tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40914084319363943642024-03-19T09:47:53.146+01:00Trevor and Linda Galpin - Ministering the love of the Father - TLG Mins (US) IncTrevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-20396201107725394292023-10-19T19:07:00.002+02:002023-10-19T19:07:46.321+02:00Mission Opportunities for 2024<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw8roXOFl4eOkiQDAz1dRKb1njFkJuyBsZpBQBARnd-JGffF4QSN4AMUbSfjz_vT7Bqc-wOPzPAb_gDzE2TgVUCDvFSZts3fUa5nQ7XzoA3jymtaZ7jvxdQC3UeUqesfKaZ48sxFXej25pGzY8RKD_0DofONeFtDgZUj56I0q42G4QUc_fxiViU47qUag/s1296/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1296" data-original-width="1030" height="761" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIw8roXOFl4eOkiQDAz1dRKb1njFkJuyBsZpBQBARnd-JGffF4QSN4AMUbSfjz_vT7Bqc-wOPzPAb_gDzE2TgVUCDvFSZts3fUa5nQ7XzoA3jymtaZ7jvxdQC3UeUqesfKaZ48sxFXej25pGzY8RKD_0DofONeFtDgZUj56I0q42G4QUc_fxiViU47qUag/w632-h761/Untitled.png" width="632" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-34310768784031864382023-06-12T16:15:00.003+02:002023-06-12T16:16:10.893+02:00Here is what we are up to in the coming months.<p>Here is an up date of some of the events we have coming up over the next few months. </p><p>For the whole of July we will be in the Netherlands and Denmark doing Father focused events on three consecutive weekends and then a Family Camp in the north of Jutland at the end of July. All the details are on our Comings and Goings page.<br /><br />In August we are back in the UK and our friend Sue Dawkes is inviting us and anyone else to brunch!! If you want to join us on August 19th it is essential you contact Sue and let her know. Spaces are limited. You can find the details on our here too. </p><p>In September we are joining our friend Mark Gyde for a "Growing in Sonship " week at Cloverly Hall. Full details on the Father Heart UK website <a href="https://www.fatherheart.uk/sonship.html">https://www.fatherheart.uk/sonship.html</a> <br /></p><p>In October we are going to Germany to lead a Father Heart Encounter, October 8th - 14th. Information and costs can be found by emailing Julia von Tottleben <a href="mailto:vaterherzwochen.deutschland@gmail.com">vaterherzwochen.deutschland@gmail.com</a></p><p> <br />Finally on October 21st we have a day conference at our local Vineyard church in Winchester. Our friend and neighbour Edward Law is organising this and can let you have the details. <a data-cke-saved-href="mailto:edward.law@me.com?subject=Winvin%20Conference%20with%20the%20Galpins" href="mailto:edward.law@me.com?subject=Winvin%20Conference%20with%20the%20Galpins" target="_blank">edward.law@me.com</a> <br /><br />In November we head south again to Australia and New Zealand returning via South Africa in February. More on that another time.<br /><br />There are a couple of events we want to tell you about for <strong>March 2024.</strong> First we are leading a Father Heart Encounter at Cloverely Hall, Shropshire, March 24th - 28th which is an introduction to the revelation of God as Father where we help people have a personal encounter with him. If you are interested in joining us or want to share this with friends please email us <a data-cke-saved-href="mailto:tlgminsus@gmail.com?subject=March%202024%20Father%20Heart%20Week%20-%20Information." href="mailto:tlgminsus@gmail.com?subject=March%202024%20Father%20Heart%20Week%20-%20Information." target="_blank">tlgminsus@gmail.com</a> <br /><br />And finally, following this year's <strong>Father Heart Family Easter Retreat</strong> we can confirm we have a booking at Cloverely Hall again for next Easter. It begins with dinner of Good Friday evening march 29th and concludes on Easter Monday 1st April after lunch. It is a full board weekend. The cost this year will be £285. John and Chris Nuttal will be joining us for part of the weekend. Many have said already they want to come so places will be at a premium. All the booking details will be on the Father Heart UK website by the beginning of July. Again it would help if you can let us know if you are interested. Please email us to let us know <a data-cke-saved-href="mailto:tlgminsus@gmail.com?subject=Father%20Heart%20Family%20Easter%20Retreat%20March%202024" href="mailto:tlgminsus@gmail.com?subject=Father%20Heart%20Family%20Easter%20Retreat%20March%202024" target="_blank">tlgminsus@gmail.com </a></p><p> </p>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-42543591373734630312023-03-17T14:02:00.007+01:002023-03-17T14:02:51.606+01:00Welcome to our Website<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">In
this website you can follow where we are and what we are
doing (our comings and goings); some of the books we have written; how
to partner with us financially, and some of the things we enjoy on this
wonderful journey with
Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. </span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmnKf2yQdxy6ZapKaNMLPbRhOCgkxv2YBl1_ew4rRT-1zcoSTQ5amVmrAPHL2KT2OOgpG7eXcux88VKLnwyDx_xhBoFbhqtoPq_tssbcsVlu_Ae7JprQ0thJ8AtG3-URjj6RDocbCbzfZE9lqFvGvs7FggEgSO9sKNtEsSQoUxCKXCLHWJzIQlgDxvQ/s2360/IMG_4373.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1894" data-original-width="2360" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmnKf2yQdxy6ZapKaNMLPbRhOCgkxv2YBl1_ew4rRT-1zcoSTQ5amVmrAPHL2KT2OOgpG7eXcux88VKLnwyDx_xhBoFbhqtoPq_tssbcsVlu_Ae7JprQ0thJ8AtG3-URjj6RDocbCbzfZE9lqFvGvs7FggEgSO9sKNtEsSQoUxCKXCLHWJzIQlgDxvQ/w640-h514/IMG_4373.jpeg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-33174047886764826962023-02-23T11:54:00.006+01:002023-02-23T12:08:39.947+01:00The Story of Paul III The Final Years.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4hgOlvJfYczdcVuBUP5kjz31Y6FlX79vRdDY26FSHzuOVH1D_zzw5bYnzOM4Qg7einFXNcfH-BZJwmvGiivRYOh3eH7zm_BtqJok9GHTkw31JV0KGvhyRgCGmkSm1ur1jd16V311PI_rhoMIM3IrQCCAOsrcZPdJ5-n4MrI0k0gARlEUgUVAyHcpMmA/s1920/The_Story_of_Paul_books_Mockup.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1726" data-original-width="1920" height="501" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4hgOlvJfYczdcVuBUP5kjz31Y6FlX79vRdDY26FSHzuOVH1D_zzw5bYnzOM4Qg7einFXNcfH-BZJwmvGiivRYOh3eH7zm_BtqJok9GHTkw31JV0KGvhyRgCGmkSm1ur1jd16V311PI_rhoMIM3IrQCCAOsrcZPdJ5-n4MrI0k0gARlEUgUVAyHcpMmA/w539-h501/The_Story_of_Paul_books_Mockup.jpg" width="539" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">It had to come one day and here it is, <i>The Story of Paul III
the Final Years</i>. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">This book was much harder to write than I thought it would be. The
reason being, there are so few historical facts to work with. Luke writes about
Paul in his final chapters of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Acts of
the Apostle</i>. Yet his main purpose for writing is to show how the Gospel was
taken to Rome rather than the events of Paul’s life. Luke gives us fascinating
details particularly when he was personally present, such as in the shipwreck
on the Island of Malta. He neatly concludes Acts with Paul a free man in Rome.
Traditions of the church claim Paul was beheaded by Nero in Rome. Fanciful legend
says his head bounced three times and three fountains miraculously appeared out
of the ground. But was he beheaded? Indeed, was he beheaded in Rome even? For information
of Paul’s death, we are dependent on early traditions from the second and third
century, about when, where, and how. Nothing is certain. In reality, solid
evidence is virtually non-existent. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">What about Paul’s prison letters? Traditionally, they were thought
to have been written from a supposed Roman imprisonment. But Luke does not have
him in prison in Rome. If you have read my book <i>The Story of Paul II - the
Middle Years</i>, you may recall I think Paul wrote them from a time in prison
in Ephesus. I am in good company with some of the most eminent biblical scholars
on this one. Paul’s three pastoral letters to Timothy and Titus do however reflect
a time at the end of Paul’s life after the close of Acts. They contain
tantalising clues about his travels and a possible fourth missionary journey
after the close of Acts 28.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">Unpicking the so called fourth missionary journey as suggested by
the pastorals is at best tricky and every commentator has their own version,
for example, N.T. Wright describes the summary of Paul’s final years by the
leading Roman Catholic authority on Paul, </span><span class="ykmvie"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB">Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">as a
‘novella’</span><span class="ykmvie"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB">.
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">I am therefore in good company. Summarising Paul’s final years is like
trying to do a jigsaw with no picture. </span><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">What are we left with? A few crumbs from Luke, a few titbits from
Paul, and the notoriously unreliable traditions of the early centuries of the
church. This is why I have wondered whether I should even attempt writing this
book. But I couldn’t let it rest. I felt it reaching out to me and the challenge
appealed to my fertile imagination as storyteller. I found myself again asking
questions such as, “So what did Luke do while Paul was in prison for two years
in Caesarea?” Did Paul ever make it to Spain as he hoped? Clement of Rome,
writing sixty years after Paul’s death, said Paul ‘went to the farthest reaches
of the west.’ Did he mean Spain? Did Paul die in Rome, and was he martyred?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">The outcome once again, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Story of Paul II the Middle Years</i>, is a fictive historical narrative. As a storyteller,
does one merely need to fill in the blanks? If so, it is something I want to attempt
in a historically reliable way. In the end, if I am brutally honest, it turned
out to be more fictional than I had intended because of the paucity of
historical evidence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">I enjoyed attempting to fill in the blanks. I enjoyed developing some
of the characters Paul met along the way: Julius the Centurion who escorts him
on the ill-fated voyage to Rome and Paul’s fourth shipwreck. Lysias, the
commander of the garrison in Jerusalem, became a binding thread. Then, there is
the enigmatic Lucina; a woman we know nothing about. She turns up as a one
liner from the fourth century, <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>, which states Paul's
body was buried outside the walls of Rome, at the second mile on the Via
Ostiensis, on the estate owned by a Christian woman named Lucina. This is far
too tempting to not bring her into the story. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">As before, I have tried to avoid using the word “church” because
we have such a twenty-first century model of church in our minds. I try to
describe the activities and relationships of believers rather than use the generic
word. Likewise, with the word Christian, which was not widely used in the first
century. Where the action can be found in the Bible I have added a numbered
note which are all listed at the end.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">And finally, this book, like all the other books I have written, is
ultimately about the revelation of God as Father who wants to have relationship
with his sons and daughters. Fictive storytelling allows me the privilege of
exploring this in a human context through the way the characters interact and
behave and what I imagine they say as they try to come to terms with the
amazing revelation that God the Father was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13pt;">I found myself shedding a tear at the end as Paul is laid to rest.
I felt I was bidding farewell to a dear friend. This is not a spoiler as such
because I presume everyone knows Paul finally died.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">So here it is, <i>The Story of Paul III - the Final Years</i>. I
hope you enjoy it!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><style><span style="font-family: arial;">@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</span></style></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">They are all available on Amazon and also Book Depository. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Click below to obtain your copy.</span><br /></p><p> </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=The+Story+of+Paul+III+the+Final+Years&search=Find+book">https://www.bookdepository.com</a> </span></b></p>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-58011769184758672602021-04-13T06:25:00.001+02:002021-04-13T06:25:45.065+02:00The Big Picture Finding the Father in the Bible.<p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here is what has kept us busy in this Covid season....</span></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">I'm delighted to launch my latest book....<br /></span></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>The Big Picture </b></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Finding the Father in the Bible</span>.</b></span></span></p><h2 style="text-align: center;"><br /></h2><p>
</p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixV5gQZacUn5-f7HRdTUJWuQSLhgf3dl7QNLgi7yBpAYCgozP7nRyrwLHEoaVYSdYcUnrjAIETxuvzvrwJ80Yfuq8DJnnbGVLCQ93a-l_JEzxmwDoDF6I6tRDAui8AAd4EnNzADj9oPpa5/s1384/Screen+Shot+2021-03-25+at+07.28.24.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="950" height="566" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixV5gQZacUn5-f7HRdTUJWuQSLhgf3dl7QNLgi7yBpAYCgozP7nRyrwLHEoaVYSdYcUnrjAIETxuvzvrwJ80Yfuq8DJnnbGVLCQ93a-l_JEzxmwDoDF6I6tRDAui8AAd4EnNzADj9oPpa5/w388-h566/Screen+Shot+2021-03-25+at+07.28.24.png" width="388" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The Big Picture takes
a look at the great story of God in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It
charts how God is eternally Father since before creation and how he reveals
himself as Father through all scripture. It draws together all the various
parts of this glorious biblical truth, like pieces of a jigsaw, that come
together into one vast glorious narrative of the love of the Father for his
lost children. It focuses on The Father’s love and the sending of his Son Jesus
who brings us home. It explores how this truth is inspired by the Holy Spirit
in the pages of the Bible. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stephen Hill
in his foreword says of “<i>The Big Picture</i>”, <i>“</i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I believe that this book is an
important part of what Paul the apostle called “The whole counsel of God.” It
is a resource for now and for the future and many treasures are contained
therein.”</span></span><p></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB">If you would like to order this or any of my other books here is the link to Amazon. If you enjoy this or any other of my books a review on Amazon would be great too!</span></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Big-Picture-Finding-Father-Bible/dp/1838057048/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1618286389&sr=8-1">Click here for Amazon</a> </span></b></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>SPECIAL OFFER.</b> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> If you want to buy more than one of my books, that is 2 or more please contact me directly and I will arrange for the books to be sent to your home address, it's cheaper all round. So email me at <a href="mailto:tlgminsus@gmail.com">tlgminsus@gmail.com</a> and let me know what you would like. We can talk about it and then I'll price them and let you know how much they will cost, based on where you live and we will take it from there. If you want to sell any of my books, we can talk about that too and come to some sort of arrangement so it works well for us and you. <br /></span></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB">Here is what I wrote in the introduction of the book and why I wrote it. </span></span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB"></span></span><br /><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">
</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"Over
the last few years, I have had the privilege to teach at a number of week-long
Schools as part of Fatherheart Ministries (FHM). These Schools known as A
Schools are followed by B Schools sometime later. They are opportunities for
people to sit under prophetic teaching and have an experience of being loved by
God as their Father. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My wife Linda and I had the opportunity of attending both of these
events in 2007 while we were living in New Zealand. These Schools were led by
James and Denise Jordan, the founders of Fatherheart Ministries. It is not an
exaggeration to say these were life changing weeks for us both. I have written
about my personal experience at the A School in my book <i>Falling from grace
and being caught by the Father</i> (2013). In 2008, we became associated more
closely with FHM, joining the team with the Jordans. Over the next few years,
we transitioned from being team to speakers to finally being released to lead
and teach the A Schools and then to speak alongside James at B Schools and then
to lead and teach B Schools on behalf of FHM.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Throughout these years I have had a growing understanding in my
heart of the nature of God as Father, his Son Jesus and the work of the Holy
Spirit. I studied in the 1970’s for a degree in Theology in the UK and have
loved studying and exploring the Scriptures. I began to see in many ways I had
very much missed the point about what God was doing and revealing through his
Word, the Bible. I was a product of my background as a Baptist and charismatic.
