Cotswold Way - Day 4 - Dowdeswell to Birdlip

Today's guest walker is my good friend Andy and after a hearty breakfast and the necessary juggling of getting a car to the finish point and a car to the start, we are away at 10am.  Some peering at maps has shown we have two short sharp climbs in the first mile or two and then we should be fine for the rest of the day.  And that's pretty much how it proves to be.  The anticipated climbs turn out to be pretty straight forward actually and we pretty much take them in our stride.  This is probably helped by the brand new route to Ravensgate Common that was opened only two days before, and is described on the Cotswold Way website as the first major route change on the Cotswold Way in the last three years.  We didn't realize it at the time but we must be some of the very first to be taking the new route.  Well, it works and as you can see below, it's a great view from the top.   

Whilst there are still some slopes and hills to come today, this 10.5 mile stretch is reasonably easy walking.  There are some lovely yellow fields on the way to Seven Springs.   

The higlight of today's walk is probably to be found at the top of Leckhampton Hill where we see a few dozen people paragliding, circling around on the thermals like some of the buzzards we have seen.  It's an amazing way to see Cheltenham below but takes some serious guts to launch yourself off the edge trusting only to some thread and material.  It is a magical sight to see so many of them in the air, circling around and it's quite mesmerizing.  We stop and watch for some time and the Rutland and Australian couples that I met yesterday do the same.  Had I not been walking on a Saturday I'd have missed this sight.    

When we finally do push on round the corner to the Devil's Chimney landmark, we realise that we have stopped and stared so much at paragliders, scenery and stone walling that we have covered 4.5 miles in 3 hours.  This is possibly sub-snail's pace.   I think it demonstrates the wisdom of shorter stages and doing in ten days rather than 7 or 8 though.  For me, to be trying to cover, say, 15 miles today, would have meant feeling (self-imposed) pressure when I was watching the paragliders.  I'd have felt I should get on with it and not linger too long.  As it is, there is no rush, though we really ought to step up the pace a little bit.  So we crack open lunch at the Devil's Chimney and walk on. 

Next stop is the National Star College at Ullenwood who have recently opened the fabulous Star Bistro in their new development.  We've only just had our sandwiches so there is no way we could eat there but they have just been nominated as Cotswold Life Food & Drink Awards Finalists for 2012.  The menu looks amazing and it's pretty reasonable too.  The coffee is excellent and you get a couple of lovely little treats with it, I particularly liked the pistachios in chocolate.  When we comment on the quality of the coffee afterwards the person who serves us tells us that Rocket Coffee is roasted in an old copper roaster in nearby Stroud.  More than that, they build schools and hospitals in the places they buy the coffee from and so it's a real partnership.  I love that the Star Bistro know and care and enthuse about this stuff.

If I was local I'd certainly visit.  It's open from 11-4 on Tuesday to Friday, 10-4 on a Saturday and they plan to do some special Sunday lunches too.  It's well worth dropping in if you are walking the Cotswold Way, especially as you walk past the entrance to the college on your route.
  

Suitably refreshed we walk though some lovely wooded areas and on to Crickley Hill.  Again we stop and stare out over lovely scenery, it is a warm, clear day and has been perfect walking weather.  

It's a bit of a rude awakening after such a lovely stroll to then emerge at the noisiest and most dangerous part of the walk.  The Air Balloon roundabout at Birdlip is busy as cars rush between two motorways and you need to take care as you cross.  They are faster than you might think and after 9 miles or so, you are probably not as fast as you think.  Thankfully the route only follows the main road to Cirencester briefly and, again, you are in the quiet of the route to Birdlip. 

   

Having been bouyed by a signpost that told us Birdlip was just a half a mile away, we have to get the map out when we hit the old (pre-bypass) road  from Birdlip to Gloucester.   We've parked in Birdlip village so are faced with leaving the route here and a short walk up the road to the car, or crossing the road and taking in some more woodland before we cut back on a different footpath nearer the village.  We elect to do the latter, even though it means walking down and up, in short succession, a reasonable slope - certainly reasonable for this time in the walk anyway.  I do it because I have half an eye on the next stage, which at 13.5 miles will be the longest, and cutting even half a mile off that seems worth it.  Andy does it because he's a long suffering friend. 

At the bottom we meet our Australian friends, who have their map out and are wondering, not unreasonably, where Birdlip has gone.  Through local knowledge - partly garnered through playing cricket in such villages - we point them back up the hill to where they are heading for the pub.  We continue and join them a bit later.  We sit together on a table in the pub garden swopping stories and they are thrilled to find that Andy is a Cotswold dry stone waller and have lots of questions for him.  It's a good way to end the day and with the weather, scenery and people, it's been my best day yet.  Next stop, in a couple of weeks time, Randwick.    



Panoramas

A pretty ordinary shot but it made me smile when I saw this.

I'm enjoying walking the Cotswold Way and taking the camera with a single 18-55mm lens. Sure there are times you wish you had something longer, but there are plenty of times you are glad not to be carrying the extra weight - I have enough of my own to lug around. Thanks to the brilliance of PSE9, it seems you can get a good panorama without a tripod. I think it's only with a panorama that you get a decent sense of the views you get along the walk. I mentioned in my previous post that I was having trouble uploading them onto here so I have them up here on Flickr, along with a bunch of other stuff.



