Callie’s Baptism

I am very pleased that my seven year old daughter Callie was baptised on Saturday. I captured the moment on this shaky video with my little camera.

Jess produced a much better video that she has put on facebook here and I have made some photos available here.

Some of you may be thinking that seven is much too young for a believer's baptism like this but Callie has clearly made her own decision to follow Jesus. She had been asking about baptism for some time. We talked with Steve and Helen who are leaders in our church and they very responded positively. In fact they were keen to get on with it. So we arranged a mutually convenient date on a Saturday afternoon so that members of our family could come and be part of the celebration. 

We believe in baptism by full immersion. But our church doesn’t have a building that is big enough for us all to meet in never mind one with a baptismal pool. For our meetings we usually hire a local community centre or gather in each other's homes. So whenever we want to baptise people we have to think carefully about how to do it. In the past we have borrowed other church’s facilities or hired a swimming pool. This time Steve and Helen offered to host Callie’s baptism at their home using their inflatable pool in their back garden. They have baptised adults in that pool before so they knew it would be big enough to baptise Callie in.

It was a great time with some of the church, some of our family and even neighbours all piled into Steve and Helen’s home. When the pool was ready we went out into the garden. We didn’t feel there was any need to make it into a service as such, so there wasn’t singing or anything like that. Steve just explained about baptism in literally two or three minutes. It was encouraging to hear Callie shouting her agreement: ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ We had decided that Helen, along with my wife Nettes, would do the honours. So they knelt down in the pool with Callie and immersed her with everyone looking on.

A big thank you to all who took part including my niece Hannah on towel duty and of course Danni Smith who made this cake.

I would best describe Danni as a cake artist. As you can see the cake also captured the moment. Thank you Jess for arranging this; it’s not something we would have considered. The cake made a great centre piece for our little buffet. As well as food we provided soft drinks for the children and bottles of wine for the adults.

Callie was also blessed with a number of presents. We had bought her a Bible but other people gave her cards and presents too including this wonderful bracelet that tells the story of Jesus.


Christ's Story Beaded Bracelet

 

It was great to finish the afternoon chilling with Steve and Helen in the conservatory with an incense stick burning.

Phew! What a day!

Celebrating The Royal Wedding

On Friday Britain has a day off for the Royal Wedding and though many might be cynical of the media hype most are grateful of the holiday and an excuse to party.

For me the whole affair was rather poignant, as the day before was something of a bad news day: two friends in our church both lost loved ones at tragically young ages. But still as my parents used to say ‘life must go on’.



Asbo Jesus 1009

One project that we are involved in our community is our local In Bloom and we had a launch party for it on that afternoon. There were a couple of tents out and Nettes ran a cake decorating stall. Their was some seed planting, balloon modelling, face-painting but the aim was to let people know about our local In Bloom later this year.

Of course this wasn’t the only party on the day. Outside Ladywood Health & Community Centre – the venue our church hires for its meetings – there were some tents, stalls and also bouncy castle. 

Round the back in the Ledbury Centre - our little church building – the folks in the Drop In where glad to find somewhere that they could chill out away from the wedding celebrations. The Drop In developed out of our ministry to the homeless and some homeless guys who regularly come to the Drop In were sifting through some clothes that had been donated while others were playing snooker.

Just down the road in the Methodist Church, the local Christian charity that we have ties with, Karis Neighbour Scheme, were having their party.

Karis Neighbour Scheme

Karis do a lot of work serving people in the community generally being good neighbours. This includes work with many refugee and asylum seeker families and it was good to see some of them there.

It was really glad that I popped in to get this picture of Roo as I also saw Phillipa from Karis’s Grow Well Programme - a project that encourages health through the therapeutic effects of gardening and making contact with the natural environment. It was fortunate that she found me as she had lots of free sun flower seeds for me to take to our In Bloom launch but couldn’t find us.

For us the celebrations didn’t finish on the Friday. On Saturday a lot of us from our church piled down to Jess’s to party in the evening with drinks and nibbles.

Then on Sunday our church had a Royal Tea Party for our next Family Church – our alternative style service with fun activities for all the family. We were making bunting, table decorations and colouring in a picture of a royal banquet while discussing the meaning of Jesus parable of the wedding banquet and how God invites us to be part of his kingdom. We even sung ‘I cannot come to the banquet’ before sitting down to our feast. 

