The Face of Jesus

Last Wednesday evening (13/5/09) we decided to use the I Corinthians 14 : 26 format for our meeting. In this verse each one is asked to bring something to the meeting which will encourage or build up the others in the group. A number of people did contribute and there was a real sense that the Holy Spirit was leading the meeting.

One particular contribution came from Gloria. She led us through a directed meditation where we closed our eyes and imagined various things happening. Firstly we were to hear a knock at the door - it was Jesus and we were to let Him in. We were then asked to think about what we would like to ask Him - and then be quiet to listen to His answer.

Gloria then took us a step further and asked us to picture Jesus coming to stand in front of us, reaching out His hand, lifting up our chin and asking us to look into His face. When I did this I could not see a face so I quietly said to Jesus "I cannot see your face". Immediately an image came to my mind. It wasn't the one I was expecting - of someone with a white face and long hair and beard but rather the one below. It was of a orphan from the Merciful Redeemer orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya whom I had met when I visited last April.

Matthew chapter 25 instantly came to mind where Jesus says '.. for as much as you did it unto the least of these you did it onto me.' I shouldn't have been surprised by the way Jesus chose to reveal Himself - that's where we can find Him any time we care to go and look for Him. 

What are we like as role models?

I was reading this morning about the miracles performed by Elisha as described in 2 Kings Ch4. They were amazing and demonstrated that Elisha had a very close relationship with God. It was suggested by a commentator that he was simply doing what he had seen his predecessor, Elijah do. The commentator then went on to make an observation about where we find ourselves today. What he had to say struck a chord with me and I have reproduced it below. 

"Elisha is simply following suit. He knows that God can do such things, because his mentor Elijah did it. The same dynamic occurred between Jesus and his disciples: he sent them to heal the sick and raise the dead, and they did.

Why can’t I do these things? These men were normal human beings like me!

What they had, which many of us lack, is a fine example of real godly faith to follow. In the twenty-first century we take our place in a long line of doubt-riddled, semi-secularised, wealth-compromised, power-hungry Christians.

We have been set a poor example of Christlikeness, and we follow it. Then we pass a poor example on to the young Christians around us. This is one of the reasons why we need to read and reread these stories in the Bible."

Second wind!

It's been about 18 months since I sat down to do a posting so I'll probably ease in gradually.

I started a long piece about our recent visit to Bangkok this afternoon but didn't get it finished and then it had disappeared by the time I got back to it.

Maybe I'll start with a few photos from Australia and make BKK the focus of my next post.

The first photo is the Melbourne sky at sunset on the day following the bush fires of 7th Feb.

The second is of sunrise on the top of Mt Separation. During our family weekend we enjoyed many walks to the top of this mountain.

And here we are - or some of at least!

And a nice Melbourne sunset to finish off!

An experience not to be missed!

Recently had a two day stop over in Bangkok and, rather than doing the usual touristy things we went to visit some friends who work in the Khlong Toei slum. In order to give us some exposure to the local community our friends booked us into a Thai cookery school for our first morning.

We were picked up at 9 am by our hostess and her husband and taken to the Khlong Toei food market where we wandered through the hundreds of stalls selling all manner of things. 

Home made Thai soup - made while you wait.

I really liked this lady's hat!

The lady below is our Thai cooking instructor.

Our friends have helped set her up in this very successful little business - and others in a variety of businesses too.

In Thailand you don't go to the supermarket to buy pre-packaged rice - you buy a specific type of rice depending on what you are cooking.

We saw all sorts of interesting things at the market including crabs, grubs frogs and insects!

We stuck to more western-conventional food!

Our hostess took us back to her little home in where, under her instruction, we cooked 3 Thai dishes and a dessert. Of course we had to eat all that we made  - so in the last photo you can see how we felt at the end.

We were given the recipes at the end and have been practicing at home since we returned.

It turned out to be a very enjoyable morning and we became good friends with our cook and her family. We will certainly visit them again when we are in that part of the world. 

