THE DIGITAL STORY OF THE NATIVITY

A Thousand Questions...simply amazing!

Trick or treat, victory or defeat?

As Halloween approached, for the first time ever, my daughter had lots of questions about the subject. In the past we always did not like any of the Halloween stuff, we knew that we celebrated light and salvation in Jesus and that death and darkness were not on the menu at all in the shape of Halloween. But this year, the conversation started with all questions about the history behind Halloween as we researched it before and knew all about its background in the past. My daughter question was “why do not we do something fun and still celebrate light and salvation, celebrated the old way it used to be”. In fact it used to be All Hallows Eve which was tied directly to All Saints Day celebrated on November 1 of each year to commemorate the old saints who have past on. These “saints” were heroes and martyrs for the Christian Faith. This was a tricky discussion for me. As a child growing up in Egypt, we never heard about Halloween, and so as a mother I was happy to follow the church line not to celebrate Halloween. However, I was faced with the dilemma this year with my child clearly understands what she wanted to do and not wanting to be following the crowd blindly and equally wanting to have fun while sticking to our values.

Looking at Christmas, there is so much focus on the tree, the gifts and Santa, does that mean that we will ban Christmas? No, but we will keep the message alive and keep the focus back on what really matter, the birth of the king who saved us.

So when it came to Halloween, I agreed to a small party for few friends, with no death, skeletons or any scary things. We did crafts and played games and visited few houses of people we knew –rather than some glorified begging for sweets- and the kids had fun. I painted their faces and had mine done as well and was praying all thorough the night for God’s protection to be on all of them.

I remember that similar discussion surrounded the harry potter books and whether as christian we should read them or not with the links to witchcrafts and magic and so on. I really believe that if you have your “holy spirits eyes on” you can see God in everything. Before my daughter went to bed tonight, she said that she had a great day, we prayed and thanked God that Jesus is the light of the world and that he conquered everything that is dark and evil. I trust that if i make a big deal out of little things without full explanations and complete convections especially when my daughter is approaching her teens very quickly, it is more likely that she will grow resenting her faith. After all as Cliff always says, “why do we let the devil have all the fun”?

"I am still not sure about God"

This is what my daughter announced as she was settling into bed! At that point we just finished praying and thanking God for the day. She said: "I am still waiting for some scientific evidence to make sure that God created the world". I was surprised by the word "still", as she is only 9 years old and has not been looking for evidence for the existence of God that long! I listened to her as she put all her ideas across and I was really fascinated that no matter how old we are, we are looking for assurance that what we believe deep down is the right thing. She said that the "big bang" doesn't really make sense and that to have come from monkeys was really silly. But she wants to see a sign..a big gesture..then she said.."I have only one thing that I know is true, the bible and it was written by so many different people that it could not have been all made up". I was glad and reassured at this point :) We had some discussion and I love the fact that we can share all the questions, ideas and even the doubts. God is like that with us, he loves us so much and he does not mind when we come to him as his kids and ask all kinds of questions, HE loves us to chat with him more than anything else. As for the time being, I am asking for wisdom, a lot of it and quick!!

Yacoubian Building

This is the trailer for "Yacoubian building" movie, with the biggest budget ever in the history of the Egyptian cinema. It is based on the best selling novel under the same name by Alaa Al Aswany. I watched the movie and it is very brave attempt to address the changes in the Egyptian society. The fiction in this movie is so real that makes it scary to watch knowing the level of corruption, the secretes, the link between religion and politics and the huge gap between the rich and the poor. Great movie and I am surprised that it was released for public viewing in the first place.

Church time

An excellent cartoon from the Asbo Jesus website.

Sad news

About a year and half ago, I wrote about a big car accident that involved my old church back in Egypt. Sad to say that it has happened again. This time, in 2 different accidents in the space of one week, 2 dear friends have lost their life. There are a number of people still in hospital with broken bones and other injuries. The church is in shock to say the least. This is not a usual rate of road accidents in this part of the country and the obvious questions is

WHY?

On an online forum, people are posting messages and condolences, others are airing frustrations and condemnations to the church. It is a sad time and some are attacking the leadership of the church and declaring that this is God's judgment on his people. The church family is mourning the loss of 2 prominent people who have been serving the Lord for a long time and I have been personally blessed and guided by them as a young christian. The question is, how can the church mourn and still focus on God, the comforter, the redeemer and the saviour without blaming God or each other. We are all called to examine our hearts and repent, on a daily basis and not only when crises comes.

Only God in his mercy can deliver us.

Joy (The Vally of Vision-Arthur Bennitt)

O Christ,
All thy ways of mercy tend to and end in my delight.
Thou didst weep, sorrow, suffer that I might rejoice.
For my joy thou hast sent the Comforter,
Multiplied by promises,
Shown me my future happiness,
Given me a living foundation.
Thou are preparing joy for me and me for joy;
I pray for joy, wait for joy, long for joy;
Give me more than I can hold, desire, or think of.

Measure out to me my times and degrees of joy at my work, business, duties.
If I weep at night, give me joy in the morning.
Let me rest in the thought of thy love,
Pardon for sin, my title to heaven, my future unspotted state.
I am an unworthy recipient of thy grace.
I often disesteem thy blood and slight thy love,
But can in repentance draw water from the wells of thy joyous forgiveness.

Let my heart leap toward the eternal Sabbath, where the work of redemption, sanctification, preservation, glorification is finished and perfected for ever.
Where thou wilt rejoice over me with joy.
There is no joy like the joy of heaven, for in that state are no sad divisions, unchristian quarrels, contentions, evil designs, weariness, hunger, cold, sadness, sin, suffering, persecutions, toils of duty.

