News

Demographics

Posted by RLadmin on April 3, 2012

A developer has purchased a couple of fields near where I live.

In the leaflet that they sent out as part of the consultation exercise  they point out that the population of Solihull is set to increase by 20,000 by 2028.

The reason for this increase:

  • More people staying single longer.
  • More couples and families separating.
  • People living longer.

These figures / reasons are going to present a challenge to local services and to our churches.

It is no longer a case of churches providing activities for families, it is time for churches to become family for people who are single, separated or older.

Psalm 68 vs 1  says this: “He (God) sets the solitary in families”

What does this mean for those of us in churches – how do we make this happen?

A few starters for you:

  • Make friends with people of all ages and backgrounds – purposely engage people in conversations, find out about them.
  • Treat people as your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, neices and nephews.  (See Matthew 12:50)
  • Purposely include others in what you do, e.g. BBQs, meals, walks, hobbies, DIY.

 

 

Interesting week

Posted by RLadmin on February 11, 2012

It has been an interesting week.

It has felt very strange at home as our youngest daugther started a new job on Monday working away from home.

I spent a night away for work. Another project is coming my way and we are working on getting funding for all the other work we have next year.
Rather than have a 6am start in sub zero conditions and run the risk of problems on the road, I travelled the night before and stayed overnight at a hotel.

While at the hotel I needed to iron some trousers, so I borrowed an iron and ironing board.
(No Corby trouser press).

As instructed, I placed the ironing board outside the room, only to have the door slam shut on me.

Fortunately I had been ironing a different pair of trousers or this could have been me.

This morning I took the Father-in-law to the doctors for an appointment with the Nurse, I dropped him off and he tells me the waiting area is round to the right.

I parked the car, enter the centre and head around to the right to find myself surrounded by pregnant ladies.

It reminded me of spending 40 minutes trying to find Cardiff hospital, with him providing directions.
We had problems with left and right then.
Me: “Do we turn left here?” Father-in-Law: “Right” (meaning yes).
I did wonder wether he would appreciate a loan of my socks with Left and right on them?

Final thought for the week.  Tonight’s Newsnight program was thought provoking – they discussed this  news item  about how loneliness can kill people.

And tomorrow we get a visit from Liz :)

www.leitch.com

Posted by RLadmin on January 28, 2012

If you were looking for www.leitch.co.uk or www.leitch.com a video equipment manufacturer which shares our surname.

This has now been taken over by the Harris Corporation.

There IS a Family connection. Jim Leitch, the now deceased company founder was my Uncle.

40 years at work

Posted by RLadmin on October 18, 2011

September 2011 marked the 40th anniversary of when I started work with BT.

BT chose to recognise this with a modest presentation in a meeting room in Coventry, where I received a certificate and letter from the Managing Director and a £500 gift voucher.

A glass clock followed a few weeks later.

Originally posted October 18, 2011

Death of a Friend

Posted by RLadmin on August 26, 2011

I read the story of someone’s final days this morning in a discussion forum while listening on YouTube to the song that was played at his funeral.

This was someone I had never met but we had interacted via the forums as we discussed the programs we were testing and using.
I was moved to hear of his passing and also by all the comments from others in the forums, words of support and offers of prayers.

There are those who say that on-line friends are not “real” friends, perhaps because there are those who boast of having thousands of on-line “friends”.
After what I read this morning I disagree.

One of the dictionary definitions that I like is “A friend is someone who is on your side”.

Through the media of Facebook and other internet forums we get to interact with people who we may never ever actually meet.
There is no reason that we cannot be real friends with those we interact with regularly, simply by being on their side, by being encouraging, by being supportive, by taking a genuine interest and sharing a bit about ourselves.

It is also a reminder that we are not just interacting with forum or website but with real people, most of whom deserve our respect.

Originally posted August 26, 2011

 

on-line shopping

Posted by RLadmin on June 20, 2011

One of the first times I tried on-line shopping, I ordered rabbit food and a large 56lb bag of rabbit flavoured dog food turned up instead. Our dog Arnold thought it was christmas!

We got the dog food free, but it proved costly as we could not get him back on to the cheaper food he had been happily eating before then.

There was the time time a large 5 kg bag of pasta arrived from Tesco instead of the expected 0.5 kg bag.

So I have not really persisted with on-line groceries, prefering to see the goods being bought first hand, albeit at the risk of succumbing to the BOGOFs.

Because Deborah has been unwell, I have needed to shop for groceries on-line again.

I had a discount voucher for Tesco. The order was mostly fine, except I ended up with a 2kg bag of sugar instead of a 1Kg one. (When I was growing up, sugar came in 2lb bags).

So more recently I have tried Occado – tempted in by a special offer voucher.
(Each order so far has come with a voucher for a bottle of wine).

So far so good, however the cheese and onion quiche I ordered was a disappointment.

I thought it was a bargain until it arrived – it was only a single portion quiche!!
In my defence, there was no way to tell the size from the photo!

So the point of this post is that life comes with surprises, both good and bad.

Originally Posted June 20, 2011

Mystery Illness

Posted by RLadmin on May 11, 2008

I have not been too well over the last week. This started with pain around the chest – not the heart attack side – not unlike wind pains.

I travelled to Ipswich in some discomfort, but the pian faded over the day.
Next moring I woke up fine, but half an hour later it came back again so I decided to go home.

Saw the Doctor who sugested it could be muscular or shingles.Given the pattern of the pain, the lack of response to pain killers and the way it came and went, it pointed towards shingles, which can be pretty nasty.

However I have not developed the characteristic shingles rash / spots.
The pain has reduced to a dull ache in one small area.

I am aware that a number of people have been praying for me, so I suspect that prayer has held it back – Praise God.