Older than my parents?

A granddaughter giving birth to her aunt or uncle. A woman giving birth to her brother. Sound like science fiction? It’s not. This may become possible if the powers given to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority ("HFEA") are used. The HFEA has been given extraordinary and frightening powers in relation to the embryo and are currently consulting on a proposal to freeze an embryo or sperm for 55 years (extended from 10 years).

The background to this is not so far fetched. It is intended to meet the concern that someone may become infertile and may know of that risk (eg someone with cancer). So they can freeze eggs or sperm against that event. However, there are no rules preventing close relatives who would normally be forbidden to marry each other from donating sperm or embryos. This means that grandparents could donate embryos to their granddaughter for her IVF treatment if she becomes infertile. In this situation, the granddaughter would give birth to her mother's brother or sister-her aunt or uncle. The child could claim to be ‘older than my parents’.

This is a minefield. It needs careful thought and controls. The fear is that something that may be put in place to help infertility will result in unscrupulous practices and commercial exploitation for profit. Theoretically there would be nothing to stop a 35 year-old soon-to-be-infertile man from having his sperm stored until he was 90, or alternatively, from storing his parents' embryos and using them to have a child years later, after his (and the child's) biological parents had died. That child would be both his own brother and his own son.

A case of ethics being overtaken by science. Because we can doesn’t mean we should.

(More on this from lawyer Andrea Williams on CCFON: http://www.ccfon.org/)

It is well with my soul

With the death of an infant through fever followed by the Chicago fire in the late 1800’s, which destroyed their business, it is true to say Horatio Spafford and his wife were struggling. They got a message from their friend D L Moody, the famous evangelist. He invited them over to Europe to work with him and to take a well earned holiday. They took the advice.

Spafford had a few business deals to finish, so he sent his wife and four daughters ahead on a ship, intending to travel later. The ship sank. Although his wife survived, all four of Spafford’s daughters drowned. On hearing the news, Spafford took the next available ship.

As they travelled past where the first ship had gone down, the Captain pointed it out to Spafford. Quietly, Spafford left the Bridge, wend down to his cabin and picked up pen and paper. The result was the famous hymn ‘It is well With My Soul’. Here are some of the words:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

The tune has not travelled so well down the years as the words have. Recently, Chris Tomlin wrote the song ‘I Will Rise’, with a direct link to the earlier hymn. Here it is:



This song and video (thanks to Tim Prentice for the video) were used by me in my talk at KingsGate Church on 28th December 08. You can listen to the talk by cut and pasting this link:

http://www.kingsgateuk.com/Media/Player.aspx?media_id=25647&file_id=27986

Each day, every day

When Federico Macheda woke up on Sunday morning, did he know it was going to be his day? Manchester United had a number of suspensions and injuries which meant the 17 year old was promoted to the subs bench of the first team.

Things didn’t go well. Having lost the top spot in the Premiership to Liverpool the day before, United were losing at home 2-1 to Aston Villa. The manager decided on a radical change. On came Macheda. At 2-2 and in injury time, he took the ball in the area, turned and shot an exquisite goal into the top corner of the net.

That morning, it was just an ordinary day. By the end of Sunday, he was famous.

How do we treat each day? Just another day, or one that has the possibility of a moment in it to change a life?

The Psalmist says ‘Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life’. Surely goodness and mercy and opportunity and potential and excitement. Each day. Every day.

Slumdog Marley and Salmon in the Yemen

I’ve been travelling a lot recently. Both in the UK and to India, the States and the Netherlands. It’s a bit tiring and not as glamorous as it might sound. Airports and hotels begin to look much the same after a while!

But one of the advantages of travel is time to catch up on music, films and books. Slumdog Millionaire is a wonderful film. Its portrayal of the poor parts of India is very accurate. But most of all it’s simply a triumph of one poor boy against the system. And a great love story too.

‘Marley and me’ is a film we went to see as a family. I was a bit fearful that it would turn out to be a ‘Disney puppy story’ but the producer has been true to the original book (excellent too- by John Grogan) and it’s well acted. A bit near to the bone (excuse the pun!) as we lost our own Labrador just before Christmas.

You can see why Kate Winslet won the Oscar for ‘The Reader’. Beautifully acted. A fair bit of nudity though- you have been warned!

John Waller is a singer that my friends Holli and Andy introduced me to. Great lyrics. Sometimes you feel you are not where God would have you be. But what do you do with that time? Waller’s song ‘While I’m Waiting’ is a great response to such times:

I’m waiting on you Lord
And I’m hopeful
I’m waiting on you Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait
I will move ahead bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve you
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait.

John Maxwell writes great business books. His latest, ‘Leadership Gold – Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leadership’ is the best yet. He refused to write it until he reached age 60. Great wisdom.

And a wonderful first novel from Paul Torday. If you think Salmon in the Yemen are an impossibility, you have to read the book!

Mountain Mover

I was privileged to witness an amazing story yesterday. Stuart Bell was the guest speaker at KingsGate church. His wife and son were there too. Together they told to story of David, Stuart and Irene’s son. Of how he was diagnosed with cancer behind the eye at age 16 and how together as a family and a church, they fought and prayed through the chemotherapy and radiotherapy, to the point that they felt God say the chemo had worked and David was clear.

Sure enough, later that week, they got the all-clear.

Seeing David there, hearing his side of the story, seeing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photo’s and knowing that in front of us was someone who medically speaking could be either dead or blind, was very moving.

As Stuart said on Sunday, we have a God who moves mountains.

‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’
Matthew 17:20

God's amazing creation

I’ve just finished reading Bill Bryson’s ‘Down Under’. As always, an excellent read.

What captured me most was the amazing creation to be found in Australia. If these things were anywhere else in the world, they would be considered as ‘wonders of the world’. But because they are tucked away in the western outback and part of the country at the end of the world, they get overlooked.

Consider for example, the banded beehive rocks of the Bungle Bungles. A range of strangely shaped rocks, only discovered in the 1980s and thought to be 350 million years old. They look incredible.

That 50 square miles of a rocky mountain range was discovered after we brought back rocks from the moon and shows how little we really know of the world we live in.



Then there’s the Pinnacle Desert, thousands of limestone pillars - believed to be at least 6,000 years old - rising up to 12 feet tall from the shifting yellow sands.

And the Karri Trees, third tallest in the world, with their 50 foot girth, giant trees from an earlier age.

We live in a remarkable world.

Lives to be changed

A little girl aged about five looks up at me. She’s one of the latest to arrive at the Esther Home, a place for girls rescued from the sex trade. There she will receive food, a bed, an education.

Just one life saved in a nation of over a billion. But I learned a long time ago I can’t change a nation. Lives I can change. One at a time.



My thanks to the team who went with me. We did Bible Weeks, Medical Missions and the Esther Home. Well done Jane, Slim, Jen, Becky, Gill and Chris. Of course it’s not just their lives that get changed. As a result of the India work, every one of us on the team will have a better handle on the crazy world we live in.

In parts of India, there is no credit to ‘crunch’. But there are always lives to be changed.