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!!

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.

Formula One is known as the height of glamour in Motorsport, but the World Series by Renault had a little touch of it yesterday and I’m not just talking about the pit girls marking the grid positions. No of all people I bumped into, whilst waiting for an interview was Chris Eubanks. Someone my dad thought was a footballer when I spoke to him on the ‘phone!

I managed to squeeze an interview in yesterday with Renault 3.5 driver James Walker, who actually finished the race in fourth. However 3rd was my interview target for today, Oliver Turvey. So he made the podium for the race and then also got the top step as he was also the highest finishing rookie. So interviewing him will certainly be interesting! I’m looking forward to another good day.

At the same time as I was relaxing after a busy day yesterday, Greg was busy at the Eden Session Kasabian concert. Look for updates from both events on www.soteriamag.co.uk.

Tags: Chris Eubanks, James Walker, renault, World Series

OK so I haven’t updated this blog since I got home from Bracknell. Needless to say this is because I have partly been catching up on work that needed doing and partly because I have been creating new work for myself. D’oh!

It was exceptionally hot on moving day to bring my Sister’s stuff from Bracknell back to Cornwall, and I’m still not quite sure how we managed to get everything done in time – there was mountains of boxes, at least that’s what it seemed like to me. Between the four of us we managed to load the lorry with the furniture and boxes and all the other stuff that needed removing and left just about lunchtime, although we had been for an early lunch at the local KFC! I came down with dad in the lorry, leaving Mum and Sis to clean and then follow us down a bit later. We made good time, it was very hot and the window was down all the way, meaning I got Van passenger’s arm. Windburn and Sunburn and now that is peeling, not an attractive look!

Since then I have had shows to go to, another trip to organise and I have managed to redesign the Soteria website (www.soteriamag.co.uk), and also had meetings about redesigning the Redruth Baptist Church website (www.redruthbaptist.org.uk). I spent Monday helping Dad and trying to catch up on some review and then until Thursday I had the time to work on Soteria.

Thursday the 4th June was Royal Cornwall Show, a huge show in Wadebridge which Greg and I attended. It was very nice, with lunch provided in the press office by Royal Mail for members of the fourth estate! We went around many of the stalls looking at ideas for youth lifestyle for future issues of the magazine or website features. With this year being the celebration of 200 years of Darwin it was unsurprising that both the Seventh Day Adventists and a group of organisations both had displays on Creation and Evolution, promoting the idea of a literal creation. While I agree with the Biblical understanding of Creation in six literal days, I have to confess that more often than not, it’s a red herring for most people. However I couldn’t complain because when it came to Murdoch Day on Saturday our church was running a stall promoting exactly the same thing.

I think all the stalls, including our own, missed the obvious links with todays culture as well! If I were planning a stall I would want to get to the idea of “why does it matter to me?” The question is are you a random chance or are you a being planned by God with a purpose? If you are the first one then nothing I say will matter, but if God created you then what is the purpose of humans, what is the purpose of me. My way in of choice at the moment would be something like Wolverine and the X-Men, mutants, the next stage of evolution – or actually characters created by Stan Lee and others with a specific purpose?

I have to admit that our stall at Redruth’s Murdoch day was considerably better than those I saw up at Royal Cornwall! However it’s not a competition and each were being faithful to God using the gifts that they were given and should be commended. The other

stalls that represented Christianity at Royal Cornwall was a glorified Tea Tent for Churches Together and the Christian Surfers were also out talking to people and promoting the Creation Festival which will be held at Royal Cornwall Showground (7-13th August for further details see www.creationfest.org.uk)

Murdoch Day was very busy with the stall in town, which was well manned, and selling coffee, tea, cakes and patchwork fabrics in the church. I naturally gravitated towards the food and drink, but I was not there to eat, instead I chatted with people as they came and had their tea and coffee, making sure people felt welcome, and where possible sharing the message of Jesus with them!

So yeah it’s been a little on the busy side. I need to get some pictures up on the website of all this stuff, so hopefully that will be part of my job tomorrow, as long as I get some peace from Saul, my youngest boy, who is currently teething!

Tags: Creation, Darwin, Evolution, God, Gospel, Jesus, Journal, Magazine, Murdoch Day, Website

This is the question that faced me last Saturday (the 17th for people who are counting) at around 9:40 at night. We had a nice quiet evening at that point with some friends around for the afternoon and evening, and we had just completed a game of Uno (what else?). The phone rang and it was my sister Helen calling from Mum and Dad’s house where she was meant to be dog sitting from Tuesday onward, however she had arrived a few days early. It was during this phonecall that the above question was proposed.

“When?” I asked, “Now” came the reply, “well in about 10 minutes!” Turns out that Helen had left some medicine she desperately needed back at home in the hallway, although she thought it might still be in the driveway! Whoops! So I went for a trip to Bracknell, it seems a nice enough place but I only saw it in the dark as we arrived there at about 2am. I had about 3 hours sleep on Helen’s settee which had a fine layer of cat hair all over it, as I had displaced her 2 cats for the night, which even though I am not allergic to cats left me sneezing and my eyes watering! Everytime I sneezed the lounge door rattled, I didn’t know I had Superman sneezes!

When Helen finally awoke, she had some breakfast, and we headed to the church that she is trying out EastHampstead Baptist Church, which seemed quite nice. I met a few people there and never one to miss an opportunity I took some Soteria Magazines with me, just in case they had some young people there, and they did! I had a chat with the Pastor and the youth leader. It was a different service, but quite nice and it was relatively short which is good when you are surviving on only 3 hours sleep!

Then we drove home. This trip was fairly uneventful apart from the minor case of a temporarily lost wallet. However despite the fact that I was back by 6:30 that evening (we stopped at ASDA nears Cribbs Causeway) I have felt on my back foot for most of the week. Probably because of catching up on sleep!

Despite feeling like that I decided that it was time to give the Soteria website a bit of a facelift. I think we’ve hit on a nice new look that will give us a lot of balance between brighter colours and our existing layout. I managed to get a few reviews together and some new items listed to be reviewed, although these piles never seem to diminish much.

Work has also begun on the next issue of Soteria which should be out in early March…It should be a good one! Watch this space…