As time went by, I wrote and dug deeper into the scriptures. I wanted to see
how the revelation of God as the Father was revealed through the life and
ministry of Jesus. My next book <i>Jesus and his Father</i> (2014) emerged out
of this exploration. Then came a look at the story of the Church throughout
history and how we had seemingly lost touch with this truth. I had taught a
number of times on Church History and so the book appeared <i>Finding the
Father in the story of the Church</i> (2016).</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I found Father was opening the eyes of my heart to new and
exciting revelation in the scriptures and had the privilege of teaching these
truths. By 2018, God had taken me to look at the Apostle Paul and how he had a
revelation of the Fatherhood of God leading us back into our true identity as
sons. It was exciting and challenging as my theology was being turned upside
down or rather as I was once told by a group of pastors in Africa, it was being
turned the right way up. One of them said it was as if he had been struggling
all his life to walk on his hands and failing continually then he discovered he
had feet. Like so many, I too had found my feet, took tentative steps and began
to walk and run and jump for joy. So, the next book, </span><i><span lang="EN-GB">The Story of Paul – the Early Years</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (2018)
came out followed by the second part, <i>The Story of Paul, the middle years </i>(2020).
</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Revelation is an uncovering of truth that has always been true. We
just had not seen it. Our eyes were closed and only when God the Father gives
us the gift of revelation can we see. In this season I drank deeply of the flow
of revelation coming through James and Denise Jordan’s ministry. Their teaching
on the nature of the two trees in the Garden of Eden, and the eyes of our
hearts being opened was profound. I was encouraged by them to teach what I had seen,
and I had the joy of doing this on a number of B Schools. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As I taught and reflected, I began to see how all the teachings
being taught in A and B Schools were linked. They were not just stand-alone
teachings. They were all parts of a greater whole. I describe the process like
doing a jigsaw puzzle. Like many, I have rediscovered jigsaw puzzles during the
COVID pandemic while locked down and at home. When doing a puzzle, we usually
look for all the edge pieces first and join them. Then we move on to the
coloured sections. Often, they sit there, not joined, floating. Then little by
little pieces are found to link them to each other. Finally, as the last piece
is found we stand back and look at the big picture with great satisfaction. Out
of this came this book, <i>The Big Picture finding the Father in the Bible</i>.
I am not claiming that I have found all the pieces, but I do feel there is a
coming together of many of these great truths God is graciously showing us in
these days. I feel too, our theology is continuing to be transformed and is
becoming full of life and light. Theology used to bore me but now as truth
leaps out of the Word, it thrills me beyond what I could ever have imagined. I
hope I can share this joy and thrill with you as you read.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I remember the words of John Robinson in 1630, who encouraged the
Pilgrim Fathers as they crossed the Atlantic to the New World: “The Lord has
yet more light and truth to break forth from his word.” </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Trevor Galpin, 2021</span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-51349059810336456172020-10-23T13:05:00.000+02:002020-10-23T13:05:52.102+02:00The sun always shines behind the storm.<p> </p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Linda
and I went for a walk along the beach at West Wittering recently. It was the last
sunny day forecast before a period of very wet weather was due to come our way. It was a
beautiful day. As we walked the beach a storm blew up through the
English Channel across the Isle of Wight. We both managed to catch some
photos and when I looked at them later the title of this post came to
mind.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLOvMP75-2pINdIIL56cgq848va4iEiw8L41I3ud_txA00vHYbDsmzcG5nYYhqdUFn9-dJaFWZTTAYDMqgb8CIWDmdzbsdfXB2jpQkn1TFQQ-M7amH8yZxMUVhpsKM3OX0AZmM_icJy6y/s2048/IMG_1150.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLOvMP75-2pINdIIL56cgq848va4iEiw8L41I3ud_txA00vHYbDsmzcG5nYYhqdUFn9-dJaFWZTTAYDMqgb8CIWDmdzbsdfXB2jpQkn1TFQQ-M7amH8yZxMUVhpsKM3OX0AZmM_icJy6y/s320/IMG_1150.jpeg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> I felt this w</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">a</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">s a metaphor for this season of life we are all in. Many are facing the full force of the Covid storm. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">None
of us are untouched. Yet the sun behind the storm was a powerful and
comforting reminder of the Father's constant presence. </span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We learning to
live each day as it comes and enjoy each day's opportunities. We also
look to the future when the storm clouds clear and a new day finally dawns. To
that end we are not cancelling events scheduled for 2021. If nearer the
time they don't happen then so be it. We hold all these things lightly. Indeed, I was recently able to travel to Denmark and speak at a conference. In many ways it felt very "normal". No one was sick during the week or afterwards and on my return I went into quarantine for two weeks. Then Denmark was taken off the UK's list of countries where the infection levels require travelers to go into quarantine. So I was able to be released early. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In the coming months I will continue to make plans, holding them lightly and will be delighted if they transpire. I do not want to give in to a culture of fear but at the same time want to be responsible and wise. I want to continue to live in my relationship with God as my Father, trusting him on a daily basis. Doing the things I see him doing and saying the things he is saying. I have no sense that he is saying to us, stop or retire but rather to live each day, make the most of very day by enjoying the small things. Somebody asked me recently in a very meaningful way, "What are you seeing in this season?" My answer was typically slightly facetious I relied, "The end of my garden." Well that is what I am seeing every day out of the kitchen window. It is a wonderful view. I've seen the birds come and go, plants sprout flourish and be harvested. Now the leaves are turning yellow and orange and pink and fall. It's a wonderful view that gives me joy each day. There is joy each day if we open our eyes to see it and close our ears to fear and despair that is the daily diet of much of the news media. It's trusting Father whatever comes my way and knowing that even in the darkest storm he is there behind and will break through.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /><br /></span></span></p>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-83847092500823393552018-02-23T12:45:00.004+01:002018-02-23T12:58:25.955+01:00THE STORY OF PAUL, THE EARLY YEARS.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwOUkSad5kISNogh6aQlUAiGeZbPuY2ig9eB0Mpsua5LIzRDfivfY5Z6jVstTCmgev13zGZPEFLLEF48EQUR9kZk3uNILAyIGLwROjpOVTbQXda1hc7qzV1euPgzCGBKju-_kZOF0o-DM/s1600/The_Story_of_Paul_COVER_6x9IN_HR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1388" data-original-width="911" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwOUkSad5kISNogh6aQlUAiGeZbPuY2ig9eB0Mpsua5LIzRDfivfY5Z6jVstTCmgev13zGZPEFLLEF48EQUR9kZk3uNILAyIGLwROjpOVTbQXda1hc7qzV1euPgzCGBKju-_kZOF0o-DM/s320/The_Story_of_Paul_COVER_6x9IN_HR.jpg" width="210" /></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm delighted to announce the publication of my latest book, The Story of Paul, the early years. It is available on Amazon and Kindle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But why another book on the apostle Paul? Haven’t there been
enough books on him already? </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Here is why I wrote the book. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> The apostle Paul has been with me all my Christian life. What I
mean by that is, my earliest memory of the apostle was being informed
by my parents that my middle name was Paul and I was named
after him. I had no idea what they were talking about. Much later, I
discovered what they meant. They were expressing in some way their
hopes for me, that I would be like Paul. Whatever the reason behind
it, I have always had some sort of affinity with the apostle. That was
about as far as it went for years.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the 1970s, I studied theology at
Spurgeon’s College and whilst Paul was on the curriculum, he was not
a major focus for me. In many ways, I felt more akin to the apostle
Peter in his ups and downs. Incidentally, my brother had Peter as his
middle name. The apostle Peter had an opinion about Paul also, one
that I shared. He says of Paul in his second letter. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">“... Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the
wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way
in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His
letters contain some things that are hard to understand...”
(2 Peter 3:16). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That just about summed up my opinion of Paul. There was a lot
in Paul that was hard to understand. My interests in theological
college went into the realm of Church History. Later as a local
church pastor, I would preach from Paul’s letters but often majored
on what I felt were the practical sections, usually towards the end of
each letter, rather than what I thought were the heavy bits. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">However,
over the last few years, I have personally discovered truth that I had
not really seen before in the New Testament. I began to receive
revelation that God is a Father who wants us to know and be known
intimately by him. This has changed my whole perspective on what
it is to be a Christian and a son of God. I have written about that
in my first book </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Falling from grace into Grace and being caught by
the Father</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What has also happened as I continue this journey is I have
rediscovered Paul the apostle and found that he had an amazing
revelation of God in Christ. I keep revisiting the writings of Paul in
his letters and discovering things I had never seen before. They are truly
a gold mine of truth. This led me to think about how Paul received
such incredible revelation and the battles he had to fight to share this
truth with us. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In this book about Paul, I imagine how these events unfolded
and how he received this revelation. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Inevitably, I cannot write about these things just from a theological
point of view. I am not wired like that. I wanted to know what
Paul was like. Why he said the things he said. More to the point,
I wanted to see how the legalistic Jewish Pharisee who persecuted
the early church was transformed into the man who had a profound
revelation of the love of God the Father expressed in and through
Jesus Christ his beloved Son. I want to tell his story as it appears
in the pages of the New Testament. I want also to get behind the</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> words and meet the man.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our primary source of information about Paul comes from
the account written in the New Testament by Luke in the work
known as the Acts of the Apostles. There are also bits and pieces
of biographical information scattered through the thirteen letters
attributed to Paul, and my fertile imagination has pieced the story
together from these sources. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVfB0EaSNaDh8dXdZn6p7LXa2XX7SAv59dgqZe_aJz422EYQ_Q6ZEa3EZvKEL79XX5qm8H2F3kzCLPa86dsc86OZtpZ3ekkghDPi26CIBuTZOqcTdIkqtdLvyrNqL7-mQ9K_OjuvxivMP/s1600/The_Story_of_Paul_COVER_6x9IN_HR+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="1007" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVfB0EaSNaDh8dXdZn6p7LXa2XX7SAv59dgqZe_aJz422EYQ_Q6ZEa3EZvKEL79XX5qm8H2F3kzCLPa86dsc86OZtpZ3ekkghDPi26CIBuTZOqcTdIkqtdLvyrNqL7-mQ9K_OjuvxivMP/s400/The_Story_of_Paul_COVER_6x9IN_HR+2.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What conversations went on? What was the back story? Who
were the people Paul worked with and knew? Though the book is not a
novel, from time to time it has been necessary to conjecture a little
about how the various events were linked. Therefore, in writing this
non fiction work, I closely follow the events as they unfold in the
New Testament and here and there, I imagine what people were
thinking and saying weaving a historical narrative into the text. I
think it will be self-evident when that happens. I also wanted to
explore Paul’s revelation and teaching as these have deeply impacted
me, and I believe they are a word for the whole Church today. </span></span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I believe Paul saw things with the eyes of his heart that very few
have seen, and he has much to teach us. I'm thrilled that James Jordan wrote the foreword too. Thank you James.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Finally I also believe it is a jolly cracking story to tell!
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Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-56761763813606129642017-10-30T22:23:00.000+01:002017-10-30T23:09:44.093+01:00MARTIN LUTHER AND THE NEED FOR A NEW REFORMATION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7B9sHYaOWD8Fi9Pi36sqexMv9JkvTTNuWWVzWikQEjcQ2FSpTXIKojqWBoIGwp32GeTOUNIEmSP04LA3g_-JVGQkOaSJRUUUeqEyEkkndblEF1u33FYC_8rYw1HCBYISkoTCN0A_pXDO/s1600/IMG_2922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1326" data-original-width="1328" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7B9sHYaOWD8Fi9Pi36sqexMv9JkvTTNuWWVzWikQEjcQ2FSpTXIKojqWBoIGwp32GeTOUNIEmSP04LA3g_-JVGQkOaSJRUUUeqEyEkkndblEF1u33FYC_8rYw1HCBYISkoTCN0A_pXDO/s320/IMG_2922.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have been mulling over writing about Martin Luther and the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation for quite some time. In this 500th anniversary year we have had the opportunity to visit the sites in Germany that are most closely linked to Martin Luther. I was surprised how "un-touristy" it all was. I liked Wittenberg and enjoyed listening to a Lutheran service in English in the Castle Church that finished up with a rousing rendition of Luther's great hymn of the Reformation, "A mighty fortress is our God." It was stirring and moving. The painting by Cranach in Luther's local church where he used to preach, was particularly fine. It visually described some of the basic tenets of Luther's teaching.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On October 31st 1517, Martin Luther had nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. These 95 statements challenged the Roman Catholic Church of the 16th Century to question what it means to be a Christian and to reexamine what they believed and taught from a Biblical perspective. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW4pTiwvsdGwaXJs_jwTa3JD1wNCmVFLhBYB_oyPoOQN_bFEGEVqROs2GnG-oBnwp84uDH2XtjPCQskDgc1lZyr1phXWrZUVQPJ1Pcjtfczac4HPlnkwgyotinM6krRITRMehNZwiwJJA0/s1600/IMG_0297.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1242" data-original-width="1260" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW4pTiwvsdGwaXJs_jwTa3JD1wNCmVFLhBYB_oyPoOQN_bFEGEVqROs2GnG-oBnwp84uDH2XtjPCQskDgc1lZyr1phXWrZUVQPJ1Pcjtfczac4HPlnkwgyotinM6krRITRMehNZwiwJJA0/s320/IMG_0297.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Much has been written about this in the past and especially this year. As Luther nailed the statements to the door, the hammer blows echoed around Europe and within a very few years Christianity as it had been known was changed. Tragically the following years were soiled by division, persecution and appalling treatment by people claiming that their version of Christianity was the only true one. Thousands were burnt at the stake, tortured and hounded into exile. Many Christians could not live alongside those who did not think the same as them. The American colonies became initially a safe haven for many but sadly the divisions were reproduced and multiplied in the new lands across the Atlantic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There clearly was a great need in the 16th Century for a reforming of the church in a more biblically coherent way. In my mind it raises the question of is there a need for reformation today? Every age and every generation has a challenge to look at what it is teaching and what it presents to the world. For me the Reformation dictum of "sola scritura" - Scripture Alone has always been important. The Bible gives us a safe bedrock in which to base what we believe. However it raises the issue of interpretation. Saying the Bible alone sounds good but it opens up the whole area of how we interpret what it says, or rather who interprets it. The Roman Catholic church of the 16th Century said it was the Pope alone who could interpret the Bible. Protestants disagreed and have argued that all are free to interpret the Bible but within Protestantism there have been endless debates and division based on each other's interpretation. We have made the Bible a book of academic and theological discussion that leaves most people disinterested. Indeed today the majority rarely open the Bible or give it a second thought.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcsE55CfyZ9dA3U-JEMxBKhdQuILuD6osAZ5_V7NU1fx1uao06SCe-f9KREJ0dkhGHjG36_NmT7WJ29gW9YgQFTJSnfmBR8ProvB_iQmSRtbnFL5Z8k2eLjFFYu2AFSnnSTS4XVyvjEmEL/s1600/IMG_2870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="839" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcsE55CfyZ9dA3U-JEMxBKhdQuILuD6osAZ5_V7NU1fx1uao06SCe-f9KREJ0dkhGHjG36_NmT7WJ29gW9YgQFTJSnfmBR8ProvB_iQmSRtbnFL5Z8k2eLjFFYu2AFSnnSTS4XVyvjEmEL/s320/IMG_2870.jpg" width="282" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It saddens me that there are still people who, through the internet, express disapproval of the beliefs those they do not agree with and condemn them with as much enthusiasm as the Spanish Inquisition did in the past. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One of the big things that I have discovered in recent years is that the writers of the Bible wrote about what they had experienced first and then put it into words. Today however, with a so called modern rational approach, people tend to discount experience and retreat into the mind and an academic dead end. Luther would have been surprised by this as his great discovery was that salvation was by faith alone which was totally experiential. In his studies of the Letter to the Romans Luther felt himself reborn. His reformation began with an experience that changed him and transformed Christianity.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we are seeing the beginnings of a new reformation in Christianity that is beginning to impact the world. It is based on an experience of God as Father who unconditionally loves us and is for us. This reformation is beginning to change many across the various expressions of Christianity in the world today. It is rooted in Biblical Christianity but it begins with not an academic discussion but a revelation of being loved by God himself.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I am longing to see this experience-based approach re form the church today. I don't long for a first century or sixteenth century version of Christianity. I long for an authentic, twenty first century, biblically based, love filled, and experiential expression of Christianity. I long for a church where people are individually valued and loved, and are enjoying their Christian life to the full. I long for a church where the focus of our lives is the trinity of a loving Father, a saving faith in his eternal Son Jesus and an overwhelming experience of his love being poured into us by his life giving and holy Spirit. </span></span>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-46670784560633899092017-09-13T16:33:00.002+02:002017-09-13T16:33:49.916+02:00HURRICANE IRMA AND THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD<div class="_oDd" data-hveid="39">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">In the last year we have encountered two hurricanes. The first was Hurricane Matthew which slammed into South Carolina the day l</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">ast October </span></span>before we flew in to Atlanta. It delayed our arrival by a couple of days and disrupted the event we were due to attend not far from Charleston.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">This year was more specific as we landed in Florida for a week of rest and holiday and found ourselves caught up in a mass evacuation of over 6 million people. We joined the interminable lines of cars heading north and eventually after driving for nearly 18 hours found ourselves in the safety of Orange Beach, Alabama rather than St Petersberg Florida. We sat on the sidelines of the main event which tore through the Florida Keys, made landfall near where we were meant to be staying and ripped a path up the centre of the state causing billions of dollars worth of damage and flooding many coastal communities. Friends suffered damage to their property and most are still without power.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">We met nothing but kindness and help from people all along the way from gas stations to the hotel where we finally ended up. There were many stressed and anxious fellow evacuees staying at the same hotel. We experienced sympathy, concern and classic southern hospitality which was heart warming. It confirmed my opinion of America and Americans as being kind, gracious and welcoming if at little parochial at times however as some seemed confused by our accents and why we were there!</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdxXUKDXhAbLDMliAE_CIDZcd9PVRFPWvRm0cqiSSqEcQYY8kH13Ce8AKPFgJsrznIBVxLJmTu9Bd6oIq5JEqIPznUfwyF-deYlHx8VmH1zwrQOxLtvPrRvRwbocQ98s-LIKVJqcUC2P6/s1600/IMG_3186+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1558" data-original-width="1368" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdxXUKDXhAbLDMliAE_CIDZcd9PVRFPWvRm0cqiSSqEcQYY8kH13Ce8AKPFgJsrznIBVxLJmTu9Bd6oIq5JEqIPznUfwyF-deYlHx8VmH1zwrQOxLtvPrRvRwbocQ98s-LIKVJqcUC2P6/s200/IMG_3186+%25281%2529.jpg" width="175" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">We watched the weather channel as the drama unfolded. We followed posts on Facebook and read comments by many 'religious' people offering advice and direction on how to pray in these circumstances. The suggestions varied widely. Some of the advice was wise and sensible. Some was down right crazy and driven by fear and appalling judgement. </span><span class="_Tgc"><i> </i>The tragedy of this is that often these rather extreme views are taken as to be representative of all Christians. This has always been an issue and is not new. This spate of hurricanes, Harvey which hit Texas less than two weeks ago and now Irma which has devastated Florida were both Category 4. Hurricane Jose is swirling around close to the Bermuda and can't seem to decide where to go. They have caused some parts of the Christian community to rise up in prayer to "rebuke the storm", send it way, meaning 'as far from me as possible and not in my back yard.' </span><span class="_Tgc"><span class="_Tgc">One of the more extreme views found its way into the Washington Post this week. "</span><span class="_Tgc"><i>We pray that Irma divert from its path toward Miami, and go back out to sea.