Cotswold Way - Day 3 - Winchcombe to Dowdeswell

Well, I needn't have worried about not quite finishing the previous leg.  By parking in the Back Lane car park I follow the Town Centre signs to come out exactly where I finished last time.  I take a diversion to get a picture of the Winchcombe stocks.  I am sure there must be a good reason why they have holes for seven legs in the stocks but have no idea what it is. 

                                          

It's a steep climb from Winchcombe up to Belas Knapp, in fact I think it might be the longest climb of the route, though I confess I need to investigate that in a bit more detail.  The views were good though. I know because I stopped to admire them plenty of times as I caught my breath.  

Belas Knap is a burial chamber dating back from around 3,800 BC.  The picture is of the false front.  As I arrive there an Australian couple are just leaving and a retired couple from Rutland have arrived a minute or two before me.  I get to chat with them and it turns out that all five of us are doing the same stages today and tomorrow.  We'll bump into each other several times as we walk and build up a bit of friendly camaraderie as we walk.    

It's very windy and quite cold up so high but if you keep moving it isn't so bad.  I finish the coffee from my flask and push on.  I walk down through a beautiful wooded path but it's very steep and actually, despite being downhill, it's probably the most painful part of the day's walk.  Also, in the back of your mind (well, in the front to be honest) there is the knowledge that for every step downhill there will be a corresponding step up hill to come and more, because I'm approaching Cleeve Hill and the highest point of the Cotswold Way.  

To this novice walker, it's hard work but it's well worth it, the views at the top are incredible.  

It's slightly odd to get to the top of a steep climb to end up on a golf course, stranger still that there are nervous looking sheep occupying the same space.  But there are golfers and grazers on Cleeve Common, I even spot lambs in a bunker on one of the holes.  Clearly got a baa-ed lie.  

                               

Here it is, the highest point on the Cotswold Way, proof that I made it. 

The views are spectacular but sadly Blogger says the panoramas that I took from there are too big to post.  I can see why, they are big views!  So I'll link in with my Flickr account to post some of those later.  It's very windy up there and I am blown around a bit just trying to take photographs.  It must be a nightmare to play golf in.  But what views!

Anything will be a bit of a comedown after such heights and the nature reserve I walk through is pretty uninteresting to be honest.  Maybe it's the wrong time of year.  Much more dispiriting though is the sight, just past some disused quarries, of dumped rubbish.  Drinks cartons and bottles mainly but particularly vexing and perplexing is the old tyre that someone has gone to great lengths to dump in the middle of a beauty spot.  They must have had to travel some distance to do this.  Morons.  It does, at least, serve to highlight the lack of litter on the rest of the walk, so far.

Heading towards Dowdeswell is a lovely gentle downhill walk, just what the doctor ordered when you are approaching the ten mile mark.  The sun is out as well and it makes for a very pleasant end to the day's walking.

If I had one complaint about the day (and it seems churlish to complain about anything at all on such a lovely stretch) it is the complete lack of facilities along this section.  With the possible exception of the golf clubhouse (I really should have taken a look) there are no toilets, places to get coffee or buy food anywhere.  So it is a great joy to come across a house at Dowdeswell Reservoir who is offering tea, coffee, chocolate bars and the like at very reasonable prices.  If you are walking there do drop in at Langett.  Just ring the bell at the bottom of the drive and shut the gate before you walk up the drive so thatthe free range chickens don't get out.  I sat in their garden with a cup of tea and a Mars bar and it revives my spirits almost as much as the friendly welcome from my hosts.  They are Cotswold Way people and also offer a range of Cotswold Way goodies.  I buy a relief map before I leave; I will get it framed as my reward when I finish.  It's a welcome break, a little oasis and the world feels like a better place for the existance of such places.   

Cotswold Way - Day 2 - Stanton to Winchcombe

The night before I set out I have a great steak at the Mount Inn at Stanton, washed down with a couple of pints.  On the table next to me I get talking to a couple of Canadians, mother and daughter and it turns out that despite not seeing one another, yesterday we set out about five minutes apart and finished within about half an hour of each other.  But then they didn't get lost.

At breakfast the only other guest is a recently retired woman who is starting her retirement walking the Cotswold Way in the opposite direction (South to North).  Which means that this morning will be her final leg.  She notes that because everyone else is walking it the 'right' way, she gets to meet other walkers about every hour and has had good chats along the way.  And it's the people that she remembers most about the walk, not the scenery - which is probably quietly profound.  Even more amazing that this is the first thing she talks about before telling me of the time she came face to face with a deer as she lingered in a wood, they just gazed at one another for ten minutes before the deer got bored and wandered off.  

Today the walking is a much easier 7.5 miles and it's made easier by the fact that my friend Nigel joins me.  Walking with someone is definitely a plus, especially when they bring you sandwiches and buy you tea and cake later as well.      

The first village that we come across is Stanway, and this is a picture of their cricket pavilion, set on saddle stones and with thatched roof.  It was a gift from JM Barrie, he of Peter Pan fame, who was a cricket fan and local to the area at one time.  It's a beautiful setting to play cricket in, set in a private estate and surrounded as it is with sheep grazing.  

