Generation Gap Tweets

Generation gap -

Me: In the seventies one of the most famous singer songwriters was Cat Stevens

My son (18): I've heard of her

Generation gap bridged -

Me: What bands have you seen at the O2?

My son (22) Red Hot Chili Peppers and Arctic Monkeys

His Taid: The hottest and the coolest!

Week of Mission

Last week was our week of special mission activities. We were able to assemble a team of about 15 mostly students of our own and some from elsewhere to assist us in door to door, tracting and doing a holiday Bible club for kids. We also studied Romans 1-8 and prayed together. A number of meetings were organised for locals to come to. The week was not an amazing success in terms of people coming in, although at least 50 different ones who are not normally with us came in over the week. The best benefits were in seeing how well the young people responded to task and gelled together. Very encouraging.

Old Technology 01

It is common to mock older people struggling with modern technology but I came across two examples recently of young people who just don't quite understand old technology.

The first example was a teenager using a cassette tape and not realising that such an item needs to be rewound to the beginning in order to record onto it.

In the second example I may be being unfair but a teenager I know was not only trying to drink a hot drink straight from a vacuum flask but he also didn't know quite where the liquid would come out and so got tea all over him.

Britain's Best Crisps

We did a test last Friday at our young people's club to see who produces the best ready salted crisps in the UK. We tested 10 products available in the immediate area and rated them on texture and taste. These wee the results:

1. Pringles (introduced in 1968 they are made by Diamond Foods, once part of Proctor & Gamble. Pringles are legally not crisps as they contain only 42% potato).

2. Walkers Extra Crunchy (Walkers began in the 1948 and is now a subsisidiary of Pepsi Cola. Their crisps are the most popular in the UK).

3. Walkers Crinkles

4. Walkers

5. Hula Hoops (introduced in 1973, they are made by KP snacks)

6. Real McCoys (UK's third biggest brand in the bagged snacks market, made by United Biscuits)

7. Kettle Crisps (founded in 1978 and America's biggest potato chip brand they are now owned by Diamond Foods. Their UK base is in Norwich.)

8. Seabrook Crisps (Bradford based company founded in 1945 by C[harles] Brook)

9. Slovakia Chips (from the local Polish shop)

10. Tesco's Finest

Aberystwyth

We are getting into holiday mood at present as we are off soon, taking in the Aberystwyth Conference among other things. Paul Gamston has had to drop out and so I have been drafted in to speak at the Saturday night Extra Time meeting, which I think is a wonderful opportunity. Paul was going to do something on the parable of the sower but I want to look at Ephesians 5:15, 16.

It was interesting. I preached on Revelation 3:14-22 on Sunday and when the call came I was discussing opportunity with someone (one of my points was about being aware of, thankful for and using open doors - "what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open") so I was immediately able to say that I'd like to speak on that subject. Aber is a great opportunity especially for the young people.

The picture show the Greek god Kairos hairy at the front and bald at the back. (We call our young people's group in Childs Hill Kairos Klub because we want them to take the opportunity we offer).

An update

The trip back from Aber last Friday was long but uneventful. I came via Newport but just didn't have time to visit my dad. On reflection, I should have been up at 6 am not 7 am. There we are. It was imperative that I got back to London in good time as I had agreed to take the funeral of a lady (Betty Plant) who I knew from the BUPA care home I visit fortnightly. The funeral was at the Marylebone Crematorium in Finchley. There were only a handful of mourners. We wisely chose not to sing. There was a brief tribute by her grandson and a poem then I spoke briefly from Romans 6:23. Refreshments were served back at the grandson's home. One funny things was that I had heard recently that she had been to Lourdes, which made me concerned about whether she would really have wanted the sort of funeral I would do. Anyway, it turned out she was a cricket fan and the trip had been to Lord's! These occasions are not easy and I don't do them often but I feel one can just gently scatter the seed and hope for something. We had the clubs in the evening. Somehow I'd found time to prepare an Autumn quiz. Saturday was mostly taken up with preparations. However, in the morning four us headed up to Golders Green to give out a tract I'd prepared. It was called The power of God for salvation. One man tried to be clever and said he had his own power. As I pointed out that will soon run out though. In the evening we had the older young people around and I spoke from the call to remember your Creator in the days of your youth towards the end of Ecclesiastes. To make things interesting I put up some appropriate little posters, played some music (death by Ravi Shankar, young gifted and black, if I had a little time, etc) and had quizzes on age related diseases and guessing people's ages (I must replicate the latter quiz some time). Sunday was a good day as we carried on with Mark 11 and Romans 1. I had to spend a lot of time preparing in the afternoon a it has been such a busy week. The days following haven't been much less busy. On Monday there were lots of Jews about marking Yom Kippur. I was at LTS for the TSG, looking at Calvin's sermons on Acts (I only had time to read some of these beforehand but it was still worthwhile being present with the other 6 or 7 present led by Jeremy Walker. On Tuesday it was the committee for organising the next Grace Assembly, preceded by a trip to Brent Cross with my wonderful wife for a cuppa in the Krispy Kreme joint there. David Last will chair next May and Gerard Hemmings will be among the speakers. Watch this space. Then to round off Wednesday was another busy day with a trip up to the new library location in Bounds Green to help out with manning the place while the stuff that has been in storage was unloaded. Ian Densham did the lion's share as ever. In the evening we had a good turn out for the midweek meeting looking at Deuteronomy 32 and praying for GBM, etc.

