Spelling

Driving past a pub on Skipton Road on Wednesday I noticed a sign advertising last night's England Friendly. The sign said.... England v Cheques.

I suppose it was an interesting way to spell out who England were playing. With the vast amount of money to be found in English football at the moment, it was perhaps an understandable slip!

Olympic success

I have not been able to see that much of the Olympics but it has been good to celebrate so much British success. The cyclist Chris Hoy has certainly written his name into the record books.
The 32-year-old Scot becomes the first Briton in 100 years to win three golds at the same Olympics, after his earlier success in the team sprint and keirin. He has also become Scotland’s greatest every Olympian in terms of gold medals.

For me the Olympics always brings thoughts of another great Scottish Olympian, Eric Liddell. His 400m gold medal in the Paris Games of 1924 was a wonderful achievement for the man who at the time was the hot favourite to win the 100m. But he never ran in competitions on a Sunday and kept to this principle despite the importance of the Olympics. His story was largely unknown to many people until the film Chariots of Fire presented the account of how he and Harold Abrahams( two men from very different backgrounds) triumphed in Paris.
Liddell was born in China, the son of Church of Scotland missionaries. He was educated at Eltham College, studied at Edinburgh University and trained as a Congregational minister before he returned to China as a missionary. It was there in 1945 he died in a Japanese Internment Camp.
In the book ‘The Flying Scotsman’, Sally Magnusson tells the story of this remarkable athlete and Christian missionary. When news of his death reached Scotland, many memorial services were held across the country and even in other parts of the world. In Glasgow a large congregation gathered in the Dundas Street Congregational Church. Many leading sportsmen were there and among them were two very famous men from Glasgow Rangers FC. The legendary Alan Morton read the lesson and one of the tributes was paid by the manager of Rangers, Bill Struth( who himself had been an athletics coach before becoming perhaps the greatest ever Rangers manager). Struth said of Eric Liddell,
“He deliberately sacrificed a fine chance of one Olympic title because of his religious convictions. He just as certainly put aside a career of brilliance and affluence to serve his master in the most practical of all forms of Christianity. In his work in China he created an opportunity for the talents with which he was so richly endowed; courage, determination, skill, endurance and self sacrifice, to be utilized to the full. Sport gave to Eric Liddell its highest honours; nevertheless it is true to say that he honoured sport rather than sport honouring him.
The details of the last few years of his life are not yet known to us, but we can be certain that under the most severe of all trials, he exhibited just those qualities which he showed in his sporting life. His life was perhaps a short one; but his work as he clearly saw it, and, as we believe, divinely inspired, carried out away from the applause of the crowd, will remain a source of inspiration to many.
In these days of exaggerated hero-worship and publicity for sports champions, Eric Liddell’s example reminds us to put things into their proper perspective. Sport to him was sport – not the be-all and end-all – and success in it did not prevent him from picking out the things spiritual from the things temporal. His was an example which must have helped others to make similar choices.”

Holiday Club Closing Ceremony

Sunday morning worship on the 3rd August was entitled ' The Champion's Challenge Closing Ceremony'. At the great sporting events the closing ceremony is usually a celebration of all that has taken place and this is what we tried to do. The whole service was a celebration of what took place during the week. The children shared with the congregation what they had been learning; about the various craft activities and the games; we heard a few of their jokes and letters. Each team paraded in with their team flag and the final act of celebration was the presentation of the medals. All the children received a medal because all had achieved a personal best in one of the activities. It was a good ending to another excellent Holiday Club week. One of the ways in which we know the week went well is because at the end the children were asking about next year's Holiday Club.
This year we are planning a re-union party in November for everyone who came along. Before that the leaders and the helpers will treat themselves to a celebratory meal out!

Holiay Club - day 5

On the last day we had to revert to plan 'b'. Plan 'a' had involved going for a time to the open space on the Stray to play some games. But the heavy rain yesterday and some thunderstorms overnight meant that was not advisable. But plan 'b' worked well and we had a good day. All the groups got a chance to have a go at each of the 'personal best challenges( basketball hoop, skittles, dribble & shoot,long jump, squat thrusts). We also had borrowed some foam javelins and used these on the grass at the side of the church - the highlight for my group was when one of the javelins got stuck high up in one of the trees.
The theme for the day was 'Jesus - the winner' and the Biblical material included the story of the risen Lord meeting two of his followers on the road to Emmaus.
Parents and friends joined us for the final part of the morning when we sang some of our songs and showed off the Personal Best certificates.
It is onwards now to the 'Closing Ceremony' on Sunday( i.e. the Holiday Club morning service).

Joke of the day - 'Why did the chicken run onto the football field?'
answer - because the referee blew for a foul!

or ' What is sticky and bites?' ( a jampire)

Holiday Club day four

Theme for today was 'substitute' and the reading from Luke was the description of the betrayal by Judas and the arrest of Jesus. The DVD focussed on the death of Jesus with Flabby Lagoon interviewing Joseph of Arimathea.
We refrained from giving the children an exposition of the penal substitution theory of the atonement and simply told the familiar story. The worksheet from the Scripture Union material also looked forward to what happened next and tomorrow's theme is the resurrection.
It was a good morning and it passed very quickly. At the end of the morning there was only a very brief time for the usual jokes and letters.

joke of the day - what do you call a woman who stands between the goalposts? Answer - Annette.( I must tell my wife the joke - she will love it.)

second place joke of the day - what do you call a budgie who has flown in to the blender? ( answer - shredded tweet).

Perhaps I could add another joke - last night's performance by Rangers!

Holiday Club day three

Theme today was 'Jesus the team mate'. The Bible passage was from Luke 9:1-6, 10-17. The passage describes Jesus sending out the disciples on mission and then the feeding of the 5000. On both occasions the disciples worked with Jesus as part of a team and there was the reminder that we can all be part of the 'Jesus team'. The Dvd episode for today was perhaps the best yet and certainly kept the attention of the children. I am beginning to warm to the teaching dvd which is based around the BBC 'Match of Day' style interviews with Larry Spinnaker as the host. The location reporter is 'Flabby Lagoon' who is obviously based on a well known female sports reporter who is married to a former Scottish rugby international.

My team has almost completed our team flag and we are now thinking ahead to Sunday's 'Closing ceremony'.

Jokes today were of the 'knock, knock, who's there' variety. Sadly no one joke really stood out as they were all equally bad!

Holiday Club day two

Today's theme was Jesus as 'physio' and the Biblical material was from Luke 7:1-10, the story of Jesus healing the centurion's servant( and doing it at a distance). It is a remarkable story which, of course, we could not really delve into too deeply with the children.
But think of the scenario - a Roman centurion who actually has some care and affection for one of his slaves; this centurion is also sympathetic and helpful to the faith of the Jews among whom he lives;he has actually helped them to build a synagogue; he has contact with Jewish leaders and is ready to ask for their help; they react positively and seek the help of Jesus on his behalf; the centurion is humble enough and perhaps considerate enough to suggest that Jesus does not need to enter his house( think of the problems faced by a Jew who entered into a heathen Gentile's home); he recognizes the authority of Jesus and his servant is healed.
Jesus expresses his amazement at this display of faith and declares that he had not met such faith among his own people who are 'the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works'( from the Message paraphrase).
Lots to think about in all of this and especially in the final words of Jesus about the centurion's display of faith.


Jokes for today were of the 'Doctor, doctor' variety and included the following -

patient - " Doctor, I keep thinking I am Tom Jones"
doctor - " it's not unusual"

I am not sure many of the children got it, but the all leaders did laugh or groan.