I finished the novel One Day by David Nicholls that Jodie recommended to me, I am not much of a novel reader, I prefer theology!!!! But I did enjoy it even if I knew sort of knew how it ended, I won’t elaborate for those who haven’t read it yet! I would recommend it, especially for people in their 40s and above as they will get the cultural and political references. I bought Jodie the DVD based on the novel for valentine’s day, it is a rare occurence for me to watch a film after I have read the book and I understand now why people often complain after seeing a film about a book they have liked! You do notice how they adapt things and miss out bits etc but the film was pretty faithful to the book, probably because the author also wrote the screenplay! The film was pretty good, not great, 3 and half stars and Anne Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent was terrible but apart from that she was fine. The book is better than the film, probably almost always is that way, wouldn’t know with Lord of the rings as have never managed to read the books after various atttempts but like the films!
Apart from watching One Day we had a lovely Valentine’s day as a married couple, had pizza together, being unemployed has many downsides but having a full day to celebrate Valentine’s day isn’t one of them! On the work front, Jodie and I went along to a back to work programme on Monday and it went ok, any help we can get from this agency will be much appreciated as the Jobcentre doesn’t do much to help you find work. You give up hope of finding work after a while and it is hard to keep motivated but I am keeping busy and not too bad due to our longer term plan of returning to Nicaragua in November. On that front we have been working out our costs and how much we have to raise before we go, a bit daunting but I do believe that the funds will come in as we step out in faith trusting in God to meet our needs. God does that in lots of ways, just this week someone put an envelope with £70 through our letterbox just when we were down to our last few quid! Some of you may say that is just a coincidence but I don’t think so!
On Sunday I was commissioned as a Street Pastor at Grace Community Church here in Stevenage, we were handed our street pastor caps and prayed for, it was OK, but I would have preferred a laying on of hands ceremony or something more liturgical with spoken responses and promises! That is the pastor and worship leader in me speaking! It was good to mark the end of our training with a service but I may pass on one or comments for future commissioning services so they can improve it for future street pastors.
I have been continuing to read as I do have more spare time than most, I have read Speaking Christian by Marcus Borg which look at recovering the lost meaning of Christian words, I don’t always agree with Marcus as he is a fair bit more liberal than me but he is always an engaging and challenging read and I recommend his latest offering. I read The Liberation of Theology by Juan Luis Segundo which looks at the ideological biases of all theology and the relationship between faith and ideology, a demanding read but well worth ploughing through, these Jesuits!!!! On a lighter note I bought a copy of Sorted a Christian mens magazine that you can now get in WH Smith http://www.sorted-magazine.com/single.htm?ipg=9619 it is full of good articles and well worth supporting, after reading it I sent mine to a member of our congregation who is in the army in Afghanistan, I may not agree with the war but he is a brother in Christ and I remember how lovely it was to receive letters and packages when I was away from home.
On the football front it was painful to see Arsenal getting thumped 4-0 the other night by AC Milan but at least Stevenage are going well and beat Sheffield Wednesday during the week and are sitting pretty in a play off place! The less said about Hibs the better!!! A good football weekend ahead of me, two live cup games on TV, Arsenal v Sunderland this afternoon and Stevenage v Spurs tomorrow, shame I couldn’t get a ticket but at least it is on TV, Come on Boro!!!!!!! On that note, go well, Love Stu x PS Here is a photo of some valentine’s biscuits my wife made for me , they are like little stained glass windows of love!
