02/28/10

Day 12: Swap Your Cuppa

This last week and the week we’re about to enter into are not just any old weeks. if you don’t know we are actually right in the middle of ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ which is a yearly two weeks aiming to raise awareness of Fairtrade and aimed at encouraging more people to source Fairtrade products as part of their weekly shop.

This year the campaign is titled ‘Swap Your Cuppa’ and it is aiming to encourage people to make a swap in the buying habits they have whether that is to buy Fairtrade tea or switch to Fairtrade bananas!

The website allows people to register their swap (link) and so far almost 3,000 swaps have been registered.

I’m not going to blog anything else on Fairtrade other than to say there’s hundreds of Fairtrade products around now and they’re better than normal products because the farmers get paid properly and the communities benefit!

Buy Fairtrade!

02/27/10

Day 11: Mixing

Over the last few years I’ve been gradually recording a series of songs which I’ve written and they’re at the place now where it’s really just a matter of recording the odd vocal track and mixing them.

On a personal note it’s quite interesting to see the journey these tracks have been on, 3 years ago I’d have never dreamed of recording vocals but now I’m quite happy toying with vocals and listening to the stuff I’ve written.

However the mixing stage which I’m in at the moment is probably my least favourite part of writing/recording…whereas with drums and guitars I roughly know how long it’ll take me to record all the different parts mixing is totally different. There’s not a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ mix of a song and so getting a balance I like can take hours. For example in the last 3 hours I’ve managed to mix one track which I’ve exported into iTunes and I’m already noticing a couple of bits I need to change.

The aim is to mix everything and try and release it through bandcamp.com and possibly itunes in April…let’s see what happens!

02/26/10

Day 10: Phones and iPhones

A year ago when my phone was upgraded I remember looking at the various options including a variety of shiny touchscreen phones on the market and I just wasn’t sold to them…partly because I wanted something that would sync with my Mac but mostly because there was a lack of buttons and I was used to texting without even looking at my phone.

However as more and more people I know have been upgraded to touchscreen phones or sexy iPhones I’ve found myself being swung away from buttons and today I think my mind became set that I am indeed over buttons!

Jo upgraded her phone today to a shiny new Nokia N97 Mini and whilst it actually has a full qwerty keyboard that slides out it is also fully touchscreen and feels so nice to use…I’ve spent a chunk of today playing with it (oh my love of geeky things!) and I’ve been pretty impressed. It’s got some nice functions, a pretty decent camera and everything seems to flow really nicely.

It’s a shame I have to wait 6 months for my contract to end!

02/25/10

Day 9: Lesson

Today’s the first day that I just haven’t known what to blog on, nothing in particular has jumped out at me and it’s been a busy today!

This afternoon I taught my first lesson in South Hunsley…whilst I am not a teacher I’d been hoping for some RE opportunities and today the first of 2 opportunities came to pass.

I had the pleasure of teaching year 13 RS on the Amish Christians…a bit of a bizarre topic for a schools worker but it was funny how it came about. I’d spent a while trying to gain contact with the RS department with no real fruit and then happened to bump into the right person at the right time, met them for lunch and happened to mention that I was reading ‘Amish Grace’ and it turned out that the sixth formers were going to be looking at fundamentalism.

So a couple of months on I’m here at the end of a week have spent the majority of my time planning lesson 1 of 2, trying to make it vaguely engaging and nicking videos off YouTube and all in all the lesson seemed to go well. A nice small group and some good discussion so all in all other than a very dry throat afterwards it was a success!

02/24/10

Day 8: How He loves us

Yesterday I posted this on my twitter;

‘checking out the new David Crowder album on Spotify…whilst it’s good the majority of the lyrics seem a little meaningless’

Now whilst this tweet seems negative let me clarify that I do actually quite like David Crowder as a musician however as a worship song writer he is very hit or miss however it was a hit that led me onto Spotify yesterday.

During the retreat day on Monday I got his song ‘How he loves us’ stuck in my head and it continued to stick yesterday so I purchased it on iTunes and whilst I remain unimpressed at the rest of his new ‘Church music’ album this song seems to stand out. Here’s some lyrics;

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Oh how he loves us

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way he loves us

There’s something about these lyrics that stick out…Crowder uses the word jealousy in a positive way and there’s something deeply profound and different about these lyrics which I hope you’ll agree.

