We Do Adventure

We had a few people contact us around Christmas saying they’d bought straws and squirty cream for Klub. Obviously they hadn’t actually made that purchase themselves but, much like you can buy a goat through Oxfam, they had donated toward the ongoing work we’re involved in. This post is for those people. Here is the evidence that it was money well spent. Tonight we had probably thirty young people crammed in Klub for a fun night, the highlight of which was a blindfold taste-test of cocktail ingredients followed by the chance to get a free drink at the bar. While all the real cocktail ingredients were safely non-alcoholic we’d mixed a few rogue items into the taste-test. I suppose apologies are in order to those who ended up sampling a bit of mustard or the intriguing sour cream/curry combo but they helped make the point that not everything we are encouraged to add into our lives will taste good in the mix. But pick the right things and you can end up with a good result – a bit like stra...

Up until now I had been quite excited to discover I wasn’t the only Scrooge in the country. Back in England, to be in church and not to be into Christmas was, certainly in my experience, something of an anathema. The two seemed indivisible. Over the years I found myself the centre of much seasonal bafflement – particularly when I married someone who enjoys all things Christmasy! My lack of emotional attachment to the celebrations finds me fitting well amongst a group of Christians from Muslim, Catholic and communist backgrounds. While none of us doubt the importance of Jesus’ birth we have our questions about what the celebration has turned into. I’m not going to try and persuade anyone to my point of view, but neither am I going to get excited about something I think at best unimportant, at worst misguided. Sadly, such high-sounding principles lay dashed by an ignominious fall from the moral high ground. I had to make a tough decision in what was an interestingly organised trip distri...

Rowan came back from another dancing visit to a school yesterday with a story that put a smile on my face. The team had done their show when a boy came up to give them a card. Explaining that it was in English he said he hoped he’d spelled everything right. He’d done better than that. The card read: Merry Christmas and a Happy New York!

I have a reputation among some of my friends as being a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas. Back in England, where the festive season stretches over several months it’s harder to hide. Here, not only is the season significantly shorter but half the people I know have no emotional connection to the festivities. With less than two weeks to go decorations are just becoming more obvious in shops and there are lights up in the streets. There is a notable absence of the soundtrack usually underscoring the UK Christmas. We were in a shopping centre today which was playing the amusingly, pertinently titled U2 album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind. The excesses of the western, consumer Christmas are something I’m more than happy to walk away from.