great wee video

object width="512" height="400">

i love this story about what is happening in the netherlands its such a modern take on things!

An art exhibition opening in the Netherlands will allow people to call a telephone number designated for God - but they will have to leave a message.

Dubbed God's Hotline, it aims to focus attention on changes to the ways Dutch people perceive religion.

Dutch artist Johan van der Dong chose a mobile phone number to show that God was available anywhere and anytime, Radio Netherlands reported.

Critics say the project mocks those with religious beliefs.

Forming part of an art installation in the town of Groningen, the voicemail message says: "This is the voice of God, I am not able to speak to you at the moment, but please leave a message."

Secret messages

Although the hotline is officially launched on Saturday, the phone number has been active for the past week, with 1,000 messages left on the answerphone.

But the messages are to remain confidential and will not form part of the art project.

Van der Dong told Radio Netherlands: "I'm not a pastor, I'm an artist and I won't listen to the messages.

"It's a secret between the Lord and the people who are calling."

Exhibition spokeswoman Susanna Groot said there was no intention to offend anyone.

"In earlier times you would go to a church to say a prayer and now [this is an] opportunity to just make a phone call and say your prayer in a modern way."

Instead, the aim is to provoke debate about the priorities of modern life.

The phone line will remain open for the next six months.

Watched a good film last night

Rachel and I try to at least once a week have a date night. It usually means one of us trying to cook a special dinner for the other and then going to catch a movie. Last night it was my turn to cook and may i add the risotto was amazing.

The film we went to see though was Grand Torino with Clint Eastwood. I was expecting a good film but what i got was instead an excellent one.

I talked to a mate today who said he hates it when he goes to see a movie and watches it with a youth work hat on. Me on the other hand I love going to films as it gives me a chance to reflect and stuff and I guess in a weird at the minute it is one of the ways that i feel i hear God. Thats for another day.

I wont spoil the film but the things that came through to me from it were about sacrifice and how far would you go to protect someone or stand up for them.

When the film ended Rach turned round to me and said he was kinda like Jesus and even though Clint Eastwood was racist and rude to many people through out the film the moral side still shone brighter.

I would recommend this film to anyone and best of all it was not to heavy but you were left thinking in a good way.

In agriculture and gardening, transplanting or replanting is the technique of moving a plant from one location to another.”

I work for a church which like many others is getting old. Instead of being young vibrant and full of life it seems to resemble the appearance of many of many of its members hardened and reminiscent of better days.

To hear story’s of how forty years ago the church would have been packed and required extra seats is quite sad to hear. As now the church shows a different scene. With Johnny Cash playing Danny Boy in the background it feels like a death has happened.

Understanding how to move forward requires being respectful of the past and we must be but we must not mourn for long for the we have the future to look to. 

Change is coming although it may take time but change is needed. We must begin to talk and look at how we re invent the church now because if we don’t we not only be letting down those who come after us but we will be letting down those who went before us. Yeah sounds very grand but we have known for years that the numbers of attending church has been decreasing. On the other hand we see interest in spirituality increasing. People still believe that religion is an important element of their lives so why don’t we capatialise on this. 

Belfast has a growing number of small pockets of church less community. Mix this with areas where the church is pretty established and growing and getting bigger. The landscape seems pretty unbalanced.

My question is why don’t churches who are successful share the wealth? Why don’t they gather some of their people together and send them to the places not to far from them and grow the church there. 

I guess this idea comes out of frustration but instead of place individual passionate people in areas where there passion and enthusiasm slowly gets stolen from them why not send out or transplant a new heart into areas. 

Yes it will be a painful, emotional, heart breaking decision but it will also be a releasing, joyful encounter that will see the kingdom grow and will see the church regain places it has long lost.

This is not a new idea it has been happening in parts of london for years and there are some people trying to do it here but the first step is to agree to talk and to get the ball rolling!

Floods hit Northern Australia

I found this while reading the news this morning it brightened up my morning. 

Manager of the Albion Hotel in Normanton, Donna Smith, said a four-metre (12-feet) crocodile had been seen stalking residents and dogs in the flooded main street.

She also warned the town was expected to run out of beer in two days.

"We can put up with a lot of drama, no fruit and veggies, but nobody wants a pub with no beer," Ms Smith told Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper.

A crocodile measuring 1.6 metres (5.3 feet) long was run over by a car on a street in the nearby city of Townsville on Tuesday, wildlife rangers said.

The croc lost a few teeth and suffered bruising but was receiving medical attention, they said.

