News today from one of our students about a team of Thornton's employees who are cycling south John O'Groats to Lands End taking in 100 of the company's stores en route - including the one round the corner from church where she works - to raise money for NSPCC.  I for one hope to be there to cheer them on.  Their route - by no means the shortest option - is 1200 miles.

Starting at the other end of the country, two of my Godsons (apologies to those Bappy ministers who have problems with such roles!) along with a friend of theirs are cycling an 1100 miles route to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust to honour the memories of two of their friends.  Next Sunday evening I hope to catch up with them in Kilmarock - they are choosing to avoid/evade my stamping ground!

There is a nice little tenuous connection - my Godsons live very near to Alfreton where Thorntons is based and one of them spent a summer holiday working in the factory.

In amongst all the sad and bad news, it's good to have some that is good, and to remember that there are almost certainly more people doing good in the world than bad.

All power to their legs - just glad I'm not sitting on a bike for that long!

It's mid-afternoon when I'm typing this - so it clearly isn't a greeting; in fact it is my response to how today's all age worship went.

There are always, always visitors at the Gathering Place, it is one of the delights of being where we are (and the fact that the most central Baptist church in Glasgow doesn't call itself a Baptist church so we pop up first in Google).  Today we had more than usual, which just happened to coincide with a day two of our African students were on the reader rota.  There were seven Dutch people, two Australians, two Germans and two Devonians that I was aware of.  Is Devon a nation state?  Hmm.  Anyway, they all seeemd to enjoy being with us and the feedback we had was fantastic.

The instant herb garden took us about 3 minutes to create (so there Persil!) and everyone seemed pleased with their mustard seed fridge magnets (see left; the 'speck' is a cress seed).  I enjoyed playing around with the three plant parables from Matthew 13 with these three angles to ponder...

• the sower/soils: "bloom where you are planted" - the sower just got on and sowed his seed in some rather unpromising ground, not spending months preparing it first.  Waiting until everything is 'just so' before we start might mean we miss the planting season.
• the wheat & weeds: the difficulty of distinquishing 'good' and 'bad' and the way that all of us is a mixture of 'good' and 'bad'.  Maybe God is more tolerant than we are about leaving things alone; maybe what we think is a weed is actually wheat and vice versa.
• the mustard seed: is this a parody of the might cedar of Lebanon?  We used the start of Ezekiel 17 as our opening scirptures today and the image of the cedar as being a mighty Kingdom.  What is it about God's Kingdom that is so subverisve, comical and unexpected?

Anyway, I had fun, people seemed to enjoy and engage with what was offered, so all in all a good morning.

The news is full of tragedy, in different places and on different scales; it is telling and it is good that in the parts of blogland I frequent no one is making value judgements as to which tragedy trumps which.  A number of wise people are simply noting, side by side, the tragedy of the events in Norway and the tragedy that a talented and troubled singer died at the age of 27.  Some add other ongoing tragedies - famine, war, natural disaster.  Others maybe note local and personal.

Sometimes the temptation is add more and more names and places to our prayer lists, eventually finding them so long they cease to be meaningful.  Sometimes we feel a real 'burden' or 'calling' to pray for someone or somewhere.  Sometimes we can only sit, wordless and bewildered, listening to the sound of silence, straining to hear God's quiet whisper, trusting that the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf.

Words fail me far too rarely, as the plethora of twaddle I post reflects, but today when I don't know what to pray into the global news, I sit in silence and trust God...

 (photo is 'descent of the Spirit' at Iona Abbey taken through archway of cloister)

What does a minister do on Saturday evening?  Some, I am told, write their sermons (if I don't have a draft by Wednesday I'm anxious!).  Some collate topics for intercessory prayer (I tend to check the news Sunday morning and tweak what I've already prepared if needed).  Some go out!  Usually I do the ironing - but this time it was way too hot.  Tonight I did proptypes for tomorrow's craft activities... and here they are:

Given our theme of stories Jesus told about plants, it seemed appropriate to use seeds and pulses (all from my store cupboard and all past their use by date!) to make photo frames and cards.  Hopefully there will be some children to make them...

Eagle-eyed readers may recognise the photo of the Gatherers (taken about 3 years ago) which I printed off to put in my frame.

So, this afternoon I am in the local stationery shop looking for PVA glue which I need for tomorrow's craft activity.  There is also a family in there - Mum, son (about age 7) and daughter (about age 3).  The little girl started following me around the shop and chatting to me.  Eventually her brother came to find her.  As she wandered back to her mother she said, in a clear, loud voice, "I was helping man find glue."

I know I still have very short hair, but I have clearly got a female form and was wearing a cream sports top with a pink and purple floral design on it, to say nothing of carrying a handbag.  I am still chortling to myself now.  Just better not tell my plastic surgeon, she'd be mortified!