BLOGGING IS DANGEROUS!!!

Ok, ok, I know it's been a long time...

but I have an excuse - honest!

you see I've discovered that blogging is dangerous. I know I thought it was a safe way to spend some free time in the safety of your home but it's not - it can get you into trouble...

I thought only my Mum read my blogs (Hi Mum!) but apparently the whole world can access your random thoughts for the day. After my last blog which mentioned the leader of Fathers 4 Justice I get an email from him within 2 hours of posting wanting to get together over coffee! Crazy!

I then got a further email from a local church leader who was concerned about a post I had written last September about a city centre church leaders meeting I had attended (don't look for it I already changed it!). So I guess I got a little nervous about writing my little blog in case I upset someone again...

and I've been pretty busy...

so to keep you updated here are a few things that I could have (maybe should have) blogged about:

Flo turned three, Zak turned nine (how did that happen!), Lottie is pregnant with number four (and pretty sick with it), New Coffee Shop "Central Coffee" is now open at Central Hall and looks amazing, Lottie and I have started to take responsibility for the Sunday morning meetings at New Community, Loads of meetings with load of great people, bought a new chair from ebay, rolled out a community audit across the church network, engaged 27 churches in balloon release on Easter Sunday, ran a mens weekend at Dalesdown for 65 men aged 16 to 61 and I've taken up golf again as essential stress release...

Hopefully I will blog again before Christmas! Thanks for reading...

PLANES, TRAINS AND BRITISH PEOPLE

Went flying with my friend Theo the other week - amazing! Managed to fly over the Severn Bridge and back in an afternoon. Although it was a bit of a murky day, it was an incredible experience with some awesome views. Thanks Theo...

The next day I went to London by train for a conference and spent two hours jammed against dozens of strangers, two hours there and two hours back - and not one person spoke to me! What's that about?

How is it that I can spend 4 hours in a plane enjoying a great experience with a good friend wearing headphones and shouting at each other but have more of a connection with him than the same amount of time pressed against dozens of my fellow countrymen and not even get eye contact! What a weird people we are...

OUT OF MY DEPTH

Last night a friend offered me the chance to go sailing out of Itchenor Harbour, near Chichester. I used to sail small dinghies when I was younger and thought it would be a fun evening out.

On arrival at the very exclusive Itchenor Sailing Club I realised I was entering another world. Everyone had all the right clothing, expensive cars and talked with Eton accents. I was also one of the youngest there by a few decades! I then discovered it wasn't just sailing, but racing and I would be on a crew with Gayle (who had just spent the week at Cowes and won something) and my friend Caroline who used to sail dinghies for England and now is on the committee for the club.

As soon as we got on the boat (26' Sunbeam, 80 years old and been in Gayle's family since birth) I realised that this racing was taken very seriously indeed. We may have just been racing for a bottle of wine, but we had stopwatches at the ready and practising manoeuvres and I realised that the only use I would be was as some kind of ballast...

Still it was a good night out and we ended up winning the race (although I think it had little to do with me). Picture above is of the boat that came in second place.

We then all trooped to the members dining room for Cottage Pie and Bread and Butter pudding followed by speeches (honest!). When you made a speech you had to stand up and then at the end everyone would "guffaw" with delight - whatever you said. We were presented with a bottle of wine from Alan Stannah (yes that's right the Stannah Stairlift guy - apparently only worth £118m - Alan not the bottle!!!!).

Lovely people, but...

NEW FRIENDS

Having finished work on Thursday it was straight off to Scotland for the weekend to join the new Team that I will be working with at New Community Church in Southampton. Apart from it taking most of the day to fly up and sort out hire cars arriving at 9pm (could have just driven!) it was so good to be back at my friend Jim's house in Killin. The house has been transformed over the last 6 months since I last saw it with 10 bedrooms completed as well as new kitchen and new chef Stuart installed. Lottie, Flo and I stayed in Fingal which completely overlooks the Loch Tay for an amazing view. The weekend was designed to bring the new leadership team together and to discuss how things could look in September. Jim lead us through 2 days of teaching about how we all function differently and helping us work together - it was excellent.

It was so good to have Lottie involved as part of the team, Billy and Caroline made us both feel very welcome. There were many highlights including late nights in "the snug" with a 15 year old malt, singing songs around the bonfire with Ken, enjoying the unbelievable views over the Loch or picking strawberries with Flo.

Jim is such a great facilitator we had some very helpful and thought provoking discussions (and dialogue!), but most importantly we felt welcome and part of something which is very exciting, that God so obviously has his hand on.

This week we are back home and although I have been described in our local newspaper as an "inspirational community leader", I feel more grounded than ever before and excited by what God has stored up - in the mean time I have some packing to do.

