Mr. Moo's Random Moos

Jesus is coming, get ready!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:41:00 +0000

I wrote a wee thing for a primary school assembly, and thought I'd share it with you...

To Adam and Eve, who rebel and must leave:
Jesus is coming, get ready!
Noah glimpses the rainbow and knows he is free:
Jesus is coming, get ready!
Abraham’s son, Isaac, a miracle, is born:
Jesus is coming, get ready!
God speaks through a bush and gives Moses the Law:
Jesus is coming, get ready!
To the people of Israel, made homeless by war:
Jesus is coming, get ready!
Hear the message of prophets through centuries soar:
Jesus is coming, get ready!
John the Baptist shouts it, loud for everyone:
Jesus is coming, get ready!
Mary’s filled with joy, for she’s going to have a Son!
Jesus is coming, get ready!
Every December we should pause and remember
Jesus is coming, get ready!
It’s the time of the year when we give a big cheer:
Jesus is coming, get ready!

Sing, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come”.
“Come, Lord Jesus, Come.”

Advent

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Here's a video door to be opened every day as we get ready for Christmas. The play button will show something different throughout Advent. Enjoy!

Olive Branch

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:57:00 +0000

Dear Princess,

Please accept my humble apologies for being a sarky git the other day. Your regular dose of wit and wisdom has become an enjoyable part of my life online, and I thank you for it.

Lots of love,

Minister Moo.

[Image courtesy of saavem]

Catchup

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

It appears I have been neglecting t'blog, which just won't do. I haven't stopped pondering, so why the slowdown in posting I hear you ask? Probably in the main it's due to Twitter - why bother you with a blog post of a few sentences when 140 characters will do the job? So if you're not already on the Twitter bandwagon you at least will know where some of my thoughts are going (you can see them on the right of this page if you're on the Random Moos website). If you happen to receive my posts through some sort of RSS reader you can also receive my Tweets that way: Ministermoo Feed.

Rather than promise a full recounting of tales of the Summer, and then never delivering (a la the Princess - sorry, that's not fair, she did tell us about Singapore eventually), here are a few notes on stuff I was thinking about...

Team On Mission

The fifth/sixth/whatever of September came round again, which meant it was another year since Andrew, Joanne, Nicky and myself stumbled into Team On Mission #6 - a year of mission, banter, comfort-zone stretching and fun. I can honestly say it was the most important year of my life, setting attitudes, disciplines, friendships and aspirations in motion. It is not always this way: after all, throwing four eighteen-year-olds with diverse backgrounds and personalities into the one house with a common goal is not an easy thing to pull off, but I think in the main it worked for us. I owe my understanding of the Methodist Church in Ireland largely to that year, especially the fact that even where a small church is struggling to survive there are faith-full people longing to see God bring restoration.

The 'travelling team' as it is now known has a difficult task to accomplish, a sort of 'hit and run' evangelism where even three months in one place allows for only the beginning of friendship, and many relationships cannot be sustained. Yet I wonder if it's more in line with the original idea of itinerancy, bringing one message to many people and places, adding something to the relationships and formation of faith of that community and then moving on. It concerns me that we will be in Dundrum, Newcastle and Downpatrick long enough to build warm relationships but too short to see transformation.

War

We were very glad to see a friend back from a six-month stint in Afghanistan with the Army, safe and well. It's also been good recently to hear of the experiences again of Chaplains in the Armed Forces. However, it has unsettled me somewhat to compare the media coverage of the deaths of our brave men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan with those of the non-combatant citizens of those countries. Our forces are doing a good job in quelling insurgency and attempting to bring some form of peace and order, yet hardly a day goes by without another 'Omagh'. I shudder to think of the damage that is being done to those communities every week, considering the damage done in ours over decades.

That'll do for now!

[Chinook image courtesy of clarke_nr]

That's the Spirit!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:49:00 +0000

We're a few weeks into the season of Pentecost but it was only a few days ago that I came across a live broadcast from the BBC that was shown on Pentecost Sunday. It came from Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough, and was so good it even had Chris Moyles glowing about it :)

I was involved in an episode of Songs of Praise a few months back (by 'involved' I mean 'missed the rehearsal, slipped in near the back for the recording but was dragged to the front to fill an empty seat') and I think it's safe to say that by the time it was over most of us were well and truly knackered, and the fact that many of us still had smiles on our faces in the finished broadcast was a miracle of grace. The reason? One camera. One camera to take every single shot - the 'swooping down from the ceiling' shot, the 'gentle entrance past ivy-entwisted candlesticks' shot, the 'please don't laugh, please don't laugh, I know my face is filling 37-inch screens across the nation' shot, and the 'wide-angle, everybody's in it so it doesn't matter quite so much if I get the words wrong' shot. And a few more. We sang the same three songs over and over for five hours.

