The climbing wall

Here's Holly testing it out for size. My brother in law, Mark, built most of it when he and my sister were staying with us last week. I finished it off this weekend. Just needs a bit of varnish for weather protection.

Mark Jaffrey.
 
mark@jaffrey.co.uk
markjaffrey.blogspot.com

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What is going on in my life?

My sister (Alexa) and her husband (also Mark) are staying with us
We're eating the Thai food they cook
We are doing art projects - my first oil painting is nearly finished
Mark is building the girls a climbing wall
We are preparing for a 5 day trip to Sinai this weekend
Today is Alexa's birthday. Happy Birthday!
I am editing audio files for church this weekend
I had a long and difficult (but ultimately good) school board meeting last night
I am practicing my guitar
I am reading "Wind In The Willows" to Holly
I am ordering some replacement parts for both electric guitars
I am trying to help a struggling refugee artist
I am having the Jeep serviced for our trip to Sinai
The water pump was replaced this week after it blew on our last camping trip
I am being challenged by the Compassion bloggers. Wow. http://compassionbloggers.com/trips
I am trying to change our church website hosting and domain registration
I am trying to spend this year's budget before Monday :-)
I have about ten books half read and a further thirty or so on my reading list
I really need to tidy my piling system
We are trying to make plans for our summer trip home
I am upgrading the memory in both iMacs, work and home
I am trying to involve more traditional instruments in our church band
I am trying to get more volunteers involved in serving in church
I am eating too much food
I am trying to finish an outstanding insurance claim on our house (which we sold)
I am organising new health and life insurance
I am buying more books that I don't have time to read
I am drinking lots of coffee

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This video made me happy today

A stunning piece of art - he manages to make the whole thing look like a model set in a studio. Love the helicopter behaving like a dragonfly.

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Rolling out Single Dad Week v 2.0

Felicity has just left for the airport to fly back to England for her Granny's funeral.

So it's Single Dad Week all over again at our house. Monday is a national holiday here so I am taking the girls camping in the desert; ruined Greco-Roman cities, Pharaonic temples, sand dunes and steaks cooked on an open fire.

See you all when I get back!

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Wolf Pigeons and Shark Falcons. Yes!

Wait for the Junior R&D Engineer's piece. It's perfect.

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Friday services setlist

The services this weekend have been fantastic.

Thursday night we set up the band on the floor, not on the platform, and put the chairs in a horseshoe configuration around the band. This gave us a great vibe and atmosphere of increased intimacy with God. At times in the service we just paused and listened to God speaking to us in silence. This morning we had the kids in the service for the first fifteen minutes which is always lots of fun, and then we pressed in to God's throne room with some passionate worship.

The theme of the worship was dependency on God, hunger for him, thirst for him, finding our sufficiency in him, and Travis (Youth Pastor) preached from Matthew 6:1-18 on how prayer, fasting and giving are a form of non-violent resistance to the oppressive powers of this world.

Here's how it went down:

Opener: Lord You Are Good - Israel Houghton

Welcome & notices

Kid's singing: Mercy is Falling - David Ruis
Kid's devotional

Enough - Chris Tomlin
Hungry - Katherine Scott
Breathing the Breath - Matt Redman
(So much fun to get the congregation singing in 7/8 time in the bridge of this song)

Sermon - Non-Violent Protest (through prayer, fasting and giving)

Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble - Martin Smith

This post is part of "Sunday Setlists" over at Fred McKinnon's blog.
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Daffodils are nice

Felicity brought home some daffodils from England. They are nice. I haven't seen Daffodils for six years. They are more yellow than they look in this photo. This blog entry reads like a seven-year-old's school essay.

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Daddy/Daughter Date @ Fresco

Hannah and I went out for a treat while Holly played football after school. Fresco does amazing smoothies and their waffles are pretty nice too :-)

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The future of music?

You have to check out this great track, created by mixing a whole pile of youtube clips together.

The man's a genius.

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Single Dad Week

Felicity has had to go to England at short notice to care for her old and frail Grandmother, so it's Single Dad Week at our house. Cue lots of junk food, tv, mess and chaos!

Actually it's going very smoothly so far.  Only a few small tears from the girls here and there as they miss their Mummy and realise they're stuck with me for a whole week, but apart from that, it's all pretty cool.

Part of the reason it's all so smooth is that Felicity has left me with an incredible master list giving instructions day by day as to what needs to be accomplished, which days they need sports kit, what to pack in their lunches, and a tick checklist of things that need to be done before going to school - brush hair, clean teeth, make bed, feed tortoises etc. It's amazing! I can run through the list get everything ticked, and then the three of us have tons of spare time to lie around on the sofa watching tv and eating junk food.

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