Geneva - Friday 31st May

Woke up quite late to a grey overcast morning. We shall be pottering around in the car now that I have discovered how to do screen shots of the local maps onto the iPad. I want to get to Challex by the back route this time. Also I want to find a wayside auberge where we can enjoy a drink and the scenery.

It is so peaceful here in St. Julian en Genevois. The scenery outside the back window (see left) is stunning overlooking the Jura mountains. There is no pressure on us to get up early and we can take everything at our own pace. Tonight we will go to Rajpoute for an Indian meal as a tat for David and Leila.

We drove first of all to Challex and did some cleaning. Then we decided to go to Divonne les Bains. There we headed for Charly's Pub where we had a drink and a snack between us. Divonne is subject to a number of road alterations. After half an hour we left and headed back for St. Julien and got ready for our meal tonight.

We set out about 6pm to pick up Dave from the UN, but got caught in a traffic jam. We finally arrived at Rajpoute at 8pm and enjoyed a good meal together. We were downstairs this time - a bit of an awkward setting but enjoyable never the less.

Romans 1:16-17 : For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith, just as it is written, “But the one who is righteous by faith will live.”

V16: Paul has total confidence in the message of salvation imparted to him through Jesus. The power of God for salvation talks about its ability to transform not only the individual but also the community and the world itself, if only applied. Today we are sceptical about that claim but if you look closely into the teachings of Jesus and apply them, the is no doubt that they will make a profound difference to human relationships and the way we treat the world around us. Our obsession with material things will disappear and the whole world order would be transformed into one of mutual love and well-being. The priority of the Jews is probably a chronological one and the term Greek referees to anyone else. However, it is strange he never refers to Romans as well.

V17: when one seeks this salvation and experiences it fully, they discover that it's very foundation is God's righteousness. The person started to see the world through God's own eyes and that makes a profound difference, imparting not only goodness, but peace also. Paul then quotes Hab 2:4. The saved person will naturally want to remain in that peaceful relationship with God throughout their life - why would they want to leave it?

Geneva - Thursday 30th

Woke around 8.30 at David and Leila's who had long gone to work. The weather outside was cool with sunny spells. There was a gorgeous view of the Jura mountains which are still snow-clad. David had played golf in that area recently and had to abandon it due to the snow.

We drove in the Panda to Challex. We didn't use the most direct route as we couldn't get the satnav to work and didn't have good enough maps. Howev we finally arrived and sorted out the ants. Had a bite to eat and a drink as the auberge was shot for food. Drove back to St. Julian and had a drink and nibbles.

Romans 1:8-15 First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed in the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, is my witness, how constantly I make mention of you, 10 always asking in my prayers if somehow now at last I may succeed to come to you in the will of God. 11 For I desire to see you, in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, in order to strengthen you, 12 that is, to be encouraged together with you through our mutual faith, both yours and mine. 13 Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that often I intended to come to you, and was prevented until now, in order that I might have some fruit among you also, just as also among the rest of the Gentiles.14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus I am eager to proclaim the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

V8 They have clearly made an impression on the rest of the emerging church because of their faith, no doubt in the face of persecution.

V9 'serve in my spirit' and odd phrase - possibly drawing a distinction between his flesh life and spiritual life as he does later in Romans when he talks about e internal war between flesh and spirit. He is a man constant in prayer for the saints across the region.

V10 his passion to visit Rome is clear but only as God wills. As with his visit to Macedonia, Paul always allows God to decide his agenda.

V11 I wonder what spiritual gift Paul had in mind. Perhaps he didn't know because he hadn't met them and didn't want to presume what they might lack.

V12 in humility Paul sees himself as an equal, not a superior (mutual faith).

V13 in typical Pauline style he urges them to produce spiritual fruit - never lets people off the hook in terms of discipline.

Vv14,15 Paul declares his credentials as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Arrived in Geneva

We arrived in Geneva last night after a straightforward flight by Easyjet. There were rumours we would be delayed but nothing materialised. David picked us up at the airport in Leila's Volvo. We had a drink and watched a bit of a drab international between England and Northern Ireland which finished a miserable 1-1. Retired to bed to try and shake off my cold.

Off to Geneva

Woke early at 4am and started the day in prayer and meditation, stilling my busy mind. I am still disappointed by me defeat at squash last night although I am far bett now than when I have played in recent weeks. The grit and determination have returned. I need to work on my fitness and technique and start to believe in myself more.

We will be driving to Luton Airparks as normal and connecting with the flight which leaves around 4pm so it will be a leisurely drive. The house is in safe hands as usual. The weather is overcast but dry although the forecast does not promise any improvement.

Stopped off at Watford Gap for a coffee. The weather is cloudy and misty.

