http://www.richardcarterphotography.co.uk/
The Vicar of Baghdad, by The Revd Andrew White.
I could not put it down
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Best Wishes
Lord Akerman
]]>Maureen Lipman tells the tale of:
A young Jewish actor phones home: "Mama, Mama, I'm so excited. I've got the part! I'm playing the husband!" Mama replies: "So you couldn't get a speaking part?"
and just one more before bed . . . .
Sammy Davis Jnr was asked what his handicap was, he replied, "I'm a coloured, one-eyed Jew - do I need anything else?"
Shalom and Good Night
]]>Practical Action work with local communities to generate a long-term sustainable future.
So those are some of the notes of the back of one of their leaflets, but what I wanted to say, is that it would appear that you can buy a gift for a friend or loved one, and I don't suppose it has to be a Christmas or Birthday gift, you could give at anytime of the year!.
I loved some of the ideas, here is just a few; Chicken Tractors (you'll have to get the leaflet to work out what that is!) Fluffy Ducks, Alpaca's,Tiny Trees and seeds,Flood Siren and many more.
I certainly will be keeping my leaflet to hand to sort out some gifts for Christmas, you know, the friends, who you just can't think of a gift for.
This is not an advert for the charity, I just thought it was a very good idea to let you know about the gifts.
]]>We have eaten and been satisfied, may we not be blind to the needs of others, nor deaf to their cry for food.
Open our eyes and our hearts, so that we may share your gifts and help remove hunger and want from our world. Amen
If anyone has a favourite prayer, I would welcome it
]]>Does anyone have any suggestions how to overcome this problem??
]]>His natural parent where James Ernest Haywood and Doris Haywood (sorry, I don't know his mothers maiden name) After his mother died, I believe from TB he moved to live with his aunt in Leicester, and one would assume he was then adopted by them and became a "Penny" or "Penney"
Roy's date of birth, I believe he was born in 1926 in Bournemouth.
I would be very gratefull if anyone knows of any Penney or Penny families in and around the Leicester area, who might know of Roy, please do get in touch with me, my email address is (paul.akerman@surf.co.nz)
]]>I few years ago I lost someone extremely important to me, and now matter where I was and the questions I asked of many people I could not find him.
It was only after a long wait, probably a very purposeful wait, and after hearing the story I’m about to retell that I realised that he was right at my side. Please forgive me if you have heard this story in a different guise before, but ever time I read it, it brings back beautiful memories.
A man was travelling from village to village and at every village he would ask the teachers “Where can I find God” Some of the teachers would tell him to pray, some would tell him to study and others would advise him to forget his questioning as he could find God only within himself. The man had tried all this advice and had failed at every attempt.
So the man moved on, and travelled many hours until he came upon a small hamlet in the middle of the forest, there he met a woman who was tending to her chickens, because he was a stranger to her village; she asked what had bought him so far into the forest. He told her that he was looking for God. The woman pointed to the house where the teacher lived.
When the man got to the Rabbi’s house he went in, but the Rabbi was studying and initially did not want to disturb him. But, the man grew impatient and interrupted the Rabbi “Where do I find God”, there was a pause, and the man pondered which piece of the previous bits of advice he would be given this time. To his surprise the Rabbi said “You have come to the right place, God is in this village, why don’t you stay a few days and you might well meet him”
So although the man did not really understand what the Rabbi had meant, he stayed for a while in the village. For several days he would walk around the village asking the people where he could find God, they would simply smile and ask the man into their homes to share a meal with them. As time passed on the man got to know the villagers, and would even help them with their chores and at times he would bump into the Rabbi, and the Rabbi would ask if the man had found God yet, now, sometimes the man knew what the Rabbi meant and other times he did not.
Many months passed and even years and the man became part of the village and shared in all its life. The man would go with the rest of the men on a Friday night to the synagogue and pray with them. Sometimes the man the man knew why he prayed and at other time he did not, sometimes the prayers where really prayers and other times they were just words. He then would return to the homes of the other men and they would study and pray further, and the other men of the village would assure him that God was in the village, and over time the man began to believe that God was in the Village, although he was not quite sure where, he somehow knew that he sometimes had met him.
Then one day the Rabbi came to the man and asked him “You have met God now, have you not” the man replied that indeed he thought he had found God, but, he was not too sure where or when, but he knew that He was only in this village.