Thinking aloud - An Appropriate Response

I guess when we face most issues in life one of the things which we must determine is 'what is an appropriate response to the situation we find ourselves in?
God, when He saw the state mankind had got themselves into, decided that the appropriate response was to give the life of His Son so that mankind might have a way back to Himself.
On this remembrance day we acknowledge the fact that many people, particularly in the two big wars of the 20th century, felt that the appropriate response was to lay down their lives so that the rest of us would not be overrun by evil regimes.
As we think back to the holocaust, there is much criticism that the western world allowed discrimination against,and eventual attempts at the extermination of, the Jews to go on for far too long without intervention - an example of an inappropriate response.
As we think about the state of our world today with a few having an over abundance while the vast majority live in poverty we have to ask the question - what is an appropriate response?

New Life

First thing to do is to congratulate Matthew and Melissa on the announcement that No 2 is on the way. I'm sure Jessica will really appreciate a little brother or sister to play with - not to mention the fun Matthew will have making baby noises all over again!
Maureen took some photos of dawn from out balcony recently which I thought were rather beautiful - so I'm going to post them. I thought there was a bit of a connection between them and the news from M&M. New day, new life, new opportunities - something beautiful coming out of the mist.

Shanty Town Challenge

I attempted to publish a posting about Shanty Town Challenge about a month ago - before it had actually happened - but that went horribly wrong - so I'll try again.
Before I tell you about the event I'll tell you a little about the motivation behind it. Over this past few months a group who now call themselves The Poverty Action Team have been meeting at our church. Our concern has been to raise the profile of issues relating to world poverty in the minds and hearts of our congregation, to ask people to critically examine their lifestyle in the light of the inequalities which exist and to engage in practical projects which will have some impact on the needy situations which come to our attention.
One of the people who meet in this group (Ruth) spent much of her summer working in an orphanage in a slum area outside Nairobi and came back with some horrific stories about the conditions in which these children were living. 70 orphans living in a space much smaller than an average western home with no regular running water and sewage running in the street. The lady who runs the orphanage has been given land on which she can build a new orphanage and school but has no money to do the building. Ruth has come home determined to raise the funds to build the new orphanage. That's where Shanty Town Challenge comes in. We wanted to do something which would be educational but also raise some funds for Ruth's project.
Some of you may be familiar with the TV programme Scrap Heap Challenge where 2 teams of engineers compete to build a machine from scrap - well I guess that formed part of our inspiration! We had 10 teams - all of whom had to raise some sponsorship - build shanty dwellings. We gathered up scrap materials from a number of building sites and divided it into 10 piles. We also supplied a hammer, a blunt saw, and a few nails. The buildings which were created were quite amazing - and everyone who built really entered into the spirit of the thing. At the end all of the buildings were judged - which included a weather proof test (conducted by the fire service) - with the teams inside! I think that was probably the highlight of the evening!
Between the building and the judging we had dinner. That was an object lesson too. We drew 20% of the names out of a hat and gave them a western style meal - burgers, sausages, salad, bread rolls etc while the 80% got rice with a lentil sauce - a reflection of reality in the world. (Although I'm told 90/10 would be a more accurate reflection than 80/20) In a gesture which probably didn't reflect the world very accurately the westerners shared their surplus with the 'poor' - rather than just throwing it out!
We had a few other activities going on around the field too - the most popular of which was brick making with some clay which we obtained locally -see picture.
Hopefully the message registered with the 150 people who came along on the night. We also managed, between sponsorship and entry charges to raise approximately £1500. Ruth had already raised over £3000 from car boot sales and other activities so she is well on her way.
Did you like our toilet?
Maybe someone would like to pick up on this idea and run with it somewhere else!

Mo in Ukraine

Mo is back from Ukraine tonight -tired but otherwise in good shape. She really enjoyed the experience of helping with the camp but was greatly impacted by what she saw of an orphanage somewhere out in the country. It houses 167 kids but has very poor facilities - no washing machine for example. She has come back with a determination to help do something about the conditions there.

The team in Ukraine!

