Below is a picture of the newly installed speedbumps outside where I live in Peterborough…great you think, traffic calming…and yes perhaps they do calm traffic. Problem is that it’s actually less noticable and bumpy to travel over them at 30 opposed to 15mph! Silly speedbumps!
Just had a call from my tutor at uni to say that I am now a JNC Qualified youth worker of the level 2 variety (JNC Level 2) which is brilliant!
I have just become a contributer to this blog
The idea of the blog is to provide news on the SPCK/SSG situation and any developments…not sure I have masses to contribute but who knows…it’s fun being a contributer though (I should add that to date I haven’t actually contributed anything!)
http://spckssg.wordpress.com/
This article on the metro website details some of Tesco’s pay-rates to people in other countires…can’t say I’m surprised at Tesco…
For more information on supermarket’s and sweatshops see this link
I used to get loads of forwarded e-mails back in the old days, usually ones that told me if I scrolled down and forwarded to 20 people I’d find the love of my life or some other ruburb (there’s a word!)…however these days it’s only John who sends me them (I have included a picture of John on this post for no real reason)…anyway this one made me laugh…so enjoy!
ACTUAL AUSTRALIAN COURT DOCKET 12659 — CASE OF THE PREGNANT LADY.
A lady about 8 months pregnant got on a bus.
She noticed the man opposite her was smiling at her, and She immediately moved to another seat.
This time the smile turned into a grin, so she moved again.
The man seemed more amused. When on the fourth move, the man burst out laughing, she complained
to the driver and he had the man arrested.
The case came up in court.
The judge asked the man (about 20 years old) what he had to say for himself.
The man replied, “Well your Honor, it was like this, …
When the lady got on the bus, I couldn’t help but notice her condition. She sat down under a sign that said,
‘The Double Mint Twins Are coming’ and I grinned.
Then she moved and sat under a sign that said, ‘ Logan’s Liniment will reduce the swelling,’and I had to smile.
Then she placed herself under a deodorant sign that said, “William’s Big Stick Did the Trick,”
and I could hardly contain myself.
But, Your Honor, when she moved the fourth time and sat under a sign that said,
‘Goodyear Rubber could have prevented this Accident’…. I just lost it.”
So yesterday having returned from a brilliant weekend away with Park Road Youth I slept for ten hours…and today I’ve been with CROPS for the day over at Haddon (a tiny village of 60/70 people just outside of Peterborough) doing some clay pigeon shooting and driving a tractor…it’s been awesome…and tractors are hard to drive!
I wanted to post some photos from the weekend on here but can’t really so go to the Park Road Youth Website (link) to see them!
I have just over a week left in Peterborough before an extended summer break and this weekend is a youth residential which I’m really looking forward to, the following sunday I’m preaching in the morning service at Park Road which’ll be a first for me…another first is that I’ve been given a specific topic.
The topic is ‘The ascension’ as Tim has been working through the apostles creed in the morning services that last few months so the given title is ‘I believe in the ascension’ and the part of the creed it comes from is ‘He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father’.
This afternoon I headed out to Ferry Meadows with my bike…I haven’t biked in over two years so having managed about 6/7 miles with a break I’m feeling quite sore…however sat by the beautiful surroundings (see photo) I began to write my sermon and I’m loving the challenge of having a set topic at the same time as hating it, I think I’m starting by asking myself the questions people in the congregation would ask themselves if they took the time to think about the creed and slowly I seem to be forming a sermon!
This next week is going to be a little crazy but a lot of fun, the youth weekend is near Cromer so a weekend of sun (I hope), sea and sand will be awesome and the young people from Park Road are brilliant….I then have a few bits and pieces/lose ends to next week alongside planning a session on ‘Sex and Relationships’ titled ‘The Urge to Merge’ for Doodles which’ll be my last bit of youth work until september…although I might do some in Great Yarmouth.
The last couple of weeks I’ve been feeling a little sad that I’m not going to a Christian festival like Soul Survivor this year and although I did Springy back in April it’s not the same…I’m gonna try and do Soul Survivor of Momentium next year!
Anyway ramble over…hope you like the photos!
The new version of Firefox is released today so follow this link and leave the crummy old internet explorer behind
So at tonight’s youth group the topic of ‘Enema’s’ came up, and much to my amusement one young person said (in the midst of confusion over what en enema was) ‘Isn’t that where they pour cold coffee into your bum’
After much giggling, bad coffee-bum related jokes we concluded it wasn’t, it was a brilliant quote yet nothing more…or so I thought…
In order to be a good aware youth worker I thought I’d read up on Wikipedia to check that enemas didn’t involve coffee, much to my surprise some do!
See this link on coffee enemas
However 3 people have died from coffee enemas so I’d always recommend seeing a nurse for your enema needs and not doing it yourself with a cup of your favourite brew!
That’s all for tonight, I hope you feel enlightened!
This is such a plug but hey…I’ve just updated my myspace with some new songs and a new layout, if you wanna be my friend head over to www.myspace.com/marktiddy and add me!
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In July I’m going to see Ben Folds in Sheffield and a while ago on his ‘Rockin the suburbs’ album he wrote a song called Mr Jones which was basically about someone being forced to leave a job they’d done for years because they were too old.
Now I’ve been thinking recently about how true this is in our churches, how often do people reach a particular age and we stop them doing the children’s work because they’re ‘too old’?, how often do we decide that people are too old to serve yet tell them they can ‘still pray’?
The problem with this is that, firstly prayer becomes something that becomes almost a negative thing for someone to do, if we’re not careful it can become a ‘hmm….now what can you do for our church…you can’t do this…that wouldn’t be suitable…umm…just pray for our church’. Prayer shouldn’t be the last resort, nor something someone does when they can’t do anything else but it should be seen as the most important part of our ministry, behind everything prayer should be going on, as well as someone helping with the youth group they can (and should) be praying for the youth work they’re doing.
The second problem with the attitude above is that we automatically write off old people, have we not thought that some of them can still serve? In fact, all of them can!
It might not be suitable that they help out with the youth ministry but perhaps a less energetic role is there for them? What about encouraging them to welcome new people to church? Look out for new faces and talk to them? What about encouraging evangalising to their friends and people they meet? As many of you will know most old people can talk for hours!!!
Let’s not forget though that in some situations it can be suitable for someone elderly to continue an active role whether it’s doing children’s work, managing the friday night drop-in tuck shop or helping to move tables and chairs around the church.
We have to remember that in the bible people didn’t just reach a particular age and stop serving, they either kept going or found a ministry suitable for their current state, let’s not write off our OAP’s in churches…if they all did things I truly believe we’d see a massive change in our churches.
The bancrupcy of SSG a couple of days ago (people who run SPCK) has took an interesting turn when it turned out that the company who will now operate the shops in their administration is also owned by the Brewers who own SSG….I smell a rat here…and also what will probably end up as the loss of all the formally SPCK bookshops accross the country.
What with trying to sell the shops (and not being able to because of contracts) and now this bancrupcy I can’t help but feel they’re trying to get out of the bookshop business.
For more information check out Dave Walker’s Blog
Also thanks to Phil who commented in my previous SSG post with this link. So if you’ve lost your Christian bookshop in the recent closures or if you’ve took up my boycott of SSG then head to the link and find yourself a Christian bookshop.