Posted on October 21, 2006
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We move on Monday to go and live in Hertfordshire. It’s going to be strange to leave the ocean, and the peace and tranquility that surrounds us here in Bournemouth, to move to a more urban area again. I must thank God though, for the wonderful 5 years that we have had here. We will miss many people, as well as Mudeford Quay - our little “get away from it all place”. We’ll have to find another one of those! It’s funny, because from what God has said to us over the past year and a bit, we really thought our next move would be Canada. It became apparent over the summer that we thought He may be asking us to go somewhere else first, to almost prepare for Canada. We never thought that He would take us to Hertfordshire, so we were quite suprised to find God directing us this way at the beginning of September. At the same time, we are moving on to a lovely church, and we already have some good friends there. He obviously wants us to go there for a reason, and it wil be exciting to see how this pans out over the next year or two prior to our PR. Next time I post I will be in our new home, the children would have spent a week or two at their new school, and I will be about to undertake my Open University degree!
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Posted on October 17, 2006
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Most of you would have seen the media hype of the past few days in relation to Madonna adopting a child from Malawi. It seems to be the latest “celebrity trend” to adopt a child from a poor country. I’m not opposed to this as you can help to give a child a better life, with more prospects etc. We’ve considered adopting from Africa, but it’s a lot of money to do this. Instead we sponsor two children in Uganda, and from what they write to us, we are helping them to have hope for the future. I think over the past few days I have reflected about Madonna adopting, and I find myself thinking “Why don’t these celebrities adopt a whole community?” They have the money to really make a real difference in poorer countries they could dramatically change the lives of many rather than the chosen one of two.
Yes, this adoption is great for the baby. He will now have a life expectancy of over double than what he would have had if he had stayed in Malawi, as they, like many African countries have been devastated through HIV/AIDS. He will receive a good education, live in good sanitized conditions, receive 3 meals a day, drink clean water - so many things we take for granted here in the West. I like a comment that was left by a reader on the BBC’s website “Why not support the child’s paternal father, house them, feed them, educate the little boy for life and give him the chance to succeed in his own society?” We live in a generation where we could really make a difference to the world. Let’s put our heads together - all faiths and nations, let’s for once forget our differences and focus on something radical and marvellous - Let’s make poverty history.
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Posted on October 16, 2006
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I have to say that I stand in awe of the Amish community in Pennsylvania. The way they have forgiven the man who killed five girls from their community, and embraced his family. I have to really ask myself if I would be so forgiving if this has happened to me. As a Christian I should be, and I have really learnt by watching this community. Jonathan and I were talking tonight, and we said that they may not have all of the mod-cons, but there is something within the Amish community, which is missing from our society - maybe we could all learn a thing or two from them.
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Posted on October 13, 2006
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Today I was listening to Woman to Woman on Premier Christian Radio. A lady called Betty King was being interviewed. She made an interesting statement which really got me thinking, she said that the Church spent so much time on promoting the gift of evangelism, that it seemed to be forgetting all of the other gifts that are amongst us. As I thought about this I realized that her statement was quite true, something which as a leader in the church I feel quite ashamed about. In my experience the church does seem to mainly focus on evangelism. How many of us are really encouraged to use gifts we have such as interpreting tongues and dreams, prayer, hospitality, prophecy and healing. Are we regularly encouraged to share visions and words from God, or do they have to go through a “screening” process before they can even be mentioned in a small group?
God has given us all gifts, a lot of us are not using ours. Some people are not actively using gifts because they have been slammed down and criticised by people in the past, how tragic is that? Some of us are probably not even be aware of what our gifts are. Let’s encourage one another in this, pray that our gifts will be revealed to us, so that we can use them for the glory of God.
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