Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Friday, May 26, 2006
Hi
I got abuse the other night on the phone for not updating my blog in such a long time. Most of you have been polite, but there are those in your life who are given to you so that they can call you on such things as a very poor record of regular blogging. Thanks Jen!! But it is not the abuse that makes me sit down to do this.
I want to start out by apologising to those of you who come here to look at pictures. We have not taken many pictures recently because our camera was left at my folks house and only picked up on Sunday, add to that the voltage problems I am having with my desktop PC (which is used to upload the photos) and you have a recipe for no photos this time.
I also want to apologise to those of you who log on to read what is happening in our lives - I can tell you that in no great detail in the next sentence. We have been renovating our bathroom and kitchen - it has taken loads of hard work and effort and I we are completely indebted to Margaret's mum and dad for leading and guiding us through it all. Other than than, margaret has returned to work and is coping better than she thought she would. Eva is growing and nearly wealking and I will swear she says 'Dada' daily. I have preached in a couple of churches and have also been informed that I will not know if I have a place in Queens until August. Okay, so that was four sentences, but I am sure it is not a massive issue among friends.
Tonight, before sitting here to write this I have been back home in Ballynahinch with my brother for our regular Thursday night poker game (it was not my night tonight!!!) Driving back to Belfast, my mind started churning a few things over and I ended up asking myself what it actually is that I believe. Thats what I want to write about.
Let me pretext it a bit for you. Stevie and I have been having some very deep conversations regarding our faith journeys which have prompted me to think a lot about what it is I believe. Also, yesterday I was reading Matthew 16 where Peter confess Christ and is given a new nickname ('The Rock'). In the next paragraph, Jesus predicted for his disciples, his passion and suffering. Peter, The Rock, responds by telling Jesus that this passion and suffering cannot happen to him. Jesus responds with words that have struck me hard and stuck with me. He said...
"Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men"
Then he said this...
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."
I am about to get to the "What Do I believe" bit, but a word of warning - I have not sat down and thought this through or written it down before typing. What you are about to get is raw, and I hope, honest. If you are struck by anything, or shocked by anything - please don't think I am losing it as I am not (I think!!!) I simply need to answer this question and find myself searching hard for some of the answers. I still hate Sunday School answers and therefore, I hope this will not come across as some kind of Charlie version of the Apostles Creed.
1. I believe in God
I believe in God. I believe God created us and the world around us. I don't know where God came from, but I believe very much that God is there.
2. I believe in Jesus
I believe Jesus existed. I believe he walked the earth and said some pretty challenging things as he did it. I believe Jesus was crucified. I believe Jesus when he says he is God's son. I believe Jesus on the cross when he said "It is finished". I believe Jesus was resurrected.
3. I believe in The Word
I believe that the bible is a living word that is used to communicate living truth to us. I have many questions about why the bible is the way it is, why somethings were seen as worthy to be called scripture and some were not. Nonetheless, I believe the bible is a living word because it spoke to me yesterday in Matthew 16 (The bible has spoken to me on other occasions as well). I believe the word must be read and thought through. I believe that we should always know who wrote what we are reading and why exactly they wrote it at the time of writing. I believe that the word is about who God is and it is filled with wonderful stories that illustrate just that - are they all literally true? I don't know, but I do believe they point to who God is.
4. I believe in church
I believe in church. I am not sure I believe in 'the Church' as we know it or are developing it, but I do believe in church. I believe church should be a place for sojourners (with all sorts of questions, backgrounds, experiences, issues and even some baggage) to gather and seek together. I believe church should never be a place where these honest sojourners should be excluded or shunned for something they have said or done or are doing.
5. I believe in love
I believe in love. I believe that God is love and that God is UNCONDITIONALLY and powerfully in love with God's creation. I believe that love is not earned. I believe that love is given and received.
6. I believe that humanity is screwed up
I was trying to think of a nice way to say that, but it is late and I can't. I believe that humanity is screwed up. I believe that 'screwed up' has a very broad definition when it is attached to each individual human being. What I mean by that is that we are not all struggling with urges to be violent or sexually inappropriate. We look at people like that and we say to ourselves that they are really screwed up - and they are. But I believe we have trouble in looking at ourselves and saying the same. I believe we are all screwed up. I believe we are all carrying guilt over something (regardless of how big or small we think it is) and it is this guilt which has us screwed up.
7. I believe in forgiveness
I believe that it is only in the giving and receiving of forgiveness that we can experience moments of freedom from being screwed up. I believe that forgiveness needs to be shared among humans and between humanity and God. I believe that to forgive, is to set free from guilt. I believe we all need to be free from guilt.
