Thursday 31 January 2008

Amazing Preston

An amazing thing happened yesterday.

I had to wait at Preston for a train so I went to the Local History Library. There I asked about a man grew up in Ingleton and became a vicar in Preston in the 19th century. He is mentioned in my first booklet, Ingleton's Dickensian Characters

Well, I was shown a book which described everything about him AND it was written by someone who went to school with him in Ingleton.

Amazing!

Monday 28 January 2008

Voices of Old Ingleton Weekend

The Voices of Old Ingleton (VOI) Weekend went pretty well.

About 70 people turned up on Friday night to watch a slide show given by Malcolm Culshaw. He showed pictures of old Ingleton, including St. Mary's as it was before it was rebuilt in the mid 1880s, and more up to date ones like the building of Ingleborough Park. Ingleton National School featured quite heavily and I was able to give a brief explanation of how it came into being.


On Saturday morning I launched my VOI book at St. Mary's Church and showed people round looking at plaques and furniture, explaining which people were remembered in them.


On Sunday morning at Ingleton Methodist Church (IMC) I talked about three men who signed the Trustee Deeds for our church in February 1845. They were each from different social classes and from that I talked about the need to reach out to the poorer people of our community. I also pointed out that those who wrote about our founders all used the word "earnest" to describe them, so I talked about the importance of being earnest.


I think the whole weekend can be construed as a success. I already have ideas for next year.

Thursday 24 January 2008

A step in the right direction

I went for a walk with Audrey this morning, or should I say a trudge. I think she got fed up of my going so slowly and marched on ahead to get her sandwiches ready for work.


I on the other hand kept up my even pace telling myself that one day I would be as fit as she is and able to go at her cracking pace. I'm overweight, you see.


I've been feeling rather uncomfortable round the middle for a couple of weeks and took the highly unusual step of weighing myself. The dial told me that I am half a stone (7 lbs) over what I usually am, so I'd better eat less and get more exercise.




At breakfast I didn't have my usual Golden Syrup on the toast and when Audrey said she was going for a walk I told her to wait for me. As it turned out she had to wait for me all the way round. Never mind. It's a step in the right direction.

Wednesday 23 January 2008

I'll be there

I was a bit disappointed yesterday because yet another person said they would not be around for the special service at IMC on Sunday morning. Discouraged is a better word to describe my feelings than disappointed.

As I was going to bed last night I said to the Lord "You know, Lord, I am discouraged by how many people won't be there on Sunday morning." And a voice in my head said "I'll be there." That made me feel a lot better.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Back again

Sorry to you if you're a regular reader but I haven't been blogging for a couple of weeks.

I could make excuses: I've been so busy getting the next Brook House Booklet ready for the printer; I've been so busy reading a book about the railways; I've been so busy preaching at Eastburn and leading the Shepherd's Choir at Grange-over-Sands; but they're all excuses really.

The truth is I've been so fed up I haven't felt like it. But today I have come back. I still feel fed up but I'm going to do it anyway.

Next weekend sees the Voices of Old Ingleton weekend. We're having a slide show at IMC on Friday evening, a book launch at St. Mary's on Saturday morning and a special service called Building Good Foundations at IMC on Sunday morning. It will be the second anniversary of our going back into the rebuilt chapel. I have a video to show and I hope a sketch might happen too.

Do come if you can.

Wednesday 9 January 2008

They should have read my blog

The radio today has stolen a march over the papers by telling the world that Hilary Clinton has been Obama in the New Hampshire Primaries. This was totally unexpected because the polls and pundits had been predicting a huge win by Obama.

Well, they should have read my blog (5 January)!

On a more spiritual note, we held a fellowship meal at IMC last night when the new shape of housegroups was announced. We also had a time of sharing good news stories and that was quite remarkable. A lot of things have been happening.

The Fuel group, aged 10 - 14 organised a children's party, complete with Santa's Grotto. The worship group headed up the Community Carol Services at the Church of England, the Young People's Housegroup (early 20's) took Christmas Dinner to a poor family who don't usually have one and then a lot of the people who don't come to church did come to the Nativity Service because they'd had such a good time at the children's party.

