They'll Know We Are Christians

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

These are the lyrics to one of my favourite songs. It is based on Ephesians 4:4 'We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future." And also John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Love. Such a small word, but one with such huge implications. I don't think I ever really understood what it meant to love. And I'm not even talking Romantic love (or Eros as it is also referred to) I'm talking about Agape Love, God Love. The love Jesus had for his disciples, and the love he showed us and desires us to have. I'm not saying I didn't love before I found God (or God found me for that matter), but I have come to understand what it means to care, to put someone else's well-being before my own.

I have been richly blessed with absolutely amazing people as friends. It is because of these friends that I am where I am today. I know that sounds cliche, but it is true. Do you know what it's like to have someone who believes in you even more than you ever believed in yourself? How about someone who knows who you are- REALLY knows, sometimes actually knows you better than you know yourself and somehow, inexplicably still loves you. Do you know what it's like to hit a point in your life where nothing makes sense and you're not quite sure what the meaning of anything is only to find that in spite of all that there is someone there who can bring some sense of reality and purpose back to you? In truth I can now answer yes.

Look at the song again- We will work with each other, we will work side by side, and we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride. Isn't that great? Seems somehow like we will never need to guard our own dignity or pride when we are side by side with friends, and personally I think that that is exactly how it was always intented to be. So if this is sounding something like a tribute, you're right, because it is. This is a thank you to each and every person who has had an impact in my life, who has loved me in spite of me and who continues to believe- I love you all dearly and thank God for you daily. May the beginning of 2006 signify a new chapter in all our lives and may you see the beginning of your dreams becoming reality.

Happy New Year.


Marcia & Rach


Marcia & Pam


Jen and Katie


Marcia & Rach


Deb & Jani

Scottish Christmas

Well, here I am, back in London after a great week-end away. Sadly, there was no white Christmas, unless you count the fact that the world was frosted white as a white Christmas. (But get this, the plane back from Scotland had to delay it's landing by 10 minutes so they could clear the snow off the runway. Go figure, London gets snow and Scotland doesn't.) Luckily, despite the weather outside, we had a lovely warm Christmas indoors, eating more than any person should lawfully be allowed to eat and keeping busy with all sorts of interesting games like Cranium. Girls RULED at this, naturally, and by the end of the week-end I think we had won about 10 games to none. Hehehe. Ouch. I can't believe that it's all over now, and that 2006 is literally around the corner waiting to pounce on us and bring all that the new year holds. Exciting stuff.


Santa's Little Helper


Christmas Tree


The Gang


Marcia & Ann


Smile For The Camera

The String, The Spoon and The Candle.

So, for those of you not familiar with

The String

The Spoon

The Candle

This is a great game, guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment and giggles when you have a bunch of bored people and are not quite sure what to do with them. (And as it's the season where people are always getting together, chances are you may just find yourself in such a predicament.)

Now, requirements for the game are very simple- one willing individual, one piece of string, one spoon and one candle (please see above definitions for more information). A candle may be a bit drastic, as you're more likely looking for a tea light on a plate or non-flammable surface.

Game Preparation:

1. Place the tea light on a plate on the floor.
2. Tie the one end of the string around the handle of the spoon. (The idea is to create a dangling effect)
3. Proceed to tie the other end of the string around the waist of the willing individual and ensure that the dangling spoon is hanging at the back of the person's knees. It is generally accepted that the bottom end of the spoon should end right in the bend of the knee.
4. Get the individual to stand with one leg on either side of the plate on the floor. (the one with the candle on)
5. Light the candle.

Now the fun can begin. The objective of the game is to put out the candle with the spoon that is dangling around the waist of your willing individual. A few simple rules will ensure a clean game:

• NO HANDS!!!!! For any reason. No hands to hold the string, no hands to steady yourself, NO HANDS!!!!

Ok, so maybe it's just one rule, but it's important.

The person who puts the candle out the fastest is the winner.

Let the games begin!!!!!

Wow, speechless!

So yesterday we had our Christmas services at church, and there is only one way to describe it... WOW!!!! I sat through the morning service with my mouth literally HANGING open. The production was absolutely stunning and the worship team outdid themselves once again. Even more amazing, after lunch we went back for the evening service, SAME STORY. I was just blown away. Probably my favourite part of the whole day was that throughout all the services, all the lights and music and then the Christmas message by J John (who is a great speaker by the way, he had us in stitches!), was that the day had truly captured the real Christmas message. It was all about Jesus and people really saw that. It was a great reminder of the thing we seem to most forget at Christmas- Christ is the gift, without him, there is no Christmas. So this year, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas in the true meaning of the word, and I hope that you recieve the gift of Christmas this year, if you never have before, and if you have then be encouraged and reminded of the cradle and the cross and celebrate his birthday in style!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Selfridges Christmas

Just a really funky picture of a Chrsitmas bauble that shattered as we were decorating. (sorry girls...it was the PINK one...)








You might also like what we've done with the shop. Personally I really like it!

Book Crossing

I received an e-mail from a friend today very excitedly telling me about the art of Book Crossing. This fascinating passtime now even merits an entry in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and it is defined as:

bookcrossing
n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.

