Thoughts from the Bus Stop

The Power of Love: Frankie Goes To Hollywood

via YouTube.com

One of the music channels was showing the video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love the other day and I found it really moving.

First, there's Holly Johnson's beautiful voice, and the tender lyrics, along with Godley and Creme's nativity-themed video, which (references to vampires and the Hooded Claw aside!) changed the meaning of the lyrics for me from a simple 'human to human' love song to one which speaks about God's 'undying, death-defying' love for mankind:

Feels like fire
I'm so in love with you
Dreams are like angels
They keep bad at bay - bad at bay
Love is the light
Scaring darkness away - yeah

I'm so in love with you
Purge the soul
Make love your goal

The power of love
A force from above
Cleaning my soul
Flame on burn desire
Love with tongues of fire
Purge the soul
Make love your goal

I'll protect you from the Hooded Claw
Keep the vampires from your door
When the chips are down I'll be around
With my undying, death-defying
Love for you

Envy will hurt itself
Let yourself be beautiful
Sparkling love, flowers
And pearls and pretty girls
Love is like an energy
Rushin' rushin' inside of me

This time we go sublime
Lovers entwine - divine divine
Love is danger, love is pleasure
Love is pure - the only treasure

I'm so in love with you
Purge the soul
Make love your goal

The power of love
A force from above
Cleaning my soul
The power of love
A force from above
A sky-scraping dove

Flame on burn desire
Love with tongues of fire
Purge the soul
Make love your goal

YouTube: Holly Johnson sings The Power of Love on Later...with Jools Holland
Official Frankie Goes To Hollywood Website
Official Holly Johnson Website

In Which I Am Part Of A Christian Flashmob...

Tee-hee:
"singing on Lansdowne place last night"

See also: Holland Road Baptist Church, Hove

Lend us a tenner? Kiva - loans which change lives

This is Sharifa Rajab Ali, who lives and works in Kabul, Afghanistan.

I've just lent her a few quid so she can buy materials for her beadwork business and use her creative skills to support her family. She needs more than I'm able to lend her at the moment, but once a few other people have chipped in with their loans, Sharifa will be able to stock up.

Kiva.org came to my attention via Miss Malaprop and Crafty World. It's a simple and effective - Kiva enable you to loan your money (as little as $25 - currently less than £13 in sterling) to the working poor:

"Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified borrowers. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva.org, our partners upload their borrower profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them."

It gave me particular pleasure to be able to help a creative person like Sharifa - you can search the site by category to find people working in your area of interest - so I've loaned some money to Lolofa, a Samoan lady, to help her build up her mat weaving business. Who will you invest in?

Also:
I Love Kiva! Why Kiva is one of the best things on the Internet
Wikipedia entry for Kiva

Hole Hearted

Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme perform 'Hole-Hearted' with John Paul Jones, Steve Hackett and Paul Gilbert. Via YouTube

I've been playing an old mix tape which has been stuck in a cupboard for years - a compilation I made in September 1994 (yikes!) of my favourite songs. Surprisingly most of them still do it for me. One of them is Extreme's wonderful Hole-Hearted:

Life's ambitions occupies my time
Priorities confuse the mind
Happiness one step behind
This inner peace I've yet to find

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do

Hole hearted
Hole hearted

This heart of stone is where I hide
These feet of clay kept warm inside
Day by day less satisfied
Not fade away before I die

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why cant I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do

I just searched YouTube for it, and found a fantastic live version which looks fairly recent - Gary Cherone has much shorter hair, as does the luscious Nuno Bettencourt. Mm-mmm, he looks even better with age... (fans self).

I love to sing Hole-Hearted as a worship song. Maybe it's meant to be about romantic love, but its lyrics speak to me about trying (and failing) to find fulfillment in something or someone other than God - a trap I fall into ALL the time.

