When I was younger I used to write poems. I can’t remember the last time that I wrote one. I found this when doing some clearing up yesterday at home. I have to try and tidy the room that has doubled as a family “den” and my study so that we can get my son Henry in there soon as it is now going to be his bedroom. One major advantage of tidying (tho it does not come easy to me I have to say!) is that you come across odd things from a bygone era that you thought you had long thrown away. I remember that I was quite pleased with this when I wrote it. I wonder what you make of it all these years later:

Knowledge, freedom, cries the revolutionary
Expand yourself, free yourself from others chains
You can be you
Cast of the shackles of society
Rise up with me, become your own god
To your own self be true

Cast off the bonds of your so-called “liberty”
Your spirit soars, now in union with its source
Free! Simply be
Earth fades in the light of eternity
Rise up, join us, become one with God
Free to be the real you

One of my children came downstairs, after being in their room for ages yesterday, with the following list of verses. They had obviously spent a long time going thru a bible looking at highlighted verses and choosing, as they put it, their “favorite ones”. I think its a pretty good list, actually, and I am grateful for the grace of God at work in this dear child of mine despite all their father’s failings and imperfections. Nothing that I could hope to ever accomplish with the blog will be of more lasting worth than anything positive that I can play some small part in building in the lives of these children of mine. Here is the list (also available in NIV and NLT) which brings tears to my eyes:

Psalm 20:7
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Proverbs 1:8-9
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
9 for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.

Proverbs 11:3
3 The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Isaiah 26:4
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

Isaiah 40:31
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Ezekiel 33:11
11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Joel 2:32
32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Matthew 15:18
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, [1] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Ephesians 4:32
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Philippians 2:3
3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Hebrews 4:16
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

James 1:22
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

1 John 4:20
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot [2] love God whom he has not seen.

2 John 1:6
6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Genesis 49:25
25 by the God of your father who will help you,
by the Almighty [3] who will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

Genesis 15:1
15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

Genesis 1:27
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Following just over a month of this self-imposed near-total break from my online life (obviously not including my paid work!) what have I discovered?

1. WordPress’s auto-publish feature is bullet-proof and a real gift
2. You hardly missed me as a result of 1. and my kind guest bloggers. Indeed, traffic remained pretty high considering it was August.
3. Phil Moore is better than I am at explaining why digital fasts are so important.
4. A week is definitely not long enough It took me much longer before I even began to experience digital withdrawal symptoms.
5. It really is hard to stay away from the Internet for several weeks. My “fast” wasn’t total as the weeks drew on. I did scan-read Twitter, Facebook and a couple of blogs a little towards the end. I also started to write this post 20 minutes or so before my deadline,  and last week even wrote a couple of tweets ready for publishing later when my wife had gone away (the observant may have noticed that they appeared in my Twitter stream and were quickly deleted!) I also and scanned and deleted most of my accumulated emails on the same day. Finally, I started an Omnifocus to-do list to capture a small handful of ideas for things to blog about when they began to hit me about a week or so ago.
6. The harsh truth is that I really don’t care about what my readers think about me as much as I thought I did (despite 5)   I trust I will continue to remember this and make sure that I take more care over being kind to my wife and children than I do over looking after you all!  Funily enough, I somehow suspect that the more I focus on pleasing my God and family, the more benefit I may be to you in any case.
7. Learning more about how to not believe your own publicity is a vital result of such a break.  I can’t improve on what I said about this last year. Running a blog can appear to be self-serving at first glance. There has to be a good balance, however, between arrogantly pushing oneself forward, and on the other hand hiding whatever one can share with others under a bushel.  I am not sure I always navigate that tightrope entirely correctly, but, you have to believe me that I know that of myself I have nothing to offer you.  I will not ever apologize for shouting about my savior, and his death and resurrection for us. I know that if I can point you towards him, and to good resources that will help you in your spiritual journey I will have fulfilled one of the roles that God has for me in this life.  It is not the most important one, however.  That is clearly being a husband and father, which is much harder than helping at least some of people who read this blog for a few minutes a day.
8. I remained really quite busy with secular work, preached three times, was on the radio once, and yet removing the digital piece resulted in me now feeling remarkably rested and refreshed. I may need to find some ways to lessen some of the burdens I carry.  Perhaps I need a secretary or something!
9. Just hanging out with the kids in the evenings watching TV, playing Scrabble & Risk with them on the iPad, and being beaten at chess by my 11 year old son is a whole lot of fun. I need to carve out more time to do this better even with the blog up and running. If I could be a better husband and father and a worse blogger that would be fine with me.
10. Having a break has made me itch to write again, and I have really enjoyed writing this post.  I won’t be giving up permanently any time soon!