We pray in these storms that you will send the hosts of heaven to shred
the demonic fury that is driving the coming together of these winds." </i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">I saw a post not long ago on Facebook which triumphantly proclaimed a tornado had been diverted from its path away from the writer's home because of anointed and powerful prayers. Then a day or two later the same writer was expressing sympathy for the damage and the destruction in the immediate neighbourhood due to the same tornado that had been "prayed away". </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">Back to these hurricanes. </span><span class="_Tgc"><span class="_Tgc">I heard of one group who daily stood on a pier at
Jacksonville Beach rebuking the storm and sending it out to sea. It did the
opposite sadly and hit the west coast of Florida which sent a huge tidal
surge onto the east coast. I'm sure there was lots of good intention
but I imagine there is also a lot of disappointment now as Jacksonville
was particularly badly flooded.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">Some people are even claiming<i>, </i></span><span class="_Tgc"><i>“These hurricanes are not the result of global warming; they are the
Judgment of God because of the innocent blood crying to Him for
vengeance,</i>” There are numerous other examples that have cropped up this week. Even in the terminology of some Insurance companies natural disasters are described as Acts of God.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">Are natural disasters the judgement of God, or as some have said, a warning from Him to repent, a way of God trying to get out attention? Bolts of lightening are considered in the same way by many not least Martin Luther who over 500 years ago made avow to become a monk after narrowly missing being hit by lightning. Earthquakes are similarly viewed. The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti a few years ago was widely believed to be God's judgement on the poorest nation on the planet because of their widespread practice of voodoo. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">So what do we make of all this? Is this the Judgement of God on America and Florida or the tiny islands of the Caribbean? Why them and not North Korea or Walton on Thames?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_Tgc">The root of the confusion comes from a misunderstanding of the nature of God and the nature of the world in which we live. When God is viewed through Adam's fallen eyes, he is then seen as a God who people fear and hide from. He is seen as fickle and impulsive in the way he responds to our fearful prayers. He is cruel and arbitrary in his dealings with people. Man's fallen view of God creates a caricature of him that is driven by our own brokenness and fear. We live in a world that has been impacted by our fallenness and experiences countless natural phenomena and disasters daily as a result. Let us look at lightening for a moment. In the US there are 25 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes per year. 1,800 thunderstorms on earth at any given moment, and 100 is the number of times lightning hits earth per second.</span><span class="_D8e"> Earth is an active place and earthquakes are always happening somewhere.
In fact, the National Earthquake Information Center locates about
12,000-14,000 earthquakes each year! </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiljlZnPH9k1ajktZr7jCgtQoNPATbRKAJwVhXwQcH8DT3c8j51L7ofmS_y8I_NxBhiFM9PR7y81njZZKAzw-5H4v49zU9lC4TphG45wk3YuYNQvrNHveHjSkAGE4uQ8ZlW3FM1E9uGfK/s1600/IMG_0977.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="982" data-original-width="1600" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiljlZnPH9k1ajktZr7jCgtQoNPATbRKAJwVhXwQcH8DT3c8j51L7ofmS_y8I_NxBhiFM9PR7y81njZZKAzw-5H4v49zU9lC4TphG45wk3YuYNQvrNHveHjSkAGE4uQ8ZlW3FM1E9uGfK/s320/IMG_0977.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e">As for hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones on average there are about 70 to 110 named tropical cyclones per year across the world, including about 40 to 60 that reach
hurricane strength. This range has held remarkably steady within the
last 40 years. This is according to University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e">So how do we respond to these frequently occurring events? It's not inappropriate to pray but praying within the will of God has always been tricky as often it is our will rather than his that we pray for. When Jesus' disciple's experienced a potentially life threatening storm on lake Galilee interestingly he was asleep peacefully in the bottom of the boat. Jesus knew that this was not his time and there was no cause for alarm. However in order to calm the disciple's fears he "rebuked the storm." This is where the rebuking thing comes from. What does this mean and what happened? He said, "Stop it!" and it did. It stopped, it didn't divert across the other side of the lake and flood Capernaum, it stopped. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e">The apostle Paul got caught up in a horrific Mediterranean storm with hurricane force winds which lasted for two weeks. Paul was not disobeying God, he was living in the will of God for his life but he got caught up in storm. What did he advise? Take all necessary precautions, dump excess baggage, eat a hearty meal to keep strength up, pray, trust God and run before the storm. Seems like good advice. Finally the boat ran aground on a beach in Malta and every one got saved. That is a good outcome.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e">We face daily the challenges of our world. We read in Romans 8 that all of creation is groaning waiting for the appearing of the sons of God. We experience that groaning in many ways not least in storms, floods, hurricanes and disasters. As increasingly the sons of God rise up and step into our inheritance we will see the impact in the people of this world who need to know that God is a loving Father who cares for us and longs for us to find our home and true identity in him.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="_D8e">When the storm comes we step up to the challenges as sons and daughters of almighty God our Father and reach out to our fellow man with all the compassion and comfort that we have received from him.</span></span><br />
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Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-68499293352819663492017-08-30T11:36:00.001+02:002017-08-30T12:49:29.967+02:00AFRICA UPDATE AUGUST 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFy8vlXM4j5jstE-ifUCkQMI_4Z-CA5PCUByNw4bywqAIh9LDrFLYWuKKzOVuLtimVDvPSvet-ndzM9IUv8qVwVcbN_hkYPAmIX_t2fU4vcAn0SXdpK9jWJi-LZQsjjXkjwrDtoL7ZKaZ/s1600/IMG_1339.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1600" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFy8vlXM4j5jstE-ifUCkQMI_4Z-CA5PCUByNw4bywqAIh9LDrFLYWuKKzOVuLtimVDvPSvet-ndzM9IUv8qVwVcbN_hkYPAmIX_t2fU4vcAn0SXdpK9jWJi-LZQsjjXkjwrDtoL7ZKaZ/s400/IMG_1339.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Having just returned from Uganda I thought it would be a good idea to put some photos up and give a pictorial account of the two week trip. </b></h2>
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As many will know the security situation at Mto Moyoni was serious following a spate of burglaries and the murder of the German next door neighbour by thieves who broke into his house. This created a huge police presence in the immediate area and lots of anger among the local village community who were complaining about lack of police presence in the area generally.<br />
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We are pleased to say that on our arrival walking in the gates of Mto Moyoni was like walking into an oasis of calm and peace as always. The staff where relaxed and trusting and very pleased to greet us. We led a staff retreat one day and shared about the servant heart of sons. This was a wonderful time and we could see that the staff, made up of gardeners, kitchen staff, office staff and housekeepers totally identified with the vision of Mto Moyoni and were living in the revelation that God is their Father. It was so good to have been with them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lGGQ5o96Fj0hkeGb5J5onTeyMwvKkSwXJVZEJFhBfm9TXWTpVv-CTLMvx1BQoOJ0moXJD0e_eAhvoG3v57f4ZrvajNU_GbJqlaPhGyW1AbtVzn2G6MOPsk_MUAL3KRz6xfAd6OSHnnr3/s1600/washing+feet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lGGQ5o96Fj0hkeGb5J5onTeyMwvKkSwXJVZEJFhBfm9TXWTpVv-CTLMvx1BQoOJ0moXJD0e_eAhvoG3v57f4ZrvajNU_GbJqlaPhGyW1AbtVzn2G6MOPsk_MUAL3KRz6xfAd6OSHnnr3/s200/washing+feet.jpg" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMRhxWmJILlpzgJFJPCo5ZK5mNzfUP7tDYRS7jOymItFtpVzgIbMGvRlhDn3wrMlbGnBjWvne9Qhm1uTGAkQsAW5ftxBK0w0u_4Nl0SBzuJEwSfVZ51Ma5oX4RjZ7_Lsn_3nc5eCezDmBS/s1600/3969ED36-E7AC-45E1-985B-96368E8E50AE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMRhxWmJILlpzgJFJPCo5ZK5mNzfUP7tDYRS7jOymItFtpVzgIbMGvRlhDn3wrMlbGnBjWvne9Qhm1uTGAkQsAW5ftxBK0w0u_4Nl0SBzuJEwSfVZ51Ma5oX4RjZ7_Lsn_3nc5eCezDmBS/s200/3969ED36-E7AC-45E1-985B-96368E8E50AE.jpg" width="150" /></a>We then held a pastors conference at the youth centre at Mto. This was another great time with open hearts and men and women deeply drinking of Fathers love. Maggie, one of the Mto Moyoni staff shared and was able to pray the love of the Father over these people. <br />
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At the middle weekend there was a gathering of about 25 people from across Uganda, African and Muzungu (whites) who we have been privileged to get to know over the last 8 years. It was very open and joyful event with a deepening of revelation and love for Father and one another.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVeR_9JI2c5Ilp5pETYg6JTnnEp8Nclj1skjzRQX44yC0OmW1_yxreYEgr6D5ZmUwmqp8hpjJrGW8TeBiRJGB04ah3-eH3ukaZatTM7P7zgfHZb_RJsDznrNkM3oX_-W2HIvGxQbnQIFzc/s1600/IMG_3144.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVeR_9JI2c5Ilp5pETYg6JTnnEp8Nclj1skjzRQX44yC0OmW1_yxreYEgr6D5ZmUwmqp8hpjJrGW8TeBiRJGB04ah3-eH3ukaZatTM7P7zgfHZb_RJsDznrNkM3oX_-W2HIvGxQbnQIFzc/s200/IMG_3144.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWjljfoJ-JUOCfMNegaeMtEXnPfTK-4xG8Ct_htslSMvRmtibou92eUz7E0Wt4CuyNEKVmefN42dQ51UMJ0gINzRH9_vOZJ-jFU8twk7fCS1SwcxWYI6CivkiM2nhwJGlSoYhLfXdXJqW/s1600/IMG_3173.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKsb1xUtUTmXpwbSFgfsL546ijYFfQZSsvZaELmbGBGQPXPLzvC3jb1hUFQHFh-wx87iC918b6C2ncTegFyS8KmNL0u_wsKeD-x8IfCA2IaQKndofl-RzhquWyAcOMuXm8P4zLuMKXE_l_/s1600/IMG_3168.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKsb1xUtUTmXpwbSFgfsL546ijYFfQZSsvZaELmbGBGQPXPLzvC3jb1hUFQHFh-wx87iC918b6C2ncTegFyS8KmNL0u_wsKeD-x8IfCA2IaQKndofl-RzhquWyAcOMuXm8P4zLuMKXE_l_/s200/IMG_3168.jpg" width="200" /></a>The last week was the Fatherheart Ministries A School which welcomed about 50 people, well over half being deaf pastors and leaders. The other part of the group were all pastors from the region in Uganda of Karamoja.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7aceITczcsDMa6C40PSKkkYJRtUkTysz0hGJctzqBPd0aqe5NT4PAYXZP7Y5mrnR2lNO6PM0vaRsIvzIJexEHrkr3O6M82zBmqm_JXl1elc2UtwiwXjfsBl4N-AMncofXRnJ9GRjO9jQ/s1600/IMG_0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7aceITczcsDMa6C40PSKkkYJRtUkTysz0hGJctzqBPd0aqe5NT4PAYXZP7Y5mrnR2lNO6PM0vaRsIvzIJexEHrkr3O6M82zBmqm_JXl1elc2UtwiwXjfsBl4N-AMncofXRnJ9GRjO9jQ/s200/IMG_0004.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbwR6vd88IgoEfqsuI-9L5Q4qDgQ_HVP2Ww8E9WgtaHvbt3GbHN94VVIDcql8hQaRsmAKNHZxUxwFxScbhOvcW81W4WLMwIyxOIOL-KRd8YV82L9K2u4e6_quCqHXxdUEW1o67wQuLLos/s1600/IMG_0880.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbwR6vd88IgoEfqsuI-9L5Q4qDgQ_HVP2Ww8E9WgtaHvbt3GbHN94VVIDcql8hQaRsmAKNHZxUxwFxScbhOvcW81W4WLMwIyxOIOL-KRd8YV82L9K2u4e6_quCqHXxdUEW1o67wQuLLos/s200/IMG_0880.jpg" width="150" /></a>The Karamajong are a semi-nomadic tribe very closely related to the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania. They are pastoralists( Cattle herders) and live in the north east of Uganda. They are considered very warlike and different from the rest of Uganda so tend to be despised and feared. Thus we had two very marginalised groups sitting together and experiencing the love of the Father.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>It was an amazing week. The level of openness was unlike anything I have ever experienced in Africa or indeed anywhere.</b></i> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVtbRJi9LptrSyJAQR7IXeD_C2jCw830Z4NXXURZgEAixDsuggdKPc7a1_L5-y-c2aouMGTSGJgGcf2E8bhdrdcFnMYRM1wS_tgYJ1hEBSVK6f6Qw2Cvep8bfFsgDL1unzUbDgq70hRT49/s1600/IMG_3154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVtbRJi9LptrSyJAQR7IXeD_C2jCw830Z4NXXURZgEAixDsuggdKPc7a1_L5-y-c2aouMGTSGJgGcf2E8bhdrdcFnMYRM1wS_tgYJ1hEBSVK6f6Qw2Cvep8bfFsgDL1unzUbDgq70hRT49/s200/IMG_3154.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1-I4l0f-D982IlWkp3wg9uz4LIdQCiY-OAp1Aq086LMwLIASKiCBmtXKZMT_qmaMQMaoGwNahkZ2ynYUohFDJDkcQjGNdrN7El7j49lOfMNWV4iKgev0zErgybRHYxkIAccSKyI5gzSUQ/s1600/IMG_3396.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="426" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1-I4l0f-D982IlWkp3wg9uz4LIdQCiY-OAp1Aq086LMwLIASKiCBmtXKZMT_qmaMQMaoGwNahkZ2ynYUohFDJDkcQjGNdrN7El7j49lOfMNWV4iKgev0zErgybRHYxkIAccSKyI5gzSUQ/s200/IMG_3396.jpg" width="159" /></a>One of the highlights was the time Philip, a Karamajong pastor who we met in 2009 and was part of the team, shared his testimony. I was deeply touched by his heart and life, a man who has never had a day in school but had been taught by the Holy Spirit to read and speak English. My heart nearly burst for joy when he talked. When we shared the Father's embrace with everyone I went to Philip to receive and I was very deeply touched. The sense of the presence of God was incredible.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiceHZBIWqkJpIDLyqGmyiUrTc8W39cFcdbPQDC3094ePWecY7hTY4CZUk51h8gXqYPDUD4cDVprXLNqDHkdA9xxjaRkTiJxi-8NPTZnfWDtt6thYoWuUVWgSjJQRPtHDwLIMQE8oQZOE/s1600/IMG_0524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiceHZBIWqkJpIDLyqGmyiUrTc8W39cFcdbPQDC3094ePWecY7hTY4CZUk51h8gXqYPDUD4cDVprXLNqDHkdA9xxjaRkTiJxi-8NPTZnfWDtt6thYoWuUVWgSjJQRPtHDwLIMQE8oQZOE/s200/IMG_0524.jpg" width="200" /></a>It was very good to share the whole time with Ingrid Wilts who runs Mto Moyoni and has lived in Uganda for over 25 years. Also Winette Hubregste who whilst being based back in the Netherlands is still an integral part of the ministry in Mto. Then for the A school we were joined by Gunnar Dehli who leads Deaf Ministries International and has been a key person in bringing the revelation of the Father into the Deaf community. Maggie from Mto and Philip were also part of the team<br />
