A thought for Christmas
"Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken. For this day paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused and spread on every side - a heavenly way of life has been implanted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and we now hold speech with angels."
St John Chrysostom, The Mystery
Two other thoughts
My sister gave me BANKSY wall and piece, an amazing book of his work stenciling graffiti, street furniture and altered gallery paintings. I guess I should check out his web page. One struck me as particularly relevant to christmas: Jesus in crucifixion holding up shopping bags. (sorry i'm no good at the picture stuff here)
Secondly; I've been listening to Sigur Ros' new album Takk.... beautiful, amazing, relaxing, thought provoking..... they continue to develop, grow, deepen and just uplift you.

Ok, Okay, I should write again. But I must confess, the main reason I don't write on this thing is that I'm not 'wired to the web', I'm not a surfer, I'm only on dial up and I'd rather really chat to people in person or on the phone.
So I began to get people together a few months ago to have a community house, you may think commune, but it's not really that. The vision is to have a place where we share our lives physically (ie meals and things) and spiritually (prayer etc..). To create a place where we can invite our friends round on a regular basis, and therefore grow a wider community.
Well just over a week ago Ceri and Joe, young marrieds, moved out and for various reasons the vision is really on hold. As you may imagine it's been a difficult few months and we would appreciate your prayers.
What else is going on? I'm landscape gardening still, 4 days a week, which is great, hard work, but satisfying. The other day I'm helping to organise Kairos, our Sunday evening service for young adults. It's been hard work, but seems to be shaping well. We just need more 'community' (the buzz word!), or maybe I should say friendship, for those of us who are not part of the student world.

Other Thoughts
My friends band, Bromhead's Jacket, are brilliant and played live on radio 1 last night, check out their website.
Music: I was in a christian bookshop today and the worship music playing in the background was fairly bad. Not that the songs were bad, we sing quite a few of them at St Thom's, but so cheesy in how it was produced. On the other scale of worship music, Gareth Robinson's live album came out recently, which is really good. And I'm not just saying that because it's recorded at St Thom's and He's a friend of mine. I just wonder if there's a market for more alternative worship music, or to make Soul Survivour type worship a bit more alternative. I can't really explain what I mean, but I'd like to experiment more, and I think people might like it, and I don't just mean young alternatives like myself!
Let me know what you think.

Busy being a missionary in cyprus, you can check it out on our blog. with just 5 days to go we really want breakthrough.
I'm really enjoying it out here, it's so refreshing and daily challenging, but most of all God is speaking to me a lot about this next year and our missionary home in Sheffield. If you don't know, I've invited people to live in my house this year who really want to build missionary community in and around Hunters Bar, there are others who are also moving into the area, and we are hoping to establish an open sharing community, where people feel welcome to hang at ours, eat together and learn what it means to be a community following jesus.
More next time.

Well, FORM, the training course I have been part of leading, has now finished, so I've got some day time to write on this. I was dating/ seeing someone a few weeks back, it was really good but also a confusing time.... I wrote this poem:
Lost? 22/5/05

Well were do we go from here?
Will we fly off into space,
lost in each other and the world of grace,
'cause my thoughts are lost, confused,
I thought the excitement was falling in love
and now I'm lost where those feelings went,
turning to worry, buried under impress,
I'm just learning how to undress,
do I just make myself into someone else,
hiding the beauty of my true self?
It's so intense one on one on the test,
but this is no way to go left.
'Just be yourself' I tell my soul,
instead of letting an idea of me cloud
eating me up from the inside,
this is just searching and I'm on the right path.
just keep on walking and I'll find true love,
may not be here, not just yet,
but I'm embracing the darkness before me
I'm finding who's the best.

It went on for a few weeks, but I didn't feel it was going to go anywhere, but I thought you might associate with the feelings of the poem.
Gardening is hard work at times, but the weather has been amazing over the last month and hopefully I'll get some design work soon.
In the words of Lamb; I can fly, but I want his wings, I can shine in the darkness, but crave the light that He brings.
Here's to the new thing.......

I think it is now time to resurrect this thing, having almost abbandoned it for the last 9 months. I'm pretty well, I feel like today I am leaving the season of 'pruning' into a time of being 'fruitful' (see John 15 if you like). That means I don't feel so much like even the things I am gifted in I find hard, but I think, with the new light of spring, I am coming into the new season to excel again. Only by the grace of God.
Well I'm now working three days a week as a landscape Gardener, maintaining and building gardens. Jim Willis is my accomplis, middle aged, he's been gardening for more than 30 years, and he's a great teacher. The plan is to create a business to employ dissadvantaged people, whether that's homeless or ex-offenders.... and to improve peoples gardens. In the long run We would like to be maintaining more pulic space as well.
It's going well for now.
I'll tell you more soon.