I woke up at 4am this morning (as I sometimes do) and I had a strange picture in my head for someone, which I then emailed them before I forgot it.  I have no idea what garbled nonsense might have come out, but before I fell asleep, a lot of thoughts started rushing through my brain which I thought I ought to write down.

The essence of the picture was based on the story of Jesus feeding the 5000.  It interests me, that, being Jesus, he could have just got out his mobile, dialled Domino’s, ordered 2500 Might Meaty pizzas and then, 40 minutes later (or your money back), a camel would have rocked up laden with pizza and everyone would have been bloated but ok.  There would have been a few crusts and some soggy boxes remaining.

What Jesus actually did, was used what little they had there.  The key point here is that what they had, was not enough.  He got the disciples to give out what they had and somehow, during that process, Jesus multiplied what went out.  I love stories in the Bible, because they are never just stories of a cool miracle that Jesus did, they always have a dual meaning.  Here, we can see that we, on our own, are insufficient to do the work of God.  However, us+Jesus=enough and in fact there will be leftovers!  Bonus!

If you apply this principle to the church, it shows that we could spend all our time investing in ‘new fish’ (i.e. the Alpha Course, mission, etc), all of which are very valid and in fact vital.  However, if we only serve ‘new food’ and not the food we have (even if it seems insufficient), then multiplication cannot occur.  If you bring people into the church and there is no one there to pastor them, serve coffee, welcome them, teach them, lead worship, etc then there is no church to bring them into.  If you serve with what you have then Jesus, along the way, will multiply your offering and grow the church.

What do you do, when you have a really beautiful set of notepads, but they are so beautiful that you don’t know what to put in them??

The week began with a pretty awesome cupcake….

Then I had to stop myself from buying this rather special pink jacket, reduced to £30 in Monty Smith…

Twinkle is doing really well and is having a holiday with my Mum and Dad.

My Grandma sent me some birthday money early, so she and JT between them bought me some pretty cool cowboy boots

Midweek, I had a two-pack of Cadbury’s Caramel bunnies - YUM!!!!

Whilst packing up the house, I had the misfortune of tripping over a box flap and smashing my foot into the corner of a step on the stepladder.  I flew across the landing and landed on the floor.  Ouch!  It was particularly undignified as I had just emerged from the shower!!

I received a very beautiful present - a set of sketch pads, each with a different name and style of paper.  What a lucky girl I am.  Talking of which, on Tuesday, Pink Sky travelled to Bath and Clifton (via a nice art shop in Stroud and a place that sells furniture blanks called Scumble Goosie (??) Something like that!)

View from the desk, Thursday.  Mark, Sean Connery and a whiteboard FULL of ‘to do’s’.  I have not started hitting the bottle in the middle of the day, the bottle is a prop for a job that we are working on!   The Lucozade says it all though….

Today (Friday), I had my hair cut as my birthday present to myself.   This does not happen often so it is a real treat.

And then we got a call from Amy.  She assured us that, despite being advised to file for compensation for loss of earnings, there is no compensation scheme.  I felt like saying “how about in court?”  She said that, however, in this case, we would be eligible for ’something’ due to the vast catalogue of errors.  They will probably (really?) make us an offer.  If they do, we can choose whether or not to accept it.  If we don’t, then we have to go to the omburdsman.

All I really want, is to know the following:

- What payment plan are we on?
- Have they got the correct address for us now?
- Are they EVER going to ask us to sign a contract?
- Do they EVER want our bank details so that we can, in fact, pay a bill, should one ever arrive with the correct amount on it.
- Will Mr James Beatty’s letter ever arrive? (Yes, his name really was ‘BEATTY’)

To date, we do not have the answer to any of these questions, let alone any compensation.

SO we got a call from Mr Ian Goldman.  He went through a few bits with us and assured Mark he would look into it.  He was about to hang up when I mouthed at Mark “Account number”!  It occurred to me that throughout this whole conversation he had not even taken so much as our phone number.  Nice.

He called back again later saying that he was looking into it and that since we had kicked up such a stink earlier, it was now being dealt with centrally.  He assured us that “Your calls are now going to the right place”.  WHAT?!  After over a pigging month of trying to resolve an issue we find out that we are now calling the “RIGHT” place?  As opposed to the telecoms company?

Another argument about compensation for lost broadband ensued.  How much does it take to explain that a loss of PHONE LINE is the root problem of loss of broadband.  Yes, our broadband is with 02 but they have done nothing wrong at all.  In fact they were excellent.

We are waiting from a call now from a lady who was supposed to phone at 3pm.  She didn’t.  Hmm.

I just don’t know what to do anymore.  We just received a call from James Beatty of BT.  If the phrase “I really can’t be arsed” could have come out of his mouth then it would have.  Considering how many channels this has now been through, for someone to be handed the case and then phone up without having read a SINGLE note about it, is just astonishing.

He started by practically having a go at me that I had dared to suggest that we had not received a telephone call from him or a bill even though he had been calling the wrong numbers and no doubt, sending the letter to the wrong address since we haven’t received it.  He then said that they don’t issue compensation for loss of Broadband.  We stated that it was the loss of TELEPHONE LINE FOR 33 DAYS that had caused the issue.

