We've just finished a fantastic week of outreach on our local estates. All of us who were involved agreed that it was a huge privilidge to be a small part of what God has been doing and continues to do in Tollington. You can watch video's from the week here

He hadn't been at our church long when he asked if we could meet. "This just isn't how I imagined it would be" he sobbed into his coffee, "However hard I try I feel my past being thrown back in my face." The real tragedy was that the condemnation weighing him down wasn't so much a metaphysical experience- no, the ones ready to stone him had been his family of faith . A community of faith who found it hard to let him move forward. To leave the past where it belonged. In the past. He hadn't broken any laws of the land, he'd made some bad choices in his personal life. He knew what he'd done was wrong. He'd come to the foot of the cross, confessed it, known the freedom that forgiveness brings and joined his local church. It struck me as I listened to him that while God consigns our past to history, sometimes there are those who find it harder to forgive and forget. The worst part- the only thing he had done was be honest about his life <strong><em>before</em></strong> he had known Jesus. It seemed to me to be so contrary to the character of God. Who forgives. Who heals. Who says in him we are new creations. Who says that as far as the east is from the west so far has me moved our sins from us. Who has been waiting for us to come home, and when he sees us in the distance runs to meet us. Who throws his arms around us and kisses us. Who celebrates.

People often ask us what we do in Tollington. Part of the answer is that we do what we can, when we can, with who we can. We are desperate to help the young people in particular write a story that is different from the one we so often read or see in the news. Here's a little of what we do.

I made a choice that with my life I was going to write a noble, passion filled, integrity soaked story. 
I determined that I would make the most of every opportunity to be a blessing to whoever I could,to serve with selflessness, to give and not count the cost, to love as if my life depended on it. 
I surrendered my desire for personal glory and instead elevated others. 

Click here for a link to my other blog for Mike Breen's top tip.

If you follow this link you can read a really short but non the less thought provoking post by Mark Sayers on screenagers and their perspective of leadership. 

Seriously. 
There he was, sweating away on the treadmill at my local gym. I had to do a double take, and then check again, but it was definitely, definitely him. 
I'm not talking definitely him in the way that that bloke in the film"Notting Hill" thought he had seen Ringo Star, (or maybe Topol) from a distance and then on reflection had come to the conclusion it probably hadn't been him at all. 

About 3 minutes in I thought that my heart was going to explode. I knew that it would get worse before it got better. 
It's at moments like these that you face a choice: Comfort or glory.
I have to be honest and say that comfort seemed like a hugely attractive option at that moment. No more pain, no more straining, no more agony. 

The fact is that I'm always the last to hear everything, so you might already have seen this, but a question struck me as I watched it- what if it was Jesus and not a drink.

Sad, but apparently true.
It all started when I came across a page on Wikipedia which was inaccurate and had an article attached which did not seem to be have any place in a respectable encyclopedia- free and online or not. So I logged in and amended the text and took the article out.
I figured that for an online encyclopedia to be of any use it should at the very lest be both accurate and objective. It was then put back in, so I took it out again. I then got a message telling me in no uncertain terms that I had been reported for vandalizing a page and if I continued to do this I would be blocked.