Romans chapter 1: Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared Son of God in power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

V1: Paul oddly refers to himself as a slave. He would not normally consider a Christian to be a slave but a child of God with all the privileges afforded a child. However, he probably uses e word slave to show his total obedience to God's will and so as not to boast. 'Set apart' is the true meaning of holiness. His only occupation was to promote the gospel of God. 

V3: Paul affirms Jesus' descendany is through Joseph and back to David, amplifying the human aspect of Jesus. Although Paul says nothing about the virgin birth, he seems to accord with tradition.

V4: Declared Son of God - a divine pronouncement at his baptism and transfiguration. Also he sees the resurrection as further confirmation.

V5: He confirms that it is through the risen Christ alone that grace and calling comes. Gentiles can be translated 'nations' i.e. those beyond the Jews.

V7: Called to be saints - like Paul, directly called through Jesus to holiness.

Cliff College

On a bright sunny day I travelled up to Cliff College. After meeting a number of people from around the district and from my locality. it was good to meet up with Clive Marshall once more. I attended the MET AGM. It was reasonably well attended and focussed largely on Paul Wilson's work as Development Officer..

On arriving home, I went to play squash and beat Alka 3-0. I am now back to something like my best and am looking forward to tomorrow night's game when I could make it 4 wins out of 4. 

Trinity Sunday and beyond

It was a warm sunny day and I set off for Sutton-in-Ashfield and St. John's Methodist to lead the Trinity Sunday service. I arrived in good time to find the church was incredibly hot. The heating was on and the auditorium was well lit amplifying the sun's heat. Te service went well and was challenging. I spoke from Revelation 3 and the letter to the church at Laodicea. I had awoken at 5am and put the final touches to the service. Interestingly, as I prepared for the service it came to me that I should doing a dramatic presentation of Wesley's conversion experience, which I did. It told how he reluctantly attended the Aldersgate St. meeting and how he had wrestled with his faith in the years leading up to 1738 as a result of meeting the Moravians.

In the afternoon we skyped Andrew and then finished the invites for our 40th anniversary. The new printer caused some hassle as it does not handle A5 paper properly when it comes to selective pages. I also had to replace cartridges. The ones I had previously with the last printer needed replacing with new ones.

I had a message from MET about their rebranding exercise and asking if I wished to tender for it. I emailed Julian to see if he was interested and now need to decide the best way forward. I asked them to confirm their plans for the Subscription and Membership system as is will influence my decision.

I discovered today that the problem with my camera (error 99) was down to the 17-85 macro lens. All the other lenses work fine. That's a shame as this lens is expensive and the one I use most.

Monday is Bank Holiday and I am off to Cliff College for the Festival and MET AGM. Margaret is working today.

Pentecost and Beyond

On Sunday 19th May I preached at Arnold Methodist Church for Pentecost Sunday. I had prepared well, too well, as the sound desk could not produce any sound and so my visuals could not be used. It was Frances Hopwood's 70th birthday and she came out to the front to thank people for their love and good wishes. One elderly lady gave a testimony of healing which was met with rapturous applause.

In the afternoon we went to Wollaton Park where Esther had a craft stall selling jewellery. There was also a dog show and I took a number of photos of dogs which were being led through the courtyard. It was a warm, sunny day.

On Monday 21st I went to James Peacock school to do the training on the redesigned web site. They seem to be quite pleased with the final outcome and I have tweaked the admin system to make it easier for them. I still have some further modifications to do but they are minor. In the evening I played Danny Scott at squash. He's quite young and fit but is easy to beat and so I came away with a 3-0 victory.

Tuesday was the final 'Welcoming Churches' session at Kirkby. It was a good finale and people gave good reviews. On Wednesday I went to Hawtonville for a planning meeting of the new Local Preacher's course. In the evening was the fourth Alpha session at Wollaton Rad Methodist on the subject of Faith. Again I was pleased with both the talk and the discussions. I announced that I would be missing for two weeks. Numbers were down because of conflicting meetings. We discovered that Mick had had an operation for prostate can Eric and it was not too successful. I led prayers for him and the family.

Thursday was the MSM course at Langley Mill with Mark Rodel speaking. He spoke well but the material (the gospel and culture) was too heavily weighted towards culture and did little to apply the gospel to it. I changed my Virgin tariff from pay as you go to a £7 per month contract which can be cancelled any time. It provides me a quota of calls and texts plus 500meg of data. This should be enough for my average usage and give me the assurance that I can make calls anytime. I toyed with the idea of getting another handset for the old SIMM card but abandoned it after a while until I  an investigate European Simms. 

On Friday I played AGC at tennis and lost 2-6 3-6. Neither of us have improved much over the years. Margaret and I went to the Plough for a drink in the evening. Today we booked e flight for Geneva. We plan to stay with David and Leila for a couple of days while Andrew and Becky are in Lugano. We will have the use of a car from Andrew while we are there. On Saturday we did some shopping for Geneva and bought a baby book for Matthew. We also looked at Cath Kidston cases for Margaret but I thought it was expensive and not that practical in terms of pockets. However, compared with other good makes it was reasonable so the jury is out.