It is like a scene from a blockbuster disaster movie. Deadly animals stalking them on the street but as long as they have their beer they're happy!

Ha

Yesterday i had the privilege of spending the morning in the company of some great people. It was the new wine morning for people in leadership. I was unsure about going as i had always thought that the morning was for ministers but after a bit of digging i found out it was not.
The speaker for the morning was Paul Reid the senior pastor of CFC. What he had to say was challenging and also insightful as it gave me a little bit more of an understanding about the church that what i had previously known.
It was kinda in a way a snippet behind the show see how it works type thing.
When you work for a church you hear stories and those stories help you to create a imagine of how you think someone is. You can nearly picture conversations you would have with people or think you know how they would act without even meeting them and i must admit i have done it to.
Talking to the guy afterwards it surprised me how wrong i was. The guy is lovely and caring and everything i guess i had thought he would never be.
So apart form the talk yesterday i was challenged to put everything aside i had built up on people and to start again and to only make an opinion when i had firstly met them and secondly heard their heart or where they were coming from.

i would recommend the next day though!

The day is near an end

As the draws to a close it has been good to reflect upon what I saw today.
I loved the portrait gallery today. There was an old face captured in black and white. It was a lovely photo as it capture the stress and strain that the owner of the face has been through.
Another was of a fast food resturant named cccp.
It was really nice to look into the pictures and to read their story. The phrase a picture speaks a thousand words was so true today.
The day had so many good bits but in the middle of it all the bit I did not like was the pictures at the photo gallery.
I was so looking forward to it but when I got there I was met with a series of old naked ladies. Now I know that the older body should be valued but I just did not like what I saw.
But someone else I am sure will love it.
Now its back to work tomorrow but at least I have my manmouth coffee to keep me going

While in the national there was a school group sitting infront of a painting. One of the resident experts was going through the meaning of the picture. They where highlighting the symbolism that was store within. It was obvious to me that the painting was of jesus praying in the garden the night that he was betrayed. I could see the story it was telling but the kids were lost.
They thought it was showing the parting or the red sea. That the angel that Jesus was praying to was holding strange objects.
It was quite disturbing as I felt it pointed out the gap that exists between us as youth workers and the people we are to be among.

Day two of art

Yesterday and today as part of my course I have the chance to look around and explore a few art galleries in central london.
Today is the national and the photography.
I had to get up early this morning as my bed was going up north for work. So this gave me the chance to walk through all the wonderful places I used to visit. It also gave me time to think.
There is nothing more relaxing that sitting at seven dials with a cup of manmouth coffee and thinking about what you experiemced the day before.
I was always told at school that I was no good at art because I could not draw but as neil helped us with yesterday that's not of God. His point was that if we are made in the image of a creator God then within us all is the gift of creativity.
I felt released in a way.

Over the past while I have been having a tough time. Work has been a struggle and although the issues have not really passed I have tried to move on. They will sort themselves out in the right time. What i have to do is to trust that God is in the middle of everything no matter how horrible I am feeling.

A few days ago I tried to explain to rach my ideas for what i would like to do for the art piece that i have to make for my new module at cambridge. She was getting it to a point and then it was going over over her head. 

What i was trying to do was explain that i would love to use stencil or dots to make a picture. Of what of i don't know but i wanted to these technique because i like the method involved in looking at it.

Yes you look at it the same way that you would anything else but what do we look at? 

What i mean by this is do we look at the colour or do we look at the white / absence of colour.

I found this image that i think illustrates my point. From a distance what we see is an image but that image is made up of thousands of dots of colour and not colour but when we focus on it we don't see the individual elements but the wholeness.

I think there is so much that can be taken from this it could be reflected up from many angles but for the minute i just want to leave it there.

Frustrations

I don't have long to write this but it has been a wee while and as my good mate Brain French says it is a form of therapy.

I have been in post now for nearly six months and what a six months it has been. I would love to say that I am having a ball of a time but that would be a lie. 

You see the thing that I have learnt over the past number of months is well there is more than one. Firstly when a ship is sinking it is hard to find people to help you bail out the water. People lover to either jump shit and swim away or they are too hurt or injured to care. 

The other thing is when someone tells you what state things are in take away 80 % and you are probably looking at the real picture.

Right now i am desperately trying to hold on to that small thing of Hope but its slowly slipping through my fingers.

If you a praying man start playing 

please

So a few days before christmas i went to see what i can only describe as an inspiring film. 

I left the cinema reflecting upon how often do I actually say yes to things.

Over all the film put me in a good mood for what was a busy christmas.

