41 posts tagged “cheltenham”

I had a great Easter although it was rather busy.  I was on the production team for my church's Easter celebration which was held at Cheltenham Racecourse's Centaur conference centre. That meant rolling up at 7am to get all the kit out and assembled ready to go at 10.30am - well actually earlier so that the band can have a run-through.

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So that brings us to problem number 2.  The projector was also hung from the lighting gantry but too close to the screen so the picture didn't fill the screen.  No probs says Pete, we'll just fiddle with the screen resolutions of the PC and the iMac (and the dvd and the cameras) so that they fill the screen.  No, the computers didn't want to play, so Pete tried stretching the image on his magic video controller system.  Unfortunately, that didn't work terribly well either,but hopefully most people didn't notice the black bands down the sides sometimes.  Actually during the early part of all this I was looking after a lovely little boy who belongs to our team.  He's very bright, he was playing with my camera and worked out how to change the playback image and how to zoom in and out.

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While that was going on, Dave was trying to rig all the lights with a picker truck which had decided that it wouldn't move!  And the band were doing sound checks and trying to get organised.  Not only that but the audience began to arrive and get in the way - not sure why people were arriving quite so early!

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Oh, and the power on the video desk tripped out perhaps because of a faulty computer screen which we had to replace.  And the comms system wasn't working properly so that Pete couldn't tell Al on the sound desk to turn up the sound when he played the welcome dvd.

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Of course, by about 15 minutes late, everything was working fine - amazing.  It seems that no matter how early we start getting ready, there will always be problems which mean we are praying hard right up to (and past) the official start time.  Perhaps it helps keep us humble.

Last week I talked about the new plans my church has to enlarge our existing buildings instead of moving to new premises.  This will ensure that we remain central in Cheltenham and also should be considerably cheaper than the alternatives.  Last time I showed you some visualisations of the plans.  These and better are now on the church's website (http://trinityuk.org/facingthefuture.php).  You can find the presentation given by Mark and David - both the visuals and the audio - and also some fly-around visuals.  Actually, if you have a Facebook account you can join the Trinity Church group and see actual plans.  How technology has changed the way we do things!  Of course, these are only outline plans at the moment and have not been developed yet for presentation for Planning Permission.  Then once that has been gained, the project will be spread over various phases as finances allow.  There will no doubt be various testing times ahead - but this certainly seems very positive after all the shut doors we've had over the past few years.

In fact, this morning, Mark (senior pastor), presented the second part of our vision for the future.  I thought he was going to do a spiel asking for money - but no!  He talked about the Great Commission - GO! - and about a brand new project.  We would continue our work in Cheltenham and the UK and around the world as before, but now adding a special emphasis on a new project in East Africa.  Having been to Uganda three times in the last three years to work in a rural school, I found this very exciting. 

I have been praying very much about what I should be doing as I approach retirement and this new project would seem to match at least some of my experience.  I really want to be doing something during retirement - as well as the holiday time I now have - and not just simply vegetating, or even just pleasing myself with my usual Internet meanderings.  Over the last year or so my teaching experience has been greatly widened, since my school has closed down some of the teaching courses I was doing (electronics and computing) and has asked me to teach Physics and some Graphics Design and Photography/Art/Photoshop.  I have also been doing some one-to-one teaching, small-group teaching (3 students), individual staff computer support and what might be described loosely as tutoring/mentoring/supervision of various students who come to me of their own volition in their "free" periods.  Of course, going back more than just a few years, you could say I have a lifetime of experience, all of which is usable by God. 

But whatever my experience, good or bad, I suppose the important thing now is to be open to God's call and purpose.  Matt prayed for me this morning and said that he felt that God was saying that He had plenty of adventures for me in the future, but that He still had work for me to do right now and right here in Cheltenham.  Over the difficulties I have had at school over the last few years, I am sure that God has been teaching me to pray more, to trust more and to love more.  Especially the love bit.  That he loves me so very much like when you first fall in love and can't stop thinking of your loved one, and miss them so much it actually hurts when you are away from them.  God feels like that about me - I find that almost incredible.  Especially because I certainly don't deserve it and fail Him often. I think God has also been teaching me to love others more - with the same love He has for me - passing on His love if you like.  That's not easy anywhere and it certainly isn't easy at school, but I do believe God has been bringing various people into my life for me to love.  I don't get much positive feedback from school, but I have had a few parents and students who have said they have appreciated who I am and what I have done for them and others.  Those comments are a great encouragement to keep going under pressure.

We''l see what excitement the future brings!

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At long last, after months of waiting and speculation from me, and hard work and planning from others, we have new plans for dealing with the growth that we have seen in the last few years.  Regular readers of the this blog will know of our previous plans - first to buy the old Odeon cinema (but that proved too expensive to re-develop), then to use part of the site of the new Brewery complex (where the new cinema is - but that fell through).  We also tried to use the Centaur building at the racecourse on a more frequent basis - but they refused to let us.  So we have come back to the attempt to use the existing building and land more efficiently. 

The church is central in the town (although when built in 1823 at the cost of £10,000 it was surrounded by fields!) so it is ideally placed - it would be a pity to move out of the centre of town, apart from which the cost of land is prohibitive.  Previously, various organisations were against the re-development of the site, but those objections are slowly disappearing, as long as we are careful in the design.  Otherwise, the site would end up neglected and the building dilapidated.  Better a thriving church community, than a crumbling building. Also the work we have done in the community over the last few years may have won us some friends amongst the powers that be.

Our new plans will be discussed and debated over the next few months, then put into operation as finance allows.  The idea is that instead of going for a complete job in one go, putting the buildings out of action for a while, we should develop them over a period of time in about ten phases, so that each is achievable within a realistic timespan and budget, and the buildings remain substantially in use.

All this is very exciting.  I am thrilled that at last we can make some progress on the building since it it has become increasingly unsuitable for our needs.  But I do pray that all this necessary activity and effort will not distract us from the main task of making disciples and turning the world (starting with Cheltenham) upside down - or the right way up!

Well yes, I know it's ages since Christmas - well a couple of weeks anyway - but we have now posted on YouTube videos of all the carols that we sang at the great big racecourse carol service - see my previous post Some of the video was filmed by me so try not to be too rude!  Here's just two of my favourites. The first  is Melody Green singing better than Mariah Carey (well that's what I think):

After the carol service we held at the Racecourse in Cheltenham, I remembered that I posted various bits of video from last year on my blog, so I thought I would post some YouTube videos of some of the songs we sang this year.

The first is "Emmanuel" which means "God with us" sung by Hillsong:

On Saturday we went for a walk up Crickley Hill, a popular dog-walking spot on the Cotswold escarpment.  There are lots of beech trees - some of them quite old, up to 250 years - so we were scuffing through all the fallen leaves.  There are also great views across the Severn valley to the welsh hills, although this time the air was not clear so the hills were mainly obscured in the distance.  There were however plenty of trees with plenty of berries and flowers and so on.

Today we just walked down the lane, just across the road from where we live. I don't usually bother taking a camera, but I did today and there were certainly plenty of things to take pictures of.

I was surprised by the variety of red and black berries just in the hedgerow - and the abundance of the fruit.  I don't know where all the birds are but there is a feast waiting for them!  I love the way photography makes me see more, looking at shape and colour, and just noticing more of what is around me.  There is so much treasure hidden from the speeding motorist - or even the preoccupied walker (just look at the bark on that tree trunk).  Here's a challenge: open your eyes and see what you're missing on your doorstep!  Here are a few more shots from my garden that I took when I got back from my walk: