Recommended Reading

I got Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" for Christmas.

I didn't really know much about Doctorow before I read this, apart from his appearances in XKCD, and mentions of his name in the same breath as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. However the premise of the book - tech savvy kids fight back when the DHS labels them as potential terrorists - sounded intriguing.

I read the first chapter after my Christmas dinner whilst in the reading room, and the only thing that stopped me starting chapter two was The New Doctor, and A Matter of Loaf and Death.

So last night I thought I'd just read a few chapters, and then have an early night.

I finished the book at 4am this morning.

You hear the phrases "unputdownable", or "I couldn't put it down" about books all the time, but this is only the second time I've experienced it (the last time was Nick McDonell's Twelve).

I highly recommend getting this book. And if you are feeling the pinch, you can even download it for free completely legitimately.

Spread the word

-P@nd0r4

Prayer Points - December 2008

This was just posted to our prayer points email list:

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Dear Prayer Partners,

We are into December and the Connections Summer has begun. Our first
December Sunday followed a wedding of a couple in our congregation and it
was great to spend the next day picnicking together in a local forest
reserve (You can find a picture here:
http://will-briggs.blogspot.com/2008/12/update-observations-from-forest.html).


We are now ramping up to our "Kid's Christmas" event on Christmas Eve in our
local park. The aim here is twofold: Firstly, to seize the opportunity of
Christmas to present the gospel. Secondly, to do so in a way that builds
community, an accessible activity in a public space.

We are still making use of the local park and the local surf club as a
venue. We recently had a bit of a "problem" with the local council
triple-booking the park with other organisations. But to "do church" in
semi-public view and to follow up with bbq and fun on the beach is good for
us. We want it to be known that "Sunday morning and lunchtime something is
happening in the park."

We are still on the learning curve, however, and value your prayer.

1) Please pray for our times in the park - the key aspect of our
"Connections Summer." Pray that we are able to interact well with those who
see us, and that they will join us in some way - at least in conversation.
Pray for those who are willing to run kid's activities and the like each
Sunday lunchtime.One thing we are feeling the lack of at the moment is

2) Please pray for fine weather each Sunday!

3) Pray for our Kid's Christmas event at 5pm Christmas Eve. The reaction to
our advertising has been positive. Pray for the logistics and for those
preparing things for that time.

4) One of our difficulties at the moment is how to incorporate all ages
within our Sunday gatherings. Please pray for us as we work out how,
especially, we minister to our children. Please pray for the provision of
workers in this regard.

God bless,

Will.

Blue Rage!

Something that annoyed me the last two Christmases, and has now started to annoy me again is blue Christmas lights.

Seems fairly harmless enough. Just one of many colours of lights that people use for the large light displays on the front of their house, right?

WRONG!

There are two real problems with these blue lights, particularly when they are the only colour of light being used.

1) Emergency services
For some reason, these blue lights are the same blue as used by ambulances, police cars and fire engines. And if the house has any sort of obstruction outside streetlamps, trees or telegraph poles) the flicker of blue is just enough to add an extra thing to worry about when driving conditions are bad. Am I speeding? Do my lights work? Will I have to brake/swerve suddenly? etc...

2) My eyes!
The blue they have chosen also hurts my eyes. Its so far along the spectrum its bordering on UV and the frequency of light makes my eyes twitch. Grrr!

So in short, either dump these lights, or mix them with other colours to save my poor nerves and eyeballs!

Update: Observations from a Forest

I'm going to stop calling our current season "weird" - it's just "interestingly normal." I still get aghast looks from colleagues and friends when I tell them "no, we still don't have a permanent venue." And yes, there is tiredness and tedium involved in setting up, packing up, making sure people know where and when we are etc. etc. But the positives of being on this particular edge continue:

• This Sunday just gone we met for a picnic at a local forest reserve. Spiritual input, lunch, hide-and-seek, cricket with the kids. Interestingly - many of our long-term group did not come along (partly due to a wedding the previous day) - and most of those who were there are those who have recently joined us or came for the first time that day. God's gift of "getting to know one another."
• We are ramping up to having a "Kid's Christmas" in a marquee in a local park on Christmas Eve. So the next two Sundays will be in that same park. The physical "four walls" are gone and we just need to step up to the plate.

Parenting fail

Disclaimer: this post is nothing to do with Shannon Matthews or Baby P.

I haven't had much to blog about for a while, so I thought I'd better post something to avoid rusting up completely. Here is a little tale about my neighbours, and their wonderful parenting skills.

As I left my home the other day, the couple I live next door to, were having a shouting match in the garden. He was standing in the doorway of their home. She was standing three or four metres away by the gate with their two young children.

Apparently the back story was that he had jokingly told the children that they were to have "wee and poo" for dinner that night. They thought this was hilarious.

She did not and proceeded to scream at him (in their presence), "You cant fucking tell them they're having wee and poo for dinner! They'll fucking repeat that shit at school!"

Awesome!