8. I believe that humans are dumb
I believe humans are dumb. I believe that we can have moments of revelation, freedom and understanding in our lives and then follow them right up with a moment of sheer stupidity. I believe this is very well illustrated for us by Peter, The Rock in Matthew 16. I also believe this is illustrated very well in our own lives. For example, I know I have had these moments of revelation, freedom and understanding and followed them right up with a major failing. You would think when something is revealed to me and I am free and finally understand something about Truth, that it would change my actions and proneness to fail. It does not. I believe if we are all honest, (and not just piously humble) we can relate to this and thus, humans are dumb.
9. I believe in questions
I believe in questions. I believe that sometimes I will not get answers to my questions and I believe that this is okay.
I think I believe these things. They might change in the next hour, day, month, year(s), but right now as I sit here at my computer, I believe these things.
It's not really important that you know what I believe. Maybe the good to come out of me thinking this through and writing it down will be that you ask yourself what you believe. I hope you do, because as I sit here having done it, I can say that I feel better for it.
When I was driving home in the car earlier asking myself what I believed, I could say nothing more than that I believed in God. In the car I did not have a clue what that meant. I also felt bad because when asking myself what I believed, I could only come up with one answer. I felt like a but of a mess. At least now I am a bit more of a thought through mess and I think I know a wee bit more about what it means when I say to myself that I believe in God. Thank you for putting up with me1
I will put pictures up soon.
Blessings
I got abuse the other night on the phone for not updating my blog in such a long time. Most of you have been polite, but there are those in your life who are given to you so that they can call you on such things as a very poor record of regular blogging. Thanks Jen!! But it is not the abuse that makes me sit down to do this.
I want to start out by apologising to those of you who come here to look at pictures. We have not taken many pictures recently because our camera was left at my folks house and only picked up on Sunday, add to that the voltage problems I am having with my desktop PC (which is used to upload the photos) and you have a recipe for no photos this time.
I also want to apologise to those of you who log on to read what is happening in our lives - I can tell you that in no great detail in the next sentence. We have been renovating our bathroom and kitchen - it has taken loads of hard work and effort and I we are completely indebted to Margaret's mum and dad for leading and guiding us through it all. Other than than, margaret has returned to work and is coping better than she thought she would. Eva is growing and nearly wealking and I will swear she says 'Dada' daily. I have preached in a couple of churches and have also been informed that I will not know if I have a place in Queens until August. Okay, so that was four sentences, but I am sure it is not a massive issue among friends.
Tonight, before sitting here to write this I have been back home in Ballynahinch with my brother for our regular Thursday night poker game (it was not my night tonight!!!) Driving back to Belfast, my mind started churning a few things over and I ended up asking myself what it actually is that I believe. Thats what I want to write about.
Let me pretext it a bit for you. Stevie and I have been having some very deep conversations regarding our faith journeys which have prompted me to think a lot about what it is I believe. Also, yesterday I was reading Matthew 16 where Peter confess Christ and is given a new nickname ('The Rock'). In the next paragraph, Jesus predicted for his disciples, his passion and suffering. Peter, The Rock, responds by telling Jesus that this passion and suffering cannot happen to him. Jesus responds with words that have struck me hard and stuck with me. He said...
"Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men"
Then he said this...
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."
I am about to get to the "What Do I believe" bit, but a word of warning - I have not sat down and thought this through or written it down before typing. What you are about to get is raw, and I hope, honest. If you are struck by anything, or shocked by anything - please don't think I am losing it as I am not (I think!!!) I simply need to answer this question and find myself searching hard for some of the answers. I still hate Sunday School answers and therefore, I hope this will not come across as some kind of Charlie version of the Apostles Creed.
1. I believe in God
I believe in God. I believe God created us and the world around us. I don't know where God came from, but I believe very much that God is there.
2. I believe in Jesus
I believe Jesus existed. I believe he walked the earth and said some pretty challenging things as he did it. I believe Jesus was crucified. I believe Jesus when he says he is God's son. I believe Jesus on the cross when he said "It is finished". I believe Jesus was resurrected.
3. I believe in The Word
I believe that the bible is a living word that is used to communicate living truth to us. I have many questions about why the bible is the way it is, why somethings were seen as worthy to be called scripture and some were not. Nonetheless, I believe the bible is a living word because it spoke to me yesterday in Matthew 16 (The bible has spoken to me on other occasions as well). I believe the word must be read and thought through. I believe that we should always know who wrote what we are reading and why exactly they wrote it at the time of writing. I believe that the word is about who God is and it is filled with wonderful stories that illustrate just that - are they all literally true? I don't know, but I do believe they point to who God is.
