consider Christ, let alone follow him!

This is a good short and encouraging read!

Using my senses

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I had a wonderfully enjoyable people day in London. A day when I used all my senses in a variety of enjoyable ways.
Met with some people at Premier Radio to look at Hope 08 in London and consider how we can encourage engagement with Hope08 across London. This was a focused 90 minute meeting which seemed to go well particularly as the plan from the meeting is sensible in using our networks that already exist rather than setting up some new infrastructure. The cooperation was a delight to see and hear.

Following the Hope meeting I shot across to the city to have lunch with good friend Terry. I rarely go the city part of the city and the atmosphere is definitely different from the other ares I usually hand around in. Catching up, chatting about our different worlds and eating together was a special and privileged time. The steak was fantastic to taste and smell too!

After lunch I walked to the Tate Modern (via Monmouth Coffee Company in Borough Market!)to pop in on the Dali and Film Exhibition. I lost myself in Dali;s films and ended up staying a lot longer that I had planned. I skipped fairly quickly through the paintings as I have seen a lot of Dali’s creative wonders, but really wanted to watch the films. Un Chien Andalou was my favourite – as the guide says it is ‘violent, funny, illogical and dynamic’. I actually sat, laughed, smirked and winced (particularly near the beginning of the film) through the film twice – magical! I was touched by the delicate portrayal of the characters within such short films.

The amusing part of the day on the way home was people sniffing the air and wondering where the lovely coffee smell was coming from – that would be my bag containing a kilo of freshly roasted beans then! The coffee was great when I got home!

London cluster

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Today it was great to meet with the Directors of the London YFC centres. We met this morning at the Royal Festival Hall which has good views across the river. The pic shows us ending our time together in prayer for each others situations.

I always feel prayer outside of the church or a typically Christian setting is special. A few people praying naturally in a public space as others are milling around, eating, chatting seems to feel incredibly natural and part of life. In some way I feel as if we are reclaiming part of God’s creation that we have been fooled into thinking sits outside the ‘sacred’. It’s an even greater privilege to be able to pray at the centre of our capital city.

After the meet some of chatted more and laughed more over lunch – thanks people; a great day!

Good news – but continue to pray and write!

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Hi everyone,

Just a quick update on the urgent appeal we sent out yesterday on Sina Paymard’s case in Iran.

We have heard from Sina Paymard’s lawyer that he was not executed last night, which is very good news. The family are allowing 10 more days for the rest of the blood money in the case to be found. However, if the remainder of the money is not raised in this time, the family are determined to have Sina executed, so there is still work to be done.

Thank you to all of you who took action online and posted Sina’s case on your blogs. We had an unprecedented number of web actions taken yesterday – 400 people in less that 4 hours! As we write this, the latest number is over 600. Taking action does work…thank you for your support.

We’ll keep you posted with how things progress as we know more…

Ciao,
Liz and Steve
a la Project Blog

Dreams and visions and disappointment

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It’s been in incredibly draining day, but a day at the end of which I feel I have made a difference and been a help to others.

I am a governor at a local secondary school who are having to restructure. Every day this week governors are interviewing most of the staff for jobs at the school. Today we started at 8.30 am and finished at 3.30. We interviewed 12 people for a variety of jobs.

Although the day was hard as we are constantly aware that we are dealing with peoples lives I felt a great privilege to ask questions and hear of peoples dreams and desires to work with, and enable young people to reach their full potential. The decisions today were hard because lots of people were obviously passionate for the work they do. Obviously with all interviews some will be disappointed as they will not be appointed – I wish that was not the case.

This evening I joined the trustees of Peninsula YFC who are a bunch of people that are also passionate for the young people of their area. Not a school this time, but a large rural area that is part of Medway. In September PYFC will be appointing their first worker and this is a dream come true for these people who have met every few weeks diligently, giving up time out of busy lives, sacrificing time for other to see their dream come true.

When Gemma starts in September it will be an exciting time as they see their vision, which I first heard from them nearly 3 years ago, become a reality. Even here, though, some will be disappointed as they see the vision go in exciting ways which are not the ways they thought it might go.

