Soul Survivor 2008

OK, so we have been and yet again found SS to be a great experience and that God continued to amaze us.  Why are we so gullible that we get amazed by God so often?  Maybe we just need to get it into our heads that He is amazing!  Anyway, photos are added to the blog.

I don't normally / never make any kind of fuss about anybody's birthday on the blog, but Rob has not shut up about his birthday for weeks.  We are all so................ glad that it has finally arrived.  So, here is my birthday present for you, a few of the pictures that we have of you over the past 4 years or so.  Enjoy ... everybody.  Oh, just 2 weeks to Soul Survivor now!

I was sad to hear earlier this week, although not desparately surprised, that Delirious will cease to be a band an the end of 2009.  They have made it clear that there is no sense of the band members haven fallen out and 'breaking up', but they are wanting to spend more time with their families and to do work with other projects.  As a band Delirious have had many highs and to be honest a few lows (a few of their albums were not particularly good).  But, what they have done is take mainstream Christian music to places that it had never gone before, and at the live 'concerts' have led people to a place of great intimacy with God.  God has used them in the faith journeys of so many people and for that they will always be 'History Makers'.  http://www.delirious.co.uk/html/ gives the official announcement.

At P2 today we are looking at environmental stuff and what God thinks about the way that we are trashing his world.  A useful tool that you can check out to see how good / bad your carbon footprint is can be found at www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.html.

Well, we made it to the last week in June.  What a month it has been.  Having a normal week this week makes a really pleasant change.  Exams are over!  Fort Rocky has happened and was great.  The RUN Conference that a few of us adults went on has come and gone and was also a really good time, and then there was last weekend straight after it.  The Alsager Carnival went really well, especially considering what the weather was supposed to be like - and we won the best float (Well done Nikki and Andrew).  There were other things going on on Saturday - we had a 30th birthday party, Toby had a wedding, Roly Bain gave a great show in the church hall, amongst other things.  And then there were the baptisms on Sunday morning - which were all fab.  Church ended up being a lot longer than usual but it was great, and we followed it up with a barbeque.  (I had a few of the remaining sausages for breakfast this morning.)  So now all that's left to do is to look forward to July, with a Beetle Drive, car wash, youth annual review including a video we have not yet made and then the small issue of going to Soul Survivor.  I love the summer ...!

Well, we've been, had a great time and returned.  I'm sure there will be more details to come over the next few days.  But, for now, the photos have been added to the blog - and there's a lot of them.

No, really.  Check it out - http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldFootballNews/idUKSP7842320080604?rpc=401&

It is!  I cannot believe that a year or so has already gone since we were there.  That's just amazing.  For those of you who are going we will be leaving the church hall at 5:00 on Friday, but you will get a letter all about it at P2 tomorrow.  Am really looking forward to it again.  It should be great fun.  Although things will be a bit different this year because we will be taking Esther with us too.

You know the way you get those times when everything seems to come up at the same time.  Well for me this summer it's called June.  Looking at my calendar I cannot believe how random my weeks are.  Days off will be swapping, I will be going away for different things a few times, there are special days that are not usually on the calendar and then there is the regular weekly programme to keep up with too.  But, it should be a really great month, with lots of exciting things going on.  I just hope that I can keep up ...

I have had this Delirious song stuck in my head this morning, and it did make me think that there are so many good things going to be happening this summer.  The end of exams!  Fort Rocky!  Soul Survivor!  Holidays!  And then there's the general feel good factor as we get to enjoy the great British outdoors.  I just hope that we have a nice summer, instead of the rain soaked excuse for a summer that we got last year.  We are thinking of doing the Film Wednesdays that we did last year, although we need to work this out a bit because of Esther this year - so no promises.  YGG are planning to run a Beetle Drive for some of the older people in the community, so that should be a great event.  I have a meeting tonight with some other youth leaders in Alsager, where we will compare notes for the summer - sharing what kind of stuff is going on with each other.  Whatever we end up doing - the summer is on its way!

