Just back from holiday now. I hate that feeling as you return home from holiday that it is all now over, and work begins! For me, that's today at church. Thankfully someone else is 'doing' the service, so I just have to 'be'.
The BB training week was fantastic. It was great to work with so many enthusiastic young people. One of the students on the course received some bad news during the week, and the rest of his group immediately wanted to pray for him. It was lovely to see, and take part in that very moving time of prayer after our course communion service.
It was good 'doing' communion with the other chaplain, a Methodist minister. We thought we had sorted everything out beforehand, but as we participated together I realised that we were doing it just slightly differently according to our traditions... the half of loaf he distributed was almost finished when he got back to the table, whereas mine was barely touched! Something about the generosity of God there...
Spending time with so many young people means that there is now a dramatic increase in the number of photos of me on facebook. Hmmm. Look if you dare!
Wales was good. Not much sun. Plenty of rain. But then, that is Wales! It didn't stop us doing anything though, in what I reckon is our best family holiday yet. Jonathan is nearly 3 and Reuben nearly 5 now, so they were both independent enough for us to do a mixture of walks, visits and play. It was lovely. I feel quite refreshed now. I'm trying to ignore the mountain of post and the e-mountain of e-mails!
Just reading through Hague's biog of Wilberforce at the moment. It's fantastic. last night I got to the point when the Abolition Act went through Parliament and received the Royal Assent just before the Grenville government collapsed. Riveting stuff.
Sunday 26 August 2007
Saturday 4 August 2007
Dr Who, The Boys' Brigade and Christianity
Well, I'm now at Felden Lodge getting ready for my week as chaplain to the young officers' training course. My aim is to communicate the fundamentals of Christianity through the week. I'm going to use clips from the New Series of Doctor Who, to help to illustrate this.
My first major problem was a technical one. My presentation software (which is the excellent, and highly recommended EasyWorship) does not play DVD clips under Windows Vista. This is because MS have taken the step of getting all software people to patent their Codecs. What this means, is that if you have one program that plays DVDs, it cannot share this skill with other prgrams. Unlike in Windows Vista.
I had to rather humiliatingly ask if I could borrow a laptop that had an older version of Windows on it just so I could use the basic functionality of cueing up my DVD clips for my presentations. Hummphh. Not impressed.
Ah well. The old version of Windows works swimmingly. I've just cued up the clips for my first session. Rather unfortunately titled, the first two clips to get people thinking about God, are from the episode "The Satan Pit".
Better go -- we have a Staff Meeting in just a moment!
PS Just spoke to someone who was rather alarmed to hear some of my more radical ideas in youth work!
My first major problem was a technical one. My presentation software (which is the excellent, and highly recommended EasyWorship) does not play DVD clips under Windows Vista. This is because MS have taken the step of getting all software people to patent their Codecs. What this means, is that if you have one program that plays DVDs, it cannot share this skill with other prgrams. Unlike in Windows Vista.
I had to rather humiliatingly ask if I could borrow a laptop that had an older version of Windows on it just so I could use the basic functionality of cueing up my DVD clips for my presentations. Hummphh. Not impressed.
Ah well. The old version of Windows works swimmingly. I've just cued up the clips for my first session. Rather unfortunately titled, the first two clips to get people thinking about God, are from the episode "The Satan Pit".
Better go -- we have a Staff Meeting in just a moment!
PS Just spoke to someone who was rather alarmed to hear some of my more radical ideas in youth work!
Thursday 2 August 2007
New Beginnings
Well, as part of my phased withdrawal from as much MS stuff as possible, I've decided to relocate my blog here.
Still thinking hard (though you wouldn't notice!) about how to communicate teh message of Christianity using Doctor Who! At the moment I'm struggling for a video clip that alludes to the Holy Spirit.... ho hum. I'm sure inspiration will come!
Still thinking hard (though you wouldn't notice!) about how to communicate teh message of Christianity using Doctor Who! At the moment I'm struggling for a video clip that alludes to the Holy Spirit.... ho hum. I'm sure inspiration will come!
Wednesday 1 August 2007
School Holidays
Finding the time to blog alongside all other responsibilities is tricky, but I shall continue...
This is the first year when my eldest son Reuben, has school holidays. We're covering the child care by having a 2 week family holiday. The boys are also going with Claire to their grandparents for a week. The remaining 3.5 weeks or so I'm covering by working 'around' them.
This 'quieter' time of year certainly gives some space to reflect before the mad arrival of September, with Harvest, Alpha, Baptism and the manic countdown to Christmas.
Next week I'll be at BB HQ as a chaplain to one of their training courses, which should be fun. Also probably too many late nights! I shall have to have power naps, I think...
I'm planning to do a series of sessions on Christian basics using Doctor Who clips to help me. As a lifelong fan of Doctor Who I have a lot of material to draw on, but I shall focus on stuff from the recent revival in the main. It's so important to use visual means of communication in church (and outside) today. Although I do sometimes get the impression from some of our longer standing members at church that they are a little weary of *another* video, and a slight longing for the old days of the Long Prayer!
Ho hum.
This is the first year when my eldest son Reuben, has school holidays. We're covering the child care by having a 2 week family holiday. The boys are also going with Claire to their grandparents for a week. The remaining 3.5 weeks or so I'm covering by working 'around' them.
This 'quieter' time of year certainly gives some space to reflect before the mad arrival of September, with Harvest, Alpha, Baptism and the manic countdown to Christmas.
Next week I'll be at BB HQ as a chaplain to one of their training courses, which should be fun. Also probably too many late nights! I shall have to have power naps, I think...
I'm planning to do a series of sessions on Christian basics using Doctor Who clips to help me. As a lifelong fan of Doctor Who I have a lot of material to draw on, but I shall focus on stuff from the recent revival in the main. It's so important to use visual means of communication in church (and outside) today. Although I do sometimes get the impression from some of our longer standing members at church that they are a little weary of *another* video, and a slight longing for the old days of the Long Prayer!
Ho hum.
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