manse to lighthouse

I've been sorting out some old slides and found these images of the manse, back and front, from about 15 years ago. It all looks very different now post Lighthouse re-development. We all really enjoyed living there, but latterly the position of the church in relation to our home, was such that it was almost impossible to have any time at home which was protected. The only way to get some space and time for yourself or family was to go away for the day. I wouldn't recommend any congregation building a manse next door to a church building.

NAIRN ON UK TOUR AGAIN FOR TOP CHRISTIAN MUSICIAN

World-class Christian singer/song-writer and author, Michael Card is in the UK in March and he will again be visiting the Highland town of Nairn. He will give a concert in the Nairn Community Centre on Friday 18 March 2011 at 7.30pm. This will be Michael's third visit to Nairn where he played for the first time in 1997 and again in 2009. Michael’s concerts are quite unique and combine music, worship and teaching. The concert is being hosted by Nairn Baptist Church. Tickets for the Michael Card concert are £10 each and are available from Nairn Community Centre, CLC bookshop in inverness or from Andrew and Mairi Ross (01667-453930).

anonymous

We receive a fair number of very constructive suggestions and comments on the Comments section of the blog. Unfortunately many of them are sent anonymously. I'm not sure if that is because there is a technical difficulty? It would be really helpful if folk could identify themselves when posting comments. I would love to have a chat about the suggestions made today regarding greater involvement of youth and children, but I can't when I don't know who is posting. Many blogs don't post any comments which are sent anonymously. I will continue to do so where they are constructive, but I would also appreciate the chance for further conversations on a more personal basis.

sharp vision required

I was preaching from the beatitudes this morning. So many angles, so many possible sermons, so little time to share. Here's a video clip which came to my mind after the service. We may discover God's blessing in the most unexpected places, if we have eyes to see. A great post at visual theology on the same theme.

no seats!

This was the scene this morning at 9.15am. I was keen to leave them until the congregation arrived, and invite everyone to take a seat when they arrrived! In the end, we had some time, so set them out before everyone arrived. Michael Robertson, our Board Chairman recently suggested that we should have a Sunday morning, where all the various elements of support such as sound, av, hospitality, musicians, welcomers were all taken away, just to highlight the level of commitment by the various teams. I'm not sure what it is like for other congregations, but at Hilton we have a fantastic level of commitment by many people towards serving, but there's no doubt that it would be a great blessing if we could encourage a few more to share in the various ministries. Perhaps we'll have a focus on serving at a service within the next few months.

ROB & GWEN BARLOW

A year is a short time! It's hard to believe that it's one year since Rob & Gwen began their new ministry in Islay. It's exciting to read on their blog about all the exciting developments over the year.

Leadership Team

Every once in a while, we try and get some extended time together as a Leadership team (kirk session) to share together and pray. We spent the morning together in the Lighthouse and then had lunch. We have several new members on the team - Alan Brown, Stuart Macquarrie, Jo Whillis, Ken Walker and Mike Robertson, so in some respects it feels like an entirely new team. We had a very encouraging morning together. The main outcome of the time together was a commitment to meet regularly as a team to share meals and fellowship together. There is a general consensus that we need to model as a leadership, a deeper level of fellowship and sharing. We used to share meals together as a leadership, almost every time we met, but for a variety of reasons this hasn't been a regular feature of our gatherings for some years. I think in every church, there are a variety of seasons, and I'm looking forward to this season of deeper fellowship amongst the leadership team.

taize

I listened to this piece of music this morning. I love the music of taize. In a busy and frenetic world, where there seems to be so little calm, I find that it helps me to settle and to find the quiet centre.

THE CAPE TOWN COMMITMENT

The 'Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action' has now been published. You can read it here.

