September 14th

A controversial pro-Israel event took place at Gloucester cathedral which saw the bizarre occurrence of an ordained Church of England Vicar protesting the proceedings. The event, billed as 'The Clash of the Kingdoms', saw a coming together of Christians from all over Gloucestershire to hear the message of David Silver. New Zealand born David Silver preaches the Christian message with a strong emphasis on Israel and the Jewish heritage of Christianity. Now living in Israel, Mr Silver is a Messianic Jew as he is both a Christian and also Jewish by race.

During the evening as a performing group came to the end of their piece there was a momentary lull. In this time a man from the back walked to the front wearing a dog collar and the congregation assumed he was the next item on the program. Without a microphone he started to loudly state certain facts which seemed to include numbers of deaths of innocent Gaza civilians. When understood that this was a protester everyone went into hushed conversation about what was happening and there was also a little applause. At this point several of the men who were involved with the running of the evening approached him and after a flurried discussion the man was escorted out.

One eye-witness commented: "I think it was very sad. He (the protester) had an opportunity to address it in the morning discussions times which were there for questions to be raised. He actually interrupted the act of worship in the church which was far worse than interrupting David (Silver)."

Read the news article from This Is Gloucestershire.co.uk

August 1st

Out of the 365 options for a matrimonial unison August the 1st was by far the hotbed of it all. Why? No reason, but it statistically has been the day with the most weddings on so far this year. I too was at a wedding that day. For me however it wasn't a quiet day with a few sweet snaps of the happy couple. On the contrary, I was honoured and privileged to be the best man. It was amazing but to say I was stressed and rushed off my feet would be an understatement. There was a lot to do and if you've ever helped the running of a wedding you will know that everything HAS to be perfect. I had never been best man before and I was nervous and even though I was already sweating by midday I was very excited.

The couple looked stunning, the ceremony went off without a hitch, and then the reception and the dreaded speeches...

You know when you have to do something important, you give it your best shot and then brace yourself for the aftermath, well that was my speech. However instead of the crashing, the burning and then regret, I was overwhelmed by the positive response, the genuine laughter, and enthusiastic applause. In fact looking back at it, I really don't think it could of gone any better. I was so happy at how the speech and whole day went. I was happy because it meant the newlyweds had a gorgeous and blemish free day to remember. As much as I may of wanted to be the star of the show it was however thankfully only about two people. Mr and Mrs Clayfield. I love you both, may your marriage be long and fruitful.

July 1st - July 11th

With a group of eight others from my church in London I traveled for over 13 hours to Costa Rica in Central America. Though it may sound more like a holiday destination, the team and I were busily involved with helping a church run a four day conference in the capital San Jose. We also went into a local shanty town and prayed with the locals and invited them to the conference. We encountered some challenging situations but ultimately saw God do some incredible things. Working with the team and with the Costa Ricans was fantastic, everybody was able to contribute and bring something unique to the trip. We also worked with guys from the United States, Honduras and Nicaragua. Our group from England was the ministry team for the duration of the conference, one of us also lead worship some of the nights and another spoke on one evening.

It is a beautiful Latin American country and we were treated to the culture with salsa dancing, trips to the rainforests, and fluent Spanish.

One resounding image that will stay with me is from the Sunday morning of the conference when we joined in a joint celebration with the rest of the church. In the middle of the worship we witnessed several eagles swooping majestically in and out of the rainforest. This was all seen through a gigantic window at the front of the building behind the stage area. Amazing!

I warmly reccomend this country to you!