The Pornograffiti album was a huge favourite of mine. I played it non-stop - and not just the ballads either... in my younger days I liked to ROCK!!! (When vexed, I could often be found in my room shrieking along to Seether by Veruca Salt.)

YouTube also has a version of More Than Words from 1992 - complete with BIG Cherone hair - and many other live performances.

See also:
YouTube: Seether - Veruca Salt
YouTube: Number One Blind - Veruca Salt

Green Weddings

Joe Carrick and Jessica Randall, via timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill

Really interesting post on Ruth Gledhill's Times blog about vicar's daughter Jessica Randall, a trainee doctor, and church youth worker Joe Carrick, who decided to make their wedding as green as possible:

"From the outset we’ve tried to keep a global - and God’s - perspective throughout. It hasn’t been any more effort to do and we haven’t had to compromise on quality and luxury either."

This included sourcing a conflict-free engagement ring, buying a wedding dress from Oxfam, signing up for an Oxfam Unwrapped Wedding List, growing the flowers for the displays and bouquet, and serving fair trade food and booze at the reception. Good for them!

The Convent: Sister Aelred on celibacy

The nuns and their guests at the convent of the Poor Clares, Arundel (c) BBC

I missed the first episode of BBC2's The Covent, but I've watched the second and third and found them both challenging and moving. The bit in last night's episode which really got me was the clip of Sister Aelred talking with her pupil Iona about the challenges of the celibate life, and then speaking directly to camera on her own (video clip here).

Sister Aelred became a nun at 18. Aged 31, she fell in love with someone who had come to work within the enclosure. She spoke about how hard it was to cope with and the understanding she came to later about why God had allowed her to go through this ordeal:

"The choice then began to mean something. You can't vow celibacy from the chin upwards..."

I'm totally with her on that. When I became a Christian, aged 18, I took on celibacy as part of my faith, but my resolve wasn't really tested until I fell for someone hook, line and sinker in my mid-twenties (I'm now 31).

It wasn't that I ever got into a situation with this guy where I almost went to bed with him, but the strength of my feelings for him - and his confusion at finding someone who welcomed his attentions but wouldn't sleep with him - made for a painful couple of years. You can't help who you fall for, and if they seem to reciprocate, it's incredibly tough keeping your distance.

I'm not saying that celibacy has no value if it's untested, but having mine put to the test has certainly reaffirmed my decision to remain celibate outside of marriage (and also not to even date non-Christians). I just love that quote - it sums up things up brilliantly. Sister Aelred, you are one astute lady!

Also:
Convent of the Poor Clares, Arundel
Poor Clares 'The Covent' mini-site
Glandscape Hardening: The Celibate FAQ - "A light-hearted survey of perspectives, links, books on sexual abstinence from a secular perspective."

Easter Flowers On A Shoestring

Click on the pics for larger version

I was asked to sort out Easter Day flowers for the side windowsills at church (the big arrangements were already sorted). They had to be silk not fresh, there were eight small arrangements needed and it needed to be done as cheaply as possible.

First stop was the £1 shops - I tried three before I found a good selection of silk flowers. They were all those ones where a whole bunch comes on one stem for £1.

I wanted daffodils but the only daffs available were two daffs attached to a hideous bunch of orange and white flowers. There were some relatively untacky-looking bunches of small yellow and white flowers, so I grabbed four of those - planning to use half a bunch per arrangement - and four of the bunches with daffs in, so I'd have eight daffs, one for each arrangement.

Then I had to find receptacles for them. I'd hoped to find some small glass or china vases - even pretty china mugs - in one of the £1 shops but found nothing suitable. I prayed for a solution! Then it struck me - as water wasn't part of the equation, I could use card. So I bought packs of A4 card in lilac and pale yellow, and made tubes by cutting one sheet in half longways and taping each half into a tube shape.

I cut cubes of Oasis (a bread knife works a treat!) out to fit snugly inside each tube and then stuck one daffodil and half a bunch of white and yellow flowers (cut from their bunch into individual blooms with wire cutters) into it.

