Not many entries of late, that's not to say that there's not a stack of things I'd like to jot down and get out of my head. My drafts list is getting longer by the week.
Other things are just more important right now so focus has shifted slightly. Not even learning songs, hardly playing guitar. Investing in more stuff offline is the key at the moment.
I will catch up at some point. Apologies for the break. Follow me on Twitter if you want some shorter, more frequent updates!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
More green than we were? But only slightly.
Sally and I are doing our best to be green. We've very aware of green issues and what the scientists say, but we also just think that it makes sense to do it. Using less energy is cheaper and uses less of the finite resources of the earth. It makes sense to reduce consumption, reuse where possible and recycle materials rather than chuck them in landfill.
So when we were in Comet the other day and noticed that the cost of those little household energy meters had come down significantly, we had a short discussion and decided to buy one.
Of course, at first, you defeat the point by going round turning everything on to see how much it uses. The fun of this quickly wears off, however, and the device remains sat on a worktop somewhere, showing us our electricity usage.
It was very easy to set up and it's been very useful. Lots of people talk about taking things off standby, and I'm sure this has an important part to play, especially as these things, if left on, are on 24x7. But the most interesting things for us have been the effect of lights! You can really see the difference with low-power bulbs. But most of all, the multiple little spotlights that are used in our kitchen and bathroom use LOTS of energy.
It's been fun for a while and the novelty does soon wear off, but it's good to have the meter on, and it's been good to find out what the real energy guzzlers are in our house.
And maybe, just maybe, we'll be doing a little bit more to save the planet because of it.
So when we were in Comet the other day and noticed that the cost of those little household energy meters had come down significantly, we had a short discussion and decided to buy one.
Of course, at first, you defeat the point by going round turning everything on to see how much it uses. The fun of this quickly wears off, however, and the device remains sat on a worktop somewhere, showing us our electricity usage.
It was very easy to set up and it's been very useful. Lots of people talk about taking things off standby, and I'm sure this has an important part to play, especially as these things, if left on, are on 24x7. But the most interesting things for us have been the effect of lights! You can really see the difference with low-power bulbs. But most of all, the multiple little spotlights that are used in our kitchen and bathroom use LOTS of energy.
It's been fun for a while and the novelty does soon wear off, but it's good to have the meter on, and it's been good to find out what the real energy guzzlers are in our house.
And maybe, just maybe, we'll be doing a little bit more to save the planet because of it.
Back to Church Sunday
Churches are amazing organisations and, despite the fact that they should (in my opinion) be quite free of bureaucracy, they are organisations and they need structures involving lots of people in order to function.
One of the structures that we have at our church is the Church Meeting. This happens every other month, and we had one last night.
One item on the agenda was an initiative called 'Back to Church Sunday'. This is a Sunday in September that has been picked out as a day to invite people that used to go to church back to church.
I'm not sure what I think of this. Surely every Sunday is potentially a "Back to Church" Sunday, or a "Go to Church for the First Time" Sunday. And I think I'd rather have ongoing encouragement to invite friends along than only be encouraged to do it on a specific day. Churches should ALWAYS be open for people to come back to.
Also, what will the service be like? I'm expecting it to be "special", which doesn't seem right because what if the people we invite come back the next Sunday and find it's different?
It IS a good initiative - as you can see, it's already got me thinking about how open our church is to newcomers, and what I can do to try get better at asking people along. I will support it and try to join in. And maybe doing a one off event like this will kick-start something bigger and ongoing.
But I think we need more than just one day for this...it should be an ongoing part of our Christian lives.
One of the structures that we have at our church is the Church Meeting. This happens every other month, and we had one last night.
One item on the agenda was an initiative called 'Back to Church Sunday'. This is a Sunday in September that has been picked out as a day to invite people that used to go to church back to church.
I'm not sure what I think of this. Surely every Sunday is potentially a "Back to Church" Sunday, or a "Go to Church for the First Time" Sunday. And I think I'd rather have ongoing encouragement to invite friends along than only be encouraged to do it on a specific day. Churches should ALWAYS be open for people to come back to.