THE BE-ATTITUDES

I have been meditating on Matthew 5 v1-12 over the past 24 hours in preparation for Sunday morning. The internet is a great gift in terms of the riches available to help that reflection. There are so many angles to come at the beatitudes from. Here is a short talk by Dave Andrews at Greenbelt.He suggests that we should all learn the beatitudes in B Groups and allow them to shape our hearts and actions

No bulletin

Gillian became the new administrator for Hilton Church in the autumn and has been doing an outstanding job. As you can see from the picture, she has been doing a great deal more than administration this past week. Indeed there have been so many things to cover, that we've decided to give the bulletin a miss this week - there have been more pressing matters to fill the hours with. In reality, for such a large congregation, only a few people cover many of the bases, so its probably quite a good thing to let various things drop from time to time. On that note, we may well just set out the seats when folk arrive on Sunday morning, since we don't have anyone to lay them out at the moment, although we expect that to change quite soon.

lighthouse highs and lows

I was chatting with Michelle Hamill after another exceptionally busy lunchtime today in the cafe, and was delighted to hear that this month (which is generally a quiet month) is a record month for the Lighthouse. Many people questioned whether we could ever run such a venture sucessfully, so it's extremely encouraging to see the direction of the business. Even more encouraging from my perspective is the fact that, week on week, I see more and more people from the local area using the cafe. One of the key visions was to provide a place of social interaction for the local community, so it's very pleasing to see that whole dimension growing incrimentally.

I think it's important in these kind of feedback scenarios, to also share the lows, and our major low at the moment is that we've decided to stop opening in the evenings because there simply isn't the level of custom to make it viable.We have been open for 8 months in the evenings and the level of custom has rarely been above a trickle! The general consensus seems to be, that the cafe opening at tea time serving meals is more likely to hit the mark locally. We'll perhaps consider that over the next few months, and look to do something new when the evenings begin to lengthen. By then, we should also have the garden re-developed, which will give the Lighthouse several new possibilities. A latte at one of our new garden tables on a summer evening is something to look forward to!

blogs

Another great cartoon from asbo jesus. Excellents posts by Living wittily this week too here and here.

Church clearout!

Thanks to all those who volunteered last night to help with cleaning and clearing out in the church. We exceeded all expectations with the numbers and the work we were able to do. The bins are full and much of the clutter has been removed. Carpets have been cleaned and all the surfaces have been thoroughly cleaned. There is quite a list of practical jobs to do now, so the next step is to get them all done as soon as possible.

Sacred Space - refresh

First off - thanks to Ingrid and Iwona for some excellent ideas around Sacred Space. They provided the furnishings and the hard artistic decor. I did the easy bit, hanging around for 15hrs! I can genuinely say though that the time passed in a flash. It's amazing that even though you think you've plenty time on your hands, the time still needs to be handled with care to get the most out of it. One of the real reminders I got from the day was how powerful the message of the cross is and how important it is to me as a Believer. Everything before the cross builds up to the cross and everything after the cross is resurrection power in our lives. This was made very clear to me in the meditation on the cross that we had at one of the stations. I closed the days meditations on Luke's account of the crucifixion and Paul's wonderful expansive statement in Colossians 1 v22 that by giving Himself on the cross Christ has brought us over to God's side and put our lives together again.
The other thing I really benefited from was stories. What a pleasure to just sit and listen to peoples stories as they came and went from The Light House. We all have our stories and all those conversations and meditations were offered to God as part of our community at Hilton Church. It was also quite special thinking about all the work that many have put into The Light House and to now be able to bring that to God and give him thanks and praise for where He has brought us. Thanks giving is particularly under rated.
For those that are keen to find out more about similar groups commited to prayer and meditation check out here and here for some similar but different expressions. The last link in particular got me thinking. Should we be looking to perhaps try and embed a more longer term vision for meditation and prayer through The Light House? Perhaps give over one of the rooms as a permanent place of prayer with rotating themes?

A frying pan?

The week before last I went into the small hall and found that someone had left 2 frying pans together with assorted twigs on top! No-one has claimed it, so today it will be dispatched along with many other items. It is a continual battle to keep on top of the things people dump around the church. Ingrid and Gillian have been very busy today cleaning carpets and hoovering. Tomorrow evening, we are hoping to gather a team of volunteers to build on their work. If you have time, your presence and help would be very welcome.

Castle Stuart lands Scottish Open

I've just heard that Castle Stuart Golf Course has been chosen to host the Scottish Open in July for the next 3 years. In a time of economic crisis this is great news for the Highlands with ten of thousands of visitors coming to watch the event and many millions more following it world wide on TV.

