Praise Jesus

Last Saturday the lecturer for the day concluded one of the sessions with showing a video from God Tube. I am not really a drama or dance man, unless it is clear what the message is. Some people floating around on the stage while music is played does not really elevate me to the 3rd Heaven, but this is different.

Check it out, it is so cool. I have not been able to watch it without tears coming to my eyes. What a great God we have. (If you need help to understand it, the guy in the white robe is Jesus ;-) )

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Sacramental fellowship

Last September I commenced on a MA course in "Missional Leadership" and ever since I have spent a Saturday a month attending the course, been reading loads of books and busy writing essays – oh, just remembered, I am supposed to be writing essays, but haven't actually got started on any yet, but I will, don't worry. I think I will start writing tomorrow.....

I am not too comfortable with entering new situations and meeting new people, so it was with some trepidation I entered the class room the first time, but as soon as I entered, I knew I was going to enjoy it and be alright. Not because of the people there, although they were very nice, but because of the coffee or rather the coffee mugs.

My only contribution to church growth and development is the phrase "You cannot build the Kingdom of God without coffee" and there, in this obscure church in Stockport, I realised I was not alone in this realisation. Not only had others received the same insight, but they were acting on the vision, helping churches to realise how important coffee is for their development.

So there I was, in a strange room in a strange land, but holding the mug in my hands I felt strangely at home. I was not alone. For maybe the first time in my life I felt a sacramental union. We were not just running the same track, not just singing from the same hymn sheet, we were actually drinking from the same cup.

Wonder if they also take chocolate digestives with their coffee?

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Perspectives

Last night I found myself racing down the M60 motorway round Manchester. It was just before 22 and even for that hour there were surprisingly few cars on the road. Actually it wasn't that surprising, it was the evening of the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester United, the score was 1-1 and the match into extra time. Half of Manchester sat at home, cheering for United, the other half (the City fans) probably sat cheering for Chelsea.

What was surprising was that I was in a car on the motorway on my way home from a NCD coaching appointment in one of our corps. I had actually planned a meeting on the evening of the final of Champions League! I could have kicked myself when I found out what I had done – but there was no way I was going to reschedule the meeting, wouldn't want to be known as a football fanatic.

One of the member's in the Health Team I was meeting with certainly was into football and also a Man. U. Fan. When he had realised when the meeting was he couldn't believe he had accepted the invitation and seriously thought about cancelling. After thinking about it he told the corps leader: "This meeting could change things for eternity for people, the football match will be forgotten tomorrow " - so he came to the meeting.

That kind of perspective is part of a Kingdom Lifestyle – living with eternity in mind, but engaged in the present reality. We should, to borrow a phrase from Bob Logan, all have Bifocal glasses, glasses that help us to look clearly ahead, but at the same time also to focus on what is immediately in front of us. As in all parts of life, it is a question of having balance, not mediocre balance of compromises, but a radical balance. We should live fully in the present, engaging with the issues and challenges around us, but at the same time with a clear view of eternity, setting the present into its appropriate perspective.

It is not about just thinking of heaven, because what we do now and here will effect eternity, but neither is it being so caught up in the present that we forget eternity. While in Latvia, most of our corps had soup kitchens, where they regularly fed people who otherwise would not have much to eat. That is good, but we should not lose the eternity perspective. If we feed them every day of the rest of their lives, without presenting Jesus to them, the will go well fed to hell. Do you think they will be grateful in the end? The answer is not not to feed them and only share Jesus, but to go for radical balance – doing both in the name of Jesus.

Living with an eternity perspective also helps us to get a bit of perspective on what is happening in our own lives just now. So we can't afford the house, car or holiday we would like. We missed the football match. Someone, who's ethics are somewhat more questionable than ours, got the promotion instead of us. Lift your eyes! In the perspective of eternity what does it matter? You are going to spend eternity with Jesus, an eternity that already is now.

Bifocal vision also helps us with the things we do have some matter of control over: How we live our lives, invest our money, spend our time etc. Without the perspective of eternity we easily become caught up in the temporal, but bifocal vision helps us to make decisions today which also will make a difference tomorrow.

I am not quite sure how this entry ended up here, did not see that coming when I started writing. Can't write anymore now though, I will need to go and have my eyes checked. I think I need new glasses.

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Bits of Family News

As the weather still is too good to sit inside and sweat over long blog entries, I thought I would just update you a little on what is going on in our family, especially with those not residing in Stockport:

Maria has now made it to Canada and is staying with Wilma in Windsor. She helps out at the local Old Peoples' Home (among other things at their weekly Happy Hour!) and also with a junior club at the local corps. Most significant news is that she finally has decided which university to attend after the summer holidays. The last thing she did before leaving for the US and Canada was deciding she wanted to study History. It had taken a while for her to decide what to study, but if she thought the difficult decisions were history, when she had applied, she had to change her mind.

