Jun
18
2008
3

Apparently…

… gay men and straight women have similar brains.

That explains a lot.

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
Jun
15
2008
6

Jersey (it’s not just full of Crappeauds!)

I have had a fantastic weekend with my Mum and my sister Louise in Jersey this weekend. It is the first time that we have ever been away just the three of us and we had such fun. I arrived first on Friday and had a couple of hours to myself which I spent driving around looking at some of the beautiful countryside. Then I picked Louise and Mum up from the airport and we went back to the hotel (which was pretty basic and as my sister is such a snob she complained) before going out for dinner. Much of our weekend has been characterised by eating far, far too much!! After dinner we drove back to the hotel… the scenic route. Louise is CRAP at map-reading (although she will deny it) and we ended up going almost all the way around the idlans. Well, it was dark, and the road signs are truly rubbish!

On Saturday we got up early and went to visit Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (formerly known as Jersey Zoo). It is beautiful with loads of fantastic animals, including some amazing gorillas, gibbons and orang-urans which we watched for ages because they were so fun. In the afternoon we went to the beach (where I had a little sleep) before going to the town and doing some shopping. Mum goes crazy at the sight of a BHS these days. In the evening we went out for dinner again and ate marvellous ice-cream sundaes and then all felt sick.

This morning we went to La Corbiere where we walked to the lighthouse as it was low tide. The weather was absolutely beautiful and there were so many wonderful wild flowers out on the grass verges. Just gorgeous.

So, all in all, I had a fantastic weekend. It was just lovely to spend some proper time with Mum and Louise, without us all having lots of things we had to do and lots of other people around. Mum took the brunt of our teasing, in particular becaue her sense of direction is just terrible and she kept commenting on the beautiful hedges thinking they were the same ones she had seen before (usually they weren’t!) So, a fab weekend and here are a few little pictures for you to share in the experience with us….

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And, my favourite picture of the weekend…

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , ,
Jun
13
2008
0

RC Part 39 – Single Girl’s Diary by Kate Morris

Single Girl’s Diary by Kate Morris is possibly the worst book I have ever read. Bad writing, a poor story and even worse characters. It’s wasn’t even worth the 10p I paid for it.

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
Jun
12
2008
2

Braving the Storm

On his blog Braving the Storm my friend Eric posted an interesting blog entry about suffering and pain and how as Christians we have to deal with these things. He recently went to Bill Johnson’s church in Redding, California and during one of the meetings someone had a word of knowledge to which a woman responded and received prayer for painful osteo-arthritis. After the prayer she was encouraged to try and do movements she couldn’t do before, but she hadn’t been healed and was still in pain. This story reminded me so much of some of the healings that we are hearing have happened at Todd Bentley’s church in Florida.

On his blog Eric commented on this woman and her situation and said,

“As a pastor and a fellow sufferer of chronic pain I felt very keenly for her. I praise God for the many healings taking place right now, but I want to urge people not to neglect the need of the disappointed. We need a theology of suffering alongside our theology of healing.

    * It will bring balance to our prayers and our comments
    * It will assure the disappointed that they still matter to God and to us
    * It will hold them in God’s love while they wait for God’s power

So, what was happening that night? Was God calling this lady out? What for if not for healing? Well, I suppose that in such a big crowd there may have been others who fitted the description given. It may not have been her time for healing, but it may well have been a test of her responsiveness and obedience to God. It may just have been a well-intentioned mistake. What it did do was make me determined not to neglect the disappointed in my ministry. I want to find ways of reaching out to them and to continue standing with them while they wait for God. After all, in this as in other aspects of the Christian life, whilst we may be disappointed in a ministry or a meeting or a man, Jesus should not be a disappointment. I have found that He is not, and even in the heat of the battle with pain, I have proved Him to be faithful and true.”

Eric himself is an inspirational man. He has acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis which has left him in chronic pain for many years and eventually this illness has forced him into early retirement. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of spending some time with him and his wife Diane, just talking about life and how things often don’t work out the way we expect. I was challenged by their quiet response to God and their faithfulness in pursuing Him, despite all that has happened to them both. Whilst I was on holiday with my parents last year I read Eric’s book Braving the Storm which was about his journey and response to pain. I found it incredibly challenging and honest and in my own situation where I was feeling a great deal of emotional pain I found it very helpful.

The conversation that I had with Eric and Diane reflected on the way that the church has so often got its response to people who are suffering so wrong. We expect to have this triumphant attitude over illness, and yet for those who do not get healed we don’t know how to respond. The church desperately needs to learn to react, support and love those people who are suffering, whether that be physical, emotional or spiritual. It seems to me that so often our ability to do so is limited by our expectations on what think God should be doing, rather than standing with those people who are going through the process. As Eric said on his blog, ”whilst we may be disappointed in a ministry or a meeting or a man, Jesus should not be a disappointment. I have found that He is not, and even in the heat of the battle with pain, I have proved Him to be faithful and true.” Amen!

