Beautiful...

As most of you already know Lindsay went home to be with Jesus yesterday morning. Please pray for Alain and the Anderson and Emerson families at this time of grief. Pray that they will experience the God of comfort and peace.

Sometimes the most beautiful things of this world only last a moment - a sunset, a butterfly, cherry blossom, are all so beautiful and yet short lived. Lindsay was only 23 and she was one of the most beautiful people i have ever met. Stunningly beautiful in appearance but more than that she had a very beautiful spirit - warm, kind and compassionate. I will miss her.

For sale...

The day has come when i am selling the 'yoke'. The Megane and I have been together now for 10 years so it's a reluctant sale but my loss will definitely be someone else's gain! Here are the important details:

Year: 1997
Model: 1.6 16v Megane RT Sport
Miles: 133,000
Other info: full electrics, alloy wheels, remote central locking.
Price: £550 (negotiable!)

If you are interested, or know of anyone who may be interested then leave a comment!

Bulgaria baby...

Just back from a week of snow-boarding in Bulgaria. I was away with 115 other people from Waringstown Presby so I'm pretty sure that makes it a working holiday - yeah right!!! Anyways, it was a great trip. We were staying in Pamparovo and managed to arrive during the best snow of their season and so had a great week on and off the slopes! This was my third full week of snow boarding in the last few years so I'm definitely getting the hang of it. My mate Dave was there too (same level of boarding as me) and we went to try and get some 'intermediate' lessons to improve our technique but the instructor told us we were 'advanced'! Both of us laughed about this a lot cos i don't think he would have called us advanced if he had seen how much time we spent on our butts!

It was great going away with so many people because no matter where you went there was people from our group and the banter was excellent in the evenings. It was also a great trip for me to get to know a few more people from the church. It's scary to think that at the end of this month i will have been at WPC for a year.

I had to do a morning devotion whilst away and so focused on a verse i have been thinking about recently from John 20. I've been thinking about this ever since Pete Greig highlighted this verse at the Nua conference i was at recently. The context is the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene has found the tomb empty and is understandably upset and then she has a conversation with what she thinks is the gardener but is actually Jesus. What we read here are Jesus' first words of the new covenant to humanity and they are 'why are you crying?'. This amazes me as it speaks several things to me about who God is:

1. God is a God of COMPASSION - He cares deeply about our hurt, pain and sorrow. 'Why are you crying?'
2. God is a God who UNDERSTANDS - He identifies with our pain in that He suffered and died in his humanity. 'Why are you crying?'
3. God is a God who LISTENS - Jesus listens to Mary's pain and hurt, even though he knows exactly why she is crying, he still asks 'why are you crying?' and he listens.

In our pain, hurt and sorrow, we can run a to a God of compassion, who understands and listens and ultimately we will find COMFORT.

27 for me and Healy does it again...

So it was my Birthday yesterday - grand young age of 27! It's funny cos i really don't feel like I'm 27, more like 23 maybe! Although i got a toolbox, complete with tools from my parents so that kinda made me feel at least 27!!!

Coincidentally my birthday fell on the same date as N. Ireland v Sweden. I have been going to all the home games of this European campaign so what better way to spend a Birthday but with 14,000 people in Windsor Park singing 'Stand up for the Ulstermen', 'Green and White Army' and 'Lets all do the bouncy'. Despite N.I's recent run of form i still found myself braced for defeat but no dissapointment was to be found! It was an amazing game with 2 cracker goals by Healy the legend. Sweden were outplayed and N. Ireland played out of their skin! So now we find ourselves top of the group - 'we're gonna win the euros'!

Scandanavian experience...

I realise that this blog is turning into a 'wish you were here' programme and i assure you i am not on commission from Thomas Cook! However, this time last week i was over visiting my friend Alan in Sweden. I went to school with Alan and he has been living in Sweden in the city of Lund with his girlfriend Helena since last June. Above is a picture of the 3 of us and one of Lund.