The Script

I was cutting the grass last weekend when this thought popped into my mind.
I sometimes hear new plays or movies being reviewed on the radio. One of the things which critics comment upon is how faithfully the director has interpreted the intentions of the original author. I got to thinking that the Christian life is a bit like a play and I wondered, as the Author looks on, is He happy that we are acting out the script as he has intended? I leave that with you as something to ponder.
The last time I tried a post my broadband connection dropped out and I lost the lot - so I'm not going to go on too long before I post.
I've just had a call for lunch so I will continue later - and give you a report on the sushi!!
I think I just accidentally published this but there is more.
Just a bit of background on the sushi. Nicky has been back from Leeds for this past 3 weeks but he didn't come alone! He has brought Jane - a girl who is doing the same course as himself. She is from Thailand but has been living in Leeds for this past 4 years where her mother has a Thai restaurant. Jane works in the restaurant in the spare time and has learned many of her mother and grandmother's cooking skills. Today for Sunday lunch we have had carrot, cucumber, crab and salmon sushi - all of which were very nice. That was preceded by a Thai spicy soup and followed by a very non-Thai cheesecake and toffee ice cream purchased on the way home from church at our local Asda store! I feel very satisfied!
Jo is also home - but just for the weekend. She has a couple of jobs which are keeping her busy for most of the summer. Last weekend she went to Paul Scanlon's church in Bradford (Abundant Life) and was impressed so this week she has gone to the Abundant Life church in Belfast to check it out. Rachel may remember giving me Paul Scanlon's book - 'Crossing Over' some time ago.
Next Saturday Mo is off to Ukraine. She catches the bus for Dublin at 1.30am, flies to Amsterdam and then Kiev and then catches a train for a 5 hour journey at 10.30pm - so may have an even longer day than you had last Friday, Matt. She is going to be helping to run a children's camp run by our partner church in Volochesk and YFC for a week. She is a bit apprehensive about the whole thing but I'm sure she will be fine and will have a great week.
Mo has left me in charge of cottage change overs for the next two Saturdays - so I'm not sure what sort of a holiday experience our guests will have. Fortunately some of our guests are in for a month so don't need much attention for the time when Mo is away.
My project for the coming week is to make some walking tracks around the farm. There are some beautiful lookout spots but they are not all easy to get to. Many of our guests like to walk so they should enjoy being able to explore a bit more. I also need to work on a playground for the kids who visit.
Jane, Nicky and lunch!













Hope this finds all of it's readers well and making the most of life.

Granny Robinsons 100th. Louis from Geelong is talking to us. Granny is the one in blue.











A recent walk in the Mournes. No that isn't Sam - just looks like him.












Our, nearly completed 4th cottage. Can you see our solar panel on the roof?












The view from our kitchen window. The whin (gorse) blossom has been amazing this year.












Easter Sunday lunch at Agnes's. Thought it was a while since you had seen pictures of Graeme, Sarah and Stuart.

What can I say

This past week has been one of stark contrasts.
For Debbie, Melissa's sister it has been devastating. Her husband Ray was killed in a farm accident leaving her to bring up a young family. I was going to add 'on her own' to that last sentence but I'm sure that will not be the case - there will be lots of support from the family and others - but that's not the same. Sharing your life with someone special is a wonderful gift and the loss of that someone will be felt for a very long time.
I visited Debbie's blog site where she had left a very brief but very moving message and was amazed that in a few short days 400 people had left messages of support. It was encouraging to see how many recogonised that prayer makes a difference in these situations and had told Debbie that they would pray. I don't know Debbie well, having only met her a few times, but I feel very touched by her loss and have assured her via M&M that we too would be praying.
A verse that comes to mind is 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord'. I guess He knows what He is doing. I'm not sure what age Ray was - certainly a young man who could have expected to live for many many years - but it was not to be.
On the same day when we heard of Ray's accident we were on our way to help Granny Robinson celebrate her 100th birthday. Her 9 children (the eldest in his 80's himself) had invited about 100 people to Cultra Manor for Sunday lunch. It was a lovely occassion - we enjoyed a beautiful meal, were entertained by some of the grandchildren, and heard some glowing tributes to the guest of honour. Two of her children had come from Australia (Ballarat and Geelong) and two from the west coast of the US to be part of the celebration. Messages of congratulation were read from the Queen, President McAleese and many other dignitaries. Many of her children and grandchildren are involved in christian ministry and they came across as a really close and caring family. They had come through some tough times in the early years as they had helped pioneer the Pentecostal movement in NI but God has poured out His blessing on them for their faithfulness. Granny Robinson is still fit and well and is in accomodation wher she mostly looks after herself - and looks like she has many years still to go.
It was also an amazing week from a NI politics point of view. Tuesday 8th May saw devolution restored to NI with an assembly headed up by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness. Over this past few months there has been a real transformation in the relationships between DUP and Sein Fein politicians and most people are cautiously optimistic that this time the assembly will work!
In the last two elections - when the most extreem parties got the greatest percentage of the votes, I and many others thought it was a backward step in getting our problems solved. No one could imagine that they would ever sit down together and even talk about addressing the issues. But, surprize, surprize, God still knew what He was doing! In the past we have only had the centerist / middle of the road parties talking together and, had they come to an agreement, the extreemests would still have been sitting on the sidelines snipeing away at every decision that was made or worse still - going back to violence. Now that the extreemists have come together in a coalition the prospects for a lasting peace are much greater. Why didn't I see that??
So, Debbie, God is still in control, even if, for the time being that seems hard to fathom.
God Bless.

