Yeah, right

I can't get the aphids out of my mind.  (I'll resist a quip about 'bugging'.) 

You lose an element of self control when breakfast time is at half past five, before leaving for work at six.  Piers appears with his customary industrial-sized portion of muesli, while I am working on my equally customary slice of toast and yeast extract.  'Wholesome crusts make strong disciples.'  I tell him about the honeydew on the lime trees.  "'Syphuncles'," he says, correcting my quoted 'cornicles' for the tubes where the goo excretes.  "Hmmm." I can't hold back the self-justification; "I do try to get stuff in my blogs accurate."

I hasten to the other end of the aphid anatomy.  "Yea, but did you know about the pressure relief valve in their heads?  The sap's..."  "Phloem," Piers corrects (there are two types of sap.)  "Yea, phloem...  is at up to 40 bar.  When they poke into the plant cell structure to feed on the sap, this valve stops their heads getting blown off!  How about that for a neat bit of evolutionary advantage?"  By now we're roaring like schoolboys.  "Bad luck for the millions of others before one happened to come along with that genetic mutation!"  Piers throws in for good measure. "I'm going to do a question for Reasons to Believe," I grin, and grab the car keys.

Reason To Believe (RTB) are top guys.  In 2003 I did a magisterial quartet of Sunday morning teachings on Paul's speech in Athens.  At Acts 17 verse 24, 'The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth', I included what I considered to be the best current position on the scripture and science dialogue.  I touched on the age of the earth, common origin evolution and human ancestry.  I researched painstakingly; and afterwards got letters of complaint.  It was an imperfect attempt - had I tried to have it both ways?  I prayed that somehow, somewhere, God would connect me with an author or ministry that grappled with the question credibly.  Meanwhile I was wavering. 

I briefly enjoyed the Intelligent Design material, covering 'irreducible complexity' and the like.  Then on an Xmas Day walk to Flamborough Head, I scrutinised the dizzying chalk cliffs.  I couldn't bring myself to reconcile that it had all got laid down in three hours one Thursday afternoon about 3,000BC, as the young earth catastrophic flood brigade would probably wish I could.  And yet I also know of instant creative miracles, where stumps produced feet (Smith Wigglesworth) or a withered arm grew (the gospels).

After we moved to Leeds in 2006, I spent another four years on this pilgrimage.  Then I came across an audio of Hugh Ross (RTB's founder) in a debate on an apologetics-related website.  He calmly stated that 'the earth was formless and empty' (Genesis 1:2) was about as good as the Hebrew could get to describing the creation of a planet around a sun emerging in a galactic star nursery.  He went on to say that the early atmosphere would be translucent but opaque, so 'light' (from the perspective of an observer) would exist but the sun would be unidentifiable.  After a stable the water cycle was established ('separated the water under the expanse from the water above it', verse 6), the atmosphere would be transparent as now.  I was awed.  Why hadn't anyone explained this before? 

On of the regular Reasons To Believe podcasts invites questions, which are answered unscripted online.  I've had a couple included.  So, I was as good as my word to Piers.  I sent them:

'I was trimming the shrubs under the mature lime trees in our garden, and noticed the vast amounts of honeydew on the leaves.  My biology-savvy friend says this is the excretion from aphids.  He explained how they consume masses of sugary sap (phloem) to get sufficient nitrogen for their diet.  I checked out that aphids penetrate plants with a feeding device called a stylet.  The phloem is at high pressure: I've seen up to 40 bar quoted, but seven to ten seems common.   So, to stop its guts being blown out, aphid's head anatomy has a cibarial pump to regulate the pressure.  Remarkably, when aphids switch to feeding on xylem sap, at negative pressure, the same pump draws in the foodstuff.  And there's even protective regulation by osmosis for the relative chemical concentrations between the aphid's digestive system and the sap.  Is this unique?'

Listen for it on http://www.reasons.org/explore/type/i-didnt-know-that 
I'll spare you an elaboration on the aphid's use of its own fluids to overcome the plant's in-built defences against losing nutrients, and the osmotic regulation process.  Hmmm.  Genetic mutation evolutionary advantage?

My aphids source was http://www.societyofbiologyblog.org/a-shootful-of-sugar/

Gardening Services

Summer's finally arrived.  The Jesus Centre boundary privet hedge has taken over possession of half the footpath, like an oversized passenger sharing your coach seat.  I mention it at our weekly site management meeting, only to be greeted with the gloom that our hedge-trimmer's gone missing from the cellar.

