Shoutlouder

sunday revisited

// April 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Sunday

So the best thing about Sunday – to be really honest – was the dedication of my little girl Ania. I know… I love church and we saw some people make decisions to follow Christ – which is REALLY REALLY AWESOME – but I have to say my real highlight was the dedication and a chance to place my little girl’s future into the hands of her amazing God.

Some people might think a dedication is just a nice ceremony that people do when they have kids – for some it might be a christening… but I believe EVERYTHING we do in the sight of God is significant. Whether you’re stood in an altar call, reading out marriage vows, going under the water in Baptism and the other many ceremonial practices we have around church… you can either take them as just something you do – or you can see that behind the natural there is a supernatural world at work and what we do and declare over our lives are not just words but powerful statements that resound across eternity! That might sound deep… but it’s the truth….. tha’s what Paul was trying to get across to the Ephesians when he said:

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

We get so lost in the imaginary world of movies and fiction that we forget that there is a very real, SUPERreal world at work around us and what we say, do, believe is a key to seeing the power of God at work in our lives. I fully believe that what took place over Ania’s life on Sunday morning was a powerful declaration of intent and has set her life on a collision course with the plans and purposes God has for.

Exciting stuff…!

spot the difference…

// July 23rd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Family

Started thumbing through some old photos of Joel today just to see how alike him and Ania are… The result – well you tell me if you can spot the difference. One of them is on the right and the other on the left (there is a good clue in the photo…)

Spot the Difference No. 1

Spot the Difference No. 2

Post your answers below!

sitting still and enjoying it..

// July 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // Family

I think the expression is… “aahhhhh….” (done with a deep sigh!)

All I’ve done today is sit around… but for the first time – and the clock says 9:22pm – I’m actually enjoying it. That’s because for most of the day I was sitting around in a hospital room waiting for the NHS to fill out three forms and provide my dear wife with enough narcotics to start a new wealth creation business of a non-endorsed kind.

(Quick Rant: If the NHS is so short of money then why on earth do they keep people waiting 4 hours for some pharmacy to put a prescription together and bring it up to the ward – when we could have been out of the place and freeing up a bed and collecting the meds from a local pharmacy that would have taken a billioneth of the time to sort it… RAH RAH RAH!)

Anyhow – my son is in his bed, my wife is resting and my new born is asleep in her moses basket… so here I am finally with my feet up and glad for a piece of peace and quiet that I can enjoy….

So enough posting… I’m off to sleep while I still can!

beyond words…

// July 19th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Family, Inspiration

Here’s the obligatary ‘new dad’ post…

Last night – or is that early this morning – sometime just after 1am I found myself on my own with another woman! Of course – my dear wife was OK about it since the other woman was in fact our just born baby girl – Ania Maria Denham! Gosia had to nip off to somewhere for those things that have to be done with women not long after giving birth – and so I found myself having a beautiful moment with my lil’Annie as she snuggled into my arm.

I have to say – holding your new born baby in your arms is one of those moments that is truly beyond words… Nothing can really describe the feeling of holding a small life in your arms that somehow came from a little bit of DNA you produced, mixed with a little bit of DNA that my wife put together… and ‘hey presto’ we have a baby!

As I sat again holding her today it suddenly struck me – “I now have two amazing kids that were created through me…”

You see – in this season of unpacking who Jesus is – one of those moments of revelation in life are to realise that He’s the Creator. We’ve been made by Him and for Him… and it has to be one of the most beautiful acts of God in creation to create something that would in turn know the beauty of being a creator.

Through our children we discover a depth of understanding of God’s heart for his creation – the Father heart – because it’s only when you hold your creation in your hands that you can truly understand that love that would do anything, give anything, sacrifice anything to see this one small life flourish, live and be safe for evermore.

I have to thank Jesus tonight for giving me one of the greatest gifts He has given every single one of us – the gift of being able to partake in Creation itself…

still waiting…

// July 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Family

Make sure you keep the Conference Room name ideas coming as announced in the last post.

In the meantime I’m just trying to focus on living a normal life as for the last few days it feels like I just spent the entire time waiting at Doncaster Airport with nothing but the flight information screens to keep me interested. Waiting for a child to be born is probably one of the top 10 reasons to go insane. I mean – for goodness sake – why couldn’t the whole thing just happen on the due date without question…

Anyway – as you can gather Gosia is still ‘with child’ and we’re still waiting for those waters to break and little Ania to make her way into the world. The thing is I’ve been waiting so long I’ve almost started to revert back to normal life and not care two hoots when or where she decides to arrive. The is only so long you can allow your life to remain on hold – in the meantime there are buildings to purchase, brochures to design, sermons to write – oh and a family to spend time with (that’s an important one!!)

So to any of you budding parents or ‘nearly-ready-to-pop’ ladies out there. My best advice is to assume the baby will be a month overdue and then it will arrive when you least expect it… but at least you didn’t have to wait!

waiting, waiting, waiting

// July 13th, 2008 // No Comments » // Family

These last few days have been an interesting experience as we wait the imminent arrival of our little girl. (I say girl but I guess there is a 1% chance its a boy – but if she does come out a boy then he is going to be dressed in pink for the first 3 months of his life in the outside world!).

If you’ve ever ordered something mail order then there is nothing worse than the delivery schedule which usually consists of turning up on a specific day – but they give no specific time. So you end up sitting around all day waiting – and guaranteed your delivery is the last of the day. Well – if you think that is frustrating try waiting for a delivery when the time frame is a week! The worst thing is trying to plan your life around the eventuality that at some point you’ll have to drop everything before Gosia drops everything…

You then get to a point where you think – “now would be a good time” – but soon that passes and you’re hoping that it will wait until the next “good time”.

I was thinking earlier that it never seemed to be this bad with Joel – then I realised he came 5 days early which was totally unexpected.

So I guess we’re just going to have to wait it out – but sometime in the next few days our little Ania will enter into the world and start her own amazing journey. Before we know it she’ll be an amazing little girl going off to school, making friends, leading her own life!

I can’t wait to give her the best start to her journey that anyone can possibly give!