We've been back from Australia 2 weeks tomorrow. I'm afraid we had to put away our summer clothes when we returned - it's been snowing this week! I will try to include a photo of the snow with this posting.
Our trip was great - both to Australia and China. Thanks again to all those who made it so enjoyable. Unfortunatly I still haven't made much progress with video editing so I will stick with the still photos for the time being.



I will try to pick out an image from those which we took in Shanghai which illustrates the contrast which we observed between rich and poor and between traditional and modern.


This one shows hundreds of bikes and scooters parked in the street with a large plasma advertising screen (which are everywhere) in the background.

If you want more China photos next time just let me know.





Last photo is of a family grouping taken on the night before we left. Unfortunatly not everyone could be there - but it's a good representative sample!

My parting shot on this posting -

One day while visiting St Marks I picked up a book called "Make Poverty Personal" by Ash Barker. We use the word challenging very lightly sometimes but this book was definitly CHALLENGING!
It made a very strong case for christians being much more radical in how they live their lives - especially in relation to living in comfort when so many of our brothers and sisters across the world are living with poverty and oppression.
The author showed very clearly how close this issue has always been, and continues to be, to God's heart and how He watches to see what our response will be to those around us who are in need.
I guess it's easy to be moved by a book such as this but the real test will be - to what extent will it move me to action! The jury is out!
If anyone else would like a copy it can be obtained through the Urban Neighbours of Hope web site - I reccomend that you have a look at it whether you want the book or not. I think it's www.unoh.org.au
God bless.

A New Year

A winter scene from Slievemoyle - but notice that because of our very mild weather the gorse is already in bloom. The second photo is of Ivy cottage. The cattle race and the pile of rubble will be disappearing soon!

Well it's been a while since I blogged but the world seems to have continued running in spite of
that! We had a quiet but very enjoyable and relaxed Christmas and New Year celebration. On second thoughts I guess it wasn't particularly quiet or relaxed on the afternoon of 28th Dec when we had over 40 people around for nibbles, a chat and some mulled wine of course. Some were neighbours whom we only seem to see at Christmas, some were Mo's teaching friends and some were from the church. It was great to catch up with some folk we hadn't seen for a while and a nice way to finish off the year.
Yesterday we packed up the Christmas decorations for another year and did our best to get out of holiday mode and back on the job. I have set myself the goal of getting the next cottage to lock-up stage before we head for Australia on 1st Feb. That means getting the wiring done, putting in insulation, constructing the wooden ceilings, installing the windows and doors and plastering the walls. If we can get that done then there is a good chance we can get it finished by Easter. We don't have any bookings for it at Easter yet so we can afford to let the schedule slip a bit - however I always seem to get more done if there is a deadline to meet.
Today was "Vision Sunday" at our church and, while it's good to have a vision of where you would like to be or get to, one of the main themes which was coming across this morning was from Psalm 127 :1 "Unless The Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it" It's so important to stay in tune with what the Holy Spirit is saying.
I'll finish with a few photo's taken recently. (If I can remember how to do that) They actually ended up at the top - one day I'll work out how to put them where I want them!

A day in Leeds

Well two days actually! We spent Wednesday with Jo visiting Leeds Metropolitan University where she is doing a degree in PE - and had a very healthy lunch (as seen above) in the University area. In the evening we went to see the latest offering from James Bond - which was OK as Bond movies go. I thought the new 007 did a fine job in the role.
On Thursday Mo and I took a long walk to see an Industrial museum - which, much to Mo's disgust, was closed at this time of year! We came back into Leeds by bus and visited the Art gallery - partly because they have a nice resturant where we got lunch and partly to see an exibition of Leonardo da Vinci drawings which have been kindly lent by the Queen. His drawings are amazing but I couldn't help thinking of the corpses he had cut up to draw the bone and mucsle structures of the human body!
In the afternoon we went to the Royal Armories museum where they have a huge collection of all maner of equipment used in warfare down through the years. The photo shows Mo standing beside the only set of Elephant chain mail on public display anywhere in the world.
In the evening we rounded off our holiday with a meal at "Nandos" which was very nice. Nandos is a chain of Portugese resturants which started in South Africa and is expanding rapidly through the UK at present. Not sure if they have got to Australia yet but if the do you should try one.
We had an early start this morning (4.30) to carch a 7.00 flight to Belfast and a busy day shopping for tiles for the new studio so are ready for bed now. Goodnight.