He said that he would let us off the £300 bill.  At this point Mark got angry.  The £300 bill has been cancelled because it is wrong.  They charged a disconnection fee, which they admitted was their fault and mistake.  They then charged a re-cnnection fee, also their mistake and fault.  They then charged £180 for 6 months on what should be a LINE ONLY account (about £14 per month).

So we owe them about £84, which we have clearly stated that we will not be paying.  It has ALREADY been cancelled along with the stupid fees that we should never have received.  He had just not bothered to read any of the notes whatsoever.

He then hung up on Mark because he was shouting.  Are you surprised that Mark was shouting?

So we phoned an Ian Goldman, who is Pamela Cox’s boss (she is the lady I spoke to the other day, who is a manager with no access to billing and no authorisation to give compensation).

We are waiting for a call.  If I write the words “DAILY MAIL” and “CONSUMER DIRECT” and “GLOUCESTERSHIRE TRADING STANDARDS” here, I wonder if they will pick up on all of this?  If you do, feel free to read back over my blog since January and have a ball!

I couldn’t find this advert on YouTube to show you, but I have just seen the most unnecessary advert on TV.  It is for Neutrogena moisturiser.  A woman in her underwear rubs moisturiser all over her legs.  So naturally, they have to pause the camera on her boobs, whilst she squeezes it onto her hand.  You can’t actually see the bottle or the cream (the product itself), just the semi-naked woman.  Now, I am no prude, but I just don’t want to see it.  This product is supposed to be targeted at women, so why is it not put on a semi-naked man?!  For some reason that never happens.  Funny that!

Then, comes my favourite bit.  “Penetrates 10 layers of skin”.  Really?  How have you tested that?  Have you sliced open a human body and watched it work its magic? Probably not.

Proverbs 6:16-19 (New International Version)

¹⁶ There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

¹⁷ haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,

¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Since it is lent, I thought I’d look at the seven deadly sins.  It is one of those Bible passages that you approach with your hand over your eyes and then you slowly part two fingers to peep and see how bad your fate is.

Mine is pretty bad.  I am guilty of all of these (apart from shedding innocent blood, although Jesus was innocent and His blood was shed for me).  They are a pretty gruesome list when you look at them all put together.  However, the one that stands out to me the most (therefore the subject of today’s post) is deadly sin number seven: “a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”

How easy it is, to gossip about other people and to be judgemental.  It makes us feel like the plank in our eye is not quite so splintered and filthy.  It is really easy to judge people in the following areas:

- work
- relationships
- leadership
- lifestyle
- parenting
- appearance
- education

…And many more.  What we forget is that even as Christians, we have all been given free will and instructed to “Love one another, as I have first loved you”.  So actually if someone decides to feed their baby food that isn’t organic and home-made then that is up to them.  If someone else is struggling with a marriage, then you love them, don’t judge them.  If someone did not go to University, then they are still a worthy citizen.  Who are you to decide what God’s standards for love and acceptance are when God Himself, states that they are unconditional?

We have a guide book.  The Bible.  It is helpful to stand by each other as we live through what it says and suggests.  Sometimes we might question one another as to why we feel a certain lifestyle choice is in keeping with the manual, but love comes first.  If there is one thing I absolutely detest, it is FIXERS.

These people come in many forms.  They are usually laden with their own issues, cunningly disguised beneath the surface of a slightly over-zealous bubbly nervous energy.  They barely know you, but recommend all the latest Christian therapies for you (usually administered by themselves, because it makes them feel better) and strongly recommend that you need to be fixed or set free from demons or something.  Sometimes you just want to ask “Why can’t you just be my friend?”  Other times you just want to say “Naff off you weirdo!”  Fixers can be predatory, they always look for the new person in a small group/cluster and target them.  These are people who will talk about you to lots of different people, thus masking their own issues.  They often end up leading groups and “causing dissension among brothers”.

God’s character (as we are led to understand from the Bible) is mixed.  He is Love, but He also gets angry.  He is joy, but He also gets sad.  He is the judge but He is just and true.  However, we do not play His role.  We have been given His gifts, such as wisdom, discernment, prophecy, tongues, hospitality etc.  These are to be used for the extension of His kingdom, not to cause division within it.

I am still thinking….

Fantastic article here by Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert).

Today has consisted of packing, Freecycling, lending and binning (with an eggy bread break at lunch time!).  Yep, it is just 1.5 days until we move into the ‘flouse’.  It has been a busy time of decorating, packing, telephoning (guess how much I am looking forward to making those epic ‘change of address’ phonecalls??), viewings, tidying, cat looking after etc.  I am so shattered that it is not even funny.

Somewhere in the midst of the next 1.5 weeks I will also turn 25.  It will be a bit of a non-birthday, as I will be packing a nearly empty house and the hubby will be at work.  Still, I am hoping to go out and celebrate in the evening.

There are various bits of personal maintenance that I have neither the time not budget to complete right now.  I am in desperate need of a hair cut and an eye test.  Ah well.