Firstly, thank you to all who left comments about my previous blog entry! Nice to see that my ramblings are appreciated every now and then! That was indeed all my own work, the result of a flash of inspiration whilst in the shower that morning. I often find it useful to think about the truths of the Bible in different ways, as it sometimes helps to see a different perspective or make it seem more relevant. I have thought for some time now that the illustrations Jesus used, while brilliant at illustrating his point, aren’t necessarily concepts that our Western society readily understands. For instance, it is a little-known fact among Westerners that in the Middle East, sheep and goats actually look remarkably similar, so much so that unless you know what you’re looking for you could easily mistake one for the other. That puts a slightly different spin on some of the things Jesus said about when God separates the sheep from the goats – while we may all look the same on the outside, and while some of us may look “religious” and “holy”, God knows what’s inside and knows what he’s doing when he does the dividing! So if my encapsulation of the story of salvation helps anyone to better understand what God did and why, then I’ll be more than satisfied!!

Ellie and I had our engagement party last night, which was a roaring success! I reckon we must have had somewhere in the region of 35 to 40 people here over the course of the evening (thankfully not all at once!), and we didn’t really struggle for space at any point, which was great! The weather wasn’t as sunny as was forecast, but despite being a little cloudy it was very mild and we all enjoyed standing around in the garden. The BBQ proved a great idea, and Ellie and I were apparently a very good team, each taking turns to man the food while the other ate and entertained the guests! I think we used the space very well actually; the garden was big enough for us to congregate out there most of the evening and there still to be room for Bethany and Jade to run around the garden attacking Berkeley, and there was plenty of room in the lounge when it got a little more chilly in the evening. What I thought was the pinnacle of the party, however, was just as dusk was approaching – there were people milling about outside, there were people chatting indoors, music was quietly and unintrusively playing in the background, the food was almost all eaten, and the garden lights round the pond were on. It was such a wonderful atmosphere! I have to admit it was the best party I have ever hosted. I might even go as far as saying it’s the best party I’ve ever been to! Everyone seemed to enjoy being there, everyone had someone to talk to, and people had come specially from other places (Sheri and Ian, most notably), so it was also a great opportunity for people to meet together and catch up, a bit like a reunion! Ellie and I were tired by the end of it, but it was definitely worth the effort!

Today I was disappointed to find that our baby bird has disappeared. Before Easter I noticed that we had a nest on the arm of our satellite dish, where a pair of collared doves had set up camp, and introduced two tiny eggs. By the time I came back from Spring Harvest they had hatched and grown to a fair size, which was quite exciting! However, yesterday morning the nest was empty. After a short look round the garden I noticed one of the chicks hiding in the weeds behind the pond. Clearly it had tried to fly off and not got very far, but thankfully the parents were still around and periodically fed it. They did lose the chick at one point when it decided to find itself a slightly better hiding place – the parents looked behind the pump house for a couple of hours, calling for the chick, but never saw it because they were looking in the wrong place. I managed to help them out by putting some seed on the patio, so the parents found the seed and were then in a position to be able to see the chick! Unfortunately, what with all the noise we made yesterday evening, the chick decided to fly up onto the fence in the evening, which I thought was a rather exposed outpost. Needless to say, the chick was nowhere to be found this morning, and the parents were flying around and calling for it most of the day. I suspect it may have gone down behind next door’s shed, but once down there it’s going to be difficult to get out again and the parents aren’t going to be able to get down there to feed it. So we shall see. I’ll keep my eyes out, but there’s not much else I can do, just let nature take its course. I’m still feeding the adults though, so hopefully they’ll stick around. And there are plenty of other little birds visiting our feeders regularly. I couldn’t tell you what they all are, but I enjoy watching them!

In the beginning, God created the earth, and everything was perfect. People walked about happy and content, and God saw that it was good. But then the people discovered the delights of sugar, and slowly but surely started rotting their teeth. God came up with a plan – he set up a toothpaste factory. The people thought this was fantastic, and used the toothpaste twice a day to keep their teeth clean and their breath fresh and minty.

However, some people thought “this toothpaste isn’t actually doing very much, I don’t think I’ll bother using it any more”. And due to the nature of plaque build-up, they happily went for days, weeks, months at a time without so much looking at a toothbrush. And when their teeth did get a bit revolting, they went to a dentist to have fillings put in. God was not impressed.

Then some other people started saying “wouldn’t it be great if toothpaste was more exciting? I mean, we have fruity flavoured ice cream, why not have fruity flavoured toothpaste as well?” Quite a commotion started up, and it didn’t escape God’s attention. But God knew that the toothpaste he had provided was good and effective, so kept on producing the same toothpaste.

