London Town

I've just had a quick trip out on to the roof of Susan's house to take in the spectacular views over London.

In this photo the Shard certainly makes it's mark upon the capital.

Below it's interesting to see the view of the All England and to get the close ups of the TV camera crane.

Half Time

We're really enjoying our Roadshow events and are particularly enjoying the variety of different contexts in which we get to present about Tree of Life and our amazing friends in South Africa.

Today we were in the well heeled town of Cobham and had the privilege of sharing our Roadshow with a lovely bunch of folk from St. Andrew's, Oxshott.

"What A Refreshing Change"

Many moons ago there was a certain brand of cider with the sales line: "What a refreshing change".

We reckon that this could be a good way to describe Christians Abroad.

In our recent meeting it was such a pleasure to be asked things like:
"How can we partner together to better serve the church?"
"What are your expectations of us?
"What is Tree of Life hoping to gain from this trip?"
These are refreshing questions to be asked by the leaders of an organisation that really cares about and for us and they are questions we've never once been asked before!

"Strike Three.."

..But we're not out!

Rather we've just finished our third Roadshow and once again it went really well. We were with Tuesday @ 2 a group of older folk who are a powerhouse of prayers.

We've been thrilled by the turnout for each of them so far and it's been great to reconnect with many old friends.

Aunty Poppy

We were saddened to learn this morning that Aunty Poppy is again seriously ill and has been admitted to intensive care.

She recently had a major heart attack and home life is very hectic and stressful for her.

Please pray for Aunty Poppy!

One More Sleep!

It hardly seems possible but it's now less than 24 hours until we get on the plane for Blighty.

I guess we're at that point where things that haven't been done aren't going to get done.

Thankfully our Roadshow presentation is all finished, though that hasn't stopped me from checking it every few minutes to make sure it still works. Must switch tablet off!

FTM Roadshows

We've begun sending out invites for our forthcoming Roadshows in the UK.

If you're near one of the venues on the dates above please drop in, we'd love to see you!

For more details Like us on our Facebook page where more details will be posted.

Scary Thought

Here's a scary thought...one month from today we'll be boarding a plane for our UK trip.

It's not that the UK is scary, though watching Sky News we're often left feeling like strangers in a land that once was home. The scary bit is just how much work we've got to do before we board that plane.

Blogging From A To Z 2013 Reflections

The 2013 Blogging From A to Z Challenge was a lot harder than last year, mainly because it crept up on me and I had failed to plan ahead so on the 30th March I found myself desperately looking for a theme and subjects for it. Will I never learn?!

Sadly time was a real issue and I failed dismally in my attempts to spend time looking at other blogs. I managed to visit everyone that left a comment on a post but beyond that I probably only blog hopped on a two or three occasions.

Z Is For Ω

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First 

and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

Revelation 22:13

Like the English Z, Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and a fitting way to sign off from this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge.

It's been a lot of fun for me and good to give the blog some long overdue attention.

Hope you've enjoyed it too!

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.

Y Is For Youth

If you're of the praying persuasion please pray for us at Tree of Life as we have a great set of young adults and kids who join us faithfully every Sunday.

Sadly because we're still quite small and lacking in resources we're not able to offer them much. In fact we pretty much ignore the young adults amongst us. Not because we want to, far from it!  We did ask a couple to lead our youth work but sadly personal issues have prevented them from getting involved and we're a bit stuck as a church.

So please pray for good solid folk who could take a lead in this for us.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.

X Is For Xylophone

We don't have a xylophone at Tree of Life.

In fact we have nothing that resembles a worship band in any way shape or form and yet we have some of the most liberating and meaningful worship I've ever experienced.

I remember several years ago when Matt Redman brought out his brilliant song The Heart of Worship and many churches responding by stripping their worship back to basics.

W Is For Website

*Updated* Tree Of Life has had a website.

It's not a very good one but it's a start.

We're not very good at keeping it up to date but it's still a good starting point for finding out a bit more about the church and for contacting us.

Feel free to take a look.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.

V Is For Verse

I've posted before on my favourite verse and it remains my favourite.

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world".

I love the simplicity and the matter of factness about this verse. In this world you will have trouble. Not you might have trouble but you will have trouble. I always think of the verse when the age old discussion about why bad things happen to good people debate. Quite simply it's not about bad things happening to good people but rather just the simple fact that in this world you/we/me will have trouble. End of.

U Is For Unity

Unity is a word so often bounded around but with seemingly little meaning, and yet in the church context it's incredibly important.

One of my joys in church life is marveling at how seemingly disparate groups of people can be brought together through genuine love.

I'm not aware of any other aspect of life that can bring the unlikeliest people together for the good of themselves and their communities. Local church is amazing!

At Tree of Life we have South Africans, Angolan and Brits amongst us which makes for a great sense of diversity and I believe this reflects the nature of heaven.

T Is For Tree Of Life

Being part of Tree of Life is truly a privilege and a blessing. To be a part of the leadership team doubles that privilege and blessing!

I'm not going to repeat last year's post on Tree of Life but rather talk about the joys of the leadership team.

We're very blessed to serve alongside Gerrit & Sharon and Chris & Veronica, two quality couples with huge hearts for Jesus and the community.

S Is for Sundays

I love Sundays!  

When I first became a Christian many moons ago I loved church. The church I was involved with was a new plant so things were exciting and we were on the cutting edge of things.

Since then my love of church has waned to the absolute low of 2010.

Between 2004 and 2010 I used to joke that we lived in the most beautiful place on earth and had the worst church life possible. I guess it's true, for every action there's an equal and opposite re-action.

R Is For Resurrection

Our faith rests on this one fact; Jesus' resurrection from the dead. So much so that even Paul acknowledged in 1 Corinthians 15:14 that "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith".

So are we wasting our time?

I would argue that no we're not wasting our time.

John's gospel account of Jesus death is quite clear that when the Romans pierced Jesus' side blood and water flowed out. Anyone with a modicum of medical knowledge knows that in death blood and water separate. So we know that Jesus was dead. Also, he's been brutally attacked in his run up to the actual Crucifixion which would have helped to hasten his death.

Q Is For Queen Size

This is totally unconnected to my theme but I was a bit stumped for this one and I really didn't want to steal yet another post from last year!

So Q is for Queen Size, as in bed.

Being a Brit I fully understand why a king size bed is smaller than a queen size bed and the reason makes a lot of sense. Traditionally the king's bed was a place of business, it had a perfunctory role. The queen's bed however was used by her for luxuriating in and being pampered, hence the size difference.

P Is For Pilate

I really enjoy the Coffee With Jesus cartoons from Radio Free Babylon and I especially like this one about Pontius Pilate.

I've always felt that Pilate got a bit of an unnecessarily unfair press for his role in Jesus' crucifixion.

O Is For Oom Paul

Oom Paul is a great man!

At 86 there's not much in life he hasn't seen and having been married to Molly for a little over 60 years with loads of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren there isn't much he hasn't done.

I've had the privilege of sitting with Oom Paul on a few occasions and consider him to be my very own Nelson Mandela.  I've never met Madiba and am highly unlikely to ever have the chance to, but sitting with someone like Oom Paul is just as great a privilege!