The Strangest Things...

Ho hum...

2011-02-17T19:45:00.000Z

Well it has been a long time since I posted here and the main reason is that I have been finding life a bit flat. I still haven't found a job and it has been getting me down a bit. I feel like life is rather pointless. But looking back it hasn't been all bad by any means.

One of the best things has been settling back into church. I'm the first to admit that I screwed up last year on that count. Although it is true I was away a lot, I often travelled in a way that meant I stayed at my parents over the weekend between events. I could have travelled on the day a bit more. But then doing so has helped me this year. I managed to get to church in Leeds quite often, in fact I think more times that year than the three years of university before. I went to the church for a year or so before I moved to Newcastle and the congregation changed somewhat during that time. Since I have moved back to Leeds I have rejoined the church and I am seeing the benefit of staying in touch last year. Most of the people I regularly spoke have left and I am making friends with new people. Also I am there on my own merit as it were, as an adult rather than a child, which has helped me relate to people better.

I have also done a slightly better job of staying in contact with people this year, though I have definitely screwed up big time in one case. I haven't really managed to maintain relationships with people from school, college or uni, but I have so far kept up with a lot of people from last year. Mainly the staff and Relay workers from the north east, but also people from the cus I worked with. I have also made friends with the wonderful Simon Oatridge, the new staff worker i Sheffield. I met him for the the first time at Forum, and I am working with him to organize the technical side of Forum NE, the replacement for the new leaders' training weekend.

I will be in London this Saturday attending the BAFRA board meeting. I am running for Director of Recruitment, which I am definitely the outsider for, and I'm going to get a feeling for what's involved. I'll also be in Newcastle on Monday. I'm going up with my Dad to check out the flat he rents out. As far as we know everything is fine but we'll start planning maintenance for the summer.

It is definitely the case that the things I am looking forward to the most are ones that get me out of Leeds. In the next couple of months I am helping at a UCCF conference in Doncaster, attending a weekend-long first aid course with St John Ambulance in Chesterfield, going to the BAFRA convention in Coventry and again helping at New Word Alive down in Wales. But what I want most is to find a job.

I'll leave this for now as I have stuff to do, but I'll be back :)

JM

A day in Durham

2010-11-06T09:05:00.001Z

edit::I don't know why but this has jumped up to the top of the list of posts. It is from May 1st and is a bit old. Confusing...

Ah. The annoyance of phones. I. have just tried to post from the train and the fun of the phone browser means if you switch to another app you somehow Los everything. Well with opera mini anyway.

Anywho, as I implied, I am currently on the train to Durham for the northern version of the CU leaders' day. As well as Durham we have students coming from Cleveland,Newcastle and Sunderland. There is another happening simultaneously in leeddvalso serving Bradford, Huddersfield, Hull, Sheffield and York.

The aim is to build on the New Leaders' Training Weekend we had in Doncaster back in February. Hopefully the students will come away enthused for their mission and full of ideas. I will be helping Pete Dray with a seminar on running engaging events. It should be fun :)

ps: Opera Mini is infuriating. This has taken about 5mins to write and about half an hour to post. For some reason you can't exit the text box without going back to the previous page. I think it's still in beta which might be the problem. Well I'm actually arriving in Durham so bye

Away we go :)

2010-11-06T08:59:00.003Z

So this weekend we are having a family holiday. Youth hostelling in the Peak district. A perfect excuse to go to Bakewell for some treats.

It does mean that once again I will miss church in Leeds. It is becoming a bad habit, but I will take the opportunity to see if anyone is around at Fulwood. Unfortunately I already know that Lewis isn't going to be there, but I shall see.

I believe it may be a bit too cold to go climbing peaks at this time of the year - it feels freezing at normal altitudes. Apparently there are some caves we can visit which may save us if it rains. I should probably check the forecast actually.On that note...

JM

Why I need grace.

2010-11-04T00:52:00.003Z

Tonight things have come to a head in a way. It has become apparent that I have been dealing with some big issues for years. Or rather, failing to deal with them. I have been trying to be strong and though it out, failing to see that I need support. People have offered but I believed I was in control and could deal with things. I have been under some stress for a while and there are things I need to come to terms with from years ago.

My mum is amazing and has been supporting my dad through some hard times, and she has had support from outside the family. I have tried to be supportive but I now see that supporting someone else takes its toll and leads you to need support. Which, as I said, I haven't been getting.