Taking a break

Mo and I have taken a few days away from teaching and building to visit Jo and Nicky in Leeds. We had an early start this morning (5am) and, after saying our goodbyes to Sam and catching a Jet2.com flight, were in Leeds by 9 o'clock. We made our way to J&N's flat and had a quick cuppa before heading out to York for the day. Jo was at Uni so Nicky, Mo and I made the half hour trip to York by train (the first time any of us had been on a train for a long time!).

We had been told by a friend that when we made it to York we had to have lunch at "Betty's" so first priority was to hunt it out! That proved not too difficult but when we got there we discovered a long queue waiting to get in. We persevered, in spite of the cold (about 6 degrees) and the wait was well worth while. We had a lovely meal and very nicely presented. Betty's is probably York's equivalent of Bewley's in Dublin.

After lunch we wandered through some of the quaint little streets and ended up at Yorkminster cathedral. What an amazing building! They started building it in about 1240 and it took 274 years to build. It replaced an earlier cathedral and incorporated some of the stained glass windows from it - so some of the windows we were looking at were over 1000 years old. In the 1960's while doing some work on the foundations they found the remains of a Roman building dating from the time the Romans established the city in 71ad. York seemed to be the roman headquarters in this part of the world and the Emperor Constantine (a christian) had been proclaimed as emperor in York in 308ad.

Yorkminster is the second biggest Gothic cathedral in the world - after Seville in Spain and has more medieval stained glass than any other building in the world. Just to give you some idea of the magnitude of the windows - one in a gable wall was bigger than a doubles tennis court! They are going through a process of restoring some of their windows at the moment and it's going to take 10 years and 23 million pounds to restore that one and it's surrounding wall! The whole building was extreemly impressive - especially when you consider that it was built on soft ground with no piling and no cranes to lift the enormous stones 100's of feet up to their positions.

I guess such buildings were erected to bring glory to God - I wonder if He was impressed or if He was more concerned about the hardship which the common people were put under to contribute towards the enormous construction costs. I'm sure that some of the planners of these buildings did so with worthy motives but I'm left with the feeling that they are more of a monument to man's capabilities than they are items which draw attention to God and His glory. Maybe that's my reformist background speaking - probably those from more traditional roots would find those comments quite heretical!

Anyhow, we had a great day out and, after a visit to another lovely little cafe, Made our way back to Leeds where Nicky and Mo cooked dinner while I caught up on blogging! I think we plan to watch a movie tonight or maybe play a few board games - very relaxing and just what we needed.

Rugby results

Today was what I would call a perfect day Rugbywise - Australia won, Ireland won (as did all of the other celtic nations) - and, wait for it, England lost. That takes them to 7 losses in a row - the last time that happened was 140 years ago! Today their loss was to Argentina - the first time A have beaten them - and it was at Twickenham!
Ireland played really well to beat South Africa by a very respectable margin.
I've been encouraged by the response to my last posting of photos of the Mournes to post some more but I may leave that till tomorrow - bed beckons!
I had an extreemly useful conversation with Matthew this evening (hope I didn't keep you late for church) and have hopefully been able to sort out my posting problems - and learn a few new tricks. Thanks Matthew!
Well maybe just one photo for tonight!

