Back north tomorrow to resume my 'leave' after two days of urgent pastoral and administrative work (why do solicitors charge us so much when they can't read the instructions that say I'm away for 3 weeks and please would they send the stuff to someone else instead?!  Now I've spent half a day sorting out the stuff they needed and getting it posted; grrrr).  However, two of my lovely folk just took me out for tea on the basis my fridge would be empty, so that was a real treat.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be enoying the company of other Bappies doing theology, about which you can find out more here.  I just wish that the one paper I think I really like the sound of wasn't running at the same time as mine...., ah well.

Many thanks to Julie and Angela who "nominated" me for this award!  Please conisder yourselves awarded it in return - but then it all gets a bit circular, so I'll conjure up another seven to nominate 'officially'!!

For the nominees here are the rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

So, my seven nominations, are, in no particular order (drum beat at approximately human heartbeat speed, pause of around 20 seconds, camera pans across faces of anxious bloggers trying to smile while their eyes assume the gaze of a rabbit about to mown down by a juggernaut.....)

ASBO Jesus

Wonder and Wondering

Living Wittly

A Sideways Glance

Sean the Baptist

Lama's Log

RevJev

I'm trying to decide whether this thing is all a bit incestuous or narcissistic or both (all of these blogs are listed in my sidebars...) but it's a bit of fun on a dull Bank Holiday Monday when I am unexpectedly back at work!! Now I just need to leave those seven comments....

Offa's Dyke - fantastic!  Twelve day's hard slog up hill and down dale but amazing views and some real laughter along the way.  Will say more when I'm back from leave -and my sprained ankle is better (did it on day 2, the doctor said 'take painkillers and see how you go...).  But here just to prove I did it, is a picture of me at Prestatyn yesterday afternoon!

I am still on leave - honestly, I am not here, this blog is still hibernating for another week.  But I need to note this down.

7:15 a.m. yesterday, I am at a B&B in the middle of nowhere in Wales, a phone call to let me know one of my congregation - one of the younger ones - had 'a few days' to live.  I intended to drive down after my guest preach in Warrington today to say farewell to her.

7:15 a.m. today, I am at a friend's house, another call to let me know she had died less than an hour earlier.

10:30a.m. today I am leading the guest service which includes these words of Jesus from Luke 9:60 "let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."  It is hard, very hard - but that's the whole point of the sermon: discipleship costs, and costs dearly.  My task was to preach on disicpleship... only then could I drive south to be pastoral.

3p.m. I stand before a weeping congregation and lead them in prayer giving thanks for our sister-in-Christ and seeking God's strength and comfort for her family, before handing over to the visiting preacher.

4p.m. I leave the family home, having shared memories and smiles, having prayed with husband, children, parents.

Sometimes we seek signs of God's calling, sometimes we wonder if we are still in tune with God's will - today I felt acutely what it means to deny self, take up a cross and follow, wherever he leads.

The LORD gives and the LORD takes way - blessed be the name of the LORD.

JM RIP. 

Thanks J & J (and others) for practical and prayerful support over the last 24 hours.

This blog is going into hibernation for three weeks - maybe a little longer - as I am about to depart Dibley for three weeks of leave on Sunday evening.  I need the break - my brain is resembling mush, I am tired though not quite to the point of irritability and would struggle to arrange 'plot' and 'lost' into a well known phrase or saying (even though evidence this week demonstrates that I have, quite clearly, achieved this status!).  Despite numerous interruptions, I made some progress with my essay today - it will get completed tomorrow.

So, see you all in September when I will be back online.  Enjoy the rest of your summer.