As I have tried to keep stress contained this has led to me venting frustration at seemingly minor things and at people who are not the cause. I would like to apologize now for all the times I have messed up. I would like to particularly apologize to my mum and dad, David Bass, Alastair Stanley, Matt Oliver, Rob Davidson, Holly Phillips, Lucy Popeski, Sophie Meredith, Emma Best, Joel Forster, Holly Reger, Matt Llewellyn, Paul Oatridge, Rebecca Harris, Mark Mullis & Erik Peeters.

I have been guilty of the arrogance of believing that I was strong enough to get through hard times without help. I need to accept the help of others and above all accept that I need God's grace in my life, as I constantly mess up and on my own I cannot sort it all out.

Sorry everyone.

JM

Nostalgia

2010-10-07T18:45:00.007+01:00

I am in the midst of an application form at the moment and I need to write a page or two about my life as a Christian. This has got me thinking about the past and little of it I can remember.Whilst I currently only have 15 or so years of happenings to remember so far there is much I cannot easily recall. As I hope to have a long and happy life, and maybe even some kids and grandkids to share it with, I think I should make a record of it whilst I can remember it. I obviously don't refer to the more mundane things in life, but anecdotes from my time at school. college and uni; all the other other random things I have done such as scout camps and church trips away.

I need to work out how to do this, whether to note stuff down as it occurs to me or whether to try and work systematically through the years, blocking out time spent in different places or doing different things then filling in the details gradually. It probably makes more sense to work backwards from the present, but I'll see how it feels as I go along. I will probably need to ask a few people what they remember - my parents are probably quite helpful.

Anywho, I will see if I can fit any of this around my job-hunt. I have to crack on with these forms, have a bath and eat before church smallgroup tonight.

JM

Long time no sea...

2010-10-05T17:19:00.002+01:00

Well I have finally got back on here after rather too much time. Various things have got in the way - the back end of June and the beginning of July I was away; I helped out on a Holiday Bible Club (great fun); I went on holiday to France and stewarded at UCCF Forum. The time spent at home has been characterized by an awfully unreliable internet connection [Bad talktalk].

Anyway I am currently looking for a job in Leeds or somewhere nearer. I am still training to officiate American football - I have now done 6 games, although the last one doesn't really count as it was not a Bafra game but an American high school game at RAF Menwith Hill.

I have recently got older but I am definitely not mid-twenties yet. I got a Spanish dictionary from my parents as I thought I would try to learn a little before the big North East Relay Reunion in Barcelona next summer (or somewhere in Spain anyway).

My little sister has just started uni at Sheffield Hallam so I have been down there a fair few time in the last two or three weeks, including a trip down on Sunday just to sort out all her computer stuff and set a wireless network for her.

Now I have moved back to Leeds it occurs to me that I am now ages away from a beach. The last four years, in Newcastle and Stockton, I have been less than half an hour from the sea. I didn't miss it much at first as we holidayed near the coast, but last weekend it dawned on me that I had missed Newcastle freshers' week for the first time, including the CU trip to the beach. The last time I went to the coast in England for the sake of it was when I was moving out of Stockton, and I took a slight diversion via Whitby for lunch.

Anywho, I have other things to do at the moment so I will bid you farewell, but one last thing - I had been drafting a post ages ago and got distracted by something after one paragraph. I have missed that train of thought bit I will wait for it to come around again. So here is that paragraph anyway:
"So, recently I was thinking - if marriage is meant to be such a good representation of the relationship between Christ and the church, then surely if we read a book about marriage we can probably take quite a lot to apply to our approach to church and the people in it. Obviously there are some limitations to the analogy."

Chao, JM

The Virgin Mary's Child, part 3

2010-06-20T20:55:00.001+01:00

The story continues...

The queen was given the power to answer, but she remained stubborn and said, "No, I didn't open the forbidden door."

So the Virgin Mary took the newborn baby out of her arms and disappeared with him. The next morning, when the child could not be found, a rumour began circulating among the people that the queen was an ogress and had killed her own child. She heard all this but could do nothing to deny it. However, the king refused to believe it because he loved her so much.

After a year had passed, the queen gave birth to another son. Once more the Virgin Mary came to her and said, "If you confess that you opened the forbidden door, I'll give you back your child and loosen your tongue. But if you persist in your sin and deny it, I'll take this newborn baby away with me too."

Once again the queen said, " No, I didn't open the forbidden door."

So the Virgin Mary took the child out of her arms and went away with him to heaven. The next morning, when this baby had also vanished, the people said quite openly that the queen had devoured it, and the king's councillors demanded that she be executed. However, the king loved her so much that he would not believe it and ordered his councillors to stop talking about it on pain of death.

The following year the queen gave birth to a beautiful little daughter, and at night the Virgin Mary appeared before her for the third time and said, "Follow me."