So it didn't come as much of a surprise to me that, despite the huge amount of work invested by the Dean, Cathedral staff and the choir, the programme felt a little flat. Contrast our Songs of Praise experience to the Pentecost service from Peterborough, and I was blown away. The service was live, but had numerous shots and angles. I'm guessing that being live made a difference to the atmosphere, and every little thing had been thought about to make it a delightful audio-visual encounter with God, inviting people into worship rather than simply the singing of songs. It must have taken months to prepare, and a lot of money, but it was worth it.

What do you think?

Vote!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:25:00 +0000

I break my 'it really couldn't have been that long, could it?' blogging silence to remind those of you living in Europe to VOTE tomorrow.

Obviously I do care about whom you vote for, and if you ask me directly I'll tell you who my Number 1 is going to and why. But perhaps more pressing is the actual need to VOTE! It's one of the responsiblities we who live in a free and democratice society have. If you don't vote, you can't complain or expect politicians to even consider doing what you want them to do. (And then there are the people who died to save us from a dictatorship, and the people who are continuing to die around the world in bringing freedom to other societies)...

So make the effort and do it! And pray while you're at it :)

[image can be downloaded from here]

Nana

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:22:00 +0000

It's been a strange old week, a mixture of our first Easter in a new setting, a return to Castlewellan to visit Craigmore Youth Club's Easter Camp, and the death of my other grandmother. Another fantastic lady! And again, I was invited to share a few words at her funeral. The text is below:

I’ve been pondering for several days what to say about Hilda Elizabeth Harte, or ‘Nana’ as she always was to me and all her grandchildren – Jenny, Ian and Malcolm; Nigel and Kate; Stephen and Sheena. She was ‘Mum’ to Mavis and Gerald, Ken and Averil, Ray and Sue. She was ‘Hilda’ to her brother and sisters, Albert, Mabel, Grace and Marjorie, and to her late husband, Fred. To many, many people she was that ‘lovely lady’, Mrs. Harte. I hope you don’t mind if I refer to her as Nana.

We were looking yesterday evening at Nana’s photo albums, which document much of her 94 years. Hilda Elizabeth Cummings was born on 14 July 1914 and lived near Washing Bay in Co. Tyrone. She saw virtually the whole of the 20th Century!

As a young woman she worked in Stevensons of Dungannon (otherwise known as Moygashel), where Major Stevenson on one occasion described her as the ‘clever little lady’! But she was swept off her feet and away from Tyrone when one of the junior ministers, who used to cycle past the Cummings homestead on their way to Stuartstown Methodist Church, courted her and married her on 27 October 1936. Fred and Hilda were a team, often visiting members of their churches together, where Nana’s warm style was very much appreciated. She played the organ, taught Sunday School and was generally wonderful! I received a note from a family who were genuinely thankful for Nana and Papa in their retirement as babysitters, and another from a local preacher who appreciated Nana’s encouragement as she moved towards becoming a minister. One of my stronger memories is of Nana and Papa holding hands while going for a walk – I remember how encouraging it was to think that a couple could still be in love after almost sixty years of marriage, and resolved to never be embarrassed about holding my wife’s hand in public.

They had moved to Margaretholme sheltered accommodation in Sandymount for a short period but it was clear after Papa’s death that Nana would need more personal attention. She moved back to Dun Laoghaire where Mavis and Gerald could keep an eye on her, but after four years it was fully apparent that Alzheimer’s Disease had taken its hold and she would need full-time nursing care. The Royal Hospital, Donnybrook, became her new home, where she very happily settled and stayed until her death on Wednesday morning. The care and attention she received there was truly fantastic, hence the family’s desire that you support the Hospital in Nana’s memory.

The scourge of Alzheimer’s is that it robs us of the character of the person we love, yet the body remains. At times over the last eight years we have seen glimpses of Nana’s former nature shine through – beautiful smiles and delight in playing the piano, a love of children and of singing, and her delight in God her heavenly Father.

