Praise You in the Storm

A couple of months back, I had the privilege of speaking at KingsGate Church, my home church in Peterborough. As part of my talk, I used a short dvd of a song. A number of people have asked me what the song was and whether there was access to the dvd presentation. The link is below.

The song, ‘Praise You in the Storm’ by Casting Crowns, became very precious to me over a three year period. It was a period of turmoil in my life with two redundancies. Plus I turned 50. This was something of a shock! I coped with turning 40 without a problem but 50 was something else!

I determined that age would not be a barrier to life (and this blog was one of the results- the blog address refers to the mountains I intend to climb in my 50’s and beyond.)

Back to the song. In the hard times, the words expressed so well where I was at. Some times all I could do was sing the first verse- it just felt like it was still raining, so many things unresolved. Other times I reached the chorus- I can be thankful, even in the storm!

Enjoy the song.

Exclusive Picture- Water on Mars!

One of the big news stories this year has been the search for water on Mars- signs that there may have been life there. Here is an exclusive picture (well nearly!) showing that -yes indeed- there is water on Mars!



#Thanks to Tom Stevens for this
#Even funnier as I work for Mars! (The confectionery company, not the planet!)

The Audacity of Hope

Less than 150 years ago, there was still slavery in America. 80 years ago, there were over 6 million members of the racist Ku Klux Klan. 36 years ago, there was still racial segregation.

Just 45 years ago Martin Luther King delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech which included: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

The dream came true. On Tuesday 4th November 2008, Senator Barack Obama was elected the first black President of the United States, the most powerful position on the planet.

In 2006, Obama wrote the book ‘The Audacity of Hope’, the title taken from a sermon he had heard. This is what he says:

‘I'm not talking about blind optimism here……….. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores;…… the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!’

Criminal

Ever got into something too deep and no matter what you do, it just gets deeper and deeper?

The Economist reports on the Governor of the Central Bank of Indonesia, just jailed for 5 years. He used bank funds to…. bribe members of parliament to…. pay for lawyers to…. defend bank officials accused of corruption!