Sam's day out

Sam and I took a day out from building yesterday (9/11) and went for a walk in the Mournes. It was an absolutly glorious day - as the photos will show. I had intended to have a day of silence and solitude but I had only just arrived at the top of the mountain when another bloke came up behind me. We got chatting and he turned out to be a retired teacher who had spent most of his life in Canada and Australia. He is now volunteering at a christian reconcilliation centre in Co. Antrim and we have an invitation to come and visit them sometime. His home is in Vancover Island so we might call in there some day as well. We spent a good while talking - and finding out that we had a lot in common - and when he moved on another man appeared. He was a BB leader from Omagh and we sat and had lunch together. We couldn't sit too close as he also had a dog with him and Sam was showing signs of wanting to have this dog for his lunch!
Sam just loves getting out for a walk in the mountains (as do I) so we must do it more often.
I don't think I was cut out to be a person who spends a lot of time on their own!
The TV programme came over very well and we will get a DVD of our segment from the producers. Perhaps if my skills as a blogger improve significantly I will have a go at publishing it. Watch this space!

Blessed...

17 GORGEOUS GRANDCHILDREN - HOW MUCH MORE BLESSED COULD A GRANDAD BE!
I hope this note will accompany a slide show of the said grandchildren which I uploaded to Photobucket tonight. If they don't appear I'll have to consult with Matthew again tomorrow!

Way Behind!

It's been a while since I've posted. That's partly because the site has been closed for maintenance the last two times I tried and partly because I feel my postings are very inferior to some of the others which I look at regularly! I have managed to work out how to include photos but still haven't managed to create any links with other blogs and certainly don't have a clue about drop shots! I do enjoy reading and watching these other blogs and maybe one of these days I'll become more adventurous.

We had a glorious day today. It was cold overnight but the sun shone out of a clear blue sky all day. The temperature probably only got to 10 or 12 degrees but there was little wind (in contrast to this past few days when it has been blowing a gale) so it was very pleasent.
Mo is on her half term break so has enjoyed a few days at home. On Monday we had some Ukranian friends for lunch - together with their interpreter -they are the two in the darker clothing in the photo (If I knew how to work drop shots I'd include the little video clip we took of them!). We really enjoyed their company and look forward to catching up with them again next time we go on a trip to Ukraine.

Mo has joined the church choir and had rehersal on Monday night. I went over with her and sat and read my book while they sang. What I heard sounded really good and I look forward to their first performance in a few weeks time. The church are going to make a worship CD in the near future with the choir having a prominent role - so watch the charts!

On Tuesday we had a meeting with a gentleman from a company which specialises in outdoor pursuits and adventure education. Now that we can accomodate about 20 people in the cottages we are looking at trying to attract small conferences and linking up with people who would be able to provide team building activities. It was a very good meeting with both of us seeing mutual benefits from the link. Watch our web site for developments (www.slievemoylecottages.com).

The plasterers are coming to render the walls of the new shed later this week so I spent today putting in door frames etc to prepare for their coming. We have the windows in (that happened yesterday as well) and will start this week to build the internal walls to create a new studio for Maureen. Hopefully that will be completed in the next couple of weeks so that we can make a start on cottage no. 4.

The TV programme which features Mo's painting workshop hasen't gone to air yet but should be on in the next 3-4 weeks. We are not sure what the response to that will be but need to have the studio prepared in case there is an immediate demand.

Last night we went to see a movie called "A Good Day". It is set in France and reminded us very much of the place where we spent the month of October last year. It was also a good little story and worth going to see if you are looking for a night out. Talking of nights out - I noted the invitation to an Italian resturant on The Rocks and may well take the said blogger up on that!!

Sorry I haven't been posting comments on other blogs but my password seems not to be recogonised when I try to do that. I will keep trying.

SUNDAY LUNCH
Yesterday we made some use of our large dining table and had a couple of families around for a meal. On the menu was salmon, boiled potatoes, brocolli and mashed carrot/sweet potato -and very tasty it was too!
It's amazing how much deeper a conversation you can have with people around a meal table than if you just meet them casually for a few minutes. I guess it's something to do with making a greater investment of time and the same level of conversation can probably be achieved by going for a long walk together.
After our guests had gone home we said to each other - we should do that more often - so I guess that was a sign that we had enjoyed our afternoon and the company.
Our afternoon also involved taking our guests up to the top of Castlemahon mountain (just next door to us) so I will attempt to include a photo looking back towards our cottages. Last time I tried this the second photo went to the top of my posting - but lets hope I gan get it in the right position this time around.




SUCCESS!!!

