We bought a new kitten to replace ‘Bubbles’ who died earlier this year (see "Bubbles in the Sky”). Very cute – 8 weeks – everything a kitten should be. She had only just been brought into the pet rescue centre along with mum and siblings. Photos will come soon.
Our own baby: - still going through the usual ups and downs- feelings, no feelings, feelings, no feelings – could be an early pregnancy but will it implant? Mrs keeps seeing twins and signs about twins, and wonders if this is just a heightened awareness of such things (I think so) or God promising or the Devil taunting? Only time will tell.
Training: I was at the Oxford Movement church again this Sunday. No repercussions for my absence on Wednesday. I was doing the chalice again. I didn’t trip this time, but the drop that I did spill went straight down a posh lady’s [formerly] pure white neck scarf. Will I be in trouble now? The sermon was very good and clearly inspired by God and contained the phrase:
“God wants real heart faith, not a few good moral habits and churchy routines”.
I found his to be quite remarkable and heart-warming in a church that places so much emphasis on the detail of its ritual. The hymn just before communion was an excellent interpretation of how despite being just man-made bread and wine, it is in memorial fashion the body and blood of Christ. This is probably not sufficiently incarnational and sacramental for some of the church, but it was nice to be able to sing with conviction and then to say “the Blood of Christ” in a context that I was more comfortable with.
In the evening I was back at my own church, where I was responsible along with another member of the congregation for presenting a service based on a Tearfund pack on their work in Bolivia. To set the context we re-created my own childhood memory of sitting on the dirt floor of a Bolivian mud hut eating boiled potatoes with my fingers. We had the congregation sitting on the floor at the front on a grubby brown carpet eating plain boiled potatoes. It worked very well, and brought the more impersonal material from the pack into a more relevant context, and helped the church to understand the conditions in which our own missionary in Bolivia works. Of course all this meant I had to move all the chairs into a square beforehand, and put them back into the normal rows afterwards. Gallons of sweat!
Work: the wheels grind slowly but surely towards the 1st November, when I should start the new arrangements.
Blog: I find this very useful and cathartic, but I am seriously debating about whether I am doing the right thing. I have seriously thought of deleting it all, but don’t want to lose the investment of time.
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