Game on for God!

Update

It has been a while since my last blog - reason none!  In all seriousness I have been reflecting on a number of things such as the football, work and the future.

Football and we lost our last 2 games both 3 v 2 and it looks like we will finish either 5th or 6th oh how things could have been different.  Houston won the league today so congratulations to them the only team to beat us twice.  As for the team well done to them they did well and improved throughout the season I am very proud of each of them and really pleased that they play for us and not another team.  They really are a great bunch and Iam enjoying the time that we spend as a team.  The new layers such as James Connelly, James Gheraghty(?), Gary Morton and Scott Brand not forgetting Kevin ?  It hasn't been that long since I saw them and can't remember surnames argh!!  The boys who have been at the core for the second season - Mark Boyce, Colin Crichton, Derek Patterson, Keith Boyle, Hugh Dullaghan, Derek Auld, James Ghattas, Graeme McKee, Graham Cuthbert, Jason Jackson and last but certainly not least our captain Chris Malone - wordsare not enough to describe his committment and drive as well as what he brings to the team.  He has had another awesomeseason with us and to be fair so have the rest of the team.  Derek Patterson zero yellow cards in 8 games (one strop though) 2 goals target for next season 5.  Keith 2 goals - target 5 next season. I hope we can keep this team together and go on to win trophies next season we will be losing Ghattasfor most if not all the season and so we need to replace him but the rest are hopefully all staying.

Next season we will be better disciplined and score even more goals and hopefully this will lead to success on the park and off.  So well done guys looking forward to getting back together and getting some football played.

My wife's birthday and our 21st anniversary all in the one week and we have been truly blessed this week with various things and I went and watched sex and the city 2 tonight with my wife now that is love.  The family is all great and doing well.

Church and it has been a busy time recently leading worship in the C of S last weekend and then 2 services over the next 2 weeks starting with Anniesland tomorrow and Pollokshaws the foollowing week then a break for 2 weeks and then preaching in Motherwell on the 20th June.  I am away for two days on the 18th & 19th June and my wife is away this weekend at Cherish with #1 daughter and 2 friends hopefully and prayerfully she will come back refreshed, empowered, encouraged and blessed during the weekend.  ALM Bradford is my favourite church and I am looking forward to going in November again.

Blessings to all who read.

hopefully this will

Another good weekend for the football team - we played EK Claremont this weekend and won 4 nil.  Once again no goals conceded but 1 booking picked up.  Overall a good performance from the team but still room for improvement.  Boycey in goal again did what he had to do and again did it very well.  Defence picked up a couple of injuries including Gary Morton who was solid at the heart of the defence, Shug who again has been a real revelation at right back but who should be fit for next Saturday when we play CEC2 in Eaglesham.  Graham Cuthbert made his return from injury and Kevin Goodwin made a good contribution at centre half.  Colin Crichton, James Ghattas and Graeme McKee all played well.  James and Colin are pushing for top scorers for div 2 and the way they are playing they deserve it.  Derek Auld was awarded MOM and he deserved it at last.  Well done Derek, again Chris Malone put his heart and soul into the team and played very well he is a natural leader and keeps the team together with his play and his attitude it is a privelege to work with all of the guys in the team.  They are a superb bunch and hopefully we will be able to keep them together for next season and goonto more glorious things in the churches league.  Another player to mention is James Connelly who has made an impact on the team he is a very good skilful player who can get frustrated at times and it shows but when he is concentrating on playing he is a wonderful assett.

I would not swap one of our team for any other in the league, I love working with them and they are a real blessing.  Fantastic ending to a good season but they will get better and they will reach another level with discipline and self belief which is growing all the time.  Fantastic all of them.

Preaching today from 1 Peter 2: 1 -9 a Royal Priesthood - Really enjoyed preaching at Clydebank Methodist Church they are a spirit filled bunch of people who are a real blessing to visit.  Tomorrow I am leading the bible study at Milton, Wednesday I am preaching in Milton at the monthly praise service really looking forward to it.  Busy week this week as I am also planning a children's work with one of the local primary schools - Exciting and challenging.  A really good and blessed week ahead as a son of the living God.

Blessings to all who read this especially the boys from the team.

Awesome 2!

What a fantastic weekend - Man U win 1 nil, Chelsea and Arsenal both lose it does not get much better than that except if it was the final game of the season and Man U had won the league.

On another note St. Andrew's had their biggest win not only of the season but of their history we won 11 v 1 yesterday against Westwoodhill Evangelical church.  We have mproved immensely and if we had started the season this way we would be 24 points clear and would have won the league by now.  Yesterday Derek Paterson scored his first goal of the season and so did Keith Boyle, Colin Crichton & James Ghattas both scored hat tricks, Graeme McKee scored 2 and James Connelly scored.  Boycey was dissappointed to let in the one goal but to be fair it was not his fault.  He was rather annoyed because he has forgotten what it feels like to have a goal scored against him or the team.  The team once again was well disciplined and Chris Malone was exceptional with his attitude and leadership.  As a team we are truly blessed to have Chris as our captain and also the team/squad that we have this season and hopefully next season we will continue on this vain.