I wrote this post today on my way to the hospital with my son, Henry. I’ve taken the day off to be with him while he undergoes major dental surgery.

Henry is a very observant boy and noticed the gauge that’s pictured here under one of the seats on the train. We watched it and it fluctuated randomly, but seemed to go up when the train was stationary and down when it was moving.

The Internet is a great way to tap into the pooled intelligence of its readers. So help me answer my son’s question—what is this mysterious gauge for? I wonder if it’s some kind of current measure or something?

UPDATE
I have had three replies with some overlap:

1. I believe the gauge measures the air pressure to the brakes; hence, when stationary, high pressure to keep the brakes on and low pressure to keep the brakes off, although this doesn’t make sense because, if you have pressure failure, you can’t stop the train!! But it is a pressure gauge.

2. I think it is the brake pressure gauge.
3. I don’t know whether a professional out there can help you, or if you’re getting loads of opinions right now, but my theory has always been that it measures the pressure (were there any units mentioned on it?) on the coupling between the adjacent carriage; therefore, it fluctuates one way when braking hard and the other way when accelerating. It should be at a value in the middle when stopped, and moves about when traveling because of the unevenness of the ride. Just a guess from my time growing up in London and wondering the same thing a few times.

The Newfrontiers conference in Brighton is now over, but for me the learning continues. It was a delight to bring my son, Henry, to hear Mark in the flesh last night. Having been away, it was good to get some time with Henry on the way there. Henry was very observant of the unusual surroundings of a Church of England church. He pointed out what seemed to him to be a typo in a Bible verse that was carved into the stone wall. It said “This do in remembrance of me.” “Dad, that should say, “Do this in remembrance of me,” he said. The ensuing conversation about differences between Bible translations made him ask, “Can you buy the original Bible today, Dad?”

On the way there, Henry wanted to eat in that great American cultural export, McDonald’s. So, having heard from Driscoll this week, and the other Sunday from Tope Koleoso, about being missional, I decided to put it into practice. Having placed my order, noticing there was no queue behind me, I had the following conversation:

Me: “So, busy today?”
Server: “No, not really.”
Me: “Who was the weirdest person you had in today?”
Server: “No one really.”
Me: “Okay then, who was the weirdest person that came in this week?”
Server: “You!“
Me: “What? Cuz I actually talked to you?”
Server: “Yep …”

He didn’t even seem to be joking. So, don’t tell anyone, but it seems like I’m officially the weirdest person in North London this week.

Last week Driscoll told us that not being anxious to talk to new people probably is “something British,” and may be why Britain isn’t very Christian! So, I guess that guy in the McDonald’s near Bethnal Green tube station needs a few more of us weirdoes going in there to actually “talk” to him. Let’s totally freak him out, shall we? Who knows he might even get saved!

On the way home Henry and I spoke about the sermon, which he had enjoyed. I checked with him about whether he wanted to come with me to the Saturday mini-conference. He said that he didn’t want to listen to preaching all day. “No boy could cope with listening to sermons all day, Dad,” he said, “well, not unless he was unusually Jesus-like, anyway!”

