“We Can’t Set The World On Fire” featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album “Uplifted” recorded and produced by Bob Ross
So Alpha starts in many churches this month – at my church Holy Rood there was an introductory evening last night. This year Bear Grylls has presented some words of encouragement for those who are considering attending an Alpha Course. They are featured in today’s blog. He also gave a Christmas message which I posted on my blog of December 17th 2015.
So what is Alpha ?
The Alpha website https://alpha.org/says that Alpha is a series of sessions exploring the Christian faith. Each talk looks at a different question around faith and is designed to create conversation. Alpha is run all around the globe, and everyone’s welcome. It runs in cafés, churches, universities, homes—you name it. No two Alphas look the same, but generally they have three key things in common: food, a talk and good conversation.
Next week I will tell you the story of my first Alpha (if you can’t wait it was first posted on April 3rd 2014)
Oh Lord Hear My Voice featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Where Would I Be Without You? recorded and produced by Ross Gill
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma one question that will obviously arise is why? and another is how should people respond?
I read this message today from a Hurricane Harvey survivor and I felt it to be worth sharing:
Hurricane Harvey made me realise more that we really are nothing on this Earth and that the material things that we lose sleep over, we fight over, we lose friendship over is NOT worth it. The position, the status that we want everyone to know that we possess CANNOT save us. In minutes Barbuda lost 95% of its infrastructure, people lost their houses, their businesses, their crops. Thank God we have life. Let us be thankful that we have life and a chance to make things right with God, with family and with friends. Let us love more, smile more, help more and make peace with each other instead of fighting over things that are here now and could be gone in a matter of minutes. Our life is simply a breath, when that breath goes life is over. Whatever we have accomplished in life was permitted by God who can take it all back in minutes. Let us acknowledge Him. The only thing that lasts forever is salvation. Nothing else matters in the end.
Well you may not agree with all the sentiments expressed here but I for one would admit to placing too much importance on material possessions. Living in this country I am unlikely to lose them all in a natural disaster but I could lose them in other ways and then how would I cope? I think the problem is that it is easy to believe that we are the owners of our possessions gained through our own hard work. If this is our belief then to lose all that we have worked so hard for is bound to be devastating. However an alternative belief is that we are in fact, stewards rather than owners of possessions because they have been given to us by God. Yes our own hard work is a factor but that work is enabled by the skills with which God has blessed us. If this different belief is held then I would suggest ties to our possessions are looser and if they are lost the pain less severe.
Alpha starts next week! At my church Holy Rood in Stubbington that is 7.30 pm on Wednesday September 20th- more of that next week.
Be Set Free, from the His Story album, featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band, recorded and produced by Ross Gill
Just back from a fantastic short break to Porto with my lovely wife Caroline. What a beautiful city with such lovely people- We can highly recommend it.
Before leaving I read this story in “The Word for Today” and thought it would be good to share.
So these are the words of Sid O’Neil.
When I was 12 years old I went to live with my Grandmother. The house that we lived in had a lot of spiritual activity and as a child I used to hear and see spirits. That was my only experience of anything “spiritual.” Years later I was working in a print factory and one of the bosses, Neil was a Christian. I think I made his life a misery, as I used to tease him and try to embarrass him- I thought it was really amusing. I wondered why he always read his Bible, rather than the newspaper like the rest of us.
Although I knew there was a spiritual world (because of my childhood experiences) the only thing I did religiously was to go to the pub on a Friday night. One night a group of us were heading off for some drinks when we were involved in a horrible car accident- one of my friends in the car was killed. I was seriously injured and spent a long time in hospital with broken legs and broken back. I had a lot of time to think and blamed God for what He had done to me and my friends. When I got better I took off to a job in the Middle East. I made a real mess of things there, started drinking and ended up breaking my contract in order to get back to the UK. When I returned, Neil the supervisor from my old factory was now running his own busy printing firm and he was printing this little booklet called “Word For Today.”
He offered my wife a job and one day when I went to pick her up the printing press was broken. Neil was distraught and at the point of tears as he could not find anyone to fix it and the “Word For Today” needed to be urgently printed. I don’t know how but I looked at the machine and was able to fix it…. and the printing continued. Even though I was not a believer I believe that God helped me to fix that machine.
Somehow I knew that I needed to be there working for Neil. It meant a 50% pay cut but I was drawn back there and I used to read “ Word For Today” as it came off the presses. One day Neil gave me a CD with a man singing a song from Psalm 23 and as I sat there alone in the factory I raised my hands and I was crying. I knew that God was speaking to me and I knew that if I asked for forgiveness God would set me free and He would heal me of all my pain.