WORLD FAITHS

We are now half way through our cafe series on the Lausanne Capetown Conference 2010. Last night we were looking at WORLD FAITHS which isn't something we think about very often in our congregations. Christianity is the fastest growing world faith, and we watched a clip from a film premiered at Capetown called FROM PENTECOST TO EDINBURGH. In around 50 minutes you get a very helpful outline of the growth and development of Christianity over 2000 years. If you like the clip, you'll find the whole film in 2 parts on the Lausanne Capetown website.

deep clean

Hi folks,

As you probably know, Steve & Ailsa, our Church Officer & Cleaner, have moved on from working with Hilton Church due to other work commitments. Whilst we reflect on the best way forward in terms of replacing these posts, we will be attempting to fill gaps to keep the Church functioning and clean.

Now seems a good time to get some volunteers together to help do some deep cleaning of the various areas within the church, so that we can stay on top, and even ahead of the work.

To that end, we’re organising an initial evening of cleaning this Wednesday 26th January from 7pm onwards. Can you make it for all or any of that time to help? Even if not, can you spread the word through the various networks you may have, i.e email contacts, house group contacts, facebook etc. Short notice though it may be, even if a few people can help, we can do more of these evenings over the next couple of weeks till we get through all the rooms. I’m also looking for folks who were trained to use the scaffolding tower to do one or two high level jobs.

If you can’t help this time, but would be willing to on another date, please do let me know.

Thank You, and please remember to spread the word.

Regards
Mike

sacred space

sacred space

Iwona, Ingrid and Stuart have prepared a wonderful setting for prayer. The upper room (in the Lighthouse), which was Stuart's theme at 7am this morning, will remain open for prayer until 10pm tonight.

Sacred Space Countdown - 1

It is necessary to rouse the heart to pray, otherwise it will become quite dry. The attributes of prayer must be: love of God, sincerity, and simplicity.

John of Kronstadt

Myself, Ingrid and Iwona have spent a bit of time this evening finishing off the prayer rooms. Come along if you can. Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 45.

tanzania workparty

A very positive meeting last night for the Vine Trust workparty to Tanzania. The workparty is from 7th- 21st October (school holiday) and it's not too late to sign up. For more information email calum@vinetrust.org

BLUE FLAME EVENT AT THE LIGHTHOUSE

As a follow up to the mission event last Saturday at the Lighthouse, Duncan has asked me to blog a bit more… this is new territory; I have never ‘blogged’ before!
But just as blogging is uncharted ground for me I realise that this type of evangelistic approach may be new territory for some of you.
We offer Dream Interpretation, Spiritual Readings, Healing, Spiritual Massage and Art teams and as ‘out there’ as these things may sound, they are simply all expressions of the Spiritual Gifts.
3 years ago, 3 of us ventured into the local Belladrum Festival with a wee tent, a bit of training, no experience but such a sense of purpose. We were literally bombarded that day; people seeking spiritual truth and meaning for their lives, direction and hope. When the rain poured and our make shift sign fell down, they didn’t even know what we were offering yet they still came in a never ending line. God showed up so powerfully it changed the way I understood evangelism completely.
Last year we went to Belladrum for the fourth year, with a team of 44 people (and a lot more tent) we carried out over 360 encounters in 2 days. People of every walk of life and age seeking true spiritual meaning. People want to encounter God but they struggle to start this journey by trying to fit into our church culture. Through this type of evangelism they are amazed to find God in the most unexpected places through tangible experiences of His power and presence. I have seen this happened in festivals, pubs, cafes, Body and Soul fairs and on the streets….Jesus went to the people, he Hasn’t changed.
When 3 of us first went to Belladrum 3 years ago this type of evangelism was almost unheard of in the UK, now there are literally hundreds of church folks trained up and out there all over the country through teams like Insight & Light and Life.
I always felt I was the world’s worst evangelist and I never knew how to communicate Christianity to people until God showed me that the prophetic gift could be used to reveal his love and power outside the church walls. It has been an incredible journey ever since for me and many others who have also discovered how much fun this is and how amazing God can be.

Below are a couple of stories from the event last week. I have collected 100’s of these type of stories and comments over the last 3 years…from places like Belladrum & through joining encounter teams at the Burning Man festival in Nevada where we saw about 30 salvations, a broken arm healed, and people lying or kneeling on the floor, in the dust, crying in God’s presence being changed.... there’s so much more to come.

