Questions

I am a Christian, I am proud to say I follow Jesus and his teachings, I am really crap at it, but I do try and that is all that is expected really. Over the past few years I have had my faith tested to breaking point on a few occasions, and that is where I am at at the moment. Things happen I don't understand, and I see people hurt so bad that it makes me cry and question why? I know there are no easy answers, I know God has never said we wouldn't suffer, he did say he would be with us in our suffering.

I really don't understand why certain things happen, why people hurt each other or why people are taken early? I don't know why accidents happen or incurable illness's take over peoples bodies....I know at the moment I am again questioning...........

What is Christmas? Well it's not Xmas!!!

It is Christmas, perhaps the best time to share faith, everyone talks about what they hope to receive as a Christmas present. A couple of year ago at a radio station I was working at someone had sent me an email saying Happy Xmas, I email them back saying I actually found that offensive!!! and explained that I like to keep Christ in Christmas, I was a Christian and that taking Christ out of Christmas was offensive. They emailed me back saying sorry, but it's only a phrase and everybody does it. I said thank you for the apology, but I didn't do it...

I really do hate Merry Xmas I think it sums up the World we live in, we have taken Christ out of it. Christmas has become all about consumerism and spending money, getting drunk, fighting and not about what Christmas is all about. "The Mass of Christ" I do not celebrate Mass, I am not a Catholic, but I do celebrate the Birth of Christ, and I will sing Christmas Carols at my Church on Christmas Morning. We will sing the 6th Verse of "O Come all ye Faithful" that is usually only sung on Christmas morning.

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be the glory giv'n;
Word of the Father,
Now in the flesh appearing,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Christmas is a wonderful time to talk about Faith. I am not a hard hitting evangelist, I don't smack people with theology or condemn people for the way they live, but I do believe in inviting people to The Carol Service, or a special service. I try to live my life in a good way and share the Love of Jesus, hopefully through my actions as well as my words, OK, I know I am not always very good at it, in fact I am pretty lousy at it, but I do try, and that is what matters, as God knows what is in my Heart.

Over the next week Christmas will come and go, Millions if not Billions of Pounds will be spent, millions of gallons of booze will be consumed and hangovers will had, arguments will escalate, and people will be hurt physically and mentally. Just over two thousand years ago in a town in the Middle East a baby was born in the poorest of conditions to a young girl and young man. He would grow to become a carpenter and then a Rabbi. That Rabbi would preach sermons that some would listen too, he would heal the sick, raise people from the dead, he would walk on water. He would be crucified and die for being a Good Man, and on the third day he would be raised from the dead by his Father and over five thousand people would see this miracle over the next weeks. Every sin of man can be carried on his shoulders. They can only be placed there by the sinner themselves, no one else can put them there, no priest, vicar, minister or Pope, only the sinner. Christ will gladly take them and he will forgive each one of us, but there is a clause it is not Santa it is WE MUST ASK FOR FORGIVENESS and accept him into our hearts.

By far the best Christmas Present of all.

Weddings, Jelly Babies and Friends

I am so bad at Blogging at the moment, sorry.

I really need to blog about Saturday... what a day. My great friend Curley Al married his beautiful girlfriend Jen. It was an amazing service Team Leader did a service to be proud of. It started off with Mrs EB singing a Nina Simone song for Jen to come down the aisle too and things just carried at such a high standard all the way through. After the service we went across to the hall for muffins and cakes but alas after tidying up the cables and mics and burning a CD of the services they had all gone.... We then went onto Penns Hall and had a wonderful meal and a bowl of much sort after Jelly Babies....I really think Gordon Brown should get Alistair Darling to put a few billion of the UK's funds into Jelly Babies everyone was after our Jelly Babies.

I had a wonderful day chatting to Al's relatives most of which I hadn’t seen since much sadder times. This was a real day of healing you could feel that especially when Dom made his best man's speech and I did shed tear, but that's OK, I know that if Matt and Chris had been there they would have been so proud of Al and Jen and both would have stole my Jelly Babies!!!!!

