A food thing going on this weekend !

Tonight we hosted 50 of the students from church for food and fellowship. Great fun
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Lunch with the Olyotts

Thanks to Liz and Bernie and the boys for a great lunch today :-)
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Cassian. The Simms have a cat

Much better lookin than its owners :-)
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Lunch with the Simms today

And a brisk walk in the country.
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Inducted and guests

Great weekend. I was officially inducted into the ministry at Bridge Chapel and Naomi and Becky stayed.

It was great to see all my friends from Wem. We as a family are truly blessed to know so many good people.

Thanks to those who came yesterday you were a real encouragement to us all.
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Laura in a cast

Poor old Laura has had her foot entombed for three weeks today. Let's hope it doesn't get itchy :-)
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Sex and relationships according to the Bible.

That was the subject I was given to speak on at Hope University Christian Union tonight.

Anna was there which meant for her a very high cringe factor with dad speaking about sex in public :-)

Popular subject this as I have been asked to deliver the same message to the Christian Union at John Moores university on Thursday.

The main thrust of my message was based on the understanding that if you profess to love Jesus then you will seek to do life ( which includes sex ) His way. John 14:15.
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Late new year bash

Speaking over at my Sisters church in Hoylake tonight.
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Laura has broken her foot :-)

She is going to kill me for putting this on the blog.
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Prayer and painting the B team :-)

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Live from Paint and Prayer.

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Poetry a la eldest daughter

Proud father here :-) my daughter ( in my biast opinion ) is turning out to be a bit of a poet .. Check out her poem on the Creator on her blog , CLICK HERE

Varied Diet ...

In the pastorate I have found that no two days are ever quite the same . Take today for instance .First job this morning was to brave the fresh snow ( the snowman is not dead yet!) on the school run with Laura .This turned out to be a thrilling journey , when you want the car to stop going down a hill it decided to disobey and headed straight for the car in front , me being a quick thinking guy thought " I know lets swerve the car ninety degrees and head for the kerb on the opposite side of the road ..that will do the trick " and it did, we stopped and Laura and I lived to fight another day :-)

Upon arrival back at home base I did some funeral preparation ( not my own I hasten to add ) before going off to lunch with one of the elders ( one of the perks ) . Then I was off to taxi Katie from the train station back from 3 snowy days in Wem and an A level RE . Then Gill and I spent a couple of hours at the after schools club at the Bridge ..art , snooker , PlayStation and table tennis and off course a cup of hot chocolate ...

Tonight more speaking prep and then off to our small group meeting ..Mark's house tonight ..his new house ( he is getting married next year ) so we are having a time of prayer and then a time of painting ... Prayer and painting what a combination .. I may post a photo later ..

Irish & Yorkshire Invasion ... :-)

One of the many blessings at the Bridge is the student population who attend the cities four universities .Amongst them is a large Irish contingent and they are great . Debbie(right of pic) is one of those students and she is our adoptee for the duration of her stay here ( the Bridge run an adopt a student scheme) . So we enjoyed a meal with her tonight along with Hayley ( representing Yorkshire on the left) ,Anna and Laura ..( Katie is in Wem )

At last the Thaw begins....

Bad time for the snowmen :-)

FOR HIM ...

Gas attack ....

One thing you don't want in freezing cold weather is problems with your gas fire which is precisely what happened to us today .... "it's condemned" said the gas man "you need a new one ."

It turns out that that we have all been breathing in leaking gas for a good few days which explains why I have been a little more explosive than usual lately :-)

Just off to find me Long Johns until the new fire arrives :-)

"Vultures are renowned for their use of thermals "

Liverpool brought to a halt ...

The big freeze has brought Liverpool to a standstill . It is eerily quiet on the streets. Stranger still is the fact that I am having to walk everywhere :-).Must have spent three hours walking to and from church and on various pastoral visits .... Finished off the mince pies last night to make up for it :-)

Snow Trek

Walkin to work ! What's goin on. In danger of becoming slim
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SnowTime ......No School today ...walk in the woods .

Christian ..how is your mental health ?

Read THIS by John Piper .. At the start of a new year when we naturally think of change in our own lives , maybe one of the changes we need to make is to appreciate what is all around us a little more than we do today ...

urban foxes...in the snow

One of the surprising features of being back in Liverpool is the amount of foxes we have seen prowling around after dark ...its great to look out of your window at night to see a fox staring back at you . Tonight we saw a fox in the snow ..wonderful

Oops ..late again Happy New Year everyone

Oh dear , slightly remiss of me not to blog up on new years day to wish you all a happy new year .However as the old saying goes better late than never .