Also, what will the service be like? I'm expecting it to be "special", which doesn't seem right because what if the people we invite come back the next Sunday and find it's different?
It IS a good initiative - as you can see, it's already got me thinking about how open our church is to newcomers, and what I can do to try get better at asking people along. I will support it and try to join in. And maybe doing a one off event like this will kick-start something bigger and ongoing.
But I think we need more than just one day for this...it should be an ongoing part of our Christian lives.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Garden Progress
Still way behind on the blog (I have lots of back-dated posts to write up), but it's just not a priority right now.
I did want to quickly give an update on the garden, as this is something that IS taking up a lot of our time and IS a priority.
We now have three rows of potatoes growing and three rows of onions, with a fourth of each planted. We're fighting the weeds off a bit at the moment too and I suspect that this will be a daily activity over the summer.
The spuds are awesome. These photos were taken about a week ago, but now that they've got leaves above ground they're growing at a phenomenal rate. You can see the difference from day to day. It's quite incredible and exciting.
While they've been growing we've been clearing more weeds and Sally's been planting Leeks, Celery and Tomatoes under plastic indoors. These came up REALLY quickly but are not yet strong and established plants that we can plant outside.
The digging and weeding has been hard and slow work but we are getting there. The photos below show you what we're dealing with.
Here's the whole plot:
And here's before and after shots of a patch that we've cleared (actually different patches but you get the idea...this is what we're going from and to):
So, it's hard work but rewarding, and on a sunny 27 degree day like today, not really what you want to be doing for several hours.
I did want to quickly give an update on the garden, as this is something that IS taking up a lot of our time and IS a priority.
We now have three rows of potatoes growing and three rows of onions, with a fourth of each planted. We're fighting the weeds off a bit at the moment too and I suspect that this will be a daily activity over the summer.
The spuds are awesome. These photos were taken about a week ago, but now that they've got leaves above ground they're growing at a phenomenal rate. You can see the difference from day to day. It's quite incredible and exciting.
While they've been growing we've been clearing more weeds and Sally's been planting Leeks, Celery and Tomatoes under plastic indoors. These came up REALLY quickly but are not yet strong and established plants that we can plant outside.
The digging and weeding has been hard and slow work but we are getting there. The photos below show you what we're dealing with.
Here's the whole plot:
And here's before and after shots of a patch that we've cleared (actually different patches but you get the idea...this is what we're going from and to):
So, it's hard work but rewarding, and on a sunny 27 degree day like today, not really what you want to be doing for several hours.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Church Planting?
This is a bit of a multi-purpose Blog/Email/Journal type entry that will probably pop up in various places - apologies if you come across it twice.
A while back I mentioned something that was going on that I couldn't really mention. Well, now I can mention some more, though I will have to remain a bit vague for reasons that will become clear.
Introduction
Sally and I are, possibly/probably, going to be involved in a church plant in a new part of Swindon that isn't yet built. It's very exciting, but a little bit scary and unknown. This message will probably be the first of many on the topic.
History and Background
When we first moved to Swindon we searched around a bit for a church that was our style and found Upper Stratton Baptist Church (USBC). It wasn't massively local, being a couple of miles away, but it felt like the right place to be.
Shortly after committing to being at USBC, we joined a small group. For the uninitiated, a small group is, well, just that. Where the typical Sunday church service has many people and is lead from the front, a small group is a group of around 10-12 people who meet together during the week. Small groups, or house groups, or cell groups as they are sometimes known, enable people to connect at a deeper level, get to know each other better, share their experiences, learn from each other and pray for each other. It's just a more personal way of meeting together as Christians.
Almost immediately we felt that our house group was important. Sally and I had a sense that this small group could be a little church of its own, and that maybe our small group leader might one day start a new, house-based church. Some would refer to this as a "church plant".
The problem was...where??? There are plenty of churches in Swindon, and no shortage of them in the area that our small group meets in. So we dismissed it.
Gentle Revelations
It turns out that there's a new development in Swindon going on. A group of churches in the area have been praying about the development for years, and, now that it's starting to happen, they're looking to have a Christian presence there.