Church was interesting this morning, 3 sermons, 3 different churches - churched out now.  Synod yesterday which was my first experience of Synod and one which I enjoyed again it is not so much what is said but the people you connect up with.  Dr. Martin Atkins was very good and made some very interesting points with regard to the Methodist society.

The debate that is going on at the moment is with regard to Mark Driscoll and Rob Bell and who is right and who is wrong, who is evangelical and who is liberal.  There are more important things to do than talk about 2 pastors doing what they believe to be true to scripture as THEY interpret it.  I grew up in a church that preached the gospel every Sunday and in the end it bored me to tears because I wanted substance to feed me and help me grow.  I now look for teaching  that I can use to further the kingdom in my everyday walk and with the ordinary folk I work with and meet on the streets.  Yesterday I received a text from someone who is not a Christian but asked me to pray for a sick relative, this happened  through playing football not through preaching at him.  We worship an awesome God and we are Awesome people of the living God who makes the impossible possible and loves us unconditionally.

Bless all those who read this

Great Weekend!

A catch up on another great weekend and also a good week off.

2 weeks ago St. Andrew's played Kings Park Baptist Church and won 9 nil, this weekend we played EK Claremont and won 7 nil.  A hatrick from Chris Malone, 2 from Colin Crichton and 1 each from James Ghattas and Gary Morton.  The team were sublime yet again and totally played EK off the park in the second half first half was a different story only going in with a 1 nil lead and EK very much in it and for the first time in a number of weeks Boycey was called into action on a number of occasions.  Colin Crichton was MOM and deservedly so.  Well done boys lets keep it going from now on.

Family are all well and the wife is preaching tonight in Claremont.  I was preaching this morning in Partick Methodist church and had a great time it was a really good srvice which went totally to plan.

On another note if those who read this pray could they please pray for Chris Malone's father in law as he has to have an operation.

Blessings to all who read this.

Football & teaching

Saturday and we played Kilbirnie and won 5 nil.  The first half was good and by half time we were 4 nil up.  Second half we scored 1 goal which happened to be the completion of James Ghattas hat trick.  We only had 11 players on Saturday and so it was an excellent team performance except for the use of foul language which the other coach complained about and this has led to our captain and second team rep being called before the committee on Thursday.  Dissappointing but it has toi be dealt with and I expect that as a team we will get a warning as to our future behaviour & conduct on the field.

This Saturday we play Kings Park Baptist church which are always tough games and I expect Saturday to be no different.  I hope for Saturday that we play well, are well disciplined and come away with another 3 points.  Looking forward to it 10.00am Toryglen.

Last night the wife and I listened to

Mark Driscoll from Marrs Hill and to say I was dissappointed would be an understatement.  I have heard him before and been on the church website and his view of marriage and what makes a good wife is in my opinion way off the mark.  One of the young guys who plays football with us listens to him quite a lot and that is the reason I listened to him last night - The bit that we listened to was his teaching on marriage and what makes a good wife - A good wife according to Mr. Driscoll is a wife who stays at home, looks after the children and does what she is told, he tells everyone that his wife does not watch tv unless he is there and does not go out with her friends!!!!!  She stays at home and looks after the children does not work except as a wife and mother (Hard jobs on there own).  He is the provider and has built a world for them he spends all his spare time with them.  So a good husband is one who works hard doesn't have any hobbies and spends all of his time with the family.  How utterly pathetic - I did try and tell the wife that she needs to give up work and stay at home and that I would give up football and spend all my time with the family, never go out and just work.  She was not allowed to watch the tv unless I was there and she had to do as she was told - Does anyone have a room I could stay in until she has calmed down?  Ha Ha.  I love my wife and kids more than anything else and we have our ups and downs but I would not change a thing, I like playing football and being involved with it and so would not give that up either.  We all need time for ourselves as well as family.  To take some proverbs and spout the garbage that he spouted is unbelievable - His church ministries are all run by men which is impossible in the best of circumstances.  This pastor has a lot of influence in christendom and after listening to what he has to say no wonder the issue of adultery comes from the women who if their husbands have taken on his teaching must be feeling unloved, uncherished and totally isolated and so have gone and looked for love outside of their marriage.  He has a very oppressive view of marriage that thnkfully is not all Christian mens opinion.  Yes it is a covenant bewteen husband and wife with God being an equal partner within that marriage but it is a relationship of love, friendship, time, hard work at times but marriage is a wonderful thing and is something to be shared by husband and wife with Gods blessing upon it.  There will be mistakes, unhappiness, arguments but these will be outwayed by all the good things happiness, peace and 'make up sex'.  Enough of my rant I just hope I never have to listen or hear him again.  People like Mr. Driscoll really annoy me and she stick to preaching in church and keeping it there not letting it loose on the public who already have enough disrespect for the church as it is.