After that there is some steeper climbing to be done and it's pretty thick with wet mud too.  For the only time over the two days I take off a layer of clothing, though this is down to the effort of the climb rather than any sunshine.    

Again the view from the top is reputed to be great and although visibility is better than yesterday, the mist is still rolling in.  This picture is quite nice though because it shows the medieval ploughing humps which are a feature of the area.  I have little idea what these are and will need to Google them.    

  

Nigel photographs a sheep, who was looking none too impressed throughout the experience. 

Our arrival at Hailes Abbey is the highlight of the walk for me today.  It's very quiet and still and we are the only visitors in the time we are there, which is probably why the woman running the centre is so keen to talk.  She is very entertaining and we have an interesting conversation on the similarities between Benedictine monks and Buddhists (her choice of topic).  It was brilliant to be able to photograph the Abbey with no-one else around.    

From there it is a pretty straight forward 2.5 mile walk into Winchcombe.  Even then though, my feet are feeling it a bit, so I am not unhappy to reach Winchcombe and be bought tea and cake.  We have some time before our bus arrives and so plan to check where the bus leaves from, finish the last few hundred yards and take a few pictures around the town.   However, the timetable at the bus stop doesn't match the information I have downloaded and it seems that the bus doesn't go back to Stanton as we wished. 

We are rescued by the friendliest butcher in the Cotswolds, who confirms our predicament and offers to ring for a taxi for us.  He explains that there used to be two taxi firms in the town and that when one of the men retired, young Steve took over and the butcher liked to put work his way.  Within about three minutes young Steve is outside the shop in his taxi, ready to go.  Young Steve is at least sixty but we are very grateful for his services. 

It is only later that I realise that I haven't actually finished the days walking.  I probably only have another five minutes walking to do to complete the second stage but I haven't done it yet.  I need to start at the butchers when I resume the walk in Winchcombe.  I'll probably be buying a pork pie or two as well, just to be friendly. 

Cotswold Way - Day 1 - Chipping Campden to Stanton

This is the first sign that you see in Chipping Campden for the beginning of the Cotswold Way.  This assumes that you are walking it from North to South, which seems to be the preferred way.  After all, everyone knows North to South is always downhill.   From here it's 102 miles down to Bath.  I am attempting it in ten (easy?) stages.  The first is the ten and a half mile schlep to the village of Stanton.

As everyone is bored of hearing by now, this has been the wettest blah, blah, since blah.  I woke on Thursday to heavy rain and puncturing anxiety fuelled dreams, I heard a good deal of rain in the night too. Yet just five minutes before I park the car, it stops raining and I have a morning of walking in cold and misty conditions - as you can see from the photo below that is taken at Fish Hill,  But I'm not being rained on. 

As a result of all this mist, I miss out on some great views which the guidebook assures me are there.  Broadway Tower, the second highest point of the Cotswolds, is not as easy to spot as it should be and so I don't stay and linger there, preferring to get down to Broadway itself for lunch.  Broadway is every bit as delightful as expected (almost as nice as Chipping Campden) and while eating the most expensive panini and coffee I've ever had, I speak to my favourite parishioner on the phone to tell her I am on my way, in one piece, and dry.  At which point, of course, it starts to rain. 

Telephone boxes in Broadway, notice the wet pavement!

I'm not too disheartened by the rain, I'm more concerned that the town seems full of shops that sell antiques rather than useful items like Mars bars and newspapers.  Besides, I have done most of my walking for the day.  It's 6 miles from the start to Broadway, so the perfect place to get lunch and rest a while before the last four and a half miles to Stanton.  

Well, there are several reasons for what happens in the afternoon.  It could be because I lose concentration.  It might be that I have my hood up and my head down and so miss some markers.  It might be because I am trying to keep my book dry (a losing battle) and so don't want to pull it out of my pocket too often. 

As a result I get lost, not once, not twice, but three times.  The first doesn't cost me much extra mileage but the second one does.  And I can't turn around once I know my mistake, not through male pride but because I have been bitten by a dog and there is no way I am retracing my steps to go and see him again! 

I am bitten by a collie near Manor Farm - walkers beware - despite being on a public bridleway.  The wrong bridleway admittedly but I am definitely on a public path.  He breaks the skin but doesn't leave a mark on my trousers and I swear at it.  (This being the part of the story that my kids can't get over, but then I realise they don't tend to hear me swear.  Which is a good thing.) 

It shakes me up a bit, and after a error in navigation in the final field I need to cross (for which I hold the book responsible this time) the pedometer tells me I have probably walked the best part of seven miles on this afternoon leg rather than four and a half.     

It is with great pleasure and some relief that I check into The Old Post House in Stanton, getting a lovely welcome.  I wash my kit, get a shower and drink a lot of tea.  I'm quite tired at the end of today but, on reflection, the fact I have walked around 13 miles shows that I can.  The legs of the journey that are supposed to be that long don't look so daunting now.  Assuming that I don't get lost, of course.     



"Can be very muddy in wet weather"

This is the week I finally begin my long-planned sabbatical trek along the Cotswold Way, walking North to South (because everyone knows that North to South is always downhill, right?)   I start at Chipping Campden and will end up, months later, in Bath.  Not because I am an incredibly slow walker - though I may be, especially with a camera and gorgeous countryside - but because I am doing it in two day stages.  So the plan is that I walk from Chipping Campden to Stanton on tomorrow, and then on to Winchcombe on Friday.  I'm nervous and excited about the challenge, it'll be good to get going at last.