O healthful place where none are sick!
O happy land where all are kings!
O holy assembly where all are priests!
How free a state where none are servants except to thee!
Bring me speedily to the land of joy

One evening in Avenue Q

People's dreams, trying to find your purpose in life, finding love, ahh and finding a place that is affordable…welcome to the neighbourhood in Avenue Q. A funny and sweet (and at times rude) musical that I enjoyed very much last night. The use of puppets was superb and the ideas although simple, were addressed so nicely. One of the main characters –Princeton- spent all his time trying to find his purpose in life and “Kate monster” was always trying to help. There were also the “bears of bad ideas” who always chip in at the wrong time with bad ideas that often made things worse.
Avenue Q was great fun and as always there is something about the theatre that is so magical, powerful and highly enjoyable.

Montpellier .... très jolie

Spent few days in Montpellier, south of France and it is really a lovely, beautiful place to be. One of the nice things I liked very much is the grass that is so neat on the tram rails which adds a nice feeling to the roads and to the journey down the busy town. Lovely coloured trams as well to cheer everyone up throughout the day. Certainly, a place to visit again and again.

Don't get busy with the Bees.....Go after the HONEY

There are a list of "Bees" that keep people away from God:

Books (work, study worries)

Bills (money)

Blocks/birds (relationships)

Body (image,health)

Bereavement (bad experiences)

But here is my list of HONEY that we need to focus on

HONEY

Hold on to the faith

Only Jesus can save

No condemnation now on those in Christ

Encourage yourself and each other

Your life is safe in His hands

So I say, do not just stay busy with the BEEs, go after the Honey!

what can I say?

How much I love Elephants

Happy Birthday

This is the time of year when I thank God that birthdays are only once a year! just purely for the fact that I needed to organise a birthday party for my daughter. As usual we went through various ideas ranging from the utterly expensive to the ones that will send me to an early grave with worry and bypassing any ideas that involve the words "woods survival skills" or "adventure camping" !

At this point of the planning, I often think about government departments and how they reach ANY kind of decisions as I struggle to reach a decision about a birthday party.

At the end we made a decision and D day arrived and I am glad to report that it was GREAT. We decided to go for a sports party involving canoeing and crate stacking. It was wonderful the the kids had a fantastic time. I also remained calm and in one piece, staying strong on my objection to "jumping in the river after the canoeing".

Just a small question, should organising successful birthday parties be a skill that I should include in my CV in the future? I think so :)

What a week

It is so true that one week is too long in politics. Since last Thursday, we have seen an election, a hung parliament, some resignations, new type of coalition and a liberal democrat in the government for the first time in more than 60 years. What a week!


I think that the presence of the lib dem in the government will make the conservative rule a less bitter pill to stomach. On top of that, the conservative will have someone to blame if things do not go according to plan. "we had to do things in a difficult sitting working with the lib dem" I can hear the conservative say.

But in this time where the country face this huge task of dealing with the economic situation, I think we needed a government of national unity, putting the country first. Now, my question is, if this coalition government really work and they go on to deliver in this uncertain climate, can we have an option on the ballot paper to choose another hung parliament next time?

just a thought for electoral reforms :)

I am back to my running days and I am loving it so much. No excuse now as the weather is better and so I am back to my training. I am trying to push behined the 1hour baraier for my next event. Today, I was able to do 45 min follwed by a long collapse :) I am hoping that in the next few days I will be able to do more.

In the last few months, I feel that I have been going through some spiritual desert, with little if any bible teaching. The problem with that was it gets very comfy not being challenged and after a while it is very cosy to stay still with the common "I believe in God, I am saved, why worry" attitude. But thanks to someone who was giving a talk to a group of people (not about anything to do with God or the church), I was really encouraged and felt this is someone who knows the Lord. Now, we visited the new church and I LOVE it. I am being challenged by God's word (and it is not comfortable place let me say) but I know it is the right place to be. I am longing to grow and keep going with God in all the ups and the downs of my life and a strong lively church is where I need to be. I pray that God can use me in this new place for his glory.

Run fat boy run

The title is a bit of a give away to what I am going to do. I have decided in a moment of madness to run half a marathon this year. The good news is I have plenty of time to train and get into shape for it. When I told my friends, one of them said to me: "you need to see a psychiatric..fast" :)

Who said scientist are geeks?

This is really nice and it is not because of Valentine's day. This is an experimental image acquired by two researchers from the Centre for Microvascular Research at the William Harvey Research Institute (Queen Mary university of London) that won first prize in the British Heart Foundation’s Reflections of Research competition. Amazing.


Researchers win leading science image competition, Queen Mary, University of London

Well done Egypt, winners of the African cup

And what is your shoe size madam?

Last week was officially the most depressing week in the year, some believe. As Christmas seems like a distance memory and the bills are coming in thick and fast and still no sight of pay day. However, here is something that will put a smile on so many faces and certainly a dream come true to many women :)

Some genius thought that as women love shoes and chocolate, what not combine the two together? So, welcome to your designer chocolate shoe collections. Fantastic art and comes at a great price as well. You will need to find a strong heart to face eating these designer shoes! and the good thing is, You can buy only 1 shoe and not a pair.

We miss you Darbie

Snow, snow and more snow

Here is some photos of the river Ouse in the snow. It is lovely to look at but not to endure the freezing wind. Any sign of global worming yet?

Right on your own

I watched the BBC program on Apollo wives in the 40th anniversary of the Apollo space mission. A wonderful program, interviewing wives of some of the most famous men on earth. Fascinating to see how the space mission affected real lives on earth, damaging families and breaking marriages as well as making history and conquering fears. The program is still on the BBC iplayer. Here is a song that Clare Whitefield (her husband was in Apollo 9)wrote and sang, funny and a bit sad as well. The question is: Would you like to be right and on your own?

HAPPY NEW YEAR