GadgetVicar

Much Pain, A Little Gain & the Beautiful Game

Very early Friday am: GV Boy awakens me. He is in excruciating pain. Long story short: by way of NHS 24, our GP and A & E, he ends up in hospital having surgery on an abscess. He's out today, having had the whole thing cleaned out. Not nice.

In the midst of all that, I managed to fit in the first onsite meeting with the contractors for Building for the Future. I can't quite believe we've reached this stage. This time next year the new facilities should be completed.

Last night, I had the privilege of speaking at the rather excellent dedication service for the new season of the Strathclyde Evangelical Churches Football League. Darren had the vision and did a brilliant job of organising the whole thing, the President and Secretary of the Scottish Amateur Football Association did a very entertaining Q & A, a St Silas' band led the worship songs and one hundred and fifty or so footballers turned up!

Kevin Pietersen - Former England Cricket Captain

Heard on the Radio 4 this morning:

"He joined the navy so that the world could see him".

In the Carolinas

It's been a busy and exciting few days in all sorts of ways, visiting with Yvonne Mildred at the SIM headquarters just outside Charlotte, where I met with the senior staff. They seem like a great group and the offices were modern and everything was very slick. I had hoped to visit as many of the missionaries that St Silas' supports while I was on sabbatical. Yvonne turned out to be the only one I've managed to see.

We then travelled from Charlotte down to Sumter, where we received a warm welcome from the delightful John and Laura Barr. Sometimes it is just so good to be around friends. It made a change to be staying in a home rather than a hotel room. On Thursday, we drove up to Hendersonville, in the mountains of North Carolina. It's a place I've visited several times over the last five years, and I've grown to love it. Scots descendants are here in large numbers and we only have to speak to be well received. Add to that the landscape up here is truly beautiful.

Today we went white water rafting on the Nantahala river. The briefing and video introduction were rather ominous ("invariably someone in your raft will fall in!" - it was bound to be me wasn't it?). We had a great two hours on the eight mile length of river. We'd been advised to beach the raft just before the final run in order to scout out a route down the last rapids, which we did. It turned out to be less fearsome than we'd anticipated. After much teamwork, ably led by Cap'n Barr, we made it in one piece, with no-one having fallen overboard.

This evening we dined at the Blackwater Grille, where I finally got to try out "Fried Green Tomatoes", followed by "Napoleon of Mountain Berry Ice Creams & Nut Cakes". The owner/chef even came and spoke to us for twenty minutes. The food was excellent, as was the service. We were thoroughly impressed by the quality of the ingredients, their preparation, presentation, and the overall enthusiasm for the menu displayed by the staff, as well as their attentiveness to the clientele.

Tomorrow we will walk up to the Dupont State Forest Waterfalls, where scenes from The Last of the Mohicans were filmed. We'll then return to Sumter, where we hope to see Tropic Thunder in the evening.

On Sunday, I am to share at the adults' Sunday school (on GAFCON) before preaching at the main service at Holy Comforter, Sumter.

Reflecting on all that we have done and experienced over the last few weeks, I am so grateful to have had the opportunities to learn, rest and have fun in so many different ways. Spending time with both GV Boy and Brother has been precious. Seeing old friends has been a blessing. Making new ones, likewise. Learning at Willow Creek has given me more vision for where God will take us in the months and years to come. More than anything, just being away has been so refreshing following what has been the worst year of my life. Though sad to leave the USA, I feel ready for the challenges  awaiting me at home in Scotland, knowing it's where I am called to be, and that God has surrounded me with people who love and care for me, and with whom I can work to see His kingdom extended. Things are moving.......

Beat the Champ

....at chess that is.

Jacob Aagaard, the current British Chess Champion (and who happens to attend St Silas' with his lovely family), will be playing all comers at chess at Kelvingrove Art Gallery from 10.30 am onwards. Jacob will play 12 people at the same time and every time a game is over some one else can take that place. So far 70 people have signed up to play.

So if you fancy yourself as a Grand Master, get on down there and play or just go and support. It should be a sight worth watching.

It is £5 to play and the fee is going to Building for the Future and Chess Scotland.

Clash

Question A: Does the venue for this Saturday's Diocesan Synod have a bar with sports coverage?

Question B: If it does, would the person chairing the afternoon session kindly speed through the business so that at least two members can watch the rugby clash between Scotland and England?

Question C: Er, could I be getting my priorities all wrong?

Game

I enjoyed a pilgrimage yesterday at the invitation of a friend. It was to a shrine across the water from the sunny West End. People have worshipped there in their tens of thousands since 1899. The venue was Ibrox Stadium, for the Rangers - Falkirk match. A somewhat lacklustre game, but enjoyable enough. I especially enjoyed it when Nacho Novo was brought on from the substitute's bench to the singing of 'Novo Wonderland'. I can't repeat the lyrics here, so you'll need to Google for them. Let's just say that the colour of his boots yesterday are reflected in the colourful words of the song.

It's ten years since my last visit to a Rangers game, and much has changed in that time. There's the pre-match cheer-leaders for starters. Andy Cameron warms the crowd up. I say warms it up - in reality the crowd seemed somewhat subdued for much of the game. Though most of the sectarianism of yesteryear has been banished following strong campaigns against it, my friend tells me that the atmosphere is still electric for an Old Firm match, and that both sets of fans are much more vocal then. It was great to see the number of families at the game - again something I wasn't aware of the last time I was there, though that might have been because I was in the Broomloan stand. And what a fantastic stadium Ibrox is now. A real credit to Glasgow.