You can never have enough cardboard boxes...

GOOD FRIENDS AND GOODBYES

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted anything. Although I finished work last Thursday it has been non-stop since. Last week there was a whole bunch of leaving meals - Monday lunch was the formal one with the Church Leaders at the Oystercatcher (not good food!), Tuesday lunch was at the new over-designed seaside Cafe fondly known locally as "The Turd" (although Steak Sandwich was excellent), Wednesday evening was my highlight with all the staff that I work with at Wickbourne, Sure Start and the Church. We had a buffet at the local Indian Monsoon which was superb. At the end of the meal a number of staff made speeches and provided me with certificates for different achievements I had made (some serious and some humorous!). Sally & Wendy from the kitchen wrote a poem and Sonia had 3 pages that had me on the verge of tears! Around 25 of the team turned up and it was a great night - what a privilege to be part of such a great group of people. Thursday was my last day and Sure Start had laid on a surprise buffet and Sally had made a goodbye cake (with Fire Engine).

What an incredible week - it has been so good to work with so many amazing people, they will be missed...

VISTA COMMUNITY

Just got back from a 2 day conference for UK Church Leaders entitled Vista Community. Based at The Oast Houses in Kent, which is a christian conference centre with a difference - the difference being great food, sauna, swimming pool and tennis court! Definitely reccomend the venue it is excellent.

Anyway Vista Community is nothing to do with Microsoft, it is just a bunch of friends who connect together through various friendships and want to spend time networking with each other and learning together.

Co-ordinated by Billy Kennedy amongst others we had an excellent time eating, drinking and chatting together with a couple of sessions to get us all thinking.

Roger Ellis ran a session on Monday evening looking at the history of the New Church movement since the 60's and asking the question of what next? It got me thinking about about church and the value I place on meeting together, which is really important - but how could and should it look in the future? Is there anything wrong in structure? To be a New Church do we have to be weird to ensure we are distinctive or can we just be brave enough to allow God's Spirit to work through us and see what direction he takes us in. Anyway, some food for thought!

Then we had the honour of the Bishop of Maidstone, Graham Cray this morning looking at the whole issue of Ministry (work?) / Life balance and how it is so important to "attend to ourselves". We talked about character and some practical tips on how to keep developing our character through long obedience and yielding ourselves to Christ. He also talked about having monthly quiet days and 3 month sabbaticals - sounds good to me!

It was great to be with friends and meet new ones, be challenged in our thinking and all in a great location with great food and a bottle of wine or two - God is good!

CAMPING IN THE RAIN

I don't know what you got up to during the bank holiday weekend but the Dendy family along with 3 other families from Arun Community Church decided, camping was a good way to spend our holiday time. Friday night was great, sitting round in the open air, drinking red wine and Jon Shanks' Sainsbury's Special Bitter (not very special - but cheap apparently!). The children stayed up and the world was great.

Saturday we woke up to the unique sound of Simon Croucher snoring even though he was 4 tents away and then it was cooked breakfast time. To be fair we did pretty well considering we were using four separate gas stoves. We had eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, bacon, sausages and half a can of last nights "special" bitter (ok - we actually had Nescafe Half-Caf Coffee which tastes similar!). Then we all piled into cars and headed of to Moors Valley Country Park. If you have never been and you have children under 11 you should go. If you have children over 11 or you are just a big kid then you should also go and try out Go-Ape.

Anyway Saturday night came along and we tried the eating outside altogether thing, but the rain had other ideas. The rain didn't stop until around 9am the next morning, by which time the Crouchers were washed out and had to abandon tent! The rest of us then packed up tents as fast as we could to avoid further downpours and headed home a little wetter than when we arrived.

Oh well - I've decided camping is great if it's dry and sunny.

MY FRIEND NICK

I received some sad news yesterday, one of my school friends Nick Flaherty died in a motorbike accident in Scotland. He was the tallest guy in the year, which was great because we played rugby together for many years and he was the guy you wanted on your team. He played second row and I played number 8, so if you know your rugby you know how close we had to be! He was always full of life and desperate to fly planes, but was unable to because of eyesight requirements, but bizarrely was allowed to fly helicopters - so he did! His parents Roger and Peggy-Anne were like second parents to me in my late teens and early adulthood. I was always round their house chatting about life's challenges. Nick was never a heart on your sleeve evangelist, but he had a faith that was as solid as he was, you know like a brick out-house kind of thing. I hadn't seen Nick for a few years but his untimely death, brings home the fragility of life and how important it is to live it to the full while you can. I'm gutted for the loss of an amazing guy, for those left behind: his wife Katie and their 2 small boys - but I am glad he lived his life to full, followed his dream and got to fly!

