The hidden me – genius in the kitchen

Even the flour and eggs obey….

She aint a baby any more….

Heres a lovely picture of my daughter at university looking all happy and nice. Does my heart good to see her enjoying herself…

I hope to get to see her soon in Coventry – wish it wasnt quite so far away. I enjoyed the journey on summers evenings but in the winter with the cold weather on the A14 Im not so keen.

I named Adele after a school friend I had when i was very young at primary School at St Clements in Bsocombe – her name was Adele Cochrane – are you out there somewhere, Adele? Id love to say hello…..

Time for bed – a bit of snow here at Little Paxton but nothing like the poor folk of the north east and Scotland have had.

Advent Prayers and thoughts

The marvellous collect for Advent Sunday:

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

And a shorter collect:

Almighty God

as you kingdom dawns

Turn us from the darkness of sin

to the light of your holiness

That we might be ready to meet you

In our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

The equally marvellous Advent Blessing:

Christ the Sun of righteousness shine upon you

Scatter the darkness from before your path

and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory

and the blessing…

 

A reflection for   Advent ( sorry I dont know the source)

Stay awake” is an alarm sounding on the first Sunday of advent. It means many different things, the most important of which is to seize the opportunities of the present moment, prepare for Christmas, prepare for death, yes, surely. But also, and more important, prepare for the kingdom of God whenever it explodes into your life. In Jesus’s view of the kingdom, it is always near, ready to break through the barriers of every day and seize us, impel us, embrace us, challenge us – and especially in Jesus’s view of things the kingdom appears with God’s sweeping love in ordinary daily events: a confused child, a sick friend, a discouraged spouse, a troublesome person on the phone, a demand that seems unfair but where we can do much good with little effort. These are the places to look for God’s loving power.

 

A prayer for Advent:

Lord, fill our hearts with the Advent Spirit

Allow us to overflow with the real gifts this season of preparation has to offer.

May we take time to enjoy the blessings of Advent

Let us stop the rush and allow the risen Lord Jesus to enter our bring.

Let us clear our vision and deeper our concern

May we move from concern for self

To a place where we freely give of ourselves

And receive with joy the great gift of salvation the Christ Child brings

Amen

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The day after the day after the result

I think the news has sunk in now about our Peoples Millions Victory – though we are also very pleased to hear that the project we were up against, the restoration of an ancient steam roller also won  £50K as the highest looser.

For those of you who might like to take a look, here are the links to some U tube footage taken when we were presented with the cheque:

http://www.facebook.com/l/c3a4cGlp0Y9T62XC_i3pi9v41_w;www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQvjBjIcrGU

http://www.facebook.com/l/c3a4cei292v9Crlu2IaHJgeePpA;www.youtube.com/watch?v=7caJ1tHxv8g

http://www.facebook.com/l/c3a4caROEHv2gN3FPBSOUPHz-xQ;www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbHIB58QqW8

Often clergy and their congregations understandably feel that church repairs and any fabric projects are a pain and a drain on resources. But I do believe that they can be turned into a real opportunity for growth. Developing a fund raising campaign and planning lots of events which both raise money and the profile and mission of the church can be a good way to encourage growth.

So if any paxtonvic readers feel overhwelmed by the need for church repairs, try and be positive, form an enthusiastic fund raising team, get praying  and see what might happen!

The snow has melted – time to inter some ashes and then get ready for Advent.

We won!

Just about enough energy to blog after an exhilerating day full of good news and lovely people.

Yes, we pulled it off and won the £50K in the Lottery Funded Peoples Millions Competiotn. Maybe it wasnt until the ITV crew came out and filmed us celebrating at school c 1.30pm that it felt real.

Now work can begin early in the new year to get our bells ringing again.

The only downer with the competition is that there are some loosers – so Im sorry for all the projects and people involved who must have put as work into their bid as we did and didnt win. I cant imagine how we would have felt if we hadnt been successful

So, thanks for everyone – thousands who voted across the country and locally -and we shall keep you all in touch with the progress we are making.

And now, before I fall off my chair with tiredness, its bed time!

Waiting for the result at Little Paxton

‘Tis a morning of waiting for ther result after the Little Paxton Bell Appeal was shown on TV yesterday. It would be wonderful if we win outright today…

It could be though that we are the highest runner up of the 8 projects that will have been shown on ITV Anglia over the week – in which case we shall have to wait to Friday to find that out.

I need to do something to distrct my thoughts so I think a spot of form filling might to do – or even some study tidying.

Yesterday I talked about St Clement at our mid-week communion and realised he is linked with that odd ditty ” Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clements” – we all concluded  it was a sign!

Will no doubt be back blogging later with news one way or the other….

Keep warm – we are lucky in St Neots – no snow yet though very cold.

 

Little Paxton Bell Appeal – the number to ring!!

At last its THE VOTING DAY for Little Paxton Bell Appeal!

 

Here is the number:

 

0871 626 88 05

 

Anyone can ring up to ten times on a landline phone for just £1.00 for ten calls ……. and if we get more votes than our competitor, a steam roller enovation project, we shall win £50K

We do wish them well too – but not quite as well as us maybe!

 

Any paxtonvic readers – please do vote if you are in the UK.

We shall be on ITV Anglia news c 6pm tonight!

Im pretty tired already having got up at 6.00am ( unheard of!) but it is all very exciting! Some wit has asked whether it is taking its toll on us!! Tell you tomorrow!

 

Have a good day…

Pope and Archbishop voting for Little Paxton?

How they came to be discussing the little Paxton Bell Appeal Im not sure, but here is the Archbishop commending the efforts of  Little Paxton Church to the Pope recently…

How can we go wrong with their support?

Bells, bells, bells at Little Paxton.

Just two more days to go – well, if you are passionate about something its best to get on with the passion and go for it.

Saw the first two projects on Anglia ITV news programme this evening which are up against each other for the Peoples Millions £50K. Each project got about 2 mins of TV coverage – not very long really. Its hard that someone has got to loose – but thats the name of the game at the  moment with this competition.

I was reading the ” Seeround” – the Diocesan newsletter for St Albans Diocese today. On the front they featured the new ring of 13 bells at St Albnas Abbey and what a magnificant sound they must give off on a Sunday morning!

We are only going for 6 – but a respectable number for ringers to make a joyful sound with.

Here is an ancient bell inscription which is printed on the front of the magazine:

“I praise the true God,

I call the people, I assemble the clergy,

I bewail the dead,

I disperse storm clouds,

I do honour to feasts”

Love it – bells used to have a vital role in a community – old fashioned twitter I suppose!

Vote for Little Paxton Bells! Number on paxtonvic on Wednesday – anyone in the UK can vote! – up to ten times….

Just three days to go!Little Paxton Has Bell Appeal

Just three days to go until  “Little Paxton Church Has Bell Appeal” hits Anglia ITV screens on Novemver 24th c 6pm.

We have had loads of fun promoting the cause and support seems to be flooding in from all sorts of people in all sorts of places. Its been great to catch up with old friends too in the process of inviting folk to vote for us.

The number to ring will be on my blog early on Wednesday morning … look out for it all paxtonvic fans. And thanks too for dropping into my blog in such large numbers recently….maybe some of the homilies are helpful – I hope so!

Sleep tight and ding dong!