Florida Mornings

Posted on July 31, 2008
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I love summer, absolutely love it. There is something about waking up at 5am and it’s already light outside. I love that at 9pm it’s still light outside. More than anything I love the way earth comes alive in summer. Outside there is a lot of activity from all sorts of animals and insects. I love watching the garden spring to life as flowers begin to grow and burst into full bloom. Summer gives me energy and a zest for life and creation.

Last summer in the UK was pretty much non-existent as we had torrential rain for most of it - some of you might remember the floods the country suffered. This summer, to be honest, has been pretty slow in getting started. I’d say we’ve had some decent weather now for a few weeks. This past week has seen temperatures up to about 80F but generally they’ve been in the early 70s - I know these are more like spring or fall temperatures for some of you!

Grace said to me yesterday “It feels like a Florida morning outside today Mama” I knew what she meant. Two years ago we took the kids to Florida. We clearly remember walking through downtown Disney at 8.30 - 9.00 in the morning and feeling the lovely Florida warmth on our skins. We could feel the warmth in the air as we breathed, but this was a wonderful heat (humidity!) which you didn’t want to go and shelter from, unlike the midday temperatures in the 90s which we weren’t so used to, but still enjoyed I might add! Outside yesterday afternoon it definitely felt like a Florida morning, as it does again today.

Summer doesn’t last too long in these parts and I’m aware now that we are entering August that fall is just around the corner once more, although it only feels like summer has just begun! I need to soak up rest in this next month and enjoy the delights that summer still has to offer. I hope to have many more Florida mornings!

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Review: The New Conspirators (Tom Sine)

Posted on July 28, 2008
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The New ConspiratorsIn the summer of 2000 Lyn and I were waiting to move to Vancouver BC. Whilst the time leading to our move seemed to go slowly I decided to get into some reading. One day in a Christian Book shop I picked up “Mustard Seed vrs McWorld.” Then we got busy and I didn’t really get to reading the book until we had moved back to the UK a couple of years later. What I read then, inspired me and challenged me.

MSvMW was one of the first books that helped me imagine what Christian life could, and maybe should be like. I went through portions of the book with different people I was trying to inspire with me to break out of the conventional models of churchianity to which we had become accustomed. Sadly, I found people only too willing to argue, especially when we broached conversations about more intentional community and better stewardship. Although MSvMW has informed our journey and borne some fruit in us and, through us in some others, I feel sad at the reticence of many to set the sails of adventure. I lament how difficult it is to break out of ‘life as we know it’ and into ‘life as it could be.’

So here we are in 2008 and we believe God is calling us back to Canada, to New Brunswick this time. This year Lyn was given a copy of ‘The New Conspirators’ to review here on her blog. Lyn reviewed the first part of the book, but I confess that I have stolen the book from here before she had the opportunity to finish the job. So my penance and pleasure is this review.

The book is in many ways a follow on from MSvMW. It accounts for the changes in the world and for the changes in the way many people are being and doing church.  The New Conspirators is an invitation. There are no blue prints or models to follow, but stories that invite you to creative imagination and to bold experimentation. These are seasoned with some simple suggestions to help you begin or continue your journey.

Tom’s research and analysis is excellent. His findings are disturbing however, especially when examining the challenges we are facing now, challenges which will only increase whilst the world continues on it current trajectory. Whilst surprising and sometimes alarming, we will all recognise the economic and environmental picture of the world that Tom paints.

In the midst of our present reality Tom calls us back to the future, to the hope of the homecoming of God’s Kingdom. In one very personal and moving section Tom refashions and paraphrases ancient biblical images of the coming of God’s kingdom. Tom reminds us and calls followers of Jesus back to the mission of planting the seeds from which this Kingdom will come to fruition. Whilst we need to be able to critique the world in which we live, we are called to be a living prophetic demonstration of the alternative way of life, a community that inspires hope.

Eternal life is not merely about living forever, but about cultivating that future reality here and now. Tom calls us to a creative faith that fills every aspect of our being, flowing out from our every activity: be it family life, or decisions about our spending, housing, vocation, giving or our use of time. I wonder, how many of us really meant it when we sang: “I surrender all” on a Sunday morning? This book subtly asks that question.

The remainder of the book is full of plentiful practical ideas of how we live this way of life. These are not theoretical sound bites, but true and living examples that are grounded in the pioneering practices of those who are already taking up the mustard seed challenge. These examples give me hope and fill me with excitement for the future.

Whilst this book is titled: the new conspirators, it is an advertisement for co-conspirators. For Lyn and I, as we hopefully head for New Brunswick in the fall, co-conspirators are exactly what we are on the lookout for.

More reviews can be found at here at thenewconspirators.com

Jon Hallewell

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Visa Update

Posted on July 28, 2008
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For those of you who are following our Canadian immigration progress the saga continues! We heard back today following our medicals that they want an educational psychologist to assess Ben. This will now probably take umpteen weeks to do as it’s summer, so it looks like we will not make it to Canada for September. Here’s hoping for October.

Ordinary Life

Posted on July 27, 2008
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Pam has begun a series about ordinary life. She is writing some fabulous stuff. Sharing stories about ordinary people doing ordinary things for God - just what I love to read about and would like to see more of. Go check Pam’s blog out here.

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About 11 or 12 years ago

Posted on July 27, 2008
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….. Jonathan and I used to hang out with friends from church. We inadvertently formed a young adults group - ages ranged from 18 up to about 26. There were about 15 or so of us who would hang out - not usually all at once - and it was through this that Jonathan and I met and married. There was a real special bond between everyone at this time in our lives. On Friday we attended the wedding of one of our friends from this group and found ourselves to be the only couple there that we knew.

Over the years we have all drifted apart. Some went on to university and simply lost touch. Others deliberately lost touch - two, who had been a couple, split up just before Jonathan and I married and it was shortly after our wedding that they both decided to disengage from our group of friends in case they bumped into one another. Within two years or so of Jonathan and I marrying there were only 6 of us still in touch. Two had, in this time, married. Unfortunately they had a painful divorce five years ago, and at first they separately kept in touch, but soon find this too difficult as it reminded them of the past.

Our friend, who married on Friday, announced three or four years ago that he did not believe in God anymore. Through this, we have found, that we are the only Christian friends he still has, everyone else (from our group of friends and beyond) appears to have bailed out on him. For us it was simple, we love you for who you are, not what you are. Also, we know that he has been kicked in the teeth quite painfully by several churches in the past. He has been used and abused. We wonder if this is really why he no longer goes to church and that maybe the belief in God remains, even if just a tiny amount - he did, after all, get married in a church. He doesn’t like to talk about God and church anymore, and we respect that, so we don’t really know where he is at, but I pray that he finds that love and relationship again one day, if it has been lost. I’m curious to know if it was merely easier for him to say to others that he did not believe anymore, rather than to justify why he didn’t attend church anymore? Maybe one day we’ll know.

I found myself thinking on Friday how sad it was that a group of people who were so close at that time have drifted away into history. We all shared a real passion for Christ, we would pray and worship fervently together. We laughed and cried together. We celebrated together. We were quiet together. We had lots of fun together. We had a community that I have only just managed to touch upon since before it fades away. I miss the times we had together.

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