PJBelfast

The past four weeks have been busy with work. I've also been out most evenings at various events. So please forgive me if I've been a tad quiet on the blog front. September is the month schools start back, but for me it has brought with it the recommencement of "BCGC" (choir) and "Tribes" (LVV life group's.) Over the past three Thursday evenings I've also had the joy, honour and privilege to be able to share a foundational (didactic) teaching devotional course with the life group leaders at Forestside Church, Belvoir, South Belfast. We have also been pleasantly surprised to find others coming from other church streams. Forestside Church needs commended on the friendliness of their welcome. They pulled out all the stops on night one, with Tim Hortons doughnuts as a lovely treat for delegates. It is safe to say that this 1.5 hr evening teaching hub has been a winning formula. Someone once said that "if it's all Word you dry up, if...

The headliner tonight was Susan Boyle. She gave great renditions of "Wild Horses" and "Somewhere over the rainbow." My favourite tonight though has been Mark Vincent the 2009 winner of Australia's Got Talent. What a velvety voice! Classical music definitely isn't my favourite genre, but the BBC Proms on the Park at the Titanic slipway is a great nights varied entertainment. Most folk have brought their own picnic and their own portable seats. People have started to wrap themselves in their rugs and blankets, as the wind has now picked up - after all "it's not Brazil it's Northern Ireland!" We have just had a live link with the Royal Albert Hall, London. The enthusiasm certainly knocks the stuffiness out of classical music. Thanks for including us in your party Mandie, Neil, Yvonne, Mandie and Peter. It was great we could celebrate Caroline's new hair do in such style!

Asda, UK subsidiary of Walmart sent me a message today. Before shopping for our groceries I used their Scan & Go handset. I entered my mobile number and the message said "Paul you are good to go"! Asda had me "good to go" to scan my shopping. But it triggered a thought. It reminded me of Jesus' final commission which we know as the Great Commission. Matthews gospel says we are good " to go and make disciples". Not just converts but disciples. Research from various sources inform me that a disciple is an apprentice, literally "a taught one". I'm a sexagenarian (in my sixties) but realise staying teachable keeps me from fossilising and thinking I'm a 'know it all.' Wasn't it the wise Solomon who said " Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished." Stay teachable - "you are good to go!" You never know you just might learn something new today. #goo...

It was standing room only at St. Anne's Cathedral Belfast on Monday night past, when over 3000 people turned up to pray for a breakthrough on the Abortion legislation, sanctioned from Westminster, and due to come into effect in NI on 22nd October 2019. The prayers were an initiative from a groundswell of Christian organisations voicing their opposition to this parliamentary edict. It was both an outcry to overturn this appalling legislation and a crying out to God for divine intervention. The government’s Northern Ireland (Executive Formations and Exercise of Functions) Bill is due to introduce same sex marriage and liberalise abortion law in NI if Stormont is not up and running again by 22 October unless our MPs return to Stormont. It will be the most liberal of laws, permitting abortions up to 28 weeks term. The campaign against liberalising abortion laws and legalising same-sex marriage continues with two more events this week. "On Friday evening at Stormont at 7pm, ...

Walt Disney said " All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." Like the biblical character Joseph, I know someone who is a dream-maker. She is the same vintage as myself, older by only a month.1956 was a great year. She has formed a united and diverse community of over 160 singers. She is none other than the inimitable and charismatic Marie Lacey, pioneer and director of BCGC - Belfast Community Gospel Choir, and yes it does what it says in the name. We sing Gospel! I know Marie from back in the 70's when she sang in a group called the Branches, when I sang in the Lightbringers. I so remember their Hawaiian guitar player giving them a rather unique sound. We on the other hand also had a USP, a guy, now a pastor who was a counter-tenor. We would often cross paths singing at a variety of gigs across Northern Ireland. But this lady could not be contained to a  group. God had put in her heart a dream, a dream which she calls...

Allegedly I snore! My darling wife is such a saint. Just before she lies down to sleep she pops in her ear plugs. Now it's not the most romantic of ways of saying goodnight, but it's something that has helped us through our 38 years of marriage. She does seem to have an aversion to gathering support though, by letting friends listen to my noisy yet automatic tilt switch disposition, exposing recordings of my loud buzz-saw sounding snores. My son's have actually heard me rattle the walls while trying to sleep in another room. I don't think it's that bad. So I spoke to the Doc who has referred me the Regional Respiratory Centre, Sleep diagnostic Unit of Belfast City hospital. My appointment is in half an hour. My wife is concerned that between snores I stop breathing. Well, all will be revealed, as tonight I will have an overnight oximetry test to be carried out at home. This will record my oxygen levels and heart rate while I am sleeping. The thing...

645pm. "I'm sitting in a railway station got a ticket for my destination..." which happens to be, Cosmo, an all you can eat buffet in Victoria's Square, Belfast. It's chucking it down, as we know "the rain in Spain" falls mainly in Northern Ireland - hence the forty shades of green in our beautiful wee country. Thankfully I'm prepared tonight with a golf umbrella so I've stayed relatively dry. I haven't been to this recreational type of eating since being in the States. It's an all guys night - 15 mighty men of valour, fellow-tenors from *BCGC, are getting the new season off to a fine start at the Cosmo buffet. I'm on the train now. I'll keep you posted on how the night rolls. 701pm I've arrived at Belfast Central (now Lanyon place) and picked up some cash from the ATM - it's payday tomorrow so I'm feeling flush. Now for a 10 minute walk and I'll enter the pigout joint ...Oh Yeh! Interesti...