That was the day I stopped running from God and since then I have not looked back. Today I am working with the Christian Motorcyclists Association. I can’t say how thankful I am to God for all that He’s done in my life. He fixed my hurt and pain. He stopped me from running and He’s given me hope. In my life God has worked through so many different means- through Neil, through the bikers, through the UCB “Word For Today” and through everyone who prayed for me.
What a great story – I will tell you more of “Word For Today” next week.
Joffy Girling and Alex Knox producing guide vocals for the Risen! sequel at Ken’s house
Featured song for today is Allow His Loving Arms – featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album “Uplifted” recorded and produced by Bob Ross.
I had the pleasure of Joffy Girling and Alex Knox stay with me for three days this week. Joffy, as I am sure you know, is the Musical Director for Risen! The Musical. He creates the arrangements produces the backing tracks and has done all the recording and producing – so yes Joffy is totally invaluable. Alex sang the part of John on the CD of Risen! He also sang at Holy Rood Church in a Risen! concert and the first stage production there. He featured in the blog of November 24th 2017 after starring in the West End play “It is Easy to be dead” – a performance for which he received an Oliver nomination – http://www.olivierawards.com/ Alex was introduced to me by my old friend Martin Connor (see blog August 3rd 2018) who is Head of Acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama; which is where Alex was trained in both music and acting.
Risen!- The Musical is doing extremely well – as I have previously mentioned the DVD has been broadcast on Revelation TV in the UK and on Alpha-Omega and Credo TV in Romania and Eastern Europe. It has also been translated into various languages including mandarin for DVD future sub titles.
We are also in the process of creating a Risen! The Musical theatre in education project to tour Primary Schools next Easter- that will require funding so more of that later. Also in the pipeline is a new CD featuring the Portsmouth University Gospel Choir -finalists in the BBC’s “Pitch Battle” programme with Gareth Malone- but again more of that later.
I just wanted to flag up today that Joffy and Alex were with me to put down guide vocals for the sequel to Risen! The Musical. It is based on the Acts of the Apostles and traces the growth of the church after the Holy Spirit empowers the disciples at Pentecost. It will be third in the mustard seed trilogy of musicals after His Story- and Risen!
Acts (working title) is going to be a long project but an extremely enjoyable one – Joffy and Alex are quite excellent and what they produced this week simply filled me with joy- we meet again in a couple of weeks to hopefully finish Act one – so watch this space.
Caroline and I are off for a short holiday to Porto tomorrow – hopefully enjoying a bit of sun and the local tipple! Should be back in time for next week’s blog though.
” I Love You Lord” (Laurie Klein) with solo from Emily Shaw and “Hallelujah Glory, Glory” (from the musical Risen! ) with solo from Lorraine Marsh. Introductory recitative from Alex Knox.
“My Jesus My Saviour/Shout to the Lord” (Darlene Zschech) with solo from Lauren Chappell and introductory recitative from Chloe Brokenshire.
Last week I attended the funeral service of a remarkable man and dear friend, Laurie Brokenshire. He did so very much for so many people and I do ask you to use this link to discover exactly how many lives he touched and in so many different ways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Brokenshire
Holy Rood Church last Friday was filled to overflowing for his Service of Thanksgiving – standing room only and many, many, more unable to get into the main church. We heard wonderful tributes and brave words from his family – wife Ethel, sons Matthew and Phillip and daughters Sarah and Rachel. Also from Rev. Charles Overton, his long standing friend who conducted the Service.
As I say please click on the link to get a flavour of the amazing life of Laurie but even a Wikipedia account cannot do him any sort of justice, however the following extract does give a flavour of the man:
In early 2016, Brokenshire was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, which had overtaken his father some 20 years earlier. His response was immediate and typical – his family undertook a 30-mile sea swim off Plymouth in aid of various cancer charities, raising over £30,000 in under 3 weeks, and in excess of £45,000 overall.
The featured video clips show Laurie, who also had a great bass voice, singing at Holy Rood in a Risen! concert. He was playing the part of Cleopas. Even from these short clips I think you will be able to see how much he loved Jesus. His funeral service was as evangelical as it comes and I do pray that it has encouraged those present to attend the forthcoming September Alpha courses.
Laurie, you are going to be sadly missed but we can be assured that you are now receiving all the rewards of heaven for being “A good and faithful servant.”
“Mustard Seed of Faith” featuring Lucy Rutherford from the album “His Story Live” (unreleased) recorded by Ross Gill
My dear friend Bob Milliken aka Mr Mill prayed for me for eight years that I would become a Christian- he would put articles on Christians that were famous sportspersons in my pigeon hole at Crofton School where he taught RE and me PE. I have to be honest and say that I did not take a great deal of notice of them and that it was meeting his father, Mr Milliken that really ignited my faith (see blog of March 27th 2014)
So despite those articles Mr Mill put in my pigeon hole I was not motivated to explore Christianity, however nowadays I do find it interesting when I discover great sportsmen like Jordon Speith, Usain Bolt, Jürgen Klopp and Maro Itoje are Christians. Last week I noticed from what they said or how they acted that there are two more famous sportsmen who are Christians -the Athletics 400 metre World Champion Wayed Van Niekerk and the footballer Romelu Lakaku who was recently transferred from Everton to Manchester United.
