Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father but by me.'John 14:6
This one is dedicated to my parents for obvious reasons. Thankyou Mum and Dad for all the times that you put up with me, in the past and in the present. I love you.
Since it's Monday (just) it's time for the first installment of Monday Movies. Today features a bear that makes you think that maybe you're not having quite such a bad day as you could be.
Imagine hearing some Jesus' teachings with your own ears. How amazing would that be? Imagine meeting him face to face and talking with him! How amazing would that be? Now think of Mary and Joseph. Imagine being the parent of Jesus, the much awaited Messiah, eagerly anticipated by the entrie Jewish nation and the one who was to set the world free. How amazing would that be? No wonder Mary was called 'highly favoured' by the angel. I doubt parents have ever learnt so much from their child. Think how concious Joseph felt as Jesus was standing next to him as he did his carpentry. Jesus would never have gotten angry when a chair leg didn't fit in the hole, or when he hit his thumb with the chisel. Or think how Mary felt when Jesus never complained about doing the washing or sweeping his room. It must have been such an incredible experience, having a child who always obeyed them without ever complaining or arguing.
It must have been quite a shock when James came along!
The time is 9 o'clock and you are listening to Radio 4. Ding dong dang ding dong ding dang dong, dong, dong, dong... Today's top story, Sir Menzies tells of 'irritation' of having to step down as Lib Deb leader... zzzzz. Is anyone still awake? Alright, politics and stuff like that can be interesting and I suppose we should really take an interest in it as these are the people who run our country... but honestly! Sometimes the news can be a little dull. Most of the time it's rumours about rumours that have been rumoured to be started. Then along comes someone analysing the analyst who originally analysed the rumours. Then someone debates the fact that it was rumoured that the analyist debated the rumour in the first place. It makes my head hurt. So here are the highlights of the past few days from a lighter perspective.
This one is not exactly light though their tactics for tackling crime did make me laugh. Does anyone else get the impression they're desperate?
I don't know how some of this stuff ever makes it onto the news. There's even a video clip!
It hardly even makes sense! But certainly worth seeing.
We all know to tie a string around it with a brick on the other end, then throw the brick out the window but this is what the professionals say.
Ewwww! That's just freaky. But he did it for art so it's ok. Check it out
This has been Josh Donegani for Joshlog news in the peculiar wide world. It's back to the studio.
What do you get when you cross a group of 9 almost-all homeschooled teenagers with an empty house and a weekend together? Well I'm not quite sure how to describe it but I just experienced it! This last weekend has been one of the most energetic and most encouraging that I have experienced for a while. And, no - we didn't all sit around as social recluses, not quite knowing how to interact with each other.
For me it started on the Friday night when I went to YPF. We had an amazing talk from Andy Ball based on Habakkuk: God can use ordinary people, we should bring all our problems honestly to God, He can work through nonbelievers, we should not have a childish view of answers to prayer and we must live by faith. Then I shared a car journey with King Arthur, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse (Lewis, Alex and Tina) and Rebecca (as herself), as we went to Sammi's 18th fancy-dress party... 18th referring to her age not the number of fancy dress parties. We arrived and mingled with Jack Sparrow, Peter Pan, Batman and other loopy characters and I managed to resist the urge to do High School Musical in the karaoke [which I do not know the words to of course, ahem].
Next morning my alarm clock made that formidable sound that it makes most mornings, this time an hour earlier than usual. I ignored it as usual but thankfully was rescued by my good old Dad with a bang on the door. I rolled out of bed and somehow made it to the station. The train journey was uneventful but after arriving, the weekend was far from that. It's all a bit of a blur to be honest so excuse me if it makes no sense. The following are a few highlights of things I will remember.
I was greeted by a smiling Tim and Georgie and we drove back to the house, kindly provided for the party by Alan. I was immediately thrust into a highly competitive game of Dutch Blitz upon arrival which I tried to embrace the spirit of and possibly got a little carried away. We went out to a yummy eat-all-you-want chinese restaurant (those of us who like value for money prefer to see it as eat-all-you-can) where the menu included boxes and boxes of ice-cream, dried seaweed and chips. We had a fun chatting and attempting to eat with chopsticks - Tim managed the jelly! Then we all packed off to Nic's baptism. She gave her testimony really well in front of everyone - which is absolutely petrifying - as did another lovely old guy named Walter.
That evening, Simon had to leave unfortunately and those who were left went bowling. At bowling we had fun trying to squash into a photo booth while waiting for the others. We donned our clown-like shoes and Hannah was ripped off by having to pay £1 for a pair of socks as she forgot hers and didn't want to get some tropical foot disease. Some time in the evening we decided to bowl two balls at once which totally confused the system and one ball ended up stuck in the gutter. On the way back home Tim and I were privileged to JoT and Meneske singing, which started off very musically.
The night was yet young so we began to play a very energetic game of Articulate resulting naturally in some very amusing situations. John the programmer from Amsterdam also told us some of his thoughts about homeschooling. We engaged in a UBM classic, lolly licking which was very elegantly won by JoT. [On a legal note is a rather dangerous sport that can cause serious injury such as bleeding mouths]. Then we engaged in theological debate, despite it being the small hours, but finally made it to bed at some unearthly time.
Sunday morning I was awoken by a very funky barndance version of Amazing Grace. We went to a church without pews were we had a challenging church service on praying. An amazing Sunday lunch - thanks Paula - and we took a psychedelic dog named Pippa on a walk to the airfield. Several unsuccessful attempts later of trying to get us in a photo with a plane and it was time for tearful goodbyes. JoR had finally made a decision (to go back home) and she and Tim dropped me off at the station at five to five just in time for my train at five to four. Sadly I ended up missing my church evening service. But even if I had got the right train I would still have gotten stuck in Birmingham anyway, as they had decided to send everyone by bus instead of by train.
I just want to say a huge thankyou to eveyone. Thankyou Jo for inviting me, happy 16th birthday! Thanks to Paula and Alan for deserting the house for us. Thankyou to Simon, Hannah, Meneske, Nicole, Georgie, Tim and Jo for all being amazing people and providing such fellowship, fun and fantasticness. But thanks most of all goes of course to God in whom we can be all be so wonderfully united :D.