As I read up a bit more on the trail (or is that trial?) I came across the observation - more than once - that in places the route can be very muddy in wet weather.  This coming after the wettest April on record.  Think I'm going to be turning up very wet and muddy at the end of Day 1. But as a friend who is joining me for Day 2 observed, it didn't stop Chris Bonnington.  Though I wasn't convinced that the Cotswold hills were that steep.  And then, suddenly and slightly mysteriously, a strange phenomenon in the sky yesterday afternoon - Mr Blue Sky!   Bring it on!

Me Me Me

Came across two fabulous blog postings today, both of which make the point that (apparently) the world doesn't revolve around me.  Or you (alone) for that matter.

Andy Shudall posts this great article about a virus that I think I knew I had but I tend to try to pretend that I don't.  http://kiwichronicles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/silent-killer-virus-for-our-times.html

Tony Watkins points me to a great ten minute talk by a psychological researcher which shows the best way to spend money so that you can be happy. http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/science/psychology/can-money-buy-you-happiness/  It'll even improve your dodge ball teams effectiveness, apparently.  One for me to show the kids at Youth Club sometime.

Two people that I am privileged to have worked with, both still doing the business.

Rain, rain, go away

 Here we are, officially in a drought and with a hosepipe ban looming and it's now the wettest April for something like 260 years. 

Back along, in March - yes March, I sat in shorts and tee shirt taking pictures of Somerset's warm up game against Surrey.  Today, the whole County Championship is washed out.  Seems a long time ago already.... 

Jonathan Lewis is a Surrey strip.  An odd things to see after so many years at Gloucestershire but good luck to him, he doesn't owe us anything.

Save me from myself!

Enjoying the chance to read whilst on sabbatical and find myself enjoying Alain de Botton's latest book, Religion for Atheists.  Starts from the viewpoint, "there's obviously no God", but then spends the rest of the time asking how can we be atheist and still have some of the great things that religion provides?  It's a very interesting book, he has some interesting insights as well as some frankly odd ideas.  Loved this quote from the book: 

“...we face temptations which we revile in those interludes when we can attain a sufficient distance from them, but which we lack any encouragement to resist, much to our eventual self-disgust and disappointment. The mature sides of us watch in despair as the infantile aspects of us trample upon our more elevated principles and ignore what we most fervently revere. Our deepest wish may be that someone would come along and save us from ourselves.”

Religion for Atheists, page 77. Alain de Botton

Which is interesting. 

Asked by a friend what this means.  I think it's pretty much what Paul writes in Romans 7:

 "21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being... I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" 
I am sure to be levering this into a sermon sometime soon after my return in the summer. 

Enjoying Barenaked Ladies

Yes, I know it sounds as if I've had a serious derailing during sabbatical, but I really haven't.  A curiousity that stems from the Big Bang Theory theme tune led me to order the Barenaked Ladies Best of 1991-2001 and it's great!  Upon playing it I realised I knew "One Week" but that was it.  But it's a great album.  Part Housemartins, part REM, part Mental as Anything, part They Might Be Giants - what's not to like? 

This is funny - "If I had a Million Dollars": 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHacDYj8KZM&feature=related

The album is a bargain at £3.99 on Amazon at the moment.

Just be very careful how you Google them. 

Have you ever played Brazil?

I understand about three words of this but this was on a football show aired in Brazil and watched by millions this month, all about the time Exeter City played Brazil on a South American tour.  That was back in 1914 and the club are exploring whether it is possible to set up a 100 year anniversary game. 

The link is here, I include it for the amusement of the two Portuguese speaking followers of this blog. 

http://globoesporte.globo.com/programas/esporte-espetacular/noticia/2012/04/exeter-quer-comemorar-os-100-anos-do-primeiro-jogo-da-selecao-brasileira.html

Exeter City 4 Walsall 2

Oh, it's the hope that kills you!  A fortnight ago it looked odds on that Exeter City would be down.  It still does, but they aren't yet.  Two weeks ago they were wonderful, beating Orient 3-0, today they win 4-2 having been pretty ordinary in the first half before putting Walsall to the sword.   In between they lost 3-2 at Rochdale, conceding three goals in the last 11 minutes.  You have to love being a football fan, don't you?  If only...

The event started bizarrely for me.  At the gate outside I am asked if I am interested in considering fostering by a man brandishing a leaflet.  Within 30 seconds I am inside the ground and being frisked, something that has never happened to me before at any football ground, let alone at Exeter City.  I am sitting in the family stand, there with my wife and daughter and a middle aged man - a soft target?  Not that there is a lot of trouble anywhere in the ground at Exeter, it is all a little disturbing and feels a bit unnecessary.   

The game leaves Exeter needing to win their last two games and for other results to go their way.  Still a long shot.  On Saturday Exeter have a local derby against Carlisle away (a mere 700 mile round trip).  Win that and it's Sheffield United at home on the last day of the season, the same day as the FA Cup final.  Even my Liverpool supporting favourite parishioner is torn over that one. 