She took her by the hand and led her to heaven, where she showed her how her two oldest children were laughing and playing with a globe of the earth. When the queen expressed her delight, the Virgin Mary asked, "Hasn't your heart softened yet? If you'll confess that you opened the forbidden door, I'll give you back your two little sons."

But the queen answered for a third time, "No, I didn't open the forbidden door."

Then the Virgin Mary let her sink down to earth again and took away her third child too. The next morning, when it became known, everyone cried out openly, "The queen is an ogress. She must be sentenced to death!"

The king could no longer restrain his councillors, and the queen was brought to trial. Since she could not answer or defend herself, she was condemned to die at the stake. The wood was gathered, and when she was bound to the stake and the fire began to burn all around her, the hard ice of her pride melted, and her heart was moved by repentance. If only I could confess before I die that I opened that door! she thought. Suddenly her voice came back, and she cried aloud, "Yes, Mary, I did it!"

All at once rain poured from the sky and put out the flames. A light erupted above her, and the Virgin Mary descended with the two little sons at either side and the newborn daughter in her arms. She said to the queen kindly, "Those who repent their sins and confess will be forgiven."

Then she handed the queen her three children, loosened her tongue, and bestowed happiness on her for the rest of her life.

The End

Interesting eh? Its a bit weird in many places but it has some truths in.

The Virgin Mary's Child, part 2

2010-06-20T12:55:00.101+01:00

Continuing from earlier...

"No," she answered.

Then the Virgin Mary put her hand on the maiden's heart and could feel it pounding and pounding. Now she knew the maiden had disobeyed her command and had open the door. Once again she asked, "You opened the door, didn't you?"

"No," said the maiden for the second time.

When the Virgin Mary glanced at the finger that had become golden from touching the heavenly fire, she knew the maiden had sinned.

"Didn't you?" she asked for the third time.

"No," the maiden replied for the third time.

Then the Virgin Mary said, " You've disobeyed me, and you've lied. You're no longer worthy enough to stay in heaven."

The maiden sank then into a deep sleep, and when she awoke, she was lying on the earth in the middle of a wilderness. She wanted to cry out, but she could not utter a sound. She jumped up and wanted to run away, but wherever she turned, she encountered thick hedges of thorns and could not make her way through them. She was imprisoned in this desolate spot and had to make an old hollow tree her dwelling place. When night came, she crawled inside and fell asleep. If it rained and there was stormy weather, she found shelter there. But it was a miserable life, and whenever she thought how beautiful it had been in heaven and how the angels had played with her, she shed bitter tears. Roots and wild berries were her only food, and she went out looking for them as far as she could walk. In the autumn she gathered the nuts and leaves that fell to the ground and carried them into the hollow tree. The nuts were her food in the winter and, when snow and ice came, she crawled into the leaves like a poor little animal so she would not freeze. Before long her clothes became tattered, and one piece after another fell off her body. As soon as the sun began to shine again, she went out and sat in front of the tree. Her long hair covered her on all sides like a cloak. She spent year after year like this and felt the sorrow and misery of the world.

One day, when the trees were fresh and green again, the king of the country came to hunt in the forest and began chasing a deer. When it fled into the bushes that surrounded the maiden's dwelling spot in the forest, he got off his horse, pulled the bushes apart, and cut a path for himself with his sword. When he finally got through, he saw a wonderful-looking maiden sitting under a tree, and her golden hair covered her down to her toes. He stood still and gazed at her full of amazement. Then he addressed her and said, "Who are you? Why are you sitting in this desolate spot?"

However, she could not answer because she could not open her mouth.

So the king continued to speak, " Would you like to come to the castle with me?"

She nodded her head just a little. Then the king took her in his arms, carried her to his horse, and rode home with her. When he reached the royal castle, he had her dressed in beautiful garments and gave her plenty of everything. Even though she could not speak, she was so sweet and beautiful that he fell in love with her, and it was not long before he married her.

When about a year had passed, the queen gave birth to a son. Immediately following this, in the night as she lay alone in bed, The Virgin Mary appeared before her and said, "If you'll tell me the truth and confess that you unlocked the forbidden door, I'll open your mouth and give you back the power of speech. If you persist in your sin and stubbornly deny it, I shall take your newborn baby with me."

Part three coming up...

The Virgin Mary's Child, part 1

2010-06-19T23:55:00.001+01:00

After catching up with Doctor Who and Casualty earlier I picked up a book and found this intriguing little tale. Invite you to ponder where you agree/disagree with it...

