Suing God

Posted on September 18, 2007
Filed Under God | 5 Comments

I’m not sure what to make of this!

Rugby

Posted on September 16, 2007
Filed Under family news | Leave a Comment

We’ve been to Wales for the weekend to see Canada against Fiji in the Rugby World Cup.  We’ve had a fantastic time, although we are all tired now!  This was Jonathan’s Fathers Day gift, so we kind of celebrated Fathers Day again today too!  As we left our hotel this morning we realized that we had been staying at the same hotel as the Canadian team - too late for autographs though! Some of you across the Atlantic may not even know what Rugby Union is (so here’s a Wikipedia link for you!).  It may surprise you to learn that the also USA have a Rugby team in this world cup too.

There was a great atmosphere in the stadium, and we watched a good game.  We were, of course, supporting Canada.  During the first half I thought they had been following the same techniques and strategies as England did in their dismal defeat to South Africa on Friday.  There was a lot of ball dropping and they just couldn’t seem to get themselves together, Fiji, however were fast and worked well, they were soon adding points to their score!  After half time the Canadians came back out and attacked.  They scored a great try, and really worked well as a team.  They had a try disallowed, which shouldn’t have been - it was certainly a try - this would have leveled up the match.  In the closing minutes Canada were out to score again, but they had the ball intercepted and a Fijian player shot down the other end of the field to score a try for Fiji.  The end result was Fiji 29 Canada 16.  The pictures above show Ryan Smith on his way to scoring Canada’s try, Ben waving his flag, and Grace full of Canadian pride!

England are the current holders of the Rugby World Cup, being the first team in the northern hemisphere to win it.  I will never forget that nail biting early morning four years ago when they played Australia in the final - that was a good day!  There is no chance of England retaining the cup though, their performance has not been very good lately.  I think the mighty New Zealand All Blacks will walk away with the Webb Ellis Trophy this year.  Their performance is in a class of it’s own.

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Women!

Posted on September 12, 2007
Filed Under blog, thoughts | 9 Comments

I was over at Makeesha’s blog earlier and read her latest post which is about a response that has been written to a post Mak wrote a few weeks ago about a new course being offered to seminary students wives in order to prepare them for ministry. I’ve been pondering over the response to Mak’s post all afternoon, mainly thinking about calling and the role of women. One thing which disturbed me in the bloggers response to Mak’s post was that she said that pastors wives are called to be pastors wives. I have to really dispute this. I’ve never felt God “call” me to be a pastors wife. It’s not like he said to me one day “Lyn you’re going to be a pastors wife, so go off and find yourself a pastor to marry!” I believe that God brought Jonathan and I together and we have a joint calling to worship and serve God, as everyone does. I really struggle with this role and calling thing right now though. Sometimes we get so het up about what God wants us to do, that we forget to simply be with him, which is far more important.

Jonathan has just pointed out to me that there is no “job description” pastors wives. He used an example of the First Lady. Laura Bush kind of supports her husband and blends into the background, whereas Hillary Clinton was very active and is now running for Presidential candidacy herself. Pw’s are like that, some are really in your face, and others blend into the background - I fall into the latter!

Anyway, my post isn’t about pastors wives. It’s about women! As women how do you define your role in society and at home? Are you more of a home maker, or career orientated? Do you feel forced to fill a role you don’t feel you fit? Also would you say that God has a particular calling for you?

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Remembering 9/11

Posted on September 11, 2007
Filed Under blog | 1 Comment

Sonja has written a good post today about remembering 9/11 and she has also highlighted some of the seismic shifts that happen which we soon forget about, or indeed do not know about.

Remembering the victims and families of 9/11 today, it is something that I will never forget about.

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Injustice

Posted on September 10, 2007
Filed Under mission and justice | 5 Comments

I came across this article in today’s New York Times (the link plays a very short advertisement first before connecting to the article). I really struggle with all of the injustices in the world, and would love to be able to put the world right. Why are people allowed to suffer the horrible pains of cancer and AIDS without adequate pain control? Why is it the wealthy in these countries have access to pain relief whilst the majority suffer. It’s just wrong, plain and simple.

Here are a few extracts from the article:

The World Health Organization estimates that 4.8 million people a year with moderate to severe cancer pain receive no appropriate treatment. Nor do another 1.4 million with late-stage AIDS. For other causes of lingering pain — burns, car accidents, gunshots, diabetic nerve damage, sickle-cell disease and so on — it issues no estimates but believes that millions go untreated.

Like millions of others in the world’s poorest countries, she is destined to die in pain. She cannot get the drug she needs — one that is cheap, effective, perfectly legal for medical uses under treaties signed by virtually every country, made in large quantities, and has been around since Hippocrates praised its source, the opium poppy. She cannot get morphine. That is not merely because of her poverty, or that of Sierra Leone. Narcotics incite fear: doctors fear addicting patients, and law enforcement officials fear drug crime. Often, the government elite who can afford medicine for themselves are indifferent to the sufferings of the poor.

About half the six million cancer deaths in the world last year were in poor countries, and most diagnoses were made late, when death was inevitable. But first, there was agony. About 80 percent of all cancer victims suffer severe pain, the W.H.O. estimates, as do half of those dying of AIDS. Morphine’s raw ingredient — opium — is not in short supply. Poppies are grown for heroin, of course, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. But vast fields for morphine and codeine are also grown in India, Turkey, France, Australia and other countries. Nor is it expensive, even by the standards of developing nations. One hospice in Uganda, for example, mixes its own liquid morphine so cheaply that a three-week supply costs less than a loaf of bread.

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