The Establishment

Hmmm.

When I asked friends to say whether I should rant about the Church of England, wise friends said "No, if it doesn't further the gospel."  This is wise, and absolutely the right answer.

But the ironic thing is, that's exactly what my (deleted) rant was about.  The furthering, or not, of the gospel.

Does "The Church Institutional" further the spread of the gospel in our nation or not? 

This will be an emotional and anecdotal post.  It will probably not be a biblical exposition of ekklesia passages.  

What is our job as a local church?  Broadly, to tell people about the good news of salvation through Jesus and urge them to turn to him.  To do that we need to know people in order to tell them.  Know their problems, their joys, their kids, their hobbies and where they hang out. Know what they have faith in.  Know what they think of God.  Know their history.  Know them.  And, has been pointed out thousands of times this week, to Love our neighbour (which includes your scary would-be enemy).  We've been urged as a (local) church this month, by the vicar and others, to GET OUT of our building!  Each of us, vicar, wife, and all, should be seeking to make the most of every opportunity for the gospel.  That doesn't necessarily mean preaching at every opportunity, and it certainly doesn't mean judging behaviours we don't participate in.    But it means being open to talk when given the opportunity.  

For me personally, it means YEARS living here and meeting people, getting to know them, and praying that God would use hopeless me to build His Church.

We see little signs of God's saving grace in the lives of people as we go along the road, and so we keep going.  Following his lead, knowing Him more, speaking about Jesus.  

So.  What is the BIG CHURCH up to along the way.  The thing, whatever it is, which issues press releases, and creates websites such as Just Pray, and writes reports on issues facing the church at the moment.

This should be a good thing, shouldn't it?  But hang on.  Here's some text from the Just Pray site, from the page entitled, what is prayer:

Just start.

The hardest thing about prayer is beginningSo just start.

Wanting to pray is the beginning of a relationship with God that can grow and grow.
Find the way of praying that is right for you.
Explore different ways of praying.
Listen as well as speak.
Give thanks as well as ask for help.
Don't just look for results. Don't give up when it gets hard. Trying to pray is praying.

Read that again:  "Wanting to pray is the beginning of a relationship with God that can grow and grow."

I do not agree with this!  The Church of England is putting heresy in my mouth!  The beginning of a relationship with God is NOT wanting to pray!  That only comes through my justification, by faith in Jesus Christ.  The one who bore my sin in his body on the cross.  Who washes me clean so that I can have a relationship with the God who made me.    Oh - he's the one who doesn't get a mention on the prayer website, by the way!  The great high priest!  Why must he find his way on to a christian prayer website?!

This is slightly besides my point though.

My point is that they claim to speak for me, and my local church but they do not.  We strive on a daily basis to teach the people in our pews (well, comfy chairs) the truth, to equip them.  But today the Church of England has undermined our teaching, yet again, under the guise of reaching out to people.

In the storm in a teacup (or mug of decent coffee) which has brewed today The Church spokesperson has said "In one way the decision of the cinemas is just plain silly, but the fact that they have insisted upon it, makes it rather chilling in terms of limiting free speech."

This in response to DCM, the cinema advertising people, saying that their policy is not to show any poliical or religious content.  Why does christianity get to be exempt from this?  DCM says that people won't want to see this advert.  I wouldn't want to see an excerpt from the Koran, or any other religious text when I go to the cinema.  Do you?  

Why must the Church spokesperson make it "chilling"?  Why not accept that there is no religious advertising?  

A plea to finish:

Church of England: Please quietly go about supporting your pastors.  Help them.  Listen to them when they are tired.  Ask how you can help more.  But please stop making big pronouncements (especially when they are wrong and counterproductive).  That's our job!  The local church who actually knows who it is speaking to.  If, ABC, you want to teach on prayer, do it in your pulpit on a Sunday, or to your friends in the pub.  

And everyone.  Please keep speaking the truth. "For God so loved the world that he sent his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

Spanish and Cinnamon Buns

Hola!

I spent a year in Bogota, South America, a loooooong time ago.  It left me with a love for many things, and one of those was speaking Spanish.  I wanted my children to have the opportunity to learn a language young, as it's often said that it is easier to learn when young.  But I have never felt confident to teach them as I don't want to pass on error.  I've spent hours on the net looking at different curricula for home educating parents. Nothing grabbed me as a way I wanted to use.  I've spent more hours trying to find Spanish lessons locally which I can get to.  Nada.