During a BBC interview I noticed Van Niekerk refer to God and in another BBC interview he said “I have dreamed of this since I was a little kid. The only thing I can do now is to give God praise. I went on my knees each and every day and I told the Lord to take care of me and look after me every step. I asked the Lord to carry me through the race and I am really just blessed for this opportunity.” He previously told sports media organisation Passion for Sport that everything that comes my way I thank the Lord. He said: “I leave every race and every step I take in his hands. I trust him in every movement I do.” Speaking of the importance of his faith he said he values it because God “is the one who blessed me with talent.”
I could not find any interviews regarding Lukaku, however he is known to be a committed Christian and will make the sign of the cross before every match and after every goal that he scores. In fact when he scored for the first time at Old Trafford against West Ham on Sunday he dropped to his knees and looked to the heavens in thanks before then crossing his chest. Being a Man United supporter I hope he crosses himself loads of times this season!
If you read this on Thursday, August 10th I will be on holiday with my lovely wife Caroline celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary. In fact our anniversary was yesterday on the 9th but we are still away – not too far though as Rosy, the fiancée of my son James is soon to give birth.
It was also Caroline’s birthday on Sunday and it was great for the two of us to have a meal at Prezzo (yes with vouchers!) with my two wonderful sons, James and Chris and the lovely Rosy.
Although Caroline and I have been married nine years we have known each other more like twenty six years – why did we wait for so long to get married? Well that’s a long story but may I take this opportunity to say how kind, compassionate, thoughtful, patient, loving and understanding Caroline is? She is also very brave as she has been suffering knee pain for over three years, enduring five operations for an anterior cruciate ligament knee reconstruction that has been a tale of misfortune. In addition to surgery, pain killers and masses of physiotherapy Caroline has had various other treatments which have helped but have not cured the problem. What has made things much worse is that she is a brilliant sportsperson who played cricket for Middlesex and hockey for SE England but, at present cannot even run- swimming being the only form of exercise she can undertake. Now if that was me and I could not play golf I would be like a bear with a sore head but to her great credit Caroline very rarely complains. She is to have a new procedure in a month or so and we are hoping that will help. What would be great is if she could run again and also teach- she has been doing a great job mentoring coaches that deliver PE in Primary Schools but it would be so good if she could do the teaching herself (she is a great teacher and children love her.)
The featured song “Where Would I Be Without You?” is one of Caroline’s favourites and one of her favourite Bible verses is Isaiah 41:10 the words of which were prayed over me by Mr Milliken (Mr Mill’s father) when I renewed my baptism vows on 18th May 1997. I also prayed them over Caroline when she renewed her baptism vows in the Solent on September 4th 2011.
Martin Connor and Ken Shearsmith in “The Pirates of Portsmouth”
“Because of Your Grace”- featuring Harun Kotch from the album “The Season of Singing” recorded and produced by Ross Gill
A few weeks ago I had the great privilege of watching an absolutely fantastic version of George Gershwin’s musical “Crazy For You.” (It’s the with “I’ve got rhythm, I’ve got music, I’ve got my girl – who could ask for anything more”) The play was at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and I cannot speak too highly of it – everything was of the highest quality – the 32 piece orchestra, the singing, the dancing, the acting, the costumes, the set – everything and it was all directed by my old school friend Martin Connor who is the Head of Acting at the Guildhall.
Back in August 2014 my blog featured the story of how I met Martin – extracts of which are below.
When, at the age of nine I moved from Gillingham in Kent to Portsmouth I went to the Northern Parade Junior Boys School. I have to say I did not like it at all – the teachers used the cane- something that I had not come across at all in the delightful Forge Lane Mixed School I attended in Gillingham.
Anyway one classroom teacher, Mr Thorpe was keen on amateur dramatics and each year would produce a show, usually one which he had written himself based on a Gilbert and Sullivan classic. I particularly remember “The Pirates of Portsmouth” in which I played a pirate “Mizzen Mast Martin” (I’ll let you pick me out in the featured pic) The star was a guy called Martin Connor who was in my class and who had been one of the few people who had been nice to me when I first went to Northern Parade. Martin is stage centre in the pic with a hook for a right hand (only make believe!)
In those ancient times we had to sit the 11 + exam to determine whether you went on to Grammar School or Secondary Modern. In Portsmouth there was also a “half -way house” – the Portsmouth Technical High School. Well to cut a long story short Martin and I found ourselves both at “The “halfway house”. We were also in the same form, the infamous 1B. Martin went on to become Head Boy – I did not.