4. I believe in church
I believe in church. I am not sure I believe in 'the Church' as we know it or are developing it, but I do believe in church. I believe church should be a place for sojourners (with all sorts of questions, backgrounds, experiences, issues and even some baggage) to gather and seek together. I believe church should never be a place where these honest sojourners should be excluded or shunned for something they have said or done or are doing.
5. I believe in love
I believe in love. I believe that God is love and that God is UNCONDITIONALLY and powerfully in love with God's creation. I believe that love is not earned. I believe that love is given and received.
6. I believe that humanity is screwed up
I was trying to think of a nice way to say that, but it is late and I can't. I believe that humanity is screwed up. I believe that 'screwed up' has a very broad definition when it is attached to each individual human being. What I mean by that is that we are not all struggling with urges to be violent or sexually inappropriate. We look at people like that and we say to ourselves that they are really screwed up - and they are. But I believe we have trouble in looking at ourselves and saying the same. I believe we are all screwed up. I believe we are all carrying guilt over something (regardless of how big or small we think it is) and it is this guilt which has us screwed up.
7. I believe in forgiveness
I believe that it is only in the giving and receiving of forgiveness that we can experience moments of freedom from being screwed up. I believe that forgiveness needs to be shared among humans and between humanity and God. I believe that to forgive, is to set free from guilt. I believe we all need to be free from guilt.
8. I believe that humans are dumb
I believe humans are dumb. I believe that we can have moments of revelation, freedom and understanding in our lives and then follow them right up with a moment of sheer stupidity. I believe this is very well illustrated for us by Peter, The Rock in Matthew 16. I also believe this is illustrated very well in our own lives. For example, I know I have had these moments of revelation, freedom and understanding and followed them right up with a major failing. You would think when something is revealed to me and I am free and finally understand something about Truth, that it would change my actions and proneness to fail. It does not. I believe if we are all honest, (and not just piously humble) we can relate to this and thus, humans are dumb.
9. I believe in questions
I believe in questions. I believe that sometimes I will not get answers to my questions and I believe that this is okay.
I think I believe these things. They might change in the next hour, day, month, year(s), but right now as I sit here at my computer, I believe these things.
It's not really important that you know what I believe. Maybe the good to come out of me thinking this through and writing it down will be that you ask yourself what you believe. I hope you do, because as I sit here having done it, I can say that I feel better for it.
When I was driving home in the car earlier asking myself what I believed, I could say nothing more than that I believed in God. In the car I did not have a clue what that meant. I also felt bad because when asking myself what I believed, I could only come up with one answer. I felt like a but of a mess. At least now I am a bit more of a thought through mess and I think I know a wee bit more about what it means when I say to myself that I believe in God. Thank you for putting up with me1
I will put pictures up soon.
Blessings
What do I believe?
Hi
I got abuse the other night on the phone for not updating my blog in such a long time. Most of you have been polite, but there are those in your life who are given to you so that they can call you on such things as a very poor record of regular blogging. Thanks Jen!! But it is not the abuse that makes me sit down to do this.
I want to start out by apologising to those of you who come here to look at pictures. We have not taken many pictures recently because our camera was left at my folks house and only picked up on Sunday, add to that the voltage problems I am having with my desktop PC (which is used to upload the photos) and you have a recipe for no photos this time.
I also want to apologise to those of you who log on to read what is happening in our lives - I can tell you that in no great detail in the next sentence. We have been renovating our bathroom and kitchen - it has taken loads of hard work and effort and I we are completely indebted to Margaret's mum and dad for leading and guiding us through it all. Other than than, margaret has returned to work and is coping better than she thought she would. Eva is growing and nearly wealking and I will swear she says 'Dada' daily. I have preached in a couple of churches and have also been informed that I will not know if I have a place in Queens until August. Okay, so that was four sentences, but I am sure it is not a massive issue among friends.
Tonight, before sitting here to write this I have been back home in Ballynahinch with my brother for our regular Thursday night poker game (it was not my night tonight!!!) Driving back to Belfast, my mind started churning a few things over and I ended up asking myself what it actually is that I believe. Thats what I want to write about.
Let me pretext it a bit for you. Stevie and I have been having some very deep conversations regarding our faith journeys which have prompted me to think a lot about what it is I believe. Also, yesterday I was reading Matthew 16 where Peter confess Christ and is given a new nickname ('The Rock'). In the next paragraph, Jesus predicted for his disciples, his passion and suffering. Peter, The Rock, responds by telling Jesus that this passion and suffering cannot happen to him. Jesus responds with words that have struck me hard and stuck with me. He said...
"Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men"
Then he said this...
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."
I am about to get to the "What Do I believe" bit, but a word of warning - I have not sat down and thought this through or written it down before typing. What you are about to get is raw, and I hope, honest. If you are struck by anything, or shocked by anything - please don't think I am losing it as I am not (I think!!!) I simply need to answer this question and find myself searching hard for some of the answers. I still hate Sunday School answers and therefore, I hope this will not come across as some kind of Charlie version of the Apostles Creed.
1. I believe in God
I believe in God. I believe God created us and the world around us. I don't know where God came from, but I believe very much that God is there.
2. I believe in Jesus
I believe Jesus existed. I believe he walked the earth and said some pretty challenging things as he did it. I believe Jesus was crucified. I believe Jesus when he says he is God's son. I believe Jesus on the cross when he said "It is finished". I believe Jesus was resurrected.
3. I believe in The Word
I believe that the bible is a living word that is used to communicate living truth to us. I have many questions about why the bible is the way it is, why somethings were seen as worthy to be called scripture and some were not. Nonetheless, I believe the bible is a living word because it spoke to me yesterday in Matthew 16 (The bible has spoken to me on other occasions as well). I believe the word must be read and thought through. I believe that we should always know who wrote what we are reading and why exactly they wrote it at the time of writing. I believe that the word is about who God is and it is filled with wonderful stories that illustrate just that - are they all literally true? I don't know, but I do believe they point to who God is.
4. I believe in church
I believe in church. I am not sure I believe in 'the Church' as we know it or are developing it, but I do believe in church. I believe church should be a place for sojourners (with all sorts of questions, backgrounds, experiences, issues and even some baggage) to gather and seek together. I believe church should never be a place where these honest sojourners should be excluded or shunned for something they have said or done or are doing.
5. I believe in love
I believe in love. I believe that God is love and that God is UNCONDITIONALLY and powerfully in love with God's creation. I believe that love is not earned. I believe that love is given and received.
6. I believe that humanity is screwed up
I was trying to think of a nice way to say that, but it is late and I can't. I believe that humanity is screwed up. I believe that 'screwed up' has a very broad definition when it is attached to each individual human being. What I mean by that is that we are not all struggling with urges to be violent or sexually inappropriate. We look at people like that and we say to ourselves that they are really screwed up - and they are. But I believe we have trouble in looking at ourselves and saying the same. I believe we are all screwed up. I believe we are all carrying guilt over something (regardless of how big or small we think it is) and it is this guilt which has us screwed up.
7. I believe in forgiveness
I believe that it is only in the giving and receiving of forgiveness that we can experience moments of freedom from being screwed up. I believe that forgiveness needs to be shared among humans and between humanity and God. I believe that to forgive, is to set free from guilt. I believe we all need to be free from guilt.
8. I believe that humans are dumb
I believe humans are dumb. I believe that we can have moments of revelation, freedom and understanding in our lives and then follow them right up with a moment of sheer stupidity. I believe this is very well illustrated for us by Peter, The Rock in Matthew 16. I also believe this is illustrated very well in our own lives. For example, I know I have had these moments of revelation, freedom and understanding and followed them right up with a major failing. You would think when something is revealed to me and I am free and finally understand something about Truth, that it would change my actions and proneness to fail. It does not. I believe if we are all honest, (and not just piously humble) we can relate to this and thus, humans are dumb.
9. I believe in questions
I believe in questions. I believe that sometimes I will not get answers to my questions and I believe that this is okay.
I think I believe these things. They might change in the next hour, day, month, year(s), but right now as I sit here at my computer, I believe these things.
It's not really important that you know what I believe. Maybe the good to come out of me thinking this through and writing it down will be that you ask yourself what you believe. I hope you do, because as I sit here having done it, I can say that I feel better for it.
When I was driving home in the car earlier asking myself what I believed, I could say nothing more than that I believed in God. In the car I did not have a clue what that meant. I also felt bad because when asking myself what I believed, I could only come up with one answer. I felt like a but of a mess. At least now I am a bit more of a thought through mess and I think I know a wee bit more about what it means when I say to myself that I believe in God. Thank you for putting up with me1
I will put pictures up soon.
Blessings
I got abuse the other night on the phone for not updating my blog in such a long time. Most of you have been polite, but there are those in your life who are given to you so that they can call you on such things as a very poor record of regular blogging. Thanks Jen!! But it is not the abuse that makes me sit down to do this.
