What are you doing for Christmas? Advent 1

       
       

     

Today I am starting a short Series on 

     "What are you doing for Christmas?"






I love the way Advent starts on a Sunday but this year it is also the start of December and for anyone who knows me really well they will understand that I like things to start at proper sort of starting times, and the first of the month is definitely a proper sort of starting time.




I keep getting emails from different retailers telling me about the most important things about Christmas and what I really should be interested in buying.
           

Well they just don't tell me anything about the real event we are leading up to during Advent.

They might mention Santa but they hardly ever mention Jesus and when do, they never mention that Jesus is the real life and soul of Christmas.  He's the Reason for Christmas.

I am also very hurt when I see Christmas cards which say "Season's Greetings" because they leave Christmas out so they are leaving Jesus out and anyway I could send a card saying that to someone at any time of the year because we are always in one of the four seasons of the year.
          
    It makes no sense to me at all.

So what am I doing for Christmas today?

I'm finishing off our Christmas Letter and writing Christmas cards for our friends who live all around the world, because I need to get them posted off tomorrow.
I'm also remembering that Advent is about preparing for the coming of Jesus as we celebrate on Christmas and that Advent is about preparing for the time when Jesus will return again.

How am I doing this?

I'm starting a new Bible Reading Plan with You Version called  Good News of Great Joy 
And I'm focusing on Jesus who is my Saviour and the Saviour of the world and not focusing on the Season that the world focuses on because the world has 

no hope in that Season 

but I have Hope in Jesus who is the real

                                                      
Reason for the Season

In the first week of the reading plan I mentioned above I will be reading about how

• We need to be prepared by preparing our hearts for what God is going to do

• We have Hope because we are part of God's Plan

• We have Hope because God has provided our Salvation in Jesus

• We have Hope because God will provide for us to be in the right place with Him

• We have hope because Jesus came to earth as one of us

• We have hope because Jesus brings Peace

• We have hope because Jesus is The Messiah

I found this short video which also links in with the Hope I have been talking about

I am so thankful we can have this Hope are you?

During Advent I am going to write about what I am doing for Christmas. 

 "Big Christmas Event"  

or the  

"Festive treats in store"  

Not for me.

A Clown called Dario - Xtra Special Day

We have various friends throughout the world mostly because we have lived in America and Belgium as well as the UK but also because we have been involved in different Christian Outreach Programs where people from various countries have come to stay with us while they do evangelistic work in association with whichever church we have been attending.

This week there was a solitary visitor to our church all the way from Italy to help with our outreach work during this month.  

He is called Dario and he is a professional clown.

He came to NI to work with children in Lurgan for a week.



Saturday Night we met him as Dario and not "Dario the Clown" while he explained how he came to be a clown and how God was working in his life.

Sunday Morning he came to our morning service at church and centred his actions and words on how God loves us, using imaginary flowers, a multi coloured piece of material, balloons, a suitcase and a young 9 year old boy he picked out of the congregation.

At the end of the service he made balloon animals, swords and hats for the children and they all got their photograph taken with him.

He even made a hat for me especially to match my cardigan.

Then to finish off Fred and I had our photo taken with him too.

Sunday Evening he was with another church who had joined with us to bring Dario over from Italy while we had a special Gospel message more for adults.

Monday Morning & Afternoon he was doing an an assembly and workshops in one of the primary schools followed by our After School Kids Club in another Primary School. 

This time he had an object like a feather duster.

He taught us how to greet a clown sitting down (because it involved lifting your right leg and various other precarious movements and he didn't want anyone to fall over), juggled with 3 balls and then explained how we should pray to God when we cannot do something because God has promised to help us and God had helped him to learn how to juggle with juggling clubs when he had found this very difficult and of course he enlisted the help of several willing volunteers.


Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday were also spent in Schools doing assemblies and workshops with the children

Thursday Evening was a special show in the Town Hall open to any of the children in the town of Lurgan, the hall was full of kids and parents and we had a fun-filled hour together with Dario instructing the children in many things such as how to greet a clown, how to spin plates, walk a tightrope and to know that with Jesus we can do all things.

Of course the balloons made an appearance so that Dario could make hearts for the the leaders of the churches who had hosted him.

Sunday Morning saw Dario at the other church again.



Sunday Evening we were delighted to have Dario with us again where he reminded us all that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God, using balloons, a wig, a tutu and mime.

Thank you Dario for joining with us and teaching the children more about God.


Thank you God for your love for us, for helping us in all things, for creating us so uniquely and for making Dario such a caring clown.

Have you ever had a clown at your church?

Have you ever met a Christian Clown?

Are you thankful for God's love and for different ways to tell others of His love?