The Virgin Mary's Child

The Brother's Grimm

(Translated by Jack Zipes)

A poor woodcutter and his wife lived at the edge of a large forest, and their only child was a little girl who was three years old.They were so poor they could not have daily meals anymore and did not know how they would provide food for their daughter. One morning the woodcutter, who was distressed by all this, went into the forest to work. As he began chopping wood a tall, beautiful woman suddenly appeared before him. She was wearing a crown of shining stars on her head and said to him, "I am the Virgin Mary, mother of the Christ Child. Since you are poor and needy, bring me your child. I'll take her with me to be her mother and look after her."

The woodcutter obeyed her. He brought his child and gave her to the Virgin Mary, who took her up to heaven. Everything went well for the girl there: she ate cake and drank sweet milk. Her clothes were made of gold, and the little angels played with her. One day, when she turned fourteen, the Virgin Mary summoned her and said, "Dear child, I intend to go on a long journey, and I want you to take care of the keys to the thirteen doors of the kingdom of heaven. You may open twelve of the doors and look at all the marvellous things inside, but I forbid you to open the thirteenth door that this little key unlocks. Be on your guard and don't open it. If you do. you'll be unhappy.'

The maiden promised to be obedient, and when the Virgin Mary had departed, she began to explore the rooms of the kingdom of heaven. Every day she opened a new room until she had unlocked twelve of them. In each one there was an apostle in dazzling light, and she was delighted by the glory and splendour, and the little angels who always accompanied her were delighted too. Now the forbidden door was the only one left, and she felt a great desire to know what was inside, and she said to the little angels, "I won't open it all the way, and I won't go inside. I'll only unlock it so we can peek through the crack a little."

"Oh, no!" said the little angels."That would be a sin. the Virgin Mary's forbidden it, and something awful could happen to you."

So the maiden said nothing more about this, but she could not still the urge in her heart. Her desire kept gnawing and pecking away at her and gave her no peace. One day when the angels had all gone out, she thought, Now I'm all alone and can take a peek. No one will know if I do.

She looked for the key, and when she got it in her hand, she put it in the lock and turned it. Suddenly the door sprang open, and there she saw the Holy Trinity sitting in fire and splendour. She stood still for a while and looked at everything in amazement. Then she touched the light just a little with her finger, and the finger turned golden. All at once she was overcome by a tremendous fear, and she slammed the door and ran away. The fear would not abate, no matter what she did, and her heart pounded constantly and she could not be calmed. Moreover, the gold stayed on her finger and would not go away even though she washed and rubbed it as much as she could.

Soon after, the Virgin Mary returned from her journey. She summoned the maiden and and asked her to return the keys of heaven to her. When the maiden handed her the bunch of keys, the Virgin looked into her eyes and said, "Didn't you also open the thirteenth door?"

To be continued...

Here comes the summer sun...

2010-05-29T08:53:00.002+01:00

Well as the end of the academic year approaches and people start to drift away from university I find my time is spent less and less in contact with people. No more three CU meetings a week. No more meetings with students. But lots more time for reading.

I find I start trying to read a book but nearly always I fid that I have as least half a dozen on the go. Disregarding the Bible; Systematic Theology (W Grudem); and the BAFA Rulebook, I am currently somewhere through: The Parables of Jesus (T Johnson); Faust, Part 1 (J W v Goethe); Just Sex (G Brandon); The Marlinspike Sailor (H G Smith); Aesop's Fables; The Complete Fairy Tales (Grimm); When People are Big and God is Small (E T Welch); God's Big Picture (V Roberts); Teach Yourself French Grammar; and The Life and Death of King John (Shakespeare).

I have decided that this is a bit of a problem. I used to be able to get through books very quickly and I think what has changed is a fragmentation of my attention. When I was younger and there was less reading I had to do, and I think if I only have one book on the go it is much easier to make progress. Partly because you don't have try to remember where you were or what was happening.

Obviously some books are easier to drop in to, mainly the ones with short stories or discrete chapters. But on the whole I need to reduce the number. So now I have to prioritize which I want (or need) to read first. A hard choice. I still find it easy to read if I find a book that particularly grips me, and if I spend enough time on one I can get into the swing of it, but sometimes the book you want to read isn't the book you need to read.

I will continue with the french as I am going there this summer and it is polite to at least try. And speaking of summer, the number of distractions has increased now that the cricket has started. It is wonderful to sit in the garden and listen to Test Match Special and have tea ad cakes.

Sport will take up a fair amount of free time this summer, as we can enjoy the Ashes, Wimbledon and the World Cup. I will also start going on the field to officiate American Football matches. Oh well, as my PS3 is currently out of action I will be reading more anyway.