Last night’s intriguingly-titled meeting was held in St. James Clerkenwell. It was interesting to hear a bit more about the network Driscoll leads from Scott Thomas, it’s director, and David Fairchild, who is an Acts 29 church planter in San Diego.

Driscoll began by telling his biography briefly and then began by reading from Acts 17. He again stressed that culture always comes from the city. These missional ideas came from James David Hunter, who apparently has some papers online – if anyone knows the URL, please let me know.

Cities are marked by density and diversity. Paul learns something of what Athenians are like so he can relate to them. He doesn’t change the message. Contextualization is never making Jesus relevant — it is showing who he is. We must pause and pay attention. In Brighton he saw bars open on a Wednesday and one had a sign “Sacred Thursday” and that meant that drinks were half-price. When our culture and our churches (for that’s what the bars are trying to be) say that sacred means men can get girls drunk for half-price, that’s bad news.

Pray that God will break your heart for the city. That can only happen if you take a look around. Everybody worships something. The only question is what do they worship? Someone or something is most significant to you. Sex can be worship. Some choose that sex with their boyfriend is more important than God. When the Bible says we worship created things, one of the things it means is we worship human bodies by having sex and pornography.

Paul walks into the town alone. He was anonymous and could have given in to sin. What about us when we are alone — are we seduced by the idols or are we broken by them? In Athens, the people basically loved blogging about other blogs. What are our religions? Football is a religion — it pays loads of money, paints faces, and even shouts and screams — they are “pentecostals”. For some its their stomach. In the USA, American football and baseball are far bigger religions than Christianity.

There are three approaches to the city:

Syncretism
Let’s just be like them and update and modify everything to be the same. The church, then, is like a cave — the world shouts into and it echoes back. If nothing that I believe or do is wrong, then there is no point in me going to church. It’s classic liberalism.

Sectarianism
This is just the opposite. The church becomes a safe enclave in the midst of evil, and ends up leaving the city.

Subversion
This is going into the city to change it from within. Contextualize first. Try to explain it in the way people will understand. Contending is telling them they are wrong. You have to do both, but first don’t be seduced by the city yourself and love them.

What makes Jesus better than any other “god”? All the others demand that we do something for them, Jesus died for us! If we want to bring him to the cities, we have to study them, we need to show them how he is relevant. Some will scorn us. Tolerance is a myth.

This sermon was preached by me on the UK’s Mother’s Day, which was on March 2nd. The audio can be downloaded or played here.

Isaiah 66:13
“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 49:15-16 Good News Bible
“Can a woman forget her own baby, and not love the child she bore?
Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you.
Jerusalem, I can never forget you!
I have written your name on the palms of my hands.”

Luke 13:34
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”

Isaiah 40:1-2
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.”

Psalm 131:1-2
“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

1. GOD IS LIKE A MOTHER, BUT HE IS A FATHER

We are right to talk of God as a father, for the Bible speaks of him repeatedly as a father. The verses we have read liken God to sharing attributes of a mother. There are, however, no verses that say God actually IS a mother; however, God is compared to a mother, and he is even likened to a hen brooding over her chicks. But we should no more worship him as “Mother God” than we should pray to God the Holy Chicken!

Since men and women are both created in the image of God, it should really be no surprise to us that God reflects attributes of mothers as well as fathers in his dealings with us.

Matthew Henry, writing more than 300 years ago, reminds us that God comforts us and he does so “not only with the rational arguments which a prudent father uses, but with the tender affections and compassions of a loving mother.” (Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, Complete and Unabridged in One Volume, Isaiah 66:5 (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991).

Some things never change!

2. GOD IS COMPASSIONATE LIKE A MOTHER

Women tend to be compassionate, although one mum said when I spoke to her this week, “It depends on the time of day!”

When an accident happens in our home, my instinct is to ask what happened, how did the child get hurt, where is the bruise, was one of the other children somehow responsible? Andrée often says, “Darling, please just pick them up and give them a cuddle.”

