Long Journey

Warning this is a Plug

This is an unashamed plug for Proost. Some fantastic, and I mean fantastic downloads on the site. With more added nearly every month.

If you don't know about Proost, go here

This months offering is a new album called Harronell, and it is great (I already used fantastic!).

"You may remember we ran a project Unusual Suspects when we relaunched last August with three talented and as yet unpublished artists. Well the project continues and Laurence is the first Unusual Suspect of 2008 which we are excited about. We have lifted the age limit on it as we have met several people a little above the 25 age we had set."

Great piece of work,and a good achievement from Proost to give this new artist some web air time...

The subscription is well worth it, so go on you know you want to!

How clear is your message

This morning in Church, with most of the leadership off at Spring Harvest, we had a very strong and clear message about what it is to follow Christ. Spoken around Road to Emmaus. When to sermon is up on iTunes, I'll link to it. But good to hear clear and simple stuff, mainly around the commands to just get on and do, and not to wait around for some prayers to get responded to and some-kind of super spiritual signal.

One thing that was raised, is how much our Faith is under attack, and how well we can tell out story. I hope we can do better than this 3 year old!

http://www.supernovatube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=619685675

Telling our story is something a lot of us find hard to do, but as our faith comes under increasing attack we need to dust off our stories and stand firm.

Snow in April

So today it has snowed.

It is the first decent amount of snow that Rebecca has seen, and we just had to build a snowman.

Well a snow lady actually, and she is called Lola. A smaller Charlie is in the drive!

2nd Lent Blog Post

This is my second post on Grace's Lent Blog this year, it goes up tomorrow morning:

Transformation Ecosystem

Yesterday I splashed out and bought a macro lens for my DSLR. For some time now, I’ve wanted to explore the world of the macro.

The internal world of flowers has always fascinated me. The tiny buds, which in themselves hold more intricacies, protected from the harmful world. Protected, until the flower is ready to burst forth and advertise itself to the world.

The pollen, the stamen, and the reliance on insects is a perfect example of the interconnectedness of God’s creation. Without the seed there is no life, but without the bee there is no seed.

With Easter being early this year there are less signs of “new life” springing up than we are used to, less new shoots leaping from the ground, less animal life forcing its newness into our faces.

I find myself longing to see the first bees and insects buzzing around the flowers in our garden. To see the cycle beginning again. The freshness, after the staleness of winter.

This year, with Easter just around the corner, which are you?
Are you the bud, longing to open?
Are you the flower, advertising the life?
Are you the pollen, awaiting collection?
Are you the stamen, expecting delivery?
Are you the seed, starting the cycle?
Or, are you the bee, linking all things?

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever. (1 Peter 1: 23 -25)

Which ever you are, wherever you are in your journey:

May the Lord bless you, may his light shine upon you, may your spirit be transformed through the new beginning that comes from Christ’s sacrifice.

Sir Edmond Hillary Dies

Sir Edmund Hillary dies aged 88

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, has died aged 88. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark described the explorer as a heroic figure and said all New Zealanders would deeply mourn his passing. Sir Edmund's health had reportedly been in decline since April, when he suffered a fall while visiting Nepal. He was the first man to climb the 8,850m (29,035ft) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953.

Good Old Brits, spicing things up again.

HT to Paul for this video.

Pual's been talking about how the UKs security around arming Atomic Bombs was a bike key whilst the rest of the world used something a little more secure. Well he turfed this up to redeem the UKs reputation!

Sound system coming along

So, I've been looking to build a small sound rig to use for Sanctum, and over the Christmas Period I've managed to put it together for an acceptable price.

The Kit in the arsenal so far is:

1 x Soundcraft Spirit M4 Mixing Desk, which is just perfect for my needs. Having four mic channels, plus four "instrument" channels. This lets me process a couple of macs, plus a couple of ipods and still leaves four channels open for mics. Got it second hand and in perfect nick!

2 X Phonic PA 550 active monitors, from Andertons in Guildford. I can't recommend them highly enough (Andertons that is!). I took up their test room for most of a morning, and they let me configure a rig and test everything out. No pressure and ended up selling me the monitors from ex-demo stock so saved at least 50% on the street price and then gave me £40 worth of leads for free.

So the rig will power at around 800+ watts which is more than enough, and so far I have spent around what I could of spent on a single monitor.

Next to come, some speaker stands, and some cheap mics.

Probably looking at a couple of these, as GAK in Brighton have the kit for £30 in their sale: Its a peavey PVi 100 mic with stand and bag for the same price as a stand......

And Finally I will add in a radio, but not too sure what is best to go for, as I won't spend more than £130 and it must be UHF. Basically It comes down to a sennheiser freeport or an Ashton. Either-way both would be great at Greenbelt as we always seem to be lacking a radio at New Forms.

The freeport is better known, but the Ashton can use 16 channels. Anyway I will need to wait a couple of months on the mics, as the bank account needs a chance to recharge!

Addicted to Apple, moi?

It looks like I am well and truly an addict!

81%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

HT to Thomas Hawk for the link

Christmas Wishes

Tis Christmas Morn and the day has dawned

With light and joy for all

Let children sing and Santa bring

a present for one and all

And on this joyous day of celebration

lets think of all within our nation

that celebrate this day

that Jesus came to stay.

Happy Christmas to you all, and we hope you have a wonderful time. For those with little faces, I am sure the excitement is past fever pitch and that paper is strewn across the carpet. For those with Big faces, enjoy the festivities and we hope to see you in the new year.
Loads of Christmas Cheer and Love.
Steve, Fiona, and Rebecca

Grace Nine - 2008

I did a small mediation at Grace's Nine service on Sunday, and it was its usual special eclectic mix of the profound. I ran out of time, and did a very quick picture meditation using Mary did you know.

The others put far more effort into their pieces, and it was great. The most impacting bit was were Ben did a piece on thin places, with a muslin sheet hung projecting stars etc onto it. The readers stood behind the sheet and were cast into a silhouette, then the sheet was cut with a samurai sword showing the gap being opened between Heaven and Earth.

Some shots from the iphone.

The scene before the service, relaxed and peaceful.

Soon to be disturbed, as around the church were these sets of balloons. A balloon was popped to tell people where to focus on each reading. BANG!

Jonny used these nativity cut outs to build a scene after his reading, so it was a good thing that my piece only took 3.20, out the 5 mins allotted to each piece. Jonny's took over 20!

The afore mentioned silhouettes.

"Finger" painting on new paper stories.