Part 2

On a completely different track, Music for a Mission is well on its way to raising the funds I need to visit Mozambique I am so blown away by peoples generosity, I will never name names, but some people have been so generous with what they have given for a copy of the CD it has made me cry. I will keep selling the CD until I run out and if there is still a market I will buy another MCPS licence to produce more, as all the money will go to the Church Mission Fund which is a great cause and Mission Team Leader has amazing Vision and a wonderful Passion for Christ and winning people over for Him.

The CD has had some amazing reactions from people, from “I loved it so much I gave it to a friend and now i need to buy another one!! To what a shame there is no Chris King on it? Which did make me laugh...and a little flabbergasted. I haven’t kept tabs on the actual number sold I know how many I have produced so far, but there are copies out in places not sold as yet, but I am guessing that 100 copies have now been sold or there abouts, which is fantastic. I think one of the nicest comments about the album was “It sounds amazing and is great to listen too, I want everyone to hear how great it sounds”

My friends, who are the talented ones behind my album, especially Amy, Skip and Mrs EB have to take the credit for the album really, I just had the idea and I stuck my ha’ppenys worth in and mixed the album. Amy is such an amazing talent, she plays the piano with such a talent it’s a real pleasure to listen to and she is just as good on Flute, recorder, whistle, Sax.....actually is there anything she can’t play? And she sings wonderfully as well, Skip a guitar player 2^nd to none in my eyes and ears for that matter, we had a few great days together getting the lead and bass down and also he has one of the best male voices I know. Mrs EB, well possibly the best singer in the world in my eyes and she tries to keep me in check and she has an amazing ear, and she is a wonderful song writer. I could not have done this album or for that matter go on this journey without them. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Wednesday

I have had a trip out to the MASTA Clinic!!!! the what? well if you intend to visit places that don't have the same diseases as us you need to visit there for a Cholera injection as my GP clinic doesn't do that one? well if only it were that easy!!!

Monday I called to make an appointment, the message said leave your name and number someone will call you back, I believed this statement of fact and did just that. I phoned at 10am and by 6pm no one had called me back? So yesterday I went to Handsworth Wood and visited the centre to ask for an appointment I have one for next week. Joy of joys....

I have a friend...well I like to think I have a few friends, but one friend who emigrated to Beijing a couple of years ago, we worked together at GWR Creative in Nottingham knocking out adverts by the dozen every day. Well my friend Richard has started a blog!!!! only a few years behind everyone else...but he was always like that (a little slow) It is good to welcome Richard to the blogosphere. I hope you enjoy Richard's slant on life, which seems to be a hankering for American food? I think I would want a good old English Roast or British Balti, each to his or her own huh?

Lastly, I have heard off Mrs EB from the Girls Brigade Camp that she has laryngitis via a text as she couldn't phone.. what luck huh, she never has that here!!!! I knew I could never be that lucky.

An Afternoon locked up

Yesterday I went Birmingham Gaol, HMP Winson Green, I went with a friend from Church to see the last session of a programme he is part of called, The Sycamore Tree Project. This is an amazing project and I was genuinely moved by what this project has done and is doing in prisons.
On the way to the chapel one of the Chaplains took us through a wing, this really is a scary place and I was shaking as I walked through, it was very oppressive and I had a feeling of depression and loss of will. We set up the Chapel for this afternoon meeting and waited for the man to brought to us. My friend who was leading the programme explained what would happen. the group of men would be split into 4 groups, I would be with one group. They would look at some work they had previously done (our group were to look at the story of Zac the tax collector) and then explain it from a criminals point of view another group from the victims point of view, and so on. This was done really well. Then there was a time of sharing, if anyone wanted to share what the course had meant to them or what they had got out of it. I was genuinely moved by this time, it was a real privilege to hear this, we had a tea break, then the guys had to fill in their work books, and off back to their cells. It doesn’t sound much written down here, but it was an afternoon I will never forget.