Much was expected of a minister’s wife and family in the 40s and 50s, perhaps more than was fair. Nana had duties to fulfil and a role to play, but at the core of her being was the love of God. She found great joy in sitting down at a piano, any piano, and singing hymns and songs of worship to Jesus. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Today we can take comfort from knowing that Nana and Papa are now reunited in that place that Jesus had prepared for them, praising God together forever.

One translation of 1 Cor 13:12-13 reads: Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we shall see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. There are three things that will endure – faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love.

There is no doubt that in her last years Nana saw things imperfectly, as in a poor mirror – but today she sees everything with perfect clarity, the partial is made complete, and the three things that endure – faith, hope and love – have come to fulfilment.

Her faith was in Jesus Christ, the God who created us, became one of us and died to save us from ourselves, to bring life in its fullness. Her hope was an Easter Saturday hope – that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead would also raise her. Her love was in the One who first loved her, God who created us to be in loving relationship with him.

Yesterday some of us were talking about how different personality types respond to various situations. I often find it easier to talk about Jesus in this setting than with a smaller group of friends or family. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that there is life after death, and the One who we have the choice to spend that life with is ready to comfort and counsel us in this life. That was Nana’s experience, and it is mine. Feel free to talk with me about it some time.

May the God of love, who promised to give us his peace, fill all our hearts and minds with love and peace this day and every day.

If it wasn't for Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:03:00 +0000

If it wasn't for Easter, I really don't know what I'd do. If Jesus wasn't alive I don't think I could do this.

But he is! ALIVE, RISEN, TODAY!

And that's good.

Album Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Lots of people have done this, and I think it's amazing what comes up!

If you'd like to give it a go, here are the rules:
Follow instructions exactly:

1 - Go to wikipedia Hit “random... Read more” (NB - I couldn't find this so I just clicked 'Random article')
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to quotationspage.com
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. (NB - if, like me, you don't have photoshop - download getpaint.net for free)

No Going Back

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:06:00 +0000

In a sense, I'm at a loss for words.

It breaks me to write my first 'noticing' of self-denial regarding the people killed in Northern Ireland in the last three days. It seems that the off-duty army personnel threw themselves in front of bullets to protect the pizza delivery men, hours before they were due to leave for service in Afghanistan. And the police officer shot last night was among a number responding to a call for help from a vulnerable woman.

I'm writing today because in a sense I don't know what else to do...

Following the weekend's events it is clear that money, politics and being nice do not 'solve' our problems - this province needs desperately to be reconciled to itself. I find it hard to work out what my role is in that, other than to note that a deep-rooted sectarianism continues to be embedded in our middle class Methodist culture. If we can identify the existence of sectarianism there is a chance that we might be able to deal with it and work together towards full reconciliation.

Ultimately, though, we need to cry out to God for healing for those who have been bereaved and hurt; for a breaking of hardened hearts of those who believe that murder will achieve anything - that they would turn themselves in to the Police and receive the just penalty for their crimes; for the Church to stand united against evil and together in Christ; for the Spirit to move in power, bringing revival to this island.

For those of us who feel powerless, prayer is access to the all-mighty One who can bring healing to hearts and nations. May God direct our steps when we rise from our knees.

What more must Zimbabwe suffer?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:50:00 +0000

I just read that Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's wife was killed in a car accident yesterday. After all that the people of Zimbabwe have suffered in recent years, this is one more tragedy.

There are no indications at the moment of foul play, although my understanding is that assassination by truck has happened in the past in Africa. If it truly was an accident it will take great leadership and presence of mind to hold on to Hope. I pray this will not be the proverbial straw but that God will comfort and strengthen those who peacefully struggle for freedom.

I, along with many others, will be pleading, "How Long, O Lord, how long?"

The Path of Self-Denial

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:12:00 +0000

It's Ash Wednesday and so Lent begins. This year, rather than 'giving up' something (which is admirable but alas in the past hasn't made me any more like Jesus, it's just saved me some money due to decreased chocolate consumption), I want to travel down the path of self-denial.

If there's anything the human race could be accused of, it's the obsession with self, the monarchy of 'me' - and I count myself firmly in that camp. Despite my best intentions my needs, wants, almost always come first. Self-discipline is not one of my strong-points - it could not be said of me that I 'beat my body into submission' as Paul would advocate.