The Waterwheel - A Dose of Encouragement

        Some years ago a friend of ours was going through a very hard time in her life.  

She came to stay with us for a couple of weeks and needed a lot of understanding, sympathy and encouragement to help her see that she was loved.

        
One Sunday morning when we took her to church with us there was a time of prayer and ministry for individuals and my husband Fred asked her to go forward for prayer for God to bless her.  

I stood beside her and prayed that God would use someone there to really pray into her specific situation and that did happen as the Holy Spirit revealed to the people there that she had a great hurt to deal with.  

Then God showed me a picture of a waterwheel turning slowly round 

on the side of an old mill. 

As the wheel turned the sections of the wheel were filled up with water and this turned the wheel round and round.

This waterwheel was moving very slowly and we could think that it was moving so slowly that it would not make any difference to anything.  But something happened as the water was continually flowing through that wheel and turning it - there was energy created.  Even though the water was not very forceful and moving slowly through the wheel, the mill was still receiving power. 

Of course we would think that the mill required either a swift flowing current or a good head of water and with all the sections of the wheel intact the water would then provide the power that was needed.  Also if there were sections of that wheel missing it would be noticeable in the working of the mill. 

However that wheel was gradually going round and round and increasing in speed as it was letting the water do the work it was meant to do.

Sometimes we need to remember the waterwheel

Our friend needed to allow God to keep her in the flow of His love and care and settle in the security of knowing that He has enough love to encourage and keep her going. 

She needed to remember what she had once known but was forgetting to hold on to. She needed to remember that God has promised His Holy Spirit to each of us who have trusted in His Son, who have truly believed that Jesus died in our place, taking our sins on Himself.

When we acknowledge the role The Holy Spirit wants to have in our lives then we will be like the waterwheel gaining strength and power and being used to help others as well as ourselves.

For our friend the hurts might have seemed like they were almost immobilising her and she might have thought she could not cope but with God she could count on the fact that all He did by the work of His Holy spirit would matter and He would help her cope with it all no matter how long it would take.

Sometimes I can feel the same way and need to remember that waterwheel myself.

Strait of Hormuz - Book Reivew

I received a complimentary digital copy of "Strait of Hormuz" from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Strait of Hormuz

Synopsis

Under the guise of investigating money laundering via high-end art purchases in Europe, Royce finds himself in Switzerland with only sketchy information, no backup, and without a single weapon other than his wits.

His appointment with a gallery owner in Geneva is a dead end--the man is on the floor with a bullet through his chest. But it turns out Royce does have backup. The Mossad has sent someone to keep an eye on this undercover op, which is of more than casual interest to the Israelis. And it's someone Royce knows...

An under-the-radar phone call from the U.S. State Department puts Marc Royce once again on assignment—ferreting out rumors of a clandestine operation stretching from Asia to the Mideast. At stake is Iran’s threat to blockade the narrow Strait of Hormuz, cutting off vital shipping routes and escalating global tensions beyond the breaking point.

My Thoughts

Well here is the third book in the Mark Royce Series and I have to ask myself was it the right move to go for a third and the answer is a definite YES.

This one drew me in from the very first page, the start was a delight to read and at no time did I stop to think is this similar to the others because I was so interested in this story for itself.

By this one we feel like we know the character of Marc Royce well enough to really imagine the tone of the words he is saying and we have the ease into it by having one of the main characters from the second book appearing right at the start.  However even if you are reading this book without having read the first two, you will have no difficulty in getting right in there with the characters because of the way it is written.

How do we get from Art dealers to a ship in troubled waters, from Switzerland to Israel? Following the hero we are prepared to go anywhere he leads, as are the people who trust him and whom he trusts.  Davis Bunn has again, as in the first of this series, built up good relationships between the characters and this is one of the reasons this is such a good read.

In this book you will get adventure, excitement, romance, loyalty and a strong sense of faith. 

Well worth waiting for! 

About the Author:  CLICK HERE

About Strait of Hormuz

ISBN (Trade Paperback): 978-0-7642-1138-6

ISBN (Hardback): 978-0-7642-1145-4

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-4412-6279-0

336 pages

November 5, 2013 from Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group

If you have read all three reviews of this series then you will understand when I say that I'm torn between the first and the third to pick as my favourite.

What about you, have you read the first 2?

Which did you prefer?

Are you enticed to go to Amazon now and get no. 3?

Rare Earth - Book Review

Having been a great fan of Davis Bunn for many years (see The Presence) I was thrilled to find this novel of his very cheap on Amazon in the kindle store.

Again it will never be able to sit beside the other Davis Bunn books I collected over the years but I am building up quite a collection now in my kindle.

Synopsis:

Davis Bunn Strikes Gold Once Again!