God is working in there with Sycamore Tree, and I thank God for that and for the people who are being obedient and serving him there.

Thursday

Well talk about plonkers!!!! Yesterday I had a small job for London to finish off, then pop out round the corner to the shops for something for tea. Which I did, and completely forgot to pick up my keys off the key hanger, I realised a split second after I had closed the door. This was about 3pm Mrs EB wasn't due back until 6:30, so I walked down to the shops and got the food had a chat with a friend then went to the pub with a news paper. During this time London called and asked for another change to the job, I explained I could do after 6:30pm. Mrs EB and I had tea in the pub and came home.

Not the most productive of days really.

Over the Rainbow

(If you click the picture of the CD above it will take to an online links to buy the CD)

I watched Challenge Anneka last night. Her challenge was produce a 12 track CD full of stars in 5 days and have a gala release!!! This CD had to include the song Somewhere over the Rainbow and a choir with Boys and Girls from Hospices. All the proceeds are to go to the Childrens Hospice's in the UK. They chose a theme of "Song's from the Shows" (wonder where I have heard that theme before?) The CD was released yesterday it is excellent, it can be found at your local supermarket, or Woolies or ITunes!!!!

It was an excellent programme, I cried like a little girl when one of the Children passed away a day before gala. Actually I cried most of the way through the programme....but as Mission Team Leader says I am a big poof anyway.

a Confession

Well I am a complete idiot...please don't agree to readily without reading why!!!

When we arrived at Gatwick (I didn't actually get more than 20 minutes sleep in over 24 hours) I was waiting at the luggage carousel for our suitcases, and our bags came out as 3 of the first out!!!! Crikey I thought lets go!!!! I waited for Mrs EB to join me.(she had been to powder her nose) Off we went past customs...(phewwww, why do we always sweat at that bit?) We waited for our car to be delivered. and off home I drove. Well I did the M23 and M25 to the M40 then Mrs EB drove us home.

Once home we unloaded the car, I put the suitcases and our holdall in the Kitchen. Mrs EB was about to open the holdall and looked at me. She said that isn't ours, it doesn't even look like ours!!!!

I have never felt so ashamed and awful in my life, and I have done a few bad things in my life. My heart sank, I panicked!!! I didn't know what to do, the person who's bag I had must be panicking and feeling awful.

Mrs EB phoned Gatwick then Virgin. I had to go back to Gatwick, I wanted to go back there and then. Mrs EB said NO. I was in no fit state to drive 350 miles with no sleep in nearly 36 hours. We had a bit of tea, and went to bed.

I woke at 5:30 the next morning and drove to Gatwick again!!! went to the short term car park at £3.40 per hour!!! and then to Virgins help desk. I waited there for 20 minutes for very helpful young lady to escort me to arrivals baggage claim. I had to go through a special screening with the luggage I was bringing back!!! which was so scary what if that bag had got drugs in it or anything? then we tried to take that bag back into luggage claim. NO it wasn't my bag, even though it was screened I was not allowed to take it through or be with it when it went through, only the Virgin rep could? so we took that bag back to be re-screened, then she took me through person screening, where I was searched, more thoroughly than I have ever been searched before. Then onto baggage claim, and there was our holdall sat on the floor next to a window with a jolly chap. He checked my passport and boarding card and ticket stub, He was happy it was mine. Then through nothing to declare (sweats again) and a goodbye to the Virgin rep. Then I had to find my car!!!! Not easy as Gatwick short stay is huge and is spilt into colours, why didn’t I notice that when I parked??? all this took 58 minutes.

Then a Drive back to Sutton, I was back in Sutton for 11:30am...which I think means I went over 70 at one point. When I arrived at home I realised I had driven off that morning without actually taking my house keys!!! Mrs EB had to drive home and let me in!!! I am now a complete IDIOT.