Laters :)

May update / Prayer letter

2010-05-19T07:25:00.045+01:00

Hello again! So the last thing I wrote about was New Word Alive down in Wales. I had a wonderful time but it was very hard work. After an eight hour journey on the train we got started with set up in the evening. I have posted some photos on facebook. The weather was brilliant all week and there was some wonderful teaching. I helped count the collection and (including gift aid) we raised about £50k, which will be split equally between four charities. Again I surprised myself by joining in with some football. I really need to get a bit fitter. And possibly plimsolls are not the best footwear for kicking balls in.

Last month we had a team day and Jim Packer was due to speak to us but was stranded in Canada due to the wonderful volcano in Iceland. In the end our team leader's dad, Stephen Dray, came to speak to us. He was refreshing in his approach to scripture and helped me notice things I hadn't before.

This term the new CU execs have taken over so please pray for them as they find their feet. I am working to publish websites for Stockton and Teesside CUs. They are very much works in progress but hopefully they will be useful in the years to come. Also I am now working with a brand new Christian Union in Hartlepool. It's in Cleveland College of Art and Design. Currently there is no Students' Union but one is supposedly forming next year when they amalgamate the campuses. Please pray that as the only current society the CU will be able to work with the union to build good relationships right from the start.

Today I am going to Newcastle for another team day. We'll be looking at mission. We hope to use Orange Wednesdays to go and see Robin Hood.

I end Relay at the end of June and I will definitely miss it. So far I am undecided what to do in the short term but I will be moving back to Leeds for a while. Between now and then It could get quite quiet as students gradually finish the year and leave. We do have the third of our Relay conferences in June down near Oswestry and a couple more days away with other Relay workers.

I will aim to give more regular updates on here but I will write a full update when I finish in June.

JM

Old prayer letter number 3

2010-05-18T18:55:00.001+01:00

This is from the start of April:

So we have just had our Easter holiday, but what have I been doing since February?

As I said in my last prayer letter I was away quite a lot in Feb. I spent a week in Manchester supporting MMUCU (Manchester Metropolitan University Christian Union) along with a handful of fellow Relay workers. I was worried I would find it hard to adjust to such a different environment and to be honest it was easier than I thought but still weird. The events over the course of the week were spread over four different campuses (a horrible sounding word) and a couple of other venues.

Other than the different geography the main oddity was staying with people I had never met before and having to plan when to go back based on when people would be in/awake. The substance of the mission was familiar with questionnaires and lunchbars (a seminar-like talk with a free lunch). One of the days I spent a solid two hours in discussion with a chap called Charlie. It was wide-ranging and informative for both of us but he didn't come to any other events. Please pray for Charlie, that the Lord would speak to him and he would respond.

After a short break in Thornaby, I was in Newcastle for their events week. This was very enjoyable as I already knew many people there as well as how the week works. It was a bit different being there as a CUG (CU guest) from being there as a student. With no lectures to attend but meetings specifically for guests. All the lunchbars were well attended and the audience seemed engaged. I make some new friends but unfortunately (in some ways) I had to leave early.

The positive aspect of leaving early was due to the reason - that weekend was the North East region's New Leaders' training weekend. Somewhere around 150 students representing (nearly) all of the NE CUs were there. We looked at Paul's letter to Titus with its focus on leadership. We looked at how grace will be so important to then in the coming year. I helped to support the speakers by controlling their presentations. I also did the words during the music. It was great to see all those people enthusiastic to tell their fellow students about Jesus. Please pray for them as they take up their positions in the CUs that they will be faithful to gospel and loving in their approach.

The NLTW was also significant for me as it is the first time for a very long time that I actually played football. I even scored a goal :) I don't generally do much sport other than cycling but whilst in Newcastle I did take part in a fun game of Ultimate (except that we switched the frisbee for an american football).

I am about to head down to Wales for a conference called New Word Alive. This is a Christian conference which lots of students attend, and I will be stewarding there. I am also heading down early to help set up some of venues and equipment. Please pray that I serve without complaining and that I a sensible about sleep. I will be away for the best part of two weeks working without a break so I need to take resting seriously.

James Meredith

Old prayer letter number 2

2010-05-18T07:55:00.005+01:00

This is from the beginning of February:

So since the last letter I have had an events week and a Houseparty with Stockton CU. The events week was quiet but much was learnt about how to approach the campus. The houseparty was certainly memorable for the journey there, the torrential rain certainly slowing our progress.

When we got to the Youth Hostel, after a brief stop in Whitby to shop, we were faced with a half mile trek from the car park to the door in the rain. Eventually I reversed the car down the little road, using the rear fog lamp for illumination, stopping next to the little wooden bridge across the river. In the morning it transpired that the road was slip road and I had stopped about 15 feet from the North Sea. On the Saturday we walked into Robin Hood's Bay, visiting the beach and the museum, before heading for fish and chips in Whitby. In the evenings we spent some time looking at The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis.