The Rabbi explained to the man that God is not a person or a thing and you cannot meet him in that way. The Rabbi went onto explain that the man was so disturbed when he had originally came to their village that he was so troubled by his questions that he would not recognise God when he met him, because you were not looking for Him. Now that the man had stopped persecuting God, he had in fact found Him.
The man eventually returned to his home town, and God went with him, the man prayed and studied, and the man knew that God was truly within himself and other people and indeed other people knew it too. Some times the people would ask the man ‘Where can we find God” to which the man would reply that they had come to the right spot, God is in this place.
So, now I don’t go looking for my house keys, because they will find me.
Paul
]]>So, baring all that in mind, I have to focus on the fact that I want to teach, I have a passion to teach, especially Infant ages and I want to make a difference.
So, I will do the two week "Taster Session" that my local college are putting on and see where we go from there - wish me luck. In fact if any teachers are reading this and have some advise to give me please go ahead.
]]>Has anyone else got any experiences of their first child going off to Uni, and tips or advise?
]]>P
]]>The Summer holidays always seem far too long, even my youngest gets bored within the first week. But this next week is going to be the first major change in our family life. So, watch this space.
Who thinks that they (whoever they are) should shorten the summer holiday, and make the Christmas holidays a week longer?
I would be really interested to learn of other parents experiences of sending their offspring off to university for the first time?
]]>No joking, its a real radio station, you'll luvvvvvvvvvv it
P
]]>This is a better time scale, as they are five hours behind us, and the output is great. I can listen to most "STUFF", but this is worth it.
P
]]>Paul
]]>I had to put this one in, because I'm a Plymouth boy, born and bred, its got to be;
but, if you prefer something with an international tone to it, why not try;
With Kiwi you just have to get your head around the time differences. You can't get too far away from the global credit crunch, listening to the news on Kiwi, its not surprising that they are going through the same problems we are, especially fuel prices.
If anyone has got any other English Language Radio stations worth a tuning into, let me know.
Cheers
]]>Does anyone remember when you could only go to see a James Bond film at the cinema, back in the 1970's and I'm sure they were classified XX. And guess what, your kids can now watch the same films on television before the nine o'clock watershed (and what is a water shed?, is it a big water but?)
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For someone who is very interested in the subject, I was very pleased to meet a distant cousin a few months ago. (First of all a little background) I had been "doing" if that is the correct terminology, my fathers side of the family, when whilst working on it, we had an extremly bad 'bout' of power serge, and yes, I lost everything, and you've guessed it, I had not done a backup, (a lesson there I think). So after a few weeks, my mother was sat at the side of me working on the computer, when she said "Well, why don't you do my side of the family" why not indeed. It took 2 minutes (I'm not exagerating) I put her family name in and the word Leicester, and litertally within those two minutes mother had identified a picture on a web site, and started saying "well thats your Grandmother, Thats my cousin" and so on.
So we were well on our way, the site belongs to my mothers cousin, and a 'phone call later, and it was like old times. But, and its a very big BUT, he was not the end of the saga, he had only been doing the research for a couple of years. However, one of their cousins had been "doing it" since 1964!, but ofcourse in those days, she had been writing it all down in long hand. But, now, with technology, she has been able to convert it all to a web site. (Has anyone come across a web site called www.tribalpages.com)? I dare not ask her how many woman hours it has taken her! But she has now managed to amass 4632 names within our family tree, now thats alot!!! And what a fantastic resource for all of us, we've discovered some skeletons, and some people of note.
So back to my youngest, after I had given him his answer I said did he want to know who my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great,Great, Great, Great, Great, Great,Great, Great, Great, Great, Great,Great, Great, Great, Great, Grandmother was, well his responce was not as excited as I thought it would be (You know what teenagers are like, give them anymore than they want, and they turn off) well I managed to keep his attention for a little longer, "Well, go on then Dad, who was she?" "Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine" I responded. "Wow" came a little shreek from the corner of the room, "Did you say a queen", "Yes, and there is a couple of Kings churcked in there for good measure"
He could not contain himself, and had rushed out of the room, but, and there is that BUT again, he did not wait to listen to that little bite of information you just really must listen to, it's almost like that section of writing at the bottom of a contract, all in small print, and you just look at it and say "Yip, I'll read that later"
The info, he did not listen to, the info that he really should have listened to before telling his mates at school, was that back in the 1100's the population of this country, was so obviously so much smaller than today that it is probally a safe bet to say that there are so many people today, who could say that they are related to Queen Eleanor, or can trace their own family trees back to the likes of; King John, King Henry, Edward 1, Edward 11, Edward 111, infact all the Plantagenet House Kings and Queens.
