climbing hiking camping

Ethiopia is directly mentioned thirty-eight times in the Bible. Probably the most famous reference is that of the Ethiopian eunuch who is baptised by Philip (Acts 8:27). In addition, there’s plenty of references to the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10) with many scholars believing that Sheba is also Ethiopia. I’ve recently returned from Ethiopia and the annual Leprosy Mission conference, held in Addis Ababa for the first time. When I think of Africa I think of heat. But most of Ethiopia is on a high plain – Addis Ababa is 7,200 feet above sea level. No wonder I was feeling it walking up the stairs at the hotel! As part of the Leprosy Mission conference, we celebrated the Wellesley Bailey Awards. These are annual awards given to celebrate the life and work of Wellesley Bailey, the founder of The Leprosy Mission. The Awards honour those who have made extraordinary contributions to society through overcoming the social stigma and physical challenges of leprosy.  This year the two winners we...

I think I first heard the phrase used by President Trump. ‘Fake News’ became the ‘word of the year’ for 2017 according to the Daily Telegraph ; despite it being two words! But the concept has been around forever. Ever since the lies in the Garden of Eden, Fake News has been in existence. The Times comments that ‘a lie is halfway round the world before truth has got its boots on’. Why? Because too many of us love to gossip and are fascinated with the failure of others. A new study from Science Magazine is extremely thorough. The report indicated that Fake News travels ‘faster, deeper and more broadly’ than the truth. Truth on social media platforms takes six times longer to circulate than lies. Twitter gets the most Fake News, with other social media not far behind. People tweet and retweet what they consider to be a surprise, to be provocative or disgusting. Indeed, it may be disgusting- but was it true? I remember a debate on the BBC some years ago - I haven’t been able to source it...

The welcome poster is from Coventry Cathedral. I put it up as a Facebook post originally and it gained a lot of comment and interest- so here it is on the blog. I hope and pray our church is like this. We probably need to improve, but I hope we're on the way. I love the welcoming language. I love the categories of people mentioned. And I love it that on Facebook, a couple of friends who admit they no longer have their Christian faith of old, both said they'd go to a church like that!

American Friend: ‘Hey Ralph, what’s happening with you guys? Crazy politics!’ Ralph: ‘Yep. Not our most glorious moment as a British people.’ AF: ‘So what exactly has happened? Explain it to me.’ R: ‘I’ll have a go. But just to get things into perspective, you guys have got Donald Trump!’ AF: ‘Fair enough!’ So here is my attempt at an answer to my American friend: BACKSTORY There’s quite a backstory to this. A lot of it involves the press and their ability to spin a story. Our press are not neutral. We boast a free press, but with it comes a lot of baggage. Especially press intrusion, wild headlines and frankly, lies. We have the BBC of course. Supposedly neutral. But probably not. It tends towards the left wing of British politics and is not averse to trying to get a scoop, seemingly at the cost of the truth. (Cliff Richard, our British pop icon, has been dragged through the mud on his private life- started by the BBC filming a raid on his home. Turns out none of it is true. Hope he s...

Well, hate’s a bit strong really. Maybe ‘dislike’ is better. 1. Games. Please- don’t ask! No, I’m not going to build an imaginary farm, join pretty shapes in a row or shoot anybody. I don’t like guns. And I’ve got games thanks. Risk. Trivial Pursuit. Ever played Mexican Train Dominoes? Come on over. 2. Emotional threats. It reads like a caring Facebook post. And then it changes. You get to the bit that says ‘I bet nobody really cares’. Or ‘I will know who really cares if you reply to this’ or ‘I bet I can guess what few friends reply to this’. Or ‘if you post a message you are one of the few who care’. And so on. I don’t respond to emotional threats. Neither should you. 3. Avoiding commas and apostrophes. What have they done to offend people? They’re needed. Especially with “You’re” and “Your”. It annoys me. As someone recently posted, commas are essential and can save lives: - Let’s eat Grandma ...or perhaps... - Let’s eat, Grandma 4. Facebook posts that can go on too long. Oops. 5. ...