Blessings to all who read this.

Billy and Rachel are away, they will be back in September hopefully in time for the birth of their first grandchild or just after.  Missing them already and as the week has been so busy I didn't get the chance to say see you in a year last night.

This has been the busiest week in a long time and it has finally stopped until Monday - so far I have led 2 bible studies, had one LP meeting, 1 Praise night and had a football meeting.  I have not been in before 10.30 one night this week and so far have covered over 500 miles this week alone.  Tomorrow time to catch up with my wife and friends over some much deserved coffee which I have to say I have not had one this week until this morning and then I had 2 in McD's not good enough!

God is so good today I had the opportunity to meet and restore a friendship that had been damaged and which is now hopefully in the process of being healed.  It was a good meeting and God worked within our discussion.  Awesome!  Next week should be quieter.  I had a good time at Shettleston's bible study tonight where we spoke about journeying both in life and faith - For some these are seperate and only join together mid way through.  It was amazing to listen to some of the stories and also to recount some of mine.  We read about Jesus journey to the cross and Moses's journey to the edge of Canaan only to be told he would see it but not enter it.  Jesus's journey is probably the most amazing journey of all because it was for us totally unselfish, unconditional awesome!  I am so grateful that I am a Christian it is an amazing journey and I have been thinking that those people who are not have taken the easy way out.  Being a Christian is far from easy mainly because we have made it hard for ourselves at the wrong times.  It is a good life though.

Football Saturday and we are playing at the racecourse against Hope Hall should be a good game although we are short of players.  Cuthbert is injured, one is in Tenerife and one is in Dublin but we do have a good squad and adequate replacements so should still make for a good game - Looking forward to getting back to it.

Family is doing well and the wife is away to Carlisle on Saturday so I get to watch 6 nations rugby Saturday afternoon whilst relaxing.

Blessings to all who read

Today we said farewell to our good friends Billy & Rachel they are off to Thailand for a year to work in the Juniper tree.  We have met with them over the past 4 years to pray, eat and minister to one another.  For a year we will be without them but we will be skyping at times and they are back in September to visit their daughter and their first grandchild.  We will miss them they are a major part of our lives and Billy has been my mentor since he baptised both my wife and I and then led us through Alpha they are both really great friends.

No football this weekend for St. Andrew's and so I took the boy and youngest daughter to watch Kirkie Riverside against Westwood BB.  Kirkie won 3 v 2 in what was a very good game.  I missed us not playing but only for a weekend as we  are playing Hope Hall next weekend at either the race course or KGV in Renfrew.  League meeting Thursday and my main topic was to speak about extending the season by one month but it seems most teams will complete on time??

This week will be a busy one for me as I have 2 bible studies to lead this week, plus a meeting Thursday morning and a Praise night Wednesday night at which the church welcomes Linda Galloway - looking forward to it and excited at the same time.  Working all day tomorrow - preparing for the bible study tomorrow night, moving carpets and anything else that happens to need to be done.

Two things that have bugged me over the past week - one is the person that killed Jamie Bulger is allowed to maintain his anonimity amidst accusations of other charges that have meant he has been put back in prison.  This is just another example of helping the the attacker rather than protecting the victim.  This has annoyed me because we have friends who are looking after a 17 year old girl called Rima from Eritrea? and she is being sent back to Italy where she escaped from to come to Britain, she is a lovely girl and worships at St. Silas, goes to college and is a victim of everything that is bad with most governments our very own included - we are supposedly living in a Christian country and yet we show no compassion for a person who has suffered a great deal in such a short life, we do not welcome the alien into our land, we do not set the captive free - she is captured by fear of deportation a fear she should not have at such a young age.  There are thousands of people praying that she is allowed to stay in our country and remain living with the family that she has adopted and who have adopted her.  We are living in strange times where everything is upside down we have moved so far from God that we have forgotten why we are here and how we are to act towards one another.

On another note after that wee rant one of my major topics of conversation is with regard to the church and mission - what we appear to have at the moment is a church that is into maintenance i.e. look after what we have and try and get back those that used to come and may still have a connection to the church.  We must be continually looking for opportunities within our communities and start thinking outside of the box - Our mission is to be Jesus to a lost and hurting world to offer a different direction to take people on the most awesome and amazing journey they will ever go on.  We have something exciting to offer and yet we don't, we have something that is hard to continue with at times and is a challenge every day and so we don't offer it.  It is easy to be an atheist, non believer or a I don't care person but being a Christian is the hardest thing anyone can ever do and that in itself is a challenge that more people should take up before they judge what being a Christian is about.