And finally, today Alex and Ellen a couple from our church are getting married and I love this description of them as ‘kingdom royalty… surrounded and supported by God's royal priesthood’, which is not only apt for this weekend but also reminds us of the wonderful truths of the Kingdom of God. A pity I forgot to charge the camera for that one. Oh well - never mind!

Phew! What a weekend! I can identify with the verger in this viral video:

Reservoir Mural

reservoir mural
Originally uploaded by dave & nettes.

As part of Ladywood Arts Trail along with local residents we painted a mural on the wall of the Tower Ballroom on Edgbaston Reservoir. It was really good to get involved with this initiative. Thanks to Phillipa Allenby from Springs To Life and the All Being Well team at Karis Neighbour Scheme.

Our Messy Church is called Family Church

Over August our church has doing other things such as barbecues rather than our usual Sunday gatherings. One Saturday two or three weeks ago and we did our own version of Messy Church called Family Church. "Centred around creativity, hospitality and celebration" our aim was, like Messy Church, "...to help other families that might not have any church connection to discover the fun of following Jesus together."

We had a number of activities including craft, cake decoration, street dance, sports and a spot of bike maintenance. We told the story of Zacchaeus and a number of the children – including our little daughter Callie - sung ‘I am a friend of God’. Finally we all had a meal together. There lots of new people joined us and it was a really good time.

More photos on facebook here.

Messy Fiesta

On Saturday my wife Nettes and Simon - a friend of ours from our church - went to Messy Fiesta - a conference all about Messy Church - a technique that took off a few years ago when it was featured on a DVD by Fresh Expressions. Both Nettes and Simon came back very enthusiastic about beginning to do something like this with the families of the kids that come to our kids club.

Today Nettes took Callie and a couple of Callie’s friends from church to Kidz Aloud who run their own mix of Messy Church and Godly Play. A good time was had by all.

These are brilliant ideas for kids and families. If they are new to you please check out the links above and Barnabas in Churches for more details.

Callie Enjoyed Godly Play Last Sunday

On Sunday afternoon I took my little daughter Callie to Kidz Aloud – a kid’s club/children’s church that runs once a month at Carr’s Lane Christian Centre. They alternate between Godly Play and their own form of story telling, building props and acting out the story with a rap. This time they were doing Godly Play.

Godly Play is a very specific way of telling Bible stories based on the Montessori teaching method. The stories are tightly scripted with simple carefully crafted props. This time we heard the story of Moses bringing the people of God out of captivity in Egypt.

After some starter activities we queued up to go into another room for the story. Callie helped carry the Kidz Aloud cloth that holds our badges as we process in. All the children then sat down quietly on cushions and listen to the story teller. (I wonder if by having in the other room explains why the children behave so well?)

The story teller told used a simple sand tray with wooden figures and two pieces of blue cloth to represent the Red Sea. She then led a discussion about the story with some standard question which worked well. We could then respond to the story using different forms of art materials. Callie loved this.

To conclude we had the ‘feast’ a simple meal of grapes & juice but this time also with also some matzo as we had been talking about Passover. Callie was very good helping serve the feast as well as carrying the cloth out at the very end.

Callie thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Could Godly Play be something we could do at our little Sunday school? I wonder.

Birmingham Artsfest 2009

Last weekend we went to look around this year's Artsfest.

On Saturday we had some of Nettes' family with us who took part in the record breaking bhangra dancing. While they were doing that I took Callie to see a a Rainforest Symphony a taster for an interactive children's play by the Play House about the rainforest at the REP. There was plenty to see as we wandered around the stalls and exhibitions and caught two or three of the bands. We dropped in on the Barbar Institute of Fine Arts doing their usual story telling session based around a painting.

On Sunday Callie and I ventured into the city centre again exploring some of artsfest again as we walked over to Kidz Aloud in Carrs Lane Church Centre that happened to be on the same weekend.

I thoroughly enjoy this weekend. Artsfest has now become a regular tradition.

The Lord’s Prayer at Celebration

Last weekend I went to the celebration event of our group of churches. Nettes & I volunteered to help with the 7-10s and so were with them most of the time. Our focus was producing a sort of frieze on large sheets of paper consisting of the words of the Lord’s Prayer that the kids decorated - in the tradition of the illuminated writing of the monks, I suppose, but using felts and glitter instead.

