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

Advent readings

So we're trying to pick families to do Advent readings at the moment...


HT: cartoonchurch.com

A belated blog birthday

Actually, it's been a year and a month since I started this blog, and although I've taken a rest from blogging recently, it's been a wonderful experience, and I know that some of you who don't live in Egypt have really appreciated seeing little clips of life here.

According to my stats page, there have been 7,585 unique visitors to this blog and according to Technorati, the blog stats site, I'm ranked 137,774 in the blog world. Is that good? I've no idea!

Anyway, it's not about stats, it's about sharing life and I'm going to get back to business as of now.

Thanks for your patience.

Brianfest - the concert - at last

We spent the hour before the concert at a nearby apartment, eating pizza, drinking coke and praying about the event. We walked over to the field at about 7:45, arranged for the groundsmen to turn off the pitch floodlights as soon as I had finished making the introductions, and then we went up on to the stage. I said a few thankyous to all the people who had made the event possible, all the volunteers and the crew, and then handed over to Brian and the band.

Here's the set list...

Come now is the time to worship
Everlasting
I lift my eyes up
Your love will find me
Triune God
Creation calls
Psalm 13 (How long O Lord)
Go on loving you
Your faithfulness
You are my home
Light the fire again

Interval

Lifted (instrumental by Brian T)
Come and fill me up
Our Father in Heaven
Holy God
You surround me
When you shepherd me
The river
Hope of the nations
Today

Encore:
You shine
Hallelujah (Your love is amazing)
Stay (Orphans Song)

It was just amazing. I still can't believe we pulled it off. Not one single thing went wrong. There were no equipment malfunctions, no power problems, no injuries, no complaints from the police - nothing! Brian and the band were absolutely outstanding - they played brilliantly, and there was definitely an extra edge in their playing that night. It seemed that Peter had more of a groove going on the bass, Eran on the drums was playing so fluidly, Brian T pulled off some fantastic jazz/fusion solos and was conjuring up shimmering textures and rhythms, Philip on keys held the whole thing together and sang some great falsetto harmonies, and Brian D's voice and acoustic guitar were the icing on the cake. James spent more time playing the Duduk than he anticipated, and he told me afterwards that rather than playing to the crowd, he felt that he was playing for all the people watching from the balconies of the apartment buildings surrounding the field. He wanted to give the music a more eastern flavour and provide a point of contact between the eastern and and western cultures - to allow the Egyptians watching to find a thread of familiarity in the music.

The sound was outstanding, the lights were magnificent and the crowd loved every minute of it. Gordon had put together a whole sequence of visuals with lyrics for every song on a mixture of still and video backgrounds, and it really helped us understand the significance of the music. It was an amazing concert, but because Brian's material is all worship songs, the spiritual dimension of the event was really well defined. It was unmistakably all about God and not about the band or the crowd.

There were many non-church people in the crowd, and the feedback we got from them was overwhelmingly good - it rocked!

Cat poo coffee

A friend of ours has just returned from Vietnam and brought back with him a very special blend of coffee - the legendary "ca phe cut chon", meaning Fox Dung Coffee, also known as Weasel Coffee, which is derived (literally) from the civet cat (cat, fox, weasel, whatever). This cat is actually a relative of the mongoose and it eats the local Robusta coffee beans from the lower branches of the coffee tree and poos out the best (or most sturdy) beans that manage to remain intact after their journey through the cat's digestive tract. Then lucky people inspect the ground and collect the poo. The beans are cleaned and roasted and sold. Not cheap stuff!

So how was this cat poo coffee? Absolutely delicious!

Amazing guitar duet!