Our small group leader feels called (and there a lots of signs that its the right thing to do) to move into the area and be forming a Christian presence in the community from very early on. And it looks like the small group might be involved quite closely in this.
Some will find it odd that God appears to "speak" or to "lead" people to a particular course of action. I believe that this does happen. But I've really never seen the messages so loud and clear as they are for this.
The Mission
So, here's the Mission, if you choose to accept it: help our small group leader establish a Christian presence in this new development from the word go, and work to build community, welcome people to the area, and show those moving in a huge amount of love by serving them, being generous, and accepting them as friends and neighbours.
Any group of Christians will probably become known as a "church", but we're hesitant to define what that means for us just yet, and we certainly have no plans for a building.
For those that recognise them, the words "relational", "missional", "cell church" and various other buzz words have been bounced around, but I hope the paragraph above gives some idea to those that don't know what they might mean.
Our Involvement
That's the story so far in very brief form. I could say lots about how the churches of Swindon have been working together in wonderful ways, how funding hasn't been an issue, and how people we didn't expect to have been incredibly encouraging about the whole thing. It really is too good to be true.
There's also been other things going on that have really brought our small group together in the last few weeks. We're a very tight knit community who love each other and are all very excited about being a part of the new community.
So what's our involvement?
Well, we've obviously been supporting and praying for the team as this is a massive change for them, and quite a big risk. But we've also been considering our own involvement.
Now, I'm normally practical, working through issues and thinking things through thoroughly before committing to them. But in this case, everything in me says "well of course we're going to be a part of it". When opur small group leader told us what she was up to, we already knew, and I think we already knew that we would be a part of it too.
We're both hugely excited and want to be involved in as much of a capacity as we can.
It's not all simple though. We've had to ask ourselves if we're doing this because we think God is calling us to, or because we just want to be part of a new exciting church that lots of our close friends are in too.
We're wondering just how we can be involved in a "missional, relational church plant" when, at present, we're unable to actually move into the area.
We've also recently become aware of the practicalities. There's always politics when a group of people are involved in change and this is no exception. There will be some real challenges along the way.
Though God's call seems clear to us...we have to be sure that we're following God's call for us as we proceed.
To put it another way, some good friends of ours are waiting for a definite call from God before they commit to being involved. We're the opposite, waiting to see if God calls us NOT to be involved.
What happens now?
Well, we don't really know. Things are happening extremely quickly, but they are also being revealed a little at a time. We had a really good meeting with the small group the other night to discuss what the "shared values" of the new "church" might be (worthy of a whole blog post of its own), and we're all praying, asking God questions, looking for answers, wisdom, guidance in faith that they will come.
I can't give too much detail in a public forum, but I'm hoping to be able to post bits and pieces about what's going on here; to record the process that we go through, but also in the hope that those reading may be able to support us.
I will try to use as little church jargon as possible, though such a thing is hard when you're writing about such a topic.
It's obviously something that could be quite a big change of direction for us and consume a lot of our time. As I said before, it's exciting and scary stepping into the unknown in faith. I hope to be able to share some pretty exciting stuff here as time goes on.
Eeek!
A while back I mentioned something that was going on that I couldn't really mention. Well, now I can mention some more, though I will have to remain a bit vague for reasons that will become clear.
Introduction
Sally and I are, possibly/probably, going to be involved in a church plant in a new part of Swindon that isn't yet built. It's very exciting, but a little bit scary and unknown. This message will probably be the first of many on the topic.
History and Background
When we first moved to Swindon we searched around a bit for a church that was our style and found Upper Stratton Baptist Church (USBC). It wasn't massively local, being a couple of miles away, but it felt like the right place to be.
Shortly after committing to being at USBC, we joined a small group. For the uninitiated, a small group is, well, just that. Where the typical Sunday church service has many people and is lead from the front, a small group is a group of around 10-12 people who meet together during the week. Small groups, or house groups, or cell groups as they are sometimes known, enable people to connect at a deeper level, get to know each other better, share their experiences, learn from each other and pray for each other. It's just a more personal way of meeting together as Christians.
