I’ve been lucky enough over the past year and a half, to have had the privilege of looking after Ashley the Astra, a car loaned to me by friends Dave and Thea Green.
They’re coming back from Thailand soon, and so I’ll be returning Ashley to her rightful owners in May. I’d been thinking about what my future transport situation would be the other day, when I went through the following rather amusing situation.
First I was told that there may well be an opportunity for me to use a friend’s beat up old Metro for a while. While I was investigating that option, I was offered an old Cavalier from the end of March, fully MOT’d and ready to go. Of course I said yes! A few hours later, that offer had to be withdrawn due to an earlier miscommunication with another person. Then the metro option fell through as well.
All within 24 hours. Car, car, no car 😉
Maybe I’ll be using the old shoe leather more after all!
Standing Room Only
Last weekend we saw something you don’t see in many churches in the UK these days. The place was packed!
For the last year or so, Baptism and Christening services at my home church, Grayfriars, have been standing room only affairs. This particular weekend saw 25 people being confirmed from several congregations across Reading. I always love this kind of service, as the body of Christ welcomes new members as they publicly profess their faith. We’ve taken to having times of testimony during the ceremony, and I’m so encouraged to hear the individual stories of God at work in people’s lives.
Reaching out
This entry was supposed to be an update on what’s happened so far this year, but if I wait until I have chance to get around to that, I’ll never write anything!
This weekend I was asked to share at church about an outreach we did the weekend before, and it got me thinking about how God spoke to me in what we were doing. For those that don’t know, Greyfriars is a town centre church, and we’re fantastically positioned for being able to reach out to those who come into the town centre to shop.
As I pondered, I think the biggest thing that struck me was how God blesses what we’re doing when we work together as the body of Christ.
IT WAS NOT ME!
So this was not me, OK? I did not write it. Barry was to blame!
Did cause much office hilarity though…
The following was entered into the comments section of www.kettlechips.co.uk
—–Original Message—–
From: pete.ward
Sent: 09 February 2006 13:57
To: info
Subject: Your Comments KETTLE WebSite
Forename : : pete
Surname : : ward
Email : : pete.ward
Your Comments : your chips are the best chips ever. they are the official chip of our office in chichester. they are so good i don’t even know what to do except eat alot of them.
Read on for the comedy response…
Hairy
Drawing inspiration from Shawn over in Portland, I thought I’d combine two of Schmetzger’s recent posts.
Firstly, I’ve been ultra slack in posting for the last month.
Excuse number 1:
I’ve moved house twice in three weeks!
And then there’s my current state of hirsute-iness.
Excuse number 2:
I’ve got a million boxes to unpack, and I have no idea which one my beard trimmer is in.
Pete’s resolution for Feb – more posting, less excuses. Oh, and less hair.
Happy Christmas
Its that time again! Another busy year, another Christmas newsletter.
Wishing you every blessing this Christmas season.
Pete
Richter’s Inspiration?
Pob and I wandered around the lake at Linlithgow on Saturday, and I discovered that my old digital camera had discovered a bit of a glitch! The picture here is actually of Linlithgow Palace! I wonder if Gerhard Richter got his inspiration from something like this?
And here’s what it should look like…
Interesting artistic ponderings aside, I’d better get my screwdriver out…
Trip to Scottieland
As you can tell from my last prayer letter, things have been a little busy lately, so I’m glad to be taking a long weekend seeing friends in Scotland. I’ve known Pob and Steph longer than I care to imagine (I spent much of my teenage years with Pob), and they moved up to West Calder near Edinburgh about seven years ago, with Pob’s work.
Latest Supporter Newsletter
I’ve finally completed my latest supporter newsletter. Too long in coming as usual!
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London
Feeling very cultural this evening, at the end of a good Saturday. A few weeks ago in London, I spotted that there was a lecture on some of Gerhard Richters’ work in the Tate Modern. Although I like his work, particularly the photrealistic stuff like Kirze, as featured on the Sonic Youth ‘Daydream Nation’ album cover, and in the painting ‘Phantom Interceptor’, I think I would have ended up killing some arty pharty person going on about how the artist wasn’t imposing themselves on the viewer or somesuch nonsense. So in the interest of not breaking the 6th commandment, Amo and I headed up to Tate Modern this morning to check out the artists pictures for ourselves.