God created the world. Is it any wonder he should feel the same intense degree of warm love and care towards his children that a mother so clearly demonstrates to hers? In one of our verses God says in effect “no way would a woman reject her own baby,” before acknowledging that, then as now, sadly there are a few women who do indeed forget the child they bore. But God can NEVER forget! Why? Because of what happened on the cross when he “engraved our names on his hands.”

3. GOD IS SACRIFICIAL LIKE A MOTHER

Mother with a baby might say, “O-o-oh, do you need a nappy change, poor little boy?” But Dad might say , “O man, could you not have waited to do that? It was changed only a few minutes ago!”

Women put their careers on at least a temporary hold, and go through the pains of pregnancy and childbirth to have a child. Jesus once said when that “when a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” (John 16:21)

God understands the pain that mothers go through, not just in labor but in the decades that follow. He has seen us his children go astray and reject him, but still he loves us. How amazing knowing that he was going to a city that had killed prophets before and would kill him, that he doesn’t go in as a conquering manly warrior king. Rather, he says, “I am like a mother hen, cooing over you, wanting to gather you under my wings.” Surely God understands the thankless task of trying to win over kids when they are rebelling and think you hate them. The thousands of sacrifices the average mother makes for her children reflects upon the ultimate sacrifice of his life that Jesus would make.

Jesus died so he COULD gather his unwilling creation, like a mother hen would gather her chicks. He is hunting for them and searching for them right now to love them, forgive them, cleanse them from their guilt and shame, and make them into true children of God.

Jesus scorned the shame and pain of the cross because of the joy set before him— the joy of US as his children.

What a wonderful cry we heard from the prophet Isaiah—it was only made possible because of the cross. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.” (Isaiah 40:1-2).

4. GOD IS COMFORTING LIKE A MOTHER

When it comes to hugs and kisses, especially if they are upset, my kids look to their mum for comfort. They say I am prickly and need a shave! Do you think of God as prickly?

Just as a skillful mother is able to pacify and soothe the woes of her child, so is God with us. Who here is distressed? God will soothe you. Who is sorrowful? God will calm your troubles. Who here is stressed? God will cause you to rest in him.

God is the God of ALL comfort. Jesus told us he was sending “another comforter” to replace himself, which tells us that his role and that of the Spirit was to comfort us.

Our response to being comforted?

We feel understood, We feel calmed. Stress lifts. Anxiety passes. Our problem now belongs to the one whose wings we shelter under.

This is surely the perfect description of the mature Christian:

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131:1-2)

If you feel you are not there yet, you are probably right! Which of us is? But, that is our goal, arriving at a place where we trust God so much that we are not worrying about the events of our life, where we are calm and able to face the day.

5. GOD WANTS US TO OFFER COMFORT TO OTHERS

Perhaps you struggle with the question, “Why, God?” when you question something that has happened to you. There are a myriad of different circumstances life throws at us that make us ask that question. Bereavement, divorce, abuse by others, disappointments, sickness.

There are no easy or complete answers to the question “Why?” One answer is that God wants you to quiet yourself, stop examining things “too lofty for us to understand,” and instead be comforted by him so that you, too, can comfort others. But perhaps you need the comfort of others today . . . maybe you are far from the place that you can help someone else. Who here needs a touch from God? Maybe you need a touch from your neighbor.

Who here already knows from bittersweet, personal experience the truth that “God is the God of all comfort” — it is time you learned to pass that on! He comforts us SO THAT WE CAN COMFORT OTHERS. “But,” you say, “I am not a pastor or a theologian.” “I say,” “God tells us to comfort each other with the comfort he has given us!” Church, are our conversations seasoned with the salt of comfort? Do we listen to the troubles of each other and show that we care? Do we help each other to find the strength that only God can give?

RESPONSE: Salvation, need of comfort, need to comfort others.

We’re home again! The reunion was sweet, although the three of us are rather tired. I worked today, while both Henry and Tamasin spent some time sleeping. Unfortunately, none of us slept a wink on the plane!

This was the longest I’ve been away from my dear wife, and the longest I have been in America. We even found ourselves talking about “restrooms” and “strollers” and “pacifiers”—words for which most of my English friends would need an interpreter. Sadly I gained about 3 kg. during the last two weeks, so I’m afraid I was right about the poor diet I would likely be subjecting myself to. We wanted quick food, so that meant fast food, and on a few occasions, “eat as much as you like” deals. So all that walking didn’t do any good—thanks, I guess, to all those hot dogs and “freedom fries”! I missed our own English chips—which have nothing to do with either what Americans call “chips” OR what they call “fries.” Our chips are apparently like American steak fries or pub fries, and oddly, that was one of the first foods I craved on my return home! Far superior in taste, but probably equally as fattening. It’s now time to revise my food intake habits, I suspect!

I’ll share a couple more videos, and maybe a few more photos and reflections, but for now I’m about to go to bed in an effort to stave off the jet lag that is likely to hit me like a brick when tomorrow morning I have to start work at what will feel like 4 a.m. to my body!

Saturday was Sea World day and the Mardi Gras. Tamasin described it as follows in her diary:

Today we went to Sea World. Sea World is joined up with Discovery Cove (the place with the dolphins). Sea World was really cool. They had a roller coaster (it was easy but fun) and a water ride. I got so wet I had to buy a new top. There was loads of shows, including a dolphin and whale show, an otter and sea lion one, one nothing to do with animals but called itself a circus, another with big massive killer whales (we got soaked).

Henry said:

Today was great coz we went to Sea World to go on a few rides and shows and rushed off to the Mardi Gras! I collected 34 beads that you have to catch.

We learned an invaluable lesson today about vacations in Florida. You really can’t do it all, and you actually don’t want to. Having spent a stimulating and enjoyable day at Universal Studios yesterday, we took someone’s advice and decided to have a day at a waterpark before hitting Islands of Adventure tomorrow. The idea of a less full day in-between parks is very sensible.

On the way into the park, we were feeling excited, and only mildly apprehensive at the sheer height of the slide rides. We made a plan to go on all of them one-by-one. That plan evaporated when we got up close to some of the rides. We loved the ones we did go on, including one that took the three of us together in a “boat thing” and dropped us down a steep slide. We planned not to scream, since being stiff, upper-lipped English people it seemed somehow inappropriate. All three of us kind of screamed in a not totally terrified way on the way down, however, as we just couldn’t help ourselves! So much for being among the stiff upper-lipped English!

Sadly I have to report that I was one of many guests who just couldn’t bring myself to be shut into an area which looked disturbingly like a coffin, and then have the floor disappear from under my feet, dropping me vertically onto a ridiculously fast slide. My embarrassment at knowing I’d have to admit my fear to you was outvoted by some deep-wired self preservation drive that told me I was far too high up to throw myself down, or let someone else do so, even if there was a slide there! So, I have to admit that I didn’t do even the “easier” version of that terrifyingly fast and high slide! I turned back and walked the walk of shame down the steps. Tamasin and Henry both did the version without the coffin, so they are officially braver than me.

Anyway, we enjoyed the slides we did do, the wave lagoon, and a “Lazy River” which is basically a set of circular rapids which pushes you around allowing you to pretend you’re able to swim really fast! We also tried unsuccessfully to teach ourselves beach volleyball.

So, after a relaxing day, which offered me much time for quiet reflection while sunbathing, we are all the more ready to hit the serious roller coasters and other rides offered at Universal’s Islands of Adventure tomorrow.

We made it!!

Tamasin said:

In the end, when we finally arrived in Orlando, it was about 5:15 p.m. We went to our hotel, grabbed some food. and went to a sort of party with an outdoor swimming pool. It was great.

Henry said in his diary:

We’re here. I’m at the hotel and I have just been to its huge lovely swimming pool. It’s past 10, but in England it’s 3 in the morning. Tomorrow we’re going to Universal Parks, and we’ll keep going there until the week is up. But we have a whole other week, so we’ll then go to Disney Parks.”

