A remarkable story of the Holy Spirit in action to encourage us as we enter a new year. This week I stumbled across the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church. I for one had never heard anything of this charismatic denomination. Not that Ethiopia ever makes the news. In fact, sadly it is in this ancient country and not in the Ukraine where the biggest war in the world is currently being waged. Of course, the church in Ethiopia goes back to the earliest days of the church, when the Ho

Just three words. You may have come across the app What3Words which gives a unique location, accurate to within three metres, for anywhere in the world by using just three words. Very useful, especially in an emergency. It is used extensively by at least one recipient of this blog, as well as by the police here in Lancashire. Well, according to pastor John MacArthur, it takes just three words to locate Christmas. He writes: “If we could condense all the truths of Christmas i

“Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem,” observes psychologist Virginia Satir. She’s right: I know. As I write this we have no running water, hot or cold – except for the tap in the downstairs toilet. I assume there is a frozen blockage somewhere. Thankfully the radiators are working and both toilets still flush. Added to my woes is the realisation that DHL seems to have lost the parcel with our Christmas cards to be delivered by the Royal Mail (it’s cheaper

Tomorrow evening: England v France. It’s a David and Goliath situation! But not in the way you may think. You know the story, how Goliath stood before the army of Israel, awesome in appearance and terrifying in his taunt: “Why bother using your whole army? So pick your best fighter and pit him against me. He shouts how it’s going to work: “If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you’ll a

Without warning the oversize drawers of my son-in-law fell down to reveal his multi-coloured tights. An accident but even so, we all loved it. Everyone cheered. And he carried on dancing regardless. Yes, it was the annual village panto and the morning after I find myself writing this blog on an unfamiliar computer deep in rural Cheshire. There’s something very English about the pantomime. As actor Roger Allam observes: “You are in a strange world in pantomime, where you are