However, it wouldn't seem right for Lent to take on a legalistic tone where guilt comes to party for seven weeks as I fail day after day to live up to my higher-than-possible standards. Smoking-cessation advertisements carry the tag, "requires willpower". My experience is that willpower alone may not be enough to knock the King of self off his throne.

So here's what I want to do - and this post will act as a kind of accountability:
* Purposefully invite the Holy Spirit to fill me each morning for strength to live for Christ and not me
* Pray with Kathryn each night rather than watch the West Wing (!)
* Listen for God's whispers of, 'do you really need to buy/eat/do that?' and obey
* Keep an eye open for instances of self-denial taking place in the world, and blog them

Let's see what happens!

A picture speaks a thousand words

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:25:00 +0000

Well, twenty anyway - according to Wordle, this is how Random Moos can be portrayed in 20 words...

Hallelujah

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:23:00 +0000

The X Factor final has just reached its conclusion for another year, and a star is born... Well done Alexandra!

But the star over the next week will be the single that Simon Cowell wants you to buy to make it number one - Hallelujah, originally by Jeff Buckley [note: oops, just discovered it's a Leonard Cohen song]. It's a song I've heard many times before, I suppose popularised through (of all things) an animated movie about an ogre.

But tonight I had a moment of grace. JLS and Alexandra sang the words,

"But love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah"

The words spoke to me of the weak Christ on the cross - God's rescue mission to the World, doing something entirely unpredictable and stunning, winning and wooing us. Jesus didn't summon an army and beat us into submission; he lived and died a life of love to call us voluntarily into relationship with him.

And then comes,

"But remember when I moved in you
and the Holy Dove was moving too
and every breath we drew was hallelujah"

Tomorrow I'll be preaching on Psalm 126, which sings of the great things God has done in the past, but today being in a place of tears. A place where we remember the closest of relationships - humans and the Creator of the Universe walking together; but today feeling cold and dry.

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.

Hallelujah!

Slip of the Tongue

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:28:00 +0000

Gordon Brown made a mistake during Prime Minister's Questions today. And David Cameron made as much out of it as possible. See what I'm talking about here.

It caught my attention to the point where I sent an e-mail to David Cameron. Here it is:

Dear Mr. Cameron,

While the Prime Minister today made a slip of the tongue with regard to saving the banking system in the UK, your witty response had, to my mind, a little too much sarcasm contained within.

You said, "He is so busy talking about saving the world, he has forgotten about the businesses of this country."

I would contend that one of your main roles, should you become Prime Minister, will be to play our part in saving the World. Certainly our country has many problems and will face a very tough period shortly, but it is nothing in comparison to the trials currently being faced by the people of Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel, Malawi, Argentina and many other nations.

Mr. Brown's remarks were indeed an amusing gaffe today, and I appreciated the banter between members of the House. But please, in looking out for the disadvantaged in the United Kingdom, remember the poorest of the poor around the World.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Ross Harte.

Two-Year-Old Nativity

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:09:00 +0000

I was just driving Timothy home from the last night of our town-wide Alpha Course finale. He'd had a great time running around at the back of the room but was gradually becoming just a little tooo distracting :)

As we started to pull out of the car park he said (in his best almost-two vocabulary), "Church. Lord. Jesus. Born."

At least someone understands what this is all about.

Noticing the Grace

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:42:00 +0000

I've been inspired by these folks (via David's blog - see right) to be attentive to the notes of Grace displayed throughout Creation during this Advent season.

So let's begin - on my way home tonight I heard Coldplay's new single. The first verse is:

Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost;
Doesn't mean I'll stop;
Doesn't mean I will cross.

It prompted me to think of the people out there who have given up on Church - for one reason or another, valid or excuse, whatever it might be - who might think that they are losing their faith in Jesus. There is grace, there is hope, all is not lost, and God will not stop pursuing, wooing, calling.

I'd like our fellowships to be the sort of places where such people might feel able to come back and be embraced without judgment, to worship and pray warmly, from which to launch out in love.

Feed

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:06:00 +0000

A rather boring message, but I had gathered from a few friends that the feed for this blog wasn't working - they thought the last time I had posted was several months ago.

