NWA (New Word Alive)

Arrived on Tuesday to haven in Pwllheli for new word alive, it has been an amazing few days so far!
I'm here as part of the after hours team helping out Clive Parnell sorting out logistics and hosting the artists. It has been really great not only chatting to the artists but hearing them interact about life as a Christian singer/song writer/dj! We have had David Robertson who wrote the dawkins letters, he did a Q&A session on Tuesday night. It was amazing to meet such a genuine and thoughtful guy. I thought before I met him he might be a bit high and mighty but I was so wrong, what a man of God! I'm so excited he has been able to share with so many people on such interesting matters.
Football tournament this afternoon... Thistle city rovers Wednesday FC should be on good form to win.



In Christ

Goose

Location:Lon Rhoslyn,,United Kingdom

So it has been flippin' ages since i lasted posted anything... very busy times but so much exciting stuff happening.
my biggest highlight from the past few months was getting to share who i believe Jesus was an is to my whole rugby team... two weeks in a row!
i am currently in New Zealand visiting old friends and seeing my sister Gillian. i've been needing a bit of a holiday for a while and this has been the perfect opportunity to take one. the photo is of Gillian and me at the Shotover river Jet boat. we went on it on boxing day here in Queenstown. Summery Christmas is very odd but kinda good fun at the same time. knowing there is loads of snow in edinburgh is very weird and half of me wants to be freezing back there.
also i am currently recovering from a wee operation to fix a broken tendon in my finger. 8 weeks with a platypus attached to my hand (i got real goggly eyes for Christmas) so everything has become a bit more difficult... zips, buttons, eating... the important things in life.
i'm very ready for bed now but will hopefully update again soon.
In Christ
Goose

Dressed for the Lord

I'm sitting in starbucks about to have a wee bible study over a caramel hot chocolate. I'm dressed in my rugby gear, trackies and trainers and I keep getting looked at. I caught one group of people actually laughing. No wonder why, it is the centre of town and everyone is in very nice suits and look very smart. And because I am dressed for where I am going after this meeting I'm standing out like a sore thumb.
In some ways I'd love to be dressed all smart and not sticking out but then I remeber I am prepared for a higher calling than work... Rugby. (Sorry for the terrible link, I could not pass on that statement).
Hopefully you all get the link!



In Christ

Goose

Gillian gone... Rugby on!

I am just back from seeing off Gillian on her 36 hour travel to get back to New Zealand and as I mentioned in a previous post it is really mixed emotions. it has been great having her here but I know she has been feeling a bit frustrated being away from the people she cares about so much and look to her for support. I can’t wait to hear news of the new things Gillian is getting involved with while on the other side of the world.

I was thinking recently how much I love rugby... I have recently started playing rugby again for Boroughmuir rugby club and this has been great. 2 training matches so far and we lost one and won one. I say I love rugby for more than just the game itself; I love it for so much of what the people around rugby demonstrate. I was told rather aggressively recently that football (soccer) is a far better sport than rugby. I don’t think that either is ‘better’ than the other but I did feel in necessary to ask when was the last time they had heard of rugby supporter riots? It is a really brutal game and it is rare for a game to end at any level without a few bloody shirts/faces and a whole load of aches and pains but this seems to just dissipate at the end of a game. Everyone goes for a drink and after game food in the club house and talks over the game. Even as far as congratulating an opposition player on a particularly painful tackle preformed on them. It is not just between teams this kind of camaraderie is seen but much stronger within a club. I have been around the Boroughmuir club for a few years and seen how it works to a certain level. It really excites me to see younger players listening to older players, coaches and old boys of the club so intently. it is well known that this is how a good player will become a great player. Quoting the head coach of the 2’s,

“we are not teaching you how play rugby, we are teaching you how to think while doing it”

This was to really highlight to the team that communication was essential to the game flowing how we want it to. I think there are so many lessons to be learnt from what some people would call a really dark area of society in regards to Christians and being almost opposite to Christian living. I am very excited about the season to come and will keep posting about the going’s on in my rugby life at Boroughmuir and at Napier University rugby.

In Christ
Goose

New skool too soon?

