Game on for God!

Awesome!

What a game today.  St. Andrew's 9 v 0 Kings Park Baptist.An absolutely fantastic performance today. We lost Graham Cuthbert early on due to a hamstring pull and at this point we were 1 nil up thanks to Chris Malone. By half time we were 3 nil up but not out of second gear. In the second half the team went on the rampage scoring 6 with James Ghattas scoring his third successive hat trick, Colin Crichton chipped in with 2 followed by James Gheraghty and Scott Brand also Derek Auld scored with a Ronaldinho type free kick Ha Ha.  Again our goalkeeper did not have a look in for manof the match but was at least called on to make a couple of saves and he did what he had to do well considering he didn't have anything else to do.

A week off now possibly 2 but hopefully for us we will be playing EK Claremont on the 10th April if not we have no game until 17th April when we will be playing Westwoodhill fllowed by our final home game of the season against EK Claremont.  Things are looking very good for the team at the moment, playing well, well disciplined and winning.  James Connelly was Manof the Match again this week.

Well done and an awesome performance today.

Blessings to all who read.

Football & teaching

Saturday and we played Kilbirnie and won 5 nil.  The first half was good and by half time we were 4 nil up.  Second half we scored 1 goal which happened to be the completion of James Ghattas hat trick.  We only had 11 players on Saturday and so it was an excellent team performance except for the use of foul language which the other coach complained about and this has led to our captain and second team rep being called before the committee on Thursday.  Dissappointing but it has toi be dealt with and I expect that as a team we will get a warning as to our future behaviour & conduct on the field.

This Saturday we play Kings Park Baptist church which are always tough games and I expect Saturday to be no different.  I hope for Saturday that we play well, are well disciplined and come away with another 3 points.  Looking forward to it 10.00am Toryglen.

Last night the wife and I listened to

Mark Driscoll from Marrs Hill and to say I was dissappointed would be an understatement.  I have heard him before and been on the church website and his view of marriage and what makes a good wife is in my opinion way off the mark.  One of the young guys who plays football with us listens to him quite a lot and that is the reason I listened to him last night - The bit that we listened to was his teaching on marriage and what makes a good wife - A good wife according to Mr. Driscoll is a wife who stays at home, looks after the children and does what she is told, he tells everyone that his wife does not watch tv unless he is there and does not go out with her friends!!!!!  She stays at home and looks after the children does not work except as a wife and mother (Hard jobs on there own).  He is the provider and has built a world for them he spends all his spare time with them.  So a good husband is one who works hard doesn't have any hobbies and spends all of his time with the family.  How utterly pathetic - I did try and tell the wife that she needs to give up work and stay at home and that I would give up football and spend all my time with the family, never go out and just work.  She was not allowed to watch the tv unless I was there and she had to do as she was told - Does anyone have a room I could stay in until she has calmed down?  Ha Ha.  I love my wife and kids more than anything else and we have our ups and downs but I would not change a thing, I like playing football and being involved with it and so would not give that up either.  We all need time for ourselves as well as family.  To take some proverbs and spout the garbage that he spouted is unbelievable - His church ministries are all run by men which is impossible in the best of circumstances.  This pastor has a lot of influence in christendom and after listening to what he has to say no wonder the issue of adultery comes from the women who if their husbands have taken on his teaching must be feeling unloved, uncherished and totally isolated and so have gone and looked for love outside of their marriage.  He has a very oppressive view of marriage that thnkfully is not all Christian mens opinion.  Yes it is a covenant bewteen husband and wife with God being an equal partner within that marriage but it is a relationship of love, friendship, time, hard work at times but marriage is a wonderful thing and is something to be shared by husband and wife with Gods blessing upon it.  There will be mistakes, unhappiness, arguments but these will be outwayed by all the good things happiness, peace and 'make up sex'.  Enough of my rant I just hope I never have to listen or hear him again.  People like Mr. Driscoll really annoy me and she stick to preaching in church and keeping it there not letting it loose on the public who already have enough disrespect for the church as it is.

Blessings to all who read this.

An interesting day today went for coffee and lunch with my friend pastor David and then we were joined by the wife for a coffee before I dropped her off at the train station in order for her to go to Aberdeen overnight to deliver a training course up there.  Then I went for a beer with my goodfriend Iain Mac it was good to catch up with him and hear how life is treating him.

Football tomorrow and I am looking forward to a tough game against Kilbirnie but we now have a full and fit team for tomorrow.  Graeme McKee is missing due to getting engaged and having a party tonight (Congratulations).  We will have a slightly different look up front tomorrow but it will still be a good one.