Almost immediately we felt that our house group was important. Sally and I had a sense that this small group could be a little church of its own, and that maybe our small group leader might one day start a new, house-based church. Some would refer to this as a "church plant".
The problem was...where??? There are plenty of churches in Swindon, and no shortage of them in the area that our small group meets in. So we dismissed it.
Gentle Revelations
It turns out that there's a new development in Swindon going on. A group of churches in the area have been praying about the development for years, and, now that it's starting to happen, they're looking to have a Christian presence there.
Our small group leader feels called (and there a lots of signs that its the right thing to do) to move into the area and be forming a Christian presence in the community from very early on. And it looks like the small group might be involved quite closely in this.
Some will find it odd that God appears to "speak" or to "lead" people to a particular course of action. I believe that this does happen. But I've really never seen the messages so loud and clear as they are for this.
The Mission
So, here's the Mission, if you choose to accept it: help our small group leader establish a Christian presence in this new development from the word go, and work to build community, welcome people to the area, and show those moving in a huge amount of love by serving them, being generous, and accepting them as friends and neighbours.
Any group of Christians will probably become known as a "church", but we're hesitant to define what that means for us just yet, and we certainly have no plans for a building.
For those that recognise them, the words "relational", "missional", "cell church" and various other buzz words have been bounced around, but I hope the paragraph above gives some idea to those that don't know what they might mean.
Our Involvement
That's the story so far in very brief form. I could say lots about how the churches of Swindon have been working together in wonderful ways, how funding hasn't been an issue, and how people we didn't expect to have been incredibly encouraging about the whole thing. It really is too good to be true.
There's also been other things going on that have really brought our small group together in the last few weeks. We're a very tight knit community who love each other and are all very excited about being a part of the new community.
So what's our involvement?
Well, we've obviously been supporting and praying for the team as this is a massive change for them, and quite a big risk. But we've also been considering our own involvement.
Now, I'm normally practical, working through issues and thinking things through thoroughly before committing to them. But in this case, everything in me says "well of course we're going to be a part of it". When opur small group leader told us what she was up to, we already knew, and I think we already knew that we would be a part of it too.
We're both hugely excited and want to be involved in as much of a capacity as we can.
It's not all simple though. We've had to ask ourselves if we're doing this because we think God is calling us to, or because we just want to be part of a new exciting church that lots of our close friends are in too.
We're wondering just how we can be involved in a "missional, relational church plant" when, at present, we're unable to actually move into the area.
We've also recently become aware of the practicalities. There's always politics when a group of people are involved in change and this is no exception. There will be some real challenges along the way.
Though God's call seems clear to us...we have to be sure that we're following God's call for us as we proceed.
To put it another way, some good friends of ours are waiting for a definite call from God before they commit to being involved. We're the opposite, waiting to see if God calls us NOT to be involved.
What happens now?
Well, we don't really know. Things are happening extremely quickly, but they are also being revealed a little at a time. We had a really good meeting with the small group the other night to discuss what the "shared values" of the new "church" might be (worthy of a whole blog post of its own), and we're all praying, asking God questions, looking for answers, wisdom, guidance in faith that they will come.
I can't give too much detail in a public forum, but I'm hoping to be able to post bits and pieces about what's going on here; to record the process that we go through, but also in the hope that those reading may be able to support us.
I will try to use as little church jargon as possible, though such a thing is hard when you're writing about such a topic.
It's obviously something that could be quite a big change of direction for us and consume a lot of our time. As I said before, it's exciting and scary stepping into the unknown in faith. I hope to be able to share some pretty exciting stuff here as time goes on.
Eeek!
Saturday, May 03, 2008
My new least favourite plants
When we moved to our first rented place in Swindon, we gained a garden! Something we'd not had for years. So it was novel and fun...especially watching the wildlife.
But there were downsides too....weeds!!! In that garden my enemy was Himalayan Balsam. A hollow, spineless plant. Not hugely ugly but lacking character. Shallow roots and hollow stems that snapped with a chilling crack. I loathed it and relished pulling it from the ground.