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During the week the plans for an A School in South Africa next February 2018 were finalised. We are delighted that Philip and hopefully also Maggie will be joining us on team for that School in Pretoria. We are looking to cover their flights and costs next year through gifts and offerings. If you want to help with this here is the link. <a href="http://www.trevorlindafhm.com/p/ways-of-giving-financial-support.html">Donate towards Maggie and Philips fares.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZSj2hNS4D_XY-minicXBE5yvoMo-wk9nQAmVi42Tu82xgv819aUzoVOCl5bmuSJTiF8g9q_xCsE7-ZPggK7TdXaLMuO6OtdAZSRILWraRjqUFhdHfE6SPE4iR5DxstfEuLr1T0pFyDEH_/s1600/IMG_3175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZSj2hNS4D_XY-minicXBE5yvoMo-wk9nQAmVi42Tu82xgv819aUzoVOCl5bmuSJTiF8g9q_xCsE7-ZPggK7TdXaLMuO6OtdAZSRILWraRjqUFhdHfE6SPE4iR5DxstfEuLr1T0pFyDEH_/s200/IMG_3175.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYR__2LHLeKcdgBU3HsE8s2pFdLrACv4bMRHH6X9u4V-eI-FMHUGudRm3wQKmQKCMYzF53NknOw7X0wLu5F-NLv_6whwJbSVAsVtWqJqNFPXUa1yI-_lreRrWAFqcpVTijuM4Lcom4Qgyw/s1600/IMG_0520.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="508" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYR__2LHLeKcdgBU3HsE8s2pFdLrACv4bMRHH6X9u4V-eI-FMHUGudRm3wQKmQKCMYzF53NknOw7X0wLu5F-NLv_6whwJbSVAsVtWqJqNFPXUa1yI-_lreRrWAFqcpVTijuM4Lcom4Qgyw/s200/IMG_0520.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>We are so thankful for the support and encouragement received for this trip. Every thing was covered and we were able to bless all the pastors by subsidising and sponsoring them. </b><br />
<b> Thank you for your part in helping us and partnering with us to facilitate this time.</b>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-38322194944719843592016-11-25T00:54:00.000+01:002016-11-25T02:10:55.793+01:00A LOOK BACK AT 2016<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It hardly seems possible that 2016 is nearly at an end. I had been meaning to write various blogs this year but that just didn't happen as you will know. The intention was there but not the time or the moment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now the moment has arrived as I am sitting looking back at the year from the perspective of New Zealand. We are back down under for the Christmas holidays spending time with our Kiwi and Ozzie families. It gives me time to reflect a little.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Being slightly OCD I have kept account of the number of things as varied as countries visited and ministered in since 2007 - 25; FHM A Schools and B Schools attended or led since 2007 - 96; birds spotted in Uganda and Tanzania - 170; beds we have slept in this year - 62, much fewer now we have our own flat in the UK as a base to land back in. That says something about me, I know not what though.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPwQ5aNMkXJQ2ZZEdx8TCYqSTNlEC2ZPmAMfEkcPgqZTDXAmsm4xWzpDlFWP1DksRbDT5CtsthJEmRwuqKrJY-9o5mnHpg4_0vLo5BwubQDomjMTmPc7NplIOHvNcCm-L698oPyw_9J4IE/s1600/D482EB87-EE2E-45FE-B33B-437EA99A8F40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPwQ5aNMkXJQ2ZZEdx8TCYqSTNlEC2ZPmAMfEkcPgqZTDXAmsm4xWzpDlFWP1DksRbDT5CtsthJEmRwuqKrJY-9o5mnHpg4_0vLo5BwubQDomjMTmPc7NplIOHvNcCm-L698oPyw_9J4IE/s320/D482EB87-EE2E-45FE-B33B-437EA99A8F40.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We began the year with a brilliant family gathering in Taupo, New Zealand, with all our children and grandchildren spending a few days together with their grandparents. We even had the twins other granny from England and Noah and Lily's other grandad from Auckland there. We recreated a family photo that we took last time we were all together three years ago. Every one had changed! We were all there except Chrissie's husband James who couldn't get time off from work in Australia. We so value family and as we look at our brood and their broods we feel very very proud and thankful. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_exisyiGq_NH9RAaF2MhstbyMMHLeYStmiQcFK2dNZKYKW4e5rGUzHQQjDgTuZHoSZijeRMAiGnlgKrLRHLauvqr8Y14NzSLE7JxQPF32McNePziz_i8A1de1xpKhCK3EnIjRrk7Bqm-/s1600/IMG_1292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_exisyiGq_NH9RAaF2MhstbyMMHLeYStmiQcFK2dNZKYKW4e5rGUzHQQjDgTuZHoSZijeRMAiGnlgKrLRHLauvqr8Y14NzSLE7JxQPF32McNePziz_i8A1de1xpKhCK3EnIjRrk7Bqm-/s200/IMG_1292.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The major change for us this year has been the provision of a flat not far from Winchester in the UK. This was perfect timing and a great kindness by our friends who own the place beside their house in Ropley and are kindly renting it out to us. It is just what we needed and gives us a place to keep our things and a place to rest and recover between trips. The timing was perfect as we needed to clear our rooms at the Eden Centre, the ministry base for FHM in New Zealand because of its impending sale. We couldn't be happier about this. In the past we have trusted that when we needed it Father would provide the right place and this is it. Very happy!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRUg8COCPcCU6jRpkaStelL7z4BkQpYS2m9oHXgPswJdOB-Bt2iXfNmT_WqVO8gDMgks2FAzEvK1Nkb0RGsVoiK9wWdwfwhiMXqcA4s4ifm7NKCMuZXsuzHENBrop4v_v3WTuo1p9qnYZp/s1600/IMG_4321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRUg8COCPcCU6jRpkaStelL7z4BkQpYS2m9oHXgPswJdOB-Bt2iXfNmT_WqVO8gDMgks2FAzEvK1Nkb0RGsVoiK9wWdwfwhiMXqcA4s4ifm7NKCMuZXsuzHENBrop4v_v3WTuo1p9qnYZp/s400/IMG_4321.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mission situations have figured quite highly this year and it was great to return to Uganda to lead a second FHM A School for deaf church leaders at Mto Moyoni in Jinja. Participants came from 9 different African nations. Our links with DMI, Deaf Ministries International and our friend Gunnar have grown through these schools and in this coming year I am going to S Korea with him for a School there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The other missions situation was Port au Prince Haiti where we taught an A School. This was about 2 weeks after the hurricane had hit the country. I was there at the invitation and with the support of a team from New Day Church, Summerville, S Carolina. We had just held a B School at New Day in the wake of the same hurricane that had hit Haiti. A large number of pastors and leaders came to this Haitian School and we are excited about how they were able to received and what the future will bring. At this point it looks like we will be returning in February 2018 for another School. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thank you for supporting us in these mission Schools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In terms of our ministry we continue to speak at conferences and churches and teach and lead FHM A Schools and I am also now quite involved in teaching at B Schools. These have challenged me and brought me great joy and enabled me to dig deeper into the biblical basis and foundation of what we are teaching.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJErsfi0WbJRmMiPuUe2imbMip2ghxnyMHBjoupe-ly3uuB8Oj49x9xS0NzHvAL1hQFOEAdTeKu8eQzaVkjzHslrhVDapSvZO5l9N5oH8JKzy_aL8Fn8N5XzFRxjgzc8jfA2m4KIMj_ODw/s1600/IMG_1696.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJErsfi0WbJRmMiPuUe2imbMip2ghxnyMHBjoupe-ly3uuB8Oj49x9xS0NzHvAL1hQFOEAdTeKu8eQzaVkjzHslrhVDapSvZO5l9N5oH8JKzy_aL8Fn8N5XzFRxjgzc8jfA2m4KIMj_ODw/s320/IMG_1696.jpg" width="272" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> It has been very encouraging to hear Linda speak at a number of events too. She has her first event where she will be the main speaker in February 2017 at Northchurch Baptist Church in the UK, where we first began ministry in 1977! If you are interested in us coming to your church let us know. We try to keep our traveling plans up to date on our "Comings and Goings" page on this website. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I managed to publish another book earlier this year which comes out of my reading, study and teaching of church history. You can see more about this on the pages of this website also. Sales have gone very well and I'm encouraged. If you have bought it and read it and felt like leaving a review on Amazon or Kindle, that would be appreciated. In the first day it went I hit the best seller list ( for about 2 hours)! The book "Jesus and his Father " was translated into Dutch and published in the Netherlands in April which was exciting. With three books out now I wonder if I am done, but maybe not. We are looking at another one sometime soon on a topic that has been important and significant for us both. This might be one we write together. We shall see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our health has been pretty good this year apart from the usual selection of coughs and colds. Linda has had her moments with her old head injury from the previous years fall being an occasional challenge but generally we have been well. I had my annual mole check this week in Auckland and it seems I have a couple of possibly dodgy cancerous ones on <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">two places.</span> The Doctor thinks <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">one</span> is a BCC rather than melanoma but this time he wants to cut it out to be sure rather than just treat with cream. The other is a pre<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-</span>melanoma So I’m having <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">them</span> done Jan 5th. He says it will take awhile to heal up as he is going for a large chunk of skin. Nice - not. It doesn’t change any travel plans for OZ. But we will be at our daughter's for about two weeks while it heals up and we get the results. Whatever the outcome I’ll get it referred to the UK<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span>if I need any further treatment. I’m hoping that I might be able to claim it on insurance as he says it needs to be treated immediately <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">s</span> it </span>cannot be left for 3 months till we get back. This sounds all a bit of a drama and we are not that happy about it<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> but one of the annoying facts of life and aging!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well that is about it for 2016. December for us is chilling time with family and then Christmas at sunny Pauanui again thanks to our good friends Murray and Julie.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We end the year celebrating the goodness of God our Father and his faithfulness to us and rejoicing in the birth of his Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit's abiding presence within us. Christmas greetings to you especially if you have read this far.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next year I'll see if I can write some more than this year. No promises. </span><br />
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Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-49839541467248178722016-02-01T05:41:00.002+01:002016-11-24T21:59:41.330+01:00A NEW BOOK - FINDING THE FATHER IN THE STORY OF THE CHURCH.<style>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">A number of times over the years I have been asked to teach a short
course on the story of the church through 2000 years. I have been interested in
Church History since my days in college. I had been inspired to study Church
History by my tutor, Dr. Raymond Brown, then principal of Spurgeon’s College in
London, UK. He loved the subject and it rubbed off. My short course inevitably
was superficial and subjective simply because there was so much to include and
a large amount to exclude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Therefore, I tried to paint a big picture rather than a detailed account.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">People started asking me for
copies of my notes. I had notes that were not very readable. Also my notes were
to be used as prompts and therefore spoken and taught rather than read. They
had been collected over the years from all sorts of books and sources and it
was very hard to say where I had picked up the information. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana";">So the idea for this book was born. However, it was clear I
needed to tidy things up and present the material in a more readable format if it was going to become a book.
One of my aims when I taught also applies to this book, it was to inspire the
reader to dig further and explore the rich wells of the story of the Church. As
a result, I have not written an academic scholarly work and by that I mean it
is not full of detailed footnotes like a theological or historical treatise.
Instead, I have written a story. If you have read any of my other books you will know I like stories. Where I have referenced something it is
primarily to acknowledge the source of a major quotation or a book or author
whose influence has been significant to me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">Some people struggle with
the very idea of reading history. Famously, Henry Ford the founder of the Ford
Motor Company in the USA writing in the Chicago Tribune in 1916 said, “History
is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live
in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinkers damn is the
history that we make today.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">I profoundly disagree with Ford's statement. Christianity is a historical religion. God has revealed himself
in and through history. The Old Testament is a historical revelation of God at
work through his relationship with his people. God does not reveal himself
through doctrinal statements but through his relationship and interactions with
his people through the ages. In the Old Testament, he instructed people to tell
the stories of his dealings with them to their children and then their children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">The great Roman orator, Cicero
in the first century BC said that to not know what took place before you were
born was to remain forever a child. To have no memory of the past is a serious
psychiatric or mental condition. We do all we can to help people to recover
their memories. A community with no social memory is suffering a serious
illness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">What is history? It is a
collection of stories, memories, and writings from all sorts of perspectives.