Turns out, I moved to 'Feedburner' but didn't type in the address correctly in Settings for anyone using the previous feed address. Amazing what a missing 's' can do!

And so to those of you - I think perhaps two? - who were subscribed to the non-Feedburner feed, welcome back to the fold of random mooness.

Reality of Psalm 100

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:13:00 +0000

This post comes with a warning - perhaps I'm being harsh! But in my continued thoughts on Psalm 100 last week a parody - or reality? - came into being...

“Mumble with a faint glow of smugness about the Lord, all you who could be bothered to attend tonight.
Give a little to God, grudgingly; sing half-heartedly.
Rehearse the same old, same old, then behave as if you’re on your own.
Come into his presence and expect congratulations for making the effort;
Take what you can and then get out.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations...”

What Worship Could Be

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:36:00 +0000

I'm preparing a sermon on Psalm 100, and in so doing have been reminded of what worship could be (as opposed to what it so often is, as described recently by Mr. Campton!).

So picture this, worship in the style of Psalm 100:

I imagine a vibrant, warm, energetic crowd of people, tumbling into the sanctuary, delighted to be there. This is all about the LORD. There is a hush as together we recall that the one who created us also loves us and sustains us – resulting in a spontaneous eruption of thankful hearts expressing their praise and adoration. A final moment of stillness occurs as we contemplate God’s goodness, love and faithfulness - to us and to all who will come after us.

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Gran

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:54:00 +0000

One of my Grannies died last month, and we miss her muchly. At her thanksgiving service - which was a beautifully powerful offering of worship - I said a few words, which I share now with you...

"Gran's been telling me I'd make a 'great little minister' for decades now. I'm not sure about 'great'... nor 'little'!... and my understanding of ministry tells me that she was as much a 'minister' as I ever will be. But I believe I have something to say that she would want me to say.

Gran's Bible is a heavily underlined document. It was given to her for Christmas in 1933 by her brother-in-law, Harold, around the time Gran made her decision to follow Jesus. One passage that was obviously well-read was from Revelation 21. One phrase that's highlighted is, "and there was no more sea" - a comfort to Granny as she nearly drowned on Arklow beach as a teenager!

There's no way of separating Gran from her faith, because it really would be like trying to separate two best friends. Jesus and Dorothy were like two crossed fingers. So in the last few weeks, more than ever, the promise of living with God in Heaven has been hugely important to her. She wholeheartedly trusted in God's promises, and it brought great reassurance to her to know that she was God's beloved, His joy and delight, one of His precious jewels. She looked forward with great anticipation to the day when the first course of Heaven, in which she presently lived, might become the full banquet of her reality -

"[God] will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Granny died with such peace, at home and surrounded by family. She smiled with her last breath - she knew where she was going. She is one of the 'victorious', one of the people who has persevered with Christ, she has run the race and completed it, who now hears the commendation of her Lord, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Now she receives her prize - God says,

"Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God, and they will be my children."

One final phrase that Gran had underlined from the passage in Revelation 21 is another promise, a promise that I know she would want you to hold on to. If Granny White's relationship with Jesus makes you long for something more, something deep, satisfying, meaningful, transformative, driven by love and a cause to live for, then hear this: God is real. He loves you, he died for you and was raised to life for you. He is alive and real now. And if you thirst for Him, today, tomorrow and for eternity, he says,

"To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life."

It would be the crowning glory of Gran's life if someone were to accept God's offer of eternal life at her funeral. She would want you to know and love her Jesus.

A few months after Gran received her Bible, she wrote some verses of a hymn inside the front cover:

Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise.

Take my love, my Lord I pour
at Thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself and I will be
ever, only, all for Thee.

Let's commit together to give our absolute everything to God as a sacrifice of worship, in honour of Dorothy Edith Jane White and to the glory of Jesus Christ her - and our - saviour."

Collared!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Weird, weird, weird.

Those of you who have been tracking my progress through Edgehill knew this moment had to come at some point (a little earlier than for Jools, who had to abandon his flipflops, poor thing)...

The time arrived in July when I put on the clerical shirt and collar in public for the first time. I found myself going through a whole range of thought-processes: For one, I believe that a clerical collar is regarded by many people within the church as some sort of mark of extra holiness - believe me, that isn't necessarily true! I do believe that leaders are called to model Christian discipleship and holiness, but I wonder if the collar puts a normal person onto some sort of super-human pedestal from which the only way is down. For the first weeks when I was on my way to the hospital or church I took out the white tab, I felt like everyone was watching how I drove, walked, waited...

