Posted in Church, tagged broken, Church, double glazing, hall, vandalism, window on 2 November, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Breathless kids called at the Vicarage this afternoon. Had I seen the broken window in the church hall? I hadn’t, so I went with them to survey the damage. They don’t know who was responsible, alas. This door which faces the playground has been damaged before – that’s why there’s no glazing above the door now. Looks like someone has been playing a rock-lobbing game. Again.
At least it’s more straightforward to deal with than the coat on the roof.
Posted in Church, tagged book, Christingle, half term, Lichfield diocese, London, The Ministry of a Messy House, Vicar's wife, video, YouTube on 1 November, 2013| 2 Comments »
We’re home after a few days in London doing Londony things (art galleries, museums, the Tube, queues). The hallway is full of half emptied suitcases, books and random hairbrushes and the Queen is padding around in her cat onesie singing loudly and failing to organise herself for Guide camp. We were back in time for our Light Party at church last night – about 35 kids and a similar number of adults making things with paper and glue and felttips and then singing and thinking about the light of Christ before consuming plenty of chocolates and mini eclairs. Lots of fun to see so many families out together and lovely to be able to chat with many of them. We think we may need to prepare extra oranges for the Messy Christingle this year…
I came home to a couple of responses to my book in the actual proper post – a lovely encouraging letter from a Twitter friend but also a completely off topic response from a reader of the Express and Star, asking me about a tricky passage in 1 Samuel. I’m still working out if and how to respond to the latter.
And Lichfield Diocese have made the video of me public, so I can post it on here. The island in the kitchen isn’t looking any better today:
Posted in Books, Church, tagged author, Birmingham, blog, book, book signing, CLC, Eddie Arthur, Express and Star, local paper, newspaper, review, The Ministry of a Messy House, writer, Wycliffe, Wycliffe bible translators on 30 October, 2013| 3 Comments »
I enjoyed my book signing at CLC in Birmingham very much last weekend. I met some lovely people in the shop – both staff and customers, and some of them even bought a copy of The Ministry of a Messy House. On Saturday I also appeared in the local paper after they’d sent a photographer round to take a pic. He spent a good while rearranging the mess in my kitchen to perfect his shot. Sadly, he didn’t rearrange any of it so that it was tidier…
Our diocese also published online the article that appeared in the diocesan newspaper this month. The online version has a short video of me in my messy kitchen talking about the book and why we need to know God’s grace. The mess is slightly differently arranged – the icecream tub has moved a bit.
And this week, the first proper review of my book was published online. Eddie Arthur of Wycliffe BIble Translators liked my book and thought that men should read it too (he also blogged a bit of the book that had struck him earlier in the week). This made me happy. I am finding this bit of being an author slightly rollercoastery. Still fun and interesting and occasionally exhilerating. When I’m not feeling slightly nauseous, that is…
Posted in Church, tagged Birmingham, cartoon, Christian, Christian pumpkin, Church, CLC, Crimperman, faith, Glen Scrivener, Halloween, pumpkin, pumpkin carving, pumpkin gallery, pumpkin meditation, redeeming Halloween on 28 October, 2013| 1 Comment »
I have some wifi and am now desperately posting and scheduling all the things I’ve been thinking about whilst our lines have been down this last week. First off some links to some of the Halloween ideas I’ve blogged previously:
I noticed this weekend that CLC in Birmingham had a whole heap of Halloween tracts – and a pumpkin prayer, in a display this weekend. So if you’ve not had time to grab any resources, a quick trip to a local Christian bookshop should sort you out in time for any trick or treaters likely to descend. Our church are holding a light party for the first time this year – we’ve just rescheduled our October Messy Church to coincide. My kids are looking forward to it, and I’ve promised the Joker he can do some ‘guising’ at the party by encouraging everyone to tell cheesy Halloween jokes.