Anyway I mainly wanted to post those few thoughts and mainly those lyrics for your enjoyment…if you don’t know the song here’s the audio from YouTube

Note: After writing I have discovered the song is actually a cover by John Mark McMillan (site), the Crowder take is awesome and the lyrics are still profound!

02/23/10

Day 7: Silence

As I mentioned yesterday part of the retreat day I was on included some silent time which was a little odd.

I very rarely experience silence even now as I blog/plan a lesson I have music on in the background…the few occasions I turn off the music I hear my boiler in the background, I tap on the desk or I hear the occasional snippet of Alan Partridge yelling ‘Dan!’ as I receive a text.

Silence is a funny old thing…

In counseling the theory is that after you ask a question and the person responds you don’t move onto the next question immediately but you wait and in that time of silent the person being counseled will add something else and so on, usually getting to the root of the problem.

The fact is we don’t like silence.

Humans tend to find silence awkward and in our busy world silence is a rarity.

When conversation stops amongst friends we call it an awkward silence

A friend of mine described an evening out as ‘good but too many gaps‘…referring to times when conversation wasn’t flowing.

I wonder why it is we find being quiet so difficult….I wonder what it is that makes us being alone with our thoughts so odd and unusual.

Here’s a section from 1 Kings 19 in the bible to conclude my thoughts…

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

02/22/10

Day 6: Retreat Day

Today I spent the day at Wydale hall on a youth and children’s workers retreat organised by the York Diocese which was really good.

The last retreat I went on was when I was in Peterborough and CROPS organised a day out in the sticks with Paul Wilcox as a retreat and reflection day and I remember finding it a really useful time.

Today was also useful!

It was nice to have a day aside to reflect and think about what’s been going on, reflect upon God both personally and within my context as a youth/schools worker and to spend some time with others who do a similar role to myself. There was also a time of silence which I very rarely have as whenever I’m working itunes is usually on in the background.

Finally on the way out I bumped into Archbishop Sentamu, however sadly I could not have a conversation with him as him and his colleagues were having a silent retreat…maybe next time!

(I have some more retreat thoughts which I’ll blog tomorrow)

02/21/10

Day 5: House

Whilst Sundays’ in lent don’t count I will still be sticking to my lent things on a Sunday so I guess that means I’ll actually end up with 40-something blog posts and whilst today’s post is edging closer to being posted on Monday I thought I’d blog…better late than never!

Over the last week I’ve been lucky to spend time with some of my favourite people in the world and they’ve all ended up at my house whether they’ve stayed for a couple of days or just been around for breakfast or for a drink and I’ve really begun to realise how much I love having a pad!

It’s really nice being able to have somewhere where you can invite people around casually and being able to make people feel welcome and look after them. It’s great being able to have friends stay and awesome being able to sit up drinking a nice single malt and chatting until the early hours without thinking you have to go home soon.

Hospitality is a very nice thing to be able to offer….however guests mean cleaning up…so now I need to wash up!

02/20/10

Day 4: Murder!

I’ve realised that so far I’ve failed to blog but my weekend’s been busy, had Joel and Vicki to stay Thursday and Friday and Caroline arrived this morning and this evening we’ll be out and about in Hull.

However I have just enough time for a quick blog and will therefore lower the high quality blogs I’ve set in the last few days!

Last night 8 of us did a murder mystery, other than a murder mystery I did a few years ago with a youth group I’ve never done one properly and so was pretty excited about the idea.

The murder mystery was set in Australia with a selection of suggestive character names and had ten rounds revealing interesting and disturbing facts about our characters whilst we had some good food between rounds (not all ten I might add!) and whilst the murderer was obvious when you look back a voting error of ‘he can’t be the murderer, it’s too obvious’ on my part meant that I didn’t get it right…in fact only one of us did.

All in all is was a very fun evening, lots of laughs and a really nice social thing….even if I finished off by walking through South Cave at half midnight wearing flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt!

02/19/10

Day 3: Amish Grace

Today’s post in my lent blogs is a blog I promised a while ago.

Back in November I finally got around to buying a book called Amish Grace which was recommended by one of my lecturers at uni and although I started the book with excitement I slacked a little with it and eventually finished it last week.

The book focuses on the Amish who were effected by the Nickel Mines Shooting which happened in 2006 and the way in which the Amish reacted to a gunman entering a school, killing 5 pupils and then himself.

Their reaction was not one of revenge or anger but one of forgiveness and they shocked America with this forgiveness and caused all sorts of questions to be asked about their reaction…was it right to forgive such violence?