Through an American Facebook group I'm a member of I discovered Homeschool Spanish Academy.  This is an almost incredible idea, a way of learning Spanish that would have been impossible when I was the age of my children.  My eldest is now having Spanish lessons, via Skype, from a teacher in Guatemala.  And it costs less than any other class she has. Her teacher is enthusiastic and experienced.  She is a native speaker.  And she speaks "proper" Spanish.  According to her, Colombian and Guatemalan Spanish are the clearest versions of the language.  Me alegro!

Our teacher, also tells us about the weather in Guatemala.  It has been raining all week, she says, the rivers have burst their banks, and farming is starting to suffer.  Would I ever have known this, or wondered about the people of Guatemala and how the farmers will survive this if we hadn't spoken this afternoon (well, it was 7.30am in Guatemala, which is serious dedication)?

We also discussed fruit today.  She asked if we have a fruit here called "marañon".  We don't. She showed me a picture.  It is the fruit below which a cashew nut grows!  They eat the fruit, and the seed below! I never knew that!  And eldest child certainly didn't!  

From us, our teacher learned that there are Christians in Europe.  She was under the impression that there weren't any.  I was happy to pass on that there were lots of us.  Once she knew we were Christians, she identified herself as a Christian.  What a lovely bond to have across the ocean!

This way of learning Spanish is like no other.  

Here's their website

Not quite as exciting, but still a great way to cheer the day of many people, are cinnamon rolls.  This isn't wheat-free.  Neither is it dairy-free.  It is relatively low in sugar.  And you can burn a few calories kneading the dough.  It's an amalgamation of a few recipes i've found online in my hunt for this wonderful food.

Cinnamon rolls

This makes 24 rolls.  You'll need a very large, deep baking tin, about 30cmx40cm.  You could halve the recipe if you are not feeding the 3000.

bread part:

600g Strong white bread flour
200g plain flour
2 tsp or 2 sachets of quick action yeast
400ml milk, warmed
80g caster sugar
140g butter softened (i put it in the milk and put it all in the microwave for a min or 2)
4 tsp cinnamon

Filling part

200g butter, softened a little
140g caster sugar
2 Tbs cinnamon

egg wash

1 egg, a dash of milk, mixed together

Mix all the dough ingredients together in a large bowl.  You'll need to finish this process with your hands.  Tip out onto your kneading surface and knead for about 10 minutes til stretchy and soft.  Shape into a round (see River Cottage's bread book for more on dough shaping.  It will change your life), put back in the bowl and cover with cling film.  Leave to rise for an hour or two. The longer the better.

Make the filling by mixing all the ingredients together.

Coat the baking tin in melted butter.  On the inside, obviously.

Halve the dough, and roll the first half out to a large, thin rectangle, about 40x50cm.  For this, you'll need a good surface which it's not going to stick to.  I have a lovely block of wood.  It's meant to be a large chopping board, but who needs one that big?

Once the dough is a large rectangle, smear half the filling on it.  Roll it up along the long side.  Slice into 12 equal pieces and put them, spiral up, into half the tin.

Repeat with the second half.  The tin will fit 24 in a 6x4 formation.  

Cover the tin with a tea towel or bag.  Leave to rise for up to an hour.  They are normally just touching each other.  Heat the oven to 220C.  Brush the buns with eggwash.  Put in the oven for about 14 minutes til crispy, risen and dark golden. 

Eat them ALL as soon as they have cooled enough to touch.  10 minutes or so...  you won't regret it.

Adios!

An Offaly good week

Please excuse radio silence

The last couple of weeks have been ridiculously busy.  In 7 nights I was out 4, which never happens in my life, but many meetings coincided.  

The most exciting evening out was in my local pub.  I have finally started a crochet and knitting group in the community.  In all my married homes I have been part of a group which met somewhere in public.  In Southgate I started one in a cafe with Lucy, in Middlesbrough I joined a thriving group which met at Nature's World, and now, after 3 years, I have found enough willing members and a location.  

I fear walking into pubs.  Any pub, anywhere.  I am not sure where I am expected to look or go. Bar?  Restaurant? Dining area?  Where?!  I am not a local - will they all stare?   Gladly (although not for the owners), not many people attend my local pub, and it is HUGE and very well cared-for inside.  Our first night was just a reccy, because I needed to know whether the light would be good enough on a nighttime for us to see our stitches.  Lo, and behold, halogen spots over a large bank of very comfortable chairs.  It is a wonderful place for the group, so Pints & Needles begins next week.  Oh yes!  I am looking forward to our Tuesday nights in there and hope to meet lots of people who I wouldn't meet any other way, and teach them to crochet if they would like to!