I finished them each off with a small glass cross (20p each from Brighton Bead Shop) hung on sewing thread round the tube, from a notch cut in the card at the back.

They they turned out OK and cost just over £11 for eight, so didn't break the bank. Thank the Lord for divine inspiration!

Spring Harvest: The best bits

My first Spring Harvest - quite an experience. Am still exhausted! Being an evening person, I didn't make it to any of the morning 'Big Start' worship at the Big Top, or any of the morning teaching/debate.

I tended to rise later, watch the Big Start on the chalet telly then spend the morning wandering round the exhibition stalls in the Skyline, or out in Minehead.

I took in a few afternoon seminars, and loved the evening celebrations in the Big Top - especially on the Sunday - taking communion with thousands of people was a very moving experience.

Highlights:

* Going to see the effervescent Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda.

* 'Discovering' Mark Greene of the LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) - I already get the LICC's daily emails, which are usually really interesting - but I hadn't heard of him. I went to one of his seminars (on integrity and evangelism in the workplace), which was great, and really enjoyed the talk he gave at one of the evening celebrations. He's intelligent, funny and speaks in a language I can understand - and makes realistic suggestions for ministry and evangelism. Hurrah!
(See Amazon: Thank God It's Monday by Mark Greene)

* The worship songs led by Graham Kendrick - including some new ones I grew to love.

* Going to see Adrian Plass ("Evangelist: Someone who has only had problems in the past.")

* Seeing Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury give a lecture and later on be interviewed by Ian Coffey in the Big Top. Apparently his family love watching The Simpsons and his kids enjoy My Dad's The Prime Minister (he fears they see parallels with their own lives).

* Spotting Daniel Bedingfield in the wings of the Big Top just before Steve Chalke announced him and telling my friend (who hearts Daniel), who got terribly excited and tried climbing over the seats. (She later received a text from her bemused husband, enquiring, "So, how was David Bedington?") Daniel was there to help launch the Stop The Traffik campaign against human trafficking, which has been planned to culminate on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. He also led us in singing Refiner's Fire (Purify My Heart).

* Comedian Joe Fisher ("He's funny nearly everyday...") and his Splendid Sweaters slot.

* Asking for a cup of tea and an Eccles cake at the lovely cafe in Minehead's pretty Blenheim Gardens and being charged £1.25.

(L-R) Daniel Bedingfield singing in the Spring Harvest Big Top, Blenheim Gardens cafe in Minehead

Spring Harvest: The sad part

Spring Harvest was a very emotional experience. It was bound to be anyway, but on Friday morning one of the girls in my church's group was taken ill and died - a fatal attack of sickle cell anaemia. She was only twelve. It's hard for us to understand why this had to happen but we know it was always part of God's plan.

Her funeral this morning was wonderful - sad but a celebration too, of her life here and of her new life. We heard how much she loved to be prayed for when she was ill, and to sing and dance in worship when she was well - and about how much fun she would be having now, dancing and singing in worship in Heaven. That's something for any Christian to look forward to.

Off To Spring Harvest!

So, am off to Minehead tomorrow to pop my Spring Harvest cherry. I have no idea what to expect really. Lots of chalets, lots of Christians and some crazy golf. And lots of seminars? I don't know... I have this silly idea it might be a bit too much like school - daft - I'm sure it will be a wonderful experience in all kinds of ways.

Our group organiser has emphasised that it isn't a competition to see how many seminars you can attend - and I fully intend to give the funfair my attention, eat chips on the beach and drink the occasional glass of red wine... it IS a holiday, after all!

Am sharing a chalet with a lovely bunch of lasses and am part of a group of about thirty from my church, some of of whom I know well and some not so well, and I expect we'll make a few new friends too.

I've already had my instructions from my (atheist) surrogate big bruv, Uncle Meat: "Remember to keep your eyes peeled for dishy blokes!"...