For those outside of the church, the collar seems to bring either nervousness (I'm not aware of having the gift of words of knowledge, but a lot of people treat me as if I can see into their very soul) or a certain level of ignorance - there are a large number of people who seem to feel that they've 'got away' from religion and prefer to ignore any symbols of that religion at all costs.

But then there are the many people in the hospitals and homes that I visit, for whom the collar brings an element of assurance and comfort. In their moments of disturbance, pain and loneliness, the collar - and the one wearing it I hope - can bring a sign of God's peace into their situation.

Most of the time, I don't wear the collar. Practically, shirts have to be ironed and we're not particularly into the practice of perfect laundering. As just one member of the Body of Christ there are plenty of other Methodist 'ministers' in these towns who show by their daily actions what it means to love and be loved by God. But at times as I encounter people, representing the whole Body, the collar is an appropriate expression of God at work.

Flood

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:52:00 +0000

Saturday 16 August saw the heaviest downpour of rain in the whole of Northern Ireland for quite a while. Newcastle was particularly badly hit, around eighty people had to be evacuated overnight as floodwaters rose and entered their homes. The road outside our development pretty much disappeared:

It is a surreal experience to see a lifeboat being driven around a town to be launched at various places to rescue people from a cul-de-sac.

The strange thing is, we were in the house all day, thinking, "That's a lot of rain". We went for a walk when it stopped, to take pictures of the river and sea only to discover the trauma that other people were going through. How often do we miss the pain of others because we're not looking in the right place, or we're not there at all?

And where is God in all of this? I believe he walks with us through our 'trials and tribulations'... At the end of the day he gave a sign to the town that the ordeal was over - red sky at night: shepherds' and all of our delight - no more rain for a while.

What incredible beauty in the midst of turmoil! God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Allow me to take a moment to thank the personnel of the Police, Fire, Mountain Rescue, Ambulance, Coastguard and Council services. They worked hard throughout the night to keep Newcastle safe. We went to bed secure in the knowledge that they were keeping an eye things.

Lift me up - Flood

Master of De Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:21:00 +0000

Or at least of De Vinity?

It's been a while since I last blogged, apologies for that, broadband took a while to get sorted once we moved. But now we have moved to the seaside, and very nice it is too. More on that another time, but I wanted to share about graduating at the start of July...

My first time round at Queen's had left a bitter taste in my mouth - I scraped a 2:2 in Law and Accounting and didn't get to graduate with my friends due a failed module in the last semester.

This time was much better!

If you'll allow me a moment of pride, it felt good to be at a graduation ceremony (which included this year's law students) where my name came near the start of the list instead of the end! The Masters of Divinity degree, which was the bane of my life at many points, was lots of hard work but well worth it. And look - I got to celebrate the completion of three years' of study with some lovely people :)

One of the main roles of a minister is to be one of a congregation's theologians - someone who attempts to think theologically and to help other people do the same. I've had a good grounding. So thank you, Edgehill, it's been a fun six years. The staff and students who have accompanied me on this journey have been wonderful. And thank you, lovely wifey and son - your support has been invaluable, and I love you.

And a new chapter begins...

I Guess I'm a Minister Now

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Moo) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:58:00 +0000

Thirteen years ago I felt a call to be a Methodist minister (if you discount the many times before that when my grannies told me it was going to happen). Yesterday it actually happened! I have the bible to prove it :)

To those of you who are not ministers, it may disappoint you somewhat that I don't feel much different to Saturday. In my mind I'm still eighteen, loving God and doing my best to serve him by loving people. In reality I'm a husband, father and have read more books - but I'm still the same person. In three weeks' time my lovely wife, brilliant son and gently spine-broken books will travel with me to Newcastle, Co. Down, where together we shall serve the people of Dundrum, Newcastle and Downpatrick.

And I mean together. Kathryn and I think as one. The way we minister might be different to the way that has been modelled before. We want to live missionally, and encourage God's people to live missionally - see the red box below all the links on the right hand side of this blog for more. It's going to be a journey together, an adventure. Who knows what's to come?

The One who knows gives grace in abundance. We need it. Pray for us.