Below is the full BBC press release:

Family says crash biker a 'hero'
A motorcyclist killed in an Aberdeenshire crash was a former search and rescue helicopter pilot whose family described him as a "hero".

Married father-of-two Nick Flaherty, 33, died after colliding with parked vehicles at Whitecairns, near his home, on Saturday.

He had been heading to his work at Bond Offshore when the accident happened.
Relatives said in a statement: "Nick was a larger than life character who lived his life to the full."
Mr Flaherty was married to Katie and they had two young sons, Harry, six, and four-year-old Finn.
He had risen up the ranks at Bond to become chief pilot last year, and had also been involved in several search and rescue missions.

'Greatest love' The family statement said: "Nick set off for work on his motor bike on Saturday morning and was tragically involved in a fatal accident not far from his home.
"Katie, the boys and Nick's mum and dad would like to thank family, friends, colleagues and strangers for the love and support that they have given at this sad time.
"They would particularly like to thank the emergency services and those at the scene of the accident, for caring for Nick."
They added: "Nick and his family have been attending Balmedie Church and Nick had a simple faith in Jesus and the family take great comfort in the assurance that he is safe in heaven.
"His greatest love was Katie and his boys. He will always be loved and remembered by those who knew him. "

HIDE AND SEEK

Ever wondered what mature firefighters get up to on their weekly drill nights? How do they practise becoming better at rescuing and caring for the local community? What does Sim actually do every Monday night between the hours of 7pm and 9pm?

Well last night, we played Hide and Seek - yep that's right Hide and Seek! How does it work? Well one fire engine goes and hides on a road in the local area and then radios clues to the other fire engine? It sounds like fun and frolics, but honestly we were practising local topography and radio communication technique - honest!

The highlight was probably when it was our turn to do the seeking we were given the clue "Undercover Agent" and so we went to Hide Gardens, second clue was "Brown and Furry" which convinced us that it was Penfold Lane after Dangermouse's sidekick Penfold. We were still arguing over whether Penfold was a hamster or not when we realised that Penfold Lane was too small to fit a Fire Engine down it so we had to ask for a third clue - "digs holes in the garden"! Aha, The Mole it was! We found them and then it was our turn...

It's amazing how much fun can be had with 10 grown men, 2 fire engines and playground the size of Littlehampton!!!! Next week - British Bulldog :o)

SCOTLAND - Home of the brave (and my friend Jim!)

Just spent the weekend in the highlands of Scotland near the village of Killin in the unique company of my friend Jim McNeish. Jim has just bought himself a 16 bedroom hotel with the most incredible views over the loch. Have a look at his company site www.cantle.net for more details on the work that he does. I managed to cram a weeks worth of activity into a weekend and spent the evenings in front of the open fire in the "snug", nattering chatting like a couple of old women! Jim used to live in Arundel and attended Arun Community Church while he worked for the Body Shop some 7 years ago. He now works as a life coach for some of the most senior business leaders in the UK as well as other parts of the world. Jim is a great friend as well as someone who helps me see lifes issues in a different light. Or in his words "actively disturbing the everyday thinking to create new thought processes".


Jim often has friends to stay and loves to entertain with great food, walks around the incredible countryside and chats by the fire. Everyone who stays overnight has to fill in a guestbook describing "What was fun?" and "What did you learn?". So what did I learn? I learnt that I am one of lifes "fixers", I try and make things right and have a high sense of fairness. Which is great, but I also learnt that you can't always fix everything and sometimes situations and people are unable to be fixed! Sounds kind of heavy, but it's not - it's fun learning how people tick especially ourselves!



Finally some travelling advice: Scotland is lovely, go visit if you can - but if you fly make sure you only carry liquids less than 100ml in your hand luggage. I lost half my wash bag to the very polite man at Gatwick Airport security!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope you have had a great break, ready to face the New Year with a smile and a purpose. Apart from Lottie being unable to sleep all last night with earache, it has been a great time of just being together as a family.

Above are my amazing children enjoying their trampoline on Christmas Day morning. They were out there most mornings in their pyjamas (not sure what the neighbours thought!?!).


New Year celebrations were chilled and relaxed. It was great to spend time with friends (nice Christmas jumper Stuart), playing fussball, eating and drinking and of course watching Jools Holland. Thank you to our great friends Andy & Pippa (who only live round the corner!) for letting us stay for the night. Tomorrow it's back to normality, reality and work. The New Year brings with it a freshness and an opportunity to start again.

2007 for me and my family is looking exciting, full of change, full of opportunities and full of promise. Today is the start of that process and journey and although, probably like most of you, I prefer the event to the process and the destination to the journey I am keen this year to enjoy the everyday challenges, large and small. After all that is life!