In both meetings today the key to ‘success’ has been dreaming and taking that difficult leap of faith and seeing what happens. There are no guarantees. With the step will come disappointment in various degrees, but with that step also comes a fresh insight, excitement and wonder at what God can achieve.

Please respond if you can

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Amnesty International UK
Iran: child offender to be executed today

Dear all,

Amnesty International has just heard of the imminent execution of Sina Paymard, who was sentenced to death in Iran for a crime committed when he was just 16 years old, Sina may be executed within the next few hours.

According to reports, he has been moved from Reja’i Shahr prison in Karaj, to Tehran’s Evin prison, for his execution to be carried out.

Sina Paymard, a musician, was due to be executed in September last year for murder. On the gallows, Sina’s last request was to play the ney (a Middle Eastern flute) for the last time. The family of the victim was so moved by his playing that they granted him a last minute reprieve. Instead, they asked for 150 million toumans (over $US 160,000) as compensation. Sina’s family, however, have not been able to raise the full amount.

Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world. Amnesty International has recorded at least 124 executions since the beginning of 2007, suggesting that by the end of this year the total number of executions could exceed the total of 177 executions that Amnesty International recorded in 2006.

Two recent victims of the Iranian authorities’ use of the death penalty were child offenders, whose alleged crimes were committed before the age of 18, and a third was a man who was stoned to death. The two child offenders — Mohammad Mousavi and Sa’id Qanbar Zahi — were executed in April and May respectively, in direct contravention of international law, which requires that no-one should be executed for crimes committed while under the age of 18.

Please email the Iranian Ambassador in the UK to halt the execution of Sina Paymard.

haircut therapy

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I had my hair cut today.
It’s not an event that usually takes a long time – 5/10 minutes is usually all that is needed!
Today it took over half an hour.
It took so long because the girl cutting my hair wanted to talk about her dad.
The situation reminded me of the Giles Fraser article I read in Friday’s Church Times.

In true Fraser style he was re-living the depressing experience of General Synod who he states are more interested in ‘satisfying their own activists rather than reaching out to the country as a whole … The reality is that millions of people couldn’t care less what we say or think. They don’t care about covenants or gay vicars: they want the church to speak about life and death, about love and grace, about justice and hope. And because we are not speaking about it, they will go elsewhere.’

This girl, I thought as I walked home, had gone elsewhere. She chose to speak to a complete stranger about the issues of alcohol with her dad and was asking for advice on what she should do.

Now I could spiritualise this by saying that she must have been able to sense I was a Christian, or she felt the glow of the Holy Spirit from me and so was able to share. But I don’t think so! In reality this girl was so desperate to talk to someone, and not knowing where to go to do so, that a balding older guy fitted the bill. As I paid she thanked me for ‘listening to my troubles’. I thanked her for sharing them with me.

If the church was speaking about the things people are really asking the questions about then this young woman would have known where to go. As the church during the weekmaybe we need to look for these questionners and just listen?

Job or Ministry

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I like to be challenged and reminded of why I came into ministry.
Too often today, and I think particularly in the youth ministry world, we can easily get sucked into the world of professionalism and the job / ‘contracted’ to do mindset.
That is not necessarily a bad thing – unless it becomes our God. By that I mean we always look to our contract, we alsways look to our interests, we always claim our rights.
I don’t have a job, in fact if I look back over my years of work, I’m not sure that I have ever had a job as I think I can say I have always been ministering where God has called me to be and I have always seen my calling as a ministry and not a job.
Sometimes, however, I have become whingey and acted like I’ve had a job when I have lost sight of my true calling!
Today Gordon’s writing challenged me and reminded me and encouraged me all at th same time. Gordon’s article on Job or Ministry is well worth a read.
Thanks Gordon.

The busy weekend

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A busy and packed weekend consisting of curry, wine, dance rehearsals, football games, rounders, chatting, eating and ending the weekend by preaching a (not very good) sermon on peace which I should have prepared better!

Sunday was a cool time when, instead of doing the traditional church thing, lots of the congregation wen to the local country park to chat, play games, enjoy the sun, eat and generally just ‘be’ together. Not sure if this was church – but it was clearly community with the common denominator being on the journey with Christ.