Charity Bowman-Webb

ENCOUNTER STORIES FROM LAST SATURDAY
Gwen:
As one of the encounter teams we saw several people over the course of the night. It was amazing to sense God reaching out to each of them through us. The last girl we met with was troubled by horrible dreams. She had been through a few horrific things and was thinking something else bad was going to happen and that something was wrong/evil with her. Through Gods guidance we were able to explain what the dreams meant and explain that God was there for her. She allowed us to pray with her, and she physically relaxed. I believe that this encounter is just the start of many for her and that the things she heard and felt that night will impact her life.

TRISH
One lady brought her partner along he seemed not too keen to be there and gave nothing away,(until the end) words were spoken to him about the sort of person he was (positive things) and what God would like to do in his life, his partner started to cry....good tears. He wanted to find out more about God and we were able to leave with him a booklet about knowing God personally (A booklet by Eric Alexander)....which he was happy to have. There was a real sense that God was at work in his life...

Sacred Space Countdown - 2

You may pray for an hour and still not pray. You may meet God for a moment and then be in touch with Him all day.

Fredrik Wisloff

You'll probably get the picture now that I like a good quote. There's something comforting when you come across someone elses succinct statement of a feeling that rings true but you can't quite get the words together to express it yourself. For me, it's like finding something immensely precious. Tonight I'm making a cross in preparation for Saturday. It's going to be fashioned out of the remnants of our Christmas tree. I've two to choose from as I haven't quite got round to recycling the previous years! The cross will be an interactive feature of one of the prayer stations.

SMacQ

World Faiths - What is God's Global Urban Mission? | The Lausanne Global Conversation

I've begun to do some research on clips for this Sunday evening's cafe on WORLD RELIGIONS. The challenge I face is that some of the best clips aren't as brief as they probably need to be for a cafe. The link below is one of the very best presentations from CT 2010, and it's by Tim Keller who is minister of a mega church in New York. I'll probably show a short part of the clip on Sunday night, but if you have time, watching the full length will be a good investment of 17 minutes.World Faiths - What is God's Global Urban Mission? The Lausanne Global Conversation

MEETINGS

This morning, I have been involved in 2 meetings at the Lighthouse. Firstly, with Gillian Brown and Aileen Thomson, who are both now playing a major part in the leadership of the Sunday Club. We talked about our hopes and aspirations for the Sunday Club in the period ahead, as well as discussing important issues like recruitment of new leaders and helpers, training and how we better engage parents and the wider congregation in the process of discipling our children. We also agreed that the Church Outing to Nairn East Beach would be on Sunday 5th June!

I also dropped into the pastoral care team meeting. The team have plans to run a monthly afternoon event for the 60 plus age range, beginning next month. I'll post more details about this as they emerge. The team also plays an important role in keeping in touch with many of the elderly people linked into our congregation, as well as visiting at the local hospitals and care homes.

KIRK SESSION - EARLY 90'S.

Lloyd Arthur sent me this picture this morning, which I thought would be of interest to folk in Hilton, both past and present. It's a picture of the kirk session in the early 1990's. I'm struck by the fact that all the men are wearing black ties. I wonder if this photo was taken after a communion service.

adrian plass

I was looking for a a particular story which Adrian Plass has told, to use on Sunday morning, and found this clip in the process. I've seen him several times at various events in Scotland, and he always makes me laugh. He's coming to Inverness in June for the aLIVE MiNISTRY event.

Vine Trust 2 Tanzania

Just a wee reminder for all those interested in going on the workparty to Tanzania in October, that there is a meeting with Calum Munro from the Vine Trust at the Lighthouse on Thursday evening (tomorrow) at 7pm.

Lighthouse

The Lighthouse cafe re-opened tonight after a break for the holiday period. It was really quiet! It's a pity when we have such a good venue for folk to meet in the evenings ( and at far cheaper prices than any of the other popular locations). We're delighted that Adrienne Dempster has agreed to join our team with a view to increasing the profile and awareness of the Lighthouse across the city. It's been an exciting journey over the last 30 months, as we have developed the cafe during the day. Hopefully, we will see some sort of break through in the level of use during the evenings in 2011. If you are a "facebooker", perhaps you could help us by facebooking all your friends in the Inverness area, with the news that we are open every Wednesday & Thursday between 6.30- 9.30pm.

ALPHA

Our latest alpha course began in the Lighthouse this evening. A big thank you to Bill & Margaret Lamond who prepared tonights meal. If you would be interested in helping prepare one of the meals, please speak to Stuart Farmes. I have volunteered to cook on one of the evenings, so I'll need to dust down one of my Jamie Oliver books!