So my son learnt his lesson, but, a surprise to us is that he has developed a healthy interest in history, and is exploring a little more about his Greatx26 Grandmother, according to my son, she was a very strong Queen, who did alot for womens rights at that time.
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Why don’t you pick up a pen and start writing, the friendly from voice from down the telephone line announced? My friend John gave me the best piece of advice he could several years ago now. I had never been particularly good at writing at school as I’m sure my teacher/s who attend the 10 o’clock will tell, I never had a great interest in reading either, and for the son of the local book shop manager, that was hard to believe, somehow there was an assumption that my bedroom would be stacked out with all sorts of books, when in fact the only annual interest in reading was the “Blue Peter Annual” every Christmas, the safest Christmas present my Grandmother could give me.
My writing started when I had more time on my hands, after I had been signed off from work, some how it seemed the ‘write’ thing to do, but in my case it was sitting in front of a key board, as my writing was completely impossible to read, and according to family members has not changed much since then!
My problems, in relation to my writing and speech, stemmed from a lacking of; concentration, knowing what I want to say, but the wrong words appearing on the keyboard or even ‘popping’ out of my mouth, and perhaps the most embarrassing of all, having to ask my three children how to spell, what they tell me are the simplest of words. So, as you can see, to ‘produce’ three hundred odd words, takes me a long time, or is it just me ‘waffling’ on?
But, I want to encourage everyone, even YOU, to pick up your fingers and start to attack that keyboard, and write, whether it’s an article for this fantastic The Voice journal or perhaps, like me, sending a monthly e-letter to your friends. It is the most cathartic method I have found to ‘download’ your worries and problems, but obviously not to bore the reader with them. But, what’s to stop, us as parishioners, to write a book about life in Bilton, about the church, the history of the village, Poems, Jokes from the Children, Recipes from The Mother Union or Women’s Institute, and then sell the book in aid of the New Community Centre??
My “Paul’s letters from the Patio Door” started like for former; friends would email me asking how my appointments at the hospital were going, how the children were fairing at school and how my better half was dealing with me at home. So I started the letters. Hopefully they have matured like a good old cheese or bottle of wine over the years.
So, this month I have no real story to tell, no real letter from the Patio Doors, not because there is not anything there to tell, but I thought I would like to encourage you to write an article for The Voice, join me in the great “Waffle”
]]>I have decided to change the name of the articles which I write for The Voice, but why, well change is as good as a rest, or so they say. I am not a great believer in change just for the sake of change, but there are times when it’s Good.
As I write this article, we are about to celebrate tomorrow, the third of three “Mega-festivals”; the birth of the Church, the day that the Holy Sprit descended upon the Disciples and the rest of the people gathered in that room, to celebrate the Jewish harvest festival, which was celebrated on the 50th day after Easter, they were so empowered by their new gift, that they went out onto the streets of Jerusalem and started to preach the gospel of the risen Christ, moreover God gave them the gift of speaking in tongues, so that they could preach in the same language of the peoples gathered there to celebrate.
So, we are all given gifts of one thing or another, whether we know it or not, I believe that God given gifts are the most precious of all, we can all give gifts and that is the most rewarding feeling ever. Before I started to write this article I started to write a list of all the gifts I had been given not you understand gifts at Christmas time, but tangible, God given ones, try it, you will be very surprised. My first one was the gift of being able to write these articles, something a few years ago, I would not even try to do.
Now we reach the point in the article where I can link my thoughts to that of being “in charge” of the wheel, as it turns at a great rate of speed, or should that be that God looks after, he guides my hands, the clay, the electricity to power the wheel and my sight to watch over the emerging pot.
God has given me, through my teacher, Mrs. Saunders, the ability to turn lumps of clay into a pot, chalice, plate or wall mounted planter. (I am sorry if this sounds like an advert, it’s not meant to be, or though having said that, the workshop which I go to will be selling items of Garden furniture etc., in the Church car park at the Open Garden event on the 12th-13th July, and they will donate a proportion of money raised to the New Build project.)
I believe that the Lord has given me my gift of molding lumps of clay. Recently Linda Blay asked if I would make for her a Chalice and Patten, for use in her new Parish, I was truly ‘chuffed’ at the feeling that some-one wanted to share in my gifts. Through my inabilities to perform certain daily tasks I have found that I still have gifts, given to me by God.
Thank you
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