At church a couple of Sundays ago we were challenged to be more intentional about doing good and were given some specific ideas about what that might mean in practice. Examples were - buy a chocolate bar and give it to the girl on the checkout at the supermarket; give your newsagent a good book to read; donate blood; offer to babysit without being asked and - the one which I found most challenging of all - engage in a conversation with the person who calls from the Indian call centre. I forgot about that one next time I got one of those dreaded calls but resolved to do better next time. When the next opportunity presented itself (as they do almost daily) I tried very hard, however, the gentleman on the other end did not appear to be very much interested in dialogue - he had a speil to get across to me and was not going to be diverted to the right or the left! After about 2 minutes of telling him that I didn't want to change my phone provider I'm afraid I gave up again. I still do believe that we need to be more intentional about doing good and was impressed with one of the pastors quotes "more people have been converted by an act of kindness than by zeal, eloquence and learning put together".
Sorry, I havn't taken any photos this week!

Further evidence for climate change! I got up this morning (10th October) looked out the window and decided that it was a 'shorts day'. And so it proved to be, the sun shone all day out of a relatively cloudless sky and was accompanied by a gentle southerly breeze which got all of the washing dry!
I spent most of my day starting to lay up a store of firewood for the winter. My very kind brother-in-law had sawn up a tree some time ago which he didn't need so he offered it to me. After collecting it this morning I put the log splitter on the tractor - for the first time in about 3 years - and started splitting. That machine certainly beats using an axe!
While I was doing that Mo got another booking for the Blackthorn Cottage AND got her first day of supply teaching for the year (tomorrow) -I'm still waiting for mine! I must say that, with the cottages being so busy right through September, we haven't gone looking for teaching but the income would be quite welcome now.
Mo says that I need to use the spell checker before I publish - I wonder why! Apologies for the earlier mistakes - if I can work out how to do it I'll go back and correct them.
Had things worked out a little differently we would be busy packing this week and heading for NZ on Monday where my niece is getting married on the 21st. Alas it wasn't to be but NI will be more than adequately represented by my two sisters and my cousin Jim. One of my sisters had a dream last night that we were at the wedding - by this time next week we will know if it was prophetic or not.

Blog comment No 2 has got to feature Mo especially as she is about to become a TV personality!
A few months ago we decided that we would offer painting workshops as a means of attracting additional custom to our 3 self catering cottages in the off season. We advertised same with the tourist board and it was picked up by a company who make a holiday programme for the BBC. They provided two pretend holiday makers and came and filmed them at their workshop. the filming took a Friday evening and all day Saturday but will be condensed to about 5 minutes in the programme. It may also feature yours truely making soda bread on a griddle over an open fire in Rose Cottage!
We don't have an exact date when it will go to air but it should be within the next 6 weeks - watch this space for an update.
The photo above shows Mo and the two holiday makers in her studio (they spent the afternoon painting a landscape outside in the field -also shown above). Alas she is about to lose her cosy little studio as we convert the building in which it is situated into a fourth cottage (opening Easter 2007). She is getting a more spacious replacement - part of the building where the accident occured 4 weeks ago - so painting workshops will continue!
Must go and pick the said lady up from the airport so thats all for now folks.

Seems like if you want to communicate with people these days you have to have a blog spot - so here goes! I'm still not sure how to do the fancy stuff like posting photos and even videos (as I saw on 'Me, Dot com' today) but no doubt that will come. I'm sitting here listening to Radio Ulster's Rythem and Soul programme through the computer while I develop this blog spot and thinking, at my advanced years I'm not finished yet!!
It doesn't seem very long since I bought a second hand 386 laptop from Cash Converters and introduced the family to email so that we could keep in touch while I was in Ireland. (incidently I still have that laptop - I should take it along to the Antiques Road Show next time they are around!) Well it wasn't long before I got left way behind - and if it wasn't for Matthew, Nicky and Jeff giving me good IT advice I think I would be totally lost by now.

In my first blog entry I should also acknowledge how blessed I feel to still have the use of my fingers to operate this keyboard. As some of my readers will know I had an accident 4 weeks ago where I fell 3m from a ladder. I later heard of someone else only 10kms away who had a similar accident at about the same time and who is now a quadraplegic. I still have some pain but that news brought home to me just how real it is to have an angel watching over me! Thanks for your prayers!
My better half is away visiting the kids in Leeds this weekend - so I've had a very quiet time (and no one chasing me off the computer!) and the opportunity to catch up on some correspondance (of which this is a part). I'm looking forward to her return tomorrow - maybe she'll get involved in blogging soon too.
Must go and see if I can get some other details entered on this site.