Tim Abbott

The influence of TV

The all pervasive influence of TV has claimed another victim.

My 19 year old beer connoisseur son has been watching back to back episodes of Frasier and has thus been inspired to start drinking sherry. As a responsible father I have felt it necessary to help him in his research.

We're back!

Feluccas at sunset, originally uploaded by timabbott.

Diana and I are back from a holiday in Egypt, staying in Luxor and managing a two day trip to Cairo to meet friends.
Here are some of the things people said to us on the streets of Luxor. I'll leave you to work out how much you believe them!

"Welcome to Alaska"
"You walk like an Egyptian"
"Where are you from?" "England" "I'm from Scotland!"
"I have friends in London / Birmingham / Liverpool / Manchester"
"My girlfriend / wife is English"
"Can I show you the market; it's only open today"

As ever, there are a load of photos on Flickr

Saint Helena, and a wedding anniversary

Today is the feast day of Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, who, on becoming Emperor, declared Rome a Christian city. Saint Helena is the patron saint of Colchester, so we marked the day with a morning communion service at the site of what is believed to be the earliest church building in Britain (320AD). After 1600 years, the church site is now bordered by a new police station and a roundabout.
Leaders from over 30 churches gathered in the morning sunshine, and we worshipped, prayed and shared bread and wine against a background of traffic noise and the siren of a police car weaving through rush hour traffic.
I'm glad to be a part of these things, but I sometimes wonder what they say to the watching world, especially in such a public place with people walking past on their way into town, police coming and going and drivers and passengers catching a glance on their way past.
Later I learned that when staff came to collect a man from the cells to take him to court they found him in tears. The sound of worship songs being sung outside had profoundly moved him and brought back past memories.

Diana and I were there partly because it seemed like an appropriately odd way to start the day of our 25th wedding anniversary! We spent the evening at a fabulous restaurant with friends and one of our sons, Dan, who paid the great sacrifice of missing the Man U / Chelsea Champions League match, though at the end of the meal he and a couple of friends popped into a local pub to watch the end of the match in extra time - he's a Man U supporter, so a good result.

Psalm Drummers in Colchester

Last  night was the first gathering of Psalm Drummers here in Colchester. It was organised by Dan and Michelle and attracted 43 drummers from all over the area.

Terl Bryant, the man behind Psalm Drummers, led the evening, getting everyone there involved in an improv piece of massed percussion. With over 30 djembi's and Dan on his floor tom the sound was awesome and Terl directed things through a series of different rhythms and dynamics to create what can only be described as worship. The evening included an overview of the role of drums in worship and the vision for Psalm Drummers and went into a time of percussion as intercession. Finally, Terl and his team prayed for Dan and Michelle as they carry this group forward and develop this remarkable ministry in the Colchester area.

As well as being a great evening, it was a bit of a "proud dad" moment for me seeing Dan in such a clear leadership role, following the calling that's on his life and inspiring so many others.

Summer break

The early summer holiday was marked by the now traditional visit of a bouncy castle and about 30 friends to celebrate Dan's birthday. A truly fab night.



However, over a week later the bouncy castle is still with us (we're sorting it) and looking very deflated, something of a metaphor for how I've been feeling for the last couple of weeks. Nothing in particular, just exhausted I think. So inspiration for deep thought, blogging or other creative activities has been in very short supply and I've simply been glad of the opportunity to do less.

There's some good stuff about to happen this autumn but for now this is just a quick mid-holiday post to prove I'm still here and to pop up unexpectedly in your RSS reader. And while I'm about it, I thought it's time for a new theme, including reverting to a fixed width layout. A bit of a change is always nice...!

Back soon.

Half term

It's half term, so Dan and I are off to Wales for three days.
Back late Friday night, then off to Tom's Superhero party. Not sure what to go as... one has to be careful about revealing one's superpowers...
Promotional Church visits Sunday morning and evening.

Anniversaries

Today is our wedding anniversary (24 years!!), so Diana and I went out for a meal together at The Lemon Tree, a highly recommended restaurant in Colchester. (For the history buffs, one inside wall is part of the original Roman town wall.) I'd like to say a big thank you to Diana for coping with me for all these years and for still loving me.

Today is also the anniversary of this blog which kicked off on 21st May 2006, but I'm not taking it out for a meal. I'd like to say thank you to all those people I've got to know (in a bloggy kind of way) who have inspired me or interacted with this blog. Cheers.

I'm glad we checked

On Thursday evening Dan came back from football having sat out the last 10 minutes with a headache, feeling dizzy. He was sick, then drove home, being sick again in the car on the way. Once home he had a quick shower and went to bed.

I was a little suspicious - his symptoms had come on very quickly, less than an hour, and included a sore throat, vomiting, abdominal pain, headache, temperature and slightly blue lips. A voice inside my head raised the possibility of meningitis so I called NHS Direct to check his symptoms and was told to take him immediately to Accident & Emergency.

After a number of tests it turned out not to be meningitis, but was a viral infection that proceeded to render him very faint and unable to stand up. He spent the night in the Emergency Assessment Unit. Almost exactly twenty-four hours later, after a combination of good NHS care and many prayers, he was well again, his symptoms ebbing almost as quickly as they had come. Now he's home.

The symptoms of meningitis can look like flu and, if not properly diagnosed, the bacterial form can lead to brain damage and, rarely, death. If you're not sure, don't wait and see - I'm glad we checked.

One amazing day

Today has been an amazing day. Highlights include...

1. Standing at the back of a school hall while our new schools worker, Tom, and a local youth worker took an assembly. I can't quite put into words how I felt, but for me it was a supremely significant moment as I saw the work that I had fulfilled for over 10 years released into the hands of others.

2. Helping a group of Year 9 students (in the same school) to think about the choices that people make in sexual relationships and being both heartened and seriously worried by some of their answers. We got back to the office and prayed.

3. Having my son Dan join us (for the first time) for two question and answer style RE lessons with Year 8 and Year 10 students in the local Grammar School and hearing him talk so confidently about his faith and gaining the respect of the students.

4. Helping with a youth cafe that started as follow up after a mission over a year ago in the first school mentioned here and seeing the transformation in the lives of so many of these young people, some of whom come from quite chaotic or unsympathetic backgrounds.

Next week we're involved in a mission in a small town and its secondary school which is apparently stirring up the churches there to plant a new expression of church for young people.
And we've just had an invitation to do an assembly on the stopthetraffik campaign from a school we haven't been able to visit for over a year.

This is a great job! Just thought I'd let you know.

UPDATE - 10 March: whilst all this was going on other team members were also having amazing days - Amy's blog covers some of the other great stuff that God was doing among us.

Colchester United

It was my birthday on boxing day so Dan and I went to watch Colchester United beat Luton 4-1. Colchester were promoted to the Championship at the end of last season and after a shaky start have been steadily working their way up the table, currently 7th and just outside a play off place for the Premiership. This is an amazing record for a club that has one of the smallest grounds in the country with a capacity of about 6000 (average capacity of clubs at this level is c.18000).
It was a great match, the first goal for Colchester coming after 23 minutes followed by a second just before half time. Goals in the second half after 59 and 65 minutes brought Col U to a convincing 4-0 lead. When Luton scored a penalty at 85 minutes the atmosphere in the stands was relaxed to say the least. A couple of the Colchester goals came from some swift and effective attacking play the length of the pitch. Great stuff.
Colchester have been winning a few games away, but it's the home advantage that's paying off with a 10 game unbroken winning record at home, a record that's starting to attract some press interest here and here. The crowd may be small but they make up for it in relentless support. And the small ground brings players and supporters much closer together - a factor that often spooks the visitors!