This was my first experience of Scandanavia and it was a very positive one. Lund was a quaint little city with a huge student population. The Swedish pace of life came across to me as being a little more relaxed than home as people mostly got around on their bicycles - people seemed less in a rush! It was a very relaxing few days for me with lots of time to just potter about the town and chill out together and play some cards - they play this game called 7's at which i think i excelled!

Lund is situated only 50mins from Copenhagen (Denmark) by train. So on Monday as Al and Helena were both working i took myself off to explore another country for the day! Copenhagen is a beautiful city and well worth a visit. It's quite small so it was great for me to just wander about for a few hours. One really interesting place i visited in the city was a community called 'Christiania' which is home to approx 1000 people who are seeking to live an alternative way. The community started with a group of squatters in 1969/70 in an area that was an abandoned military base. The area covering 85 acres soon attracted publicity which resulted in massive immigration of people who wanted to create another life based on communal living and freedom. This led to a political situation with the government trying to remove the people by force on several occassions but the numbers of people and large area have made this impossible. So they are left with this constant tension. There is a constant heavy police presence in the community which was intimidating for me at first. This was heightened as you see many groups of men standing warming themselves around barrels of fire on every corner (see picture). Part of me felt like a riot could ensue at any moment but i was reassured that this was just normality for Christiania.

The people see themselves as a community living independently of Denmark and the EU and so don't pay taxes. Anyone who lives within the community must therefore have to contribute in some way to make it work. For lots more info on the history and current situation within this community click here.

Anyways, ive just had a weekend at home for a change and it was lovely, i must try it more often!

Barca baby, and a couple of surprises...

So I just got back last night from a wee trip to Barcelona from Saturday to Tuesday. Stefan and i went over to visit our mate Simon who we met a couple of years ago when travelling around Europe. Simon lives in Barca with his parents (his dad is Spanish and mum is S. African) who live across the street from the Nou Camp stadium (seriously, the picture on the left shows a view from their apartment balcony). Simon is a season ticket holder at FC Barcelona and was able to get us great tickets for Sunday nights match against Athletic Bilbao. Barca won 3-0 and it was fantastic to see Ronaldinho turn on the fancy footwork in the second half.

Had an amazing trip and one of the big highlights was experiencing a bit of Spanish culture by staying with Simon's family. Every Sunday his whole family (2 brothers and 1 sister) descend on the family home for a meal together. Simon's dad has been cooking his famous paella (see pic to left) every Sunday for the last 35 years and it tastes absolutely amazing! Not only that but it was a fantastic experience to sit around a table with a Spanish family and be part of their culture. Spanish families are still very close which i was surprised to hear. Sometimes we are arrogant enough to think that families in other countries couldn't be as close as our wee families in NI. Simon's family was one of the most friendly, hospitable, affectionate and loving families i have ever met and so it was a real joy to spend a bit of time with them - they all spoke good English too which helps cos my Spanish is about as good as my Chinese!

Outside of the Barca match we did a bit more sightseeing around the city. As Stefan and i had been to the city before, Simon took us to less touristed and more inaccessible areas outside the city. Barca is surrounded by a few hills and one of these hills called Tibidabo has a lovely old chapel on top of it (see pic to left). Simon knows of our religious interests and so he thought this particular place would be of interest to us. Not only did it offer some fantastic views over the city (see left) but there was a jewel to be found inside that i just blew me away. Inside this beautiful old building there was a room that tourists were not allowed into - it was a prayer room. After asking a few questions we found out that this was a room for 24/7 prayer. This immediately excited me and so i got Simon to ask the priest how long people had been praying 24/7 in this room for? I was completely taken aback when he replied 40 YEARS! That kinda blows our 3 day prayer crusades out of the water eh?!