Now we're clearing our vegetable patch in the new house. It's bank holiday weekend and we're behind with planting so we had a long day of digging today. And I have two new least favourite plants.
One is Creeping Buttercup.
"Buttercups", you say, "how quaint!".
NO...how HORRID. A low, pervasive, ground-creeping plant with deep roots that's taken over most of our vegetable patch. It's the bain of my gardening life. It's one redeeming feature is that the roots spread down and not out, so it's easy to pull them up without having to dispose of great clods of earth at the same time.
The other is the dandelion. We now have a lawn, but it's in a bit of a state, and with our energies going into the veg patch, it might not see some attention for a while. And the dandelions are taking over.
From a distance they look quite nice. The view from the kitchen window is almost meadow like with a thin carpet of yellow flowers blooming. But closer inspection shows them for what they are...nasty, evil, deep-rooted, zombies of flowers with jagged leaves and spiny petals.
I'm gonna get rid of them. I don't know how but I will.
Pictures of the job at hand will follow soon!
But there were downsides too....weeds!!! In that garden my enemy was Himalayan Balsam. A hollow, spineless plant. Not hugely ugly but lacking character. Shallow roots and hollow stems that snapped with a chilling crack. I loathed it and relished pulling it from the ground.
Now we're clearing our vegetable patch in the new house. It's bank holiday weekend and we're behind with planting so we had a long day of digging today. And I have two new least favourite plants.
One is Creeping Buttercup.
"Buttercups", you say, "how quaint!".
NO...how HORRID. A low, pervasive, ground-creeping plant with deep roots that's taken over most of our vegetable patch. It's the bain of my gardening life. It's one redeeming feature is that the roots spread down and not out, so it's easy to pull them up without having to dispose of great clods of earth at the same time.
The other is the dandelion. We now have a lawn, but it's in a bit of a state, and with our energies going into the veg patch, it might not see some attention for a while. And the dandelions are taking over.
From a distance they look quite nice. The view from the kitchen window is almost meadow like with a thin carpet of yellow flowers blooming. But closer inspection shows them for what they are...nasty, evil, deep-rooted, zombies of flowers with jagged leaves and spiny petals.
I'm gonna get rid of them. I don't know how but I will.
Pictures of the job at hand will follow soon!
Fixing the Felt and Rediscovering the Raleigh
One of my favourite films is Pixar's Toy Story...the first all-CGI feature-length movie, and a very cool buddy story. I'm assuming knowledge of the story here so please forgive me if you've not seen it (and GO see it!).
I'm having a bit of a Toy Story moment. My old Raleigh bike (who I've taken to calling "Walter") hasn't been used much lately. When Fuzzy (my road bike) came along he was so superior in so many ways that Walter got a bit forgotten about. Walter is, if you like, my "Woody", and Fuzzy is my "Buzz Lightyear".
But this week, Fuzzy got a flat. Not on the road, he got cut up by some glass on the garden path. Still, it was a busy week and I didn't have the time to get it fixed proper. So I took to riding the Raleigh to work for a couple of days.
And, you know what, he's not so bad after all. He's a work horse. Solid. Dependable. A bit rough around the edges, but he's there when I need him. OK, so he's a bit uncool, but he's done more than 1500 miles in 18 months. When Fuzzy has problems, I'll need Walter.
And so to fixing the flat. This should be bicycle maintenance 101. It's the first thing you learn to do right? It's EASY. A kid could do it.
So can I just say...a kid could NOT do it with a road bike! Those things are so darn fiddly, the beading's so tight. It's really hard!
Anyway, I fixed the flat mid-week but found a half-inch gash in the front tyre where the glass had got through so I bought two new tyres (700-25 Continental Gatorskins if you must know) and fitted them both today. That's three tyre changes in a week - I'm getting pretty good at them now despite the difficulty level! Yet to give them a good ride but will be interesting to see how the bike handles with different rubber.