Much is a subjective description of past events by people commenting on what
they witnessed from their personal perspective. Sometimes what they have recorded
was a description of someone they didn’t like or who didn’t think in the same
way as they did, effectively their enemy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Impartiality, as a result, was easily lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">Sometimes history is gleaned
from objects, inscriptions, paintings and artefacts from the past that need to
be interpreted. Historians build a picture of what they think happened in the
past by studying these things. We are very dependent on those whose passion is
to describe the events from the past, the historians, theologians and writers
who have made the study of the past their life’s work. Increasingly, I am
seeing that this whole process is very, very subjective. I don’t think this
book will be very different. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">However, as I looked at the
story of the church, I began to see that it was not just a story. It was not
just memories. I saw very clearly that the story was one of incredible
depth and the unfolding of an amazing revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began to see that the early church lost touch with its
beginnings and the Church evolved into a vast multifaceted worldwide
organisation made up of thousands of varying expressions very different from
its original form. Specifically, I saw that there was a steady loss of key
biblical truth generation after generation over many centuries. Equally, in
time there was a restoration of key biblical truth that God has graciously
given back to the Church particularly over the last five hundred years. As a
result, this book became a charting of this process. My particular interest in
this is because in many ways it has reflected my own journey of rediscovery
culminating in the amazing awakening within me of knowing the triune God not
just as Jesus my saviour, the Holy Spirit my comforter but also as God my
Father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "verdana"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In short, the purpose of this book is to try to follow how
the revelation of the Father that Jesus brought and that is recorded in the New
Testament gradually began to be lost by succeeding generations of Christian
writers and teachers and was then given back or restored to the church. This
loss was slow, but sadly constant from the late first century to the Middle
Ages. Then, from the sixteenth century onward, there was equally a steady rediscovery
of the three persons of the Trinity: first Jesus, then the Holy Spirit, culminating
in the present day revelation of God the Father and our resulting identity as
sons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">The book is therefore more about
the development historically of theological truth than just church history. However,
the two are deeply connected. To understand the development of theological
truth, we need to see where this sits within the big picture of history. Many
have heard bits and pieces of the story and know about some sections, so what I
have tried to do in this book is join the dots. For many, the story of the church
is a jumble of isolated events and people who are not connected, rather like
the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The reality is that there is a flow to the
story, a pulsing of the Holy Spirit as he energizes the people of God in every
generation to seek for truth even when all around them there is corruption and
stagnation in the Church. The puzzle is actually a magnificent picture! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">God’s work in history is a
secret work, a mystery even. At times, it is an exciting and happy story, full
of joy. Other times, it is downright dreadful and humiliating when it is very
difficult to see the finger of God in the process. For example, how on earth
could Christians read that Jesus told us to “love your enemies” then think it
was still okay to burn them at the stake. Beats me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">Sometimes, the story reads
in such soiled and earthy terms as to make us question ‘Where was God?’ It’s
easy to see him in Athanasius, Francis of Assisi, the Great Awakening, in
revivals and Mother Theresa, but more difficult to find him in the Viking
onslaught that wiped out the Celtic Church, in the Crusades and in Auschwitz.
In the story, while there is great sadness and darkness there were always
moments of great light. There were people who held high the light of the gospel
of truth and revelation when all around was very dark.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">The great tapestry that is
the story of the Church is woven with dark threads as well as bright silken threads.
This book is not about the ‘whys’ of history, though I have my opinions that
will inevitably pop out. Rather, it is about the wheat and the weeds growing up
together alongside each other as in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13:24. In the end,
the harvest of the wheat is gathered in despite the weeds. We do know how the
story ends in so far as it ends for us in the early twenty-first century.
Though as C.S. Lewis supposedly said if Jesus does not return in the next two
thousand years, they will look back at our era as still being in the Early
Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana";">So that is what the new book is all about and why I call it Finding the Father in the story of the church. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana";">The book will be available very soon via Amazon and Kindle and we will have some copies with us too.</span></div>
Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-16177393533068614592015-07-29T23:25:00.001+02:002015-07-30T10:37:13.780+02:00FINDING A PEARL OF GREAT VALUE IN THE PEARL OF AFRICA<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We have been coming to Uganda for six years now. Winston Churchill called Uganda the pearl of Africa. We have done a number of things including leading Fatherheart Ministries A Schools in Mto Moyoni, Jinja which I have written about before (see blog July 2012). We are supporting the work of Ingrid Wilts and Winette Hubregtse who have been building at Mto Moyoni over ten years or more. They have held various weeks and youth schools for the people of Uganda and beyond. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Almost every time we come here to lead a School there are some people who come from Katwe which is a town in the far west of Uganda close to the Congo border. Over time we have got to know them and seen the group from Katwe grow in this revelation of the Father. I think of a young man called Benson who could barely look you in the eye when we first met. Last weekend we travelled to Mbarara in the west and led an A School then held a two day conference. Again there were 25 from Katwe, a mixture of people young and old, pastors, church leaders, students and young people. They were smiling and three shared publicly of what Father had done. Benson spoke for 10 minutes or so about what Father now meant to him and the freedom he now had as a son of God. It was deeply moving.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQR6BWGvMj3pcUTXWiPZwZaYf184wM_zguLbLgOU6QR0zZ2Ba3nxUCfd_UTx1tD26B4AQhcdHdbYV5NqWCPVpAGJVqPkQiUO1U3leLYYYi4n03NvbUe9FFqipuOFhtXw5iW_EedMQQOn6N/s1600/IMG_0111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQR6BWGvMj3pcUTXWiPZwZaYf184wM_zguLbLgOU6QR0zZ2Ba3nxUCfd_UTx1tD26B4AQhcdHdbYV5NqWCPVpAGJVqPkQiUO1U3leLYYYi4n03NvbUe9FFqipuOFhtXw5iW_EedMQQOn6N/s400/IMG_0111.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I wondered how these people came to be there. It is at least a 24 hour bus ride from Katwe to Jinja. I heard a story of a lady from Tonsburg in Norway who was involved in some development work in Katwe. She has visited the place only once apparently. She attended a FHM A School in Norway a few years ago that changed her life. She began to sponsor and send people from Katwe to Jinja to Mto Moyoni and Fatherheart events.<br /><br />Yesterday we went to Katwe, which is three hours beyond Mbarara, in the centre of Queen Eizabeth National Park. We met Nicholas who worked for local conservation and he guided us for a day. He had been to Mto for a week. We stopped for lunch of rice and fresh tilapia caught in Lake Edward. While we were there his mother came to greet us. We have met her a number of times. She leads one of the churches in Katwe. She greeted us with a warm embrace and with tears in her eyes thanked us for what we had been part of in bringing this revelation of Father and sonship to her people and her church and her town. She said it has changed everything and she will never be the same. She said all the churches in the town have been impacted. Over one hundred people from the town have now done Fatherheart Schools in Jinja and Mbarara. Now they meet monthly to encourage each other on their journey in sonship. There were tears in our eyes as we parted.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhelUifFZOCIigAzXjcXrucyNf1YztbZlwzzN47Op19D_nksZXz58m7Wxl4r19TmRCom9lf5zUCOl-HqKhz7linCRRvs8-FrSXc3eqHbhKvf5eSLhjGs0o07fGGBx-aiuL33Liuhl6HV6EY/s1600/IMG_0117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhelUifFZOCIigAzXjcXrucyNf1YztbZlwzzN47Op19D_nksZXz58m7Wxl4r19TmRCom9lf5zUCOl-HqKhz7linCRRvs8-FrSXc3eqHbhKvf5eSLhjGs0o07fGGBx-aiuL33Liuhl6HV6EY/s320/IMG_0117.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Katwe is a very small town, about 2,000 people. Most of its people live by gathering salt from the saline crater lake on the edge of the town. It is hard manual labour. These people are not the wise and learned in the usual sense of the word. They are poor, they are weak, they are unheard of. Their churches are not grand and ornate, they are made from brick and mud with tin roofs. But 5% of the people of this town have a hunger to know God as Father that has taken them across the country and back again many times to get more. In many ways they are the epitome of what Jesus means when he says these things have been hidden from the wise and learned and revealed to little children. As Paul said , "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." 1 Cor 1:26- 29.<br /><br />So many of us in western countries tend to more than think twice about coming to Fatherheart Schools, quibbling over the cost, the fact that it takes a week, and so on. Just like I did. We are so rich in opportunities and can feast on a smorgasbord of Christian delights that may in fact hinder us from knowing what heart hunger feels like. But these people know something we don't. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_BWfY2H7m81-pODg0aWaBl4o28vXHt0OBf9Lbk_GWav8qrYgjJ1EpTmUM4q3iTUh7nlswexSXu9NX_sCXbJH1oHJ1XK2_WKVpb8JGVG_x4wY4Jw0YQYyh5X3Y91CLwEVNyPDfbJOY0hu/s1600/IMG_3413.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_BWfY2H7m81-pODg0aWaBl4o28vXHt0OBf9Lbk_GWav8qrYgjJ1EpTmUM4q3iTUh7nlswexSXu9NX_sCXbJH1oHJ1XK2_WKVpb8JGVG_x4wY4Jw0YQYyh5X3Y91CLwEVNyPDfbJOY0hu/s400/IMG_3413.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">These dear people from Katwe have found the pearl of great price and it is transforming their lives and their communities and they will do anything to obtain it. They have so little of what this world counts valuable and of worth but they have found something so priceless that they will never trade or lose the pearl of great price.</span>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-39155399174775755292015-05-10T22:53:00.000+02:002015-05-11T07:51:07.554+02:0070 YEARS ON<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">70 years ago the war in Europe officially came to an end after six years of horrific bloodshed and slaughter that left millions dead and millions more homeless and displaced. New borders where drawn across Europe, whole communities were up rooted. Many who had fled westwards to escape the steamrolling victorious army of Russians, thirsting for revenge, were caught up in all the turmoil. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Russian Cossacks who had ended up in Austria and had fought with the Germans against the Soviets were forcibly sent back to Russia to face annihilation in the Gulag. Abortions in the occupied zones of Germany rocketed in 1945 and 1946 as Stalin's army of rapists, as he called them, subjected German women of all ages to atrocious brutality and terror. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Nazi death camps had all been liberated and the absolute horror of it all had become known. The numbers of deaths beggars belief. The mountains of spectacles, suitcases, and extracted gold teeth speak of families destroyed and lives shattered. 70 years ago the ash filled crematoria no longer belched out black human smoke and the gun fire and bombs had finally stopped. The church bells began to ring again across Europe as they did in the UK this weekend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Throughout April and May we have been driving east across Europe. We started by going through Holland, where the bulbs were again blooming that 70 years ago had been eaten by the starving Dutch. This year we saw hundreds of Dutch people at a Fatherheart conference filled with the love that comes from God embracing their German neighbours and celebrating that they are sons with the same Father.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We drove across Germany having been with German people who have risen above the national shame that defined postwar Germany and rejoiced in the new hope that they have, that their nation has a true Father and their real Fatherland is in their hearts. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxAe9agX_NiyvTtmSmdW5sIjOnT9tMuJDtqiq78P_Zu4zxHGWOpUlzfTWv_oCcV2scQveiTBL7mD6lDJsLE0OZ5UTmjGZZl9Ai7AKvBomxiqxdcITbozo5qvErqm4nXwNUf7Qhx0OVXhMK/s1600/IMG_0009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxAe9agX_NiyvTtmSmdW5sIjOnT9tMuJDtqiq78P_Zu4zxHGWOpUlzfTWv_oCcV2scQveiTBL7mD6lDJsLE0OZ5UTmjGZZl9Ai7AKvBomxiqxdcITbozo5qvErqm4nXwNUf7Qhx0OVXhMK/s200/IMG_0009.JPG" width="184" /></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We spent two nights in Berlin. We saw the ruined Church that stands as a memorial to the destruction of the city by the cascades of American and British bombs that carpeted Berlin and by the onslaught of the Red Army. The city 70 years ago was a colossal pile of rubble and broken lives. Today it is a vibrant capital to a reunited nation. Yet I could not help but think of the awful consequences that ordinary Germans were facing all those years ago in Berlin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We continued east crossing rivers that I had only heard about from history, the Elbe, the Oder, on into the east, into Poland. We met Poles whose grandparent's had fought in the courageous but fruitless Warsaw uprising against the Nazi occupiers. We heard how they pleaded for help from the Russian armies across the river Wistulla, to the east of the city, but who heartlessly watched as Warsaw burned and who did nothing to help. We met one young woman whose grandfather survived the uprising only to be captured by the Nazis and sent to one of the death camps. Warsaw has been beautifully rebuilt and restored but the scars are still in family memories. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We stayed in a hotel overlooking the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto that had housed 400,000 Jews before they were sent to the camps for the final solution. The streets are now renewed and filled with cafes and businesses but the trams still roll past where they once stopped to be filled with thousands of people. Where shattered lives and families were torn apart as they were shipped off in cattle trucks all those years ago. We had spent a week with 21st Century Poles and Russians who embraced each other and celebrated that they now see that they have the same Father. They were young representatives of two nations that had so suffered, nations where there is still fear and suspicion but here were a few showing the way forward. I felt such hope in my heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we head south through Poland. We are going to Krakow, where once a German businessman saved over a thousand Jews from annihilation. Oscar Schindler had a factory there in the 1940s. Then we head for Slovakia but will stop on the way at perhaps the most notorious place in Europe, a name that speaks of the total depravity of the human heart. We will stop at Auschwitz. We will pause to mourn, to remember, to honour and weep no doubt. But we will also give thanks that as one inmate of Bergen Belsen once said. "There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still." Betsie Ten Boom encouraged her sister Corrie with these words amid the horrors of the camp. Corrie survived to tell her tale in the book she wrote, "The Hiding Place."</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJJU3CBbiYsxB91M6TXBhqHQuXdk8GqBkdvvwzESMRy9eOnLotjUWdh8w0K1WAIz-EbNMu1wDgMkLJRr_hkiTBLLSYGKOQM8us2xm_y4vA67em7W-gL-6J7lvxeDnPX8UYoHIvLzP9Zci/s1600/IMG_0005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJJU3CBbiYsxB91M6TXBhqHQuXdk8GqBkdvvwzESMRy9eOnLotjUWdh8w0K1WAIz-EbNMu1wDgMkLJRr_hkiTBLLSYGKOQM8us2xm_y4vA67em7W-gL-6J7lvxeDnPX8UYoHIvLzP9Zci/s200/IMG_0005.JPG" width="158" /></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As Europe celebrates 70 years on, I wonder what we have learned from the past. Not a lot, I fear. Europe has had its ongoing wars in the former Balkans. Russian rockets rain down on Ukraine and former communist Eastern Europe fears the start of another cold war. Genocide still blights our world in the Middle East and Africa. What have we learned? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have learned that nationalism can be a deadly disease, that reconciliation is possible, that hearts can change, that forgiveness for the most horrific deeds is possible. I have seen Russians, Poles, Germans, Dutch and British embrace one another as they discover their true identity as God's sons and their true brotherhood in Christ, filled with his love, building relationships with each other. This gives me great hope.</span>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-38121839026397493822015-03-06T22:40:00.001+01:002015-03-07T05:17:48.865+01:0021ST CENTURY LONDON, MULTICULTURALISM, MISOGYNY AND REAL FAMILY.<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I recently spent a week based in Colliers Wood in South West London. The occasion was a Fatherheart Ministries A School, the first in London. The event was hosted by Oasis Church which is a large church by British standards. There were about 450 people in attendance at the Sunday morning service.