Other place we seen were Sitges, a beautiful coastal town, the olympic village and the Dali museaum in Figueres (not sure what i think about Dali except that he was a crazy genuis)! All in all a great trip and Simon was a great host! We are already planning the return leg to Ireland before the end of the year!

A very funny story happened to me on my way home. Simon and Stefan dropped me off at the airport for my Ryan Scare flight home to Dublin (Stefan was flying to Manchester later that day). You know the bit after check-in when you go to departures and have to put your bag, coat and contents of your pockets through the x-ray machine and then walk through the metal detection. Well i beeped - and i never beep! So the guy told me take off my watch and belt which i duly did but lo and behold i beeped again! So this disgruntled Spanish guy then pulls out a hand held version of the metal detection machine and begins to wave it around my body starting from the top. Suddenly the machine starts beeping when he gets to the right pocket of the jacket i was wearing. As it dawns on me what is in that pocket my face quickly turns a shade of crimson. He signals to me to empty the pocket and imagine my embarrassment as out of my pocket i pull a condom! Now before you write me off completely as a lost cause, let me explain what had happened 10 minutes before this moment! Simon has a friend who works for Durex and so he has a bag in his boot filled with free condoms that he gives to his mates. As a bit of a joke, when i was leaving, my good friend Stefan discreetly placed one of these in my pocket without me realising. As i stood in the check-in queue i found it in my pocket but not being near a bin to dispose of it i returned it to the pocket with the intention of dealing with it in a few minutes - but of course i forgot all about it until i find myself emptying my pockets in front of this disgruntled Spanish bloke with no way of communicating to him that i have been set-up! Anyways, my embarrassment quickly subsided and i was able to have a good old chuckle about it all the way home!

Memory making with the lads...

Took our Youth Alpha guys away to Donegal for a night on Saturday. These are a group of 8 lads aged 15-17 who use the basement drop-in centre. Myself and another leader have been running a Youth Alpha course with them each Wednesday for about the last month. We decided it would be good to get them away for a night and chose Donegal because it was completely out of the way of any distractions (i.e. alcohol or girls!) and we were kindly offered the use of a house outside Carrigart.

I was a little anxious in the run up to the weekend. My main worries were that they would mess about and i would lose the rag with them, and that they would be completely bored and hate it! I was thinking about it a lot on Friday night and by Saturday morning i had a real peace about it and i was excited about what was going to happen! more than anything i just wanted this group of lads to have a night away that they would remember for years!

We left about 2pm on Saturday, loaded into 2 cars and arrived about 5pm. We went straight to Rossapenna beach and played a bit of frisbee and Nerf ball and then started collecting a bit of wood for a bonfire later that night. Then we headed back to the house, settled in and prepared dinner. Each week we have a different volunteer from the church who prepares dinner for our Alpha which is such a blessing. Sharing a meal together each week is such a great place for building relationships. So for the night away i had a couple of volunteers prepare two meals that could be easily reheated. After our feast we started into our Alpha discussion. Being honest with you, this group do not make discussion easy and in fact are not used to sitting round having a serious discussion. Each week we are lucky to get 5-10 minutes of good discussion. So i was expecting a similar pattern on Saturday evening. On the contrary, we launched into an hour long discussion covering questions like:

• Do you feel like you should be living your life differently?
• Do you know anyone who's life has been changed by God?
• Have you ever prayed? Have you ever seen God answer prayer?
• Have you ever read the Bible?

It was so encouraging to see almost all of the guys really engaging with the discussion and not getting distracted. Hopefully this will set a pattern for the weeks to come! After the discussion we made our way down to the beach, picking up some more wood on the way. I had hoped the guys would really enjoy the whole lighting a fire thing and sitting around it because it's something i love to do! I wasn't dissapointed! I think there is a bit of a 'pyro' within all of us guys - it's that God given adventurous spirit we have! So within half an hour we had a great fire going. At that stage i suggested the idea of going in for a wee swim - i was half serious and half joking and most of them were like 'aye right Neil, whatever!' Then one or 2 decided they would go in if i did so that was it, i wasn't for backing down at that stage so within 10 minutes there were 6 of us charging into the freezing cold February Atlantic for a quick dip!!! This was quickly followed by a dash back to fire to dry off and warm up! Now we were definitely starting to make those memories! After that we sat around the fire for about another couple of hours just chatting, telling our most embarrassing stories and when we have been most scared. It was one of those really special nights - a shared experience with a group of people that we'll still talk about in 10 years time!