I want to start out by apologising to those of you who come here to look at pictures. We have not taken many pictures recently because our camera was left at my folks house and only picked up on Sunday, add to that the voltage problems I am having with my desktop PC (which is used to upload the photos) and you have a recipe for no photos this time.
I also want to apologise to those of you who log on to read what is happening in our lives - I can tell you that in no great detail in the next sentence. We have been renovating our bathroom and kitchen - it has taken loads of hard work and effort and I we are completely indebted to Margaret's mum and dad for leading and guiding us through it all. Other than than, margaret has returned to work and is coping better than she thought she would. Eva is growing and nearly wealking and I will swear she says 'Dada' daily. I have preached in a couple of churches and have also been informed that I will not know if I have a place in Queens until August. Okay, so that was four sentences, but I am sure it is not a massive issue among friends.
Tonight, before sitting here to write this I have been back home in Ballynahinch with my brother for our regular Thursday night poker game (it was not my night tonight!!!) Driving back to Belfast, my mind started churning a few things over and I ended up asking myself what it actually is that I believe. Thats what I want to write about.
Let me pretext it a bit for you. Stevie and I have been having some very deep conversations regarding our faith journeys which have prompted me to think a lot about what it is I believe. Also, yesterday I was reading Matthew 16 where Peter confess Christ and is given a new nickname ('The Rock'). In the next paragraph, Jesus predicted for his disciples, his passion and suffering. Peter, The Rock, responds by telling Jesus that this passion and suffering cannot happen to him. Jesus responds with words that have struck me hard and stuck with me. He said...
"Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men"
Then he said this...
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."
I am about to get to the "What Do I believe" bit, but a word of warning - I have not sat down and thought this through or written it down before typing. What you are about to get is raw, and I hope, honest. If you are struck by anything, or shocked by anything - please don't think I am losing it as I am not (I think!!!) I simply need to answer this question and find myself searching hard for some of the answers. I still hate Sunday School answers and therefore, I hope this will not come across as some kind of Charlie version of the Apostles Creed.
1. I believe in God
I believe in God. I believe God created us and the world around us. I don't know where God came from, but I believe very much that God is there.
2. I believe in Jesus
I believe Jesus existed. I believe he walked the earth and said some pretty challenging things as he did it. I believe Jesus was crucified. I believe Jesus when he says he is God's son. I believe Jesus on the cross when he said "It is finished". I believe Jesus was resurrected.
3. I believe in The Word
I believe that the bible is a living word that is used to communicate living truth to us. I have many questions about why the bible is the way it is, why somethings were seen as worthy to be called scripture and some were not. Nonetheless, I believe the bible is a living word because it spoke to me yesterday in Matthew 16 (The bible has spoken to me on other occasions as well). I believe the word must be read and thought through. I believe that we should always know who wrote what we are reading and why exactly they wrote it at the time of writing. I believe that the word is about who God is and it is filled with wonderful stories that illustrate just that - are they all literally true? I don't know, but I do believe they point to who God is.
4. I believe in church
I believe in church. I am not sure I believe in 'the Church' as we know it or are developing it, but I do believe in church. I believe church should be a place for sojourners (with all sorts of questions, backgrounds, experiences, issues and even some baggage) to gather and seek together. I believe church should never be a place where these honest sojourners should be excluded or shunned for something they have said or done or are doing.
5. I believe in love
I believe in love. I believe that God is love and that God is UNCONDITIONALLY and powerfully in love with God's creation. I believe that love is not earned. I believe that love is given and received.
6. I believe that humanity is screwed up
I was trying to think of a nice way to say that, but it is late and I can't. I believe that humanity is screwed up. I believe that 'screwed up' has a very broad definition when it is attached to each individual human being. What I mean by that is that we are not all struggling with urges to be violent or sexually inappropriate. We look at people like that and we say to ourselves that they are really screwed up - and they are. But I believe we have trouble in looking at ourselves and saying the same. I believe we are all screwed up. I believe we are all carrying guilt over something (regardless of how big or small we think it is) and it is this guilt which has us screwed up.
7. I believe in forgiveness
I believe that it is only in the giving and receiving of forgiveness that we can experience moments of freedom from being screwed up. I believe that forgiveness needs to be shared among humans and between humanity and God. I believe that to forgive, is to set free from guilt. I believe we all need to be free from guilt.
