62 Today

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62 today!

But this wonderful woman will not hear the words ‘happy birthday’ as she spends her 4253rd day in isolation.
That’s 11 years and 238 days.
No smile from friends,
no touch of another human,
no conversation – a silence of pain
no hint that this day is any different to others – I
wonder if she can even know that today is her birthday?

Bono / U2 wrote this song, Walk On, for Aung Sang Suu Kyi

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring…
And love is not the easy thing…
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can’t leave behind

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it’s a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on, walk on
What you got they can’t steal it
No they can’t even feel it
Walk on, walk on…
Stay safe tonight

You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on, walk on
What you’ve got they can’t deny it
Can’t sell it, can’t buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Home… hard to know what it is if you’ve never had one
Home… I can’t say where it is but I know I’m going home
That’s where the hurt is

I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Leave it behind
You’ve got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme…

Pray.
Write.
Pray more.
This must end.
I can’t imagine the pain,
I find myself weeping as I think
How much more can she take?

for a larger article and more info go to The Burma Campaign.

the end of seite until september

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The weekend away was great for a variety of reasons.
If you are interested in the end of year review the photos can be seen in y Flikr album – trainee priests showing their performing talents.

Highlights of the weekend:
as ever being with friends
drinking with friends
eating with friends
laughing with friends
my friends at SEITE are just great people who I count it as a privilege to spend time with

Lowlights
missing the family
missing friends that were not there
a talk I just did not ‘get’ on Friday evening
saying bye to friends I may not see again

Tonight was my last SEITE night in Chatham as for family reasons I need to stop going out on Monday nights – so from September I will be joining my Southwark friends on a Tuesday evening instead. I’m quite looking forward to that.

the end of another academic year.
assignments handed in.
marks waited for,
prayers for that magic minimum of 40%!

The end of the second year leaves a sobering thought. In 12 months time this will all be ending for me, and something new will be starting. This will sound weird, but its only just starting to sink in that this course has been life changing and that, at the end, my life is possibly never going to be the same again. Now that does start to scare me a little. That’s a lie – it starts to scare me a lot!

Getting home tonight was odd – there was nothing to do for SEITE, nothing to read, nothing to think about writing and so I did this really odd thing … I sat down with a real ale(a great fathers day present!)and waited for Sarah to come in from the youth group and then we had a chat.

Feels weirdly strange to be back and start to be a human living in the house rather than a work and essay machine which is what I have felt like.

I’m free!

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There was no one in the house just now to hear the shout of ‘YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!’

I feel a bit of release today. About 2 hours ago I finished my last SEITE assignment which has come as a shock as I thought there was no way this would happen until Monday afternoon – the deadline is Monday evening. It’s weird – sometimes you get a little inspiration and before you know where you are you’ve completed the task! This is the first assignment I have been happy with, which is a worrying thought as sod’s law makes me think I’ve done badly – but hey, it’s finished and I am past caring at this stage in the year. The last term has been pretty demanding as YFC has been busy too.

I feel a great sense of release as for the last few days I have felt pretty much handcuffed to the desk in every spare moment I have. I’m looking forward to re-gaining my life for a little while, returning to books I want to read, catching up on friends blogs, spending more time with people that matter (by this i mean my close family who I have neglected recently) – but that all has to wait as I’m off today for the last SEITE residential weekend i Canterbury in a couple of hours – so off now to pack!

the downpour

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The scene on the M11 and M25 looked something like this today as I drove back from spending the day with Jim (Director) and Stuart (Chair of Trustees) at Cambridge YFC today. On one occasion it was weirdly scary as the water flung up my the wheel of the lorry next to me was actually thundering down on the roof of the car. The rain suddenly came and went in great dramatic form.

Sometimes God’s blessing is just as sudden and dramatic – I guess we could not cope with a continual downpour of blessing; maybe we would be washed away.

Despite the weather it has been an exciting couple of days in London and Cambridge looking at mission dreams and strategies. Jim has not been at Cambridge long but already a great plan is coming into place and I’m looking forward to seeing young people lives being transformed.

Send a birthhday card

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On Tuesday 19th June, Aung San Suu Kyi will celebrate her 62nd birthday. But she will be celebrating another birthday alone, under house arrest. Burma’s brutal military dictatorship defied calls from the UN, USA, EU and ASEAN to release her and extended her detention under house arrest on 25 May. She is now in her 12th year of detention. She isn’t allowed to see family or friends as all visitors are banned and her phone line is cut.

Take action to help free Aung San Suu Kyi!

Send a birthday card to Aung San Suu Kyi!
Send a card to Aung San Suu Kyi and show your support on her birthday.