Back at home, we have the same phenomenon along the front of our garden.  Much of Broomhall is a conservation zone.  The graceful stone properties are set about with dark-leaved foliage: laurel, rhododendron, holly, privet and an occasional yew.  In the house family distribution of grounds maintenance responsibilities, trees and hedges have customarily been my lot.  So, I've worked hard at getting the front boundary and drive privet hedges down to a manageable condition.  I can organise the job, clip it and sweep up in two hours flat.

I have a Stihl 2-stroke petrol-powered trimmer, inherited from the close-down of our Preston community house.  It clanks and rattles, is horrendously noisy, and puffs out vile exhaust fumes.  Last year we got it serviced and had a new cutting blade fitted after I clipped a scaffold pole at the Manor, Leeds.  The irony was that I'd originally planned for us to mount a Jesus Army flag on it, symbolic of Royal Standard.  But I digress.  I say 'I have a trimmer' advisedly.  I never loan it out: it's 'one slip sudden death' to tender shrubs. 

After several days ruefully passed, I knew no opportunity to get on with the job would come my way: I'd have to create one.  The weather forecast for Wednesday said, 'Rain later, settling in'.  I had to grab my chance.

Straight after the Jesus Centre daily Brotherhood, I made Mary - on Helpdesk - a cup of tea, and hurried home.  Harriet spotted me loading up the wheelbarrow.  Silas, three, and the youngest, still at home during the day, 'wants to know if he can help you'.  He's a lovely lad, and soon presented himself - as is his custom - with his welly boots on the wrong feet.  He was wrestling to fit on a pair of ear muffs from Daddy's workshop.  Silas's speciality is sweeping up, and he was at it even before we got to the end of the drive.

The three elegant mature lime trees along our front boundary were glistening with honeydew.  I had to negotiate my way through this year's new growth around the trunks.  The sticky secretion got all over my tracksuit bottoms and sweater.  At the end of the job my clothes had the texture I can only remember being the same as when you got seaside candyfloss on your arm by accident.  Piers told me aphids excrete the stuff through two tube-like cornicles.  Charming.  It got all over the hedge trimmer too, to the point where bits of leaf clogged up the air intake and the engine choked up and threatened to conk out a couple of times.

We soon had the hedge trimmed down.  Silas was in his element, not only sweeping up but also loading the wheelbarrow with clippings.  Now, at the bottom of our drive is a cable television network box, painted dark green to suit the conservationists no doubt.  It's the gathering point for the smokers, who also have a tin can for their butts.  We cleared out all their empty fag packets, too.  Walking back to the Centre, I stuck a yellow post-it note on the box, "Lovingly maintained by Greatheart and Silas. Please keep tidy".  The rain came two hours later.

Yesterday's site team meeting brought more gloom about the Jesus Centre hedge.  A couple of volunteers had had a go with a small electric trimmer, but had got rained off.  And they'd never returned.  I have to say it wasn't a case of half a job is better than no job.  So as soon as I'd knocked out the action notes, I was back home at lunchtime loading up the wheelbarrow again.  Silas looked hopeful.  I promised him he could come as soon as Mummy was happy he'd finished eating.  This time he had his wellys on the right feet. 

The hedge looked like a sheep before shearing, swaying in the light breeze and warm sun.  I was secretly glad to have another chance to cut it again.  When the renovation work was being done, the whole Centre boundary had been Heras fenced off.  Some sections of the hedge had got damaged.  But now it had largely grown back, there was chance to trim it all to a decent line.  The first time I seriously attacked the hedge, after over a year of neglect, two neighbours appeared and asked if would 'do theirs, too'.  I explained I just had the Saturday morning to spare and had to be back home for lunch.  Thereafter, I've tried to leave the task to the Centre team.

I blended in the levels to where our volunteers had done their bit, and overall the finished job looked improved.  Silas got bored.  There was too much cutting and not enough sweeping.  But he diligently refitted his ear muffs every time I started up the trimmer for a further section.  He'll go far that lad, with that level of helpfulness and diligent attention at age three. 

AMEN Retrospect

I spent three days after the official AMEN programme ended following up urgent priorities.  There were details of September's India trip to reschedule.  I rang Colney, freshly returned, and he confirmed he'd now got all he needed to get the Burma conference moving.  Daniel emailed from UAE to firm up flights and forward a request from Chennai for a group of 20 pastors to come to the Bangalore conference.   He also pressed me for biog information for the South India programme for the four of us travelling from UK.

Then I had to repeat the exercise with spring 2014's trip to Africa.  Steven emailed to say he was delayed and still in England.  But he'd been introduced to a charity willing to send a container of aid items to Lusaka, free, providing the immediate transport cost could be covered.  And Desmond emailed to say he'd located a minibus in Belgium that he wanted to get across to Freetown so he could use it for Mick's trip in November.