MSM National Conference

On Thursday morning I headed off for Northampton for the MSM National Consultation at King's Park. It was good to meet up with everyone again, especially Vicky and Jo with whom we had so much fund at the DEE retreat last month. John and Olive Drane were there with Olive leading all the worship with very creative, touchy-feely ideas including a long table set out like the Last Supper.

As soon as I arrived in my room a chaffinch tried to fly in through the window and bunnies were frolicking outside on the grass.

I spoke to John Drane who is writing a book about the Gospels from the stance hat they may have been written in a fashion which allowed them to be performed as plays - hence brief scenes as in Mark.

On my return from Northampton I played Robert Kent at squash. I beat him 3-0 although he was unfit and I was not at my best. At least I have a victory under my belt at last.

On Friday evening we went to Gotham where I led the Celtic Praise and Prayer evening. A good number turned out and participated well in the Northumbria Community evening prayer liturgy. They liked the setting of When I Survey and we repeated it at the end.

Gotham Cotham Church is a quaint place, warm welcoming. Those who gathered for the worship time took part enthusiastically and the singing was superb. One or two came in late which meant we I had to start the service 3 times in all. There were people from both the Methodist and Anglican congregations. I think all the Methodists who attend on Sundays were there - a tribute to the advertising which Matthew had done.

Courses going well

Just yards away from the present
tram stop at the Midland Station

On Saturday I went on the bus to Beeston for the pre-Weekend Away meeting at Chilwell Road. Around 30 people turned up and I spoke on the theme for the weekend. On the way I took photos of the new tram bridge which is easing into place slowly. Just a few yards to go now. I then went into town and we shopped together.

On the Sunday I went in the morning to Musters Road and in the afternoon to St. Peter's Church Derby for the Derby Chaplaincy AGM. I didn't stay for the service.

On Monday I had a meeting with Andrew Carter and then went to James Peacock only to find the meeting had been cancelled. Anyway it was a lovely day so I nipped to Wheatcroft's for a ponder. Tuesday was Welcoming Church at Trinity Kirkby-in-Ashfield. I went via Arnold to drop off the order of service and visuals for Sunday. In the day time I prepared the Arnold service visual using Robin Mark's 'Revival'. The Welcoming Churches went well with two more arriving. We didn't get through all the material as they really engaged well, especially with the MSI exercise.

I managed to track down the problem with James Peacock's web site. IE9 did not display the home page and the reason was some rogue characters in the ticker script - a comment start. Removing it made everything fine. On Wednesday morning I did some more refinements to JP's site including colourising the events and embellishing the administration. I changed Jen's log in to administrator. I am quite pleased now with their web site and will visit next Monday for the training session. On Wednesday afternoon my new leather iPad cover arrived. Not cheap but the smell of leather and the extra protection it offers should make up for that. I ordered more cartridges for the HP printer from Amazon only to find that Viking were slightly cheaper with free postage - oh well, next time!

A cool, sunny and blustery day

Alpha at Wollaton Road - I led the talk on 'Why did Jesus die?' The discussions which followed were immensely deep and people wanted to talk on after the closing time.

A fruitful week

This week has been busy but fruitful. On Sunday morning I went to Arnold to see what a typical service is like. Interesting but not typical. In the evening I led a healing & wholeness service at
Nottingham Road, Ilkeston. After evicting some noisy youths we settled down to a very powerful reflective time focusing on John 21 and the conversation between Jesus and Simon Peter by the lakeside - the third resurrection appearance.

The pathway beside the river Trent

Trees in spring

Beeston Lock

Monday was bank holiday and a glorious, sunny day. We went to Beeston lock and then walked to Attenborough Nature Reserve for coffee, returning to have a BBQ lunch at Beeston, followed by an ice cream. We met Ken & Shirl on the way back with the Gilliats. While I was on this walk I had problems with my Canon camera. It gave an error message 99. I discovered that this was down to one of the batteries. Having read a fix on the internet I cleaned the contacts with the rubber on the end of a pencil and it seems to work OK now.

Outside the cafe at the Nature Reserve

Tuesday saw the start of the Welcoming Church course at Kirkby in Ashfield. Around 30 turned up and it went really well. The only downside was that my amplifier was not picked up by some. This week I bought an audio extension lead ready for next week. On Wednesday it was Wollaton Road Alpha. Again a good evening with just a couple missing as they were away. I sat with the younger people (student teachers) and we had some really deep conversations.

Thursday was the last gathering of the Midlands Training Forum chaired by Bill Anderson. We simply recapped on talks regarding the new network. For me it was a waste of time. Friday was desk work.

It's Friday evening and raining. Here are some garden shots.