Made it - just

Long time no posts, probably my longest absence since I started to blog.  Ironically, the effect of this has been to see the hits on the blog go through the roof.  Seems the less I write, the more people like it. 

Truth is I've been pretty done in.  Getting to sabbatical (which started Easter Monday) was a struggle and was probably only made possible by time at New Word Alive the week before, which, once again, proved to be a refuelling post along the way.  The rest of the time was spent in frantic activity trying to get everything done before I started sabbatical.  I got most of it done, handed on the rest and have probably forgotten a bunch of things. 

Came back feeling much more positive from NWA, encouraged by good solid, encouraging and challenging talks.  And some difficult feedback to face on returning but Easter weekend was good, people responding to the cross and all that it achieved, I had the pleasure of praying with one person who wanted to recommit their life to Christ, which puts any setbacks into perspective. 

But the exhaustion I felt has been the reason for the silence my end.  Sabbatical is now well under way and I am slowly being recalibrated.  My first goal is to start adopting a normal sleep pattern, achieved just twice so far.  Unwinding is a slow and rather uncomfortable experience but I need to go through it. 

Listened to a Tim Keller sermon on Elijah yesterday that points out that when Elijah was feeling like he was done in and he just wanted to die, God feed him and gave him sleep, as well as offering him renewed relationship and spiritual food.  We are physical, relational, and spiritual beings and we need to be healthy on each level - and probably lots of others too.  His application is that sometimes we don't need prayer or to listen to a sermon but a good meal and a B&B by the seaside, to listen to great music and to read a good novel.  Sounds good to me.  Watch this space... 

Draft Sermon for Sunday – Football: more important than life or death?

This is the first draft of Sunday's offering. The stuff in very small type has been cut, unless you can think of a good reason why not. Can't post the PPT, which is a shame as I have some very nifty slides with good quotes. Nevermind. Any ideas or suggestions very welcome!

 

Most of you know that I like football. Some of you might debate that, given that I support Exeter City, but it's true. So when I call this morning "Football: more important than life or death?", I'm not doing it because I disapprove of football or of sport. I love it.

There's some debate over the exact wording and meaning of Bill Shankly's quote. He was a witty man, yet you rather suspect that there was something more than a joke in what he said. Part of him believed that there was nothing in the world as important as football. In an interview shown on Granada TV in April 1981, he told an interviewer:

SHANKLY: Everything I've got I owe to football. You only get out of the game what you put into it, Shelley. So I put in all my heart and soul, to the extent that my family suffered.

SHELLY RODHE: Do you regret that at all?

SHANKLY: I regret it very much. Somebody said: 'Football's a matter of life and death to you. I said, 'Listen it's more important than that.' And my family's suffered. They've been neglected.

SHELLY RODHE: How would you do it now, if you had your time again?

SHANKLY : I don't know really. If I had the same thoughts, I'd possibly do the same again.

Later in the same interview Sir Harold Wilson, who was also on the programme, said of football:

WILSON: It's a religion too, isn't it?

SHANKLY: I think so, yes.

WILSON: A way of life.

SHANKLY: That's a good expression, Sir Harold. It is a way of life. And it's so serious that it's unbelievable. And I wonder what all the rest of the world does.

On another occasion, describing the Liverpool fans, Shankly said:

"The word 'fantastic' has been used many times, so I would have to invent another word to fully describe the Anfield spectators. It is more than fanaticism, it's a religion. To the many thousands who come here to worship, Anfield isn't a football ground, it's a sort of shrine. These people are not simply fans, they're more like members of one extended family."

"Football: more important than life and death?" We might take it too seriously sometimes, if you – like me, face relegation for your team this season. But what happened on the pitch last weekend at Spurs quickly puts everything into perspective.

As we see from some of these images, the incident at White Hart Lane eight days ago shook people. Fabrice Muamba, who is only 23 years old, has made 200 league appearances, mostly in the Premiership, and played for England Under 21s, 33 times. I found out this week that I saw his Under 21s debut at Bristol City. It was Stuart Pearce's first game in charge and Fabrice was one of 18 players used, which partly explains why I didn't remember him playing. Most people had never heard of him until he collapsed on the pitch just before half-time in the FA Cup tie he was playing for Bolton Wanderers against Spurs. That's all changed, for all the wrong reasons.

Fabrice, as is widely known now, came to this country as an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fleeing from the war there. He arrived here as an 11 year old, unable to speak a word of English. He clearly has brains though, he has 10 GCSEs as well as A-levels in French, Maths and English. None of the other players in the Bolton Wanderers dressing room has as many qualifications. He is said to enjoy listening to opera (which I suspect is unusual amongst Premiership footballers. Pat Nevin tells a story about when how when he was a top level footballer, his manager fined him for going to an art gallery). Fabrice is described as deeply religious. In his profile provided in match day programmes it says: "Fabrice is an extremely strong believer in God and says that he is the reason for everything he has done and accomplished." He has a three year old boy who he is said to be devoted to and he got engaged on Valentine's Day last month.

In thinking about the events of that F.A. Cup tie, I want to look at four small passages in the Bible. As we have seen, events like this often lead us to look outside ourselves for some answers and because I am a Christian the first place for me to try and make sense of the world I live in, with all it's complications, is the Bible.

