Dotty's Christmas

So, my friend Dottie, who helped to get me into blogging, because Chelsie introduced me to her blog, and I spent two hours reading all her posts about living as a single young woman in Cairo and laughing and crying (on the inside - I don't show my tears - much), and who played and sang in my worship band and who led worship when I wasn't there, and taught in my kids' school is now living as a single young woman in the USA and has very courageously given up her home and family and a great job in Georgia to move to North Carolina with some friends to plant a new church.

So here's her account of their Christmas service. They truly are pioneer church planters. I think God is very proud of Dottie...

"Also, tonight was our Christmas service at Greenleaf. In some ways, our first Christmas service was something akin to the first Christmas itself. Now don't get me wrong, Jesus' birth was way more monumental than our little service. But Jesus' birth was humble and things didn't go the way I'm sure Mary and Joseph wanted or planned for. Similarly, our service was humble with only a small number of us meeting together. And things didn't go the way Rodger and Angela and I planned. Angela accidentally left her sermonette at home on the desk. Rodger forgot the communion bread, so we had to make a stop at the grocery store before church and that made us quite rushed to get to church on time. I had a special song in the service that was supposed to be me and the two kids singing, but one of the two kids got stage fright so it was just me and the other child. And the room that was supposed to be left unlocked for us to meet in was locked and we couldn't get in. So we met in the lobby of the building. In the end, it all came together and was just fine. Nothing big and fancy, nothing that gave the appearence of being monumental or important, but hopefully God was honored through it all. Hopefully, God looked lovingly down on our humble little service and smiled."

HT: Life in Slow Motion

Decorating the tree...

ht: CartoonChurch.com

The Pageant is coming

Hooray! Tomorrow is our annual Christmas Pageant. Now if you've been reading this blog since the beginning, then you'll know that we did one of these last year, and the year before that, and, actually, the year before that too. I suppose that's why we call it the ANNUAL Christmas Pageant.

Anyway, it's tomorrow night, which means that today was our big rehearsal day - the day when we put it all together. For at least a couple of weeks now, actors have been rehearsing, learning lines and doing hilarious improv stuff, but each group of actors (shepherds, wise men, holy family, Herod and bodyguards etc) has been rehearsing on their own. Today they all actually met. and it went...um...surprisingly well.

It was good. We got through the whole thing twice, and nothing went wrong. Costumes=good, props=good, balcony made from straw bales=good, choir=good, lights we do tomorrow morning, visuals=good, sound=good.

So what makes it different from last year? It's sold out, right? There are kings, shepherds, Joseph. Mary and a real baby, right? a choir of angels, right? Yup, and of course, live animals. Well, I suppose you'll have to come along (if you can persuade anyone to part with their tickets) and see.

Please pray for us.

My friend Dave

Here's Dave from my home church, Frontline, in Liverpool, giving a rousing and impassioned speech (without notes) about the need to invest resources and time and effort into the chidren and families of Britain's inner cities. He's the man. We've known each other since we got married in the same year, and he is one of the most inspiring people I know.

He is speaking to the annual Conservative Party conference in Blackpool. He is not a Conservative, but was invited to speak by one of the Conservative Shadow Cabinet after they met in Liverpool some months ago.

For the benefit of my American friends, this is an unheard of event. Politics and Christianity do not readily mix in the UK, unlike in the USA, and there is no general affiliation between Christians and the Conservative party. In fact, the vast majority of my Christian friends are Labour supporters.

This amazing speech was broadcast on the BBC's Parliament Live channel. Even more amazing is the standing ovation he recieves.

Worst book title ever

Found this on Carlos's blog...

HT:Ragamuffin Soul