Libby’s first day at school

By: Graham Doel, September 4th, 2008

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London Holiday

By: Graham Doel, August 13th, 2008

More here.

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Re-igniting my imagination.

By: Graham Doel, July 19th, 2008

I have been working on choosing a domain name for an organisation that I am involved with and whatever we come up with it doesn’t seem to fit.  When you are choosing a domain name you want it to be memorable, so that when you tell some one the address they remember.  Having reached a dead end I used a couple of resources to re-ignite my imagination:
 
 
 

• Googled: “How to choose a domain name“. This wasn’t much help.
• Put all thoughts so far through the Internet Anagram Server. I love this machine. “Graham Doel” returns “Alarmed Hog”.
• Used a thesaurus to find alternative words. This was the most useful because it gave me set of different words to think through.
• Listed everything I could think of that described the organisation and the personality behind it.

Then I sent my entire brain dump to some one else on the team to see if some of my thinking sparked any ideas or chimed with their thinking.

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Libby on God

By: Graham Doel, July 10th, 2008

Libby: Is God Listening Mummy?
Louise: Yes, God’s always listening Libby
Libby: I don’t want my dinner God.
Libby: Your not the Boss are you Mummy, God’s the Boss.

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Five Years

By: Graham Doel, June 25th, 2008

It seems to be the thing to do to reflect on five year anniversaries (here and here).

Last Sunday was a double anniversary for me. It was 5 Years since we moved into a house that needed rather more doing to it than we thought.. Louise and I also celebrated our 12th Wedding anniversary (I think we remembered about midday).

A week on Sunday it will be the fifth anniversary since my induction to the pastorate in Morecambe. The last years have been a personal journey for me. I have had moments of feeling the need for a total career transformation and have investigated retraining as a plumber. At other times I have known that that I’m doing the right job. Today is a right job day. Not just because someone who gave me a hard time at a meeting almost apologised, but because I am happy that among other things the Morecambe, Sunday Night Project is helping the church to think differently about community and life.

Other things have happened in the last five years that are worthy of note, some good things, other rather sad things:

• Libby was born.
• Alice and Isaac Started School.
• Both my Maternal Grandparents have been ill and subsequently died.
• I have passed the post as a fully qualified minister (bizarrely enough, I’m going on a “Ministry Refresher Course” this year).
• I have begun post graduate research into Church Planting Approaches in the Baptist Union.

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Weddings and Sunsets

By: Graham Doel, May 31st, 2008

Only one wedding and one sunset.  However they were both fantastic.  I really enjoyed the wedding and am really glad that Garry and Catherine wanted me to be involved in their day.  Unfortunately I didn’t take a camera so have no photos to show.  You’ll just have to make do with the sunset instead (more).

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Graham starts to cry…

By: Graham Doel, May 13th, 2008

Every time I fill up with petrol my mind wonders and I remember …

• When petrol was only pennies per litre.
• When I could drive from Taunton to Leicester for a tenner.
• When we didn’t think about how our actions affected the environment.
• When I rode Alison’s pink Barbie moped and didn’t care what people thought of me.

Yes, those were the days.  As I wait for the tank to fill up and I glace at the cost of the fuel I have put in the tank and I see the counter passing £40 with no sign of stopping and my mind starts to race:

• I need to convert my car to gas.
• I need to get rid of my car, I mean what do I need it for?
• It’s the governments fault, there’s far too much tax on petrol.
• I don’t want to get rid of my car, how will I get around?
• Perhaps I should get rid of Louise’s car instead…. no…. that’s not such a good idea.
• I don’t want to change the way I live, I mean why should I.
• Perhaps I should just face up to the fact that the world has moved on and I need to change and adapt to survive.

And then it dawns on me: Haven’t I had this conversation somewhere else!

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Theology at the breakfast table

By: Graham Doel, April 24th, 2008

Libby (3): Who made God?
Alice (6): He just is.
Isaac (8): Yes but Daddy, how?

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Is politics boring?

By: Graham Doel, April 11th, 2008

Probably but I like to keep up to date with what my MP is up to. After all our MP’s work for us, right?

Theyworkforyou.com keep me updated on my MP (Geraldine Smith). Every time she speaks in parliament I get notified. Now I’ll grant you, most of it is not that interesting but she did have quite a bit to say about Post Office closures. You can see a transcript of what she said in Parliament here. They will even e.mail you every time it is updated.

The same people who run “They work for you” have started “Hear from your mp dot com“. It is a service to help your MP keep in touch with you. 111 of Geraldine’s constituents have asked to hear from her on a regular basis. Hearfromyourmp.com have e.mailed her 4 times to tell her how many people have signed up and so far Geraldine has sent us any messages.

I guess the more people that sign up to hear from her, the more likely she is to start contacting us. I would much rather get a regular e.mail from my MP than the automatic Christmas card I get each year. Why don’t you sign up to hear from your MP?

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It may feel like winter, but summer is on the way …

By: Graham Doel, April 1st, 2008

I love it when the clocks change.  The kids don’t seem to wake up as early, the lighter nights make everything seem so much better.  Added to that we have a holiday around the corner.

This week is busy for me, although I don’t have a sermon to prepare for Sunday I do have a talk to do and I think I may be conducting a funeral on Friday.  Add to that all the normal business of life I’m going to be practising my time management skills!

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