The kids recieved a variety of teaching methods moving round different activities. So when they came to us we were chatting about what the words meant to them or what they had learnt through the other activities as they decorated the letters. One activity I liked was when the children were given a prayer cube that they used both as a learning aid and then to pray with. And they could take these home at the end.

In the final meeting the kids presented what they had learnt and we held up the frieze and to finish off everyone at the celebration reciting the Lord’s Prayer with us.

My Little Daughter Callie

On Saturday I will be 47 and next week Callie will be six.

For many years I never expected to have a child nor had any desire to have one. In my late thirties I was very content being single and was rapidly coming to the conclusion that God wanted me to stay that way. But then I met Nettes and it wasn't long before Callie was born. God gave me Callie even though I didn’t ask for her. I never expected her to bring me such joy.

Callie also teaches me so much. I am learning to appreciate all my own parents did for me. Being a dad gives me glimpses of what it means that God is our father. And I am still learning how to communicate with Callie at her stage of development. I often say ‘Do you want to…?’ rather than just tell her to do things expecting her to do them ‘because I say so’. I expect her to think things through herself too much. I talk to her like she’s sixteen and easily forget that she isn’t even six yet.

I feel so privileged that God has entrusted her to me.

Kidz Aloud

This afternoon I went with Callie to try out Kidz Aloud a children’s club which runs once a month at Carr’s Lane Christian Centre. They alternate between Godly Play which is fairly quiet and other creative activities which tend to be noisier. We’ve been to Godly Play at Greenbelt before and enjoyed it.

Today they retold the story of Jesus healing the paralysed man by stuffing some old clothes and putting them on a cardboard stretcher and lowering them from the balcony. It was a noisy one! Callie enjoyed it and is looking forward to going again. I'm keen to see some of the Godly Play. But next month they have a family fun day and then they’re not on again until September.

Spring Harvest

For a few days over the Easter weekend we went to Spring Harvest at Butlins in Minehead. We were pleased that there was plenty for our little daughter Callie. We could drop her off in her own sessions for three hours each morning. The Butlin’s activities were also open to us such as a fairground, swimming pool, climbing frames, etc. So it was just as much a holiday as a conference. But still I was hoping for a little more than just 'lively' worship and 'inspiring' sermons in the meetings.

In the mornings we chose the Encounter Bible Studies. Russ Parker who is part of the Northumbria Community had some interesting stories to tell about how God had spoken to him and used him in various settings. I was glad that the preaching was accompanied by PowerPoint and short videos often featuring Christian music and compilations of scenes from movies or slides. Russ also had a couple of violinists who played for us and led us in songs and hymns. And there was a short time for group work and feedback.

After a break there was a choice of sessions that unpacked the study guide on the theme of being an apprentice of Jesus. I went to a couple of these sessions and found that it was good to have the talks broken up with activities again. But I found all these teaching sessions a bit too much really. So one morning I went to the chapel to be quiet, read the Bible and pray in the first session. I also found the Prayer House, which for me was the best find of the week. For a couple of the second sessions I was in there praying at the various prayer stations, writing on the prayer wall and relaxing in God’s presence.

In the afternoons I went to the art workshops and spend some time with Callie taking her on the dodgems, adventure golf and soft play area as well as taking her to a multi-sensory worship workshop. My niece Hannah had also found the Prayer House and recommended going to one of their meditations while Nettes watched Callie. I discovered that this was really an alternative worship service – with video, prayers and responses and a worship activity. If I was to go to Spring Harvest again I would do one of these every day.

We went half board so we had dinner and breakfast at the Butlins' diner. They were excellent for your traditional British meat and two veg. But there was not so much choice on the veggie options, healthy options or international cuisine all of which I tend to prefer. So I usually joined the queue for the salad bar. But the 'all you can eat' policy meant that we always had plenty.

In the evenings I took turns with Nettes to be with Callie in her session and put her to bed - I found it very special to take the bread and wine with Callie one evening. But this meant that I only got a couple of full evenings out as the first day we were just settling in. One evening I spent in the Encounter Café that ran as an alternative to the main celebration. There was music, audience interaction, chat, games and a five minute preach as well as making these plasticine models! The other evening I went to the Readings and Reflections - another service with Russ Parker. I also went to see Sue Rinaldi and comedian Joe Fisher. But these gigs didn’t start until 10:30 so this gave me a couple of hours in the Sun and Moon where I could quietly read my study guide with a pint.