The little rituals of football matches always cause me to see the parallels between church and the beautiful game; the greetings of teammates as they begin the match or enter and leave the field of play; the choreographed singing (with drums!); the waving of flags (although in our context it's mostly the kids that wave flags around). There's also the enthusiasm that is engendered at a big match - if only that was what happened at church at every service...

A significant difference is that the crowd eff and curse the players and officials when, in their opinion, they get it wrong. Of course, everyone of us who was watching could have played so much better than the teams yesterday (and a bunch of blokes did get a chance to show that at half-time). Mind you, most of the crowd had payed a lot of money to be there, so I suppose it's only fair to let them have their say.

Imagine a worship service where the congregation remonstrated with the leaders when they got it wrong? 'Decently and in order' it would not be.

Back to yesterday. The result - Rangers 2, Falkirk 0.   

UK Footballers Get The Summer Off

While at the Alpha Course tonight, I was kept in touch by text message with how England were doing against Croatia. Being two goals down within fourteen minutes was almost as upsetting as the Scottish start on Saturday night. To get  back from that was a remarkable feat. Seeing the highlights later, it was clear that Croatia were magnificent on the attack and that England played very poorly. Croatia undoubtedly deserved to win as they did.

How sad that all the British players will now get next summer off.

Scotland and Italy

Ten young men packed into GV Boy's room early on Saturday evening. Another dozen people or so were downstairs. Our purpose: to cheer on Scotland to victory over Italy.

The atmosphere in Glasgow  was electric. Be-kilted men with 'See You Jimmy' hats and hair were everywhere. There was no such paraphenalia at our house, save for a couple of flags and scarves.

Oh how we groaned as the Italians scored after one minute.

'We've been here before,' intoned Ms GV.

The cheer when Scotland equalised almost took the roof off (and made the plaster crack as the boys upstairs jumped up and down).

The possibility of relying on the Ukraine beating France at this week's midweek game loomed. How like Scotland to rely on a last minute opportunity to qualify, provided by someone else?

But then came the killer blow. Panucci's goal following a free kick that should have been Scotland's ended the dream. This Italian goal was balanced by the Scot's goal, which was offside.

Truly, it was an evening of dashed hopes, but Scotland have commended themselves.

In true Scottish spirit, the teenagers upstairs first post-match words were, 'There's always the World Cup!'  Let's dream on........

An Exciting and Positive Weekend............

A busy weekend ahead with another House of Prayer session led by Jo and Martin Judd tonight (chilled out praise, listening to God and sharing - 8pm @ St Silas'); Small/Cell Group Leader's training (10am-1pm @ St Silas' Saturday morning), Scotland v Italy chez GadgetVicar (the game is not actually in our home obviously - it'll be courtesy of Sky Sports, but you are welcome to come and watch the agony and the ecstacy with me! GV Boy has his mates coming round to watch it upstairs.); the third Sunday is our long day of the month with three services, starting with the 9am 1662 Communion service, a sermon on 1 Samuel 23 at the 11am and ending with Deeper at 6.30pm.

Golf, Art, Evangelism........and Shoes

It's been twenty years + since I last swang a golf club, so it was with some trepidation that I went here yesterday morning to hit sixty-odd balls down a driving range. My mentors, Nick and Houston were very kind about my feeble efforts (even when I inadvertently almost hit them with the the flying head of an errant club). I managed to hit the ball fairly straight and hit targets a few times, but power was lacking, especially when compared to these guys, one who has been playing for forty years, the other who is built like the proverbial outside toilet. A good way to spend an hour or so - only trouble is, it's got me wondering about taking up golf again after all these years.

In the afternoon, I ended up in town with Ms GV and GV Girl No. 2. The latter is doing a course at the Art School, so it gave me an opportunity to visit the Mackintosh Gallery, checking out the Annual Fine Arts Staff Show : Borders, Crossings and Settlements. I enjoyed two pieces in particular. Stephen Jackson's 'Borderline, Northern Ireland: Southern Ireland' is a series of photographs featuring every border crossing between the two nations. Heige Mruck's 'Every Picture' is a video loop displayed on an Apple monitor, featuring family photographs taken over a six year period. It flashes through the photographs very quickly and it lasts well over an hour, but there was something utterly fascinating and beautiful about it. Well worth visiting: the show finishes on the 3rd November.

Then it was off street band watching, including a band from the what I suppose is mostly an African Redeemed Church of God. They had a great spot on the Concert Hall steps - very exuberant drumming, dancing children and a lead singer who spent most of the time bent double. I enjoyed listening and wondered if anyone would evangelise me. No one did! I either look holy enough or too much of a tough nut to crack? I eventually asked someone who had a few leaflets which church they were from, and she invited me to church tomorrow. I explained that I was a pastor myself so couldn't attend. 'You're a pastor?' she said and moved on. End of conversation. They'd gathered a reasonable crowd and there was a lot of energy. It's a great spot to witness from. Somehow I don't think many Scots' Christian worship bands would have the same effect.

My afternoon ended with some serious shoe shopping (why is it when I visit a proper shoe shop, the socks I have on are invariably the ones most full of holes?), and coffee with Ms GV.

I need to get a bit more work/fun balance. Yesterday felt like a good attempt.