‘Should I? I mean, really, should I?’ It’s early in 2011 and I’m considering a radical step. Leaving my job as Pensions Director for the Mars Group- and starting a Masters in Theology at Mattersey Bible College. Roh, my wife, looks on as I pontificate. She knows she doesn’t need to say anything. I’ve made my mind up. I’m just trying to rationalise it! It was a bold step, but out of it came much more than a Masters. My final dissertation was on the house church movement. It was 57 years since Arthur Wallis wrote his ground-breaking In the Day of Thy Power. My dissertation title seemed quite clever at the time: 57 Years of Restorationism in the UK: Ongoing Legacy or 57 Varieties? The dissertation gave me access to a number of the house church pioneers- Peter Lyne, Terry Virgo, David Matthew…. And Gerald Coates. I was grateful for the day spent with Gerald. I left him a copy of my last biography, Cheating Death, Living Life – Linda’s Story, a story of God’s miracles in what could have so...

This is a letter sent to the Daily Telegraph, recorded in The Week Magazine: Dear Sirs I was assisting my 16-year-old daughter with her homework when she received a text from Mum, which read "What do you want from life?" This was an unexpected and profound question for an exam-sitting teenager. We debated various answers - wealth, fulfilment, love, all three. Five minutes later, she received a second message, blaming predictive text for correcting the word "Lidl".

This is my post at the time Ed beat David. It gives me no great pleasure to note I was right. Sad day for Labour. 1. Ignore what the public want: look to keep the peace in your own party at the cost of becoming unelectable 2. Make sure the election process is long enough for the unions to form around a candidate that is weak enough not to take them on 3. Make sure the Unions have a vote that outweighs their true influence in the country 4. Elect someone that is young and untried 5. Ignore the older brother who has a welcome reformist approach and is obviously the more able communicator 6. Go back to the old party ways, following the policies of the last failed Prime Minister rather than the new approach from the earlier successful and long lasting Prime Minister 7. Look forward to a number of years of debating failed left wing election proposals 8. Look forward to a long time as an opposition party.

30 years ago, there was no Internet. 20 years ago there were only 130 websites. You couldn’t Google anything. 10 years ago, most clouds were wet. Today there are over 10 billion mobile devices. 40,000 Google searches every second. 3.5 billion a day. 1.2 trillion a year. We live in an instant society. Fast food. Fast answers. Instant texts. But some things stay the same. The Bible says of God: ‘I am the Lord, and I do not change.’ (Malachi 3:6)

So lets’ recap why I can’t blog so often, tweet so often, or do my work properly.... This is day 41 without broadband and you are no nearer a solution. Just so you know, this is the story so far.... We moved house on 10 th June. The electric contract took a day to transfer. The water services took a day. Sky TV took two days. The Post Office took a week to change the address. And BT have taken 41 days. And counting. First I went for a Sky package. BT Openreach apologised when the first deadline was missed. They said they had sent the instruction to the wrong exchange. A week’s delay. Then, when the second deadline was missed, they said they had lost the link with the phone number. Funny that one, as it’s their phone number. Finally, after a month of trying, Sky were told by BT Openreach that they were unable to facilitate a service at the required exchange. So.... Unwind the deal with Sky and go to BT. Twice the cost. Half the service. Two week delay while BT retrieve the phone line f...

What's it all about? Christ - his incarnation , life , teaching, mission , death , resurrection , ASCENSION, present rule and future return . That's what it's about. (With thanks to Trevor Lloyd and his Different Kingdom blog for such a great and succinct definition.)

Just back from my monthly Businessman’s Life Group and I was really struck by a small phrase my friend Jarek used. He talked about the times when God says ‘hello’. In fact if you think about it, those times are frequent. He is a God who loves us and wants to say ‘hello’, even if we choose to say ‘goodbye’. He says ‘hello’ every time the sun rises. Every time you smell the fragrance of a rose. Each time your children or grandchildren give you a hug. He says ‘hello’ through a friend’s prayer when you are struggling to stay sane. Through the gift at the door when there is nothing left in the kitchen. Through the unexpected addition to the bank balance, the bonus and the promotion. He says ‘hello’ through an act of kindness, the squeeze of a friends hand, the arm around the shoulder. And he says ‘hello’ through you. Every time you reach out, pray out, show you care, send a card or give a gift. We have a God who loves to say hello. From the beauty of the sunrise to the grandeur of its...

There are times as a church when it’s best to be quiet. But there are other times when we need to shout out loud! Well done to the Archbishop of Canterbury for shouting! An average bank loan is around 15%APR. The rate from Wonga? 4,214%. That’s not just profitable. That’s criminal. If the church can help by expanding Credit Unions and promoting them as a safer alternative, we should do it. Not to would be criminal.

