Mid July saw a team of 12 of us from church go with Habitat for Humanity to Uganda as part of their house-building exercise.

Came back with all sorts of thoughts knocking around my head:

It was good to go and labour for the teams of builders there. Hauling sacks of cement, shifting sand around and carrying bricks from one area to another loses its attraction after a while (about 30 mins!) but does give you the feeling of getting fitter. Loads of people walking by the site just stopped and watched the site of these middle-aged men and women doing heavy work. Mind you, we did look odd.

It was interesting to be in church and for it to begin with the same choruses we would use and to realise that this is the globalisation of worship!

It was heartening to hear the woman who told of us her pride in Uganda and in God who has provided them with all that they need: cassava (a root vegetable), potatoes, and maize. It was also challenging.

It was moving to hear of an 18 year old’s hope that there would be a new generation of non-corrupt officials.

It was odd going to the supermarket in Kampala and hearing a soundtrack of Christian choruses being played over the tannoy.

It was unnerving driving through Kampala on Friday night past teeming markets and horrendous traffic jams.

It was good to be home.

No doubt the photos will be up soon

The link I had used on a previous blog doesn't seem to be working.

Try this one - hopefully it will be more successful: http://charismamag.com/articles/index.php?id=17378


The article is from the www.charisma.org site and can be found by typing Lakeland Florida in to the search box. there are some thoughtful blogs on the forum sites as well.

Lots of noise coming fron Florida about a revival being led by the minstry of Todd Bentley. It's followed by the usual excessive claims of this being the last move before the return of Christ and those thinking it's all demonic. Rarely is life that simple.
I found this reflection by the editor of Charisma magazine helpful. For those who have not come across Charisma, the magazine reports on, and teaches about, all things charismatic. In other words, it's normally on the side of the 'manifestations' people. That's why I thought the article by the editor was helpful.

The article is at this address. http://www.newchristian.org.uk/charisma.html

You may may find it helpful.

The rest of us will have to wait and see what happens next.

Couple of weeks ago I was on a train coming back into London late at night. I'd been with some church leaders and was travelling back to the hotel.

On the platform I was wondering about which train would be best to catch and asked an older woman there. She chatted away (she didn't know about the train) and into the conversation dropped 'the Lord' in. It's like belonging to the masons because you soon come to recognise other believers but I said nothing.

We got on - I went to the left and she went to the right.

Half way through the journey she cam back to chat to me and showed me a book on Revelation (in French!) by JWs she'd found and in which she'd started to draw Jesus into the pictures. She asked if i had read revelation and I said I had. She chatted on and eventually asked if I was a Christian. I owned up and told her what I was doing whereupon she offered to pray for me. So she did. Quietly at first and then she stood up and started declaring God's good things over me - much to my amusement and the rest of the people's bemusement.

Fortunately (?) we were then at Victoria.

Telling the story next mroning it was strange that Tracy had an experience on the Tube that morning with someone welcoming everyone to the carriage and offering to read the Bible before they went to work, to pray for them and then to lead some worship!

Is it just London?

Or is it that some people just are not afraid what others think and get involved however uncool it may seem.

And am I just a spiritual wimp?

I hope her prayers are answered by the way!

At the moment reading a book called 'Life Conquers All' by John Arnold. All about how the big picture of the Bible in terms of the overall story is reflected in Russian authors like Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak. I know, it sounds like a real niche market!!!

But a couple of quotes grabbed me: 'Life conquers death and the past is overcome by the future'. Can sound trite in the wrong hands, but written by a man who has spent many years in the Soviet gulag has a ring of authenticity to it.

Then one from the old Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins,(an old favourite target for evangeliicals) who wanted to put some more life into the old creeds and so condensed them to:
'God is. He is as he is in Jesus. So there is hope.' Not bad in 13 words. What would you have written?

And then one last one from metropolotan Anthony - a Russian Orthodox archbishop: 'Tradition is the living faith of dead people, and traditionalism is the dead faith of living people.'

I like smart use of words.