Sacred Space Countdown - 3

Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means for getting something for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

Oswald Chambers

In order to tap into what Oswald Chambers calls the 'Bible idea of prayer', we're setting out five prayer stations in the purple room of The Light House this Saturday. Without giving too much away... each of the stations is designed to focus your prayers and meditations on different aspects of our life journey in faith. I first came across this form of interactive meditation at the Church of Scotland's National Gathering in 2008. At that event, there was a prayer walk inside a huge marquee. There was a road marked out inside the tent and you followed the path round and stoped at various points to meditate on simple items like bread and wine, a wooden cross, an open bible. Now, up to that point I would have been a bit sceptical about using simple items to focus on but on reflection I find it increasingly useful and often find myself lighting a candle in the dark when I pray just as a reminder of Christ being the light of the world. There will be no candles on Saturday though (probably just as well after all the hastles with the fire alarm!) but I'd encourage you to come and give it a go. Remember, we've also got a room set aside for more familiar expressions of prayer where anyone can come and join in or simply come and hear the prayers being offered and quietly meditate.

P.S. Oswald Chambers 'My Utmost for His Highest' is a fantastic devotional read. There will be a copy in the quiet prayer room on Saturday open at the meditation for the 22nd January. The title for that day is 'Am I looking to God?'

SMacQ

Sacred Space Countdown - 4

Pray, and let God worry.

Martin Luther

This set of pictures had a real impact on me late last year, particularly the 4th picture in the slide show and the caption underneath it. Very simply it laid the question in my heart - how important is prayer to me? Am I prepared to stay up all night 'on pilgrimage' to the one true living God? 24/7 is a global prayer movement which has it's roots in student mission. Very simply it challenges believers to what might be described as a prayer marathon. It's more than that though and its worth following the link to find out more. Our own Ingrid Hutcheson raised the possibility of trying a 24/7 event in Hilton. Sacred Space could be described as a 'lite' version of this (only being from 7 am to 10pm!) and perhaps we'll gear up to something more heavyweight later. Remember to spread the word about Saturday.
SMacQ

Sacred Space Countdown - 5

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?

Corrie Ten Boom

Hopefully you'll have picked up on our Sacred Space event this coming Saturday. I'm going to post a countdown to the event this week with a few reflections and a bit more information about what we're planning.
Last year I spent a bit of time looking for a place that I could maybe go for a day or two (perhaps wishful thinking!) just to get some peace and space to try and discern God's will for me. I think this is the first time in my Christian experience that I've felt drawn to solitude. Life gets so noisy sometimes. So, when a few folks in Hilton had mentioned that they would like to plan a prayer event I thought great - that'll give me a chance to practice prayer and meditation in a familiar environment.
Sacred Space has emerged as a result and it is our way of welcoming you all to encounter God through simple reflections based around the Word, a focus on Jesus in our lives, our place in His world and our service. So, that's how its come about. Tomorrow I'll give you a bit more of a flavour for what you can expect if you come along.
SMacQ

Age Unlimited Scotland – It’s your time to shine!

Calling all those in their 50's and 60's in Hilton Church! Is this your time to shine?

"I hope you don’t mind me contacting you, but thought this opportunity may be of interest to your fellow church members. NESTA’s programme Age Unlimited Scotland is aimed at people in their 50s and 60s in Scotland, who have a good idea to improve their local community; we provide training, support and potential grant funding to help turn the idea into a reality."

CHRISTIAN ENGINEERS IN DEVELOPMENT

Jonathan Appleby begins a 6 month placement with our ministry team beginning this coming Sunday. Jonathan is an engineer with a passion for mission and this has led him to using his engineering skills for water projects overseas. He has just returned from a trip to Pakistan, and you'll see him in the blue outfit on the clip above. We look forward to welcoming him to Hilton Church next Sunday.

lighthouse cafe service 2

We had our second cafe service tonight on the theme of reconciliation. There is always a major question in ones mind on night 2, as to whether what happened in week 1 "bombed" so that week 2 will be the beginning of a downward spiral in terms of numbers! The first encouragement was that the numbers were up on last week, with quite a number of new folk along. The av and audio worked almost perfectly, and I felt the clips were much tighter and impacting. I'm feeling a bit tired now, but at the beginning of the week I'll post all the clips. We also did a short individual bible study on ephesians 2, where each person had a manuscript to mark and make notes on. This seemed to work well. Next week , the focus is on World Faiths. The image is of the 4 south african nobel peace prize winners at the V&A Harbour, Capetown.