We’re sitting at Gatwick, having enjoyed what I fear may be our last healthy meal for a couple of weeks! We ate a fruit salad, a chicken, bacon and salad sandwich, and fresh fruit yogurt between us. I may be wrong, but my image of Orlando doesn’t include healthy salads being available. Tamasin is particularly worried that we may be forced to eat hot dogs all week. Henry and I just want to make sure we find a good steakhouse.

I was surprised at how I had a moment of sadness saying goodbye to the other half of my family. I have traveled so often, but this is the longest I will have been apart from Andrée since I met her in the spring of 1993! She is amazing, and got up early so I could drive to Gatwick, and then as we got out of the car, she took over for the trip around the M25 to church. She is a great wife, and I felt guilty leaving her as we headed for our holiday of a lifetime. We realized that by the time she gets home today, she will have done a complete circuit of London’s orbital motorway, sometimes called the world’s largest car park. There were no traffic issues today, and we were glad to hear she made it to Enfield in time to grab a McDonald’s before church. I’m just glad we’ve left them all healthy!

Henry wrote in his first diary entry:

“Well, here we are at the airport ready for our nine-hour flight to Disney in around two hours. I think things I’m looking forward to most are seeing the shuttle take off, the spaceship simulator and swimming with dolphins.”

Tamasin meanwhile was refreshingly honest:

“So here we are at the airport waiting for the plane. Me and Hen have to do a holiday diary—how boring. I’m sitting here in Gatwick airport writing in it ‘yawn yawn’. It’s 9-51 and the plane goes at 11-40, can’t wait. The things I’m most looking forward to are swimming with dolphins and all the water parks. We’re gonna get soaked.”

Yep—that’s right! This post marks the return of Warnie. I just can’t keep away any longer! Not only am I returning to reasonably regular fresh blogging, in less than 12 hours I’ll be jumping on a plane and living the “American dream” for two whole weeks! After much careful thought, I’ve also decided that you’re going to be allowed to share in this dream vacation.

We’re staying the first week at the Universal Resort and the second week at Disney. Internet access permitting, you’ll be able to read a day-by-day account right here. There are three of us going—me and two of my kids, Tamasin and Henry. We all figured this was as good a chance to enjoy ourselves together as we are likely to get this side of Tamasin becoming a teenager, which is not far off. I can’t believe that the baby I held in my arms only a short time ago is now doing her best to organize me for this trip, and has even put together some flat-pack furniture on her own!

We’ll share our personal thoughts and, hopefully, some photos and video. Blogs are intensely personal things, so you will forgive my indulgence. If nothing else, my wife and three younger kids will be able to follow along with what we’re getting up to. Incidentally, Andrée deserves a medal as big as a pancake for holding the fort at home. But she doesn’t really like all those rides and things anyhow, and says she will be quite happy.

If you’re looking for serious theology over the next few days, go visit challies.com, although, thanks to my editor, the last few of my “top 30 posts” will be making their appearance in-between the Florida epic travelogue.

If anybody has any last-minute travel tips for an Orlando vacation, now is the time to e-mail them to adrian.warnock@gmail.com. I may even share the best here!

The first tip is, I am told, choose the time of year carefully. February seems like a good month. The weather forecast suggests most days it will be upwards of 27C. (That’s 82F for you Yanks!) But the crowds should not be too big, and it should not get unbearably hot. Importantly, it’s also well outside hurricane season. So since Gordon Brown won’t be anywhere near Gatwick when I am taking off or landing, we should return in one piece.

People who know me well know that the football genes have skipped a generation. I am, of course, referring to the original game of football as invented by us British and called “soccer” by only one nation on earth (i.e. the USA). To the rest of the world it’s just ‘football’.