                                                                        *

Offal

Most people can't bear it.  But i have been celebrating the start of autumn this week with Liver and Kidneys.  The children have coped admirably.  Nick and I have delighted in eating them! 

If you have never tried it, I recommend you do.  Cheap and nutritious, easy to cook, very tasty.  What is not to love?

Liver and Bacon

You need (yes, need)

Lambs liver, enough to feed your family.  400g perhaps
Flour (gluten-free is fine)
salt and pepper
Oil
Bacon
1 onion, chopped
Chicken stock cube
boiling water


Put some flour on a plate and mix in some salt and pepper.  Coat your pieces of liver in the flour on both sides.  

Heat up the oil in a big heavy frying pan.  When hot, add the liver (in batches so as not to crowd the pan).  Fry gently for 1-2 minutes until golden.  No more than this!  Turn over and cook until red liquid (alright, blood.  If you've got this far in an offal recipe you're hardy enough to take it) seeps out of the side you fried first.  Take it out.  Liver does NOT NEED over cooking!  Keep the cooked liver on a plate.

Once all the liver is cooked, fry the bacon until yummy. Remove and add to the liver plate

Add your chopped onion and gently fry with the dark, crispy, meaty bits until soft and yummy looking.  Chuck in a stock cube (I use Kallo chicken) and stir about.  Turn up the heat and slowly add boiling water (straight from the kettle), stirring all the time, until the gravy is your preferred consistency.  Bubble for a couple of minutes, then turn down and return the liver and bacon to the gravy to warm through for a few minutes.

Serve with buttery mashed potato and fresh veg.  Nothing fancy.  


                                                                *

I once did a recipe for stir-fried liver with ginger.  I couldn't eat it.  Liver should probably only be cooked as above!

Why are you listening to...

UCB Radio?

That was the question Nick asked me when yet another Christian pop song, of a style i'm not a fan, came on the radio.

The answer is, of course, a long story.

I don't listen to secular music stations anymore, and barely any secular music on CD.  On the occasions when an old favourite of mine comes on the MP4 in the car, I remember why I don't listen to it.  

From the Backstreet Boys, through Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller, to Dido, Faithless and Massive Attack, run my emotions as a teenager and young adult.  Mostly these emotions were related to my idolatrous heart, and most specifically about the boys and men I worshipped and desired.  Every pop song wove its way through my mind and heart and related itself to someone.  Perhaps musical lyrics don't have that effect on you, but they certainly do to me.  

So when I hear a song from my early 20s which was related to any specific person, I am overwhelmed by a return to all the emotions of that time.  So how can Iisten to it now?  I can't.  It is wrong for me to return to the past. 

So that's why no old secular music.  Why no current secular music?  Because I am incapable of not singing along, and since I only want the truth to come out of my mouth, how can I sing the songs now in the charts? How can I give my mouth emotions which aren't mine?   As I said, if music doesn't have this effect on you, listen to it, but I just can't.

So.  Back to UCB radio (a digital radio station.  Our car has a digital radio, which I guess they all will eventually).

There are 2* reasons why I listen.

1.  Because many of the songs are awesome!  Josh Garrels, Phil Wickham, Strahan and Izzy Ray are people I never would have come across without UCB, and I love to sing along with their tunes.  Because I am happy for my heart and my mouth to be singing songs devoted to Jesus.   Because even if I am feeling nothing, my mouth gives voice to truth.  

2.  Because I won't listen to secular music, my children also don't. Nothing wrong with that, but I do want them to experience the best of the culture we live in.  Through UCB they have heard dance music, pop music, folk music, rock music.  And Cliff Richard.   At a (listening) glance the songs are indistinguishable from what you might hear on your local radio station.  But the songs have words of truth, so any joy in the music can also teach them the joyful truth of the gospel.

3.  Because they broadcast news!  And they have a particularly christian focus on what is happening in the world, which I like.  I haven't stopped listening to BBC news, but it makes a great change to listen to UCB.  

4.  Because the presenters find infinite matters to discuss on air which are cheerful, upbeat and inoffensive!

The slight downside to UCB is that you sometimes have to listen to Christians taking the bible out of context.  It's not all relentless truth.  But it is mostly.  So that's why!


* i realise there are now 4 in the list.  As I wrote I realised there were more than 2 reasons.

Vegetables

Recipe book recommendations

This isn't a new book, and perhaps you all have it already, but I would just love to enthuse about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's book "Every day Veg" (or "Veg everyday"?).  Alongside our incredible lamb joint (from New Close Farm Shop in Sacriston) which we were eating for the third day (I'm fairly sure this is the cheapest way to eat meat), this evening we had caramelised carrots with gremolata (much easier than it sounds) and sweet potato and peanut gratin (also very easy).  And it was just delicious.