1. Why do bad things happen to good people?
   

 

As we reflect on Muamba's collapse on the pitch from a sudden heart attack, it's an obvious question, isn't it? Why do bad things like this happen to good people, to the young, it all seems so unfair.

 

The issue of how we try to make sense of suffering is a difficult one. People throughout the ages, of all religions and none, have wrestled with this question, and, at best, come up with only partial answers.

Many have tried to make sense of the problem of suffering. In writing about this problem, the author Philip Yancey says of C.S. Lewis' book, The Problem of Pain, that it "offered perhaps the most articulate of the subject in this century" (referring to the 20^th century)… "written at the height of his intellectual powers". (Where is God when it hurts?, 20)

Yet, when some years later his own wife died of bone cancer, Lewis wrote A Grief Observed, under a pseudonym. If you read that book (I've only dipped into it) you can tell that Lewis has really been dragged through the mill by the awful experience that he has been through. For instance, he writes,

"Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, if you turn to him then with praise, you will be welcomed with open arms. But go to him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away." (Where is God when it hurts, 15)

One of the problems we have is that the pain of some suffering seems to cloud any understanding we might have of the subject. Lewis was able to write a great book on the subject of suffering. And then he watched helpless while his wife died. It was hard for his experience and his intellectual understanding to match up. And that is a problem that we might have as well.

The question of why bad things happen to people is a question that the Bible itself asks in the psalms for instance, and there is an occasion where Jesus is asked why seemingly innocent people had such terrible things happen to them:

 

Luke 13.1-4 and the Tower of Siloam

¹ Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

The situation here is that Pilate's soldiers had killed a bunch of Galileans when they were on their way to present their sacrifices. Jesus tells his listeners that they were no more or less guilty than any of the other Galilieans – they didn't suffer because of anything particular that they had done.

Similarly, the local news seems to be reporting that, in Siloam, 18 people had died when a tower had collapsed on them. Were they more guilty than the rest of the people living in Jerusalem? No, says Jesus.

There are no easy answers to why some people suffer and others seems enjoy the life of riley. But this is the way that the world is, we live in between the perfection of Genesis 1 and the complete renewel of Revelation 22. We live in a twisted, broken, damaged world; this is what life is like for people in this day and age. In other words, these are things that happen in the world. It wasn't a punishment because they were especially wicked.

So it would be foolish to say that it happened to Fabrice Muamba because of any great sin in his life. It happened to him because it happens to people in the world we live in.

 

Just before we move on though, notice what Jesus is keen to tell his listeners and what we should be listening to, as well. He says it twice, word for word, in verse 3 and again in verse 4: "But unless you repent, you too will all perish". There is a reality far beyond the day to day of our lives. We will all, one day, perish. We might have a tower collapse on us, we might fall down in the street and experience a sudden heart attack, or it might be of natural causes in later life. None of us know how long we have. When I was at college I said goodbye to a lad that I knew from the Christian Union at the end of the summer term, a couple of months later I was at his funeral. No-one would have expected it. One of the lads I played cricket with, killed instantly in a car crash.

 

Jesus' concern seems to be less for the accidents and incidents that people ask him about, more for the need of each and everyone of us to repent so that we don't perish. If we want to live with God in the hereafter we need to have first repented, to have turned away from all the muck and mistakes that make us unclean before God and to live differently, as forgiven people leading a new life with Jesus in charge.

 

2    Where do we turn when it all turns bad?

 

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121

 

We've seen a huge outpouring of prayers for Fabrice Muamba this week.

 

No-one is pretending that we have suddenly experienced a great spiritual revival in this country but it has been fascinating to see so many people in football talking openly about the importance of prayer and urging people to pray for Fabrice. The whole of Real Madrid side wearing shirts urging people to pray for him! Fabrice's girlfriend urged people to pray for him, saying that God is in control.

 

It led to this remarkable headline in The Sun: "Praying for Muamba... God is in control".

 

Some of the players that have been quoted are people who are Christians and are happy to be identified as followers of Jesus. Others aren't, and yet there seems to be an awareness that all the fame and wealth in the world are no protection when you come up against something as terrible as a life threatening illness. Perhaps this was summed up well by the tweet of one of the Tottenham defenders: "Doesn't matter who you support. Doesn't matter if you aren't a football fan. Doesn't matter if you aren't religious. Pray for Fabrice Muamba." Kyle Walker

 

When you're at the end of your rope you'll try anything. Or for some of us it reawakens the memory of something we once heard about God, or a curiosity about what he was like that we haven't really thought about much for a long time but this is a wake-up call for us.

 

We know that there are some things in life that we are powerless to prevent and that we need help from someone or something stronger than us to get us through. Instinctively it seems that we are driven to prayer at a time like this. We have got to the end of ourselves and need something or someone more.

 

So far it looks like those prayers are being answered. It's amazing that Fabrice has made the recovery that he has. Millions of us prayed for him, we did so in the service here last week and we were asking God to do something so huge that was way beyond any capability we might have.

 

They tried to restart his heart with the defibrillator twice on the pitch, once in the player's tunnel and a further twelve times in the ambulance, all of which were unsuccessful attempts.

