Ho Ho Ho!

It's that time of the year again!

The decorations are up in the shops - in a BIG way! I am packing my books, kitchen, and stuff into boxes and getting ready to move - my exams are almost over - it must be Christmas time.

But this year - I have to preach at my new Church on Christmas day. I've never preached at Christmas before!?

Its quite exciting. But now I have to come up with something cool and creatively captivating... Hmm....

This picture is from Helen Martin's owl house in Nieu Bethesda - very beautiful little nativity scene.

New addition to the family

Tullamore

Meet Tullamore.

Our brand new Irish Terrier. (She's still gloating over Ireland's win last night.) We've named her Tullamore, after my Gran and Grandpa's old house in Gonubie near East London. Tullamore is where I first met McGinty - my Grandfather Apple's Irish Terrier.

She's in her second day with us and already falling into routine - my only complaint is having to run down the stairs with her in the middle of the night when she needs to pee. (She sleeps in a box next to our bed and wakes me up with a whine when she wants to go outside.)

Her two favourite toys are a piece of rope and a squeaky hedgehog.

Anyways - its feeding time - just thought I'd make her famous.

More pics of her are here.

The force be with you

(I am sure this is profound - one day when I look back on my blog I will remember why)

Today we met some of the incoming phase ones - people who begin the journey like we did (the group of phase ones of which I was a part) in 2004. Its quite awesome to think back to those days - phase one was my biggest deterrent to getting into the ministry, I didn't know how I would cope. I convinced myself that it was a good idea because it would be the best way to learn to be a relevant minister in a very difficult context.

I learnt some skills - but the question as to whether I will ever be able to be truly 'in the context' remains. Perhaps that was the lesson - I will never be a very good chameleon - but as an authentic and original Angus engaging in different contexts and being as much my self as I am - then I think God will be able to use the fool that God made in the way that God wants to use him.

But I'll have to say, whatever doesn't kill you builds character, and sometimes character is a good thing.

One of the things that I have learnt, or been reminded of along the way is that the Kingdom of God is not in the Church - the Kingdom of God comes in the work that we are each called to do, and that we do do. Some wise person whose book I read said that Jesus said 'the Kingdom of God is here' and since then we've been mistakenly looking for it in the church. I think that if we look for it in the church we will end up broken and disillusioned - but if we find it in our interaction with the world around us, in our work within the Spirit - that will be a source of life and not destruction.

Then we will begin to see the Kingdom of God.
(And the force will be with you)