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The meeting was a vibrant life filled service. I was impressed by the multicultural make up of the congregation. The Pastor and his wife are Nigerian. Looking across the crowd during the worship there were people of every shade and ethnic background. There were people from Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and the Pacific Islands. I asked about the ethnicity and cultural background of people and over 50 nations are represented in the church. They were all sitting together alongside each other with a comfortable ease that spoke of being at home with each other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At various points in the service participants from diverse backgrounds were involved. There was a moment when members who had lost loved ones in recent days were prayed for by those around them. There was one white English family, a black English family, an Asian family and an African family. Two recently engaged young couples both of Afro Caribbean origin were introduced and celebrated. Then an elderly Indian couple were applauded on achieving their 40th wedding anniversary. Finally a family from Pakistan were introduced who were set apart that morning to lead a new Urdu speaking congregation that was going to meet every afternoon as part of the church. The worship band was made up of whites and blacks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I found myself weeping for joy at this wonderful celebration of diversity. More to the point this was London in the 21st Century. This church was modelling something very remarkable. It was not politically correct multiculturalism but it was the family of God. People from "every tribe and nation" coming together as a family. This is what made me weep for joy. It was family. There was such an ease about it all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The church has for many years taught that God is our true Father and here it was being expressed as these people worshiped, celebrated, laughed, prayed and danced together in God's presence. There was a palpable sense of his presence among us. I was deeply touched by this. When I got up to preach I looked out across the rows of muticoloured eager faces that looked expectantly towards me. It was as much as I could do to stop crying. Thankfully Linda opened up with greetings and introductions while I got my self together emotionally. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As we move around and work in different nations month by month, we are so conscious of the diversity of cultures. We have noticed too that sometimes there are aspects of cultures which are deeply protected but are in fact quite controlling and unhelpful. Sometimes customs practiced by cultures hide all manner of cruel and divisive behaviours that should not be celebrated or encouraged. One such example is the way women are treated in some cultures. The misogyny, the hatred of women, that is at the root of some of these practices cannot be celebrated or protected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">On the FHM A School in the following week. The issue of misogyny was addressed and the men present stood and apologised to the women for the way we have abused and misused women all through history and all over the world. This had a profound impact on a number of the women present from British to African backgrounds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Towards
the end of the day two young women from East Africa stood and shared
how this had affected them very deeply. All their lives they had feared
men and could not lift up there heads and look men in the eye. They
came from a culture where men are domineering and physically abusive of
their wives and daughters. On this day these girls spoke and testified
to the sense of freedom that came to them as the men repented. One said
as she spoke that for the first time in her life she could look men in
the face without fear. It was a very special and healing moment. This
freedom is rooted in the fact of the loving Father who declares us his
sons and daughters. This was not multiculturalism it was family, the
family of God in operation.</span><br />
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<br />Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-75728314402093938402015-01-22T08:54:00.003+01:002015-01-22T09:05:03.987+01:00AUSTRALIA DAY, WAITANGI DAY AND NEW DAY<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today is the last day of our summer holiday. We have been in Queensland, Australia with our daughter and her family for ten days. We will sadly miss the <b>Australia Day</b> anniversary next Monday which celebrates this country and its culture. If we lived here I guess we would call it Straya Day and celebrate with a few snags thrown on the barbie on the beach in the arvo! <br /><br />This morning we stopped by our daughter's place of work at the University of the Sunshine Coast. How can anyone seriously think about studying and working at a uni with such a beautiful sounding name? While there we saw a group of students relaxing before going to their classes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These iconic Australian creatures were everywhere in the campus grounds. The collective noun for a group of kangaroos is a mob, but this sounds more like a group of British soccer supporters to me. Interestingly, the nick name for the national football team of Australia is the "Socceroos" so maybe mob is a good group name for them. They are currently doing quite well in the Asian championships. I have noticed that Australia has some very interesting expressions. I heard recently a wonderfully quirky Australian saying that describes someone who isn't blessed with a lot of common sense. It describes them as "Having a roo loose in the top paddock." You just need to see a mob of roos bouncing around a field to visualize this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The week before last we had some time with our other daughter and her family in Auckland, New Zealand and amongst other things visited the Treaty grounds at Waitangi where we witnessed a Maori cultural show. </span><br />
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This was a place of great significance in the founding of New Zealand and the desire for partnership between the indigenous peoples and the European settlers. New Zealand's national day in February is called <b>Waitangi Day</b>. <br /><br />All these things were part of the wonderful rest time we have had since Christmas with our family down under. Now we are looking forward to seeing the rest of our family in the UK next month.<br /><br />So tomorrow we start the journey again as we leave Australia and fly east across the Pacific Ocean to the USA for the first of the Fatherheart Ministries A schools that we will be leading this year. This is just outside Charleston in South Carolina hosted by <b>New Day Church.</b> The year ahead is going to be busy with a steady flow of Fatherheart Schools and events in 14 different countries. We eventually return to New Zealand in November.<br /><br />We have taken time out recently to review the life we lead, the ministry we are involved in and how it unfolds and have felt that we are still walking and living in the grace of God to do this. One of the clues we have looked for is, does this ministry and way of life bring us joy? Is it fun? Undoubtedly there are costs emotionally, physically and financially and moments of great challenge, but over all we continue to so enjoy this journey and sense the Father's blessing and hand upon us. We have received many, many encouragements from friends in all sorts of ways. There have been expressions of support and love that have on occasion overwhelm us. We feel a sense of great privilege as well as joy in this journey as we continue to walk with Jesus depending on our Father as we share his love with this world. <br /><br />Thanks for reading my intermittent Blog. Feel free to follow our journey on the Comings and Goings Pages above and if you want to receive regular news from us send us an email and we will add you to our mailing list.</span>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-44322925470663019282014-12-23T02:42:00.003+01:002014-12-23T21:41:37.417+01:00CHRISTMAS - 2000 YEARS AGO, 200 YEARS AGO AND THIS YEAR - IN NEW ZEALAND<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge80RupJ_HfvFs1CLz4MtBTKqbJ_XnPjVVlDSxXeX0-MmkQxZWCsJVxp90rUcbTmOpvq7zf0nicGu0fukVR9-pQNHEYqzLffJkFCG76jhjCr8I7U-QdRWAkA25k1-gpsvEH9XSEZdk_aiN/s1600/IMG_0005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge80RupJ_HfvFs1CLz4MtBTKqbJ_XnPjVVlDSxXeX0-MmkQxZWCsJVxp90rUcbTmOpvq7zf0nicGu0fukVR9-pQNHEYqzLffJkFCG76jhjCr8I7U-QdRWAkA25k1-gpsvEH9XSEZdk_aiN/s1600/IMG_0005.JPG" height="249" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrphgq8wdTZDBR-VE5uOxqkNYlzvfv5s5pCmkwrXkph37Vzib_8PIRTFYM6-61rn0IYOQryiGFP9auLzSy1PZz86RvnfOfLthlXZBI9tqqW9Ah1zOxEkaOmq1_ei1aXyGWQ7AgKhim_3jE/s1600/IMG_0004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrphgq8wdTZDBR-VE5uOxqkNYlzvfv5s5pCmkwrXkph37Vzib_8PIRTFYM6-61rn0IYOQryiGFP9auLzSy1PZz86RvnfOfLthlXZBI9tqqW9Ah1zOxEkaOmq1_ei1aXyGWQ7AgKhim_3jE/s1600/IMG_0004.JPG" height="299" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We are spending Christmas in New Zealand again this year. We are with the Auckland branch of our scattered family in the beautiful seaside town of Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula. Spring was late this year in New Zealand. As a result we have the joy of being surrounded by a forest of trees that grow beside the sea all around the northern part on New Zealand. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">These trees are called pohutukawa and are affectionately referred to as the <b>New Zealand Christmas tree</b>. They are called this because they bear masses of flowers that are bright red with a yellow touch on the end of each bloom. They make a stunning seasonal display every year but are usually over by mid December. So this year being late they are beautifully covering the shores and slopes of the hills that drop down to the sea.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFuDnjt66wlS7ejC_spspp1CCLY4hNMFMRZvD8t9zlrPlxsxJiykxny-pwTAF-i1M_1q4a7auEUI8tRu6mOBXQejEBfYfcPnJdtp0ie3v0g-WTvHpBG_y5ta1iO4LZ8dS7t7O9Nv63MPIb/s1600/IMG_0006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFuDnjt66wlS7ejC_spspp1CCLY4hNMFMRZvD8t9zlrPlxsxJiykxny-pwTAF-i1M_1q4a7auEUI8tRu6mOBXQejEBfYfcPnJdtp0ie3v0g-WTvHpBG_y5ta1iO4LZ8dS7t7O9Nv63MPIb/s1600/IMG_0006.JPG" height="204" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We all know that Christmas is a time of giving which is almost a cliche now. Yet this year we have really seen this in a number of ways. Our daughter, doing a big pre Christmas shop in an Auckland supermarket, was approached by the manager who presented her with a beautiful huge Christmas ham. This has been cooked and in the process of being consumed!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Also Linda and I have been on the receiving end of a well orchestrated plot over the last two months involving many friends around the world who clubbed together and have given us a very generous gift to bless and encourage us. Our friends in the UK 'skyped' us and announced that they had some good news to give us which would bring us great joy! It certainly was a huge blessing and a great encouragement to us. We don't know who was party to this collection so if you are reading this and you were. Then thank you so much. There was obviously a lot of joy in the planning of this gift as well as in the receiving of it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This brings me to the other good news which brings great joy to all men. The Christmas message itself is really good news of the joyful plan in God's heart. He sends his son into our world to bring us, like lost and orphaned children back home to him. He sent angels to announce this news. This is really tidings of great joy.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRmjDWSC7o0uAI1s_4WqVuJ-yoNvHSJo535yKeXN_IICmfKToVqZy-3I_IYj5X5jwTJ7WiZR0asJL3k0cobiXewHaYKw1Bpx7iPACpJ-hMbUU-EzOHxd90Y-8moJ4JkIxYrqz7F1t08DR/s1600/marsden-sermon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRmjDWSC7o0uAI1s_4WqVuJ-yoNvHSJo535yKeXN_IICmfKToVqZy-3I_IYj5X5jwTJ7WiZR0asJL3k0cobiXewHaYKw1Bpx7iPACpJ-hMbUU-EzOHxd90Y-8moJ4JkIxYrqz7F1t08DR/s1600/marsden-sermon.jpg" height="320" width="249" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This Christmas is the 200th anniversary of the first time this good news was preached in New Zealand. There are many celebrations across the country involving the "People of the Land" - the Maori and also Pakeha - the rest of us. Maori means normal and Pakeha means strange which certainly is a perspective. The first good news preacher was Samuel Marsden, a member of the Church Missionary Society, an Anglican mission from Great Britain. He had been invited by the local Maori chief, Ruatara, whom he had met in New South Wales. Marsden encouraged and supported by local Maori preached the gospel on Christmas day 1814. His message was based on the verse "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy." The message of the angels to the shepherds at the first Christmas. The good news was preached on a beach in Northland on Christmas day under the pohutukawa trees dripping red with the beautiful blossom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I have the privilege too on the first Sunday after Christmas to preach in a little church on the coast of New Zealand surrounded like Marsden by pohutukawa trees, and I'm going to preach on the same verse. I do like a sense of history! A joy-filled and blessed Christmas to you too. </span><br />
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Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-51804459101769027242014-09-14T12:33:00.002+02:002014-09-14T12:40:53.368+02:00THIS IS AFRICA!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have just returned from five weeks in East Africa, that is Uganda and Tanzania. One expression we kept hearing was "This is Africa!" It is used in all manner of situations and serves to bring a sense of calm and patience in every potential crisis or drama. It works well. It makes you smile when the bus ticket you have been sold turns out to be for the wrong bus. Or the waiter at a restaurant thanks you for finding the piece of metal in the samosa that you have been eating. Or the police officer, like a child with a new toy, delightedly shows you your picture in the new speed camera they have got and he tells you the fine will be 200,000 shillings. When the power goes off for the third time in the day or papaya salad appears with no papaya just lettuce, after having been told that everything on the menu is available. This is Africa.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have been working with our friends Ingrid and Winette who run the retreat centre called Mto-Moyoni which we have visited a number of times. We spent three weeks with them at the centre on the banks of the Nile in Jinja, Uganda.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first event there was a Fatherheart Ministries B School. This is the second of the week long Schools that we lead and teach. The B School is about living in our true identity and destiny as sons of God rather than as orphan-like slaves or servants who are not secure in their identity and relationship with God. As this was a first for me to lead and be the main speaker it raised a number of orphan-like patterns of behaviour not least performance anxiety!! It's all very well teaching this stuff but living it is what really counts. So it was good and painful at the same time. It gave me time to think about my own issues and provided an opportunity to lean on God my Father more like a son than a servant.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFpS_MfunHnvK8veei21F0l7hzNlMAGkUvbuVj91DyUMcrT2FUDTMXDmzgFwM4wH-RJ8qEKPkpIFuOWuF7iEBBBSkodiiWEQlwmyqpPvTx1dVhxlqzhukDuHnZE8aEetSXu5IGvtIBKImK/s1600/IMG_0010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFpS_MfunHnvK8veei21F0l7hzNlMAGkUvbuVj91DyUMcrT2FUDTMXDmzgFwM4wH-RJ8qEKPkpIFuOWuF7iEBBBSkodiiWEQlwmyqpPvTx1dVhxlqzhukDuHnZE8aEetSXu5IGvtIBKImK/s1600/IMG_0010.JPG" height="200" width="178" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being in Africa is a great place to be as I get time to think and </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">write. No T.V. and limited internet access is very good for me. I am aware that the idyllic gardens at Mto are a bubble in the middle of a challenging and troubled land. We visited a town about two hours away called Mbale where we had the privilege of leading a leaders and pastor's conference for three days. We met a couple there who lead a group of about 30 churches for the deaf in Uganda. This is a very marginalised group of people in Africa. At best the care of the disabled is poor and often very institution based in this part of the world. These people are often viewed as ignorant because of their inability to communicate through speech. Sam and his wife were greatly impacted by the teaching of God being their Father and they then came on to Tanzania and joined us for the full week A School. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They were both deeply impacted and received revelation of God as their Father. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> One of the outcomes is that we have been invited to lead an A School next year for leaders of these deaf churches in East Africa. This is an exciting development and one we</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">feel very honoured to be involved with this. The plan is that Pastors and leaders will come to Mto-Moyoni from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Congo and Burundi for the School. We will be looking to raise the funds to enable these pastors to attend as most of them are very poor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After Mbale we travelled to Zanzibar where we enjoyed a few days on the beach before going to Morogoro in Tanzania for an A School. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam was 'interesting'. A delayed flight by the ineptly named Precision Air, meant we were able to go by ferry. This involved a 2 hours sea crossing in the waters of the Indian Ocean. We managed to secure seats on the ferry which was a great blessing and enabled us to pick up transport in Dar in daylight and got us to Morogoro before it got dark. Travelling at night by bus in Africa is an experience to be avoided if at all possible. It was fascinating to sit on the ferry and watch a movie. It was very thoughtful of the operators to help us pass the time. The movie was 'Captain Philips,'staring Tom Hanks. This was a recent Hollywood version of the capture of a ship in the Indian Ocean by Somali pirates. Perfect viewing as we passed through the waters surrounded by local boats and skiffs remarkably similar to the ones used by the pirates in the film. That's Africa for you.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxES_I_6xLkzSfRvWUBeupBjAFyxSNx-H5g_cboxnbCBlWgWEUpL8PrVJSOfxBP2gXEB3yhMaO4cHDI6c9MFWARJANfYKd3laxUpGKTkxN7hqz_3Z5iX9RmJeXauzlewnKYvBQvgR99RH/s1600/IMG_0084.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxES_I_6xLkzSfRvWUBeupBjAFyxSNx-H5g_cboxnbCBlWgWEUpL8PrVJSOfxBP2gXEB3yhMaO4cHDI6c9MFWARJANfYKd3laxUpGKTkxN7hqz_3Z5iX9RmJeXauzlewnKYvBQvgR99RH/s1600/IMG_0084.JPG" height="191" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again it was a significant time at the A School. A number of events conspired to try to derail the school but it went ahead with people being deeply impacted by the Father's love. More connections were made as Father continues to open up doors in East Africa. What was very encouraging was the way Patrick who does most of the translation into Swahili for us taught one of the sessions on the Orphan heart in English and was translated into Swahili by his wife Neckson. There is a real anointing on this couple and we are thrilled that they and Winette from Uganda will be leading a youth A School for street kids in Dar Es Salaam in December. Just another step in bringing this revelation of the Father into an African cultural context.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally I had time to do some birdwatching and saw 109 different species of birds and also had a day in a game park. So all in all it was a great time, hard work and challenging at times but also a chance to enjoy the wonders of wildlife and birds in Africa. This is Africa and I love it!</span><br />