8. I believe that humans are dumb
I believe humans are dumb. I believe that we can have moments of revelation, freedom and understanding in our lives and then follow them right up with a moment of sheer stupidity. I believe this is very well illustrated for us by Peter, The Rock in Matthew 16. I also believe this is illustrated very well in our own lives. For example, I know I have had these moments of revelation, freedom and understanding and followed them right up with a major failing. You would think when something is revealed to me and I am free and finally understand something about Truth, that it would change my actions and proneness to fail. It does not. I believe if we are all honest, (and not just piously humble) we can relate to this and thus, humans are dumb.
9. I believe in questions
I believe in questions. I believe that sometimes I will not get answers to my questions and I believe that this is okay.
I think I believe these things. They might change in the next hour, day, month, year(s), but right now as I sit here at my computer, I believe these things.
It's not really important that you know what I believe. Maybe the good to come out of me thinking this through and writing it down will be that you ask yourself what you believe. I hope you do, because as I sit here having done it, I can say that I feel better for it.
When I was driving home in the car earlier asking myself what I believed, I could say nothing more than that I believed in God. In the car I did not have a clue what that meant. I also felt bad because when asking myself what I believed, I could only come up with one answer. I felt like a but of a mess. At least now I am a bit more of a thought through mess and I think I know a wee bit more about what it means when I say to myself that I believe in God. Thank you for putting up with me1
I will put pictures up soon.
Blessings
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Well, many weeks have passed since my last update here. It has been hard to get the time to reflect and write. It has been so long that I actually don't remember the date of the last update. Hold on and I will check...30th March??? Wow, I never thought it was that long. Anywho, the month of April has been a strange one. We got the keys back for our house on 2nd April and have had a bit of a hectic time since then. The house was in a very dirty state when we got back in and so we cleaned. We then decided that we would put a new bathroom in the house. So our cleaning was wasted as we created lots more dirt in the demolition of the old bathroom. To cut a long and painful story short, we are now at the stage were we are ready to install our new bathroom stuff and make it look a bit more like the way we want it.
I have had a couple of preaching engagements that have woked out well. I also got to help lead worship at East belfast Mission for the first time since our return. It was cool to be there playing my guitar again and singing.
We also have spent a couple of weekends up in portrush, where Margaret's mum and dad have an apartment. One of the weekends was just beautiful. The waves were crashing onto the beach for the whole weekend and just looked stunning.
Still no movement on my plans for September - it is a horrible waiting game were I just need to find and exercise some patience. Please keep that situation in your prayers.
I joined the gym a few weeks ago and have been working out a lot with my best mate. It has been amazing to get to spend time with him in that way. I have been realising how much I missed Stevie when I was away - it is almost like I was so busy working in Port St Lucie that I did not have time to fully miss people from home. Now I am home and I have the time to think more about the people that I have left behind in America and I really miss them too. Don't get me wrong, I love home and love being here, but missing the folks that have been a major part of your life for the three years that we were away, is just very real right now.
Eva is amazing. She is just changing every day and going from strength to strength. She is very close to walking and is regularly standing up on her own without holding on to anything for support. her faces are the funniest thing in the world and she has developed this beautiful habit of hugging us as we hold her or carry her. She remains as social as ever and always has a smile for everyone she meets. She loves her grandparents so much and is having a lot of fun getting to know aunts, uncles and cousins. We have been taking extra pictures of all the family so we can post them here for you and for her to look at when she grows up.
I will finish here for now - there is probably so much that I could write and should write, but I really am having trouble thinking of it all.
Blessings
I have had a couple of preaching engagements that have woked out well. I also got to help lead worship at East belfast Mission for the first time since our return. It was cool to be there playing my guitar again and singing.
We also have spent a couple of weekends up in portrush, where Margaret's mum and dad have an apartment. One of the weekends was just beautiful. The waves were crashing onto the beach for the whole weekend and just looked stunning.
Still no movement on my plans for September - it is a horrible waiting game were I just need to find and exercise some patience. Please keep that situation in your prayers.
I joined the gym a few weeks ago and have been working out a lot with my best mate. It has been amazing to get to spend time with him in that way. I have been realising how much I missed Stevie when I was away - it is almost like I was so busy working in Port St Lucie that I did not have time to fully miss people from home. Now I am home and I have the time to think more about the people that I have left behind in America and I really miss them too. Don't get me wrong, I love home and love being here, but missing the folks that have been a major part of your life for the three years that we were away, is just very real right now.
Eva is amazing. She is just changing every day and going from strength to strength. She is very close to walking and is regularly standing up on her own without holding on to anything for support. her faces are the funniest thing in the world and she has developed this beautiful habit of hugging us as we hold her or carry her. She remains as social as ever and always has a smile for everyone she meets. She loves her grandparents so much and is having a lot of fun getting to know aunts, uncles and cousins. We have been taking extra pictures of all the family so we can post them here for you and for her to look at when she grows up.
