Movember

One of the fun, weird, English things we (by "we" I mean Dan) have been able to join in with this year is "Movember". Men from every walk of life grow moustaches in November, and get sponsored for it, and the money goes to a couple of cancer charities, specifically research into and care for prostate cancer patients. Redcliffe staff together raised about 600 pounds which is great.

Some men looked more or less normal, while others purposely grew silly moustaches, and one Redcliffe guy dyed his pink for the last day. One female student wore a stick-on moustache for some of the month because she felt left out...

Dan grew his biker moustache which I find quite cute...

(better than the Tom Selleck one from his past... )

Storm and sun

Abigail took this picture. It speaks to me of how we live in our small houses in this big world, where storm clouds roll and pile overhead and overwhelm, but the sun still rises, it finds a way, and shines through, eventually, every time. And for that I am thankful.

I don't know if this is a very good poem, but, it helped me in the past and I thought of it when I saw Abby's pictures today:

God has not promised
sun without rain
joy without sorrow
peace without pain.

But God has promised

strength for the day,
rest for the labour,
light for the way,
grace for the trials,
help from above,
unfailing sympathy,
undying love.

by Kevin Mayhew.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A seasonal thought!

Mum and Winter

This is actually Abby writing today. Mum wanted someone to write something, so I volunteered.

I thought I would write about Mum in Winter. There are lots of things Mum would like to do instead of facing the cold outdoors.
1. Hibernate like a little animal.
2. Grow a big, fluffy coat like Frodo.
3. Stay in bed and drink a few hundred cups of tea.
4. Curl up by a fire like a cat.
5. Migrate to Uganda for the Winter, like a bird.

She cannot seem to enjoy Winter. In fact, technically it isn't even Winter yet, and she is wearing about fifteen layers. Me and Alex said that if she wore all her warm clothes now when it is still autumn weather, then when it gets freezing she won't have any warm clothes left, and she will be really cold.
She said that she wouldn't wear all her clothes, but she has failed. She is even wearing a huge fluffy hat which Frodo thinks is a dead rabbit.

Last Winter she spent too much time worrying about was the cold, and she said that she would try to enjoy it this year, but when I asked everybody what they were looking forward to about Winter Alex said: ice skating, Dad said: All the jolly people doing Christmas shopping, I said: snow, (I don't think Frodo really cares as long as he gets a walk) But Mum said: wearing jumpers and lighting the fire. She obviously isn't jumping for joy at the thought of sledging and snowball fights.

It's a bit ironic that she is the only one that grew up in this dreary English weather, and she is the only one complaining now.
It is my mission to make her enjoy this Winter.

(And it doesn't help that the heating has broken down...)

Decision in Harare

Eleven years ago our family left Zimbabwe at short notice, because our contracts were terminated by the newly elected, pro-the president, anti-evangelical, anti-white bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga.

He had proved himself within a few months to be a political appointment, there to promote Mugabe's interests. He locked up churches which had been allowing the opposition MDC to have their meetings in their church halls, he demoted all kinds of good clergy, he got rid of whites and evangelicals in various ways, he usurped large funds from various churches which were designated for other purposes, he took and used various church's cars, he threatened our students, he had the war veterans send a death threat to a clergy who wouldn't allow him to take church money... His wife put a stop to the clergy wives conference that I had been running for years at our theological college - which had been s special time of fellowship for all of us. He put his nephew in as principal of the theological college although that man was also the dean of the cathedral at the same time.  Without going into any more  details, we did support one church which tried to hold a kind of protest, and so we were "terminated."

At that time, we had already formed a connection with Redcliffe College, and so we were able to come here as Visiting Lecturers for a year, which was completely providential for us as a family.

Well, in 2007 Kunonga announced that he was taking the Zimbabwean Anglican church out of the Anglican Communion, and setting up a new Province in Zimbabwe. He made himself its "archbishop" and he made four of his friends, "bishops." Because of this action, the Church of the Province of Central Africa (the part of the Anglican Communion Zimbabwe is in) ex-communicated him. It seemed like the problem should be over... but, it was really only beginning.

Soon the CPCA elected a bishop to replace him in Harare, Sebastian Bakare. But Kunonga said his ex-communication was invalid, he was still bishop of Harare, and so he wouldn't move out of the bishops residence, nor would he stop leading services in the cathedral.

