Some of my fellow gapper colleagues are busy working hard editing the video footage we shot while in the DRC last month. Jim & Steph did the filming work, and are now editing along with Chris & JP. Here’s a first glimpse of their work…
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I’m off to a little gig tomorrow night in ABC2…
Featuring the delightful sounds of Eskimo Go (a new collaboration featuring Yvonne Lyon), Rosco, and Ben TD, it should be a great night. Tickets are £5, from Ticketmaster or on the door. There’s a little facebook event page for it too.
I’ll be there… anyone else wanna come? Drop me a comment/ email/ tweet/ text/ call… let’s hang out!
I’m blessed to have such an amazing circle of friends, and I wanted to share with you something that a few of those mates have been involved in recently…
Rick, Ruth, and Stewart (among others) have been involved in recording a Christmas worship CD called ‘while earth slept’ which is releasing this week. It’s a collection of songs and thoughts taking us through the Christmas story in a fresh and inspiring way. The CD’s are being sold for £10 each with all proceeds going to two charities – ‘Out of Africa Missions‘ and ‘MacMillan Cancer Care’.
They’re hosting 2 nights of Christmas worship to launch this album, one in Enniskillen (Dec 19) and the other in Ballymena (Dec 22). With music from Stewart McIlrath, Ruth Williams and the Spark worship team, a message from Rick Hill, alongside multimedia, thoughts, interviews and a few Christmas nibbles, it promises to be a heart stirring time at this special time of the year.
Entry is free into both these nights, with CD’s being on sale.
I recently read Barbara Kingsolver’s book, The Poisonwood Bible, which has been on my ‘to-read’ list for a looong time. It’s set in the DR Congo while the Belgians were still in control (late 50’s) and follows the story of a missionary family through the course of independence and all that follows. Each chapter is written from the perspective of an individual family member, which gives it an interesting flow.
I really enjoyed this book actually. I don’t read a lot of fiction (due to time constraints more than anything else!), but its something I’m trying to rectify. This book blew me away, I thought it was incredibly well written, grabbed me from the start. There is also the added benefit of having been in the DRC recently, which of course gives me a different perspective on things.
There were a few comments that grabbed me in the book, wanted to share them here…
“The church of the lost cause..”
“To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story.”
Anyone else read it? What did you think of it? What grabbed your attention?
I came across this video on Anne Jacksons blog today, and it fits with so much of what I’ve been thinking about over the last week or so…
So what does it all mean? That’s the question posed at the end of the video.
I’ve been thinking a lot about influence, about who has influence, about how we use our influence. The clip above gives us a sense of how fast the world is changing, how much our ability to impact a large group of people has mushroomed in recent years. Over the last week or so I’ve been given glimpses into the influence I have, whether through conversations with authors and musicians, or blogging friends, or neighbors…
One way to define influence is ‘to determine; to shape; to give direction to’. What am I shaping? Which direction am I pointing you in?
If influence is currency, what am I spending it on?
I talk on this blog a lot about injustice, about forgiveness, about hope, about love, about community. Are those the things you see when you read my blog? Are they the things you see when you look at my life?
And what do I see when I look at your life? You are having an influence on me, too. Maybe you don’t even realise it, maybe you don’t see the myriad of ways you impact and change me. Those words you wrote that prompted me to go and read that Bible passage. The youtube video you blogged that made me go and find out about TOMS. The question you twittered that made me reevaluate something. Meeting me for coffee and taking me somewhere thats entirely Fairtrade.
Every decision you make causes ripples.
Every decision I make causes ripples.
What kind of ripples are we leaving in our wake?
I wanted to leave you with a glimpse of what one of my favourite organisations is up to again…
Christmas can [still] change the world.
Welcome to the Advent Conspiracy.
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