Over the Christmas holidays I went away with my family to a lovely little place called Thornton Dale, just on the edge of the North York Moors. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with them, especially my Grandma, who I see a lot less than my parents and sister.

We had the second of our conferences, Relay 2, towards the end of January. It was wonderful to see all the other Relay workers again and we had some wonderful teaching. In our small groups we each lead a bible study from Isaiah. There was also a karaoke competition in which the North East team came second with an intriguing reworking of Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid.

We have also had a team day in Doncaster at our team leader's (Pete Dray) house. As well as an opportunity to spend time with everyone from the region we looked at engaging with culture, such as secular music, when we seek to tell people about God.

This term Stockton are studying the Free For All course, an evangelism training course, looking at the gospel truths and how these shape our approach to evangelism.

Currently the CUs are in the process of choosing their new committees for the coming year. Please pray that they make wise choices.

I have recently started training as an American football referee. This is a great opportunity to meet people outside of the Christian bubble I can find myself in sometimes, as I can continue with this for many years. Please pray that I have the opportunity to build some great friendships with the other officials and have an opportunity to witness to them.

Next week I am travelling to Manchester to help with Manchester Met’s mission week. Although a CU works all year round a mission week is a concentration of events designed to make the message unavoidable. This is going to be quite daunting as I don’t really know people there or how the campus works. Please pray that I am able to support the CU in the events they are running and give the students encouragement and support in their evangelism. Pray that I am able to get stuck in and not be afraid to speak to people about Christ.

I am going to Newcastle's mission week w/c 22/2. This will be quite different from the one in Manchester as it not such an unknown quantity. I already know many people in the CU and have helped with the three previous mission weeks whilst I was a student there. Please pray that I will support their work over the week. Pray that I will be able to meet the non-Christians that I know on campus and bring them to the events.

The new CU leaders will be attending the New Leaders’ Training Weekend at the end of February. We will hope to show them the vision and values we hold in UCCF. There will be different streams for the roles such as president, secretary and treasurer. They will learn their roles and how to work as a team to effectively work on campus. I will be helping with the small group leaders’ stream. Please pray that the students are able to attend, that they will greatly benefit from what we are able to teach them and they will build strong bonds so they work well as a team next year.

This one is considerably longer than the first one. As a result I decided to do them more frequently.

Old prayer letter number 1

2010-05-17T21:25:00.001+01:00

I wrote this back at the end of October:

So – New year, New place, New life. The last two months have been interesting. The year started at the end of August with our first training conference, Relay 1. The emphasis was, for the large part, on deepening our understanding of grace and how to live our lives centred on this. I lead my first Bible studies at Relay1, which was a particular challenge. I am currently preparing Bible studies on Colossians and Titus to use with students.

The term started fairly late for me so I used the time to do some extra studying. The freshers’ weeks at both campuses were successful with many people expressing an interest in joining the CUs. The regional team days we have are great as we get to meet together to study the Bible and worship God whilst and build relationships that could last for years.

Give Thanks:

All the friends I made at Relay1 and Forum. All the things that I have learnt so far, about God and myself, also the practical training I receiving to enable me to further God's kingdom. The students in the CUs, who are working to spread the Good News on campus. The opportunities so far for evangelism.

Please Pray:

That I will build strong relationships with those I am working with: Matt Oliver, my staff worker; Al, my housemate; the execs of the CUs at Queen’s Campus and Teesside; the rest of the UCCF team in the North East. That we find some people at Teesside who will lead the CU in the future. That I will be able to do some one-to-one Bible studies with some students. For the students who signed up in freshers’ weeks, that they would keep coming throughout the year. For upcoming events at the CUs, namely QCCU’s Houseparty and Mission Week, in the middle and at the end of November respectively. That finance for the year will not be a problem.

Please take time to pray and if you are able to support financially, every little helps. Any questions please get in touch.

Thanks once again 

James Meredith

Collected ponderings

2010-05-17T07:00:00.037+01:00

Well I am still new to the idea of blogging and writing something greater than 140 characters at one time. Twitter is rather fun and in some ways useful, but it is quite a different beast to approach.

I will, over the next couple of days, post a couple of prayer letters I have have written over the year. I am aware that not everyone got them and it will be interesting for me to look back a it. These will be followed by a new prayer letter, which I will try to send to people who may not have got the previous. Anyway, enough of the future (it will come soon enough).

