It has been a very busy couple of weeks with football stuff and preaching engagements all over the place,

The football season for me finally finished on the 24th June although there are still a few things to sort out but overall a very good first season as chairman.  Now  I am looking for the possibility of a tour down South for a few days.  So any churches that can put 20 people up for a few days and have a couple of teams we can play against drop me a comment on this blog and I will see what we can arrange.

The new strips have arrived and look absolutely great and now we are ready to start again for what will hopefully be the season where as a teamwe reach or get really close to our full God given potential.  This week I need to start arranging somefriendlies and getting the boys back together in order to see where we are starting from this season.

Church wise I have been travelling about preaching at various venues and I have really enjoyed it this weekend I am back in Milton for the first time in a while and have to say I am really looking forward to it.  The following week I am in Anniesland and then hopefully some preaching to fill in a few weeks along with being able to go to church with my wife and even consider having a break away with the family prayerfully to Centre Parcs before the kids go back to school.

Job wise I am in limbo at the moment my contract could be extended but then again I could be unemployed by the 31st August so we as a family are waiting prayerfully on the next part of the journey will it be in the methodist church or somewhere else only God knows and we trust in him at all times.  Our friends Billy and Rachel are working in Thailand offering R & R to missionaries at the Juniper tree and they are fulfilling a dream that God gave them a number of years ago what they are finding is that when it is a God thing the devil does not like it and attempts to cause mayhem as he is with Rachel's health at the moment  and so we pray for her and Billy as they continue on there exciting journey.

I have been asking myself for sometime now why is it that the mainstream denominations are declining and that churches who have dropped religion are growing and stretching the boundaries.  The thoughts that I have had on this matter are that God is central to what they do and in mainstream denominations the traditions are more important.  Change is difficult because church has become a habit rather than an adventure, it has become stale rather than refreshing, it has become boring rather than exciting almost the exact opposite to the early church and what Jesus wanted it to be like.  It is never going to be easy following Jesus but who wants easy when you can take a risk?  As Christians we have the most exciting fullfilling story to tell and wonderful blessed lifes to live even in times of trouble because we live them with the knowledge that Jesus is with us and we live them in the power of the Spirit.

Blessings to all who read.