<br />Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-15245856933099087542014-07-28T22:09:00.000+02:002014-07-31T19:16:37.965+02:00THE NEW BOOK FINALLY! JESUS AND HIS FATHER, also on KINDLE<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am delighted to announce that my latest book is now published and available.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been a while in production but is finally here. I<b>t is also now available in a Kindle version.</b> I have been greatly helped in getting this book published by Tom Carroll at Fatherheart Ministries in New Zealand and Ellie Carmen in the UK. Without these two people it would not be here. Thank you so much both of you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have wanted to write about the revelation of God as Father that Jesus taught for a long time. I have always been fascinated by the people who encountered Jesus that we read about in the four gospels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was a teenager I wrote a play about some of the characters who appear in the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospels. Surprisingly the Baptist Church where I grew up actually put the play on. I recently met a friend, who I had not seen for years, who was one of the cast! We laughed about that memory when we met.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My fascination with the people who met Jesus and were part of his family was a part of the idea behind this book. In the book I take a look at who they were as people based on what we read about them in the Gospels, then seek to make them more three dimensional by getting them to tell the reader their stories. Rather like the play I wrote I use a bit of dramatic licence to help bring these people to life.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4091408431936394364" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4091408431936394364" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4091408431936394364" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4091408431936394364" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main thrust of the book is to explore the nature of Jesus' revelation of God as his Father and the implications of this truth for each of us. We tend to read the gospels as historical biography but in reality they were four different accounts of the same events recorded by the gospel writers. They collected their information from in some cases their own personal experience but also from conversations they had with Jesus' family and friends who were eye witnesses to the events described. The eye witnesses individually would not have seen the big picture. It was the Holy Spirit who superintended the whole process as the gospel writers put all this together in their individual accounts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What we have is the stunning truth of all truths that God has always been a Father to us. He has loved us consistently and passionately for all time and his desire has always been to be in a loving relationship with us. In order to bring us back home, he sent his eternal Son Jesus into our world to show us who the Father is. Jesus then opens up the way back to his Father through his death on the cross. When Jesus rose from the dead all the barriers were down and the way back with him to the Father becomes available to all who believe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can find out how to get a copy of the book by going to the page at the top of the website.</span>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-16582870170485302282014-06-13T18:10:00.000+02:002014-06-13T18:17:59.891+02:00SAINT GOVAN'S HIDING PLACE <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2rkt27PQNBAQHwsKGoL5gvHGOVAuQ9N1INlXv9azx2xt1sSqcOobPFhaWDajqPur_bRFgFexqAoUCjysHrsfmhm39FVjFrW38qm_uCLuullNQ8lAop3HDeh3jYF7JhJox-eBdMNFn4ph/s1600/IMG_0012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2rkt27PQNBAQHwsKGoL5gvHGOVAuQ9N1INlXv9azx2xt1sSqcOobPFhaWDajqPur_bRFgFexqAoUCjysHrsfmhm39FVjFrW38qm_uCLuullNQ8lAop3HDeh3jYF7JhJox-eBdMNFn4ph/s1600/IMG_0012.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other weekend we had the opportunity of visiting West Wales. Pembrokeshire to be precise. We had been speaking at a Fatherheart weekend conference and during the time off we had the chance to revisit some of the beautiful scenery of the Pembrokeshire coast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I first went to Pembrokeshire in the late 1960s on a geography field course and enjoyed walking the cliffs and beaches of one of the most amazing stretches of coastline in the UK. Returning many years later we went to some places that did not feature in the school curriculum.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFTHiBjXuJ9560_QT1-oKZLHK_zqLbB4yoBkYinG1p_gP118KKr74V3DUyQmuG8B6FwSAOsMkJTzaPD6NVP5icrtyhwoQV4qE5xK9Mke9-zK8mMEJPta4Kznt_zcGc3L0pRMFpbT7KBrR/s1600/IMG_0006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFTHiBjXuJ9560_QT1-oKZLHK_zqLbB4yoBkYinG1p_gP118KKr74V3DUyQmuG8B6FwSAOsMkJTzaPD6NVP5icrtyhwoQV4qE5xK9Mke9-zK8mMEJPta4Kznt_zcGc3L0pRMFpbT7KBrR/s1600/IMG_0006.JPG" height="225" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One such place was a tiny celtic chapel literally carved out of the side of a cliff on the south coast near St Govan's head. This chapel is named after the same saint who gives his name to the headland. This particular celtic christian man according to legend sought refuge from a marauding band of pirates on this windswept section of coast. He hid in the cleft of the rock so successfully that the pirates could not find him. In thankfulness he decided to build a small chapel there to commemorate his escape from being either killed or enslaved and settled there as a monk. There has been a chapel on the site for nearly 1500 years ever since. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Visitors wanting to find the chapel today have to make sure that the local military are not firing shells across the ranges as it is now within a military training area. At the top of the cliff there is a steep flight of steps down that enter the back of the rock carved chapel. Inside it is damp and dark with a tiny window which gives a beautiful view to the adjoining cliffs where sea gulls and fulmars are nesting. On the high cliffs above a pair of choughs were calling their distinctive metallic calls.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4qfv39z5jT0uuGsg8LR-kv2mVi8MmA7q4ZD-VRWIpdDH568HLVMjIQI_KcVTzNbVcRZGibnc7MfEqbJX6Uvxw8XjOc9Dl0qa032ChKcPx7sum9cx1FayGIHHfrtrEMMABZqrOEuxwZU7/s1600/IMG_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4qfv39z5jT0uuGsg8LR-kv2mVi8MmA7q4ZD-VRWIpdDH568HLVMjIQI_KcVTzNbVcRZGibnc7MfEqbJX6Uvxw8XjOc9Dl0qa032ChKcPx7sum9cx1FayGIHHfrtrEMMABZqrOEuxwZU7/s1600/IMG_0001.jpg" height="200" width="156" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The chapel felt very solid and secure. It was comforting to know that for 1500 years christian people and monks had used this tiny place to pray and worship. I paused inside with my hand on the dank wall to connect with those people. Places like this give a sense of continuity to faith and the past and people like me of long ago. The place speaks of being a hiding place in the cleft of the rock face where physically and spiritually people find refuge. We don’t often need physical hiding places these days in the western world unlike many people in the Middle East and sub Saharan Africa. In these parts of the world life is dangerous and challenging for many, particularly in those places where civil war and Islamic fundamentalism clashes with traditionally Christian areas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We all have a need to find a hiding place from time to time either physically or emotionally or spiritually. Govan in the sixth century found security in every sense of the word. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There have been times in my life when I have felt like hiding.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In some cases the need to hide was more a case of wanting to run away from facing situations that are hard and demanding. Equally I have discovered that there are times when the need within is to find that place of rest where we can figuratively hide and find a place of security from the challenges we face.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I have increasingly found that place to be within the loving heart of God as my Father. He holds us and embraces us with his secure loving arms. Whilst this is primarily experienced in a spiritual sense the impact has a very powerful effect on me emotionally and spiritually. It engenders a deep sense of wellbeing that impacts me emotionally spiritually and physically.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> The imagery of hiding in a cleft of a rock is a powerful symbol that worked for Govan many centuries ago and still works today when we realise that only God can meet the deep need for a hiding place.</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tonight we are staying in Dresden and have had a great evening walking through the old city and then had a very Saxon dinner, schnitzel, potatoes and asparagus. Delicious. It is a very vibrant city and it was a particularly barmy evening for late April. It was full of tourists and people looking for somewhere to eat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not so the night of 13th February 1945. That night thousands of tons of high explosives and incendiaries were dropped on the city by the RAF and the USAAF. Dresden was the ancient capital of Saxony and was<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 22px;"> a leading European centre of art, classical music, culture and </span></span><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Science. It was not a major military target and it was full of refugees fleeing from the east ahead of the advancing Russian army. That night a fire storm destroyed the city with 95% of the old historic city centre burnt. Over 25,000 civilians hiding in cellars and shelters were killed by asphyxiation and burning. It has long been one of the worst and most horrific events of the Second World War committed by the allies. </span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVz-XmwS8EkmzlofquqKZ7uYPFBHGV_FRxPjrr4CRqbI668sm2EG4jm7qxYObGslkzMpiEsGLypu2vMBPnCa0G0r50FIc7wFtEVqUqb2MRkV_JAVs-EsxF1U4G9sLyImPdKedcidbGTij/s1600/bombing-of-dresden.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVz-XmwS8EkmzlofquqKZ7uYPFBHGV_FRxPjrr4CRqbI668sm2EG4jm7qxYObGslkzMpiEsGLypu2vMBPnCa0G0r50FIc7wFtEVqUqb2MRkV_JAVs-EsxF1U4G9sLyImPdKedcidbGTij/s1600/bombing-of-dresden.gif" height="190" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">We talked with a group of Germans our age last night about this and we all recognised the horrors of war and the culpability of both sides in events such as the bombing of Dresden. We all agreed that without forgiveness and reconciliation there was little hope. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Looking at Dresden today the city which had been so beautiful, the pearl in Saxony's crown, has been restored. It is not as beautiful as it had been but the people of Dresden over the last 60 years or so have tirelessly worked at restoring the city. It will never be what it was. That awful night the Dresden of the past, was destroyed and the people traumatised by that horrific event. But they have worked hard at rebuilding their city for their children and for others like us to enjoy....us, the children of the perpetrators. Dresden has arisen from the rubble not as a victim to a cruel event of the past but with the knowledge that what it had was precious and worth saving and rebuilding for future generations. It has been a long hard process but it was worth it. The city has some of the best of the past restored and added new features. So it is a new city. </span></span><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">The German people of Dresden although traumatised by a brutal event have rebuilt.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">It is a great example of courage and resolve. Many of us experience tragedy and trauma visited up on us, sometimes by our enemies but also sometimes tragically by those closest to us. We, as a result, can loose something precious and valuable. The challenge for us all is to find the resolve within us to rebuild. We may be able to preserve some aspects of the past but the restoration will create a changed and different future. When we do this we are securing something of great value for our children to whom we owe the very best we can. For many this requires forgiveness and reconciliation. Our instinctive desire to punish the perpetrators and squeeze them by the throat in order to make then suffer for what they have done is in the long term counter productive and leaves us putting our energy into bitterness and revenge. In the end this is self destructive and we prolong the agony for ourselves. When we look at the future and those who will inherit the future, we owe it to them to rebuild out of our own disasters and tragedies, to rise up, find the inner strength to go forward, setting an example of forgiveness, reconciliation and hope.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">Here is a quote from Isaiah 54 that was given to us many years ago when our lives were almost destroyed by trauma and failure. It sums up this hope.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Though the mountains be shaken </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and the hills be removed, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">nor my covenant of peace be removed,” </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">says the Lord, who has compassion on you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">your foundations with lapis lazuli. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will make your battlements of rubies, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">your gates of sparkling jewels, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and all your walls of precious stones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All your children will be taught by the Lord, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and great will be their peace."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-47858494834748927232014-01-30T00:58:00.005+01:002014-01-30T00:58:56.848+01:00Books and things.<b style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;">HOT NEWS!!</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>KINDLE</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">My book '<i>Falling from grace into Grace and being caught by the Fathe</i>r' is now available on Kindle from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. The original printed version is still available but the Kindle version is updated and </span>corrected<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> as an uncorrected version got sent to printers by mistake! I'm learning. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If anyone </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">fancies writing a review that would be good!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>DUTCH TRANSLATION</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I'm excited to announce that a Dutch translation has been done and we are looking to see it printed and available in late March. I'll keep you posted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>MY NEW BOOK</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I'm really excited to say that my latest book, '<i>Jesus and his Father, by his family and friend</i>s' is in the final stages of production. We are hoping that this will also be available in the Spring (N. Hemisphere spring that is.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The book looks at how Jesus reveals his Father through his conversations and encounters with his family and friends. It 'hears' the stories of Mary, his mother, James his brother, his friends, Andrew and Peter, his Auntie Salome and others. There are fourteen storytellers who tell of their conversations and experiences with Jesus. Each one recounts their story in the first person, then there is explanation from me about the revelation that Jesus brought to them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>ILLUSTRATOR NEEDED.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Can anyone draw Zebras and animals? I've got a children's book I'm working on that needs some illustrations. Let me know if that is something you can help me with.</span>Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-64638131407813402732013-12-31T01:00:00.001+01:002013-12-31T01:00:41.995+01:00OUR NEW YEAR NEWS AND THINGS<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