 

Jonathan Tobin, the Bolton Wanderers club doctor underlined how serious it was when he told the BBC, "It was 48 minutes when he collapsed to reaching hospital and a further 30 minutes after that. He was, in effect, dead at that time."

 

No wonder that Harry Rednapp, on Friday, was repeating the words miraculous and miracle about Muamba's recovery in his interview on 5 Live.

 

Andrew Deaner – consultant cardiologist and Tottenham fan:

"If I was ever going to use the term miraculous it could be used here. He has made a remarkable recovery so far."

(There was a lovely quote from him later in that interview too, that says a lot about the kind of man Fabrice is...:

"Two hours after [regaining consciousness] I whispered in his ear, 'What's your name?' and he said, 'Fabrice Muamba'. I said, 'I hear you're a really good footballer' and he said, 'I try'. I had a tear in my eye."              Andrew Deaner, Consultant Cardiologist.

 

Florence Nightingale (a Fiorentina fan? She was born there), who is always being quoted in sermons on football, wrote:

"often when people seem unconscious, a word of prayer reaches them".

 

And for what it's worth I've seen that flicker of recognition when I have sat by the bedside of people who were seemingly unconscious, when I have prayed for them, read them the Scriptures or sung, very softly, the words of an old hymn to them.

 

In the letter he wrote to a church in Ephesus, Paul reminds them that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. (3.20) Seems that this is the case here. God is more than capable.

 

Do we limit God? Expect too little from him? Only turn to him in prayer as a last resort rather than start there.

 

But before I finish this morning I'd be leaving you with the wrong impression if you think I'm saying, pray and it'll all be okay. Because what if you pray and your prayers were not answered as you wished?

Praying doesn't always result in what we want.

Ruth Bell Graham, who was married to Billy Graham, is quoted as saying that had God answered all her prayers she'd have been married several times before she even met Billy. We don't always get what we want. The question is, are those occasions when we come away and decide there is no God, or do we conclude that there is a God and that he is in control. Back at that Sun headline. Do we believe it? In good times and in bad?

To be straight with you, there are a couple of times in my life where people close to me have been seriously ill and despite my prayers and the prayers of whole communities, they haven't pulled through. I don't know why. I can't offer you any iron clad promises about prayer always working or that things always work out well. But I do know that God has been very good to me over the years and I have learnt that I can trust him. I may not always understand what he is doing but I believe he knows a lot more than me and that he knows best. That he is in control and that he tends to work things out for the best. I don't always understand why things happen the way that they do, but I know him well enough to trust him all the same.

I guess knowing that helps us when we are struggling. It's the kind of thing that will keep us hanging in there when prayers don't seem to be answered, as well as in those exciting times when we see something of what God is doing and his answers to our prayers. Do you know him well enough to trust him through thick and thin, in good times and bad? Have you repented so that you won't perish and placed your trust in him? Jesus warns you and I pass it on, this is something of urgency, please don't walk away this morning and forget about it.

Ephesians 3

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Let's pray for Fabrice Muamba, his family and friends, and for ourselves...

What am I worth?

Weird but wonderful story in the paper recently.  Last week's Guardian (I was slow to pick up on it) reports that a Portuguese man is suing the Baptist Union of Great Britain for £10 million.  (A quick look at the accounts would put him off). 

The basis of his claim is that he 'wasted' 19 years working as an evangelist when he could have been playing football.  He was formerly a player in the Portuguese Third Division and his claim is that he could have earned £20,000 a week playing for Man Utd. 

"I could definitely have had a long career in the Premiership," Arquimedes Nganga said. "I see many players playing today who I am not inferior to – and perhaps even better than".

Nganga has filed papers at the high court, accusing the leaders of the Baptist Union of Great Britain of destroying his social life, causing him "psychological harm" and defrauding him of money through compulsory donations.

Full story (and it really is not an early April Fool's joke) is in this Guardian article. 

The Help

We had our first full house tonight at Reel Issues.  All 115 seats at the cinema sold for the Oscar winning film The Help.  I find it rather satisfying that people had to be turned away from an event organised by the church, that's not too perverse is it?  Considering it has been around a while I was delighted; in fact it's out on DVD next week. 

A good film but not really a great one in my humble... but I certainly enjoyed it.  I had to flee the discussion in order to buy in breakfast supplies for the minister's breakfast tomorrow morning but my spies tell me that some good points were made.  Perhaps the most telling was from a school teacher who said that she thought that these days the whole race issue is hardly an issue for kids whereas in comparison the older generation, who grew up in a different atmosphere of racism not always being seen as wrong, were more likely to be racist.  Sure that will cause some hackles to rise. 

Next month we show the excellent Gran Torino - can't wait!

Exeter City 1 Stevenage 1

Don't look too closely at the picture above there are some big flaws in it, just a quick thought at half-time.  Four pictures taken and then (very roughly) glued together.

Exeter City were boosted by the return of Jamie Cureton, secured on-loan until the end of the season after his Orient move didn't work out.  We could certainly use some goals from him before May and he came close, hitting the crossbar for what would have been the first goal.  In the end it was Richard Logan who broke the deadlock with a lesson in persistance and a lucky bounce or two that he took full advantage of.

