A number of people have asked via email or phone call on the situation.
The situation is not good.
Kim is back in hospital.
Just pray.
Kim Update
Reply
I’m back!
I had a good few days away.
The meetings at head office were great and we got a good amount of stuff covered.
The real highlight, though, was catching up with Cassie and Chris. We ate curry (thanks Chris!), drank beer and chatted about loads of stuff and it was a genuine pleasure to spend some good time with two very special people.
I learnt new things about them both – Cassie can’t wrap presents …!
Roll on May 2008 when these special people get married!
I must be getting old … no matter how good a time away is, I always notice my speed increasing the closer I get to home and the great pleasure I feel when I arrive home. I am lucky to have such a great family.
Travels
I will be away for a few days.
I leave in the morning at around 5.20am to get to YFC head office for some meetings. I hope to beat the traffic and find somewhere for breakfast!
Tomorrow night I am going to shoot across to Nottingham and stay with good friend Chris and catch up there.
On Wednesday I am back at Head Office to plan some mission stuff before heading back home sometime Wednesday afternoon I hope.
I think I’ve done too much driving of late and I’m looking forward to a Christmas break!
EOT and orthodoxy?
Tonight was the last SEITE session for the year.
We did our Pelagius vs Augustine debate which seemed to go quite well.
We then went on to look at orthodoxy and heresy generally and on pondering I wonder about what is seen as orthodox.
Does orthodox mean everyone having to believe the same thing with no room for questioning? Is it about deciding who is in and who is out? Is orthodox thought for ever or can it change with age?
For example – Augustine seemed to think of original sin and new-born babies condemned to hell because he had a view of conception based on Aristotle’s thoughts; i.e sperm contained humanity and the womb was just a vessel for growth. So he believed, on which he based his orthodox thought, that all attributes of a baby were passed down from the male. An idea that we now know to be incorrect. With the knowledge we have today would Augustine have thought differently about this one part of his orthodox thought?
So can something that was an orthodox in an age, become unorthodox is another?
Time to think …
The Inspector is Coming
You may have noticed posts have been short an infrequent recently.
This is due to the DfES deciding they want to do a monitoring visit to look at the young offender and pre-offending project that they have given us a grant for. The funding means we can do exciting things with Reflex and Energize.
In essence this is very similar to an OFSTED visit that a school would get. The main differences are we receive one inspector that myself and a friend will spend 2 or 3 hours with looking at progress and how we monitor and assess what is happening, with the ultimate sanction being a withdrawal of funding for next year. That won’t happen – but I have found it quite an interestingly stressful exercise. I have spent most of this week collating information and writing reports in the format that they want to receive it in. All other work, and study, has had to be put on hold to enable this to be done. Bizarrely we make a quarterly report – so packing information out has been weird as we have submitted vary detailed reports.
After 3 full days last week I think I now have everything I need to send to the DfES before they visit in January. If it takes that long for one project, no wonder head teachers get stressed when they get the phonecall!
I had planned this term well – I had intended to have all work and essays done by Dec 18th so I could enjoy the holiday with the family as I have not been around much this term. I had quite a strict timetable to help this happen.
Sometimes, though, plans have to be laid aside for the sake of the immediate. Often this has happened because people need support, but I find myself unusually stressed by this because paperwork has had to be put on hold for more paperwork as we live in a world now with little trust, and a world that depends not only on targets being met, but a world where we need evidence of the meeting too.
A bit more trust and belief in the truth of our quarterly reports wold men we could do a lot more work!
Thankfully this tarhet culture has not hit churches yet – but beware … I reckon it’s coming!
weekend of firsts
The weekend has been quite exciting, and frustrating, as I have tried 3 things for the first time …
… started to use Blogger Beta which seems OK. I can add tags and the posting is quicker. It seems every time I think of moving to typepad and actually paying(!?!) to host the blog, Blogger somes up with something knew. I have not yet, however, had the courage to update my template and see what new things I can do. If it goes wrong the thought of typing in all the links again is scarey…
… I laid tiles on the bathroom floor (the frustrating part of the weekend!) Gary lent me his vicious looking tile cutter and during Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning I cut tiles and now the bathroom looks very different. I hate DIY and the big hurdle was actually convincing myself I could do it and I think I heard the words ‘I can’t do this!!!’ quite a few times. Quite amazing how our thoughts can hold us back, as it turned out I could do it after all …
… tonight I attended my first MOOT big service. It was great to have a lot of unrushed silence to ‘wait for Christ to come and be born among us’ in the season of advent. I think this is one of the few experiences where I have not felt that the silence has been rushed. After this last hectic week it was just cool to be able to sit and wait…
Last year I remember saying at the start of the year that I wanted to try new things … well this weekend I managed it!
Rob Bell interview
Not a cheap shot to raise my hits again, but John Buckridge from Christianity Magazine interviews Rob Bell here.
Some very interesting answers to questions – and I particularly like his spiritual disciplines of making the breakfast and packed lunch for his children but not sure whether I will share that with Sarah and the children here! There is also a great moment when he labels the American evangelical selling machine as anti – Christ rather than bringing glory to Christ.
It’s a good interview and worth a listen.
Pen Labyrinth
This is cool and I could have done with this over the last 2 days.
You can print this and it’s a great way to just pause in the business.
Thanks Mark for the pointer.
Mission chats – but I’m still shallow!
Back in London today for the Youth Co-ordinating Group of CTIE and to catch up with Pauline in Solid YFC.
The meeting this morning was quite productive – although I am finding myself getting impatient in meetings who seem to like to talk over and over the same issues. Part of me wants to scream and say … ‘we’ve talked about this quite a lot – can we get on with mission now please?!’
I learnt of an exciting idea to give a more positive view of young people in the media – watch this space!
I met Pauline at The Boathouse next to Putney Bridge for a coffee and chat. It’s a great location wth an amazing view. Coffee is quite good too!
Following that I had to tackle the throngs of people in Regent Street and Oxford Circus possibly hunting for a present – but I can’t say more cos they might read about it here!
I noticed one interesting thing about me! A whole day talking about mission and wanting to reach people – but feeling anger rising inside me when people stp in the middle of pavements or top of stairs leaving tube stations! Reminds me how shallow I am!
Moot Placement
Last night I joined the Moot Community meeting.
It was great to see everyone again and hear of plans for things of the future and interesting too to hear of the struggles of being involved in a community that has no real income and needs to remain on the edge of things and be creative.
I’m looking forward to getting involed in some stuff over the next few months, shame I can’t make the Christmas party though! I’m looking forward to the Advent Service on Sunday evening.
Ian is having the third op on his arm tomorrow so remember to shoot a prayer up!
The Shiny Headed Prophet 