knee surgery

Video of what they did do my knee
http://video.about.com/sportsmedicine/Medial-Meniscus-Injury.htm

it is so amazing that this procedure was done to me yesterday, and today it is pain free.
we so often complain about medical care, but i am truly grateful that there is a service, free to me, that is so brilliant!
thinking back 100 years, i would have been 'crippled' by this injury for the rest of my life.

Spiritual Practices

Here are some on-line helps to spiritual practice that i am using at the moment:

listening to daily bible readings

listening to a 'daily office' or short service called "pray-as-you-go" its like a cross between radio 4's daily service and an 'everyday with jesus' type thing. there are other useful stuff here as well, like an evening meditation based on ignatian practice

one i am experimenting with is an online personal and collective bible study where you an add your reflections/insights on a bible passage and see what others are saying. could be good if a group of us decided to study a book/passage together. Let me know if you want to do this and i will invite you in. my online name is 'treforW'

one i havent found yet, or at least not a satisfactory one is a proper audio 'daily office' where set prayers and readings are read out daily. there are plenty of text ones, the best being the Northumbria Community, which is based on celtic spirituality. but i want one that is audio.

a final one worth metioning is sacred space which takes you through a 'led' meditation. needs some time though, to really benefit.

hope something here helps, and let me know if there is anything that you have found useful

What a tragedy

BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Mumbai attacks

We were there only a couple of weeks ago. this railway station is just like the one we used in Kolkata. Its such a tragedy that a country so beautiful, with so much potential should threaten to implode. I fear that the 'spirit' of Gandhi is losing its influence over this nation. We need to pray 1 billion peoples lives are at stake. Pray for my friend Shahid, his family and all their co-workers. They are making significant inpact in their area for the gospel. it is truly amazing what God is doing over there. As ever the only real hope for the people of india is Jesus. violence an bloodshed surrendered at the foot of the cross. Gandhi famously said that we should be to others what we would have them turn into. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed indeed.

'postmodern' songs?

Pete W has lent me 'Colossians Remixed' by Walsh and Keesmaat. intro is about postmodern world view interesting stuff. explains a lot about why people cannot get 'into' following jesus as an 'all-out' 'all-in' way. in this way of thinking everything people tell you you ought to believe is treated with suspicion, and no-one can claim to have found 'the' truth. Everyone might have a but of a truth and you can choose which bits of which truths to believe in.
to illustrate their point about suspicion of all the 'imposed ideologies' of the past they quote form 2 songs, leonard cohen ' the future' and smashing pumpkins ' bullet with butterfly wings. both worth a listen.

cohen links st. paul with 'stalin and the berlin wall' ! later he includes Hiroshima and Christ in the list. For cohen all these things are totally debunked.

the pumpkins ask 'what do I get, for my pain? answer: 'Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game' ie you cant believe in anything- it only leads to pain

interestingly both songs mention jesus - seems he is no more trustworthy than the rest of them!

so what's the implication? a) when we talk to people about the Jesus we believe in, many people will have these thoughts in their head - they are predisposed to disbelieve. b) we probably have a bit of this way of thinking ourselves!
leonard cohen - the future
YouTube - The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings

lyrics to pumpkins song

lyrics to cohen song

What happened next?

Buttermere.oct08.on_top_of_high_crags.,
originally uploaded by treforW1.

myself and 2 other guys took 3 hours to get from this point to the bottom of the mountain!
lots to learn from this little escapade, like being sure of not only where you are going but also the best way to get there; like having agreement in the team as to what we are doing; like discussing with the leader what he has in mind for you to do; like making decisions based on the best way to achieve your goal, which is not necessarily the most direct route; like not making decisions based on base human instincts - like hunger, or the pressure from parameter set by others with no knowledge of your situation; like making sure all of your team is up for the given task; like making proper assessments of situations before embarking on a downward journey.
anyway, we all got home safe an sound, and alls well that ends well and all that, and the nice people from the mountain rescue team who were willing to risk life and limb on our behalf got to go to bed early and not wast time and energy on a bunch of unprepared unmanaged townies who thought they didnt have to take too much notice of the mountain!

the new friars : The Forgotten Ways

the new friars : The Forgotten Ways

interesting article (and book, might be worth a read) for those of us 'doing' stuff like storehouse, homeless projects or even Tim @ grabauw.

It's been raining. A lot. Again.

It's been raining. A lot. Again.,
originally uploaded by jon bassindale.

this photo captures what Saturday was like in the Lake district. the power of the elements was awesome!