She very quickly received two unconditional offers from Royal Holloway and Manchester University and so now she needed to decide which of them to accept and that was not so easy. Anyway, she now finally has decided to accept the offer from the University of Manchester and will be heading up North in September. We are of course very pleased with the prospect of having Maria around (we already have started dreaming of the places we can go, when Maria is here to stay with Lukas!), but after some days she suddenly changed her mind! She is still coming to Manchester, but she is now considering moving in with us instead of renting student accommodation (which does cost a small fortune). I have tried to tell her she has passed 18 and so that is it, she is grown up and can't just move in with her parents. Maria countered that argument by reminding us that she left home at 16 to finish her high school in Denmark and in doing so has deposited 2 years, which she can reclaim whenever she so wishes (I wish we hadn't brought our kids up having to argue their case whenever they did not agree with us)! The jury is still out, but at I suppose we can live with whatever decision she takes – we are just looking forward to having her here the next 3 years.

One of the joys of student life is you have to work to survive and for Andreas this has meant working as a bartender at a local pub since the summer. Couple of weeks ago he decided it was time to move on and so updated his CV and went round applying for a job as junior manager. The search was not that serious at the present time, he was looking for a new job from end of this academic year, but next day a local restaurant called him in for an interview. That was followed up by two days work as a trial, and at the end of that he was offered the job as one of three junior managers. He started this week, still as a trainee, learning the procedures etc, but in a week's time, he will be in charge whenever he is at work. He is of course continuing with his study at the university parallel with the job.

When it comes to Lukas then no news is generally good news. For several weeks we have not been to the hospital with him, quite a strange feeling. He got his first report card the other week and as we have come to expect it was very good in all areas. Not long ago the whole of year 7 sat exams in many different subjects. In English Lukas ended up with a score of 46 out of 48 possible, which was the highest of any student in the whole year. Not too bad for a foreigner. It was something of a disappointment for Lukas when Liverpool did not qualify for the final of the Champions' League. We went to the local pub to watch the game against Chelsea together with Ron who, it turned out, is a Chelsea supporter. Lukas was quite upset after Liverpool lost, but had recovered already next day – the sun was shining and while watching football is good, it cannot be compared to playing, so off he went to the park, leaving the sad thoughts from the day before behind him.

For Lisbeth and me life rolls along. Lisbeth has finished her second essay and has just gone down to London for her second week of teaching. I keep talking about the essays I have to write, but so far have not made any real attempts on starting – self-discipline has never been a strong character trait of mine!

In a couple of minutes Lukas, Ron and I are off for the service in one of our corps, this afternoon I will have to go to a big motorbike rally (not really my dream Sunday afternoon) where our band will be playing, tonight a service at Sale corps and then football after that – wonder why it is called a day of rest?

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Rent-a-Ron

Last week Ronalds from Latvia came over for a visit. Those who know Ron will not be surprised to hear we have discussed a few business ventures, as well as trying to bring emotional closure to some old ones. Most of our ideas stay just that, ideas, but once in a while something useful comes up. Usually it is Ron who gets the ideas, but this time I think I have come up with a winner. It is something entirely new and there is a huge market potential for it, not at least in England. As with most great ideas it is very simple: We are going to rent out Ron to interested parties on a weekly basis!

Let me give you the background: Last Wednesday Ron flew into Liverpool John Lennon Airport. As we walked to the car I commented on the unusual nice weather (when in Britain, act like the British i.e. talk about the weather). It was sunny and warm, no dark clouds to be seen anywhere. Before Ron came we had checked the weather forecast for the next 5 days, to give us an idea of what we could do when and unfortunately, but not surprisingly, we could expect rain most days. With this in mind I thought I would let Ron know, before he got his hope raised too high. He just looked at me and said "It never rains when I am in England!".

Today is Thursday and Ron arrived Wednesday last week – and not only hasn't it rained, the weather has been flipping good ever since! We have had our Tea (not the drink, but the meal – don't ask me, I did not invent this language) in the garden several times and Tuesday we had this year's first barbecue. We have biked, played golf, visited Old Trafford and Anfield, spent an afternoon in Manchester and all the time the sun has shone upon us. Ron doesn't seem surprised (it never rains when I am in England), but we are amazed – and it was then I got the idea: Why not rent out Ron to people, who are desperate to secure dry and sunny weather for a week? Can you imagine the demand for such a service, especially in England? As the business would take off and get known, we could even take payment from ex. farmers, when they are desperate for rain, in this case they would be for Ron to stay away!

We would have to charge reasonably low in the beginning, as many would doubt whether we could deliver the weather (pun intended), but slowly we could increase the price, and naturally also charge for VAT (Very Attractive Temperatures). We could market ourselves under a slogan like "Need some sun? Call for Ron!" and there would be no end to the opportunities. As we get to know the market, we probably would find people with the opposite attributes, clouds and rain follow them. Then we could open an export division, and rent them out to Australia or Africa.

I would love to develop this idea more, but the weather is so nice I want to go out and enjoy while I can – after all Ron leaves on Monday.

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