Tikhtak

Eshort Feb 06 - Big-up God

Check out this months eshort on the youth eshort blog, which reports on the recent XL event in York Minster where the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, took the drums and hear in an interview  what he said about God. If you want to subscribe to have youth eshorts sent to you every month then got to the CMS website .

Do it anyway

Mother Theresa hung a copy of this poem on a wall in the orphanage she founded in Calcutta, the source is unknown. but it's a great tonic for the weekend.

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
And self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you
Of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
False friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank;
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway.

Dangerous God

I thought in the light of Harry's story of God's hand on his mobile phone, that danger isn't something we should always avoid and perhaps as Christians we should be a little more daring. Here is a quote my colleague Ian Smith passed on to me from John Eldrege, Waking the dead, which shares this sentiment:

Either we wake to tackle our 'to do' list, get things done, guided by our morals and whatever clarity we may at the moment have. Or we wake in the midst of a dangerous Story, as God's intimate ally, following him into the unknown. If you're not pursuing a dangerous quest with your life, well, then, you don't need a Guide. If you haven't found yourself in the midst of a ferocious war, then you won't need a seasoned Captain. If you've settled in your mind to live as though this is a fairly neutral world and you are simply trying to live your life as best you can, then you can probably get by with the Christianity of tips and techniques. Maybe. I'll give you about a fifty-fifty chance. But if you intend to live in the Story that God is telling, and if you want the life He offers, then you are going to need more than a handful of principles, however noble they may be. There are too many twists and turns in the road ahead, too many ambushes waiting only God knows where, too much at stake. You cannot possibly prepare yourself for every situation. Narrow is the way, said Jesus, how shall we be sure to find it? We need God intimately, and we need him desperately.

God makes bad good!

Last night we had a bible study on how God can bring good out of things that go wrong. We studied Peter and how he denied Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed. We then looked at how Jesus met with him after the resurrection and asked him 3 times "Do you love me"? before fully reinstating him with the job of building the church. We asked the question - When has the cock crowed in our lives? and shared stories of God bring good out of bad situations. Check out this story from minskinnybaker blog about God's helping hand in a difficult and dangerous situation.

Trax 16 launch at XL York

Friday night Irfana and I joined the CMS team in York Minster to launch trax 16, the new CMS youth Podcast. Young people enthusiastically filled out forms to try and win an ipod and we interviewed lots of young people about their views on life and their Christian mission. Perhaps the highlight was interviewing and meeting the Archbishop of York John Sentamu. This interview will feature in the new podcast at the end of March. Check out other pics from the evening by clicking here. Before heading back home we dropped in on Jean and her family (where Irfana lived for a year when she first came to England some 5 years ago). It was great for me to meet Jean and her family as I had only heard Irfana talk about them and Irfana too hadn't been back to Leeds since she left 4 years ago. Check out pics from our visit.

Win an ipod nano on trax 16

Trax 16 is a podcast for young christians and will be ready to go by the end of March. Trax 16 will be an online community of young people: Focusing on global/local mission, encouraging discipleship and exposing creative forms of christian community. How can you win an ipod nano? simply email your ideas for this new podcast to [email protected] or click on this link and fill in a form online.

Trax 16 launches at XL York

Friday I will be driving up with Irfana to york to join Mike North and a CMS Youth team to launch our podcast trax 16 at York Cathedral. The event is called XL and is billed as a Gospel feast. The highlight for us will be an interview with the Bishop of York John Sentamu for our podcast. Hopefully I will have a soundbite to upload.

CMS & Big Intent in Billericay

Yesterday Big Intent and the CMS youth and children's team joined forces to work with about 20 young people at Christchurch Billericay to perform the story of Diwali as part of CMS' setting captives free campaign. The story of Sita being tricked by the 10 headed Ravana is a good way to engage young people, while also presenting, the reality of human trafficking and it's impact on peoples lives. As always the young people, ranging from 7 to 15 yrs, rose to the challenge and put on a great performance. We were also joined by Sandra from the education department of Southwark cathedral to see if a performance could work there as part of our free4all project. She was suitably impressed and is now keen to make it work in Southwark Cathedral. I will upload pictures from the day but in the mean time you can check out our Diwali plays from Greenbelt 05

After the Tsunami

Went for a stroll at the weekend along the south bank and came across a really powerful photo exhibition called after the tsunami. The only thing for me that slightly irritated were the constant references to the way Oxfam had built this or done that...It would have been enough just to know that Oxfam were putting the display on and were helping. Other than that it was great.

Young voices

We had our Mix youth club on Friday night and I tried out our new micro track digital recorder (which we will be using for our youth pod cast). We are trying out the name "trax 16" so I got people in the youth group to give us a sound bite. Have a listen to Goldies here. Also I asked them about who God is and what is Love, Olly's response was probably the most profound of the evening. (you may need to allow 20 secs for it to open - it's worth the wait)