I escaped last week to the costa del sol and there was plenty of sol. After two months in the job i took my first weeks holiday. It was so nice to sit on the balcony and eat fresh cheese and bread while drinking 75 cents cider.

my usual travel home

The last time I left a post I was on a bus traveling home from uni. Again I am travel home but this time it's the train.
As I have said before the time away is although sometimes a hassel it has the feeling of refreshness attached to it.
I have no idea what I was dreaming about last night but I remembering waking up this morning thinking I need to write that down.
Although that thought has very much been forgotten. The quote of the day today has to be 'you are never more awake than when your asleep'
Nice idea I think because as the writer whom I have forgotten points out when we sleep we are shut off from the interference that can get in the way. Now I know from personal perspective that I can dream some crazy dreams but as with most things in the midst of the crazyness some times truth can peak through.
Now this does not mean I will be sleeping more but I guess as I approach the end of my second month at the job I am realising that I may be a litte to caught up in looking in forward instead of spending time with God in the now.
In so spending time in the now I will be able to find the time I need to be organised better something that I find a challenge.
The problem is that I feel the need to prove myself but to do that I need to let tomorrow look after itself in many ways although keeping an idea on were I'm going.
It will be a challenge but I just have to remember what I have learnt from two years of cym.

catch up

So it has been a while since I blogged but life has been well busy.
I am just on my way back from a set of study days at cambridge which has been a nice break from the first month in the job.
I don't mean that to be taken out of context but over the past few days I have been able to reflect about where I need to concentrate my efforts.
The problem is where do you start. Having the responsibility for everything youthful and young adulty which when translated means anyone aged eight and up. You can become overwhelmed by the task.
I think if I would not have been part of cym for the past three years I would been freaked out but having the extra knowledge behind me has given me the confidenc I need. So what am I trying to do at the minute?
I have been set the challenge of trying to reach out to the 18 to 25 group that have had or did have recent contact with the church. Not an easy challenge as this group may have moved off long ago. I have tried to make contact but no little success but I will keep trying.
The two other areas I trying to develop are the sunday morning 11 -14 group and the youth club looking group that currenly ranges from ages of 8 to poentially 16 what's that about?
So over the course of the next month I plan to introduce a bit of structure and plans which I hope won't be seen as scary change but helpful hand

The first week

The first week is over and it has been a quiet one but had a few good conversations. 

Although i do get to start my new term or Cambridge this week. Final year and three terms of ridley hall left till i am a degree qualified youth worker.

Tuesday 2nd September

Today's task find a desk and book myself on to the child protection training.

It does amuse me slightly how every denomination has to tick that you have done their training on child protection and that i am told it will take 14 -16 weeks to complete my pre employment checks. A new department was set up to look at this but does not seem to be working to well.

Apart from that my new desk hopefully will be an abbey national reject but the man in the shop said it was real oak yeah right. Other wise day two has been a little quiet. 

The problem i am trying to think through is that i have a list of people i need to contact. They are 18-30's but how do i do it. Do i do cold phone calls on them, do i call at their hose and say hi you haven't seen any one from Dunmurry for a while how you doing or do i send a card introducing myself and follow up with the rest?

But one thing is for sure i miss the london buzz and the coffee but i know it will get better.

Day One

Today is not only the day when Northern Ireland schools head back for a new term but also the first day of my new Job with Dunmurry Presbyterian. 

In true youth work style my first meeting of the day was at 2:30pm a nice gentle start with the boss. 

The more i am shown round the area and the church the more i potential i can see. The only side effect is the more potential the more work i see to release that potential. 

Dunmurry is one of Belfast's disputed areas is it Lisburn is it Belfast but for sure it is an area that has been under resourced by any form of youth work for a long time.

I worked for a church once who talked about their mission being to re open old wells and to plant new ones and the more i reflect upon the job the more i see that this is an old well that has become clogged up. 

It is still providing people with water but people have moved away to find better drinking wholes. Where do i fit in well lets try and clean up and re build the wells and see where we get to.

Something new

Its official i have a new job. I was called back to an interview i originally could not attend and have been offered a new job. There are still things to sort out but for i will be actually earning again.
The best bit is that i will be doing a lot of community work and will be in the right sort of place to explore my dissertation.

sweet!!!

Heinz Deli Mayo TV Ad

So the Guardian has reported today that this add has been pulled from TV Screens. The reason for this was 200 people complained that it promoted same sex relationships.
Surely if these people actually watched the add they will see that the idea is not about same sex any thing but the traditional New York deli.
Is the UK really that homophobic? That is the question i would like to ask.