All this meant there was one venue we had not gone to when it came to the last day – the Big Top. I did see something of it the night before on our chalet TV. During the meeting two artists who I knew from the art workshops were painting a huge picture at the back of the stage. And anyone could come up and do some art beside the stage. So on the last morning it was the Big Top. I looked around the artwork that was there. But apart from the art I was not as impressed with this venue as much as the others I had seen - especially the Prayer House. There were some familiar contemporary worship songs. And finally we were aptly sent off with a sermon on ‘Go!’

Spring Harvest this year was probably a one off for us - although next year’s does look interesting. The title is ‘Different Eyes - Living Distinctly in a Time of Uncertainty’. We were grabbed by the themes of social justice and ethical issues such as fair trade that are going to be covered. Perhaps we should have waited a year?

Build a Bear

Saturday I took Callie to a party at the Build-a-Bear Workshop. After games and making wishes on little hearts to go in the bears our party host stuffed the bears and the children promised to look after them. No hard sell of the clothes you could purchase but perhaps that was because we went straight on to Pizza Hut. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Time with Callie

This summer I’m spending some time with my little daughter Callie.

Last week my wife Nettes was away all week on a summer school with the Open University working on her psychology project so I had Callie 24-7. Amazingly I managed to keep on top of the housework and take Callie out on a day trip to Weston-Super-Mare with our local Sure Start. We also got out a couple of days to have a meal either at Sure Start or at our Community Centre. I don’t know how I managed it but I also taught Sunday school and led the discussion in the house-group with people coming round for a meal before hand. Interestingly we were talking about parenting what we learn from our children. By Friday I was exhausted.

Nettes is now back so she can take Callie some of the time over rest of the summer. But she is now busy looking for a job to help support herself while she does her NVQ next year. So I am still seeing plenty of Callie. We’ve had some good walks down the canal into the city centre. Both Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Ikon Gallery run time for children to draw or paint as well as look round the exhibitions so we’ve visited both of those and may go back again next week.

It’s really good being with Callie but it can get tiring so I’m really pleased that she’s booked into a summer play scheme for the following week.

A Day at the Museum

We’ve now broken up for the Easter so I’m off college and Callie is off school. And today the men arrived to install our solar panels. So to get Callie out of the house we went to the Museum and Art Gallery. We walked into the city centre down the canal at the end of our road. After changing Callie’s books at the library we crossed the square into the museum…

There is a wonderful three dimensional optical illusion in its foyer that I loved. Up the stairs we met the centre-piece of the whole museum: an impressive sculpture of the fallen angel Lucifer based on Paradise Lost. On our way to and from the Edwardian Tea Rooms for lunch we looked at an interactive Mandela in the Buddha rooms and some wonderful stain glass windows. We spent hours exploring the museum looking at exhibitions of candlesticks, chalices, jewellery etc. as well as exploring the galleries. I was struck by how much religion and especially Christianity is a theme in art – even in some contemporary art. We stumbled across a pair of storytellers telling the story of Ezekiel in front of a painting of the Valley of Dry Bones. Callie sat at the front enthralled for about quarter of an hour. In the archaeology section we found a game of Nine Men’s Morris to play. There were some other children’s activities including some dressing up but Callie’s favourite was making an Easter card.

After our long walk home we are both very tired.

Children's Work Conference

Yesterday, Nettes and I drove down to Dunstable for a Children’s Workers Conference which asked some hard hitting questions like ‘Have you read your church’s child protection policy?’ and ‘How does your church engage the children in worship while they are in the main meeting?’

Guest speaker John Hardwick stressed the value of keeping families together on Sunday. I thought that he did a good job pointing out an important key getting all ages involved: story-telling. Stories can work on many levels teaching deep principles and keeping us entertained at the same time. He encouraged us to think of creative ways to tell Bible stories, such as imagining a story from many perspectives, as well as including other creative elements such as hot-spot interviews, action memory verses and even BSL signing. He also suggested having a planning team for All Age Services that included all ages i.e. at least one child.

Sam Donohue from Viz-a-viz talked about his work doing school assembles, RE lessons and after-school clubs. I liked the way that he explained the importance of not coming over too dogmatic by having class discussions and prefixing your statements with ‘I believe....’ and ‘Some Christians think....’ etc. I thought this was a good point for generally for chatting with your friends too. Interestingly he thought that using items that the church finds cringe-worthy and hackneyed, like drama sketches and puppets, could work well in mission work with kids who are seeing them for the first time.

A good day albeit tiring.