Back Pain ...

Gill (alias cinderella) was scrubbing the kitchen floor yesterday morning when I heard a loud scream ... Her back had gone . Now for those of you who have had back trouble you know the pain .

So yesterday she spent most of the day lying on the bedroom floor popping Ibuprofen :-) . I of course have been the best nurse possible . Full of sympathy and kind words ;-) . I even emptied the washing machine and put the clothes on the line yesterday as well as doing her boiled egg on toast for lunch :-)

Anyway I do hope she recovers quickly as the kitchen floor didn't get finished .... Oh I will be in so much trouble for this post :-)

Birthdays & BBQ

Good couple of days with family and friends . On Saturday night we celebrated three birthdays in the family by dining out at a Greek restaurant . Jane , Anna & Naomi all celebrated and about 18 of us gathered to help them ... Great night .Great Friends ,Great Family ;-)

All the photos from the night are on facebook HERE

Yesterday was another blessed day at Wem . Both services morning and evening were special . We seem to be seeing more and more new people each week . Which shouldn't be a surprise as we have been praying for this every Saturday morning for the last 3 years ....

The evening ended well with our first BBQ this year accompanied of course by the chimenea (I love my chimenea) ...Beefburgers a glass of wine and music from Ludovico Einaudi . Great way to end the Lord's day .

Again more Photo's over on Facebook ..HERE

My little girl is 19 tomorrow ;-)

How the days fly by ...Anna is 19 tomorrow ...Happy Birthday Anna ...Love you loads and loads ..dad xx

Visit to Doris & time in Cambridge

Went to see Doris today in Brampton ( near Cambridge) . Doris is an elderly lady who used to live in Wem and was a regular at the church coffee mornings . Phil & Tee & I took a car load of her friends to go and see her .
We also took the opportunity to have a look around Cambridge ...great city . I would recommend it for a weekend break . Not sure about the nutter in the goggles though ..

Facebook photos here ...

Using your time .....

Last night a group of young adults in their 20's got together at church for a time of mutual encouragement . Phil & I spoke on the theme of Time ...Phil gave an interesting statistic . After the age of 35 on average you only live for 500 days .... He qualified that by saying its 500 full days..i.e take out the sleep ..take out the 3 years you spend on the loo !! etc and you are only left with 500 full days to do stuff ....

Thought provoking

Camping & Hiking & Blisters!!

Been away for a couple of days with Gill and a bunch of students from Thomas Adams School . They are all doing their bronze Duke of Edinburgh awards and that entails a couple of days hiking and an overnight camp.

The Long Mynd was the venue and I only managed to get lost a couple of times :-) Its been 30 years since I last did anything like this . It was great though and all the young people did really well ... Well done guys

More photo's over on facebook CLICK HERE

Easter Monday ..visits

Did a few miles today ... First stop Rob & Amy's house to watch them decorate while we ate our macDonalds !!Then we went to Nathans finally getting rid of the blues brothers !!!(Dan& Nathan). Then on to see my mum ..she was three sheets in the wind today :-) .Then it was off to my sister Jane's to pick up Naomi ..then tea at Grannie & Gramps ... Whirlwind of visits today ..good day

Easter Sunday ...Great Day

The day started gloriously with a sunrise service on top of Grinshill. 75 folk worshipping the risen Lord at 7am in the morning ...wonderful . This was quickly followed by a cup of tea nad a bacon butty back at church . The Easter Sunday morning service was packed out with lots of new folk coming in from town . We were truly blessed.

In the afternoon some of the young people chilled out in our garden in the sunshine .

When evening came I lit the Chimenea with Nath & Dan ....they had their Chimenea baptism and I think they were converted ...great memories created yesterday ...Good day

More Pics HERE

Family, Friends, food fight :-)

Dan & Nathan came to stay this weekend ... I have to say it was a great laugh especially when the rest of the family came over and the food fight began .... Of course I was the innocent party in all of the tomfoolery .Again more snaps over on Facebook HERE

Gill's Birthday.. another one bites the dust

Gill celebrated her 4? rd birthday ...another year gone and she is even more beautiful now than the day I first met her . Hope she reads this , should score me a good few brownie points :-)Grannie & Gramps bought her a hammock ..she needs to put her feet up now she is getting older :-)

More Pics HERE

Trip Down Memory Lane ...