Blessings to all who read this.

No football this weekend the majority of pitches were frozen although me and the boy went down to the amazing Toryglen facility to watch QPB v Glasgow Nazarene play and also caught some of EK Claremont v KPB at which one of our ex players Andrew Morley broke his leg - My prayers are with him and his family for a speedy and complete healing of his leg.  This week we are playing Kilsyth COG at home in Milton - should be a good game with both teams doing well and sitting in the top half of the league.  10.00am KO weather permitting.

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about Church & Faith.  Something that does concern me is that some of the denominations do not have any money (or so they say).  The C of S does not enough ministers and yet it has too many according to the budget?!!  So by 2018 it has to lose 200 ministers according to the papers.  I know of other churches that have no money and are just about keeping their heads above water.  At this time the church should be the most financially viable organisation in the world instead of struggling it should be flourishing.  The church should be the one body that is investing in ministry, missions, the poor and its buildings.  It should not be the place of penny pinching and cuts.  If we do not invest in anything and just sit on our money in the bank what can God do with it?  I don't know the answer but I feel as the body of Christ we should be doing all we can to help out in this financial climate.  Why aren't we able to?  My personal thoughts are that bad management is the cause of this downfall.  We need to go to the business world and adopt some of their principals whilst still keeping our Christian ethics and morals.

I hope and pray that the church can come through this as an example of excellence to the rest of the world.  It is time for the church to step out in the faith that it believes in and let God work through us and with us to create His Kingdom on earth.

Another good weekend

Finally time to catch up with a busy weekend - Football and St. Andrew's played Motherwell Ebenezer the game ended in a 2 all draw with St. Andrew's leading for the majority of the game and then with 3 minutes to go Motherwell went 2 v 1 up but with 30 seconds to go we equalised.  A great result although with the run the team are on most of us felt it was 2 points lost.  This weekend we play CEC2 in Eaglesham.  This is always a tough game for us but one that we are looking forward to.  Once again the team did well on Saturday with Graham Cuthbert getting the MOM award although Boycey did pull off another one of his trademark saves.  Well done to everyone in the team lets keep on improving there is still a long way to go before the season ends.

The church has its anniversary weekend  this weekend and this includes a coffee morning on Saturday followed by a ceileidh in the evening with pie and peas being served.  Sunday the Church has a visiting speaker the Rev Christopher Rowe from the local C of S and Sunday evening a songs of Praise event  with members of the congregation picking their favourite tunes and reasons why.  Should be a good experience.  Tickets for the ceileidh are £5.00 and the doors open at 7.00pm.  The coffee morning starts at 10.00am until 12.00pm.  On another church matter we are looking for fundraising ideas and also the possibility of a group visiting the Milton area to maybe do some mission stuff in the area with the local community.  If anybody wants to volunteer to spend some time in Milton doing different stuff drop me your email address and we can see what we can come up with remembering that we are a church with not a lot of money but a decent facility that is available to use.

Family are all good and last week we had a great family afternoon swimming which all 3 of the younger kids enjoyed very much - it was a free swim from British gas.  Sunday the wife and I had a great afternoon together drinking coffee with no kids giving us hassle - Sunday evening the wife was preaching in the local C of S and I looked after the 2 youngest kids upon her return we had a nice glass of wine and watched a romantic movie!!

Blessings to all who read this.

Help! Football

At Christmas I found myself leading the Christmas service at the local 'special needs' school in Milton.  I have to say I was slightly nervous about doing this and yet at the same time very excited by it.  I have recently been thinking about what else I could offer to the school on a weekly/fortnightly basis and so off I went to the Christian bookshop that shall remain nameless and to my surprise there was nothing in it for guidance on doing different things with special needs children.

There was however plenty of stuff for children of all ages which required a response to 'Jesus' or activities that required the use of all limbs but nothing for kids with exceptional circumstances.  Is the church only concerned with stuff that people can respond to?  If so we are missing some major opportunities to reach. love and support a major group.  I have read people complaining with regard to disabled access in churches and I now understand why!

The church spends much of its time being for certain things and against them - the in thing at the moment is homosexuality but eventually that will change and the debates will move on to something else equally crippling and further away from what the church could stand for or even should stand for.   I am still looking for material or ideas on what I could possibly do over at this school and so anyone with any ideas, material or guidance that feels they may like to comment please do so.  It would be much appreciated.

Changing the subject totally football Saturday is at Petershill Junior park against Kirkintilloch Riverside 10.00am ko.  It should prove to be a very good game and a real challenge for the team to continue the good run they are on.  Next week we play top of the league Motherwell Ebenezer which again will be a very good game and at least it is at home.  These games are obviously weather permitting and at the moment in East kilbride it is not looking very permissive hopefully it will have cleared up by Saturday!