The rest of the night back in the house involved little or no sleep for some but the craic was good. Sunday was basically breakfast, tidy and clean up, back to beach for some 'ultimate nerf ball', lunch and then home! The guys all had a ball, so much so that they want to go next weekend to do it all over again! Here is a picture of the unforgettable Donegal 10!

Better late than never!

I know it's been almost 2 weeks since the aforementioned Youth Weekend but i thought i'd give you an update of how it went anyway!

This year’s retreat was held at Castlewellan Castle and including leaders we had 62 attendees. I have been on many YF weekends both as a young person and a leader but without a doubt this was the best ever! I say this for a number of reasons:

1. The programme as a whole was excellent and every aspect of it was delivered with excellence by our team of leaders. I had to take no responsibility for any of the games & entertainment stuff. A group of leaders (mostly students with time on their hands!) looked after that aspect and it was excellent. You can tell this by how much the young people enjoyed it.

2. The worship (provided by our young people) was of a very high standard. It was encouraging for me to see young people engage with worship and really enjoy it.

3. The teaching streams were all encouraging.

• Fusion (1^st-3^rd year) looked at a programme exploring the Fundamentals of faith e.g. sin and grace. This was led by 4 of our leaders and approximately 16 young people were part of this programme.
• The 20:20 age group were split by gender. The girls programme was facilitated by 2 female leaders and explored the area of identity and self esteem – a major issue for young girls. 20 girls were part of this programme and feedback has been very positive with a lot of girls getting the opportunity to open up and share some of their experiences in the group.
• The boys programme was led by myself and another male leader and explored the issue of ‘Purity of heart’ (Matt 5:8). There were about 20 guys involved in this programme and our goal was to make it very discussion based – tackling less talked about issues that young guys struggle with in an open forum. This worked really well and feedback from some of the guys involved has been very positive.

4. One of the major encouragements about the weekend has been the leaders. I have been chatting to many of them since the weekend and they are all buzzing and excited about being involved in this ministry. Many have told me they can’t wait until Friday night again! For me this is so encouraging because as a group we can see progress and development with the young people – relationally and spiritually.

All in all it was a very encouraging weekend. I am excited that we can offer programmes to young people that are obviously meeting their needs. As I look to the future, it excited me as I can only see this area ministry growing!

I know, I know, I know...

... you've heard me say it before and i'm saying it again - apologies for lack of regularity of posting recently. Excuses are:

• No t'internet yet in new house. Will hopefully be online from 9th Feb so that should increase my blog frequency.
• General busyness at the moment! Got our youth weekend to prep for this week so it's been a bit hectic.

Anyways, this is really just a courtesy post to the impatient folk our there giving me abuse. please bear with me for just a little longer and i'll be a better blogger! I have this great idea for a blog series in the pipeline so please watch this space.

If you are a pray-er then please pray for me this weekend - i need wisdom.

Man flu...and the long way round...

Been a bit sick last week. It started last weekend with a bit of a sore throat and by Tuesday night (after a full days work) i was dying with thumping head and breathing difficulties! So i decided to take Wednesday off cos i was fit fer nahin! Thought i could take the opportunity to read a bit but alas i just wasn't up to concentrating on the page so i took into to watching the 'Long Way Round' DVD (thanks wiggy, i didn't ask you but i knew you wouldn't mind - what's mine is yours!)