It was good to go back to my old stomping ground last night ... The YP at Wheelock Heath Baptist Church . They had invited me back to speak . It wsa a great night and good to be back amongst old friends .

John is going to love this one ...or rather his dentist is :-)

Lorraine has also blogged up about the evening HERE

Also all my pics can be seen on Facebook HERE

Relax !!!

The Apostle Paul said " Be anxious for nothing " ... This pig understands :-)

Bad Hair Day ...no hair day

I had my hair cut at the local barbers the other day .... US Marine style . Gill and the girls are not impressed . I am not allowed to post any photo's :-)

Good For Moral.... Car wash 09

Some of our young people are heading off to Spain this summer to a place called Moral . Partnering up with a church there and seeking to do some outreach work . In order to raise funds for the journey they washed cars today and raised just under £200 ...brilliant ..

All the photos HERE

and for those who can read Spanish here is the Church in Spain that they are linking up with

Going the extra mile for others ....

This is a video of a father & son and how dad is committed to the well being of his child ... you can read their full story here

Men in Marriage ... AkA Driscoll

Walked the dog and listened to this ,this morning and felt like I had been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson ... fellas this sermon carries a spiritual health warning ....

58 years married and still going strong

On Tuesday night during our small group meeting we celebrated Brian & May's 58th wedding anniversary . Fran who was hosting gave them the confetti & cake treatment !

Visit to Oadby Evangelical..Good Day

Good day over in Leicester today visiting Adam at Oadby Evangelical ..Phil as usual has his photograph smile on :-)

Great morning with the Cabinet ...

We had a cabinet war room meeting this morning :-) ...An elders and deacons meeting . It was great , there is a real unity of purpose amongst the team long may it continue .

3 years on the loo .....

According to this article in the Daily Mail we spend on average 3 years of our lives on the toilet ..so you might as well have one with a decent view ;-)

A Pastors Breakfast ...& Reunited with the Canadians.

Went over to Northwich for a meeting with Alistair ( Pastor of Emmanuel) . He did us proud with his cooking skills ..wonderful breakfast apart from the bacon ;-) Met up with the mob from Canada again ..It was good to see them all again .

Wonderful Sabbath days rest ...

Had a great day off today in the glorious spring sunshine . Gill & I walked Chester around Colemere . It was all very tranquil and then this evening we had a meal with Les & Cathy in Liverpool . Feeling very rested :-)

All the days pics are here

Spring Sunshine

I have had a chance to sit in the garden today reading . It's great to be able to enjoy the fresh air . Springtime has got to be my favourite time of the year ... It's full to the brim of new beginnings .

Sunday at WBC was great , both services blessed by a real sense of God being amongst his people . If you get a chance to listen to the messages then you can download them from the Web ..the link is over on the right of my page .

I had an email from a lady in Kentucky ( USA) who had been listening to one of my sermons , she said she loved my Scottish accent :-) . I will have to start wearing a kilt in the pulpit from now on !

Laura was 14 last Sunday

Great day on Sunday ..celebrated Laura being 14 years young ... Grannie & Gramps , Anna ,Nathan & Dan & katie ...all joined in and got stuck in to the two big pans of scouse that I had cooked .
It was also a good day because Gill returned home in one piece from her skiing trip :-)

The rest of the photos can be found here

Family lost their dad ..church lost their Pastor .

Please pray for the Winters family . Dad the pastor of the church was shot dead whilst preaching on Sunday in the States . Mark Driscoll writes about it here .

Soon we will all be wearing bullet proof vests :-(

Making Scouse

I am making a couple of large pans of "Scouse" tonight ready for tomorrows dinner ...lots of friends and family around for Laura's birthday and this is the perfect hassle free dish ...

Speaking about Reputation on Sunday ..

Missing her ..

Well Gill has been away for a whole week now and I have to admit that I am really missing her :-) . Roll on Sunday . The girls have been great though and surprisingly grumpy old dad has been remarkably placid this week .Gill had anticipated that world war three would break out whilst she was away but no , peace reigns .... anyway I'm off to do some vacuum cleaning now :-)..

Tired ..

I think the Canadian team have taken it out of me... I am shattered . But then again I have covered a fare few miles today ..Shrewsbury , Birmingham , Liverpool. Anna is home tonight trying to heal a broken heart :-( .

Gill is in Aosta skiing with the school and by all accounts ,via her text messaging ,she is having a great time .

A Day out to Wales & Radio shropshire

All the pics over on facebook click HERE .