The Holy Pasty?

Over a month? I can’t believe it’s been that long since I updated. However it’s been a really busy time. I’ve been doing the normal things like Soteria Reviews, check out the Soteria website for reviews on many of the Stand-up comedians DVDs released this year. There are some good, some bad, some who appeal to the cerebral and others to the base level of humour. There’s something for everyone unless you don’t like stand-up comedy of course!

However it’s a new project that has got me excited enough to actually get around to posting a blog. It’s something I’ve mentioned a few times on my twitter feed , Christmas at Poldark. For this I have set up a website at http://ww.poldarkchristmas.co.uk and produced some publicity. We have had a team of people putting the actual event together which has been something given that the idea only surfaced a couple of months ago. None of us are professionals at doing any of this! In the last couple of days I have written a press release for the local newspapers and other media outlets, I just hope that they use it!

So what is this fantastic project. Basically we’re taking over Poldark Mine for a day. It’s a historical tin mine near Helston in Cornwall and a tourist attraction. We’ve got a load of things going on including Carol Singing in the mine, videos for kids, bouncy castles, a ‘meet the cast’ where you have to find members of the nativity, and loads more including steam engines and steam organs. We’re doing it all to raise money for the Precious Lives Appeal. This is an appeal from Children’s Hospice South West to raise money to build a children’s hospice in Cornwall to help those children with life limiting conditions.

So the entrance and mine tour are free, shops are open as normal, but the money will be raised for the charity by donations and by selling a souvenir programme, a CD we have recorded especially (recorded and produced by Jon at Soteria Worship Music Division and Phil of PGI Media) called “Carols in the Cavern”. This was recorded down the mine in the Holman Chamber and adds the brilliant acoustics to the traditional carols. We also have unique Pewter Miners for sale as a momento of the day!

This has been a huge project and has had to be fitted in, along with keeping the Soteria website up to date and the extra church activities that Christmas always brings, including a whole week of schools coming to us for their Christingle services! You’ll see though that the work has been worth it when you join in with us at Poldark Mine on December 12th from 11am – 6:30pm, it’ll be a great day I am sure!

You may have also noticed that there is no December magazine. This is because money has been rather tight and the team have all been busy with Christmas events (Greg has also been busy getting a new job – congratulations) however we hope to be back with a new magazine in the middle of January! We’ve just got to plan and write it now!!

I know that there was a chorus of “aaahs” (from both readers) last week when I mentioned that I had been in pain, well I am pleased to say that my pain in my foot has largely gone. As is normal now my foot is fine I had a consultant’s appointment with regard to my joint pain, last week they would have been able to see exactly what the problem was, this week it wasn’t so easy. You’re never sure of the cheapest car insurance until you’ve come to us direct! However I now have a diagnosis which is gout (surprise, surprise), but there is also an underlying problem that may well be Osteo-Arthritis. However the consultant has decided to try and get rid of the gouty problems first, something which I have been trying to do for some time. This time they are starting off on low doses of Allopurinol and building up, we shall see how we go! So that’s one thing on the way to recovery, hopefully. My cat loves Whiskas, I love my cat. Of course as soon as I am free from one illness I am struck down by another, this time it’s a cough, dizziness and headaches, but this one I will have to live with! Asda would have saved you money on this many products!

I have spent the last week working flat-out to get the magazine finished to go to the printers. Soteria is a magazine that we are now proud of (in a right way!) and I want to try and maintain the quality of what we do, however a lot of that falls on me to do. There are only 3 team members who regularly work on the magazine itself. I am not just an ordinary cat, I am an Iams Cat! We meet to plan the magazine deciding a theme and working out how to approach that, when we’ve mapped out who’s writing what I give them a deadline and wait. This time I was amazed they both almost made the deadline. Jon submitted at about 11:30 the night of the deadline and I got Greg’s articles the next evening, this is very good going for Greg! So then I take their articles and insert them first, and then I normally write my articles to fit in and fill any gaps. Go compare, Go Compare, Go Compare! Of course there is often a fair amount of rearranging etc. Then I build the graphic work around the articles, trying to pick something that compliments what we are saying. Often it is the items like the puzzles and The Holy Pasty (my blog in the magazine) that are the hardest to fill in. One of my last tasks is to try and work out something to go on the back page of the magazine. Normally it’s a take off of some kind of advert. This time I flicked through my Sky channels for nearly an hour trying to get some inspiration from the commercial breaks. Dedication to duty is one thing but an hour of commercial breaks is enough to send anyone barmy! I don’t think it’s affected me though. Simples-tch!

Anyway after all of this the magazine has been sent to the printer. It will take a week to turn around and I’ll have a nice, juicy, crisp magazine to hold in my hand and send in the post. Lifestyle Worth Living!