Had a chat today with someone from the Methodist connexion with regard to sports ministry and how the church can get involved in the olympics 2012 and how church congregations can get involved in sports ministry in general.  My personal thought is that it is a much under used ministry within the church and something that the church needs to get better at.  It is easy to set up and offers so much not only to non Christians but also to church members.  I hope to develop sports ministry more in the context of Glasgow and being chairman of the evangelical churches league gives me an ideal setting.  I am currently looking at sports alpha to run as a league and not just as individual churches.  I hope we can move forward with this and see what develops.

The two youngest members of the family are recovering from some sort of sickness bug and all three young ones are staying at their nanna's tonight and the eldest comes home tomorrow night so it is just me and # 2 daughter at home tonight until they all return tomorrow.  Watching Sports Relief at the moment and I find it very moving with some of the stories etc.  It saddens me that the church is not more involved publicly in things like this and promoting saving kids lives and serving communities.  I think we need to get better at publicising all that the church does in the world for the world it operates in.

Blessings to all who read this blog.

Football Saturday and another good 5 nil win against Hope Hall - MOM Colin Crichton scores 2 and gets the team 3 penalties plus sets up the fifth - we scored 2 penalties courtesy of Chris Malone but missed one from someone else (It was a very good save from the keeper).  We were superb on Saturday played with a great deal of discipline and went for the jugular from the start - it was agood game for us especially when Hope Hall never even had a corner throughout the game which is a strange and rare occurence in amateur football.

This weekend sees us play Kilbirnie Salvation Army at home on Saturday which will be a very tough game as Kilbirnie are a decent team who always make it tough for us but hopefully we will be disciplined again and keep up this winning run.  Looking forward to it.

Circuit meeting last night which was interesting to say the least mainly with regard to finance and the struggle to make everything work and be viable.  A good chat on how best to work together which is sometimes something we do not do very well.  Bible study Monday  night and then I have a bible study tomorrow night and a meeting in Taransay court tomorrow afternoon which will be followed by a beer with my very good friend Iain M.

Last week was very busy and so now it is time to rest a bit especially as we have 2 of our children out with a bug at the moment.  The wife is away this weekend to Aberdeen to do a training event for a Church up there.  So it will be a sporty weekend for me anyway.  Chelsea lose last night and hopefully Liverpool on both Thursday and Sunday as Utd storm their way to possibly a final and a fourth league title.  Church is going well and we appear to be growing in numbers mainly through people visiting the church and moving into the area but this is all good.

Sunday I am preaching at Mosspark Methodist church and really looking forward to it.  It will be my first visit there and do not really know what to expect.  The important thing for me is that what God gives me to say I can and do actually live it in my own life - this is important to me as I hear many speakers that I know who preach one thing but I don't see them living it out within their own lives.  That is a blog for another time though.

Blessings to all who read this.

Billy and Rachel are away, they will be back in September hopefully in time for the birth of their first grandchild or just after.  Missing them already and as the week has been so busy I didn't get the chance to say see you in a year last night.

This has been the busiest week in a long time and it has finally stopped until Monday - so far I have led 2 bible studies, had one LP meeting, 1 Praise night and had a football meeting.  I have not been in before 10.30 one night this week and so far have covered over 500 miles this week alone.  Tomorrow time to catch up with my wife and friends over some much deserved coffee which I have to say I have not had one this week until this morning and then I had 2 in McD's not good enough!

God is so good today I had the opportunity to meet and restore a friendship that had been damaged and which is now hopefully in the process of being healed.  It was a good meeting and God worked within our discussion.  Awesome!  Next week should be quieter.  I had a good time at Shettleston's bible study tonight where we spoke about journeying both in life and faith - For some these are seperate and only join together mid way through.  It was amazing to listen to some of the stories and also to recount some of mine.  We read about Jesus journey to the cross and Moses's journey to the edge of Canaan only to be told he would see it but not enter it.  Jesus's journey is probably the most amazing journey of all because it was for us totally unselfish, unconditional awesome!  I am so grateful that I am a Christian it is an amazing journey and I have been thinking that those people who are not have taken the easy way out.  Being a Christian is far from easy mainly because we have made it hard for ourselves at the wrong times.  It is a good life though.

Football Saturday and we are playing at the racecourse against Hope Hall should be a good game although we are short of players.  Cuthbert is injured, one is in Tenerife and one is in Dublin but we do have a good squad and adequate replacements so should still make for a good game - Looking forward to getting back to it.

Family is doing well and the wife is away to Carlisle on Saturday so I get to watch 6 nations rugby Saturday afternoon whilst relaxing.

Blessings to all who read

Today we said farewell to our good friends Billy & Rachel they are off to Thailand for a year to work in the Juniper tree.  We have met with them over the past 4 years to pray, eat and minister to one another.  For a year we will be without them but we will be skyping at times and they are back in September to visit their daughter and their first grandchild.  We will miss them they are a major part of our lives and Billy has been my mentor since he baptised both my wife and I and then led us through Alpha they are both really great friends.