My father and brother love football and support Tottenham. My eldest son, Henry, has caused some consternation by rejecting this club and defecting to Arsenal instead. My brother and father are disgusted

But perhaps I should remind them of another defection that occurred decades before. I seem to remember that when I was a boy we supported another team, one which miraculously made it to the 1st division for just one season, if I remember correctly. That team was Brighton and Hove Albion! When their success ended I became disillusioned with football altogether, whilst the other members of my family simply switched teams! So guys, was that defection to a better team any worse than my son doing the same thing?

Of course, with us living in London the rivalry between these two teams is great. A friend of mine also challenged my son about his support for the ‘reds’ rather than the ‘blues’. The typical boy arguments of who is better ensued. My son had the perfect reply to the Tottenham fan. To understand this, as you can see above, the logo of Arsenal includes a gun, and that of Tottenham, a bird.

Henry simply asked, “Who would win a battle between a canon and a bird?”

The results of a match between Tottenham and Arsenal a couple of months ago would seem to bear this out!

UPDATE

Adrian then . . .

Adrian now . . .

Observant readers of my blog will have noticed that I didn’t post any larger photos of Rob Rufus when I spoke about Together On A Mission and interviewed Rob Rufus. One reason for this was that the snapshots I took while we were together were ruined in my hurry as I had the camera on the wrong setting. As a result the color was all wrong and I thought they were beyond salvation.

Well, my MacBook and the wonderful iPhoto software came to the rescue. I have never been able to understand photography software (although Picasa from google was reasonably easy) and so was thrilled to see Tamasin and Henry master it in no time. They took one of the following two photos each and were able to repair them admirably. At moments like this a father is proud of his kids and a relatively new MacBook owner is proud of his laptop!

The second installment in my Mac videos, in which I mention Logos Bible software, parallels and also some of the other things that make the jump tricky for a PC user.

UPDATE

Henry Warnock has started a new website. Follow the link to visit it.

1. Children are a blessing
2. Learning to cope with partners who travel
3. Out of the mouths of babes and infants
4. A simple faith
5. Children are a gift
6. My son’s trust in Jesus
7. Which came first the chicken or the egg?
8. Blogging for the children
9. A Warnock family joke
10. Tamasin awaits…
11. How to treat your wife?
12. Christmas through the eyes of a 4 year old boy
13. Valentines Day – Urgent Reminder
14. Out of the mouths of babes…(Tamasin).
15. Out of the mouths of babes…(Henry).
16. Out of the mouths…
17. What are the most important things in life?
18. Rip Uncle
19. A personal Christmas message and season greeting…
20. My Story part 1
21. My Story part 2
22. The Simple Gospel in 10 points
23. Why I love a Simple Gospel
24. Tamasin’s children story – The Sornocks
25. Poems about school colours and bedtime
26. UK Mother’s Day Poem: My Mum is
27. Henry Warnock’s first story
28. My Story part 3
29. Tamasin’s art
30. My whatever the famous whatever – by Tamasin Warnock
31. 10 years on and still in love
32. The Gigantic blogger – by Henry Warnock
33. Setting life goals
34. What is love?
35. Teaching kids about life’s knocks
36. Children’s book review: most of all Jesus loves you
37. Nonsense poem
38. My Story part 4
39. A Christmas poem by Tamasin
40. Father Warnie
41. Mother Warnie
42. Warnie Junior
43. Running the race
44. My father the slouch
45. Tamasin again
46. My dads most embarassing moment
47. Crazy Adrian
48. Goalie Adrian
49. My wife the cake decorator
50. Birthday boy
51. Happy Birthday Tamasin 9 today
52. 4 reasons why blogging has been light
53. My fifth reason not to blog
54. A family at play
55. Enjoying London’s green belt
56. Tamasin’s lauches her own website
57. Totally Tamasin (updated today!)

Tags family

This photo of Henry proves that there is hope that at least the next generation of Warnocks might have more prowess with a ball than me! What concentration! What racket control! Wimbledon here we come……..?

Some of you that know me will be interested to learn that I have finally taken up football in the interests of encouraging my eldest son, Henry. If you think I look scared, you are right!