The summer term is here. How on earth did that happen? I have lots swirling round my head: the aftermath of a great week of mission events in the parish and all the follow up needed, the tax forms to do, the prospect of helping to lead in a dorm at camp for the first time in years, the anticipation of changes in September as attic lodgers shift and children move to new schools or school years. And that’s just for starters.
So I am grateful that the Lord sent this rainbow to fill our view as we travelled back from our week’s break in Scotland. I’m not sure you can see it from my photo taken on the phone from the car, but it was a TRIPLE rainbow. And we were reminded again of God’s faithfulness to his promises. And I’m posting it here to remind myself again as I start contemplating the diary and tackling the laundry….
Nicholas is 10 years old and goes to my sister’s church. He made this brilliant stop animation video telling the Easter story. It will cheer your Easter Sunday evening. Guaranteed.
And here’s the Easter spoken word video from Glen Scrivener, courtesy of 10ofThose. A wonderful reminder that Jesus is the Bread of Heaven who fully satisfies:
Our week of special events this Easter finishes with a Feast for All Nations – a celebration service followed by a meal of international food. We are praying that the whole week will help all our neighbours to know that:
Spotted this excellent Easter meditation yesterday, with the starting point of considering a Creme Egg (which I know that a good number of people will be doing over the next few weeks). Delivered by Dave Crofts of Christ Church Central in Sheffield. Think this might get a showing in one of our services before Easter.
Last week I found out that our local YMCA branch are auctioning some pretty cool stuff. There’s a whole bunch of activities and items being auctioned in a very good cause – their Open Door project which arranges supported lodgings for homeless teenagers. You can bid for
Dinner and round of golf with West Bromwich Albion legend Cyrille Regis
Tickets to a West Bromwich football match (vs Stoke or vs Tottenham Hotspur)
Free personal training or a taster Scuba diving session
There is also a charity ball this Saturday night at The Hawthorns (the West Brom football ground) to celebrate 5 years of Open Door, and to raise money for this brilliant scheme. There are still a few tickets left for a great night out to support Open Door. The Vicar and I have been invited too and will be there. It’s our first night out like this in I can’t remember how long. I shall have to do a serious shoe audit this week to check if I have anything that I can actually dance in. Maybe see you there?
I met with my prayer support group this weekend. We’re now in our 22nd year of meeting, and on Saturday (in between eating and talking and praying and taking a short walk together) we listened to recordings of two talks by Kathleen Nielson. Kathleen heads up Women’s Initiatives for the Gospel Coalition in the US and brought some wonderful insights into Old Testament narrative. We listened to her talks on Rahab and the Tower of Babel. Her teaching is engaging and stimulating – highly recommended.
The great encouragement of meeting for prayer and bible study helped with the fact that I was away from home when a sad accident befell the Vicarage Rodent. Those of you who follow on Twitter will know that our degu had a sweet habit of escaping at bedtime. Alas, this weekend his escaping habit ended very unhappily, and Squeak is no more. There was a solemn funeral in the back garden, where he joined his erstwhile companion, Snuffle, who predeceased him. What with Squeak’s demise and some stressful adventures with trains (I nearly ended up in Glasgow instead of London, for starters) I am very thankful that I’ve got no further trips away planned for a while.
I’ve not been fasting from blogging for Lent. Just a normal blogflop due to life and everything. But here I am again. With some fun pics of my friend Kirby, who made some Resurrection Eggs last week in preparation for the fortnight leading up to Easter.
Resurrection eggs are a sort of Jesse Tree for Easter and a creative way to get kids to engage with the wonderful gospel story at the heart of our faith. Kirby used the verses preprepared on this blog. There’s plenty of time to gather yourself an egg box and some plastic eggs. You can use 15 eggs (as Meredith does), a dozen (as I did) or even a simple six. Why not give it a go?
My ambitious Bible reading plan for 2014 has hit a few bumps in the road. Tiredness, idleness, busyness & illness have all played a part. But I’m persevering. Today I managed a full ten chapters in a single bite for the first time in a couple of weeks. And then I noticed that the ends of the ribbon bookmark I made for myself had started to fray at the ends. Rather like me really.
So I applied some Copydex. A spot of glue can stop everything unravelling. A bit like sticking with the Bible reading.
Just what a tired Vicarage needs on a Monday morning. Early morning workmen arriving before we’ve properly begun the day. But we are very pleased. Because it’s window men. And they have come with several enormous double glazed units to finish off the double glazing that has taken three contracts and about four years to actually arrive.
So it’s a bit nippy in the Vicarage today as great gaping holes are being created as windows are removed. But by this weekend it will be a lot warmer. We are very thankful.
I went to be interviewed by Paul Hammond of UCB radio last week. I drove up the M6 to Stoke and spent a great couple of hours having lunch with his lovely producer and then talking in a studio with Paul about something I seem to know a bit about – mess. It was good to chat around the subject of mess and the Christian and how messy homes and families can be used for God’s glory. And thankfully it didn’t feel like I was in the Mastermind chair at all. Much more like chatting with a friend over some of the topics I covered in my book. I started by reading out my dad’s poem from the start of The Ministry of a Messy House, which finishes:
…
So, come and talk, some tea and cakes,
To love one’s neighbour messy makes,
There’s just no time to tidy up,
We always need another cup,
For family, friends, and cruel distress
Come first, and so, you see,
A mess.
(from Messiness by John Turtle)
My dad used to work for the BBC and had his own programme on the World Service before he retired. I was very pleased to be able to recite his poem on the radio to continue his broadcasting career after a fashion. Hopefully the interview itself wasn’t too messy and I didn’t say ‘um’ too often. At least they’ve decided to broadcast it – in fact it will be going out on the radio this coming week. If you like you can listen online or on your DAB radio or on Sky Channel 0125, Virgin Media 914 or their iPhone app.
I was recorded for a segment of Paul’s daily show which covers current affairs and topical discussion. There are four ten minute segments which will go out on his show. I think that means they’ll be on from Monday to Thursday. The show airs from 9am-12noon, and there is a Saturday omnibus of the whole interview called Life Issues which goes out at 9.15pm next Saturday evening. The shows stay available on the website for a week after transmission.
The Vicar's Wife 