Not everyone in God’s toothpaste factory agreed with God, however. The company’s Advertising Executive, Satan, came to God and said “Have you heard what people are saying? We need to satisfy their demand, and change the recipe. I’ve got some great ideas on how to improve things…” But God wasn’t interested. God, having been to university and studied these sorts of things, knew for a fact that his toothpaste worked, and that the ideas that Satan was throwing around wouldn’t help people’s teeth at all, in fact it would probably make them worse. Satan kept on badgering God about it, until God had no option but to fire Satan.

Satan, undeterred from his plan, went along the road and set up his own toothpaste factory, making toothpaste the way he and the people wanted it to be made. The people loved it! Chocolate flavour, strawberry flavour, lemon flavour, fudge flavour, marzipan flavour, anything and everything! But, as God had known all along, people’s teeth started to rot. Of course there was much discussion amongst the people about which toothpaste was the best, quoting facts and figures and statistics and opinions at each other all day long.

Eventually, God put into action his ultimate plan to stop Satan’s toothpaste influence. He sent his son out into the world on a three year advertising campaign. Jesus went round to lots of different towns and villages in the area, telling them all about how good God’s toothpaste was, and how much tooth decay you’d get if you used Satan’s. Many people listened, others didn’t.

All this did not pass Satan by, of course, and he came up with his counter-plan. He found Jesus and offered him a job at his factory. To everyone’s surprise, Jesus actually went to the interview! The local press got hold of it, and started ridiculing Jesus for being a traitor, and mocking him for being fickle and weak. The reports were cruel, and the crowds jeered and shouted at him. Even Jesus’s friends, his fellow campaigners, started to wonder if it had all been for nothing, and that Satan’s toothpaste would outlast God’s after all.

Then, as God watched silently from his office window, Jesus accepted the job, and the crowds that had gathered shouted and jeered all the louder. Satan smiled in victory, and welcomed Jesus into his factory. Once inside, Jesus was given the hardest, most gruelling jobs to do, like mopping the floors and screwing the tops on the tubes of toothpaste. Outside the factory, everyone wondered what would become of Jesus and the two toothpaste factories.

On the third day, the second phase of God’s plan came into action. This was the part that only Jesus and his father knew about, and Satan never saw it coming. Jesus started undoing bolts in the machinery. Things started to rattle, oil started to leak into the toothpaste, strawberry and chocolate flavouring started leaking out all over the floor and mixing together, the toothpaste went sour, mechanical arms get misaligned and started dropping the empty tubes on the floor. And finally, the valve in the toothpaste pump malfunctioned, the pressure grew and grew and grew, until the whole factory exploded, sending toothpaste flying into the air.

Jesus went back to work in God’s factory, but Satan’s business was ruined, bankrupted, destroyed. However, because of the amount of toothpaste Satan had produced, the people still had to decide which toothpaste to use. God’s toothpaste now had a buy-on-get-one-free offer on it, but the people still had to choose. Some people still preferred the fruity flavoured toothpaste, and claimed it to be far better because it was rarer and more expensive. But God still knew that his toothpaste was the best, and kept quietly making it.

When God brings all things to an end, what state will your teeth be in?

Avid readers of my humble blog may have noticed a recent lapse in updates. This, in case you hadn’t read my previous post forewarning about it, was because I have been at Spring Harvest in Minehead, amongst other things. It’s actually been a very busy time over the last week and a half, and Ellie and I are both rather tired! Last Friday we drove down to Deal for a wedding (many congrats to Mr and Mrs P-B!!). It was a lovely service, including some lovely touches such as everyone sharing communion together, which was something I had never seen before, but it worked really well. Ellie and I found ourselves taking mental notes the whole time though, bearing in mind everything that was going on, how things were done, and taking tips for our own wedding! I was nervous enough just being an official photographer for the day, heaven knows how nervous I’ll be when it’s my turn to be the groom!! The photos came out well though, I’m really pleased with them – maybe I’ll have to start a new wing to my web design business, doing wedding photos as well and creating personalised web sites to display them….

After the wedding we drove down to Torquay (a long 7 hour drive) to visit my parents. It was lovely to get back amongst the rolling Devonshire hills and smell that salty sea air again!! And of course it was great to be back with my family again, I’ve missed them lots. We were only staying a couple of nights, so we didn’t get up to much. Dad took a look at my Mini, and generally gave it the all-clear, which was encouraging! Despite my worries, the brakes looked in good condition, though they might be slightly warped by a few 10ths of a millimetre, which would be what’s causing the slight wobbling under certain braking conditions. But nothing to be too concerned about, it’ll still stop! And the engine is sounding healthy too, apparently. It was reassuring to hear from Dad that the noise from the exhaust was actually the intended noise from the exhaust and not the engine pinking – it was what I was expecting, but it’s always good to have these things backed up by a second opinion!