This has been a fun weekend in some ways. There was a lot of sport, the highlights for me are unsurprising. Yorkshire beat Holland at Headingley in the 40 over competition on Saturday, followed by England winning the World Twenty20 against Australia in Barbados. We also had one of the most eventful F1 races I remember, with only 12 of the 24 starters actually crossing the finish line. The safety car was out almost as much as in NASCAR.

Televisualnesswise there were more enjoyable episodes of Doctor Who and Casualty on Saturday. But unfortunately series 2 of Russell Howard's Good News has finished. But the last two episodes, including a 'best of' for the series, are available on the iPlayer.

I was planning to cover all the fun music I am listening to but I think I will save that for another post. I you have Spotify and Facebook you can see my playlists, but otherwise I am gradually putting together a playlist.

valete

On and on and on...

2010-05-12T12:06:00.002+01:00

Well this has been the most interesting election I remember. After an eventful campaign the big question was whether the Liberals would work with either party or if the Tories would form a minority government. All weekend the assumption had been that they would work with the Tories, then yesterday they switched to Labour. By the afternoon it didn't look like anything fruitful would emerge but who knew?

What a difference a CU meeting makes. We left home about 7pm to go get to campus before the meeting started, and when we got back Mr Brown had resigned and Mr Cameron had taken over with Mr Clegg as his deputy. Weird.

At least now we know what is going to happen for the next 5 years (ish). A government can be removed by a no confidence vote of 55% of MPs. The Tories currently have 47% so it's not going to happen any time soon.

This has been a long week so far.

Eton Mess (or, What a Difference a Day Makes)

2010-05-07T19:13:00.002+01:00

We have just come through a general election and currently the Conservatives (Tories) and the Liberal Democrats are in talks over a deal to decide who can run the country. Given the lively election campaign most people were expecting a hung parliament, given the Clegg effect after the debates and a lack of faith in Gordon Brown.

When the exit polls were published the political commentators frankly didn't believe them. But with all but one of the seat declared the poll has shown itself to be fairly accurate. The Tories have taken many seats, mainly in England, but are likely to be 19 shy of an overall majority.

Now assuming that the Sinn Fein MPs do not vote, and discounting the speaker and his three deputies, there are (or will be) 641 voting MPs. This means a majority is, in practice, 321 rather than 326. This is complicated somewhat as the speaker is counted as one of the Tory MPs and the deputies could come from any party.

Nick Clegg is talking to the Tories first because the have the largest number of seats and the largest proportion of the popular vote. Gordon Brown is patiently waiting for the talks to break down, a likely outcome as electoral reform, the one thing the LibDems absolutely need, will be hard for many in the Tory party to concede.

Everyone seems to agree that how we elect the commons needs reexamining, and it may actually benefit the Tories, but what change to make is an enormous question. Currently a candidate needs to have more votes than their opponents, but they could have a small percentage of the overall vote. Effectively votes for other candidates are wasted.

But what alternatives are there? An easy change to make would be to replace the current first-past-the-post method with a single transferable vote. In this method voters rank the candidates in order of preference. The votes are counted in a series of rounds. In initially, the votes are sorted by first preference, just as now. Then the candidate with the least votes is then removed and their votes are redistributed according to the voters' second preferences. This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% (+1) of all the votes. This method will not find favour as it is likely Labour voters would choose LibDems as second choice and vice-versa, meaning in all but the safest Tory seats they would have no chance.

The proportional representation (PR) method is a bit of a mixed bag. Currently it takes more votes for the Tories to gain a majority than it does for Labour, meaning a in proportional Commons they would probably benefit. The big problem with PR is, if it is national, the MPs would not have constituencies, therefore they would not really represent voters or be able to deal with their issues.

We would need to use a regional system similar to that used in the European elections, but how big should the regions be. They would have to have (as near as possible) the same number of voters in each region. A workable size may be the equivalent of 10 current constituencies. The smaller parties would only need about 10% of the regional vote if we have a similar number of MPs.

One reform the Tories probably will stomach is having fixed term parliaments. This would stop parties avoiding the voters when they has messed up. If they go for this, they should hold the elections in the summer recess. Not only will this mean that all the MPs are free from dealing with bills anyway, the weather will be nicer (hopefully) for campaigning and voting.

What do the political parties think of Christians?

2010-05-02T20:01:00.001+01:00

I was looking at the Westminster 2010 declaration and I thought it would be interesting to see if the party candidates were skewed one way or the other. The MPs are asked if the will pledge to ‘respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience'. The website has five categories of MPs, which I have identified with the letters A to E.

