Lunatic Ninja?!

His first thought was “It’s a lunatic ninja coming through the window”!?

There obviously more of them there than there is here – it certainly wouldn't rank as one of my first thoughts…!

Bench

A flying visit to Edinburgh at the weekend for the wife’s sister’s wedding.

Will put some photos of the big day shortly, but wanted to put up this photo first.

Before the event, we met up with the wife’s other two sisters and went for a walk in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens.

I liked the bench so I took a photo.

Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall

Partly for a Valentines night out and also because it was an Oxfam Benefit Performance we recently headed out to see Quidam at the Royal Albert Hall.

As you would expect from anything that Cirque du Soleil produce, it was an absolutely amazing night and nearly the best show I have ever seen (De La Guarda still ranks as the best – although it was a serendipitous event!).

What was quite interesting afterwards was walking back to the Tube and overhearing all the conversations, particularly those who were singularly unimpressed, who were commenting that “they could do that with a bit of practice”

Yes it was skipping, juggling, trapezes, etc and if you watch TV I’m sure you would have seen similar (but not quite as good performances along the same lines) but it would certainly take a long, long time before I was anywhere near half as good as those guys.

The theme of the show, Quidam, means “somebody; one unknown”

The show expands this to "a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past. One who cries out, sings and dreams within us all."

An interesting theme that I would explore in more detail if I had the time.

How to pray

We have just started up a Prayer Ministry at the church, which we are both involved in, and it has made me think a bit more about prayer and what it is all about.

I’ve also revisited Philip Yancey’s book and am slowly reading my way through this on the Tube (when I have the space!).

In the review of this, in Christianity Today, another book was mentioned which has also captured my attention a little bit and I would like to read in the future; “Knocking on Heaven's Door” by David Crump.

The reviewer says:

“Crump offers a radical affirmation of the centrality of the Cross to Christian prayer. Powerful prayer, he says, is not prayer that leads to bodily healing and riches. Rather, the Bible's model of powerful prayer is Paul's petition, in prison, that we "may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ."

[…]

Perhaps the implications for us are this: without dissenting from the notion that prayer can make a difference in human events, we can, as Crump suggests, affirm that the essential shape of our prayer is cruciform. When we suffer, a miraculous answer to prayer is not out of the question, but our hopes for a miracle ought to be secondary. The primary hope with which we pray, in our sufferings and our darkness, is the hope of the Resurrection.”

Newsletter

We may be back from Africa, but we still want to keep you informed about what we are doing!

Here’s our latest newsletter with an update from London.

I can now relax for a month or so

I have just sent the last assignment for my Masters away which means that I have now managed to complete all 18 of my assignments, at a grand total of over 300 pages.  It has taken me about three years to get to this stage.  I still have my thesis to do (it's only about 150 pages long so I should be pretty quick in knocking that one off!)

I know I'm not exactly Karl Barth, with his 10,000 page Church Dogmatics, but I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.