It’s International Women’s Day!
Women are extraordinary – oppressed and discriminated against throughout history but always fighting for a better world, despite continually being devalued, objectified and forgotten.
Yet remarkably the identity of so many women is what they can do, rather than what has been done to them.
I am so privileged to have had so many outstanding women build into my life and inspire me. Thank you!
Let’s celebrate all women and especially those who are close to us today.
It is amazing how in the short space of a week it is possible to feel so much love, hope and
affection for people that you have never met before. I met many great people during this past week at the YMCA Youth Unify camp in Poland and was most deeply moved through the immense privilege of getting to know an amazing group of people from YMCA 
Ukraine – specifically Kiev, Lutsk, Odessa and Kharkiv. They really ambushed me with their friendship and encouragement. I wish to use this blog post for two simple reasons:
If you’re not from the West Midlands then chances are you have not heard of Wednesbury – unless you are an Ikea anorak. Even most people in the West Midlands don’t seem to know much about the place. Wednesbury is a small town of about 24,000 just off the M6 in the Black Country, situated between the bigger towns of Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. And only 20 minutes from Birmingham.
We have lived here for just over 12 months and we moved here because this is where God’s trail of breadcrumbs has led us. We’re passionate about the local church have been helping to plant and lead Grace Church in Wolverhampton since 2011. We are now beginning to gather a team to partner with us in planting a church here in Wednesbury. It is a wonderful little town with a rich and proud heritage, a great community spirit and home to the tallest rugby posts in the world!
World’s Tallest Rugby Posts
At a first viewing it seems that Wednesbury’s rich Christian heritage is in it’s past but our perception is that the Kingdom of God is here under the surface. The local church leaders are working hard but there is a great need for more Christian mission in this town. There is a great need for those who follow Jesus to serve him and his church here in Wednesbury.
Are you passionate about Christian mission?
Do you enjoy getting stuck into local community life?
If so, why not give some prayer and consideration to making a big call and joining us!? I can guarantee you would make a real difference here. Do get in touch if you want to find out more.
Riots in Wednesbury at the preaching of John Wesley!
I’m really looking forward to this week – just got back from an inspiring and, dare I say it, life changing weekend in Germany and Poland with the YMCA and now it’s just me and Anya at home together for the whole of half-term!
It’s going to be a great week, I have one or two ideas for what to do but I thought I’d ask Anya what she wanted to do. Bless her, her answer was, “You know when we go to the cash and carry….can I ride on top of the trolley!?” I’m really proud of her that she is satisfied with such simple pleasures.
We’re off to go and get an extra ingredient for baking now and I will do my best to give her a wonderful, memorable week. I really believe that some of the best gifts we can give our kids are shared memories together. They can be simple, silly times together but I think they are worth so much more than expensive presents.
We’re also both looking forward to having the luxury of time so that we can do some Bible study and praying together. Such a privilege to be a dad and I really don’t want to take it for granted.
Today is exactly seven years since my very first blog post. ‘nathan the alien’ was originally hosted by Myspace and I certainly have never regretted moving over to WordPress. I guess I’m quite proud I have kept going for seven years. Some months I would barely blog at all but I have kept going. It has helped me process my own thoughts and get out, into the tiny part of the world I can communicate with, just a little bit about what makes me tick and what I think is important.
A highlight definitely has to be when a post about Qatar and Russia being chosen as World Cup hosts made the WordPress homepage and I got hundreds of hits a day for a few days. But on average only a few people come by each day and I don’t mind that. It’s easy to get caught up in it sometimes but blogging is most satisfying when you don’t write to generate views but you just write for the challenge and pleasure of writing. It is nice of course to know that you are read, and I’d love to generate a bit more discussion than I appear to.
This is my 349th post so I have just about hit my initial target 7 years ago of blogging once a week. I hope there’ll be a lot more to come although, as I boldly stated on my first post, I don’t think I have yet achieved title of the best blog in the history of people Sheffield yet. Please keep reading. 🙂
My wife is reading a Middle East travel book that was written in 1945 and belonged to my great-grandfather. It really is special that she is able to do this.