Spring Harvest was fantastic, as always. The journey up was fairly straightforward, and we met up with Sarah and Jon before going off to our bungalows to unpack. Our accommodation was much more posh than in previous years – the decor was more refined, the furniture more comfy, the rooms more spacious, and we also got the luxuries of a toaster and a microwave this year!! Each day followed pretty much the same format, though everything was optional and you could choose to go to as much or as little as you wanted. The day started officially at 9am with the Big Start, a family-oriented service with up-beat songs, drama sketches, and stuff to engage the kids who had been awake since 6am annoying their parents… I didn’t go to any of those, but they actually piped the whole thing into our flat on TV so we could watch it while eating breakfast! Then at 10am started the main teaching session, the Big Picture, which was effectively an hour-long sermon! They were mostly very good though (not as good as last year, in my opinion), and led by a guy called Stephen Gaukroger, who apparently is a well-known Christian author and preacher. He was ok, but not as good as Jeff Lucas last year, and he looked a bit like George Bush! At the same time, elsewhere on the Butlins campus, were several other similar events taking place for young people and other specific age groups. Later, at 11:45am, the whole thing was repeated so that people could go to either or both or choose something different to go to. After a break for lunch the afternoon had two slots for seminars, which covered a broad range of different topics and areas of interest. Again, I don’t think there was quite as much for me this year as in previous years, but I went to a seminar on Science & Creation (very educational and informative), one on Marriage (a little premature perhaps, and didn’t answer the sorts of questions I was expecting, but very useful nonetheless), and two on Worship (led by Dave Bilbrough, good overview but didn’t have much depth, I thought he could have said a lot more in the time he had). And of course if you didn’t want to go to a seminar in that time there was the swimming pool, the fun fair, the beach, football tournaments, shopping, or just time to sit and read or relax. Later, after dinner, everyone met in the big top for the main evening service, which generally very good. The worship was usually led by Tim Hughes (very good), Steve Chalke co-presented the whole lot, and there was a different speaker each evening giving the sermons, which was very interesting. Finally, in the evening, there was a choice of several different ‘entertainment’ events taking place each night, usually by Christian bands or solo artists, but there was also a play by the Lacey Theatre Company about Christmas, which was very funny yet also quite poiniant.

I think for me the most useful part of the week was the worship element. The music at Orchard Baptist Church is great, and we have several very good musicians and some very sensitive and adventurour worship leaders, but Spring Harvest is always top-notch in terms of musical professionalism and spirit-led praise. Tim Hughes led superbly, and I found I could really meet God in those times in a very special way. The experiene of worshipping with 4000 others is something you can’t really explain, and when you combine that with being able to connect with God in such a way as to think it’s just you and Him and no one else, really is incredible! There were times of elation, times of brokenness, times of reassurance, times of humbling, times of extravagance, times of loneliness, times of purification. It was great! More than anything, though, was what God spoke to me about during the week. Music and worship was top of the list, the recurring chorus that God kept singing in my ear. I wrote two and a half songs while I was there (I took my guitar with me), and I really felt this being the sort of thing God was leading me into. He has renewed my passion for it, filled me with inspiration, given me guidance on different approaches, and reminded me that He is the focus and the aim, not my own ability or popularity. Someone asked me during the week whether I would like to be leading worship at Spring Harvest one day – my answer then was yes, but on reflection I think I could only ever accept such an offer if I was absolutely sure it was what God wanted. Fame and fortune does nothing for worship, if anything it detracts from it. We had Daniel Beddingfield join us one evening, supporting one of the initiatives Steve Chalke has set up. Daniel sang us a song at one point, just showing off, and later ‘helped’ Tim lead worship – to be honest I found it more of a distraction than a help, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Tim who had to try to piece it all together and make it work! It all brought home to me that worship is not a performance, it is not about how good the worship leader is, but about how seamlessly the worship leader allows the Holy Spirit to shape the worship experience. I’ll have to bear this in mind, should I be invited to lead worship again at Orchard.

Right, I really should stop writing now, this has turned into something of a mammoth post! Ellie and I are going to the pub shortly to meet some of Ellie’s friends and to celebrate our engagement with them. Tomorrow we are hoping to visit the church and see what it’s like (it’s Ellie’s home church, but I’ve only been there once, and not with a view to getting married there!!). I’m hoping to be back in Wivenhoe on Thursday evening, so if I’ve missed out anything here that I think you should all know, I’ll fill in the gaps then!

Today I decided not to do any work. At least, not the paid kind. I’ve actually been pretty busy, just not in front of my computer, which has been a pleasant change. Admittedly this morning I did faff around on my computer, but not quite productively. I recently bought Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 for my PC, only to get it home and remember than neither of my CD drives currently work!! I’ve tried various things to bypass the problem, like copying the CD onto my hard disk across the network (using the working CD drive in my Mac), and even mounting the copied folder as a network drive to try to fool the game into thinking that the CD was indeed inserted. But I just couldn’t persuade it to work. The game is just too clever. Or too stupid, depending on how you look at it. So I shall have to invest in a new drive sometime soon so that I can play that game.