No football this weekend for St. Andrew's and so I took the boy and youngest daughter to watch Kirkie Riverside against Westwood BB.  Kirkie won 3 v 2 in what was a very good game.  I missed us not playing but only for a weekend as we  are playing Hope Hall next weekend at either the race course or KGV in Renfrew.  League meeting Thursday and my main topic was to speak about extending the season by one month but it seems most teams will complete on time??

This week will be a busy one for me as I have 2 bible studies to lead this week, plus a meeting Thursday morning and a Praise night Wednesday night at which the church welcomes Linda Galloway - looking forward to it and excited at the same time.  Working all day tomorrow - preparing for the bible study tomorrow night, moving carpets and anything else that happens to need to be done.

Two things that have bugged me over the past week - one is the person that killed Jamie Bulger is allowed to maintain his anonimity amidst accusations of other charges that have meant he has been put back in prison.  This is just another example of helping the the attacker rather than protecting the victim.  This has annoyed me because we have friends who are looking after a 17 year old girl called Rima from Eritrea? and she is being sent back to Italy where she escaped from to come to Britain, she is a lovely girl and worships at St. Silas, goes to college and is a victim of everything that is bad with most governments our very own included - we are supposedly living in a Christian country and yet we show no compassion for a person who has suffered a great deal in such a short life, we do not welcome the alien into our land, we do not set the captive free - she is captured by fear of deportation a fear she should not have at such a young age.  There are thousands of people praying that she is allowed to stay in our country and remain living with the family that she has adopted and who have adopted her.  We are living in strange times where everything is upside down we have moved so far from God that we have forgotten why we are here and how we are to act towards one another.

On another note after that wee rant one of my major topics of conversation is with regard to the church and mission - what we appear to have at the moment is a church that is into maintenance i.e. look after what we have and try and get back those that used to come and may still have a connection to the church.  We must be continually looking for opportunities within our communities and start thinking outside of the box - Our mission is to be Jesus to a lost and hurting world to offer a different direction to take people on the most awesome and amazing journey they will ever go on.  We have something exciting to offer and yet we don't, we have something that is hard to continue with at times and is a challenge every day and so we don't offer it.  It is easy to be an atheist, non believer or a I don't care person but being a Christian is the hardest thing anyone can ever do and that in itself is a challenge that more people should take up before they judge what being a Christian is about.

Blessings to all who read this.

Football & Friends

Yesterday we played Kilsyth COG and had avery convincing victory 5 nil - Although we didn't play the best all round football it was a fantastic display of counter attacking football.  Well done to all the guys especially Colin who got a hat trick.  Everyone in the etam did very well and this result menas that we stay joint top for another week.  9 games to go and now we have played all the top teams, beaten 3 of them and drawn against Ebenezer last week.  The team is doing very well at the moment and I cannot praise them enough well disciplined and scoring goals.  Well done guys.

We have a week off next week and so I will be trying to catch a few cup games and watch a few teams other than St. Andrew's it also means that I get to spend the morning with the boy as he will come and watch them with me.

Friday night the wife and I spent the night with our good friends Ruth & Jim at Margaret & Russell's.  We had a great meal and a good laugh plus as they are such good friends I got to watch the Rugby as well.  You can't beat friends like that.  Watched the Rugby yesterday and it was good to see Ireland beat England.  The results in the premier league were also kind to me yesterday with Man City winning never thought I would be saying that the only concerning thing was Arsenal winning and looking good along with it, it was sickening to see the young lad Ramsey breaking his leg but it did not appear to be a malicious tackle there have been worse and I don't think wenger should have his conspiracy theory head on he sounds like a lunatic yes it was bad but I don't think teams go out to delibaretely break Arsenal players legs every season - maybe wenger should start working on tackling with his superstars and also watch his own team more closely.  I hope the lad Ramsey returns as good as what he was when the injury happened he is a very good young talent.  Anyway Aston Villa for the Reds today in a cup final should be a good one but not sure what the result will be.

Church and it is a busy week for me - As a church we are trying to connect with the community more and so we are holding an art competition running for the primary schools in the area and so far all 4 are on board with it.  Bible study tomorrow night in Milton and then a league meeting on Thursday.  Next week is even busier as I am out nearly every evening with bible studies Monday and Thursday and also a praise night on Wednesday in Milton which I am really looking forward to and excited by our visiting speaker.  I pray that the church will be full and that God will be blessed by the praises of his people.

