Hello 2009

2008 has gone, and 2009 has just begun! How's that for stating the obvious? I was just browsing my blog when I realised it was 14 days since my last post to the world. I see from my profile that I have had 133 hits where people , perhaps out of nosiness have clicked to see who I am. That's not bad for someone known by his two sons as a grumpy old man!

Every new year's day, we go on a ramble at some location with friends from WBCC (West Bromwich Community Church, http://www.westbromchurch.org/ if you are interested in having a look). This year, we decided to change our location from Sandwell Valley to the Clent Hills. This is no slight on the valley, we just fancied a change! We arrived on the car park at 10.30 am pretty much with everyone else, which was a surprise as the church is notorious for not starting on time!! (With apologies to Iain who is very good at starting on time). As we looked for a space to park, the car completely cut out and coasted to a halt. We were grateful for this, as we had come up a fairly hilly narrow road and if it had happened there we could have ended up in a ditch! The same thing happened to us on a mountain road in Southern Ireland where we just coasted again to a halt in someone's front garden. Two seconds earlier or later and we could have been over the mountain! God really looked after us on both occasions.

Everywhere was covered in a thick frost and the scenery at Clent was spectacular. It reminded me of what Narnia must have been like before Aslan arrived. (see the film, The Lion the witch and the wardrobe). The walk lasted for well over an hour. We got back to the car park and tucked into mince pies and coffee. Yes, we were eating the leftovers from Christmas.

Anyway, it was time to go and as the last of our party vacated the car park we found the car would not start. A call to the RAC sorted the problem until we got to the big hill from the car park where it cut out again. The RAC man (whose name was Adrian - more useless info for you!) tried again but to no avail. We then had to be towed back to West Brom, normally a twenty minute drive under normal conditions. It was o.k. for me, as I was in the RAC van which was blasting out heat! Denise had to steer the car which due to no power was very cold! To cut a long story short, the car is now fixed and working!

As I sit at home typing this, my mind has gone to the meeting at church tomorrow. It's our first meeting of the new year and we are due to launch our five year vision plan to members and friends of the church. It's going to be a great meeting. There is loads of good stuff in the plan and what's more important is that we believe it is from God!

Till next time, have a great new year and trust in God.