The Blurb: June 2006

My boss

Friday 23 June 2006  10.33 pm

Here is my current line manager.  Her name is Poppy.  She's lovely, and at a shade under 22 months, her vast experience of marketing techniques is invaluable in the work of the Promotions Department here at Lee Abbey Devon.

The other member of the team is me.  I assist Poppy in the production of our annual brochure, literature and advertising, and also attend exhibitions on behalf of Lee Abbey.

Poppy believes that nothing is more key to a good marketing campaign than high quality desk entertainment.  Examples of this in our office include a magnetic levitating spinny thing, a bouncy smiling face, and a talking thermometer.

However, due to other commitments (not least the recent birth of her younger brother Harry and the family's imminent departure from the Community), Poppy is sadly no longer able to give the Marketing Manager position the time and effort she feels it deserves.

She asked me to ask you if there's anyone with experience in marketing who might be called to live and work here at Lee Abbey, taking over from Poppy in the Promotions Department.  They would be at Lee Abbey for three years.  Although that is in fact longer than Poppy has been alive, it will feel like no time at all.  You will probably lose count of the ways that God uses you, and many of them you may not even believe are possible!

Poppy asked me to add that her assistant, while most capable in certain areas, lacks the ability to do eight tasks simultaneously while remaining sane (fellow Community members will testify to this particular inability).  Ten months and ten days after the departure of her predecessor, the strain is beginning to show.

Please, if you know anyone who might fit the bill, point them in our direction. Poppy and I would be very grateful indeed.
 
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Damage Barton

Sunday 18 June 2006  12.13 pm

Should a Christian be nice or angry?

Does the "nice" Christian really believe that Jesus was mild, pleasant and never spoke out against anything?  How do they explain his outburst in Matthew 21:12-13 as he charged into the Temple and overturned the tables of the money-changers?  See this cartoon.

Then again, does the "angry" Christian really believe that Jesus was in the business of the moaning and complaining, petty criticism and gossip which we like to dress up as "righteous anger" but which actually just breeds discontent?  See this cartoon.

We have to draw a line here.

As a starting point, every full Lee Abbey Community member promises to "learn to live in fellowship, being open to be known for who you are, accepting one another in love, and saying of others nothing that could not be said to them personally if love and wisdom required it".

Out of the seven Community promises, this is one of the hardest to keep, and yet also one of the most vital.  We all fail sometimes (and usually in Community Kitchen), but without the promise and without God, the Community simply wouldn't hold together the way it does.

(And "Damage Barton"?  It's a caravan park in North Devon.  Oh yes.)
 
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Oh dear, Paraguay and Poland

Thursday 15 June 2006  10.25 pm

Football isn't very interesting, in my humble opinion, when the teams involved are merely randomly selected people put together by a combination of luck and money.  How many of the Manchester United players have ever lived in Manchester?  Or even in England?

The World Cup is where it gets a little more interesting.  At last, players are forced (against their better judgement sometimes, it seems) to play for the countries they ought to be proud of, and the resulting worldwide competition gets quite attractive.  Even people like me who can't usually tell one end of a football from the other find ourselves wincing as Trinidad and Tobago fling another shot goalwards.

Add to the mix that Lee Abbey Community members currently represent 16 nationalities, and eight of those are playing in the Cup, and the result is really quite exciting.

Yesterday, despite the support of at least one Ugandan (pictured), Marta, Magda and Dorota mourned the crashing out of Poland at the hands of Germans.  Today it was Paraguayan Martin's turn to be disappointed, and there aren't even any Swedes on Community to relish the victory.

Martin took the trip of a lifetime last week as he actually went to see England v Paraguay in Germany.  It must have been so amazing to see his team score ... pity they scored in the wrong net.  Still, as Christians we surrounded him with love and condolences on his return.  "One-nil!"

You know, the English love to support an underdog.  With the way our team plays, this usually comes quite naturally.  But you can't help wondering, deep down, when we played Trinidad and Tobago, whether somewhere in this nation there wasn't the tiniest twinge of guilt.  Somewhere, in our British heart of hearts, we actually wanted them to win, right?

Okay, maybe we didn't.
 
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Pay and Display

Thursday 8 June 2006  5.28 pm

Three new items of interest have been put up in the Valley of Rocks near Lee Abbey this week.  There are two new cattle grids which aim, so I'm told, to keep in the new horses which will soon be introduced to the valley.

The valley's famous mountain goats may or may not be deterred by the grids, but since they're not for them anyway, that shouldn't be a problem.  Until you have to drive over a cattle grid with a stranded mountain goat stuck in it.

The third item of interest is next to the new Pay and Display car park, and is the sign pictured here.  Enough said.

By the way, I've added a new cartoon to the Cartoon Gallery today as well.
 
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