I will finish here for now - there is probably so much that I could write and should write, but I really am having trouble thinking of it all.
Blessings
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Okay, so as usual it is far too long since I updated this thing. This time I do have valid grounds though. Since Margaret, Eva and I moved home we have lived the nomadic lifestyle spending two or three das here and a week there and basically moving between three bases. One of the three has internet access and so it has been hard to get good quality time and concentration to sit down and write. But now I have a wee bit of both and I shall write - still no pictures though. I am sorry about that - I have worked out a way to do it but it involves my mum finding the USB cable to attache to this computer from her camera. It's complicated but I think I should be able to do it. Hold on Mum has just arrived back in the house and I shall ask her. Success in one sense. The pictures are available for upload. but now is gone my free time and concentration!!! I will work through anyways and see what I can do.
Firstly, this must be stated. We miss everyone in America terribly. We have managed to catch some of you on the phone in the last few weeks and it has been great to talk. Some of you we have tried to catch but it would appear Bellsouth have offered some kind of call filtering system so you don't get all those nasty sales calls, and thus you don't know our international code and number and refuse the call. Persistence seems to work though. For those of you who we might call but have not got round to yet - please be patient, we are at our parent's houses and thus on their dollar so we are trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to keep the bill low.
Life here is going okay - as I said we are like nomads and it is frustrating not to be in our own house with our own strange little ways, but this will all end next Monday when we get our own house back. The excitement is starting as we get think about colours for the painter to paint the walls with. Though with the excitement comes a little anxiety as we think about what state the house might be left in. Who knows? But whatever state it is in, it will not take long to make it our home again and that we are looking forward to.
Eva continues to grow, getting stronger and more independent by the minute. She really can go pretty fast on all fours - especially when she has something she wants to get to and we are chasing behind. With our parents now being on their own, their houses are littered with little ornaments and keepsakes that Eva thinks are hers to play with and they all seems to be right at her level. She really takes a lot of watching. It is cool though, because just as much as we spend time running after her, we spend the same amount of time just laughing at her and with her. She seems able to pull the funniest of faces and expressions. There was a time a couple of months ago when we would catch her going towards something she was not supposed to be going towards and would be able to say "No Eva" and she would stop. That does not happen anymore. We caught her standing up right beside the television last week when we were staying at Marge's Mum and Dad's apartment. "No Eva", we cried and she just turned to look at us and cheekily grinned before turning back to the television. Margaret and I could do nothing but try and hide the fact that we were just laughing at her.
She is also still extremely well behaved in all situations. We had her out to dinner with us last night and she was great. There was another child in the resturaunt, a 20 month old ( who Eva was the same size as!!!!) and he was screaming the place down. Eva was great by comparison, but I could not help but wonder if this was a sign of things to come. It seems though that she is genuinely like her dad - when there is food around, there really is nothing else to think about except eating it!!! By the way - this was a chinese resturaunt and Eva was able to eat anything we were eating - last night she enjoyed special fried rice with curry sauce from my plate and from her mum's plate she got some shredded chicken with sweet chilli sauce. Yum, yum, yum. Last we we had her eating some Indian delicacies which she could not get enough of. It seems that she will have fairly eclectic tastes when it comes to food.
Yesterday we had to take Eva to visit the Health visitor. Ironic that the job title is Health Visitor and we are the ones that visit eh? Anywho, we took Eva to see her and she is in good shape. We also noticed yesterday as we were visiting with some other folks that her two front teeth and starting to come through - she will have an even prettier smile with those teeth gleeming.
My application to Queens is still in limbo. Please, please pray about this situation. As I have said, I am happy to go whenever God opens that path for me - but in terms of personal preference, I really want to go this year. It is one of the main reasons that we came home and I do not like the idea of tredding water in a random job for a year. Please pray about this and any wisdom or word that you receive I will be happy to hear. At the minute it is a faith thing and I just have to hold on to what I know is the call of God on my life to be ordained, and so pray that in moments of worry and anxiety over this I would be still and know that God is God.
We are going back to East Melfast Mission for church. It has changed so much since we left three years ago. There seems to have been a massive influx of people in their mid to late twenties and their worship team has grown and evolved immensely since we left. Other churches that we have been to or talked about with friends, seem to be stuck and refuse to try to move on from where they are at, and so it really is good that we are able to connect at the Mission where things ain't so bad.