Fuzzy also got a good and much needed clean, degrease and lube today. The Raleigh is the workhorse, but the Felt is my slick, lean, fast machine and he still gets much more attention.
To infinity and beyond anyone?
I'm having a bit of a Toy Story moment. My old Raleigh bike (who I've taken to calling "Walter") hasn't been used much lately. When Fuzzy (my road bike) came along he was so superior in so many ways that Walter got a bit forgotten about. Walter is, if you like, my "Woody", and Fuzzy is my "Buzz Lightyear".
But this week, Fuzzy got a flat. Not on the road, he got cut up by some glass on the garden path. Still, it was a busy week and I didn't have the time to get it fixed proper. So I took to riding the Raleigh to work for a couple of days.
And, you know what, he's not so bad after all. He's a work horse. Solid. Dependable. A bit rough around the edges, but he's there when I need him. OK, so he's a bit uncool, but he's done more than 1500 miles in 18 months. When Fuzzy has problems, I'll need Walter.
And so to fixing the flat. This should be bicycle maintenance 101. It's the first thing you learn to do right? It's EASY. A kid could do it.
So can I just say...a kid could NOT do it with a road bike! Those things are so darn fiddly, the beading's so tight. It's really hard!
Anyway, I fixed the flat mid-week but found a half-inch gash in the front tyre where the glass had got through so I bought two new tyres (700-25 Continental Gatorskins if you must know) and fitted them both today. That's three tyre changes in a week - I'm getting pretty good at them now despite the difficulty level! Yet to give them a good ride but will be interesting to see how the bike handles with different rubber.
Fuzzy also got a good and much needed clean, degrease and lube today. The Raleigh is the workhorse, but the Felt is my slick, lean, fast machine and he still gets much more attention.
To infinity and beyond anyone?
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Local Elections
I'm a bit of a political animal. Not very much but a bit. I think politics is important and I think we should all be involved in the political process so I try to do my bit by taking an interest, writing to my MP about issues that concern me and...very importantly...voting!
Today is local election day in our little neck of the woods. I did go and vote - I won't say for whom, but I WILL say that I was VERY close to spoiling my paper. Why?
The run up to our election has seen a little paper battle going on. First, a very good leaflet from the Tory guy. A positive leaflet outlining what he do and with very little mocking of his Labour opponent.
In reply came a Labour leaflet that contained nothing positive at all, just 10 reasons not to vote for the Tory guy. Frankly this made the Labour guy look like an arse. In reply to that came another positive Tory leaflet which made a point of the fact that it was positive and not belittling of the Labour guy.
Ironically, both the Tory and the Labour candidates seem to want the same things, not many of which I think are particularly important. We had no publicity from any of the other three candidates.
So who to vote for. On the face of it, the Tory guy wins my vote for presenting a positive agenda, but I don't like Tory values. The Labour guy lost my vote with his first leaflet. The Lib Dem guys lives miles away from the area. UKIP...need I say more. Oh and there was a random independent candidate who could have been anyone.
My choice remains secret. My dissatisfaction with the political process does not.
Today is local election day in our little neck of the woods. I did go and vote - I won't say for whom, but I WILL say that I was VERY close to spoiling my paper. Why?
The run up to our election has seen a little paper battle going on. First, a very good leaflet from the Tory guy. A positive leaflet outlining what he do and with very little mocking of his Labour opponent.
In reply came a Labour leaflet that contained nothing positive at all, just 10 reasons not to vote for the Tory guy. Frankly this made the Labour guy look like an arse. In reply to that came another positive Tory leaflet which made a point of the fact that it was positive and not belittling of the Labour guy.
Ironically, both the Tory and the Labour candidates seem to want the same things, not many of which I think are particularly important. We had no publicity from any of the other three candidates.
So who to vote for. On the face of it, the Tory guy wins my vote for presenting a positive agenda, but I don't like Tory values. The Labour guy lost my vote with his first leaflet. The Lib Dem guys lives miles away from the area. UKIP...need I say more. Oh and there was a random independent candidate who could have been anyone.
My choice remains secret. My dissatisfaction with the political process does not.
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