This One Goes to Eleven!

The BBC has a device called iPlayer on their website that allows you to watch shows, clips, and films after they have aired. The max volume on the iPlayer isn't ten. It's eleven.

TGIF! (Thank God It's Freecycle!)

Apparently I was in the right place at the right time.

I was sitting on the computer on Thursday and a batch of Freecycle e-mails popped up. I noticed that someone was giving away a bike and decided to try for it since the one I had been using was stolen a few months back. 

I e-mailed the guy and he said I was the first one to contact him so I could have it. He told me that it had been in his garage (the Brits pronounce garage like this by the way) and that all that was wrong with it was that both tyres were flat. It turns out that nothing was wrong with the back tyre (used the included pump to find that out). I had to replace the inner tube on the front tyre, but luckily had an extra tube from Erica's bike that fit.

It is a seven speed, comes with a pump that fits in between the frame, and he left the saddle bags that he had on the back which will be very useful for items that I can't fit in my messenger bag.

p.s. The picture above isn't actually my bike. I was too lazy to go take a picture and someone had sold one on a classifieds site over here and I found the picture there. Same bike though, even down to the colour.

And did those feet in ancient time...? Nope

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England’s mountains green?

And was the Holy Lamb of God

On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

And did the countenance divine

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here

Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!

Bring me my arrows of desire!

Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!

Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,

Till we have built Jerusalem

In England’s green and pleasant land.

And Did Those Feet in Ancient time is a poem by William Blake that was set to music by Hubert Parry. Jerusalem (as it is commonly called) is a patriotic song that has almost reached the level of God Save the Queen (King) as England's national anthem. In fact many English prefer it to GStQ. It seems to me that one of the reasons for this preference is that Jerusalem excludes those other parts of Great Britian that the English aren't so fond of (see: Scotland, N. Ireland, Wales, etc)

I find the song itself to be a fantastically mesmorising tune, full of gravitas. But then there's the unfortunate inclusion of the words to the song.

Blake's words were inspired by the apocraphyl story that Jesus, accompanied by Joseph of Arimathia (his uncle as the story goes) visited England in the years between the story of Jesus visiting the temple at the age of twelve and then starting his ministry at the age of thirty. This story, like the stories of Jesus visiting the Buddha and Jesus visiting the Native Americans (ala Mormanism) are complete rubbish, but it seems to be one of those things that people like to believe and towns like Glastonbury have taken advantage for tourism and religous purposes.

So in short, 'was Jerusalem builded here'? Nope. But if you have different lyrics to fit this powerful tune I'm all ears.

Quotation Inspiration

I had the chance to preach at our church back at the end of July and as I was preparing, I ran into a familiar problem. I needed to find illustrations, quips and quotes that would help my audience grasp my concepts.

I have these resources, but my problem is accessing them; trying to remember who said that one thing about that one topic, etc.

I came up with a solution that I hope will work. It's a blog and I've called it Quotation Inspiration. I'll let my second post explain it for you here.


If this resource would be valuable to you, I'd invite you to visit often. Or stop by if you like reading the odd quote on various Christian themes. I have some quotes backlogged that still need to go up and I'll be adding new ones as I come across them. I also have a few friends who are contributing and I'd welcome other contributors.

Update

Life has been moving along and we thought we'd share how it has been.

Clive will be 15 months tomorrow. He's progressing strongly on the walking front and is incredibly good at causing mischief. He loves keys and anything electronic. His fascination with the washing machine continues and whenever we can't find something we check there first.

While he is walking, talking hasn't really happened yet. He's got 'mamama' and 'dadada' figured out, but the rest of the time he thinks he's speaking english, but isn't. Both Erica and I were late talkers (Erica probably because she was a triplet, and me probably because I was dumb (intelligence-wise that is)) so we aren't too fussed about it.

Erica had been quite busy with freelance work having picked up a few new clients and still doing work for the church. Things have slowed a bit, so you could pray that work continues to come in.

We went camping for a week in July in Dorset which is on the southern coast of England. The area was beautiful and the rain held off for the most part. Here's the pictures in case you missed them.

After almost three years of working at a minimum wage retail job, I've taken a position at HMP (Her Majesty's Prison) Maidstone. I'll be working in the library overseeing the two inmates who run the library, and checking books that inmates would like to get from other libraries for content. I interviewed for the job back in April, but due to various background checks (including writing to the FBI) I just started last week. The nice part about the job is that I think I'll enjoy it more than JJB and it pays 50% more. I won't get as many hours, but that will leave time for me to care for Clive while Erica does freelance work.

I had the opportunity to preach at both of All Saints' morning services on July 29th. We were working our way through the first half of Romans and I preached on 8:17-30. I felt a bit rusty, but enjoyed the experience. Critique for yourself here.

The Olympics are in full swing and Team GB (as they insist on being called) are doing very well. We, along with Erica's sister Inga and her husband Simon will be headed to Cardiff (It's in Wales, 150 miles from London, but whatever) on Saturday to watch the bronze medal football soccer match between Japan and South Korea.

Speaking of Inga and Simon, they just bought a house and have asked us if we would like to be subletters, cotenents, lodgers. We've put in the notice with our landlords that we'll be leaving the place we're at and will hopefully be moving house (as they say over here) in early September. The house is in Coxheath (home of the world custard pie championships), which is the village right next to Loose (where our church is). This will mean a much shorter commute for me on my bike to work and it's still the same distance from the prison. It will also be a help to Inga and Simon to cut down their mortgage.

Lastly, my ordination process moves on. It's been confirmed that I'll be a part of the local Bishop's Advisory Panel (or BAP, but not to be confused with a bap) on December 1st. The BAP is a one day selection process that is my next hurdle in going for ordination. Please pray that I'll have the time and energy to put work into prepping for it. My advisor tells me that she is feeling pretty positive about it, but as you know with Erica and Zac nothing is ever straight forward.

That's us for now. We miss all of you back in the states. We probably won't be back in the U.S. of A. until July 2013, but if you have some leftover pence (the proper plural of penny dontcha know?) and are looking to get away, we'll gladly take you in.