I could not believe my eyes- there is a whole community of book-lovers who now live by the code of the '3 Rs', namely Read a good book, Register it on the BookCrossing website (see the link added to the sidebar) where you will receive a unique ID number with which you label the book, and then Release the book into the wild for another person to enjoy. Releasing a book can be done in many ways, it can be given to a friend, 'forgotten' in a coffee shop, donated to charity etc. The possibilities are endless. Then you wait. Wait for someone to find your book. To see the 'tag' you placed on it, and then to log the number in on the website. This way you can keep track of your book and see the fascinating places it goes and all the people that get to read it and enjoy it as much as you did. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?! So now you can share your favourite characters and intimate moments with all the world in a very random and beautiful way. Not to mention the fact that BookCrossing relies very much on Serendipity (one of my favourite words in the whole world) which is defined as:

Serendipity
n. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
see the following link:

Serendipity

Absolutely Fabulous.

Groovy Baby!

A few weeks ago we said goodbye (sniff sniff) to some great friends of ours as they were leaving London to go to South Africa and Australia respectively. As London is a very transcient city, you are never overly surprised when you find out someone is leaving, but it is still something that you very begrudgingly have to accept. We said goodbye to them in the only way we know how: HAVE A PARTY!!!!! (Austin Powers eat your heart out!)
(enter the afro's)

(ooooh...Seventies chic... I think)
Well, let's just say that it was a night we'll remember for a long time!

Dreaming of a White Christmas.

As we all know by now, Christmas in the Northern hemisphere falls in a most bizarre season... Winter. For most Southern Hemispherians (is that even a word?!?!) this is a most unusual concept, and one that takes some getting used to. Funnily enough though, I'm actually quite warming (no pun intended) to the idea of a wintery Christmas. More to the point, a WHITE Christmas! As I am entering winter number 3 (actually, more like settling in, as we were hit hard and fast and EARLY this year) I have still to experience snow on Christmas day...will this be the year? I can't help thinking that it will be, as I will be snugly wrapped up in Livingston, which, for those of us not great at UK geography, is about 15 minutes outside of Edinburgh in beautiful, scenic Scotland. Funnily enough, the idea of subzero temperatures is not as daunting as I though it would be. In fact, it sounds pretty APPEALING at the moment... I know, scary thought! So, perhaps the rumours are true and you do climatize to your environment when you've been there for long enough. Hmmm...gonna have to think about that one.
On Thursday (15th) we are going carol singing in Trafalgar Square, one of London's most well known attractions worldwide for various reasons. It is home to the National Gallery, and Nelson's Column. In the Christmas season, it is also home to a huge Christmas tree (over 25m actually). The tree is a traditional gift from the Norweigian people to commemorate Britain's support of Norway during the 2nd World War. Very interesting. I don't particularly think we'll be wondering about the history lesson behind Trafalgar Square while we're singing, humming or bobbing along to a line up of choirs singing all the old favourite carols though...

For more info, visit the link:

Trafalgar Square

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

So it's almost Christmas and all around the festivities are starting to kick off in full force. London is something of a paradox at this time of year, as you have the dazzling Christmas lights and all around people are bundled up in scarves and woolly hats to keep the chill out. Places like Starbucks and Coffee Republic overflow with bodies trying to warm up with wonderful Christmas variations of coffee and tea while outside clouds of steam arise from the mouths of all the Christmas shoppers. Beautiful lights adorn shop fronts and shopping streets, and places like Harrods and Hamleys are transformed into Winter Wonderlands. For a while you can almost feel the spirits of the city lifting at the prospect of a cheerful holiday... until you step off the pavement and into a shop. Suddenly all Christmas joy evaporates into a dog-eat-dog shopping frenzy with people pushing and shoving to get at the best bargains and gifts, and suddenly Christmas commercialism is as evident as a slap in the face. Forgotten are the quiet traditions and the simplicity of family time and holidays with friends.
And yet, in spite of the growing 'negativity' connected with the yule season, I cannot help but feel a touch of magic in the air. There's something beautiful about a season that is traditionally about togetherness. About sharing laughter and food, about singing carols and about reconciling our differences, even for just a short moment in time. I find it encouraging that we can, indeed, set apart our differences and get along in the view of something that goes beyond us. But mostly, I love the fact that Christmas gives us good reason to be children again! To give in to those playful desires that we tend to suppress for the rest of the year. We can eat and sing and play and eat and sing and play and all of this unashamedly, because, after all, it's Christmas, and Christmas only comes once a year.

Language, Language...Please!

Have you ever wondered at the origin of words? I'm not talking about if it's rooted in Latin or Greek or whatever, but the actual ORIGIN. Take for example the word 'Hello'. I suppose you could say it's a universal greeting, but where did it come from? Did a random person one day try and mumble something to a mate and out popped our now accepted form of speech? Or was there perhaps a panel of Language Judges who considered many options and eventually voted for our winner?
Who knows, maybe it was a toss up between hello and... hmmm... let's see, maybe even Goodbye. So a man walks into a bar and says: "Goodbye, give me a brandy on the rocks."

Who was it who decided that 'a' would be the first letter of the alphabet, or, for that matter, that we would have 26 letters to create a whole language? On that matter, how do we know what 'a' should sound like, maybe what we know as 'a' should actually sound like 'e', or 'l'.

Hmmm... food for thought anyway.