Beer and bible? Do you follow?

Beer and Bible

One particular initiative for 2011 is Beer and Bible which aims to encourage the reading of the Bible in pubs across the diocese. The vision is to have the Bible read in 200 pubs with a focus on seasonal times in the Christian calendar and particularly during Holy Week and Easter.

A variety of social networking sites and web sites are being set up to support this initiative and there will be a wide variety of resources and suggestions about possible approaches. The central aim is the public reading of the Bible, though churches may want to use this opportunity to explore other activities and events in conjunction with this.  To see the video, click here!

 

A Challenge

We hope that Christians across the diocese will take up the Beer and Bible challenge and help promote this initiative in their churches, parishes, communities and most importantly their pubs!

I found this challenging project on the diocese of Chelmsford website. What do you think? would you want do try a similar project in your area? Let us know. God bless. Your sister in Christ. N.

Crazy Act 2

For his birthday back in December, Steven received a 'a Tandem sky dive' and he then decided to sponsor Imogen to go Chennai Challenge. So last Tuesday we went to see my brave husband just do that! 

We arrived at Hinton skydiving centre at 10 and I was surprised to see so many people already there. 

The organiser started to write names on the board and then called them out for the first load. We heard our name so we went in the hangar where the organisers were giving out the suits and goggles only to find out that one of the photographers was called Abram too! Steven was in the third load. Time to talk to other 'brave people'. There were supporters of other charities too, i.e. a seventy y.o. woman was jumping to support the Alzheimer's Society .  She told me that it was her fourth attempt, earlier dives had been cancelled because of the weather conditions. Not the case this morning: sunny, beautiful blue sky, only a few white clouds. The first load of people embarked and it took some time for the plane to move to 13000 feet. You could hear it but it was difficult to spot it because of the height and the clouds. 

 First part of the suit!

 harness fitting

Moving to the plane. I am nervous. I know he is not!

In the air!

What a wonderful experience this was. Praise be to the Lord! Have a blessed week-end. N

I hated life and wanted to die...

Mercy Ministries Awareness DVD from Mercy Ministries on Vimeo.


We exist to provide opportunities for young women to experience God's unconditional love, forgiveness and life transforming power in partnership with their local church.

Mercy Ministries is a national charity dedicated to providing a six-month residential Christian discipleship programme for young women suffering from life controlling issues, such as eating disorders, self-harm, depression, and the effects of abuse in all its forms.

Read more, click here

A pastor sentenced to death ...

In early July, it was reported that the case of Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor sentenced to death for leaving Islam, (click here for more information) was being returned to a lower Iranian court. 

Youcef is 34 years old and is from Rasht, in the Gilan province of Iran. For the past ten years he has been a pastor in a network of house churches. He was previously imprisoned in December of 2006, the charges being apostasy (leaving Islam for Christianity)  and evangelism (spreading the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ), but was released two weeks later.He is married and has two sons, Daniel age 9 and Yoel age 7. They were attending a local school when the government decided

 that all children should be taught about Islam, including those from Christian families. Youcef went to the school and protested this based on the Iranian constitution, which allows for freedom to practice religion. As a result, the secret police called him before the political tribunal in Rasht, Iran on October 12, 2009. At that time he was arrested, charged for protesting, and has been in prison in Lakan (which is seven miles south of Rasht) ever since. Later the charges changed to apostasy and evangelism to Muslims. Read more, click here.

 In recent days it was learned that his lawyer has finally received the written confirmation of the ruling from the Supreme Court. According to one source, the Supreme Court has agreed with the death sentence verdict. However, the court also found procedural flaws and is asking the lower court to re-examine the case. The judges are reportedly seeking clarification as to whether Pastor Youcef was truly a Muslim prior to becoming a Christian.

 If Pastor Youcef is determined to have been a "true" Muslim and does not recant his Christian faith the death sentence will stand. It is also feared that Pastor Youcef could be executed before the court re-examines the case.Please pray for enduring faith for Pastor Youcef as he continues to face severe pressure to deny his Saviour.

 Pray that officials will repent of their unjust actions and allow Youcef to be exonerated and released.

 Pray that all Iranian Christians imprisoned for their faith will be sustained by the love and presence of their Heavenly Father. 

To all my blogging friends, please pass this message on. Blessings. N.

In France for a week

The girls and I left for France last Saturday at 11 am and after four heavy traffic jams, we arrived in Dover just half an hour before boarding on a Seafrance ferry at 16 30. Then we drove to Rouen and stayed in the hotel La Campanile. I asked Cami to take a photo of that old Citroen (?) car while on the motorway, the autoroute A28



We arrived at my brother in Niort in the middle of Sunday afternoon. He'd prepared a lovely 'chicken chasseur' served with rice.





Tuesday lunch time, we went to Denis favorite pizzeria...

 Walking back to the town centre after Denis dropped us off at the 'cordonnerie' where we asked if Cami's handbag could be fixed...err..I am on holidays soon so it won't be for a while. We left the bag with him.

 Monday night, we were invited at an 'apéritif' to meet DRD's friends, Mme M. and her daughter Catherine. Could I possibly drive Catherine to the station on Tuesday at 13:45 as my brother had offered! I agreed then kept worrying about it. What if I got lost in spite of the short explanations written quickly? Finally Tuesday morning  I decided to  find their house early, knocked on their door and Mme M recognised me, her face brightened up.' I am so reassured to know that  you found your way here!' Then we had a stroll in the 'centre-ville' of Niort and a 'grand-crème' in a café near the market and the 'Donjon d'Alienor d'Aquitaine' that dates from the 12th century  (photo)

On the Wednesday, we went to la Rochelle, had lunch in a restaurant Le Bodegon, cours des Dames,  in front of the harbour and the two towers

We had for starters, moules marinière,  soupe de poisson and for main meal, poisson grillé avec riz and for Imogen, the vegetarian salade au chèvre chaud et frites!

Friday we went to the quiet and dainty island of Ré. As we discovered the beach at low tide, we had a feeling of 'déjà vu', we could have been sitting at Peel, in the Isle of Man.  

We came back home monday morning at 1:30 am. We left Niort at 7:45 Sunday morning and the roads were clear until mid-morning, heavy traffic around Rouen.We also paused for coffee and rillettes sandwiches with frisée lettuce. Soon after Rouen, I realised that we would not make it to the boat at Calais on time for 2:30. When we arrived there at 3 pm, I was told the next crossing available on Seafrance was at 6:50 pm so we waited at the restaurant. We left Dover customs at 8 pm English time (there is one hour difference) and headed to the M25. By then I was exhausted and told the girls I would need to sleep for 20 min in one of the services, the one by Oxford. I felt so much better after. I asked the Lord to give me strength to finish this long journey.

Blessings. N.