After that distraction I headed into the garage to give my Mini a service. I’m going to be doing a lot of driving over the next few days, so I thought it would be a good idea to check the car over beforehand! The brake fluid warning light had come on a few times recently, so I had a look at that. The level wasn’t actually too low, but of course when you go round a corner sharply (as often happens with Minis) the fluid sloshes around and confuses the sensor. Anyway, I topped that up anyway just to be on the safe side, and did the same with the engine oil while I was at it. The water was fine (though it’s looking a little dirty, I’ll have to drain it and put some fresh water in before too long). I also checked the spark plugs while I was under the bonnet – the performance hasn’t been quite as smooth as I had been expecting (a lot better since putting the RC40 exhaust on, but still not perfect) and I wondered if perhaps the mixture was slightly out. However, none of the plugs looked at all discoloured or damaged, so that rules that out. Unfortunately I couldn’t have a look at the air filter, because I still can’t get one of the bolts undone. I’ve sprayed it with WD40, but it still refuses to budge. The head is all rounded off, so it looks like the previous owner had difficulty with it too. Not quite sure what to do with that, but I’ll have to find a solution fairly soon, I reckon that might be the source of my performance lag. I’d really like to put a nice K&N replacement filter in there, or maybe even a K&N SPI filter kit, but I’d settle for a normal one if only I could get the thing out first!!

Other than that, there are a few other bits and pieces that’ll need doing soon, though not immediately. It looks suspiciously like the rocker cover gasket is dead, and is leaking a little oil out. There is some oil around the head gasket too, but it’s hard to tell if that’s coming out of the head gasket or has dripped down from the rocker cover. Still, now that summer is nearly here I reckon it won’t be too difficult to get out there and sort it out. I’m afraid I’m a bit of a wuss still when it comes to car maintenance – I’d prefer to do it when it’s warm so that my fingers don’t freeze off!

I also mowed the lawn this afternoon, first time this year. It’ll need tidying up again before too long, but at least it’s a more manageable length now. Ellie and I are thinking of maybe having our engagement party in the garden with a BBQ, so I figured it might be good to get the garden looking half-decent while the sun was out! I also did some ironing – I haven’t done any in ages, but since I’m going to a wedding at the weekend I thought I ought to make the effort and iron a shirt for once! Incidentally, I’m not going to be around much over the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow afternoon I’m off to the Eastern edge of Kent, ready for a wedding on Saturday afternoon (I’m doing the wedding photos, very scary), then Ellie and I are heading straight off to Torquay to stay with my parents for a couple of days, before going up to Minehead for Spring Harvest. Then after that we’ll be off to Gloucester to see Ellie’s folks and have the first of our engagement parties, and then eventually coming back to Colchester. So pretty busy. And lots of travelling for Neddy too.

Yesterday I went to Colchester Zoo with some friends. It was a sort of graduate reunion, of sorts, so it was good to see some old faces! Ellie and I were there, plus Sarah and Jon, Kev, Andy B, Liz, and Liz’s friend Liz (not confusing at all…). The weather was very kind to us, considering it had been raining first thing in the morning! The zoo isn’t amazingly big, but the enclosures are a reasonable size, and the animals all looked fairly happy! A couple of them looked a bit lonely, particularly the White Tiger (which was stunning), but apparently that was his own fault for killing his mate…

I took a load of photos during the day, which I was very pleased with. You’ll find some of my favourites up on my PhotoLounge. I was taking photos all day, at every opportunity, but I figure it’s good practice – I’m doing wedding photos for Phil and Jenny next week, so I need to make sure I can get good photos every time in a mixture of different settings. It was so nice having a 10x zoom though, it meant I could get right in close to the subject despite being at a distance, and the quality of the camera really helped me to capture the scene exactly as I wanted! Even at full zoom the pictures are sharp and in focus, full of colour and vibrancy, and the 0.01 second shutter-lag means I can capture the moment with precision timing. Ahh, the wonders of technology! Definitely a worthwhile purchase there!

My other bit of news is that I’m leading worship again today, for the first time in what seems like ages. Berkeley rang me on Friday night and asked me if I would be prepared to lead worship for the evening service this week, as someone had pulled out at the last minute. As I was out at the zoo yesterday it’s meant that I’ve not been able to plan it until this afternoon, but everything’s in place now and I’m looking forward to getting to church! This will be the first time I’ve led worship at Orchard, so it’s quite exciting! Hopefully they’ll want me back again another time…