The photograph above is of a map that appears in the book at the start of the section on Palestine. It is fascinating to think that less than 70 years ago there was no nation of Israel on the map.
In light of the impending death of Ariel Sharon I think we should spare some thoughts for the grief and heartache suffered by the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families who, in the decades that followed the publication of this map, were forcibly removed from their homes and have been living in an increasingly strict state of apartheid ever since.
I know I’m a little late but last Saturday was “Small Business Saturday” where consumers up and down the country were encouraged to buy from local businesses. We’ve just moved into Wednesbury in the West Midlands so it is a great opportunity for us to get into the habit of using local businesses. And it’s not actually as hard as you think:
It does take more effort but going round the local shops means you are more in tune with local life because you meet more people and your money is going into the local community. If anybody has got any good ideas or local recommendations then I’d love to hear them!
So on Saturday, as part of the weekend excursion back home to Sheffield, I tackled the Graves Parkrun 5km. I had warned my dad that I wasn’t particularly fit but I was disappointed to see him disappear into the distance as we ran down the first hill towards the ponds. He got about 20 seconds ahead and I never got close.
It doesn’t say much about my physical condition that I was easily beaten by a 64 year old*. However, I think it says a lot more about my dad’s supreme fitness and dedication. To continue to be able to run 5km in 24 minutes is no mean feat once the years start ticking by. Dad trains several times a week and is an example to all of us.
To say I’m proud of him is a bit of an understatement. Not many people can say their dad is an Olympian, but he is so much more than that. He has dedicated his life to helping children and young people achieve their potential – whether it is coaching athletics, teaching or putting on kids clubs for children or for young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds – he is even more committed to serving the community than he is to his own fitness.
Not sure where this picture is from but this is dad back in the day.
* I was also soundly beaten by the latest superstar from my dad’s coaching squad – 12 year old Ana Garcia who ran the tough 5km course in just 20 minutes! She was 6th in the whole field and first female finisher!
I returned home on Monday night from an incredible fortnight with the Mission Possible team for the YMCA Europe Festival in Prague. It was a wonderful time and when I woke up on Tuesday morning and made my way into work it felt like I was missing a limb.
The one thing that made it so fulfilling was that the entire time with the team seemed to be non-stop worship of God. Whether we were eating, team building, planning, singing, dancing, discussing, acting, preaching, playing, laughing or crying God was in the centre of it all and so it just felt good and right the whole time.
So as I drove to work feeling a definite sense of loss I realised, as amazing as the people were and as much as I am bereaved by the absence of their companionship, it was actually the tangible image of God shining through them that seemed to be slipping away and was causing this sadness.
Of course, God is not fleeting and is still to be found in the slightly more mundane of life. It just takes a little more effort not to be distracted by the less meaningful and to continue living purposefully in the presence of God. I had a beautiful evening with 5 Black Country friends from church last night, again because God was in the middle of what we were doing.
The truth is that Mission Possible continues wherever God is acknowledged and I look forward to endless more Mission Possible experiences on my own, with my own wonderful family, with my lovely colleagues and with my inspiring church.
I still miss my friends though.
There are 3 things that I miss at the moment:
1. Aleksa – when we were worshiping yesterday evening I had my eyes closed for a couple of minutes. Then I opened them to check where Aleksa was. I half expected him to be at my feet with his arms held up waiting for me to pick him up. I really wanted to give him a cuddle.
2. Anya – I would love to just watch her here. There is so much for her to learn from the people here and I know she’d be just going around doing her own thing, picking up information and storing it away for when it would be useful. She’d love the big house we’re in with all it’s nooks and crannies to hide away and I know she’d go down a storm with everyone.
3. Rada – I really miss talking to her. The internet is not great so Skyping attempts have been really frustrating. It’s a long way from the 20p a minute phone calls we used to have to settle for just after we met but that thought doesn’t help. I want to tell Rada all the great things that God is doing and all the details about the people here. More than that I would love her to meet them all she would love it so much with all the languages and cultures and crazy people.
Ah well, I’m having a wonderful time. Enjoying it immensly but missing the family.
nathan the alien 