New years Eve was a great day. we traveled over to Oulton to visit the Atkin family and the gathered masses from Wem and Northwich churches . Walking , eating drinking and chatting were the order of the day and it was lovely . Many thanks again for their hospitality . I did take some pics but I cant find the camera at the mo to upload them ...so they will be coming on a later post .

It was back to work in earnest today ...back into the routine which to be honest I am more than happy about . I am also more than happy about the Christmas tree coming down today , we now have our living room back and more importantly my favourite chair in the corner of the room just as I like it .. sad I know ...

May the Lord Bless you and keep you this year whatever may come your way .

Return To Wem ....

Yesterday was another busy and blessed day . In the morning I led the service at the Bridge .Then we had yet another roast dinner at Grannie & Gramp's before setting off for the evening service over at Wem .

It was good to be back amongst our Shropshire friends and it was great to be back in the pulpit over there .... I was reflecting on Psalm 39:4 ...

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life."

Going into a New year and in fact going into a new decade it is important that we reflect on how we use our time . So if we are to make better use of our TIME as Christians in 2010 then we need to .....

Trust more in the promises of God.

Imitate him more by seeking every day to be more Christlike and maturing as each hour passes..

Meditate on him more ...our devotional life is vital to our spiritual health .

Enjoy him more ...stop dwelling on the past and being anxious about the future .Enjoy His grace ,his mercy ,his love , his peace TODAY . Living in the day we have been given , enjoying his word , enjoying our friends and family given by Him TODAY ...

If you want to hear the full sermon then I am sure it will be posted some time next week on the Wem Baptist Web Site ...there is a link on the right of this page.

After the service we all trundled off to the Wrights house for yet more food and more games on the Wii . I wasn't impressed with my Wii Fit weight !!!! The mince pies have definitely added some extra blubber this year :-) I can feel a new years resolution coming on :-)

Bosing Day ...family & friends

Well as usual there was tons of food left over ,so we invited Grannie & Gramps over for a second helping today and then later on Dave ,Debbie ,Becky , Abi and John came over for more food , Wii and a good old fashioned board game :-) Good times ,fun times . Anna has posted some Photos on her blog ...CLICK HERE

Christmas Day 09 ..

Christmas day was one of the most relaxing in years ...Pressy opening at 7am ..followed by church at The Bridge ..followed by a huge Christmas dinner cooked by my gorgeous wife ...queens speech at 3pm ..slept on the couch at 4pm and then out for more food at Jane & Nicks in the evening ...great day .Praise the Lord for good times with the family :-)She only has gozzy eyes for me :-) A splendid meal

Had to have the pud

Pressies everywhere

Katie pulling her usual photo face with Anna

Still looking into each others eyes after all these years :-)

Laura made the cake this year ...she melted some glacier mints to decorate it ..cool

Laura having a bit of a moment

Anna wearing her best hat

Grannie ..well not sure what she is doing here

Gramps ..he can hear Santa In the evening we went over to Jane & Nicks ....Nick looks a bit like popeye in this one ..our Jane is not thin enough to be Olive though :-)

Christmas ....

It's all a bit different this year . Our first Christmas back in Liverpool since 1985. I am saddened by the fact that both mum and dad are not part of it this year .

The last couple of weeks seem to have flown by , going from one Carol service to another whilst slowing recovering from the swine flu !

Lots of folk in this time have been visiting and sharing some Christmas cheer ...sadly though I don't have much photographic evidence .It would have been good to capture Les Stampers face after attempting to go for a jog on the Wii fit .... I thought we might have to call an ambulance :-)

Last night was great . We had our small group around for a Christmas party that ended up with one huge snowball fight . It's great to have a bit of snow at this time of year . Anna has posted some pics on her blog .... CLICK HERE

Off out again tonight to Debbie Webster's for more mince pies ...I don't think my stomach can take much more ..I will be looking like Les soon :-)

Cold enough to be Christmas :-)

Woolton woods this morning. Been singing "In the Bleak mid Winter"
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I have been in bed for too long now :-(

The flu has really got hold of me this week. Never had flu and hope never to have it again! Thanks to all the folk who have wished me well. Hoping to be back in the land of the living next week :-)
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