For those still counting, I have just learned another a skill they don't teach at college - catching criminals in the act in the redundant church nextdoor!  Finally!  After months of mindless vandalism they got too cocky and sauntered down the side of my house whilst I was in my office working, with the stupidity to bounce a football high enough for me to see from the window.  Assuming younger children enticed by scaffolding to explore I walked round just in time to hear the sound of smashing glass.  A three nines call and ten minutes later three teenagers were apprehended by the long arm of the law and admitted criminal damage.

Now I certainly don't want to throw the book at them and we do, after all preach a gospel of forgiveness, but I kind of hope they've been rattled enough not to do it again.  Sentence - hmm, twenty sessions of Micky Slimeball evangelism should do it I think!  Well that or, more constructively perhaps, come one Sunday and apologise to all my old folks for disrespecting their memories.

Secretly, I'm pleased we caught them before they injured themselves and while they are young enough to learn better ways.

Today I recieved a letter from Joppa, the Baptist interfaith network (see sidebar for link under Baptist stuff) informing of its intended demise - it's work is now complete, it's prophetic challenge has been heard and interfaith issues are entering the mainstream (small 'm') of Baptist thinking.  This is definitely a good demise.  But as a network it will contiue in a new form - free, gratis and for nothing via its website which will pass on news and information and act as a medium for hsaring questions, struggles and joys.  Take a look and maybe even sign-up it's a good, Baptist thing to do and it won't compromise your beliefs!!

I was chatting to someone at church the other day about all that is going on at the moment - I seem to average three hospital visits a week and at least one funeral a fortnight.  Add to that the other things that I am involved with (and which provide colour and interest) and time gets very tight sometimes.  In the course of conversation I said something along the lines of  'one of these weeks I'll turn up on a Sunday and say "sorry, no sermon today."'  Her reply amazed and touched me - 'that's alright, we'd find something to do.'

Wow!  What a distance we have travelled together these last five years.

How long does it take to erect scaffolding round a Victorian Baptist church?  Four days evidently - one lorry load a day.

The photo is not exactly clear - taken on my phone (I really must get around to buying a digital camera) - but it gives a hint of the next phase in the end of the old barn.  I got home from an all day meeting yesterday to a plethora of phone messages including one from the builder wanting to borrow a key to get into the building.  All very honourable but given the number of smashed windows the vandals used hardly essential!

It will be interesting to track the demise of the old place over the coming weeks/months: my guess is that once completion is through and the bats have left home it will soon be demolished.

My wonderful late Regional Minister, Revd Peter Grange, longed to drive the JCB or swing the demolition ball to bring it down.  It's a shame he won't get to do it - and I guess none of us will either - but at least once it's done the land can do God's work again providing homes for people who can't afford the nutty prices of big developers.

I was looking back over some past services to see if I could adapt one I did four years ago for a visiting preach I am doing on Mothering Sunday.  Alas it won't readily translate (which is a shame cos it was a good one!) but I liked this prayer that I wrote and which may be of use to someone else.

God who is love, how can we express our love for you?

You love us even before we are born, as a tiny embryo hidden away in our mother’s womb.

You love us as we are born, eyes squinting in the light, lungs filling with air, and a midwife’s hands holding us securely.

You love us when we are toddlers, waddling clumsily, chubby fists clinging to a sister’s hand, and as we place a sloppy kiss on a brother’s cheek.

You love us when we are children, playing for hours with friends, making dens, dressing up or going on secret expeditions, discovering the joy of being alive.

You love us when we are teens, bodies rapidly changing and ideas whirling around our minds, trying to answer the question “who am I?”

You love us when we are adults, juggling work and play, forming relationships, shaping our own future.

You love us when we are parents, striving to nurture our own children.

You love us when we are childless, sharing the bittersweet searching, the freedom or the pain.

You love us when we are elderly, grandparents or not, feeling with us the advance of years, the contentedness to be, the release from the need to achieve.

You love us as life ends. As lungs still and eyes close for the last time, you are there.

God who is love, who loves us through the whole of life, we praise you for the wonder of that love.
Amen.