I am writing this on New Year's eve from the base of Fatherheart Ministries at the Eden Centre in New Zealand. It's not my usual blog style but it is something we recently sent out to our friends around the world.</div>
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We have been home in NZ since early November. This started with four weeks at the Inheriting the Nations School on Great Barrier Island. It was excellent being there at the end of a full year. I love doing the teaching there on Church History but also connecting with so many people that we encounter during the course of our year. </div>
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The last year has been full and very satisfying. </div>
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It has been brilliant meeting many friends in their home locations and we are truly grateful for the hospitality extended to us that we have enjoyed. Sadly, we still count different beds!! It was 86 this year.</div>
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Recently we were asked what was the best thing in 2013 for us. Without hesitation it is the week when we had all three of our children and their families with us here in New Zealand in January. It was the first time we had all been together in 5 years. We don't know when we will all be together like that again. We feel very proud of them all and to see the grandchildren all growing up as lovely talented kids is wonderful. See the blog in January 2013.</div>
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We are very thankful for the support we have received from people this last year. It has been a major source of encouragement to us. We have been able to go to places that would have been impossible without this, especially in Africa. We were able to lead two week long schools in Uganda and Tanzania without being a burden on the local resources. You know we receive donations for these missions situation at the Schools we teach and these have been the primary way that we are able to do these things in Africa. So thank you for your partnership with us. </div>
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In the coming year we are going back to Africa to lead more schools and this time it will be a B School, which is the second teaching week that FHM runs. This will be the first one where I am the main speaker so that will be a challenge. These B Schools are entitled Growing in Sonship, which is the follow on from the A Schools, Encountering Father's love. We are also conducting A Schools and conferences in East Europe this year which are also mission situations that we fund ourselves. If you would like to donate towards these mission trips please see the page on the website.<a href="http://www.trevorlindafhm.com/p/ways-of-giving-financial-support.html">To donate visit here</a></div>
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The coming year is looking pretty hectic too! Our itinerary can be found on the Comings and Goings page.</div>
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If we are going to be in your part of the world let us know because we would love to see you.</div>
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We are currently working on some new resources. Our existing ones can be found on our website. As the year unfolds we hope to add some more titles to the CDs. The book I wrote this last year has gone well. We are in the final stages of getting this ready to be launched as an E-book. Many of you who have read this will be relieved to know it has undergone a very thorough revision that has hopefully nailed all the typos. I does help if you send the right version to the printers in the first place!!! </div>
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Anyway, we are hoping to launch another book in the early part of year. I am in the final stages of this now with copy going to editors and designers. It is totally different from the first one and focuses on Jesus' revelation of his Father in the Gospels. It looks at this through the experiences and memories of Jesus' family and friends who were eyewitnesses. I've really enjoyed researching it and writing it.</div>
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We are often asked what are our needs are for 2014? I guess they are: safety and health in the travelling; financial resources to keep the show on the road; places to rest from time to time; fresh oil for the furnace of teaching, preaching and ministry; renewed youthfulness and energy; more joy, more fun, more faith, more hope and more love. Not much really! </div>
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We are so thankful to our Father who has so wonderfully provided through the last year, and for you our family and friends. </div>
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We pray that this finds you well, and that your year ahead will be filled with joy, fun, faith, hope and love too.</div>
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Here are a few pictures of the last year.</div>
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Not in any order because I haven't figured out how to do that yet!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaIGuaoVkqYsWrhPtpixwPTUg5mESecZIEbj0Ue4glh3wHzMgi5lglcLyCs6KRauMQyoYO5-ua9kLXzZBuqy7N-x9b2YXuwI2e0jtGtuU1vSR0Aprm8O0isZDSYe4fCdNj5ajfnCeoZTRI/s1600/IMG_0003_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaIGuaoVkqYsWrhPtpixwPTUg5mESecZIEbj0Ue4glh3wHzMgi5lglcLyCs6KRauMQyoYO5-ua9kLXzZBuqy7N-x9b2YXuwI2e0jtGtuU1vSR0Aprm8O0isZDSYe4fCdNj5ajfnCeoZTRI/s200/IMG_0003_2.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Team at State College PA</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR598cUk7whCpuBrWsWSn8dm1RmzeSlaf9899g_BTEcE7X_W3_jHohwDvHZwcMA4DMn_SR10Z9ehNh62_7DXOoB_162kqlbPLkJq6JHrgymFnnnFBYVWZsAkjJng8dbXkOXZ0B2e6mLXq8/s1600/IMG_0009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR598cUk7whCpuBrWsWSn8dm1RmzeSlaf9899g_BTEcE7X_W3_jHohwDvHZwcMA4DMn_SR10Z9ehNh62_7DXOoB_162kqlbPLkJq6JHrgymFnnnFBYVWZsAkjJng8dbXkOXZ0B2e6mLXq8/s200/IMG_0009.jpg" width="145" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plymouth Mass. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2QYEt1mUiNNS71WdRGBlh3ZO0LIwZ334o8OR07T6a2mGjC-SsktGYbA3_vq5nZDbU_BzrwyaZ70f8tKNlVRfXBaVM5hAmsa6p3LdSDjd8nYVEFm2q8XDZOuPmZRAagD_lyLzzxZnS-Xv/s1600/IMG_0005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2QYEt1mUiNNS71WdRGBlh3ZO0LIwZ334o8OR07T6a2mGjC-SsktGYbA3_vq5nZDbU_BzrwyaZ70f8tKNlVRfXBaVM5hAmsa6p3LdSDjd8nYVEFm2q8XDZOuPmZRAagD_lyLzzxZnS-Xv/s200/IMG_0005.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bear in the Rockies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_xin9LjLM_3Ni02xCaj7GZtDVOpo96OJ0JgAYN1PR81JIx8mBT94xqhut6_s-D_8Ij_2KGtRIt314-lXWZP5CQcOD4GUA4nhhpP_Ac1-qoxz8XpW0wq4-g8H9XEaaLnuu651J5wojwHM1/s1600/IMG_0004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_xin9LjLM_3Ni02xCaj7GZtDVOpo96OJ0JgAYN1PR81JIx8mBT94xqhut6_s-D_8Ij_2KGtRIt314-lXWZP5CQcOD4GUA4nhhpP_Ac1-qoxz8XpW0wq4-g8H9XEaaLnuu651J5wojwHM1/s200/IMG_0004.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dartmoor, Devon, UK</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1qf5h68vcTHNpw1hi-tQ64_vBG89jTI424Ki2H-aqTqIq6Td429uHSAbmIe_fWVxUO017PdC4TSNTxBl-lo5EWzy8McAmnCV4U6oUsWSXjA8ftybw47yAycE2IDcY6ik27EkAM_zC205/s1600/IMG_0010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1qf5h68vcTHNpw1hi-tQ64_vBG89jTI424Ki2H-aqTqIq6Td429uHSAbmIe_fWVxUO017PdC4TSNTxBl-lo5EWzy8McAmnCV4U6oUsWSXjA8ftybw47yAycE2IDcY6ik27EkAM_zC205/s200/IMG_0010.jpg" width="174" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cloistered in Vaalbeek, Belgium</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzwHUWoDZQWlEXPVl16wjJPsEo7oy83XmTsfbfyVdbXJfHaeDOg9jtXoKyTGlJOfpKFM6BES-NLgBPAVwO9jFgG6sH5JaqC7rXuRsmn2j9_WloO1TKgVgYAoZfki-L3-yZyswFJlA_94mQ/s1600/IMG_0011+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzwHUWoDZQWlEXPVl16wjJPsEo7oy83XmTsfbfyVdbXJfHaeDOg9jtXoKyTGlJOfpKFM6BES-NLgBPAVwO9jFgG6sH5JaqC7rXuRsmn2j9_WloO1TKgVgYAoZfki-L3-yZyswFJlA_94mQ/s200/IMG_0011+2.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunrise in Zanzibar</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOj7V1jZM7KyXLyyCnnPlaj59npqeE42zVcMQtdCfgT8ZXQ6_DRRe3SZe7e46IUwWsvAaQLhK1CxdbJ80pRB5723XLpJgQKM1kUtCKYepDdfP0ngfDNx9b5qwZTWcAH_TUS7v5Jzs56pYg/s1600/IMG_0011+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOj7V1jZM7KyXLyyCnnPlaj59npqeE42zVcMQtdCfgT8ZXQ6_DRRe3SZe7e46IUwWsvAaQLhK1CxdbJ80pRB5723XLpJgQKM1kUtCKYepDdfP0ngfDNx9b5qwZTWcAH_TUS7v5Jzs56pYg/s200/IMG_0011+(1).jpg" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Catch of the Day, Great Barrier Island, NZ</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqqSlWE4vuGZkkrNf6d7RqIjEzPY-K1pjII43J4DYJer9522NiRKuBb9n1BVLO9tm7L3tomFVeOTA3DAnL-rx1Uw2r44s6U2Lku3mPuQpW-G7u8m7WmpgPLDilUo_j7EN0Oph78IJ_opjU/s1600/IMG_0011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqqSlWE4vuGZkkrNf6d7RqIjEzPY-K1pjII43J4DYJer9522NiRKuBb9n1BVLO9tm7L3tomFVeOTA3DAnL-rx1Uw2r44s6U2Lku3mPuQpW-G7u8m7WmpgPLDilUo_j7EN0Oph78IJ_opjU/s200/IMG_0011.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Affogato and a huge cappucino, Germany </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1bWyqlggf2aClcm6fzqbJytuVuXzE-9nyzBqL4HrCahdYqBgTdwmF3wnEBOItcpInyXWFid3s7lT7cQ_jAp1lkf3fF1tTSXIwH0VoQdRQqeQl9DX0JkIP4G1LSLKCygil3R5udH7-Gwe/s1600/IMG_0014+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1bWyqlggf2aClcm6fzqbJytuVuXzE-9nyzBqL4HrCahdYqBgTdwmF3wnEBOItcpInyXWFid3s7lT7cQ_jAp1lkf3fF1tTSXIwH0VoQdRQqeQl9DX0JkIP4G1LSLKCygil3R5udH7-Gwe/s200/IMG_0014+(1).jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vermont in the Fall</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsLpE56W3G9lZnrcda_IOLO5AVnA4YDErq8sXCoIkbyP1H5QYnFrlCXT3Bh1jmwpvjIjxuv9_0sruJz1J-GrcS1sBE2JfOfSLYuovcYDPLsXdHGiBYQjMIADgk1QJ_ycgvGduqBUO9DfJ/s1600/IMG_0014+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOsLpE56W3G9lZnrcda_IOLO5AVnA4YDErq8sXCoIkbyP1H5QYnFrlCXT3Bh1jmwpvjIjxuv9_0sruJz1J-GrcS1sBE2JfOfSLYuovcYDPLsXdHGiBYQjMIADgk1QJ_ycgvGduqBUO9DfJ/s200/IMG_0014+2.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Resting beside the river, VT</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHckwBGnxGa3XrTodGOVBlA4hlGl5tmAPV4Ci03IHWTlZ5YKs2edpVsZwiEhCGcbHdfglzRQpYKaGbuA2J__uwobVMEowtohLY8h_l7C-1Aa6imgxFRKimDdWlI7N4fomQGoTx7E0thIZl/s1600/IMG_0017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHckwBGnxGa3XrTodGOVBlA4hlGl5tmAPV4Ci03IHWTlZ5YKs2edpVsZwiEhCGcbHdfglzRQpYKaGbuA2J__uwobVMEowtohLY8h_l7C-1Aa6imgxFRKimDdWlI7N4fomQGoTx7E0thIZl/s200/IMG_0017.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brugge by night </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGOLTwZJDtykYcCMhNGUdu3inH4Z0ubkB3DYa6IeARQyQL2dL5CYMfFCMdKR_L2m8hajL03O_GkBrcA96Q0BnfjsKObYU-37JaHohCiEpfITyXsL-KJIzxVFbHl-Vi0MVZmVTfeU3YVZ49/s1600/IMG_0019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGOLTwZJDtykYcCMhNGUdu3inH4Z0ubkB3DYa6IeARQyQL2dL5CYMfFCMdKR_L2m8hajL03O_GkBrcA96Q0BnfjsKObYU-37JaHohCiEpfITyXsL-KJIzxVFbHl-Vi0MVZmVTfeU3YVZ49/s200/IMG_0019.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Under the palms, Zanzibar</td></tr>
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Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-69707969125116935752013-06-29T15:34:00.002+02:002013-06-29T15:39:22.272+02:00DIPPING IN THE RHINE<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLp-86zSg7KQPvHNe4MC6eTKZsPh7wbaImW75J7-yO93M96N0m2u5s7ctEl1tBWtNsyF0sksSQVO9Itpd5Jokm4Tl0C1SeK-_wZG2pPWs2XOlKvBlycS3XfxMFZ0IHfQgHWTy8l_Oo_mF8/s1600/IMG_0005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLp-86zSg7KQPvHNe4MC6eTKZsPh7wbaImW75J7-yO93M96N0m2u5s7ctEl1tBWtNsyF0sksSQVO9Itpd5Jokm4Tl0C1SeK-_wZG2pPWs2XOlKvBlycS3XfxMFZ0IHfQgHWTy8l_Oo_mF8/s320/IMG_0005.jpg" width="224" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week I have been speaking at a Fatherheart School at Rheinfelden in Germany. This small town sits on the north bank of the river Rhine opposite the Swiss town of the same name. The School was held in the old castle on the banks of the river called Schloss Beuggen. It is a beautiful old castle that is now used by the Lutheran Church of Germany as a conference centre. Each day we gathered in a room in the old part of the castle for the sessions of the School. The 14th Century casement windows looked out on three sides down to t</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">he dark waters of the Rhine that flowed below. This section of the river flows fast and deep.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The old gate house of the castle has the date 1543 carved over the door way. The castle has seen many events over the centuries. In the 16th Century the area of Rheinfelden was a hotbed of reformation zeal and the new teaching of Martin Luther that it was only possible to know God through a personal relationship with his son Jesus. They taught that Jesus came into our world because the Father loved us so much and wanted relationship with us. Our broken and sinful natures had made it impossible to know him and we were lost and separated from his love. So Jesus came and opened the way up to know God as Father by dying on the cross and restoring the lost connection between us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This message was taken up by many people in the area of Rheinfelden in those days. Large numbers of them wanted to worship God free from the restrains of state churches and the control of religious legalism. They became known as Anabaptists because amongst other things, they rejected infant baptism and taught that faith required a personal response evidenced by baptism as believers. This is when a person by their own choice is baptised in water rather than as a choice of their parents for them as babies. They are plunged or dipped completely into the baptismal waters.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the horrific wars of religion in the 17th Century hundreds of Anabaptists in the Rheinfelden refused to give up their beliefs and as a result were tortured and executed by drowning in the River Rhine near Schloss Beuggen. They called it the 'Dippers dipped!' </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the river flowed past the castle where we were holding the Fatherheart School I was conscious that a new reformation is in progress. This reformation is a fresh realisation of God who wants to draw us all into his inclusive relationship of love that he shares as Father, Son and Spirit and with us a his sons and daughters.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I didn't fancy getting dipped into </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">the Rhine either for my beliefs or for a swim but I am plunging into this wonderful fresh revelation and love swimming totally out of my depth.</span></span><br />
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Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4091408431936394364.post-57711023543304066652013-04-22T17:41:00.003+02:002013-04-23T13:46:20.813+02:00THE AMISH AND LIVING IN THE PASTThere is something romantic about the thought of living a simpler life. For the last week we have been in Pennsylvania. This American state has one of the largest Amish communities in it. The Amish are the decendants of some of the most radical reformers of the Sixteenth century, the Anabaptists. These groups were on the cutting edge of what God was doing back then. They refused to settle for the status quo, to be subjected to the restrictions imposed by the State churches of Europe. Large numbers fled to the USA in search of a place to practice their faith in freedom and without state interference. Now there are many Amish communities across the States. Their radical cutting edge beginnings have locked them in a time warp of the past rather than in the 21st century.<br />
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Today they are living in the past and resisting change and fighting to keep the modern world at a distance. This expresses itself by dressing in an old fashioned way, refusing modern conveyances such as motorised transport and resisting the introduction of electricity. They have become a distinct group of people who are considered a tourist attraction. They can be seen on the country roads of Pennsylvania riding their horse drawn buggies, working their farms and fields with horse drawn ploughs and carts. This is very romantic and picturesque.<br />
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However, their desire to be separate and to keep apart from the contamination of the modern world comes at a price. Amish young people who want to move on from this traditionalism find themselves shunned by their families and neighbours. This is all couched in religious terminology and seems very distant from the zeal and radicalism of their beginnings. They often quote 2 Corinthians 6 verse 17 "... come out from them and be separate" to justify this behaviour.<br />
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This is a common issue for all Christians. A longing for the so called good old days. Christianity is populated by Amish like groups who having discovered something radical and cutting edge in the past have institutionalised it and preserved it. We call them denominations! They don't drive horse drawn buggies but to some level they live in the revelation of what God was doing in the past.<br />
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We settle because the familiarity of the past feels comfortable. We settle into our comfort zones and struggle when God starts to do something new and fresh in each generation. Today we are being challenged and called to start living in the Father's comfort zone which is the new; the now of his presence, where we are the object and focus of his love. Surprisingly this can be threatening and fearful if we do not know him as Father or are living in the past of what was before. His heart is for us to embrace the new thing that he is doing. The passage in 2 Corinthians 6 in context is about the God the Father living and walking among us. He says he will be our God, our Father, and we will be his people. Coming out and being separate is more about leaving behind the past and embracing the new thing that he is doing. Paul goes on to say, "I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters." This is a gracious invitation to live in his comfort zone of the present and not the past.Trevor and Linda Galpinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17306635637415050412noreply@blogger.com0