Blog Switch

I have decided to switch my blog to Type pad. This means that I will no longer publish on this blog but at http://tikhtak.blogs.com . I have managed to switch most things over so make a note of the URL, click on the link and take a look. Feel free to leave a comment with any stylistic advice you can offer.

Last day in Canada

Today was our last full day here in Canada. We started the morning in the church where I preached from Luke 4 on Setting the captives free - namely young people in the church. I was impressed after the service to meet a lady who had visited Shropshire and pronounced Shrewsbury as a local. This afternoon we had an informal chat over coffee with bloggers with an emerging church flavour. Mark Humphries, an artist/writer originally from Warrington was kind enough to present me with a signed copy of his book "A bridge between two worlds" as a gift for my wife..... I finished off my trip at Azhar and Janet's house playing with Michael and Anna and going for my last Tim Horton's for a while. Check out the updated pictures and a fuller account of what we've been up too on Jonny's blog.

Friday in Winnipeg

Tonight Jonny and I will be leading the evening session and worship. I have also been asked to preach in the church on Sunday. Check out the updated photos and Jonny's blog for more on the conference

Snow in Winnipeg

We have finally arrived in Winnipeg and are resting in the Holiday inn. Things are looking up with internet connection in the room so Jonny is completely at home! I will be seeing Azhar (Bro in law) & family this evening who live in Winnipeg. Here are some pictures of our time so far. I will update pictures as we go along.

Off to Canada

Tomorrow I am off to Winnipeg in Canada with my colleague Jonny Baker, who will be teaching at a emerging church conference held by the United Church of Canada called The Morph Project . For myself it will not just be an interesting trip to see what "Emerging Church" means in North America, but I am also looking forward to Visiting Azhar, Janet, Michael and Anna my brother in law and his family. I'll post some pictures when I'm back.

Encounter a global God

Irfana and myself in conversation Just got back from an orientation weekend for all the CMS teams going on a short term mission experience. It was a weekend of sampling different food, simulation activities and a great session on Indian culture led by a good friend Laekha from Bangalore. Irfana (my wife) and Jonny baker (CMS Youth Coordinator) will be leading my team to Bangalore 4th - 20th June, where we will attend a shouth Asian youth conference and then see some Christian youth projects in Kerala. To get a taste of our weekend click on "Encounter weekend"

At Your Service

The times newspaper sent a roving reporter to our church, Holy Trinity Clapham Common. Maria Cleminson gave us 3 stars for architecture, 4 stars for after- service care and 5 stars for history. Not bad I thought! I think with the up and coming commemorations of the abolition of slavery in 2007 our church is going to be more in the spot light. My favourite part is where she observes that " At times the style of the service may have seemed at odds with itself. The hymns were traditional, the sermon was fair and sedate. In contrast the children presented the discovery of Christ's empty tomb........all very different I suspect from the preaching of John Venn." Check out the article At Your Service

30 years of hurt

Images of Seagull theatre Spent the weekend sorting through, clearing out and even cutting up 40 odd sets of scenery as we moved my Mum and her colleagues Theatre from a workshop floor to a shed 15 feet squared. Whether I liked it or not all these plays have become a part of me as I have watched them being created, written and performed over nearly a 30 year cycle. Well here is the end...... or is it a new beginning? Above is a selection of scenery all painted by Louise Bagley from Coventry for plays such as Petrushka, Burglar Baggins, Peer Gynt, and Strife between brothers to name a few. Seagull Theatre of the Gorge has now become Seagull New Horizon's as they look to offer their plays out and perhaps do a bit of co work with Big Intent?

