I don't work - ever!

Last week was an extraordinary week in that I was mostly out of Café Forever. On Tuesday mornings Tom works with a group called Ambassadors Football that has started a dad's football team with Cubitt Town Junior School. Although my children attend another nearby school I am a kind of proxy dad to many of the kids at Cubitt Town (maybe poxy). Last year Tom asked me if I wanted to join them for a tournament - they needed a goal keeper. Having never played goal keeper before and having not played football in 30 years I agreed. Needless to say our first tournament wasn't any form of domination by us. However I did save a number of goals and wasn't all that bad. On Thursday we had another tournament and it went really a lot better. We lost 3, drew 3 and won 1. They still allow me to be goalie. It is a lot of fun and I spend most of my time begging for mercy. It is in my mind so far the best cross cultural work I have been involved in - the relationships build really fast and the players are very mixed nationalities and faiths.

Pharoah means 'Great House'

what could this be?

About 6 years ago Alan Black organised a visit to the British Museum to find artifacts that relate to the bible with Day One and I enjoyed it so much that I had booked another visit - on Friday we met up with a man called Ian Cooper who provided the tour. I cannot say how highly I recommend it. Stunning depth to your bible knowledge. He started off by talking about a Frenchman called Layard who was one of the first serious Archaeologists; it seems as though with the advent of evolutionist theory a drive began to search for archaeological evidence to support the bible stories. Layard dug up Nineveh after his bible interest in it. He dug up some huge winged lion bird sculpture things and the interior of his palace walls, carved in stone, the details of the battle for Lachish. He then showed us some sculptures of various pharoahs and gave us some details on them. The one picture is 3 figureheads of one - in all likelihood the one who interacted with Joseph. Big ears and a small mouth indicate somebody who had to do a lot of listening to counsel of others and not a lot of eating - he also had 7 years of famine and 7 years of abundance. We also heard about Hatshepsut who was probably the daughter of Pharoah who 'drew out' Moses from the water. It is a really amazing tour - we even got to see this Gold and Lapis-Lazuli sculpture of an amazing story in the bible, the one where Abraham goes up a mountain to sacrifice his son and finds a ram in a thicket. It is thousands of years old, from Ur of the Chaldeans. A beautiful piece of art and history. Book a tour with them!

A very mild winter, but wet

For those of you who live in North America, and northern USA and some parts of Siberia I send my heartfelt and warmest greetings I can find. I know how long a winter can feel, but this year we have had it good -  a lot of people would with every reason say this was their worst British winter ever as their house was flooded and they ate their Christmas dinner by candlelight, but for us on the Isle of Dogs it has been quite sublime. There where some wet days and lots of winds causing it to rain in our children's bedroom (NB not drip). But we have forgotten that mostly as the weather is exceptional. We have already had a number of BBQ's, particularly one notable one on the beach with Alexandra and Nestla and family. The Belingers have been for their first 2014 visit to Leeds Castle - I am sure we'll do it again and last weekend we visited Paradise Wildlife Park which is really probably the best value for money day out with the kids I have had. I am sure in school holidays the value drops somewhat as I imagine it is flooded. A small group of us- the Peters' and Carpenters joined us, the kids played together so that we could relax and enjoy the sunshine.  We are now looking forward to Easter - the Church will put on the traditional egg hunt in St Johns park nearby on the Saturday and on Sunday there is an Easter brunch in St Johns hall. Tom and others are busy handing out flyers in an attempt to get locals in to hear the story of Jesus' victory over death. Tom likes to make the most of these festivals - an opportunity to invite people to a meal and a message and we hope that people who have questions get answers. A Chinese lady asked me at the girls ballet class how she can get belief. She said that she had a church come to visit her at her parents home in China and that they were all about money, but since moving to UK she has found a culture of Christianity among the residents. Although I find that surprising I addressed her issue. She believed she need to be a believer in order to attend church. I told her that for us you couldn't be further from the truth, that you should come as a person who wants to know more and see if you find it. It is interesting - so often I have an idea of how people think and perceive things, I have an idea of what they know - but then I find I am faaaarrrr away. PP4US

Post BBQ beach antics A Fire engine with slide at Paradise Park