If you haven't seen it - you should cos it's fascinating. It is a 7 part series (previously shown on TV) documenting the adventure of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman (best mates) as they travel around the world on 2 motorbikes. Their journey takes them across Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and the USA in just over 3 months. The highlight for me has to be in Ukraine when they meet this bloke in the street who invites them to stay in his home for the night. So they follow this guy, supposedly a coal minor, to his home which turns out to be considerably larger than the other homes in the locality. So he puts on a massive feast and invites many friends around for a party and the Vodka is on tap! Later in the evening, the host comes down the stairs with a guitar in one hane and a Kalashnikov rifle in the other! It's hilarious as Ewan and Charlie just take their mafia experience in their stride! Another highlight has to be the interesting array of nuts they get to sample in mongolia i believe - watch it! I guess this is not unlike the movie 'Motorcycle Diaries' if you have seen it but this is a documentary that focuses in more detail on the logistics and struggles of the trip.

Anyway, it was a great way to spend a sick day - i definitely felt that it was not a day wasted as i was inspired to follow dreams and travel more on a motorbike of course!

It's a big, big, world...

Just visited a site that generates a map of the countries you have visited. I would love to say the grey area is all the countries i have been to but alas they are in red! Just when you think you are doing well in the travelling stakes you suddenly realise that it's a really big world we live in! Not a depressing thought at all folks, more exciting than anything as i ponder where exactly i would like to venture to next - South America looks a bit too grey for my liking - watch this space!

If you feel like generating your own map then click here!

Happy Christmas folks!!!

Well it's been a mental few days to be honest so it's great to be enjoying some rest and relaxation this week! On Friday night we had our Fusion & 20:20 Christmas Fancy Dress party! There was about 40 people there and it was great to see so many people putting in a BIG effort on the costumes! I fulfilled a life's dream of mine and came as Scooby-Doo (zoiks!). Such a good nights craic was had by all! Then Saturday night was the house warming party of my new house. I never thought you could fit so many people into a semi but we packed them in and it was a cracker night. Singstar proved to be the real winner though!

Sunday was the carol service at WPC and i was sharing the sermon with the other leaders. I don't think I've ever seen so many people turn up for a service. The car park was complete bedlam and sadly i think some people ended up going home because there was just no room left. I was really nervous but it went well ( i think) and once it was over i could start to relax for Christmas!

It's great to have the whole family home for Christmas and especially my nephew Daniel who just livens everything up. He is only 13 months but he can say 'Santa' which is very cute. Sadly he hasn't quite managed 'Neil' yet but I'm working on a repetitve programme this week with him so he should have it sorted by the weekend!

Lovin the fog and the value of 'thanks'...

It's been great to see the fog in the last few days! Maybe you think thats a strange statement but i went walking down by Oxford Island on Wednesday morning and it was just amazing as you can see in the picture. Alrite i know its been cold and it's rubbish for driving but there's something about the fog that gives a bit of a mystical feel that i really like!

This week has been good. Took the local young people from Waringstown to the Ice Bowl on Tuesday night. I was a bit worried about how it would go i.e. would they drink, fight, get thrown out etc.! But it was a fantastic night had by all! Most of the young people are not involved in any organisations like BB, sports teams or youth clubs and so don't really get the opportunity to go on a lot of trips (outside of school) so they were looking forward to it. There was about 30 of us altogether and everyone had a really good night. At the end of the night I was really struck by how thankful they all were. Loads of them came up and thanked me personally for organising which really encouraged me. Sadly lots of people in the community don't really have many positive words to say about the local young people. I just wish they could hear stories like this.

No more abuse please!

Ok so i was starting to get abuse on my last post for lack of a recent update - apologies for that! I bought a house and moved in last weekend so the last few weeks have been understandably mental. It has been great though to move in to a house i can call my own (well half of it anyway!). Although you do feel kinda old and sad when you reach a time in life when you have to go out and buy a vacuum cleaner!!! This is a picture of the Hoover TC1182 i purchased - rather attractive im sure you will agree!