A: Has signed the pledge

B: Past record suggests supportive

C: Position unclear of unknown

D: Past record suggests unsupportive

E: Will not make pledge

I just thought it might interest you. Check out the candidates in your constituency.

Summer Fun

2010-04-30T22:24:00.002+01:00

Well, this is going to be fairly a fairly sprawling post because there are a few things I was going to post but didn't get round to.

First things second, how amazing is Doctor Who? It's definitely come miles since it restarted a few years ago. I'm still unsure about vyhis new doctor or the odd new darleks but aren't the weeping angels scary? blink was always one of my favorite episodes - the idea is trurlely the stuff of nightmares. Roll on tomorrow's episode is all I can say.

Also I watched Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince today. I have to agree with many of the criticisms of the early films, such as the lack of experience of the kids, but sticking with them has certainly payed off. The characters are supposed to have known each other for years, and as this group of actors actually has grown up together shows in the chemistry on screen. Despite the magic surrounding the story the relationships seem very true to life and slightly more subtle than other films about school would be (can any say 'High School Musical'?). Anyway, the next two films are being directed by the same chap, David Yates (weirdly, both the producers were called Davis as well...). The first sneak peak was available on the DVD of HBP.

On to more serious things. Last night's debate on the BBC was rather interesting. Gordon Brown did not come across very well, he seemed to be backed into a corner but lacking the strength to fight back properly. Watching the worm suggested that the views didn't believe him even when he was saying something almost exactly the same as the other leaders. Clegg believes that this is now a 'two-horse race' between the Tories and the Lib Dems. I'l be watching out next Thursday to see if he's right. Speaking of next Thursday, apparently I will have to go and vote in person. This surprised me a little as I distinctly remember ticking the postal vote box on the form we had, just like I have done every time I have filled one of those in (four times, I believe). Is there a strategy for avoiding queues but still going at a sociable time? I doubt many people will be voting just before 10pm but i'd rather not risk it. Is there likely to be a massive line when the polls open at 7?

Back again to the title of the post. How do any of these topics have anything to do with summer fun? Well they don't. Summer Fun is the title of the playlist I have decided to create for my iPod. It won't be long till all the 'anthems' start coming out but I feel like summer is suited to fun upbeat cheesy pop. Not all the music will be cheesy, in fact probably very little of it will be grade A Dairlylea, but a certain amount of happy-go-lucky-ness will certainly boost a song's chances of featuring. Once it's decided I will chuck it into the spangly new social Spotify for your enjoyment :)

Those magnificent men in their flying machines

2010-04-23T18:09:00.002+01:00

Or not, as the case was for the best part of the week. As I spent most of the time the planes were grounded at a holiday came in Wales, it took a while for me to notice the lack of noise and contrails. As we were on the Llŷn peninsula I didn't expect that there would be many flights around anyway, as there aren't many airports near.

When I got home to my parents' house I had become used to not hearing planes and was happily going about my business, reading a book on the trampoline in the back garden, when suddenly there was this great noise which took me a second to recognize (we live pretty much under the flight path).

The problem with all this is that Mr Jim Packer was due to fly out from Vancouver on Wednesday, to Bible by the Beach this weekend, before coming up to Doncaster to speak at the North East team day on Tuesday. Although planes were flying again on Wednesday apparently he was told by his carrier that there would be delays due to the backlog, and he has had to cancel.

Fortunately for us, we have a new speaker, the team leader's dad, Mr Stephen Dray. But I have yet to hear what Bible by the Beach are doing, as they haven't posted anything on their website yet.

An Underrated Film

2010-04-21T21:29:00.003+01:00

I'm currently watching Eurotrip with my sister. Apparently she has never seen it before. Despite its obvious crudeness it is hilariously funny.

I do prefer though, the little gem that is It's A Boy/Girl Thing. I can't get enough of it. Freaky Friday was one naff bodyswap film, but this one is strangely endearing.

By the way, who is going to buy Avatar when it comes out next week? Will the lack of £D be enough to put you off?

JM

Here goes it then...

2010-04-20T23:45:00.006+01:00

I have had a fun couple of weeks. I was a New Word Alive last week, stewarding and rigging. Absolutely wonderful, I met so many great people. In the mornings I was on marquee one - we got to here Wayne Grudem on the doctrine of scripture! There was also a bloggers' meet-up hosted by Adrian Warnock. A list of those there can be found here.

As much as fun as I had, I am really looking forward to getting back to Thornaby. It has been quite a while since I saw most of the students and it will be great to catch up.

Anywho, time for bed methinks, I am still shattered from nwa. I actually slept until 2pm today. Btw, if you are interested in downloading some of the talks you can do so here.