The third priority was to get all the discussion points scheduled so we could have a decent debrief among the Multiply subcommittee.  Two sides of bullet points!  When we finally sat around the table, we realised how much ground we'd covered.  Whilst the gaping holes in our administration were indefensible, Piet was ready to champion the evolving partnership issues.  The Central Office reorganisation has created an enlarged Multiply office, and I may even get a hot-desk, there too. 

On the motorway I found some space to reflect on nuggets of conversation that had stuck in my mind.  Rukundo's Kingdom message is obviously carrying an anointing, and breaking new ground.  "Don't be surprised if God gives you some new songs to express this message," I'd prompted him.  "Oh, but we have," he beamed. "Forty of them!  We sing them all the time.  And the sister responsible gets very inspired."  He related the exact growth of his New Humanity community.  "We have 16 at our house, 15 in the other house in Kigali, 12 in the Eastern region, and nine more locally waiting to move in."  That's 52 souls. In March last year there were 14 and 12 respectively in the two houses in Kigali - exactly 100% increase.  They'd already moved from the blue-roofed house that I remember, and would need to move on again before the end of this year.

Then there was Colney's reference to his training of junior leaders.  "I tell them that if they'll learn 1,000 verses of scripture, then I'll sponsor them to attend bible college.  They are so keen to be equipped and go to the unevangelised villages."  And whilst considering India, I had to smile at at Daniel's advice to Steve as they discussed the topics for the conferences in Bangalore and Trissur.  "Okay to talk about the Kingdom church, but go easy on celibacy."  We laughed at how celibacy shouldn't be part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In Chatham, we'd all warmed to Matthew sharing about the inward tensions and struggles of leadership.  He described how five years had changed his perspective on working out a leadership call.  "I used to see myself like a sheepdog.  One eye on the Lord, and one eye on the sheep - always in a state of tense alertness.  Now I just walk alongside the Lord, at his hand.  Enjoying seeing the next next move he's planning and next direction He's taking."

Mark's testimony also proved arresting.  Brought up in a churchy family, he'd kicked over the traces when about 16.  Yet his fledgling faith survived.  "Night after night," he recalled, "I prayed beneath my 'blanket cathedral'."  After the official week, we heard, too, that Mark's brother Ralf, in Brazil, will aim to come to Multiply International Leaders Conference (MILC) in summer next year.  This makes possible developments in South America more solid. 

Rukundo stayed on for a couple of weeks.  He came to Sheffield.  We spent time working through the challenges of developing his support team and putting structures in place.  We drove up to the Derwent reservoir, and talked in the rain.  We found a parallel with the establishment of cities of refuge in the settlement of Canaan.  They were models for God's justice and mercy.  But, useless unless they could be reached directly and swiftly.  So, Moses and Joshua were instructed to build roads - good roads.  This just reflects the point of development that Rukundo's got to.  He needs a wineskin to contain the new wine of the Spirit.

Finally, I was still worried about Gregory's tiredness.  "Hello, archbishop," I rang him.  I was relieved to hear his reply. "It was all brilliant.  I'm very inspired.  Let's keep it up."

AMEN Programme (Final) Day 6

It had been nearly midnight before I'd finished today's powerpoint.  I also wanted to download Sam's 'Crossing the Line' YouTube video.  But, when I arrived, Cornhill's broadband wasn't up to it.  Ed found us a portable screen. "You rubbed the lamp, and it appeared," he smiled.  Another engineer.  September's itinerary sorted, I'd promised Daniel some budgets.  He wanted biog details of Steve, Nathan and Sam, too.  Ah, his merchant navy training!  More pressure.  But the pre-registration homemade cookies were delicious.  Multiply catering at Cornhill is legendary.

Huw decided to lead with inspiration and postpone the nuts and bolts (including my contribution) until after lunch.  We had a good blast of worship.  All our apostolic group was present.  Appropriately Mick talked about the apostolic ministry today.  The feedback was rich and stirring.  Steven related his challenge of faith to secure premises in Zambia.  The church was in danger of losing everything, including their deposit, if the deal couldn't be completed in seven days.  Other would-be buyers were queueing up with cash.  At 4pm on the final day a friend rang from Lusaka to enquire if Steven could make use a substantial donation.  "Faith means risk, not research," Stephen pressed.  Here we are again with the Western 'wisdom' versus African 'power' paradigm.  "Come on, Jesus Fellowship," Desmond added, "You've got to imitate this."  We could have stayed on the point for the remainder of the day.