No internet in my new house so less opportunity to blog. Although having been at my parents house for my dinner for the last 3 days i think they think the only think that has actually moved is my bed! What can i say except compliments to the chef!

Anyway if you havn't already had the opportunity to call round to my new abode for a wee brew then you are most welcome!

SU Weekend!

Hey there people. I realise it's been beards since my last post so i apologise for that (again!) but ive been a busy boy and haven't found myself with much idle internet time recently. Anyways, I'm just back from taking Banbridge Academy SU weekend and it was amazing! There were about 50 young people there ranging from 4th year to U6th and the topic for the weekend was 'Service...get it?'. To be honest with you i struggled a lot with preparation for my 3 sessions. I just found that when i sat down to prepare it just didn't flow - i couldn't get my sermon mojo working if you know what im saying! But as often happens, things started to come together at the last minute and i was excited about what could happen if they 'got it'!

A big message about service i wanted to get across to them is they idea that people have many needs:

1. Physical
   
2. Social
3. Emotional
4. Spiritual

Sadly, when Christians and churches generally approach service we invest most of our time, energy and resources into meeting people's 'spiritual' needs and forget about the other needs we all have. I was excited to hear that the SU are having a week of outreach activities in the school that include things like:

• free breakfast (physical)
  
• helping the cleaners clean the school (physical)
• It's a knockout night (social)

Also we had a session in groups where they came up with all sorts of great ideas fo how to meet all four categories of needs. One idea that came across strongly was a student counselling/mentoring project (emotional).

People need to know that we care about all of their needs and not just their spiritual requirements. I think the church has a responsibility to meet these varied needs as Jesus did. He met people's physical needs when he fed the 5000 and healed the sick wherever he went. He also met social needs when he crossed barriers of religion, gender and age to connect with people. In the parable of the sheep and the goats what does the Son of Man say to the sheep? When i was hungry you fed me (physical), when i was thirsty you gave me a drink (physical), when i was a stranger you invited me in (social), when i needed clothes you clothed me (physical), when i was sick you looked after me (physical), when i was in prison you visited me (social & emotional).

What a great weekend. The young people really connected with God, the food was great and the banter was even better! Please for these guys this week and for the rest of the year as they seek to be 'lights to the world' in their school.

Long time no spake...

Apologies for the lack of bloggage recently. It's been almost 2 weeks since my last blog and i guess the main reason for that is busyness! There's been a couple of things recently that have meant I've had less time to do things:

1. Setting up my office/spce for young people downstairs in Rigmarole. This has taken a lot of my time (painting & cleaning) in the last 2 weeks. Thanks to everyone who helped with this. All the time consuming stuff is done now so i hope to make full use of it in the next couple of weeks. Please come and visit me!
2. House-hunting. Doing some serious searching for houses at the minute which takes time. I'm planning to buy with one of my mates cos neither of us can afford to buy on our own. It seems like I've been out looking at properties most evenings this week from about 5-8pm. I'm starting to get frustrated to be honest because we can't seem to find something we both like, in the right location and for the right price. On top of that as the weeks pass buy the prices are rising at an incredible rate. Also getting frustrated with the many stories of friends who have bought houses in the last year at half the price of what they are now - if you have such a story then I really don't want to hear it! As an aside can i just say that it's an interesting experience when we look at a house because you just know most owners/agents reckon we are 'a couple'! As such, John and i have a strategy of casually dropping into the conversation something about girlfriends!
   

So basically both of these time consuming pursuits have come on top of normal work stuff so that ive been pretty flat out recently. Hopefully though things should settle down a bit now.

Love of being together...