I knew Martin had gone on from school to pursue a career in acting, but on leaving school I had lost contact with him. When I was looking to cast for the role of John I needed someone who could both act and sing. All of Risen! is sung and I particularly needed someone who was expert in recitative as this holds the storyline together. I decided to try to locate Martin to see if he was still in the world of acting so I googled his name (what else!) and there he was Head of Acting at the Prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. I knew it was the same Martin as there was a pic of him on the Guildhall’s website and he had not changed a bit. (spit!)
I emailed him and we met up at the “Coach and Horses” pub which is right opposite our old school. We talked and laughed non -stop for hours, picking up on all the old Tech School life as if it were yesterday. Anyway yes Martin did have someone in mind to play the part of John – Alex Knox. Alex had a degree in Music from Manchester University – he also had a Masters in Singing from Guildhall and was now taking the Guildhall’s Masters Acting Degree- he would be perfect. So I took the train up to London to meet him at the Guildhall. I sang Alex the John parts in one of the Guildhall’s studios, so I suppose it could be said that I have sung at the Guildhall School of Music and Theatre! For a classical trained singer it would not have been normal to learn a part warbled by some PE teacher, but that is what happened with Alex singing the part in the Risen! CD.
Alex has become a great friend – my blog of November 24th 2016 features his appearance playing lead in the West End play “ It’s Easy To Be Dead.”It was his birthday yesterday so Happy Birthday Alex!
Jordan Spieth Winner of The Open Golf Championship 2017
Well the Portsmouth University Gospel Choir did not win Saturday’s final of BBC1s “Pitch Battle” but they did do themselves proud with one judge choosing them and two other judges choosing “All the Kings Men” who went on to be runners up to the “Leeds Contemporary Singers. “ PGC were still by far the best for me though and as Judge, Gareth Malone quite rightly said “just pervaded excitement and joy. “
Their performances brought back wonderful memories for me of when they sang in Risen! The Musical at the New Theatre Royal , Portsmouth in November 2015. The featured video has choir leader Heavilyn Sarpong (usually appropriately called Heaven) leading a rehearsal of a Risen! song “Jesus Oh Oh.” They are such lovely people and I think you can get an idea of their joy from the other video clip which is of them in the New Theatre Royal’s dressing room after the final performance of Risen! The Musical – all singing “Jesus is my Lord.” I am not sure what they will be doing next apart from enjoying a well- earned break from their University studies- but my love goes out to them all.
Not sure if you are into golf but the final round of this year’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale was fantastic. Jordan Spieth managed to turn round a pretty disastrous final round by going birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie, par, which for those who don’t know golf too well is like scoring four cricket centuries in a row or four football hat tricks. (well not quite!) The runner up was fellow American Matt Kuchar – he and Jordan have something in common apart from being great golfers – they are both Christians.
My lovely wife, Caroline and I celebrate nine years of marriage on August 9th and when this blog comes out we will be on an early holiday to Bath for a couple of days. Hope you have a nice week too.
First may I remind you that this coming Saturday, July 22nd starting at 7.25 pm the wonderful “Portsmouth University Gospel Choir” compete in the final of BBC 1s “Pitch Battle” choir competition featuring Gareth Malone. All this week the choir and their leader, Heavilyn have been conducting interviews on local radio and TV with a front page article in the Portsmouth News. http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/celebs/student-gospel-choir-from-portsmouth-latest-pitch-battle-winners-1-8047366 The Portsmouth University Gospel Choir featured with the London Touring Cast in the first of two productions of Risen! The Musical at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth.
The previous Saturday I watched on TV, with my dear friend Dr Graham Giles, the final Rugby Union test match between the British and Irish Lions and the New Zealand All Blacks. It was a fantastic game which finished in a 15-15 draw, which also meant that the three match series also ended as a draw.
Some were left rather cold as there were no images of celebrations for the winners -dejection, reflection and consolation for the losers. It is understandable that when players train so incredibly hard to become winners – having no winners and losers is rather strange. However in my opinion both teams were huge winners as they gave the world unforgettable images (as in featured pic) of their great respect and admiration for each other- something I would suggest is far more worthy of celebration than simply winning.
All this reminded me of the wonderful Rugby Union World Cup theme song “The World in Union” which is today’s featured song (and which always sends shivers down my spine.) It was adapted from the British hymn “I Vow To Thee My Country” which was apparently Princess Diana’s favourite. It was taken from a poem by Sir Cyril Spring Rice with music by Gustav Holst adapting the music from a section of Jupiter from his suite, The Planets.
“The World In Union” lyrics were written by Charlie Starbek. I particularly like the line “If I win lose or draw it’s a victory for all.” I suppose that is similar to a phrase coined by the founder of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who said “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
