Personality DNA

Apparently I'm a benevolent creator. Allegedly this means I am very empathic and like to create things of beauty.

I also apparently am very obsessed about the way I look and the way I dress.

Makes me sound a bit like a girl...

Boxall family on ITV news...

We've been on the news (again). Watch and laugh!



I'm still trying to work out which "luxuries" we've got to cut back on!!!

Injustice...

I'm sure we have all heard the stories of slavery and oppression, of political prisoners being tortured and of women and children who are raped or murdered in Africa. If you are anything like me you probably thought those stories were horrible, atrocious and evil. But then again, if you were anything like me, having never ben to Africa, the stories remained simply that: stories. Like a movie that can be turned off and that maybe real life isn't as bad as the stories...

My mind was changed yesterday. I met a lady called Niki. She was from Nigeria and was in her late 40s. She suffers from severe depression and cries a lot of the time. She asked me to speak with her. The conversation turned to family and she told me the following:

"I grew up with my uncle and aunt from the age of 10 as my parents were killed. When I was 13 my uncle raped me. I hadn't even had a period yet so I didn't know I was pregnant until I was 5 months gone. I was about 7 or 8 months pregnant when my aunt woke me in the middle of the night and drove me to a building in the middle of nowhere where they cut my baby out. I heard someone say "It's a boy" and I heard him crying. They took him away to another room and my aunt took me home. A few days later I asked my aunt what had happened to my baby and was told never to speak of it again. I was then beaten so badly I dared not mention it again. I grew up and moved away to England, but when I was old enough I decided to ask my aunt what had happened. I had arranged travel plans to go to visit her but then found out that she had recently been killed in a car crash. I knew it was too late. Now I'll never know what happened to my little boy. I still hear him crying. Everyday I hear him crying and I can't get his voice out of my head. I hope he is alive. I stare at every black man I see hoping that one day one of them will recognise me and then I would know. Everyone tells me to forget him but I can't forget. How can I stop loving my little boy when every day I hear his cries?"

I didn't know what to say.

I still don't.

But the stories are not stories any more.

They're real.

Weight loss...

I have recently been trying to lose weight again. For a week and a half I did very well. I lost 9 lbs in 10 days... (I always lose weight fast when I first start dieting).

Then I had a bad day at work. I got home and ate a big pizza. And garlic bread. And Hanky Panky Pie.

It amazes me how the smallest of things can throw me completely out. The reason I ate badly that day basically comes down to the fact that I forgot to take my eggs to work. Consequently I ended up eating 4 slices of white toast covered in marmelade and butter. Then I missed lunch due to dealing with a prisoner.

I went to work the next day feeling fairly guilty about the bad stuff I'd eaten the day before when on the way I heard Him say: "I don't care how you look. I'm proud of you and I love you."

I felt much better after that!

Action Child

I have recently become involved with a Christian charity/organisation called EAB (Evangelical Action Brazil). They work in the North East of Brasil, based in the town of Patos. Their main activities, as stated in their website is the following:

As well as a full range of activities traditionally regarded as ‘spiritual’ (church planting, evangelism, etc), EAB’s integrated approach means it is active across a vast range of social and community projects. Whilst EAB will always respond to urgent need (for example, relief work during epidemics) its ongoing work is geared to long-term, selfsustaining solutions, preferring projects such as job creation schemes or reinforcement education which give some of the poor of Northeastern Brazil a genuine perception of God’s love, the opportunity to sustain a higher quality of life, and retain personal dignity.

One of their projects, and the one I have just bcome part of, is called Action Child. There are many children in the North East of Brazil whose parents cannot afford for their children to attend school, to have medical and dental care and sometimes they cannot even afford to feed them enough.

Action Child is a project whereby schools are set up in the various towns around the Northeast. Many of the children who attend the schools are then sponsored by people, mainly from the UK, by paying £15 a month. What this money allows is for every school to have adequately trained, paid and legally registered staff.
Each child has a nourishing meal every day.
Back-up medical and dental care is provided when needed.
The children receive spiritual guidance in a loving Christian environment.
Poor families can benefit from social worker support.

They are an amazing organisation and have recently had a massive increase in the number of children sponsored, which is great! If I've got my fact straight, they have increased from about 53 sponsored children to about 150 in about 18 months. They now have 20+ schools open in various places across the region. The best thing about this organisation is that 100% of the money donated/sponsored goes to the project!

Sponsors are encouraged to write to the child they are sponsoring and the children are asked to write every 6 months, and will sometimes write more often. The great thing about this project being fairly small, at least when compared to Compassion International, is that sponsors are able to sends gifts over to their child, both in the form of money or actual physical presents. This enables sponsors to have a much more personal relationship with the child they are sponsoring, even if they never get to meet them.

My role now is to translate the letters and emails which are sent from the UK over to Brasil, as this will hoepfully free up the office staff over in Brasil to get on with the other projects run by EAB.

Anyway, look into the organisation, they do amazing work, and if nothing else, please pray that their work continue for many years!

Mysterious Ways...

God definitely moves in mysterious ways...

Take, for example, the ministry of one "Dave The Horn Guy". (www.davethehornguy.com)

He is an accomplished songwriter, and worship music director at a large chugrch in California until he felt God call him to do something radically different. He felt called to unleash the creativity God had given him into a brand new venture.

Here's what his website says about him:

Enns holds multiple music degrees. At 31, his full time musical efforts have found him to be a Billboard recognized songwriter, a studio musician, an orchestrater of over 200 songs, a regular giggin’ trombone/piano player, singer, and a founder/producer of an award-winning urban acappella group. He’s combined these experiences with 25 chromatically tuned bulb-horns, custom made from a top-of-the-line German horn maker to create “Dave the Horn Guy"

He now lives in Colorado and travels America performing at youth events, baseball games, big events and even the Jay Leno show!

Check out these videos:

I too blame the sun...

I got sunburnt on saturday at the police family day.

I then topped it up on sunday at the barbecue...

I blame the sun.

Becky blames me... Something about not enough sun cream...