Please send cards to Aung San Suu Kyi’s home address in Burma:
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
54 University Avenue
Bahan 11201
Yangon
Myanmar

Postage costs from UK:
20g = 78p
(most cards do not weigh more than 20g)
40g = £1.17

we do this each year to show the generals controlling the country that the world has not forgotten Aung San’s 12 year imprisonment for that worse crime of all …. winning the general election with 82% of the vote!

Please make that little effort needed to send a card – it will cost you so little, but the effects could be amazing.

To see more ways to support please click on the Burma Campaign icon top right of the page.

another great desert father saying

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Abba Pastor said:

A person must breathe humility
and the fear of God just as ceaslessly
as they inhale and exhale air.

That challenges me for the rest of the day.

is this work … or meeting friends?

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It’s been a mad day – and I’ve loved it.
Met with a chairman of one of our centres for lunch on the Southbank Pizza Express.
Then I whizzed over to Waterloo and met up with Richard.
I then drove out to Rolvenden to have tea with Den and Sha before sitting in on their exec meeting.

3 great meetings, 3 very different meetings, 3 sets of great people that I have the privilege to be able to call friends.

who’s insane?

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It’s been quiet here for a few days – a consequence of having too many assignments to do in a short space of time, combined with being busy dealing with ‘stuff’ ad mission proposals and retreats in YFC centres! It’s an insane time!

That’s not at all a complaint, as I love it when I am busy. I love it when I am under pressure to perform and meet deadlines. I love having to think on my feet and troubleshoot. It does, however, seem to zap energy and I have not had the energy needed to think about writing something here.

It would be wrong to share too much work stuff, but for assignments I have had to write a funeral for a sudden death of a youngish mum of 3 children, which was a real challenge, and justify why I did what I did; reflect on what I have learnt from this years preaching module (I must confess not a lot!), reflect on a conversation I have had with one person, and currently I am working on planning as session for women on stress as part of a Lent course and write an essay on what social psychology can teach us about hoe people act in congregations. The deadline for these last 2 is next Monday … 6 days which I was relaxed about – until I realised we have our last training weekend this weekend! So effectively 4 days for 2 assignment … woohoo! I think I may go insane …

I think I love being busy as the buzz means I do not have to question too much what is going on, instead I have to get on and do things as there are things that desperately need doing.

In my daily office, the Northumbria Community are looking at the desert others and fathers over this month, and there have been some great thoughts that I have taken into the day. I particularly loved this:

Abba Anthony said:

‘The time is coming when people will be insane, and when they see someone who is not insane they will attack that person, saying: ‘You are insane, because you are not like us.”

So … is it me, you, or have we all lost it?!

a colurful day

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We had a great Full Team Meeting today in Rugby with Fuzz Kitto, who is a great guy with a mass of youth work and emerging church experience. Today Fuzz was helping us to look and think about change. As many of you know, YFC will be moving into a new building in a couple of months and we are using this opportunity to ask what our culture is, and how we can improve as we move into a new era. The temptation is to stay as we are and just move who we are from the basement into our building – but we would be missing an opportunity as we enter into a time of massive change!

Fuzz said some things today that I enjoyed hearing, was challenged by, or caused me to think. He outlined how Bruggemann talks bout change occurring. We move from a stage called orientation (where we are happy) to disorientation (which can be uncomfortable) and end up reoriented (changed) as a result. This reorientation becomes the new orientation and the whole process continues.

This was a helpful conceptual model as I have noticed over the years the cycles in youth work with things ‘coming back’ now that Sarah and I did some 20 years ago when we started in this wonderful world of youth ministry.

I also liked Fuzz’s comments about people being disillusioned. This may sound simplistic but I felt there was a good amount of truth in this short sentence. Those that become disillusioned are those that live under an illusion of God. If we have unrealistic expectations of God, or think God promises what he doesn’t (e.g. to protect us from ‘stuff’) then our illusions of God crash around us, resulting in disillusionment.

His final comment I have been thinking for a while and to illustrate this Fuzz used the Bravia bouncing ball advert. This is an example of the Brueggemann cycle. We have moved from a position of where everything was black and white (orientation) to a position where there were grey issues (disorientation) and we are now in a very colourful era where it is clear that some things are just not right or wrong, but they are different.

Before you come back at me some things are also right and wrong, just as black and white are colours, but many things which we stumble and argue or could just be colourful. I have enjoyed the embracing and inclusive outlook of today.

cool TV site

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A while ago friend put me on to TV Links but I have only just got around to looking at it!
This needs a time warning!
Don’t gp to this site if you hav work to do or deadlines to meet.
The site has loads of TV programmes (such as all the episodes of Lost) that you can watch through streaming video …. cool!

But … you won’t catch me there!