little bits of everything

Some people say that the Bible is a manual for life. I'm not so sure it's that clear cut. Suppose the manual for your washing machine was like the Bible. What would it be like? Genesis The birth and early life of the founder of the company. His/her first job. How they founded this small company manufacturing domestic appliances. Exodus How the company survived a recession and grew from strength to strength. How early washing machines were to be treated, the type of detergent that was suitable in those days. (However many of the rules for these early washing machines still apply to day.) Judges and Kings etc. After the founder dies (this is not an analogy, this is a washing machine manual), there are a number of takeovers by other companies. At the end of the process the company is experiencing steady growth. Songs about washing machines Lots of them, mostly written by one person. The modern age The first electronic washing machines with fancy electronic...

When I started riding a motorbike I took the Compulsory Basic Training - a day of training which you have to do before you are allowed out on the road. As we travelled to the car park where we do the training the trainer remarked "Have you heard that Joey Dunlop has died?". I hadn't heard of Joey Dunlop. If you haven't heard of him either, that's like not knowing who Ayrton Senna is. I am a proper biker if I don't know that? I do ride a bike to work almost every day normally, unless there's snow on the ground. Some "proper" bikers don't do that, but only ride when the weather's nice. I don't go to bikers' gatherings, watch bike racing, buy bike magazines or any of the stuff like that. I wonder if I come across a group of proper bikers if they'll want me to join their groups and only then will I be a proper biker?

One of our pastors is on a sabbatical. One of the things he aimed to do during this sabbatical is update his blog English Pulpit . However he hasn't turned on any comments, so it's a bit of a one way conversation. Maybe he'll use some sort of tool like Technorati to spot inbound links from here and a conversation can start!

I have updated my blog post about the Night Shelter , as it is running again and has its own website.

On a Sunday morning I teach the 5 to 8 year olds at " Hope Street " at our church, Union Baptist Church . Pascal said, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time" (in French). I don't think teaching children is an easy option compared to adults. I find I need to take the time to make the lessons simple. It's a challenge I enjoy. I've been planning for this Sunday and we're covering the passage from Luke 12:6: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. I haven't seen sparrows for sale in the shops recently, so the way I'm going to bring this picture up to date is to talk about carnations which are fairly cheap, yet attractive, scented and (so I found out this evening) edible.

For the first time in my life I've bought a domain name: unionbaptistkids.org . I set it up so that the Children's activities at our church have a presence on the internet. I got the idea when I went on a CPAS training day . Someone there said you could set up a website for your church in 5 minutes. He was talking about a blog really. Even though the blog format is fairly constrained, it's good enough for our purposes.

I've just been to a day for those who work with children in churches, run by CPAS (Church Pastoral Aid Society). It was very well run. I went to a seminar on a church that had started a "Messy Church" service for kids and families, and one on using puppets with 11-14 year olds. Plenty of food for thought...

Jan and Feb are my two least favourite months of the year. Dark evenings, cold and wet days. However I'm lucky to have somewhere to live. Which brings me to the Wycombe Winter Night Shelter, a project organised by several churches in High Wycombe (UK). It provides a bed for the night for homeless people for January to March. I'm not taking part in this in any way, so I'm not blowing my own trumpet even though our church ( Union Baptist ) is involved. I'm very pleased to see how many people have volunteered. One of the volunteers is a journalist and has written an article about it. Update for 2009: It is running again and Wycombe Winter Night Shelter now have their own website. Hopefully with that link they will rank higher than my blog on Google!