Gotta get me one of these…

Check out this link. Something for all the faiths! To be honest, I like the Pope-my-ride thing the best.

Church of England and Women Bishops

Yet another good news story here…

While all these “important” people debate this, most of us will do our best to communicate the message of Jesus in the best way possible because the world looks on at us with distain when all the headlines are like this.

William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army said that some of his best men were women. I’m not too up with all the arguments but if you’ve already got women priests, what argument can you make against women bishops? If I’m really honest, if they are called by God, competent and radical… I’ve got no problem.

Man Utd again

After my ridiculous post a while back I’m glad to report that I’m back to my Man Utd hating best.

Apparently the Chelski penalty on Saturday was the FIRST penalty all season awarded against Manure.

I was shocked.

Also, I’m found a bit of love for the Chelski… come on West Ham and Wigan!

Half Marathon

The Tewkesbury Half Marathon is coming up quickly… my training isn’t going too badly – I’ve got my usual bout of shin splints though which just makes it all painful. So far I’ve done some long jogs in Florida (too hot!) and around here – did about 10 miles yesterday which was all fine until the heavens opened twice and I got completely soaked. This resulted in 2 nice blisters and an early arrival home (was hoping to do about 12miles).

More importantly, I’m going to run to raise money for the Potters Village in Kisoro, Uganda (see pic below or click on my Flikr link)

I’m asking all those who read my blog to feel free to contribute to this… I don’t have a fancy website set up for fundraising so you can either email me or leave a comment with your amount! Also, if I break my PB of 1:45 from last year i’m asking for an extra £2 on top which gives me some extra motivation!!

Times of despair

This is God’s Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’(Jeremiah 33:2-3 The Message)

When your head drops and all you can see are the disappointments… call to Him

When your future looks dark… call to Him

When you are full of despair… call to Him

When nothing makes sense… call to Him

Trinity v Trinity – Cup Final

As Hitchmo has put the enemy’s match report up, I thought that I should really put the truth about yesterdays game.

Fact – we lost 6-1

1-1 at half time… I only played the last 20mins, by which time we were 4-1 down. Jon Hills played a blinder with a hattrick – flukey corner, reasonably good second followed by a dodgy penalty . Being the good sport that I am, I have to congratulate the winners…

My biggest moan is with the fact that we couldn’t play at “Bishops Cleeve Stadium” and had to make do with a rubbish pitch with no tunnel and changing rooms like a prison cell. Still, like the Murphys I’m not bitter.

Oh, yeah, we DID steal all the chips and sausages afterwards!!!

Florida photos

Are now on Flikr. Click on the link to have a look.

The Apprentice

I’ve watched most of the series of this show, and am forced to watch it at the moment with my lovely wife who is a big fan of most things reality…

I think the concept is quite good… but now it is full of total morons who are fame hungry wanabees with only a small amount of nouse and common sense. In fact, I get so fed up with them, I have been know to yell naughty words at the screen.

Every week the appoint a “leader”. Hmm. I don’t think that they can spell the word l e a d e r let alone be one. Now, I’m not saying that I could do what they do (although my mother could manage people better than they all seem to – no offence mum) but I don’t think that they actually have a grasp of what leadership is.

Now, laying aside the Biblical idea of a leader for a second and looking at a great secular model that many Christian leaders have embraced based on a book written by Jim Collins called “Good to Great” NONE of the so called leaders that I have seen on that show have EVER got to what Jim Collins calls a level 5 leader (top end superb leader in business). Here’s in brief the 5 levels that Jim describes:

LEVEL 1 – Highly capable individuals with productive contributions

LEVEL 2 – Contributing team members aiming for group objectives

LEVEL 3 – Competent managers who organise people and resources

LEVEL 4 – Effective leader who catalyses committment and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision

LEVEL 5 – A highly effective leader who builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of extreme personal humility and intense profession will.

Humility – points to others for success

Professional will – unwavering resolve to get on and do it

Collins goes on to say this… “This cuts against the grain of conventional wisdom, especially the belief that we need larger than life saviours with big personalities”

The Apprentice brings in people who still think that the way to success is by destroying others to make their attempts look good.

The church still seems to think that “one day the pendulum will swing back and people will return to us”.

 

Paul simply says, if you are a leader be the very best that you can be – aim for level 5.

I’m interested in what others think…

Back from holidays…

We had a great time away in Florida… great resort, great weather, just great great great really!

Anyway… brief highlights included our convertible car – only a Chrysler Sebing but still the first one I’ve ever driven and it made me look like a middle aged man going through a crisis. The picture below is identical to the one we had, including the colour. There is a photo of me looking like a right loser sat in it. That won’t be appearing here!

To be honest, I did spend too much time in the car driving over bridges in the Keys – thankfully I had a cap on to protect my bald spot.

I did a bit of diving, and saw some great sights, including a massive Grouper (large tasty fish), lots of lobsters and a big Green Moray Eel. Got out fishing as well and even caught some fish which makes a change for me!  

We visited the Turtle Hospital and met loads of the turtles (not personally as they are well viscious), ate out a lot and I did some jogging in preparation for the half marathon next month. Jogging in 30degrees and 70% humidity is not fun, even early mornings were baking hot. I did a 90min run which felt worse than a full 13miler but at least I got some training in.

I’ll put some piccies on Flikr sometime soon… got to edit out the dodgy ones of us first.

Florida Holidays

We’ve arrived… no BA delays… all our bags came with us! I should now apologise for the constant British Airways abuse that I have given out… they were great. Still waiting for my letter about our Uganda delay though…

Found Terminal 5 an interesting place… basically a place of worship for the god of consumerism. Nothing on environmental stuff, green travel etc, just a montage of boutiques and eateries. Everything is really expensive, regardless of if being duty free. However, we ate at Wagamammas for the first time… definitely won’t be our last! In fact my lovely wife wants us to get on another flight when we get back just so we can eat there again!

Back to Florida… We’re staying at a great resort called Indigo Reef on Marathon Key – better than amazing – I’ll post some photos when I get back. Fishing, diving, snorkelling and exploring are all on the cards. Hope the snow is gone now! We’re going to get back into our convertible now…

Holidays are comin…

Tomorrow Nell and I are off on holiday – 10 days in the Florida Keys… however there is a mountain ahead. We are due to fly from Terminal 5 at Heathrow with British Airways. I am resisting the urge to panic…

I should really be in bed now, but I’m a fool and told someone I would write a piece for their magazine on youth ministry. They probably won’t use it anyway so burning the midnight oil is a bit pointless!

There probably won’t be much blogging for the next couple of weeks unless I find a really nice internet cafe…

April Fool

1. I’m too late

2. I’m a crap liar

3. I’m as creative as a concrete wall

Stupid day

Man Utd

I’ve been thinking… I don’t support a Premier League team (and sadly am unlikely to for a good while barring a miracle) and I generally just hope for teams to lose (especially Bolton, Tottenham and Middlesborough). I’ve also wished that Man Utd would lose on most occasions… until recently. I’ve suddenly realised that I actually quite like them… and here’s why:

1. They are keeping the England team afloat (Wes Brown aside as he is totally useless)

2. Ronaldo is really one of the best players EVER in the game (he dives as much as lots of ENGLISH players)

3. They play good attacking football

I do feel like I’m confessing some kind of sin though… my first ever football shirt was a Liverpool “Crown Paints” top as my grandmother supported them. I need to pull myself together… I need to spend time with more smug Man Utd fans to reignite my hatred.

I would still love it if Arsenal could overtake them in the league…