We miss Ron and Jen and Kate - weekends are not the same without our usual Friday or Saturday night gathering and we don't go out for lunch after church any more. Ron and Jen and Kate - we love you and we miss you. We talked on the phone this week and I was so excited to hear that Ron was playing in the band on Sunday - go Ron and make sure everyone knows that your lovely 12 string has a story of sacrifice and pain behind it!!!!! Jen knows 5 chords now (or was it six) soon they'll be up there like Jonny Cash and June Carter!!!!!!!
Okay - I am going to try and upload these pictures for you.
Blessings
Firstly, this must be stated. We miss everyone in America terribly. We have managed to catch some of you on the phone in the last few weeks and it has been great to talk. Some of you we have tried to catch but it would appear Bellsouth have offered some kind of call filtering system so you don't get all those nasty sales calls, and thus you don't know our international code and number and refuse the call. Persistence seems to work though. For those of you who we might call but have not got round to yet - please be patient, we are at our parent's houses and thus on their dollar so we are trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to keep the bill low.
Life here is going okay - as I said we are like nomads and it is frustrating not to be in our own house with our own strange little ways, but this will all end next Monday when we get our own house back. The excitement is starting as we get think about colours for the painter to paint the walls with. Though with the excitement comes a little anxiety as we think about what state the house might be left in. Who knows? But whatever state it is in, it will not take long to make it our home again and that we are looking forward to.
Eva continues to grow, getting stronger and more independent by the minute. She really can go pretty fast on all fours - especially when she has something she wants to get to and we are chasing behind. With our parents now being on their own, their houses are littered with little ornaments and keepsakes that Eva thinks are hers to play with and they all seems to be right at her level. She really takes a lot of watching. It is cool though, because just as much as we spend time running after her, we spend the same amount of time just laughing at her and with her. She seems able to pull the funniest of faces and expressions. There was a time a couple of months ago when we would catch her going towards something she was not supposed to be going towards and would be able to say "No Eva" and she would stop. That does not happen anymore. We caught her standing up right beside the television last week when we were staying at Marge's Mum and Dad's apartment. "No Eva", we cried and she just turned to look at us and cheekily grinned before turning back to the television. Margaret and I could do nothing but try and hide the fact that we were just laughing at her.
She is also still extremely well behaved in all situations. We had her out to dinner with us last night and she was great. There was another child in the resturaunt, a 20 month old ( who Eva was the same size as!!!!) and he was screaming the place down. Eva was great by comparison, but I could not help but wonder if this was a sign of things to come. It seems though that she is genuinely like her dad - when there is food around, there really is nothing else to think about except eating it!!! By the way - this was a chinese resturaunt and Eva was able to eat anything we were eating - last night she enjoyed special fried rice with curry sauce from my plate and from her mum's plate she got some shredded chicken with sweet chilli sauce. Yum, yum, yum. Last we we had her eating some Indian delicacies which she could not get enough of. It seems that she will have fairly eclectic tastes when it comes to food.
Yesterday we had to take Eva to visit the Health visitor. Ironic that the job title is Health Visitor and we are the ones that visit eh? Anywho, we took Eva to see her and she is in good shape. We also noticed yesterday as we were visiting with some other folks that her two front teeth and starting to come through - she will have an even prettier smile with those teeth gleeming.
My application to Queens is still in limbo. Please, please pray about this situation. As I have said, I am happy to go whenever God opens that path for me - but in terms of personal preference, I really want to go this year. It is one of the main reasons that we came home and I do not like the idea of tredding water in a random job for a year. Please pray about this and any wisdom or word that you receive I will be happy to hear. At the minute it is a faith thing and I just have to hold on to what I know is the call of God on my life to be ordained, and so pray that in moments of worry and anxiety over this I would be still and know that God is God.
We are going back to East Melfast Mission for church. It has changed so much since we left three years ago. There seems to have been a massive influx of people in their mid to late twenties and their worship team has grown and evolved immensely since we left. Other churches that we have been to or talked about with friends, seem to be stuck and refuse to try to move on from where they are at, and so it really is good that we are able to connect at the Mission where things ain't so bad.
We miss Ron and Jen and Kate - weekends are not the same without our usual Friday or Saturday night gathering and we don't go out for lunch after church any more. Ron and Jen and Kate - we love you and we miss you. We talked on the phone this week and I was so excited to hear that Ron was playing in the band on Sunday - go Ron and make sure everyone knows that your lovely 12 string has a story of sacrifice and pain behind it!!!!! Jen knows 5 chords now (or was it six) soon they'll be up there like Jonny Cash and June Carter!!!!!!!
Okay - I am going to try and upload these pictures for you.
Blessings
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