What is it about large gatherings of people, who are united in heart and voice, that is so powerful? This week i attended 3 events with large groups of people and all were very special. Firstly, on Wednesday night i was at Windsor Park to see the mighty N. Ireland take on Latvia. It was a great night shared with around 14,000 people and as we shouted, sang and bounced with joy - it was a powerful experience. Last night i was at Ravenhill with about 12,000 others to see Ulster dance all over the Cardiff Blues and as we celebrated victory there was that similar powerful feeling of shared experience with a large group of people. This morning was the Harvest service at WPC and there was probably about 350 people packed into church for the early service. It was a fantastic harvest celebration, the worship team were amazing and the message was excellent. Sharing this experience with a large group of people was similarly evocative and moving.

All examples of 'fellowship' and i suppose that is why we are called as believers to acts of 'fellowship' because God knows there is power when groups of people meet together for a shared experience. Acts 2:42 tells us the importance of 'fellowship' when it mentions it as a practice of the early believers alongside teaching, breaking of bread and prayer.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

Worship...

Last night at 20:20 (our senior YF) was absolutely amazing! The topic was 'worship' and as i prepared on Friday i got really excited because i knew that if they 'got it' then it would be a special night. Well guess what? They got it! It's hard to say what happened but as i tried to explain what real, true, genuine worship is, which is what God is looking for, i just knew that people were really listening. So as we moved into a time of worship at the end i really hoped that what they had been challenged about would start to be practiced. The worship was fantastic and i know that young people really met with God, spirit connecting with spirit, which is what worship is all about.

As i looked around the room i was really moved and i realised there is no where else in the world i would rather have been at that moment than in that room, with those people, worshiping God. Afterwards i was absolutely buzzing with excitement which meant i hardly slept a wink last night!

Shooting Dogs...

Watched this movie on Thursday night and it is excellent. Like the movie Hotel Rwanda this movie tells the story of the brutal genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994 when 800,000 people of the Tutsi tribe were masacred by the Hutu people. The story is told in the context of a UN base set-up in a Catholic school where thousands of Tutsi's fled to for protection only to face eventual abandonment. The story closely follows two characters caught up in this context both of whom are white and English. One is the catholic priest who runs the school and the other is a young student teacher at the school.

Two moments sin the movie stand out to me. The first is when the young teacher is having a conversation with a BBC reporter who has just witnesed a horrific machete attack on a group of Tutsi's. She compares the experience with the horrifying things she witnessed when in Bosnia and how severely she was affected then. This time it was different, she wasn't so affected and it was not because she had become numb to such things it was because as she looked around all she seen were 'dead Africans'. That really sums up the attitude of the UN and the rest of the world powers during this genocide.

The second moment occurred at the end of the movie when the UN are about to leave and abandon the people and the priest decides to stay and the young teacher in desperation asks him why? The priest has struggled with his role and his faith as the masacre has ensued but at this moment he tells this teacher 'Remember when you asked me where is God in all of this? Well i have realised that He is right here with these people, suffering as they are and His heart is breaking.' What truth about our God.

Fantastic movie - a must see.

5 for 30...

When i was in Thailand Stefan and i both made a list of 5 things we would like to have done by the time we are 30 (4 years to go!). I thought I'd throw them up here just so i have a record of them! In no particular order:

1. Further study, probably theology and definitely part-time.
2. Live in another (non-english speaking) country for a significant time (at least 6-12 months). This would be a fantastic cultural experience and i would be motivated to learn another language.
   
3. Invest a bit more time into music, especially playing guitar and singing.
   
4. Get fit. I'm doing zero exercise at the minute and its starting to frustrate me. Ive now blocked out time in my week for exercise so the plan is to join a gym this week and then maybe try and get a weekly game of squash too. If anyone fancies a game then let me know, unless you're really good, then im not available! This one is more of a 6 month plan rather than 4 year!
   
5. Get married - hehe! This one seems the most unrealistic probably because i have least control over it but sure i'll keep my eyes open!
   

I like setting a few goals mainly because it gets me thinking about the things i would like to do. They are not set in stone by any stretch but it's always fun to dream!