Unfortunately he took it to court, and the court said, it was a church matter, but since they couldn't sort it out amongst themselves, (grr), the judge decreed that the Kunonga people could use the churches for half the morning and the Bakare people could use them for the other half. This seemed to be OK, but then, Kunonga broke the ruling, wouldn't leave churches, and even had police and war vets go into the other services and break them up. As for the cathedral, he chained up its doors, and he held services in there himself - with his tiny following of about six clergy and their families.

Sadly the police gave him their muscle for political reasons - once police went into a Mothers Union meeting with about 500 lovely ladies, some pretty elderly, in their blue and white outfits, and literally beat them up with sticks, and dragged them out of the church by their clothes.

Eventually the "real" Anglicans were only able to have their services in school buildings and even out in the open. A church in exile, in their own city.

Meanwhile Kunonga was rewarded by the President by being given one of the farms taken from white farmers outside Harare, which he promptly moved into...

Our friend and former principal of the theological college was elected Bishop of Harare when Bakare retired, and so he had to take the lead against this renegade. He did well in raising prayer support from Christians all over the world, and he is such a godly, gentle man himself, everyone who knows him loves him. We worried for him, and prayed for him.

Kunonga's next move was to take away the leadership of the Anglican orphanage in Harare, and give it to again his own people. And at the same time, he claimed that all the rectories belonged to him, and so, he gave them all to the clergy he had ordained himself. So, friends and former students of ours who were clergy in the church under Bishop Chad, came home one weekend to find intruders had moved into their houses and put all their stuff outside - and in one case, the clergyman's elderly mother who had refused to leave the house, had been taken and held in police cells. I believe Bp Chad went and spent the time in the cells with her to support her, as well as getting lawyers involved.

Finally there was a much longed for court case, put forward by the real Anglican church (CPCA), to have Kunonga stopped, but sadly, the judge after hearing the first day, then failed to show up again and concluded that he could not make a ruling. That was about three years ago.

But this week, at last, the Supreme Court for the first time heard the case - and the ruling was made on Tuesday, that Kunonga had removed himself from the church back in 2007, and so he had forfeited the right to any claim on church property, vehicles, money, institutions, and rectories. In other words, he doesn't have a leg to stand on as far as the court is concerned. They have said to him, "Get Packing", as one headline put it.

Woooooohooooooo!!! I mean, Praise The Lord!!!!!

He has been given until Friday to move out of all the buildings, the cathedral, and to hand back all the rectories and vehicles.

I do not know what will happen. No doubt he is furious. Much as we, Dan and I and all our friends in Zimbabwe who are in the Anglican church, including our former students there (several of whom we are in touch with) are rejoicing - we are also praying for what will happen over the next few days.

Please if you do, pray for our friend Bishop Chad and for other clergy and their families who will now hopefully be able to move into their old homes, hold services in their churches, and begin to sort things out.

Nature In Art in Gloucester

Two of the very best things in life, I'm sure you'll agree, are nature and art. So when you come across a place that combines the two, a gallery called Nature In Art, you have to love it. And, take out an annual family membership, right?

Nature in Art is set in an interesting Victorian mansion, in beautiful wild gardens just a couple of miles outside Gloucester.

As well as having a permanent collection of some outstanding art, including one of the well-known elephant paintings by the British artist David Shepherd, they have temporary exhibitions, and also an artist in residence for a week at a time, whom you can watch at work in a studio and talk to for however long you want. Also in the wild and ranging gardens there are all kinds of sculptures, some modern, some "junk metal", some more traditional, which you literally stumble upon as you wander. And a cute and arty shop as well as a cafe, of course. And they run occasional art courses there and one-day activities for children. 

We have been there several times before (I found it in my first ever week in Gloucester). But we went again this week because they were displaying the British Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition entries and winners - which meant we saw some incredible photographs, including a cricket in mid-jump, a melee of gannets diving underwater surrounded by bubbles, and many more. Abby and Alex weren't at all sure that photography could be called art - until they saw the photographs. 

The Eye That Cries

Not really feeling well - I have a cold.... waaaaaaaahhhhh. But sitting in bed with my computer so I might as well write what I have been thinking about the last few days. Even if it might be a bit fuzzy like my head.

So on Tuesday I went to hear Joel Edwards speak about Justice as the Mission of God. He is such a good speaker, very engaging, warm, persuasive, positive... and he packs a lot in. He was the Director of Evangelical Alliance for ten years and is now head of the Micah Challenge, which bases its work on the verse in Micah 6:8 which I wrote about before.

He said just what I used to think, that many Christians see justice as a hobby horse for some, like the environment used to be (?) seen too. But his main point was, that justice should be part of the Christian life we live, for all of us, just as much as our personal devotion. He said that we have tended to make Christianity a matter of private relationship with God, but it should equally be a matter of a public citizenship in the world.