Marc Royce stares down from the helicopter on the Rift Valley slashing across Africa like a scar. Tribal feuds, drought, and dislocation have left their devastation. And he sees a new wound--a once-dormant volcano oozing molten lava across the dry landscape--and clouds of ash obscure his vision. His undercover assignment is similarly obscured. Supposedly dispatched to audit a relief organization's accounts, Marc finds himself amid the squalor and chaos of Kenyan refugee camps caught in a stranglehold of corruption and ruthlessness.

But his true task relates to the area's reserves of once-obscure metals now indispensible to high-tech industry. The value of this rare earth inflames tensions on the world's stage as well as among warring tribes. When an Israeli medical administrator, Kitra, seeks Marc's help with her humanitarian efforts, they forge an unexpected link between impoverished African villages and another Silicon Valley rising in the Israeli desert. Precious metals and inventive minds promise new opportunities for prosperity, secure futures, and protection of valuable commodities from terrorists. As Marc prepares to report back to Washington, he seizes a chance to restore justice to this troubled land. This time, he may have gone too far.

About the Author:  CLICK HERE

My Thoughts:

Being the second book in a series I am always skeptical that it will be almost a rehash of the first one but in a different setting.  Well this was definitely in a different setting from no.1 but was certainly not a rehash of the same plot.

I had been looking forward to meeting up with some of the other characters from the first book as it seemed to me that we had met characters that Davis Bunn would want to write more about but in this I had been wrong.  I think this led me to be a bit disappointed as I had thoroughly enjoyed certain characters so really did want to see friendships rekindled.  The characters in this story never seemed to become as well known or understood as those of the first in the series and even by the end of the novel I was not thinking how much I would like to see what they would have to contribute to another one.

I think the setting was good and the story was clever and very up-to-date which I presume means it was well researched but I found it harder to actually picture the scenes and to remember where certain people were at different times which had not been a problem in the previous one.

Having lived in various countries and worshipped  with many different nationalities I could understand and appreciate the bond between the Christians in the story and especially see the trust there can be between them.

I am already on to book 3 in the series and looking forward to wherever Marc Royce finds he is needed but hope that it is more of the caliber of the first one with better relationships defined between the main characters.


                                  You can now read my "Strait of Hormuz" Review

Have you read this book?

Would you be inclined to read it after this review?

Lion of Babylon - Book Review

Having been a great fan of Davis Bunn for many years (see The Presence) I was thrilled to find this novel of his free on Amazon in the kindle store earlier this year.


Sadly it will never be able to sit beside the other Davis Bunn books I collected over the years but what with the ebook age upon us and the ease of having so many books in one object for travelling and of course the fact that we are running out of bookshelf space and not least of all the fact that I can get a lot of ebooks free; well I am now a kindle fan too.


So back to the purpose of this post, the review of this book.

Synopsis:

Marc Royce works for the State Department on special assignments, most of them rather routine, until two CIA operatives go missing in Iraq--kidnapped by Taliban forces bent on generating chaos in the region. Two others also drop out of sight--a high-placed Iraqi civilian and an American woman providing humanitarian aid. Are the disappearances linked? Rumors circulate in a whirl of misinformation.

Marc must unravel the truth in a covert operation requiring utmost secrecy--from both the Americans and the insurgents. But even more secret than the undercover operation is the underground dialogue taking place between sworn enemies. Will the ultimate Reconciler between ancient enemies, current foes, and fanatical religious factions be heard?

About the Author:  CLICK HERE

This book is set in Iraq around a kidnapping and involves an American agent so as expected it is a fast paced adventure novel but I really loved the way Davis Bunn brought in the quieter segments of the story which are so often badly written and almost overlooked.

It is a good read for someone who wants an action story but you must also be prepared for the fact that this book is about relationships on many levels.  Throughout the story there are various characters introduced who would not work together or be brought together in normal circumstances but here there is an example of how serving and helping others is more important than political and religious viewpoints.

At the end of the book we are left with the anticipation that some of the characters will meet again and there are many of them who we would like to have the opportunity to meet again too. So is this what happens in the next Marc Royce story?   Well if you enjoy this one then you can get no. 2 in the series entitled "RARE EARTH"  which is what I did straight away because I thoroughly enjoyed this first one.

Head on over to AMAZON now because the "LION OF BABYLON" ebook is free during November too.

Also I will be reviewing "RARE EARTH" in this blog in a couple of days time 

so click here for that.

Also I will be reviewing the latest release  "Strait of Hormuz" in this blog in a couple of days time 

so click here for that.

Have you read this?

Do you agree or disagree with me?

Why not leave a comment and let me know.

Let me Introduce you to One of My Favourite Authors

...... Davis Bunn.