I had a really interesting conversation with some lads from church on Sunday afternoon which really got me thinking about how I veiw Christian living today. The funny thing is the conversation with these guys was not about something deeply theological but about advancement in technology. We were wondering how quickly we would become like our parents and loose contact with the technological world, when will things advance too quickly for our generation to keep up with? Even right now I am sitting in starbucks writing this post from my iphone and this blows my mind, this is just the tip of the iceberg I feel in my soon to be technological aliniation. My dad still feels the best way to refer to the home computor as 'the machine' which brings up conitations of something that starts with a crank handle and will puff out steam.
This shift in age to technological know how got me thinking about how the mainstream Christian opinions towards certain points have changed so much. My example point would be dating, a few years ago I did quite a lot of research about dating over the years in the Christian world and the secular. I think there would be loads of evidence to say that secular people from 100 years ago wouldbe pretty shocked at how we go about dating not just in a secular sense but in the Christian circles too. What's changed in that time to so radically affect the way in which we look for partners?
I've learnt so much from people older and way wiser than me and it frustrates me to see people either not getting that or rejecting it.
After having our chat about technological advance the lads from church introduced me to a game called settlers... AWESOME!!! So much fun, a pretty geeky game but so much fun! All I have to say to end is, "does anyone have any flippin' wheat for a sheep?"

In Christ
Goose

I’m starting with the man in the mirror

This week the new flat has just got internet and this means we can now numb our minds with useless information and stalk people on facebook… yesssssssss. Anyway it also means I get my dear Spotify back and now I can listen to my favorite music again. This morning’s song of choice as ‘first of the day’ was Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson. While I was listening to the words of the song (along with the awesome music and key change) it got me thinking about how I live my life. I don’t know what MJ’s reason for writing the song (or possibly just singing the song), they are pretty powerful words.

“I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change”

I was chatting with a friend last night about the death of Michael Jackson and the reaction so many people had around the world. Amazing to see one man influence so many people and affect so many peoples’ lives. I wonder if there is a message to Christian leaders in these lyrics above. I have found myself far too often struggling with why something is not working properly at Christian Union and looking back on these problems almost every one of them I was setting a terrible example of what I really felt the event or activity was about. I’m really excited to be getting back to University in September and starting this new series on Colossians but even more excited to be feeling more ready to be leading in my actions as opposed to just my speech.

In other news I am currently working in a pub/restaurant called the Spylaw Tavern. It is a pretty fun job but the best part about it is free food if I’m working 6 hours or more. The haggis pie in the restaurant is actually to die for, it is huge, filled with haggis, comes with chips or potatoes, loads of vegetables and with pepper corn sauce. I think I have just described a small slice of heaven. Come visit if you fancy a nice meal.

In Christ

Goose

Glad you're here... Great you're leaving!

This summer so far has been pretty amazing! Lots of the different things going on have been with mixed emotions. Mainly this has been having my sister Gillian home, which is great to have her here but I know that it has been a frustrating few months for her as the work in New Zealand she is involved in is so amazing. Visa issues are never fun and I am so thankful that they are now resolved but now Gillian is leaving soon for distant shores again. There has been something huge though that having Gillian home has taught me about Christian life.

One of the things listed in the wee description line is Montpelier Manuscripts. This has had one week of running and I was amazed at how much of a response people had to it. Eight of us sat in the new flat I have just moved into with another friend and I was completely blown away at how involved people were in the real gritty stuff of the bible. Asking questions of the passage and finding the answers right there too. AMAZING! The manuscript style of study is very simple; Observation, Interpretation, Application. These three sections are very important to keep separate and in doing this forces people who have been reading the bible for years to rethink how a passage is approached. This system is also great to see people who have never read the bible before to any great depth asking questions of the messages in the bible. It has been really great having Gillian back in Caledonia for a while but I know the work set out for her in NZ is amazing and it excites me to hear what is going on.

This brings me onto thinking about Christian Union at Napier and how we study together and share our love for Jesus with others. The format that was decided upon for the coming term at Christian Union was to have a speaker one week and then a manuscript style study the week after. So in 2 week blocks we are studying a section of Colossians. Having a talk on the passage and then the week after doing really in depth study of the passage hopefully will get people really immersed in the messages of the book. It is so easy to set out a term for Christian Union tackling major issues about being a student but I think people get so much more out of studying right though a book and really wrestling with the messages of it.

So summer is going great although I look out my window now and it is tipping it down. Ah well, I still love Scotland. I am off to do one of the most manly things ever... tree surgery! I get to stand at the bottom of a tree and throw logs and branches over a wall for a few hours. This is the time where I flex and make some kind of manly noise... grrrrrrrr

In Christ

Goose