I’m not going to focus on an overview of the book or write a review but share the biggest challenge the book faced me with…that of forgiveness.

Whilst we encourage people to forgive in Christianity and many psychologists would agree that forgiveness has a benefit for the individual who forgives because it’s about moving on, forgiveness is seen very differently by the amish.

The Amish think of forgiveness as to give up your right for revenge and so whilst they acknowledge that there are consequences of sin (seems a light term to use in the context of shooting people) they believe that it is not their place to carry out those consequences and that that responsibility lies with the state (in some situations a benefit of the separation of church and state!). The core belief they focus on with regards to forgiveness is the Lord’s prayer where Jesus says ‘forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’. The interpretation of this glanced over verse is that unless we forgive others we cannot be forgiven.

As a result of this strong conviction the Amish have to forgive others they take forgiveness very seriously and as a very active thing. In the situation of the shooting some of the Amish went to the home of the gunman to offer his wife and kids support as they dealt with the loss of a husband and father, as I read that I felt that there was something humbling about these people.

I like the Amish, I think their pacifism and forgiveness emphasis is absolutely spot on and very challenging to modern day Christians who spend a lot of time getting hung up on things that happen and a lack of ‘justice’ rather than moving on. I can’t quite picture how active-forgiveness works in a day-to-day context but even now (about a month after reading that section) I’m still chewing it over and feeling challenged by it.

02/18/10

Day 2: No Supermarkets For Lent!

Whilst lent is meant to be a time or preparation and should be something to bring you closer to God one thing I am trying this year amongst things that achieve the former (I hope!) is avoiding supermarkets.

Local Veg!

I had a conversation with someone at church about farm shops last week and so decided to try and only buy fruit and veg locally…in theory much more of what I buy will be locally grown and the money I spend goes back into the local economy and not into the pockets of wealthy businessmen.

Onto the supermarkets!

Following on from my thoughts on the above I realised that it would be pretty easily to buy fruit and veg from a farm shop but I wondered what it would be like to avoid supermarkets completely and so I thought I’d incorporate it into my lent challenge.

Rules?

A supermarket is hard to define…for example I would probably not count my local cornershop as a supermarket yet Heidi would so I guess I need some kind of rules to stick to….

1 – The big 4 are out of bounds! – No Asda, No Tesco (the tricky bit!!!), no Sainsbury and no Morrissons….alongside this Waitrose and others are also not allowed.

2 - Mini-marts count – For the sake of lent my local corner-shop isn’t allowed for anything other than cereals, beer and other such things you cannot buy anywhere else without going miles out the way….whilst the village has a bakery, butchers and fruit and veg shop there is no beer or cereal shop and so traveling to Hull for such items would make the whole thing completely unethical!

3 – I can use: butchers, local bakeries and newsagents….alongside this specialist shops such as Wilkinsons can be used for cleaning products!

4 – I can eat pre-purcahsed items - If there’s something in my freezer from a supermarket or something that someone feeds me that is from a supermarket that’s fine!

The Cost?

Initial thoughts would be that this is going to be more expensive…but is this a big con of the supermarket or not? I’m going to try and keep a log of what I spend and compare it to what I’d spend in a supermarket.

Initial Thoughts

Bizarrely I’m a bit more nervous about this one than the veggiexperiment back in November, I think it’s going to be more challenging but it’ll certainly be an eye-opener of sorts! Let’s see what happens…maybe I’ll never use a supermarket again!

02/17/10

Day 1: Lent – 3 Challenges

Whilst this minister has set himself the challenge of visiting all 10,000 parishioners during lent and spent last year’s lent sleeping on his church roof I’m planning to do something slightly less extreme…actually 3 slightly less extreme things!

Firstly from today (the beginning of lent) I shall be aiming to blog everyday during lent…some of the blogs may end up being scheduled so that one appears everyday but for the 40 days (plus Sundays) of lent there will be something new on my blog (also appearing on www.40blogsoflent.wordpress.com)

Secondly a while ago I got a book called ‘Daily Reflections for Lent and Easter week‘ which I’m going to aim to follow every day as a way of getting myself into some kind of habit…and hopefully providing some inspiration for blog posts as the time goes on.

Thirdly – No Supermarkets! - Originally I thought that I would aim to buy fruit and veg locally however having done this the other day I began wondering if I could spend lent without supermarkets…more thoughts on this on tomorrows blog!