From the day I read his novel "The Presence" I was an avid fan and you can read my review of that book in this earlier blog post.

    The Presence - Book Review 

Now I am excited to be reading his latest novel just released today "The Strait of Hormuz" (the third book in his Mark Royce Series) and I will be reviewing it here on my blog on Tuesday 12th November, so don't forget to drop in then and see how good the book is.

Before that however I will give you a nice run up to it by reviewing the first two books in this series "Lion of Babylon" 

and "Rare Earth" and if you head over to Amazon they are available there at good prices.  

Just click on the pictures of the books or the titles to see more about them.



About Davis Bunn

Davis Bunn is a four-time Christy Award-winning, best-selling author now serving as writer-in-residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Defined by readers and reviewers as a "wise teacher," "gentleman adventurer," "consummate writer," and "Renaissance man," his work in business took him to over 40 countries around the world, and his books have sold more than seven million copies in sixteen languages. 

Davis Bunn and his wife, Isabella 

Strait of Hormuz is the series finale of the popular Marc Royce Adventures. Library Journal named Lion of Babylon (Book 1) a “Best Book of 2011.” Rare Earth (Book 2) won the 2013 Christy Award for best suspense novel and was a CBA top 20 best-seller.

Q & A with Davis Bunn

Q: The first two books in the Marc Royce series have been bestsellers and also won praise from the critics. Lion of Babylon won the Library Journal’s Best Book of 2011 award, and Rare Earth won the 2013 Christy Award for Suspense Fiction. What do you see is behind this success?

Davis Bunn: The stories have certainly resonated with readers. I have tried to develop a strong sense of unfolding drama, combined with a unique spiritual theme. This moral structure plays out both in the story and the characters. My aim is to create an inspirational challenge that remains with the reader long after the book has been set down.

Q: This story includes two special components from your early life. Tell us about them.

DB: My mother worked as an antiques dealer. In truth, ‘work’ was not really the correct term, because this was a passion she inherited from her mother. They bonded while my mom was still a child, going to small eastern Carolina towns and hunting around junk stores for the sort of bargains that don’t exist anymore.

Their first love was early Americana, a type of colonial furniture known as Jacobean that predated America’s nationhood. I never really shared this passion, but in two previous books I came to respect and admire those who do.

And so I knew a great delight in re-entering this world in Strait of Hormuz, only this time at the very highest end. Strait takes place in the rarified world of multi-million dollar art, where the richest of collectors vie with museums and galleries for items that are no longer classed as antiques, but rather as treasures

The second special component was the location. I lived in Switzerland for almost five years, and many of the venues were places where I worked, and walked, and came to discover myself as an author.

Q: In what way is the setting important to this book?

DB: The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical waterways. Stretching between Iran and the Gulf States, the strait us home to two US fleets. More than a third of all the oil consumed worldwide pass through these waters. But the story actually begins in Switzerland, before traveling to the Sinai and then into the hotly-contested Strait of Hormuz.

Q: What spiritual theme is the focus of this story?

DB: One growing area of the missionary church movement is with displaced persons. More than five million Iranians have been expelled from their homeland, or been forced to flee the current regime. This includes virtually the entire Christian population. The missionary church movement has made enormous strides in bringing peace to these families and introducing Christ into the world of Muslims fleeing a Muslim government.

Q: What drew you to the missionary church movement as a theme? 

DB: I came to faith in a missionary church. I was working as a consultant based in Germany. The year I accepted Christ, the Southern Baptist Mission Board founded a missionary church in Dusseldorf. I attended the church, I grew in the church, I studied under two amazing pastors, and one of them returned to Europe to marry us.

It was also where I learned to write. Two weeks after coming to faith, I felt called to writing. I wrote for nine years and completed seven books before my first was accepted for publication. The church, its members, and the elders all played a critical role in bringing me to where I am now. I am living testimony to the vital role played by the missionary church.

Q: All three of the books in this series have given significant insight into the Muslim world, something critics have picked up on. What experience do you have with this region?

DB: For the four years prior to moving to Germany, I lived and worked in the Middle East. I was the only non-Muslim in the management structure of a family-owned company. They had three major arms: construction equipment, shipping, and pharmaceuticals. I rose to become Marketing Manager of the pharmaceutical division.

One of the requirements of this job was to take instruction in the Koran and Islamic history from an imam who taught at the local university. I think this experience played a major role in my coming to Christ.

UPDATE:

You can now read my "Lion of Babylon" Review

and "Rare Earth" Review

and the latest release  "Strait of Hormuz" Review

Have you read any books by Davis Bunn?

If so please leave a comment to say which ones and what you thought of them.

  

Disclaimer:

I have not received any compensation for my views or recommendations of books in this blogpost