Colour-clear

Colour-clear, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

I've been suffering for my art out in the garden trying to capture some moments from the snowy winter we've had this January! This is my favorite - I love the detail in the branch and the depth of the colours.

My New Toy

I'm very excited about getting my life back (I've finally passed my last anaesthetics exam!) and have received this rather super new gadget for music making! This has more of a performance edge than most, so should hopefully herald some interesting new experiments in live music!

The Novation Launchpad, for Ableton Live.

I Will Seek You

I will seek you

I will seek your face

I will seek you when life leads me on paths that I fear

I will seek you when I'm tempted to hide from jeers

I will seek you when I feel unable

To withstand a life of a different label

I will seek your face when exhaustion draws me away

I will search for you when not inclined to pray

I will seek you

I will seek your face

I will seek you when victory and ecstacy reign in my heart

I will wander searching for you when my rambling pulls us apart

I will lie in your presence within the summer heat

I will shelter between your wing when storms upon the earth beat

I will seek you

I will seek your face

But finally when my journey in this place is complete

And my breath becomes scarce, all suggesting my body will suffer defeat

Then I will truly find you and forever rest in your presence true

And as I rewatch my life I can be happy, knowing that I honestly sought You.

Antique Shop Doorway, Cortona

Antique Shop Doorway, Cortona, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

New photos of our wonderful trip to Italy. Flickr houses the more arty ones and Facebook the more peoply ones...

Lorna's people ones can be found at her Facebook site

Being

I love to think,

But sometimes it's important just to be.

Like sitting in my bed listening to the rain,

Or enjoying the cessation of pain as I lay down my head.

Its in these moments of being that my life grows and shapes,

That I can focus on The Eternal,

The beginning and the end;

On becoming more of a friend to Him that made me for just that.

Dry

Ezekiel 37 (The Message)
Breath of Life

1-2 God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun.

3 He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "Master God, only you know that."

4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'"

5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"

7-8 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them.

9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, 'God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'"

10 So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.

11 Then God said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us.'

12-14 "Therefore, prophesy. Tell them, 'God, the Master, says: I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I am God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it. God's Decree.'"

"When hope is gone, I'll call You Saviour" I've Had Questions by Tim Hughes.

OP-1 The Future is Coming

Having, as I do, an interest in electronic music, I'm incredibly excited at the new OP-1 from Teenage Engineering. This funky little gizmo is well away from release yet, but looks to be a hardware controller for your music software on your PC, as well as having built in synth and sequencer capacity. I WANT ONE!!

Sadly, they're a long way off from release yet!

Here's a pic anyway...

Lent Project

Another attempt at a daily photo blog for Lent 2009. Not been quite so strict this year (attempt not to become dogmatic!) but have tried to take a pic of something interesting every day. Doing lots of on-calls so you may notice a theme developing around views of Manchester from 7th floor on-call room!

Christians Against Poverty

In these times of economic turmoil, we learnt of a very relevant organsiation called Christians Against Poverty (CAP) last night in house group. Brilliant charity who offer free debt advice to anyone who needs it. The perfect solution for our troubled times when we're realising that our nation's recent prosperity has essentially been built on sand. We're proud to be supporting a CAP centre as Altrincham Baptist Church, so hopefully we can make a difference in our community, which is one of the most in-debt areas in the country...

I've just read...

A quick update on a couple of books I've just read in the Christmas period...

The Shack - a great allegory all about God.

God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? - A brilliant but concise look at the relationship between science and faith.

Ice on my car 3

Ice on my car 3, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

It's proper Winter up here! Very beautiful though...

Slavery

Since attending The Stand in November in Birmingham, I've really been thinking a great deal about modern day slavery and human trafficking. For those who aren't aware, slavery still happens today. In fact, it's incredibly common, even in the developed world. People are also trafficked across borders, having been tricked into working for nothing, and children are exploited as labourers. Pretty much every industry you can think of is affected by this, from steel manufacture to coffee, from chicken packing to prostitution.

I'm still trying to work out what my response to this sudden burst of knowledge and conviction is: I'm starting by writing about it here, telling people I know, and trying to increase my awareness.

These are some of the sites I'm using to find more information, and some of the people who are actually doing something.

Anti Slavery International

Stop the Traffik

Hope for Justice

The Ethical Trade Initiative

My feeling is that ordinary people like me need to get involved shouting for justice for those who are being exploited in this way. I think the church should be united in an obvious and vocal way against slavery and trafficking - our consumer power is massive and together we have a loud voice. We can use this opportunity to stand for those who are not able to support themselves, to care for the broken and needy in society - to do just what Jesus intended.

Geocaching

Lorna and I have discovered a great new hobby called Geocaching. Basically you look at the website http://www.geocaching.com/ and get some co-ordinates for a cache, which you then plug into your GPS (or Nokia N95) and start wandering!