bible in a year

Jonathan Fraser, our youth minister, is involved in a remarkable project at the moment. He is reading the bible in a year, along with a considerable group of people linked to the congregation, many of them youth. On a daily basis he is writing a commentary on each passage. In years to come, as well as Barclay and Tom Wright, I think we may well be turning to Fraser's commentaries to give us light on Scripture. The year began on 1st September. If you would like to share in this project, today would be a good day to join in, as the readings are now beginning at 1 Samuel. Here is the link.

happy birthday

Happy Birthday to Arnold who is 40 today!

Lighthouse spiritual fayre

I've just come back from the spiritual fayre at the Lighthouse. What a remarkable evening I have had. Before the doors opened at 7pm, there was a substantial queue, and within 20 minutes the vast majority of the slots for the various encounters, art worships and dream interpretations were full. The evening was meant to finish at 10pm, but when I left they were trying to squeeze a few extra sessions in. Many of the people who came were from the Hilton area.It was abundantly clear from the many conversations that I shared in, that people have an huge spiritual interest, but they don't see the Church in the institutional sense as a likely place to find the answers. It reminds me of a book John Drane wrote some years ago in which he observed that for many people the Church isn't spiritual enough! I've asked Charity Webb who was the leader of the team to do a guest post in the near future, but for now here is a few photos of how the venue looked before the evening began.

water water everywhere!

The ground has been covered in snow for much of the last 7 weeks. There has been a significant thaw over the last few days, and now there is too much water around. I went out for a few holes of golf this morning, and it wasn't possible to putt at the third hole!

haiti - one year on.

We were all shocked at the devastation in Haiti one year ago. We gave all our offerings from one Sunday towards the DEC appeal. This week, there have been many reports which have questioned the lack of progress on the ground after one year. Here's a postive report from Compassion in Haiti.

churchless christianity

Churchless faith has been used to describe people (and there are many) who have abandoned the institutional church , but have retained their faith. Today I was thinking about a "church -less faith" in a different kind of way. Today I encountered quite a lot of challenges in relation to administering our buildings, and it took me several hours to sort out and it will take more time next week. Church buildings can be a great asset to a congregation, but often they can be simply a distraction in terms of mission. They swallow up vast amounts of money and time in maintaining them, and most congregations and ministers soon discover that volunteers to help in these matters are thin on the ground. Several years ago, (to some peoples horror!)I suggested giving the buildings a break for 6 months, and simply functioning as a body of believers without them. I wonder how we would function as believers if suddenly the building wasn't available from tomorrow? It would certainly free up a lot of time for a few folk around Hilton Church.

sacred space

Saturday 22nd January, 7am to 10pm
An opportunity to pray and meditate at The Lighthouse
There will be opening and closing prayers if you want to attend these, otherwise come for a minute or the whole day or anywhere in between.
We've designed prayer stations for active prayer and have a quiet room set aside for personal prayer. All ages welcome.
Contact Stuart MacQuarrie for more information

sacred/secular divide

Last Sunday evening, we watched a clip by Mark Greene. I wish I had found these ones first, because it summaries the position much more succinctly. This was the number one action point for me to address within Hilton Church, after hearing this same message in Capetown. What do you think? There are more clips here, if you want to explore further.

meetings

It's the first full week back after the school holidays, so it's been a week of meetings! On Tuesday night, we had a our bi-monthly board meeting. It was mostly a matter of updating on a variety of on going projects, so the meeting was over within an hour. On Wednesday night it was the management team meeting for the Lighthouse. Once again, it was a fairly routine meeting. The major highlight was probably the agreement of a timetable for re-developing the Lighthouse garden. We hope to bring in a contractor to do the landscaping work in March, and do the planting in April. My office overlooks the garden, so I look forward to seeing a new landscape emerging before my eyes in the Spring.

last voyage

You can read here, Albert Bogle's tribute to Tom Dunn, a suporter of the Vine Trust who was very involved in all the logistics of getting 2 naval fleet tenders from the UK to Amazonia. It's amazing how God can take our gifts and passions and make them powerful in ways which we could perhaps never have imagined.