He said how we love to talk about the holiness and righteousness God requires of us, but we don't focus much on the justice, which is also and equally there. And that they should be integrated as the way we live out the Christian life, and not in three separate boxes.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Ps 89:14

Micah Challenge have put together a dvd package called The Jesus Agenda, which is a resource for home groups and churches or anyone else to use, to think through issues of justice and how we can live more integratedly like this.

We saw one small section of it, and one thing we saw impacted me greatly. The section was set in Lima, Peru, and how a group there work with the poor and also in the wealthy communities, to bring in more community and unity. The film crew visited a monument in Lima called El Ojo que Llora = the Eye that Cries - which is a stone sculpture, surrounded by a labyrinth of stones each with the name and dates of a person who died/disappeared during the years of the Shining Path resistance movement, between 1980 and 2000. About 70,000 were killed altogether on both sides of the conflict. The black stone in the centre of the monument has water constantly pouring from it - the eye that cries.

The monument moved me so much because it reminded me powerfully that God weeps when there is violence and hostility. It makes God mourn when there is injustice, when innocent people die. He weeps over the many many deaths in every conflict. How can I be so hard and dry-eyed? Is there anything I can, should, be doing to bring more peace, reconciliation, justice, in my sphere of the world at least?

You're on a what?

I could put it down to my age - having passed 45 - or to my tablets - or to my rather sedentary job - or to the fact that I have been allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted for the last six months... Whatever the cause, I am afraid I have started to... bulge. Like when you are blowing up a new balloon and it holds its tension until suddenly, one lump pops out, and then it all gives way and the balloon fills with air. So my waist skin, jaw skin, upper arm skin, and other bits too, managed to hold the surface tension for quite some time, until suddenly... plop... I started to, frankly, bulge.

The day that I had to rush out of work at lunchtime to buy the next size up of trousers, because my tummy was so uncomfortable in my normal ones, that was the day I realised something had to be done.

I have never worried about my weight or really thought about it, and I have always eaten pretty much whatever I felt like. So for me to embark on a diet was a bit of a shock. But luckily enough, I came across an ad on facebook for a book entitled The Gabriel Method - the revolutionary DIET-FREE way to transform your body. Excellent! It promised you can lose weight without dieting, eating whatever you want!

So I bought the book, and in a few nutshells, this is what it says:

• Weight is all in the mind - either your body reacts to stress by staying thin ( ready to flee), or by gaining weight - (storing up fat for future shortage) - so you have to persuade your mind that you need to stay thin for your own good, and that, there is no shortage to fear, so no need to store fat. 
• So, brainwash yourself by listening to Mr Gabriel's CD at bedtime each night, whilst visualising yourself as a thin person, saying to yourself "Thin is good, thin is OK, thin is safe," and such.
• If you diet as in, deny yourself any food at all, your brain will think that your body is being deprived of something it needs, so, your body will start to store fats from what you do eat. So the key is to eat what you want, so that the body feels safe. (sounds good so far...)
• Eat plenty of healthy food with all the vitamins you need, seeds, nuts, fruit and veg, etc, so that your body is in fact getting everything it needs - so that it will have a sense of well-being and not need to store up fat or urge you to eat more. This way you will slowly stop craving unhealthy foods, sugar etc to give you energy you were lacking.
• Then some stuff about your Chi which I skipped over...
• The some advice about eating flaxseed every day for Omega 3, eating brown sugar and flour instead of white, avoiding processed, prepacked food, eating "live" fresh organic food, avoiding toxins and additives...
• Then two more chapters which I skipped over...

I concluded that the book is a bit of a mixture, and that while it has some good ideas, as a whole it is not for me...

So I am trying a hotch-potch approach, and if it works, I will call it the Button Method.

We have always eaten a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables, but now I am intentionally eating some healthy things every day, like a piece of fruit, a handful of sunflower seeds, and adding milled flaxseed to almost everything I cook. I am also calorie counting... I have never calorie counted in my life. I honestly never knew how many calories were in anything. So it has been quite interesting finding out. For example, I now know that a banana has 95 calories in it, while a bowlful of apple crisp has 350!!

But sticking to the 1800 calories a day is really not at all hard. It mainly means not eating between meals, and not blowing out on crisps or loads of biscuits. One choccie biscuit or other treat in a day seems to be no problem. 