The caches are usually a tuppaware, hidden very carefully in the countryside some where. They contain a logbook so you can prove you found it, and various other little prizes which can be traded for something you want to leave. I imagine kids would love it, and its great fun for adult kids too! It also takes you to places you never would have thought to go, and there's usually plenty of scope for good photos in many of the locations.

Another way to get out and about and enjoy creation!

New look

An ever so slight change to the appearance of the blog as I got bored! Not sure what I think of it yet so I'm going to try it for a while and see...

Schmap

I've been absent in my posting for a while due to job change related stress and general work related low moodness (see below), but now am up and about a bit more creatively. Since last posting, I've updated my myspace with some new electronic music, and I'm working on more. I've started worship leading at Intention, ABC's youth group which is turning out to be really exciting, and I'm taking photos again. Whilst exploring various bits of Manchester with Lorna, we visited Castlefield (was up and coming a few years ago, now fairly firmly arrived). I took a few photos, posted them to my flickr website and one of them has been selected for use on a website guide to Manchester, called Schmap. This looks a great guide to the city and is growing all the time, so definitely worth taking a look (see my sidebar to the right on this very blog). It also has guides to numerous other cities around the world, and can be accessed on your I-phone for trendy types.

Reading my previous post, I'm slightly embarrased to admit that despite all my wordly wealth, beautiful wife, wonderful family and friends I've been very low in mood for the last couple of months. Whilst my own recent stress has not been in the league of Brother Yun and friends (see below), I can similarly testify that during this low patch I've had a great sense of God walking with me (probably carrying me really!) I had not really known whether the path I've been following has been right, or whether I had the emotional reserves to follow it, but I've known that he has a plan and would be with me through all of it no matter how steep it seemed. Through times talking with friends, studying The Bible, in prayer and in church, I've heard Him assure me I am doing what He wants, where He wants me to do it, and this has given me strength to re-emerge from "just coping" to "truly living".

I'm writing this having spent the weekend in the sun, in Manchester and Altrincham (food festival and our little garden). Like the rainbow after the flood in Noah's story, the beautiful weather this weekend feels like a seal to the promise He has made to me. In times when I'm feeling sorry for myself, finding life hard or generally going through a low patch in the cycle of life I must try and think back to these glimpses of beauty, and focus on the gifts that God gives me day-to-day.

Brother Yun

I've just finished reading the book "The Heavenly Man", by a Chinese pastor called Brother Yun. It chronicles the story of his life thus far and is an account of horrific persecution of him and the Chinese church by their authorities. However, the overwhelming message is one of hope and encouragement for the help that God gives, even during our lowest points in life.

This book has challenged me massively - to focus on the important things if life and to try and re-centre my life on Jesus. It's a scary prospect as not many figures in the bible or in history who go "all out for Him" have a very nice time, but with the knowledge that He went through worse for us on the cross we can learn that the physical life is not all there is.

I dare you to read it!

Healing Window

Healing Window, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

The 'Healing Window' in Manchester Cathedral. A window donated by a local doctor. The text reads: "Diversity" "Healing" "Glory" "Wholeness" "Inclusion"

RIP Bertie

RIP Bertie, originally uploaded by petersandbach.

Rest in peace Bertie the Border Terrier. He was scruffy and a little pungent at times, but a great companion with lots of character. Sadly Bertie had to go to the vet for the last time yesterday - his pain and exhaustion go the better of him, but we are very grateful to him for 15 years of good memories and devotion.

The Telectroscope

I can't quite believe this is true but apparently, a tunnel has been built from London to New York, so that, using optical devices, you can see from one end to the other. I thought this may be an April fool joke at first, but it's May, so that's unlikely! Interesting website here

ADDENDUM

Turns out nights must have affected my brain! The Telegraph puts a more likely theory, being that the "tunnel" is actually a broadband connection between London and New York. Sad in a way - all the mystery is now gone!

Music production gadgets

Argh! I'm being persued by musical gadgetry! The Create Digital Music blog has been tempting me with pricey technical wizardry!

The bizarrely named Tenori-On is a Japanese invention (who else) which seems to be trying to create a completely new way of making music. It's extremely exciting (and also quite expensive), particularly as a live instrument. Originally created by a Japanese visual artist called Toshio Iwai in conjunction with Yamaha, as well as being able to be used as a sampler/sequencer and performance instrument, it also has brilliant flashing lights! Check out the Youtubes below for demonstrations of the Tenori On.

The other musical gadget that's got me excited is the Pacemaker portable DJ machine thing. It stores your MP3s, plays them, and allows you to do all the things a DJ would traditionally do with decks - beatmatching, crossfading, adding effects, pitch shifting. Again, it's not cheap (although compared to decks+mixer it's pretty good value), and here are some Youtube vids of it in action...