Jun
11
2008
0

RC Part 38 – Broken by Martina Cole

Broken by Martina Cole is a surprisingly good book. I have never read any of her stuff, although I have seen loads of her books floating around. Anyway, it is about DI Burrows and a major police investigation into children who are disappearing in bizarre circumstances which seem to implicate their mothers. It was a good read, I liked the main characters but the main perpetrator was obvious from about half way through. Not bad for a 10p book from a charity shop though!

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
Jun
10
2008
1

Brokenness

I have been musing again. Maybe that is a good thing, maybe it isn’t.

Picture 312 I have a little notebook in which I write down things that tweak my brain, although sometimes I forget to write down where I heard them. However, I *think* I heard the following comments in Peterson’s show The Re-Education of George W. Bush. The comments were about brokenness and they were something along the lines of ”When we are broken and damaged people how do we learn to speak truth, not only to ourselves, but also to other people?” and ”Is brokenness something we have or a label that is given to us to explain difference?”

It started me off thinking what brokenness actually means, and in church on Sunday I started musing on the word… it’s a funny word really. I guess to start with I came up with all the negatives… something that is flawed, different, damaged and ruined and yet as I sat in that quiet, peaceful church my thoughts changed. They changed to thinking about something that is still different but can be special, honest, restore-able, hopeful, something that can bring about change and the fact that something that is broken can be beautiful in it’s own right because of its intrinsic value. It’s a bit like, one of the things I had from Gran after she died was a beautiful green necklace… it has been fixed… one of the beads has been smashed and glued back together. I love it, flawed as it is because of the sentimental value it has for me. It is broken, but beautiful.

I feel broken and hurt by lots of things; my image, unfulfilled expectations but the biggest one has probably been my experiences with the church. They kind of shattered my hopes and dreams for a long time and uncovered really soft, vulnerable parts to my character which have been hidden by a tough exterior, covered up by my defence mechanisms, usually humour and being cheerful (people never ask you how you are if you look happy).

I have always viewed brokenness as a bad thing, something that I should be ashamed of, and something that I should try to hide. As though being ‘broken’ is something that I should try to deny and pretend doesn’t exist. Fear of people poking away at those hurting bits meant I didn’t want to address them, or talk about them, or share them. I guess now my feelings have started to change.

Allium My brokenness and vulnerabilities are part of who I am. Instead of making me weaker they have strengthened me and helped to shape me into the person I am today. I now know that some of the most wonderful people I have met, in one way or other are broken and hurting individuals. Their honesty about their own vulnerabilities and struggles have helped me be honest about my personal hurts and they have shown me how to to open them up to the healing light and receive some degree of hope. As Henri Nouwen puts it, “As mortal people, brokenness is a reality of our existence, and as we befriend it and place it under the blessing, we will discover how much we have to give – much more than we may ever have dreamt.”

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
Jun
09
2008
0

eek!

I am truly, truly knackered today.

Work was very busy and it was stuffy, hot and horrid in the office. Then I went to the gym and really struggled through my programme.

Either I am coming down with something or I am just overdoing it.

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,
Jun
08
2008
1

Pam Ann

Tonight I went to see Pam Ann in Stevenage. She was very, very funny and exceptionally rude. The language would have put a whole ship of sailors to shame and she was rude to the audience. However, I still cackled my way through.

Pam Ann particularly likes picking on cabin crew from the various airlines who attend her show and tonight she was especially fond of picking on the poor girl from Virgin Airlines. Her comments about them wearing cum coloured lip gloss made me laugh a lot. Most of the Easyjet crew got off quite lightly tonight, although as Leo (who was made famous by the TV show Airport) was in the front row of the audience, he didn’t get off quite so lightly. She clearly as a bit of a soft spot for him so he was pulled up on stage several times. Just as well he played up to it. I guess there is no point getting embarrassed when you know it is going to happen.

She also has a huge gay following and it seems to me that the majority of the audience was made up of gay men and their female friends. However, she had a very difficult audience to deal with tonight. Stevenage isn’t exactly the centre of the world and whoever she spoke to in the audience said they didn’t live in Stevenage (as it is a shit-hole). It certainly took them a while to warm up and I would love to see her in a better venue with a bigger audience, but she still made me laugh a lot. A good night out.

Here is a little clip from one of her shows.

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
Jun
07
2008
2

Yummy!!!

I have had a really nice morning. Played tennis with my friend James. We are pretty rubbish but getting better. Also I went to the local farmers market. It’s brilliant and I bought lots of lovely fruit and veg to see me through the week. Don’t you think it looks tasty?

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Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
Jun
06
2008
1

RC Part 37: Iraq: Searching for Hope by Andrew White

One of my clients lent me a book called Iraq: Searching for Hope by Andrew White. Reverend Canon Andrew White is the vicar at St. George’s church in Baghdad and has been affectionately called the Bishop of Baghdad.

He worked out in Iraq before the conflicts started and this book is about his journey, along with some theological and moral reflections on the war. It’s a very interesting book and I truly think he is an amazing, brave and godly man.

Written by Anna Williams in: Uncategorized | Tags: ,

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