Now I need to add in some exercise, I suppose. Sadly, Billy Blanks and Tae Bo went out the window months ago. I can't imagine having the energy to jump around the sitting room right now... Maybe just walking Frodo a bit more briskly is all that's needed.

Well, here's to fitting back into those old trousers... 

A Gorgeous, Sunshiny November Afternoon

Today there was time for my favourite walk of all with Frodo...

We started off at Over Farm (owned by distant cousins of mine),

... passing the now wild strawberry fields, leaves turned autumn red...

... up the lane towards the scary oak...

...  furry Old Man's Beard in the hedge...

... and, unexpectedly, masses of spindle berries, (I had to look them up)...

Naughty, waggy-tailed Frodo ran ahead into the woods, only stopping to look back and then run on...

... loving the sun shining onto a maple tree...

... and highlighting Gloucester Cathedral, a heavenly building pointing up to heaven ...

We were ten minutes late picking up Alex from school, but, it was worth it.

Just thoughts

This is going to be very much half-formed and I will hope to feel clearer on these things as time goes by...

Last week in our small group we were thinking about the well-known and very helpful words, "What more does the Lord require of you, but to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?" If we are only asked to do these three things (which, granted, are very broad), then, they must be highly important in God's eyes. The so-called Golden Rule is very similar if you think about it: "Love God, and love your neighbour as yourself".

So, acting justly is the first thing required. And yet, for many Christians, justice is seen as a kind of hobby-horse for some, like green issues are for others. I think. Lots of evangelical Christians would see spreading the gospel as more important than fighting for justice in the world. But, here it is in black and white as the very first requirement.

When we discussed the implications of the words for us (asking the question, So what? as in So what does this mean for us?) -  we talked a lot about shopping ethically, Fairtrade etc, and about treating everyone equally and kindly in our daily lives, not wasting resources, and we moaned a bit about the unfair secondary school system in this country and how we don't think we should use our children as tools for the gospel so we go along with the coaching for the grammar schools test etc etc. But then I think we felt a bit stuck. I made the comment that in Uganda, it was so easy to see the justice issues, they were in our faces every day: low pay, people with zero opportunity to escape poverty, injustice in the courts and at the hands of the police, bribery, and the list could go on. And living there, we could on a daily basis do a little bit, to help a few people. Whilst here, on the surface there is a pretty high standard of justice for most people: a fair minimum wage, healthcare paid for by taxes so that it is available to all, schooling for everyone, social services of all kinds to protect the voiceless and disadvantaged.

Apart from buying fairtrade products, and signing a few petitions on facebook(...!), and maybe supporting a child through Compassion, what else should Christians in say England be doing?

Dan and I have made friends with some Redcliffe colleagues, Andy and Carol Kingston-Smith, who have set up a justice inititative called JusTice, with a webpage which seeks to network about all kinds of international and UK justice issues, and also holds seminars from time to time, and they also teach an MA course on Justice in Mission at Redcliffe. This is the link to their blog:
http://justiceadvocacyandmission.wordpress.com/author/akingstonsmith/

So I sat beside Andy at lunch at Redcliffe on Thursday, and told him about our group's discussion. Understandably, he rolled his eyes somewhat, and pointed out that the fact that often Christians are SO unaware of all the justice issues all around us, is a huge part of the problem. In fact he referred to it as the great sin of omission in our time. By being woolly and unaware, we are not just being woolly and unaware, we are actually sinning.

Now I begin to defend myself! I have signed up to their blog and read some of the articles (being honest). I did live in Africa and did a bit to help in Africa's development through higher education. I do try to buy ethically, locally, and not wastefully. I am interested in justice for women, equality, and in preserving the environment for future generations (if there are going to be any).

But I am in no way an "activist"nor am I very well versed in politics, asylum issues, labour issues, etc etc.

And, whilst the Bible is very clear that our God is a just God, who clearly desires and requires justice of us, there are also some ambiguous bits, like the parable of the workers in the vineyard where the farmer pays the workers as he decides and not according to how many hours they had worked, and, Jesus saying, "The poor you will always have with you" as if we don't have to work our socks off to eliminate poverty. But then again, Jesus was born amongst the poor, and mainly ministered among them. And the song of Mary says: "The poor he fills with good things while the rich walk empty away." The first shall be last and the last first. It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The upside-down kingdom (I need to read that book.)

But I think there is going to be a new me! I am a convert to the Micah principal. What more does the Lord require of us, after all?

I would be very interested to hear any of your comments, by email if not on here,  - any light you can shed, or suggestions for living "justly" in our western societies...