Christ Church and a 60th

Christ Church
Colossians 3:18-4:1 includes the command "Wives submit to your husbands" and various other commands on family life.  I'd swapped for today, and at the time hadn't even thought to check what the reading might be.  Anyway I should, in theory, be able to preach on any passage in the Bible.  Its just a matter of prayer and preparation.  Isn't it?  Well some passages are more difficult than others.  I researched my topic carefully - as I always do - and the result is here, should you want to read it.
As it was a fifth Sunday the young people provided the music.  Having them rota'd  like this means they can fit it in between revision and school work and clubs and ... (why do we teach our children to have such busy lives?).  I don't know how the rehearsals went, but the music was very good!  And I should note that Liz sang very well - and that she was the only singer.
We are still learning how to make the best of the new projector and teaching people to switch it off and on. It's a long time since I've used slides, and had forgotten  that to make open office presentations transportable you have to embed the pictures, not link to them.  There are ways of doing it.  The easiest is to paste the pictures, rather than attach them - so some of my pictures were missing.  
I'm currently working on evaluating the software for the new laptop - to see which is best for projecting songs and other things.

60th Birthday
After lunch we walked across town (30+ minutes each way) to a friends 60th Birthday celebration.  He had an 'open house' for the afternoon.  Very many friends had come to wish him well from his old workplace and from the church. We had a very enjoyable couple of hours chatting to various people. 

Back to Normal Sunday

Today represents the first 'normal' Sunday of 2010.  That is we are now out of the Christmas season, the Children's groups have re-started and the next important celebration for us is months away.  Margaret spoke to us from Colossians 3:5-11 reminding us of the many things that the world finds acceptable in our behaviour, but God does not.  Next week its my turn.  As Margaret said I get all the good news as she has all the bad.  You cannot cover those verses though without moving past the 'Therefore' at the start of verse 12 - that would just be too depressing.  The passage is often used as a new year reading.  I'm not sure if this is coincidence or was carefully planned by Warner.
The new projector we were hoping to have installed by Christmas was again delayed by the weather, so again we are hoping it will be in place next week.  To go with it we will also have a new laptop.  That is where I have seen Windows 7, and I am working on configuring it.  When I have complete my analysis of the projection software I will publish it on the other blog or the technology blog, or perhaps both.

Not everything is normal though - Christ Church now has a video channel on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/ChristChurchTV.  We are also experimenting with video on our web site. This is an important step forward in the video age.  Now all we need are some gifted producers and editors.

A Bright Idea and a missing relative

I took a day off work yesterday to attend the projector demonstration at Christ Church. We have been trying to raise money to improve the projection. The projector we have now is OK for words but is not good for pictures and hopeless for video. We will also get a new screen (hopefully). We looked at two - one about 4,000 ANSI lumens, and one about 6,500 ANSI lumens. The demonstration was in the middle of the day, so not that many could attend. Those who did will have seen our projector deliver a very difficult to see piece of video. The lower specification machine gave us something that was visible but not easy to watch. The higher specification machine gave us a picture that was easy to watch. I know which one I want. Two of the younger people in the church suggested that if we are to spend some money we need to see that it has made a difference. Again, I agree.

After lunch Jo and I headed to Southend Sutton Road cemetery to look for grandfather George and his wife Ethel. They should be in the same grave. My grandfather died in 1929, when my father was still a boy, and this is the first time I have tried to find his grave. Grandmother died a little over a year later and should be in the same place.
We arrived to find rush hour at the cemetery, and had to park along the road. The rabbits have burrowed deep into the graves and many of the headstones are broken or missing. We walked up and down the rows counting graves and trying to work out where the plot might be. After a couple of failed attempts we arrived here - at the row between the bush and a very well kept grave. The plot is the one immediately to the left of the grave, and immediately in front of my feet.
It seems that my grandfather does not want to be found!

We drove down the road to look at the church where Mum & Dad were married. It is in Sutton road and is called 'All Saints', Jo found it on the map and off we went. I don't think it is the right one though. There is another 'All Saints' in Sutton Road, which I do think is the right one.
After that we drove to grandfather's last house which can be seen in the picture. I wonder if there is any evidence of him in there?

Lastly we went over to Shoebury east beach. That beach used to be wild and open but it has been tamed and civilised, and is not what it once was.

Projector

We have a Sahara projector at church, it has been getting duller and duller, we can almost see nothing on the screen. We have decided to try a new 'bulb'. On Wednesday it arrived and I fitted it in the projector. The people at Sahara sent us a manual for the projector (the one that came with it has long since disappeared - one of the problems of shared equipment). The first bulb has lasted 834 hours. Now I would like to reset that count, but the projector refers me to the manual, and the manual refers me to the manual, but I cant find out how to do it.

On Sunday we will find out whether it has made any difference.