Birmingham balti

balti group On Saturday 9th April as many people were paying their yearly visit to the bookies for a flutter on the Grand National or watching the preamble to the royal wedding. (Kind of felt like the FA Cup final road to Wembley) Debbie James, Chuli Scarfe and myself travelled to Birmingham for a balti with ex MAD and Encounter partcicpants. In all there were 11 of us, joined also by our Colleague from the Northern team Colin Darling and for some time by David Fletcher from Crowther. We shared our experiences of life at home having had our world view stretched by our mission experiences. The world map was at the centre of our day and we used it for a couple of activities to see that we are all joined by a shared experience of being "Global people". We finished the day by looking at ways to encourage one another and fuel each others mission. We looked at blahonline as a way to do this but also floated the idea of creating a group Balti blog which we could all contribute to and share our experiences with one another on. I am working on this at present and it is an up and running work in progress. Check out a few pictures in the blah gallery called Birmingham balti, which i have just put on. I will be updating them with with more aswell.

WMR 3 - be an activist

be an activist Youth Resource I have just uploaded the new World Map Resource 3 on blahonline. It contains activities to go with the CMS world mat as with WMR 1 and 2. I have focused on the issue of asylum in the UK and a Christian response to it.

TESOL is over.

TESOL After 3 months of Unknown language journaling, Student profiles, One to one lessons, aswell as nerves , sweat and tears, the course for Teaching English to Speakers of Other languages (TESOL) is over.... Here are a few pictures of Irfana's course. The course Tutor "Will" is in the middle and Irfana is looking very pleased at the top. I am at the bottom with a big smile.

Youth group's biscuit identities

Just wanted to introduce the young people of our youth group The Mix at Holy Trinity, Clapham. Child protection stops me from taking photos, but there is no law to stop me from displaying their image through "Biscuit icing art"........Yet!

Big Intent at Greenbelt 2004

Images from Big Intent Fashion show I have just discovered some tricks you can do with Picaso 2, which I have just downloaded for free.

Seagull Theatre New Horizons

Seagull Theatre New Horizons After nearly 30 years of casting, rehearsing, touring my Mum's theatre company, "Seagull Theatre of the Gorge" has closed as it was and reopened as "Seagull New Horizons" with a whole new emphasis. Rather than writing new plays and delivering performances with a team of actors, she will now focus more on giving workshops with her co Director Sian Murray to share their own expertise and encourage young people to perform in the many plays they have done over the years. This of course may lend itself to some partnership projects between Seagull Theatre and Big Intent.....

He is risen!

Easter in Clapham
While much of Clapham slept through the hour they lost last night we were at Holy Trinity celebrating an Easter Sunday. Here Irfana poses next to our "Risen Cross", a symbol for all of Clapham. An interesting concept! The real challenge will be showing that Jesus is risen.

CMS visit to Peshawar

The group going to Peshawar for the Pakistani youth conference, from left Sam Leach, Kirsty Thorner and Lucy Stuart Lee flanked by Chuli Scarfe of CMS
Amazingly only after a few weeks we managed to find 3 young people to represent CMS at a Pakistani youth conference in Peshawar organised by the diocese of Peshawar. Today Chuli and myself sacrificed watching Englands glories on the football field to run an orientation. We were also glad for the assistance of Irfana my wife to give a Pakistani perspective. The group will also be joining CMS partners Nadeem Sadiq in his prison work and Yvonne Sired who works for an NGO working with refuggees and orphans.

Hull Youth For Christ on the TV

There will be a Breakfast programme at 10 am on BBC1 on Friday, 25 March 2005 featuring the work in Hull and the work of CMS Mission Partners Anna and Chris Hembury for 5/10 mins. It is called "Nailing the Cross".

Comic strip of Christ in the wilderness

Si Smith's comic strip meditation on Christ "40" is worth having a look at. It was also a worship trick on Jonny's blog. As you go through it you find your brain telling you the story even though there are no words, strange! but very good.

CMS United FC

Tonight we had our regular Monday night footie game for staff and who ever else at CMS. I have been unable to upload a picture on to the blog but try this link to see some of the action as we warmed up.

Dancing Paul

Came across this link via the Youth work magazine. It's a laugh where you can make a photo of a bloke dance and add effects. Check out dancing Paul