LTS etc

I'm just back from a morning in LTS. I went with Rhodri to the open day which had been arranged, chiefly for possible students. About 50 were present and I guess half or more were people thinking of studying there perhaps. We began with coffee and then the new principal, Robert Strivens, introduced things and then the new Vice-Principal, David Green, also spoke. It was possible then to see around the premises. After that, a number of lecturers and students spoke giving an outline of the course. A number of changes are being implemented at present. There was also opportunity for questions. It all sounded very positive and interesting. One hopes that it will encourage those thinking of the ministry to study there.
I count it a great blessing to have LTS on the doorstep. Its proximity means I can reasonably be there quite often. This was my second trip over this last week as I was present last Tuesday when about a dozen of us gathered to study Habakkuk in the Hebrew under the capable leadership of David Green. My Hebrew is still not great but I have enough to see that there are things in the book that are simply not possible to see without reading the Hebrew. A very profitable time.
Afterwards I was able to join one of the students and read a little more from Lloyd-Jones's Preachers and preaching. For me it was a refreshing change from the Hebrew whereas he had been listening to Stuart Olyott all afternoon on homiletics. He seemed eager for more, nevertheless.
On Monday I was lecturing at EMF, chiefly on Catholicism - a rather hot Prot approach I guess. No problem for the Pole or the Ulsterman or the East Europeans I guess but one student found my stance difficult to accept but we talked about it and hopefully he'll come to see that I'm right!
Wednesday was mostly meetings with services at my two homes for older folk and the midweek meeting in the evening.
Yesterday and Thursday were easier, though I was present for the children's meeting and the young people's, which went off okay.

Debriefing

As ever the last few days have been hectic and I feel in need of a debriefing. Do excuse me.

Wednesday - Meetings

Yesterday I was at my regular meetings for older folk - one am and one pm. The morning one was fine and I enjoyed walking the Kilburn High Road after it. Got my hair cut and bought a man bag and one or two other things en route. Evidence of the recession abounds with several shops closed down. In the afternoon one at the BUPA home we were low in numbers and the organiser was rather stressed busy putting up a display for St David's and St Patrick's Day (I've never seen green dragons for Wales before). Eleri's cousin's eldest, Ifan was with us overnight - up to check out London's art galleries. He joined us at our midweek meeting - and prayed in English! We were looking at the next bit in Deuteronomy 19 especially about two or three witnesses, which has a surprisingly large number of applications (just check the NT references).

Tuesday - EMF and LTS

The day before that I was lecturing in Welwyn at the EMF School on Seventh Day Adventists, Freemasons and Spiritualists. Rather a disastrous morning in some respects as I arrived late and had to leave early. In the afternoon we were interviewing at LTS.

Monday - LTS

On Monday I was at the LTS for the John Owen Centre Theological Study Group. We were discussing Tim Keller's book The Reason for God under the leadership of Mostyn Roberts. There was general agreement that while we have a lot of admiration for Keller and his book and like his zeal for souls some of the exegesis and theology leaves something to be desired. There are one or two surprisingly uncalvinistic statements in it. We agreed to do Catch the Vision by John J Murray next time.

Monday night was rather frustrating as Eleri was out then there was a problem with the internet on the laptop. Phoning BT is always a nightmare and though we eventually got the problem sorted it was frustrating and time consuming and by the time I was sorted I'd missed the University Challenge final, which I had to watch on iplayer later knowing the Trimble girl had won it for Corpus Christi. Ah well.

Weekend - Preaching, quiz night and party

On Sunday I preached on the final three chapters of Ezekiel and was not only glad to have completed the task but felt it came to something of a climax. We were in Hebrews 10 in the evening, a very searching passage.

The night before Rhodri had organised a quiz night for kids 15+ and around 15 showed up - half of them "outsiders". One old friend, Edmund, came and stayed with us for the weekend. I spoke (rather convolutedly I thought in the end, sadly) on learning from Agur (Proverbs). One fellow took a Bible and one a copy of my book on Regeneration (he's read most of Keller - he thought the negative first part better than the second positive part) and another person was very interested.

Saturday was Owain's birthday. He had a pirate themed party and enjoyed it a lot. Thankfully the weather was fine and they could spill out into the garden. They loved the trampoline and the rabbits (BTW did I mention there's been another litter recently? It's like a farm out there. I suggested that we put a rabbit in each of the party bags but we didn't in the end ;-).

Friday Night Madlibs

Sometimes on a Friday we'll play madlibs. Whats that? See here.

Friday Hockey

Young people's night on Friday. Not as many there as usual but we had a nice tag hockey match as we often do.

Last Saturday

Saturday was quite a full day as we'd organised meetings in the morning at chapel and in the evening at home.
In the morning we had a Holiday Bible Club Special for children 4-10. We looked at the story of Jonah using the usual elements - story, singing, memory verse, activity sheet, craft and games. We have a good team and it was fairly easy to get organised although may be we should have publicised more. Only 12 came (half churchy kids, half not), which is less than we hoped for but not entirely useless. Some were still away at the end of half term holiday but the main problem is Saturday morning activities.
[Excursus] {My wife mentioned Karate, swimming, etc. I mistakenly thought she meant karate swimming, which if you could organise it would have every kid in the neighbourhood doing it. My wife and I are often on the wrong wave length. She told me she wanted to buy a dress on sale at Laura Ashley that costs hundreds of pounds but she wanted me to see it first. Well, this is unusual I thought but I'm a kind man. Anyway we drive to Staples Corner and I'm surprised because I didn't think any store there sold dresses. Anyway it's a dresser she's after not a dress in the Laura Ashley homestyle shop!}
In the evening about 20 over 15s squeezed into our house for a get together to remember the Reformation. We had a chat and some food and a few games then our friend Luke Jenner kindly spoke on the Reformation and the centrality of justification by faith. This was the second of a series of new meetings we're trying. It seems to work well with a good variety of people coming along.
PS We're decorating, hence no wallpaper