Steve joined us for lunch.  He and Daniel set to discussing topics for the Bangalore and Thrissur conferences.  I left them to take a phone call from Wakey, and immediately passed my mobile to Rukundo.  They may meet up in Sheffield.  I just wish the planning was as far ahead with Colney; but he has to contact John in Burma before we can move things forward.

Matthew spoke of their determination, regardless of Boko Haram, to extend Multiply in northern Nigeria.  The opportunities are immense.  There's a new chapter in Benin Republic, too.  Simeon said we need unity of vigour to match unity of vision, so we shall enjoy united results.  Rukundo then described the M23 violence and tribal tensions in eastern Congo that form the backdrop to his expansion.  This is the point at which we soberly concede how our times together affect and reflect into the big picture for the gospel.    

I was about overwhelmed by the week's mass of discussions.  I could see many good suggestions slipping off the radar if we didn't nail things down.  I got the guys sharing in groups of three: how can we make the most of UK team visits?; give Huw the names of the people you'll recommend for the intern scheme; what new people do you need to add to your team to keep the expansion moving?; who will champion the projects you intend to initiate?; what would the shape of more cross-regional contact look like; and finally, how can we get warm-climate cultures small groups to work effectively?  We're heading for a monster debriefing session next week!

We prayed together, shared bread and wine, and exchanged warm hugs.  More tempting food appeared.   Ed, sporting a shirt from his Kenyan father-in-law, urged the guys to take away as many Jesus Army football scarves as they could use.  They'd been de-stocked from the Resources shop.  I smiled at the prospect of Gregory, who was looking tired now, bothering with one of these in the Nairobi sunshine.

A final catch-up with Daniel to establish when he would return to UAE, and we went our separate ways.  Awaiting at Kings was a 50th wedding anniversary celebration.  The lawns were immaculate, but some guests had spent a little too long in the bright sunlight!  Tomorrow I'll take the morning meeting in Coventry, and on Monday I have to catch up with ten days' Jesus Centre work.  Really, we need twice the time together.

AMEN Programme Day 5

The early morning was glorious, and I rushed downstairs to put in some preparation for our final day's sessions tomorrow.  Today's aim included a prayer walk around the property under negotiation to become our next Jesus Centre.  Mary was due to travel down by train from Sheffield to join us in Birmingham city centre.  But first a relaxed drive from Kings to Cornerstone, with the countryside around the M40 looking its best.

Matthew and Simeon had now arrived from Nigeria.  Huw agreed we should to shuffle up the day's programme to allow them to catch up with their contributions.  Desmond led again, continuing with his report from discussions with the other guys.  He recommended we should all download Viber onto our smart phones for better communication.  I did it there and then: 12MB, 50 minutes and a drained battery.  (But he and I successfully exchanged free text messages in the coffee break.)  We all agreed that if the guys settle on (or some how raise) finance for a minibus, it would be better to source a vehicle locally than send one over from UK.  We would add in the shipping cost.  Well, that's blown my little scheme to drive to Freetown.

We also reached a consensus on the qualities of possible future AMEN guys, or their designates/deputies.  This led on nicely to Mick picking up part two of his theme on leadership training.  Again we shared in pairs.  Piet offered, "All this stuff about team building is alright.  But the washing-up team's a team too.  Does the 'big leader' play his part in that?"  John followed with an update on Jesus Centres.  He drew some lessons from Wednesday's visit to Kings Church, Medway.  Jesus Centres express the heart of the church, in contrast to social action for its own sake.

Cornerstone is blessed with a Malaysian sister, so an enticing variety of rice salads and spicy peanut were on the lunch menu.  I called Daniel over to my laptop, and we agreed more of the total 23 flight details we have to book for the India trip.  Then it was time to head for the city centre.

It's evident how much has changed since Mary and I live there in nearby Kings Norton in the early 1970's. (Ellen and Gavin, our eldest two, are 'Brummies').  I took a car, and jumped several traffic lights to keep up with the minibus ahead.  We passed under the new Bull Ring.  "Looks like someone's put stickers all over it,"  my 4-year-old granddaughter Faye commented recently.  I grew apprehensive in the NCP.  An Asian guy asked from his SUV if I knew where the exit was!

John had recommended that we shouldn't all congregate in the open green space lest the property's CCTV record the visit for posterity.  I dashed off to New Street station to meet in Mary.  I knew this would be a challenge: the last time I'd tried to find my way out I got lost.  Also, Mary had already texted to say the train was delayed by twenty minutes at Tamworth.  I wasn't wrong.  The ongoing station redevelopment has left the whole complex impossible to negotiate.  By the time we met - after several 'Where are you?' phone calls, the allotted hour was up and the guys were climbing back into their minibus.  We need their added faith to land this deal. 