This was so uplifting. Thank God for it and may 2008 continue in the way it has begun.

Tuesday 8 January 2008

The look or the content?

This is just a test to see how many different font sizes there are available to me. Quite a few it seems. I like this one.

Then there are different fonts to try:

  1. Arial
  2. Courier
  3. Georgia
  4. Lucida Grande
  5. Times
  6. Trebuchet
  7. Verdana
  8. Webdings(Webdings!)

How on earth can you tell what you are writing with that last one?

Then there are innumerable colours I can use too.

The list is endless and the possibilities many but it's the WORDS that matter. But in today's postmodern society it is the look that matters rather than the content.

Monday 7 January 2008

2008 - what a start!


We've been looking forward to it with hope for the last 18 months and 2008 has started very well.


At my church, Ingleton Methodist Church (IMC) we saw a tremendous response to an appeal to come out for prayer from our speaker, Martin Coates. Most of the people in the congregation of about 120 went forward. The prayer started about 11.50 a.m. and people were still being prayed for when I left at 1.15 p.m. How exciting!


At Westhouse Methodist Church, just a couple of miles away, at the same time 11 people were being baptised as believers, aged between 8 and 75. The 75 year old was a guy who lives in our village who was recently converted. What next?


And personally, through all this, I still feel miserable. What a life! Thanks be to God for the grace He gives to go in with it.

Saturday 5 January 2008

Iowa Caucuses

Every four years the Mid West of America becomes the focus of the Western World. It's about the only time it does and the reason is the Iowa Caucuses. They are the first step on a candidate's electoral road to becoming President of the United States and leader of the Western World.

The papers today are full of the fact that Hilary Clinton only got third place amongst the Democrats. It was a huge surprise. Why? Because our media does not understand the Mid West. It hardly ever goes there and when it does it goes to scoff.

If they understood the Mid West psyche our writers would know that the kind of lifestyle and politics espoused by Mrs. Clinton and her husband are still largely unwanted there. The people want good conservative, faithful and willing politicians who believe in motherhood, apple pie and the flag.

While I was washing up last night I listened to the Now Show on Radio Four. It may well have been called the Let's Get Rid of Bush Show. One comic even made a joke about trying to kill him. This got a lot of laughter and applause which I felt was wrong. The contrast between the thought patterns which that BBC radio show reflected and those of the voters in the Iowa Caucuses could not be greater.

But next Tuesday sees the New Hampshire Primaries and Mrs. Clinton has a lot better chance of doing well in them. The mental attitude of New Englanders is far more liberal than that of those who live in the Mid West. Watch this space.

Thursday 3 January 2008

Second class citizen

As a depressed person I sometimes (no - often!) feel like a second class citizen.

When it seems that everyone else is bright and breezy and up-beat and I feel like a wet piece of lettuce it makes me think I'm definitely sitting in the second class compartment.

I felt that particularly this morning as I listened to Mike Bickle talking on The God TV Daily Devotional. He said that if you don't keep a regular time with the Lord and you don't read the Word then depression comes along because you are vulnerable to attack from the enemy.

Well, that definitely made me feel second class. As I looked back to when I first finished my job and realised I was suffering from depression that was so bad I couldn't work, I was in a good place spiritually. God was speaking to me constantly and I was listening. But I still had acute depression. And I still do.

Does that make me a second class Christian? Does the fact that I look at things negatively, have a poor self-image and find it difficult to cope with life mean that I am a spiritual destitute?

Or does having the Holy Spirit in my life as my Comforter mean that God through His Son gives me the inner strength to keep going in spite of this great difficulty? I dare to say it is the latter.

Wednesday 2 January 2008

2008 at last!



It's been a long time coming and yet now it's here. Will 2008 be all that we have prayed and longed for it to be over the last 18 months. I hope so.




I started this year by watching a TV Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams.




It ended on note of hopelessness and I realised how important it is for the church to bring hope to this hopeless world.






Jesus is our only hope and we need to point to him.