I've mentioned before that we have been getting a Riverford veg box for a decade, and still love it.  But there are always veg that I find uninspiring (carrots, again), and veg that some of us don't like (nick is not a sweet potato fan).  My good friend Fiona, also a longtime Riverford customer bought me HF-W's book for Christmas last year.  It took me a while to use it (scared of an entire recipe book with no meat!), but it has revolutionised my veg cooking.

It's £10 from the Book People at the moment.  A bargain to help you get more excited about vegetables.

A year or so ago, I picked up Nigella Lawson's Feast in a second-hand shop.  This is a really old book now!  It is lovely to look through though, because she has compiled and invented recipes for festivals and occasions when you would want to cook for.  From Christmas to Easter via Passover, Thanksgiving and Eid, and many others.  She even has an entire chapter on chocolate cakes.  I have been so impressed with how easy many recipes she has included which turn out incredible tasting food which usually feeds a large crowd.  

I'm including it here now because I recently whipped up 3 decent veg recipes from Feast in about 30 minutes for a  barbecue at which there was a vegetarian.  That makes it a winner!

You can buy a second-hand copy of Feast for 1p (plus postage) from Amazon Marketplace.  Or if you object to Amazon, an old copy will set you back 66p (plus postage) from my favourite online second-hand book seller, alibris .

It's hard to eat veg, but good recipes make life a LOT easier!  

Why we do what we do

Living in the North and Home education

I have started this blog partly to journal our life with the kids, so that if anyone were to ever ask me to show we've been educating the kids, I'll be able to look back and find out!  It has been overtaken by recipes the last couple of weeks, but this post is an attempt to balance the recipes with the two biggest time-consumers in my life.  The biggest thing is the Lord Jesus, but the time-consumers flow from my (our!) relationship with him.

First comes church.  More specifically, church in the North-east in a new-town which replaced about 15 pit-village collieries.  

We received excellent training, the best possible, at Oak Hill College.  It couldn't have been better.  But what we have learned since moving here, even more so that Middlesbrough, was that there are parts of England which are so different that ministry has to be different.  

I'll admit to feeling clueless and ambivalent about the mining industry for most of my life.  In fact, I would say I was unsympathetic.  Two recent experiences changed that.  The first was a visit to the Woodhorn museum in Northumberland, and the second was a trip down a drift mine at Beamish museum in Durham.  Both those trips changed how I saw the people among who I live.  For two hundred years our nation became advanced and wealthy off the backs of men, children and ponies who worked in unimaginable conditions to provide coal.   Conditions were shocking, pay was meager... but the country ran on coal.  Move forward to the middle of the 20th Century, the decreased need for coal and the cost of extraction mean the mines start to close.  Two hundred years of hereditary jobs and identity is removed in one fell swoop.  No wonder born-and bred locals can resent change. No wonder we're a Labour safe seat.  No wonder it is hard for new people to fit in.  One granny I spoke with said she felt like an outsider in our part of town after 20 years.  She originated 1 mile away, in another part of town.  But it was a different pit village 50 years ago, and many still see the distinction.

This means Nick and I know that vicars here cannot just come and go.  They need to come and stay.  There are very few evangelical churches here, far fewer than any place I have lived, and the job requires phenomenal time, relationships and commitment.   God might move us from here one day, but for the moment, we've chucked our lot in with our town and that takes time.  

Secondly, educating the kids.

Home education can be divisive.  My aim is not to divide, but to try to describe the life we live and why do it.

We decided long ago, before having children that we would educate them at home.  Nick and I are naturally non-conformers.  My dad said we were only doing it to be different, and i think he is only 90% wrong!  We knew a few adults who had been home-educated and it appealed to us in itself.  Then, when our gifts of children came along, and we loved them, our natural inclination seemed to be with them all the time.  I never felt like leaving them in a creche on Sunday, for example. I wasn't working out of the home, our parents lived miles away, and we were used to them being wherever we were, and we enjoyed that.  Not sending them to nursery or school wasn't, therefore, a decision.  It just wasn't ever really a consideration, except in those times when I panicked about ruining their education.  It has nothing to do with local schools.  