Ryan Cartwright aka Crimperman has published a great new cartoon for Halloween this year. I can’t seem to find a seraphim costume anywhere, though…
Posted in Church, tagged blog, BT, competition, e-book, internet, ivp, offline, onine, online, phones, The Ministry of a Messy House, Vicarage on 25 October, 2013| Leave a Comment »
If you follow my tweets or Facebook page, you’ll know that the Vicarage has been without phones or internet since Sunday. I was told by BT (eventually, after I badgered them for about three days on Twitter) that ‘2000 pairs in a cabinet in the local exchange’ have broken. No, I have no idea what that means either. I do know that some (but not all) of my neighbours, including vulnerable elderly housebound people and shopekeepers who rely on a phoneline to offer card payment options for customers, have also been without telephone or broadband since then too.
I can still access my emails, Twitter and Facebook on my mobile phone, but it’s quite a pain to use so I’ve not been very active online. Thankfully, the church office still has phones and internet, so the Vicar has been able to work and I’ve been able to sneak in a couple of times to use them, although today I’m writing this in Tesco’s caff in the tow-un. It has upset my mode of writing, which is very bitsy – I tend to write a bit, do a spot of washing up, pick up some mess, prep some soup and then come back to finish a blog post. So hence my general disconnectedness. The washing up and soup prep need to be done more than blogging and social media so I’ve stayed home and been offline.
It also means I’ve not yet closed the competition for the e-book. But I will do that next week, when the kids are off school and everything is a bit less all over the place. Shall we say last thing Sunday evening for entries?
And don’t forget I’m going to be at CLC Birmingham tomorrow with a big stash of copies of The Ministry of a Messy House. I’d love to meet any blog readers who are in the city. Come and say ‘Hi’!
Posted in Church, tagged camping, Cold, dog, faith, homelessness, Inner city, man, Vicarage, winter on 15 October, 2013| Leave a Comment »
A sweet wee dog called at the Vicarage again today. With his owner, of course. We see them from time to time – always polite, good to chat to, usually asking for a little food. And homeless. His man is beginning to think it’s too cold to keep on camping out. But his man hates staying around other people. He likes his tent in the woods. We invited him to come back tomorrow to think about housing options. It really is getting too cold for camping. We sent them both on their way with a packed supper and a torch. Praying their night isn’t too uncomfortable as I listen to the wind whistling outside.
The dog had a coat on too. Needed it.
Posted in Books, Church, tagged 10ofthose, Bible, Books, dishes, Everyday Gospel, faith, mundane, reading, sink, theology, Tim Chester, washing up on 8 October, 2013| 3 Comments »
My kitchen sink can be a holy place. It certainly doesn’t look like it at the moment. But Tim Chester’s excellent new book from 10ofthose reminds me that it can be if
… [I] offer up [my] washing of the dishes to God as a sacrifice of praise, sharing his delight in creation and serving others in love.
In The Everyday Gospel, Chester helps me to see that everyday activities, like washing the dishes, can be made holy because of the saving activity of Jesus. This extended meditation on a mundane task points me to remember that God orders chaos and that God serves his people. So when I turn a basket of crumpled clothes into a neatly ironed and folded pile, I am being like God by ordering the disordered and by serving my family by providing them with wearable shirts.
Chester also points out that I can use these times of everyday activity to trace God’s handiwork – to contemplate how He has worked to create the pans in my sink, how he made my food, traces of which I am washing away. I can use washing up time to talk to my children, or visitors in my home – for pastoral care. These times are not the bits in between time for God. All of time, however inconsequential it seems, can be holy.
A short and accessible read, this book would be brilliant for anyone who ever has to do anything boring. So I make that everyone.
A Holy Place?
NB This review has also been posted on 10ofthose – they sent me a review copy. No illustrative pic of my kitchen sink over there though.