A reminder -   it’s a personal selection. Of course it is. And it reflects a certain time period as well. But you wouldn’t go far wrong in seeking out these albums/downloads and adding them to your collection….. I’ve excluded compilations and they are kind of in an order, but can pretty much change at will, depending upon the mood you’re in. Here are the next ten; there could have been so many more! Let me know what you think! 1.        PINK FLOYD – THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON Floyd at their best. ‘Time’, ‘Money’, The Great Gig’…. If you’ve not heard them, you’re missing one amazing album. 2.        ADELE – 21 A new and prodigious talent. A mix of folk and soul with most of the tracks written by Adele, who was only 21 when writing! ‘Rolling in the Deep, ‘Rumour Has It’ and ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ are just three of the brilliant tracks, with no weak ones in sight. Now famous the world over - with reason. 3.   ...

OK, it’s a personal selection. Of course it is. And it reflects a certain time period as well. But you wouldn’t go far wrong in seeking out these albums/downloads and adding them to your collection….. I’ve excluded compilations and they are kind of in an order, but can pretty much change at will, depending upon the mood you’re in. Here are the first ten; the others will follow. Let me know what you think! 1.        EVA CASSIDY – SONGBIRD The artist never knew fame in her lifetime. Her version of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ was picked up by Radio 2, and this, the best of her albums, sold millions. A clear as crystal voice makes for moving listening. 2.        MIKE OLDFIELD – TUBULAR BELLS It was so different when it came out in the early seventies. Aside from earning a fortune for Richard Branson and his new record label, it’s a great fusion of classical meets pop. 3.        FLEETWOOD MAC – R...

Oh, how I wish there were not a part 5, BT. You do manage to excel in the ‘own goal’ department. Thank you for the bill. Yes, really. Thank you for the prompt delivery with the well explained text. I understood it entirely. It’s just that it’s wrong. You have charged me for a delivery of the BT equipment for Broadband. Sorry to sound fussy, but you did that already. I know why it happened- you had to cancel the original order and reinstate it because you got the codes wrong. (Remember that? Send my regards to Sam, Julie, Jessica, Ahmed and Natalie by the way). But what really got me annoyed is that you charged me for calling the BT help line number! You know, the one you asked me to call to sort out the problem that you instigated. That’s the one. Now I know I can be a bit of a pain to you, but when you start charging me for your mistakes, what do you expect?! So, thanks to Sherif and Shalim for taking my grumpy call today and for changing the bill. I await the compensation…....

Dear BT (Part 4) The man came. He fixed a lead. It works. Anti-climax.

Dear BT (Part 3)……. Dear Caroline, thanks for the Facebook message asking how we got on yesterday with BT. It is becoming a bit of a soap opera isn’t it? I was out yesterday when Sam called. (Yes, he has a definite name now). Roh took the call. In fact he’s not called ‘Sam’, he’s called ‘that incredibly nice man called Sam’. He charmed the socks off my wife. So long as it’s only the socks. So, h aving exchanged recipes’ and holiday photos, Sam took Roh through what was now planned…. The old order is cancelled and the new one in place. We have been put on the urgent list, so we can expect a BT man in 10 days. (If he turns up of course: One cancellation and one no-show and counting....). I wonder what dictionary the incredibly-nice-man-Sam uses? Ten days?! Urgent means one or two days, a week at the most. Ah well, we’ve been this far on the journey. What’s another 10 days when you originally asked BT to switch to them nearly 6 weeks ago? One more problem for incredibly-nice-man-Sam to...

Dear BT (Part 2).   A big ‘hi’ to Julie, Jessica, Ahmed, Natalie and Dan. Or was that Sam? Not sure. You’re all very nice people. It’s just that your company are hopeless.  To transfer from Virgin to you, you wanted a transfer code. I had to get that from Virgin. Fair enough. But when the code doesn’t work, nor does the system. Virgin tells me they get the code from BT Open who get it from you anyway ... . So this is what has happened so far:  I asked Virgin for the code, who asked BT Open who asked you. You gave it to BT Open who gave it to Virgin who gave it to me who gave it to you. You said the code was wrong. I went back to Virgin who went back to BT Open who went back to you. You said the code was fine. BT Open said the code was fine. Virgin said the code was fine. I said the code was fine. You said it wasn’t. With me so far?  I then went back to Virgin for a new code, who asked BT Open who asked you. You gave the new code to BT Open who gave it to Virgin who g...

Dear BT. Hi. I'm your new customer. Not that you would know that it seems. Thanks for not coming over today. Thanks for cancelling the appointment without telling us. Yours sincerely, your not-so devoted customer.