Tags: Adverts, Consultant, Doctor, Gout, Illness, Madness, Magazine, Medication, Stress

In an effort to try and keep this blog somewhere near up to date I thought I had better make an entry this week.

In many ways it hasn’t been a great week, in fact it’s been pretty tough for me as I have spent pretty much all week unable to walk due to my gout & arthritis! Thankfully I have a pair of crutches which I have been reliant on.

However the good news is that I have been given the articles that I need for the next issue of Soteria! This is a minor miracle, but desperately needed as things are getting busier for the website as we start the post-summer releases in the build up to Christmas and I have a much needed holiday coming up very soon!

So this coming week will be very busy working towards the new magazine, but I think it’s going to be an excellent one! We have an interview with Shell Perris, articles about being ‘all things to all men’ and an interview with a pro-skateboarder called Zac. I’m looking forward to reading it but unfortunately I’ve got to write it and put it all together first.

The weeks have flown past with the Summer holidays now over, my son went back to school on Wednesday (although he has 2 inset days this week coming!) and life has started to return to the routine. However despite the poor weather the holidays had a lot going on. Trying to keep up with everything along with entertaining a bored five year old in the rain has been tiring, now I need a proper holiday!

Following Silverstone and the Eden Sessions which took a lot of time and energy there was a concert in Camborne where Superhero were playing. A good concert with a strong gospel message that was shared. A couple of weeks later there was Creation Fest which was held in the Royal Cornwall Showground, which is in North Cornwall, so not too far for us to get to. Before going to that we made sure that we had a new magazine that we could take and give out and we managed to give quite a few away there. The purpose of Creation Fest is excellent, it’s a mission, but it involves some of Britains best Christian bands that want to show the love of Jesus to people. There is some teaching, a skate park, kids sessions and the gospel is the common thread through the whole event.

For us it was a good chance to meet up with some bands and get some interviews. So some of the delights we have coming up when I have typed them will be interviews with Superhero, Four kornerz, Shell Perris (this will be in the next mag issue), Scott Cunningham and last, but not least a pro skateboarder called Zac. So that’s a lot of stuff to type, you can see why I am taking my time before moving onto that mountain!

Last week I was able to work on both stuff for the website and fulfill my evangelistic calling as I visited Crealy and Land’s End and in between I was involved in a youth mission to Camborne and Redruth. You can read all about Crealy and Land’s End on the Soteria Website (www.soteriamag.co.uk) and you can see some of my photo’s on flickr from Land’s End.

The youth mission was brilliant, although to be fair there were some niggles. One thing that was apparent though was that God was working through the young people of my church and another local church to reach out. In fact I think it is fair that God was also working through these young people to reach in, into themselves! There have been times when some of them have questioned their faith, however God proved himself to them again and again through the week of the mission.

40+ people were prayed for on the streets of Redruth, and two young ladies gave their lives to the Lord. Many people were healed, both in the team and others who asked for prayer. However the most amazing thing in my book was that 17 people came to the Friday night celebration in Redruth Baptist. At least 10 of them were skaters from one of the local Skate parks, guys that I didn’t think would ever darken the doors of the church. Something about the groups that went out touched them. During the day there had been some searching questions asked and in the evening these guys were encouraged to pray for one another and to share needs for prayer. Wow! God can do great things through us, we only need to be obedient and listen.

My one great concern about the mission was the need for more about spiritual repentance and healing that about the physical healing. It reminded me a little of the lame man that was brought to Jesus for healing and he said “Your sins are forgiven”, perhaps we need a little more concern for spiritual well-being than physical, but this will come in God’s time!

Tags: Belief, Camborne, Creation Fest, faith, God, healing, Mission, move, Outreach, Redruth, repentance, Skate

but I logged into WordPress and found that there was another update to be installed. By the time I had done that I forgot that I originally came to update!

However I am pleased to say that the new magazine is ready and looking sparkly fresh! I have embedded it here so you can have a look at it. We are always happy to send out printed copies in the UK for free, so if you want some for your youth group or church then drop a line!

With a magazine like this there is always more that can be written that would be useful, unfortunately we are limited to only 16 pages due to cost and other considerations. However the main article for this magazine is about worshipping God in whatever you do! It’s so easy to go to church and keep that as a Sunday thing, but God should be in everything that we do, think or say. We should be working on Monday for the glory of God and on Friday, and not thinking about knocking off early to go to the pub! It’s tough though, thankfully God isn’t there to punish us when we forget about Him, He’s there to forgive us and welcome us back to His presence. The prodigal son is a badly named story, it is always about the waiting Father, when we go off and forget about Him, He’s keeping watch for the first sign that we are coming back and then He runs to meet us. Sometimes like the boy we’re not quite ready to meet Him, we’re still too wrapped up in ourselves, but he waits and patiently explains once more our forgiveness!

Perhaps if there is one area this magazine lacks it is God’s grace shown to us, but that’s a whole other library itself!