So, the football season has nearly finished, with just a few cup finals left.  Let's face it, we aren't really that bothered about Euro 2008 are we?  So, this is the point in the year when people start to do all of their reviews, and there are a lot out there.  In a couple of weeks the silly season of transfer frenzy will be upon us (where Everton will be linked with everybody who can kick a ball - and Newcastle will buy them instead).  But, what about the last season?  Well, the anoraks at Right Result have tried to work out what the league would look like had refereeing decisions gone correctly.  I think that they are having a bit of wishful thinking because this isn't overly accurate, but they reckon that the bottom 3 would have been, well the bottom 3.  The only significant difference is that Everton would have finished a point ahead of Liverpool and in a Champions League position - http://www.rightresult.net/.  The opta people have collected their data and have some great results as highlighted in the Guardian (note: Joleon Lescott comes out as the best striker in a goals to strikes ratio - funny) - http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/05/14/stats_entertainment_lescott_th.html.  Then there is the transfer rumours for the summer.  I stumbled across this site the other day which actually rates the various newspapers into a league table based on their accuracy - and you thought I had too much time for finding this website - http://www.footballtransferleague.co.uk/.  So, what does all of this tell us?  Not a lot - just that things are going to get worse as the withdrawal symptoms from football kick in.

Well, we had a great time over the weekend at Alton Towers.  Of course the day in the park was naturally good - even if the queues were a bit long.  The concert was great too.  It's a bit of a shame that we didn't know more of the Delirious stuff, but them having a new cd out did mean that we had a great souvenier to buy.  Happy days!  If you went - How did you find it?  Pictures have obviously been included on the blog (if you haven't noticed yet, then open your eyes - lol).

It is nearly upon us.  The tickets are bought.  The transport is organised.  The sandwiches are ... well, actually not yet made for obvious reasons.  The weather is booked (it looks like it's going to be a nice day - unless the weatehr forecast has already changed, and if they are right).  All that's left to do is to have a whole lot of fun and party!

It was great to see so many people in church on Sunday morning, and so many of them there for Esther's dedication.  A big thank you to everybody who came and for those who brought food for the bash afterwards - it was also great.  After the party at church we had our families back to our house for more getting together.  For those of you who have been to our house, imagine about 30 of us in it - it was a bit packed.  A huge thank you as well to Stevie, Ali and Matt (SAM) for thier help over the whole weekend.  We genuinely couldn't have done it without you!

Yesterday, May 5^th marked exactly 80 years since one of football’s most incredible achievements was made.  On May 5^th, 1928 Dixie Dean scored his 60^th league goal of the season – the highest ever total for any of the professional leagues.  Back then there were 42 games in a season.  Up until 1926 the most goals any individual player had scored in a 1^st Division season was 38.  In the 1925/26 Blackburn’s Ted Harper obliterated the record, by scoring 43 league goals.  In the 1926/27 season George Camsell of Middlesbrough scored an astonishing 59 goals in the 2^nd Division, the highest goals tally by any individual in any division.  Then came Dean …  He scored in each of the first nine matches of the season – including all five in a 5-2 home defeat of Manchester United.

In Everton’s 29^th game of the season, at Anfield, Dean scored a hat-trick in a 3-3 draw which drew him level with Ted Harper’s 43 goals in a 1^st Division season.  But, a four-game drought followed.  With nine matches remaining, Dean needed 17 goals for the cross-divisional record – a seemingly impossible target, but he scored doubles against Derby, Blackburn, Sheffield United and Aston Villa, amongst other goals.  He now needed to score 7 goals in the final 2 games to beat George Camsell’s record.  Dean scored 4 goals against Burnley at Turf Moor to put the record dramatically in sight.  All that remained now was to score a hat-trick against Herbert Chapman’s legendary Arsenal side.  This was Dean’s 39^th league game of the season and he was carrying an injury from the previous week’s game against Burnley.  Dean scored a header and a penalty to equal George Camsell’s record.  Then, with 5 minutes remaining Alec Troup took a corner, which Dean headed in.  History was made!

This whole achievement was all the more amazing as Dean had so nearly died after a motorcycle accident which had seen him severely fracture his skull, just 2 years earlier.  The doctors first said that he had a few hours to live.  Once he had come through those hours they said that he would never play football again.

Dean played a total of 433 games for Everton, scoring 383 goals. He died from heart failure when a guest at Goodison Park on March 1^st, 1980, during the Merseyside derby.  For the first time in the programme’s history, Match of the Day silenced its famous signature tune, ending the show with an image of his face on the screen.  Earlier that afternoon his old pal Bill Shankly had delivered a moving tribute to Dean which concluded: “He belongs in the ranks of the supremely great . . . like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt.”