Heading out on the A38, Mary was equally perplexed.  "Is this Northfield?  No, it must be Bournville."  Under the afternoon sunlight and fresh green of the limes and beeches, I offered, "I can't see how Sheffield can claim to have the most trees of any city". 

We'd all resolved to pray with Mark before leaving Cornerstone.  He and Hans were heading back to Berne first thing next morning.  The friendly huddle reinforced how closely we've all been drawn together over the week.  Mary had a catch-up with Mick.  We took our time heading back to Coventry and Gavin's for tea.   Last day tomorrow, and I'm still only halfway through preparing my session.

AMEN Programme Day 4

During worship time on Tuesday, Wilf had expressed a stirring in his spirit.  "The time together will produce some discord.  This is alright," he explained, "As long as it leads to resolution."  Well, so far no sign of this.  But today would see a few fireworks! 

I arrived at Festal early, as I had to set up for our first session on future developments.  We were a bit slow getting started.  Someone spotted the nice wood-burning stove in the lounge, and we voted for a fire.  We found that the two lonely sockets wouldn't support all our gadgetry, so Iain and I set off searching for extension leads.  Hans from Switzerland had joined Mark, and we had a round of welcomes with our coffee. 

Desmond produced some notes from the discussions on Tuesday afternoon, and I'd already suggested to our senior guys a bunch of new initiatives we should work on.  Plenty to occupy us.  After all, the future course for several years emerges from these AMEN times.  I've heard it said that decision-making in a cross-cultural context is slow and painstaking.  Westerners are apt at breaking in with their individualistic opinions, trusting that the final agreed outcome will benefit from the widest range of contributions.  Warm-climate cultures seek early consensus, and customarily (and deferentially) appoint a spokesperson to vocalise this on behalf of the group.  They also tend to say (respectfully) what they think the majority want to hear, rather than pressing their own contribution.  The skill is to draw out the hesitant and tone down the over-confident.  It takes time.

I was due to bat first, and Desmond would follow.  My opening proposals went down well: for hosting recommended leaders at times apart from the MILC conferences, and providing J Gen teams with wider ministry opportunities.  We already had a challenge to improve our practical projects, and still haven't managed to land the deal with the intern scheme.  Some guys seemed to be on the edge of initiative congestion/overload/fatigue.  We had to pause for more questions and comments, and a chance for people to get their heads round things.  So... vigorous debate.  I think it boiled down to something like, "Why haven't you (Jesus Fellowship) been this flexible before?", as Mark, for one, expressed it.

I'd only got limited time, and had to press on with the third initiative: to help with literacy by making ESOL-type material available for use in partner churches.  Kelly keeps reminding me, "Loads of our folks still just don't get it;" (meaning Multiply).  This project would get our grass-roots people involved, marking, perhaps being in on-line contact, etc.  Most of the AMEN guys could very practically identify with the idea.  Huw checked the clock, and we didn't really do the rest of our possible developments justice. 

Stephen, sitting next to me, was giving off a 'blocked' vibe as Mick launched into his session on self-assessment in leadership.  We spent a beneficial time on pondering two question sheets: Do you love to be convicted, to confess sin, to lay down your life...  We huddled in pairs to share our answers.  Then we paused for a delicious lunch of fresh-baked bread cakes and soup.

Desmond led off the afternoon, recommending that a small exec group should prioritise expenditures and other developments.  Huw came prepared with some Trust Treasurer paperwork.  It was soon clear that this wouldn't meet the situation where we need to provide up-front for budgeted costs.  We got on to the difficulties of getting visas, and how it's a gamble how many potential MILC delegates will get them sorted out.  And how we need to grip the administration in UK and the regional Multiply offices.

In the teabreak I rushed into Festal's office and checked out possible flight times for next spring's visit to Zambia, etc.  We need to get as far ahead with the planning as we can.  I then shepherded in Colney to run through a revised itinerary and programme for India this September.  This made us the last to leave, and as he was determined to sneak a look at Mark's magnificent BMW motorbike, we popped in to Cornhill on the way home.

My evening was spent at Promise, catching up with the leaders there.  I'd committed to giving them some time during this week.  Not only had the day been hectic, but our frustration was compounded throughout by Festal's impossible mobile phone signal quality.  Tomorrow sees us all at Cornerstone in Birmingham. Mick asked that we start half an hour earlier to ensure we don't add to our pile of unfinished business.