Blessings to all who read this blog

No football this weekend the majority of pitches were frozen although me and the boy went down to the amazing Toryglen facility to watch QPB v Glasgow Nazarene play and also caught some of EK Claremont v KPB at which one of our ex players Andrew Morley broke his leg - My prayers are with him and his family for a speedy and complete healing of his leg.  This week we are playing Kilsyth COG at home in Milton - should be a good game with both teams doing well and sitting in the top half of the league.  10.00am KO weather permitting.

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about Church & Faith.  Something that does concern me is that some of the denominations do not have any money (or so they say).  The C of S does not enough ministers and yet it has too many according to the budget?!!  So by 2018 it has to lose 200 ministers according to the papers.  I know of other churches that have no money and are just about keeping their heads above water.  At this time the church should be the most financially viable organisation in the world instead of struggling it should be flourishing.  The church should be the one body that is investing in ministry, missions, the poor and its buildings.  It should not be the place of penny pinching and cuts.  If we do not invest in anything and just sit on our money in the bank what can God do with it?  I don't know the answer but I feel as the body of Christ we should be doing all we can to help out in this financial climate.  Why aren't we able to?  My personal thoughts are that bad management is the cause of this downfall.  We need to go to the business world and adopt some of their principals whilst still keeping our Christian ethics and morals.

I hope and pray that the church can come through this as an example of excellence to the rest of the world.  It is time for the church to step out in the faith that it believes in and let God work through us and with us to create His Kingdom on earth.

Another good weekend

Finally time to catch up with a busy weekend - Football and St. Andrew's played Motherwell Ebenezer the game ended in a 2 all draw with St. Andrew's leading for the majority of the game and then with 3 minutes to go Motherwell went 2 v 1 up but with 30 seconds to go we equalised.  A great result although with the run the team are on most of us felt it was 2 points lost.  This weekend we play CEC2 in Eaglesham.  This is always a tough game for us but one that we are looking forward to.  Once again the team did well on Saturday with Graham Cuthbert getting the MOM award although Boycey did pull off another one of his trademark saves.  Well done to everyone in the team lets keep on improving there is still a long way to go before the season ends.

The church has its anniversary weekend  this weekend and this includes a coffee morning on Saturday followed by a ceileidh in the evening with pie and peas being served.  Sunday the Church has a visiting speaker the Rev Christopher Rowe from the local C of S and Sunday evening a songs of Praise event  with members of the congregation picking their favourite tunes and reasons why.  Should be a good experience.  Tickets for the ceileidh are £5.00 and the doors open at 7.00pm.  The coffee morning starts at 10.00am until 12.00pm.  On another church matter we are looking for fundraising ideas and also the possibility of a group visiting the Milton area to maybe do some mission stuff in the area with the local community.  If anybody wants to volunteer to spend some time in Milton doing different stuff drop me your email address and we can see what we can come up with remembering that we are a church with not a lot of money but a decent facility that is available to use.

Family are all good and last week we had a great family afternoon swimming which all 3 of the younger kids enjoyed very much - it was a free swim from British gas.  Sunday the wife and I had a great afternoon together drinking coffee with no kids giving us hassle - Sunday evening the wife was preaching in the local C of S and I looked after the 2 youngest kids upon her return we had a nice glass of wine and watched a romantic movie!!

Blessings to all who read this.

Today's game

Today's game and what a game it was everyone of the team performed exceptionally and it would have been hard for the opposition to pick an MOM.  We beat Kirkintilloch Riverside 2 nil.  It was a game which could have gone either way in the first half although I would dare to suggest that we shaded it with 11 men and in the second half we played 43 minutes with 10 men having Del boy sent off for the second time this season and it made a big difference to us.  The good Dr. scored his first game for the club and Colin Crichton scored the second and got the MOM.  Colin was a thorn in the side of the opposition defence the whole game.  Everybody contributed to what was an excellent game.

Well done to Chris, Boycey, Gary, Scott, Graham, Graeme, The good Dr., Del, Des, Colin, Jay, & Ghattas.  As a team we are becoming more disciplined and more of a team.  The second goal was a counter attack created by a strong midfield tackle from Del which broke to Ghattas who then fed Colin who rounded the keeper and scored from a tight angle.

Next week we play Motherwell Ebenezer who just beat us 2 v 1 last time out with Del boy getting sent off in that one as well and again we played the whole of the second half with 10 men.  This time around we will play with 11 and give the opposition a better and tougher game.  As a matter of interest St. Andrew's are joint top of the second division but to put that into perspective we have played more games than the majority of teams in the league.

It has been another good weekend for football however, please pray for us as a family as we have to make some serious decisions over the next few weeks.

Blessings to all who read this.

PS Man Utd win 5 nil and go top all we need now is Arsenal to either beat Chelsea or at least draw with them.