The second half saw a Stevenage equaliser and they could have had a second a minute later.  Paul Tisdale made some good substitutions and at the death it looked more likely that Exeter would win the game but a draw it remained.  The point was a decent one for City, Stevenage being in the promotion play-off spots before the game, but it does leave us a point from safety.

It's going to be an interesting end to the season.  Here's hoping it isn't too interesting.     

Almost...

The second monthly competition for Camera Club this week and we had an external judge for the first time, rather than us all casting our votes.  Was interesting and beneficial to get his comments, well worth us doing it. 

The theme was Nightlife and I was unplaced in the first five but was named as one of three "Almosts".  Story of my life!  No complaints though, in fact there were better pictures, in my view, that didn't rate at all.

Touching the leper

The following is a quote from Jon McGregor's third novel, "Even the dogs..."

Sorry if any of the language offends, but I thought this was a subtle but deliberate (in the context of the novel) allusion to Christ touching the untouchables.  Of course, I might be reading too much into it, but from the title onwards, there are touches in there that seem to allude to the Bible.

The context here is of a homeless man who is addicted to drugs, getting his feet looked at. 

"Sat and waited and when it was his turn he took off his boots and socks and stretched out his feet for her.  One thing the army taught him was how to look after his feet, and he always made sure he had a pair of dry socks to be going on with, always aired his boots at night if he could.  Some things, when you've been doing them every day for years, you get stuck with them no matter how drunk you are. 

Nothing wrong with these feet, the chiropodist told him, cupping one in each hand and running her thumbs along the tendons and joints.  You must be doing something right, she said, smiling.

Didn't forget that one.  Things like that stick with you, even with all the gaps.  Things like then she washed and dried his feet, and cut his toenails, and rubbed away the hardened lumps of skin with a pumice stone before giving him a new pair of socks and asking him to send the next one in. Most people going out of their way not to touch you all day, to not hardly brush up against you or even catch your eye or anything.  And then that.  Washing and drying and holding his feet, one in each hand.  Things like that stick with you, on the whole.  Could sit and wait all day for a thing like that. 

Watching Ant stirring away at the mess in the spoon and remembering all this.  Waiting.   

Same with the hairdressers, when they go running their fingers through your hair.  Same with the nurses, changing your dressings or taking your blood pressure or listening to the crackling in your lungs, they got to touch you with their clean soft hands and no one says nothing about it but it all helps oh Christ but it helps."   (pages 72,73)

I started Even the dogs, thrilling at the beautiful way that McGregor writes - and he certainly does.  But the novel is pretty tough, a relentless circle of drink, drugs, death, and an autopsy thrown in for good measure.  It's cleverly done but not a light beach holiday read.  I still prefer his first novel, "If nobody speaks of remarkable things".

Oh, the irony...

During a fairly intense time at work at the moment, where I am supposed to be working part-time, my email inbox tells me that today is 'Work Your Proper Hours Day.'  Today is apparently the day that the average worker stops working unpaid overtime for the year and starts getting paid.  

More details here, including things we probably know about work life balance and health issues.  http://www.worksmart.org.uk/workyourproperhoursday/

I wonder how many of us will manage it.  Thing is, I could do with some notice for this. 

Sustainable and Sustaining?

Very interesting WEBA Ministers' Conference last week.  David Coffey was excellent on Joseph and though I had heard the sessions last year at a conference, it bears listening to a second time - and more.  Communion at the end of the three day shin dig was an unexpectedly emotional affair for me and I've come back with plenty to think about. 

Perhaps the most challenging session was from Stuart Murray Williams who asked lots of great questions about how we do church and, rather frustratingly, refused to give us easy answers.  His central question, or at least the one that stood out to  me and many others, was, "Is what we are doing sustainable and is it sustaining us?"  Rather less snappily, can we keep things going the way that they are, or is it killing us?  Are we trying to do too much and are we burning people out in the process? 

Stuart challenges us to have the courage to review what we are doing and to undertake some judicious pruning.  What could we do without doing?   One thing we all agreed in our group was that if we were starting church from scratch we wouldn't start from where we currently are.  But that is where we find ourselves, so what next?  Answers on substantially more than a postcard please!

Top Coffee Shop

It didn't look like a Christian Bookshop.  In fact, I went  in to check because it just didn't look right.  It was modern, clean, stylish even and served great coffee, paninis and wonderful soup.  The selection of books was good despite the limited space and the staff seemed like they were all from this planet and were very pleasant with it. 

Everyone knows a shop like this should be a bit shabby, smell slightly musty and be staffed by well-meaning volunteers who don't really know where things are or how the system works.  They have it all wrong at Cornerstone. 

Seriously, Cornerstone of Taunton, take a bow.  We came away with a bag of books, full tums and sense of peace restored after the trauma of a visit to Sports Direct.  Thank you - great job guys!

First one of the year

There's plenty wrong with this and it's been quickly processed without looking through all the attempts I made.  Still, an enjoyable time spent and I'm going to quickly post this before my first glass of wine (or alcoholic drink of any kind) since about half past midnight on New Year's Day.  Cheers!

A good start

First competition of the year on Tuesday with the theme "Favourite Image of 2011" and so an even higher standard than normal .  Was very pleased to get third place. 

Next month the theme is Nightlife.  Need to shoot something new for that...