Posted in Books, Church, tagged Amanda Robbie, book, ivp, Jodi Hinds, Lizzy Smallwood, London Women's Convention, Midlands Womens Convention, Northern Women's Convention, publish, The Good Book Company, The Ministry of a Messy House on 7 October, 2013| 4 Comments »
It’s a strange feeling. My book is physically made. And here it is, on a proper bookstall at the Midlands Women’s Convention this weekend just gone:
For sale!
I even saw a few people there buying the book. Including some that I didn’t even know. And now I’m not quite sure what will happen. I have a plan for a launch type event in Birmingham on 26th October. And possibly something in Lichfield too. And I’m going to speak to a women’s bible study group next week. I’ve not really done speaking stuff before, but I’ve had a few requests in and am going to give it a whirl.
We’re in a slightly strange in-between time as the official publication date is not until 18th October, but if you go to the Northern Women’s Convention next weekend you can get a copy and The Good Book Company will be stocking it at the London Women’s Convention the weekend after. It’s worth going to the conventions even if you don’t buy my book, incidentally. Jodi Hinds’ talks on Hebrews 12 in Derby were encouraging, warm and gently challenging – she’s speaking in Manchester. Lizzy Smallwood is giving the talks in London – and is always worth listening to.
Posted in Church, tagged Christianity, Church, Churchyard, faith, funeral, holly bush, homelessness, Inner city, Ministry, vicar on 2 October, 2013| 4 Comments »
Who has been sleeping in the holly bush at the entrance to the church? We’ve not seen them, but they seem to have built quite a little den. But since Gone is away at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, we don’t have an immediate suspect. I’m afraid the bush dweller may be disappointed tonight, as we’re clearing out this evening and the Vicar will be taking the debris to the dump.
There’s a funeral in church tomorrow and it’s respectful to the mourners to provide a tidy churchyard. The bush is right next to the church steps by the main entrance door. The church is being cleaned too, as we’ve had scaffolding in whilst damp plaster and ant chewed woodwork right up in the ceiling above the chancel has been removed and repaired. Theological college training can never cover all the bases for ministry life.
Bed (and sitting room it seems) in the bush
Posted in Church, tagged addiction, Alcohol, asylum, Gone, homeless, Housing, Inner city, Police, prison, vulnerable on 1 October, 2013| 5 Comments »
Dear old Gone showed up at our door the other week. He’d just been released from prison, where he’s spent the summer. It’s almost an annual event, him showing up in September, homeless, almost like he has a plan to help new Ministry Trainees learn good doorstep skills.
He’d thrown his prison release paperwork in the bin and first went to Rev Very Benevolent over in the next tow-un to ours. Rev V-B tried to help Gone find somewhere to live, but sadly the housing group who’d accommodated him before said they wouldn’t take him on. In fact, they’d been about to evict him before he went to jail.
The trouble for Gone is that he’s not really a criminal. He shouldn’t really be in jail. He’s a vulnerable and increasingly frail man with a serious alcohol addiction. And he’s enormously annoying and quite scary when he’s in the drink. And then charming and sweet and can talk the socks off anyone who’ll listen. But he’s frightened and anxious about other people, which makes him a pretty dire neighbour. And he can cause trouble and stress when he turns up somewhere boozed up. What he needs is something like an old fashioned asylum, where he’s not allowed out, not allowed alcohol, and not given his own money. He’d spent £75 of his getting-out-of-prison money on a portable dvd player and some dvds. He could have had a couple of nights in a hotel for that. But he’s incapable of spending money wisely and no-one will house him for long. So I guess in some ways he knew what would happen next.
Rev V-B contacted me a few days later to say that Gone had been conspicuous by his absence for a few days. And that he’d had a call to say that Gone would be up before a magistrate for another breach of his ASBO. So it looks like the prison service is once again expensively accommodating a vulnerable man who doesn’t fit in the system. And maybe it’s the only way that will work for him. It does seem crazy though. Pray with us for wisdom to know how to help him in his next foray back into the world a few months (I guess) from now.
Gone left his calling card on our drive
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