I am often told by people that they couldn't home educate.  I have no opinion on whether that is true or not, but I would say a few things.  I am not patient, I am often unkind, I am not a genius and I struggle to impart mathematical concepts to my children despite having maths A level.  I am disorganised by nature, and I am not a completer-finisher.  I am weak, I am sinful.  However, I know that the Lord is with us in our journey with the kids.  In a way, educating at home is just a different way of discipling the children in their walk with the Lord ( With maths thrown in).  We read the wonderful word of God together like any family, we sin against them and repent, we are sinned against and forgive.  And we do addition equations.  The point it, as the Lord is with families in their struggle against the fallen nature of everything, so he is with us.  My fallen mind struggles with maths but he provides help.  My fallen heart struggles to be patient with a new reader, but He provides strength.   We just choose to do it 24/7.  Not because we are better Christians, but because He is in it with us, every minute.  And it is a great privilege.  Germans, Dutch, some Scandinavians, they are not allowed to home-educate, so we give thanks that we have the freedom to choose.

The other help is social media, and the other is the PLETHORA of curriucula to choose from. More of which, another time!

Cakes! Ginger and Apple. But not in the same cake...

Farm shops

Friday is Nick's day off and today was an errand day. Prescriptions, broken glasses, haircuts, banks...  But after all that we did the rounds of farm shops.  Lunch at one, where the children could run around outside, and then shopping at New Close.  Of course we could have shopped at the first, but we love the second, they love our kids and it is still the best shop ever.  I am tempted to see if we could live on just the groceries they sell there, alongside their meat, and Riverford veg (we've been Riverford customers for 10 years and love them still).  

Buying local (or from a supermarket which we're sure of) has become more important to us over the decade we've been married.  I can't really explain a lot of it, but I do know farmers shouldn't be losing money on feeding us, just as a carpenter shouldn't lose money in his job, or anyone else.  I've no idea where this puts me politically or economically, but I'm glad we're able to do it because we have a local shop which sells meat the way we want to buy it:  VERY local, animals which were cared for well in life, and direct from the farmers, with no middle man.

Tomorrow, we  head to beautiful Alnmouth in the Northumberland, home of my favourite beach.  And Alnmouth Priory.  A large group of the older folk from church are spending the day there and Nick will join them.  The children and I will lunch with everyone, but will either hit the beach or the famous Barter Books in Alnwick (depends on the weather).  The lovely ladies love my cakes, and there are a couple I have been meaning to try, so I made them this afternoon, and have just had a slice of each so I can report back here!

Gluten-free Sticky Ginger Loaf

The first was waitrose's Sticky Ginger Loaf.  This is a gluten-free recipe and I've been very excited about making it.  I have to say, it isn't quite as good as I was hoping.  I also burned the top.  The recipe does talk about covering it but I lost track of time.  If you are gluten-free and love ginger and like less sweet cakes, this is for you, but just watch the top!  I'd probably also turn the temperature down to 160C.  

You'll find the recipe here.

Gluten-free Apple Fritter Traybake

This is even better than the last apple cake.  The original recipe was from a facebook post, and I have made it.  But my poor husband didn't get to try it since he is the wheat-free one. I prefer to make a cake in its original form before trying it gluten-free so I know what it is meant to taste like, but today was the day for the experiment.  I reckon converting plain or self-raising flour to Dove's Farm self-raising GF flour and ground almonds, and adding an extra egg does the job in converting cakes, so I did that.  And it's yummy!  (I'll post the original too when i find where it came from, for all you wheat eaters). Oh, and it's not as faffy as the list of ingredients suggests.

Ingredients

Cake mix

120g butter, melted

240g Dove's Farm Self-raising Wheat-free flour

130g ground almonds

200g caster sugar

4 tsp baking powder (make sure it's wheat-free)

360g milk*

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

5-6 small eating apples, peeled, cored, chopped into small pieces

Cinnamon topping

230g butter, softened in the microwave 

200g caster sugar

2 Tbs wheat-free flour, as above

1 Tbs cinnamon

Glaze

240g icing sugar

5 Tbs milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Heat oven to 170C, line an A4 sized, 5cm deep baking tin

Put all the cake ingredients into a bowl, APART FROM THE APPLES, and mix together.  Pour into the tin, then sprinkle the apple chunks evenly over the cake mix.

Mix the topping ingredients together then blob all over the top of the apples.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.  Leave to cool for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir together the glaze ingredients.  When the cake has been cooling for about 20 minutes, pour the glaze over the cake.  It doesn't need to cover it like an icing, and it sinks in to the cake.

Cool completely and cut into 24 pieces.  Then try not to eat it all at once.

* if you weigh your liquid it is more accurate.  If you weigh it straight into the mixing bowl you save washing a jug.  What's not to love?

The original recipe is here