Little Paxton - Germinating seeds

We chatted over hot drinks and just enjoyed one another's company for a while. Jim explained how lost he would feel without a Bible and the opportunity to read it often. We thought how remarkable it is that there is something relevant for us on pretty well every single page.

Chris turned up Numbers 1:41 and read it out as a tongue-in-cheek challenge, 'The number from the tribe of Asher was 41,500'. Sean and Jim considered this and almost instantly came out with the thoughts that Asher was greatly blessed, that the 41 500 were also richly blessed, and that we are blessed too because the passage expresses how the Lord pours out abundant good things on his people. It seems Jim and Sean are right, there is something valuable to be found in every verse!

We prayed for our children and for our wives, and Sean told me that a seed has been planted in my daughters. That I don't need to be anxious about them because it has been planted, it has not died, and one day when the conditions and the time are right those seeds will sprout and grow.

Thinking about children and wives, Chris said that we are not perfect fathers or perfect husbands so the situations with our families are not, and cannot be, perfect. But despite this it's important to remember that his love in us stretches, but will not break. We don't love our children because they always behave the way we would want them to behave. We accept them despite their imperfections because we love them! And Father's love towards us is exactly the same, he doesn't love us because we are good. But because we are in Christ, he loves us despite our faults.

Great Doddington - Smoke or cloud?

Jody had prepared something from Job and took us through the entire book, picking out particular verses and passages to focus on how Job's understanding of himself and God changed. We go through a similar process in life (and especially in mourning).

In Job 2:1-10 we see how he is resisting defeat and remains strong in spirit. He confronts his wife, 'Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?'.

But in chapter 3:1-5 we see that Job is now in deep despair and is cursing himself. He wishes he'd never been born.

In chapter 12, verses 1-4 he feels the world is laughing at him, he has become bitter.

Eventually Elihu comes on the scene; as the youngest person present he has been listening quietly but now feel he must speak up to say what the others have overlooked. In Job 32:1-5 he reminds Job and his friends that we may feel the need to justify ourselves but the Lord is beyond criticism. He does not need our justification, he can do whatever he wishes and cannot be held accountable. He is always right.

And in chapter 40, verse 7, the Lord himself speaks.

As we talked and prayed with Job fresh in our minds, the Spirit brought thoughts and images to mind.

Rachael described walking down some stairs, out through some heavy double doors, into the garden, and straight into his presence. We can relax in his presence and we can see and feel all of the good and amazing things that are there.

She also spoke about the difference between smoke and clouds, although they can seem superficially similar. Father tells us not to confuse the two and that he is showing us how to see the difference. And he told her, 'As you go back up the stairs - I am with you.'

Jody pointed out that smoke smells of burning, but clouds in the mountains smell clean, pure, and wonderful.

We laughed together at the idea of 'spiritnav' (like satnav, 'spiritnav' guides us). And just like satnav, where does the signal come from? From above!

Eaton Ford - Cable and thread

There were just two of us this evening as Jim was late home from work while Roger and Ruth remain unavailable on Thursdays until 4th December.

Sean and Chris talked together about a range of things over coffee and cake. During a time of prayer the Lord gave us a picture of his love. He told us,

'Your love is like a very thin cotton thread, the kind you might use to sew on a button or perhaps even finer than that. My love is like a huge, steel hawser that you might use to moor a mighty oil tanker. The thread and the hawser are connected, tied together.'

'My love is awesome in its power, your love seems feeble and fragile by comparison. It looks as if your love could easily be broken. But my love is not only powerful, it is also gentle. You are safe in my love, you will not be harmed.'

Thinking about this later it was clear that when his love pulls on us he does it so gently that our little thread is not broken. When our love tugs on him, we could never hope to move the steel hawser even a millimetre, but he moves gently towards us in response to our puny pull. When we tug on him he does move, not because we are strong but because he cares.

Great Doddington - Shipwrecked!

Continuing with our recent form of meeting, this week it was Chris's turn to bring some prepared material. He decided to share more detail about the trip he and Donna had made to Israel in November 2007 and he brought a few pictures from the outward journey.

The plane had to wait about 20 minutes before it could land at Tel Aviv, a heavy thunderstorm and a very wet runway meant that it was impossible to land on schedule. That first night in Israel was spent in a coastal Kibbutz hotel and the storm continued all night with torrential rain and frequent, violent bursts of thunder and lightning.

This reminded Chris of Paul's shipwreck on Malta in weather conditions that must have been much the same. At the time he was a prisoner on his way to Rome to appear before Caesar, and one of these winter storms had blown up. We read Acts 26:32-28:16 and recognised that Paul's life was very much like our own. He was trapped by circumstances, things happen and we, like Paul, must just deal with them as they arise. Paul was not anxious, he was not frustrated by the delays, he didn't complain, he just took life day by day, moment by moment, knowing that the Lord would use it all. The passage reads just like any typical diary.

As we talked and prayed we recognised that we are not special people doing special things, we are ordinary people being used in special ways. There is a world of difference.

Rachael described a vision of a waiting room. In this situation people tend to remain alone even though they are together, each one reads a magazine and they don't talk to one another or interact. But it need not be like that.

Father told us, 'Life is a place where you are waiting for me, you can interact with other people, you don't need to be alone.' As eh looked, Rachael noticed a broom in the corner, it was worn out and had only a few bristles left. And the Lord said, 'It's not fit for its purpose. If you all pull together you are like a broom with many bristles - fit for me to use.'

Jody also described a picture, she saw a specialist workshop where cellos were being made, several workers were busy there. She saw one cello neck and fingerboard which already had strings but was not yet attached to a soundbox. She realised that it can't be used to make a useful sound until the two parts are properly joined.

In the same way, we are not quite finished yet, but when we are completed and are all gathered together we'll make a wonderful orchestral sound. She understood that it's most important that we allow the necessary work to be done.

Moggerhanger Park - Together!

People came to Moggerhanger Park on 16th November from all around the area including St Neots, Royston, Bedford, Milton Keynes, and Wellingborough.

Some came early with children and walked in the park, now passing from late autumn towards early winter. Others arrived as darkness fell. We all gathered in the Park's 'Garden Room' and chatted together, old friends greeting one another, and some meeting for the first time. The children chatted, played, coloured, and ran about as children do. How quickly and naturally they get to know one another with almost none of the guardedness of the adults!

Jim's sandwiches were marvellous, described as 'lovely', 'really great food', and 'top sandwiches!' by some of those who tried them. Tea and coffee was welcome as it was a crisply cool day.

We quickly discovered that we'd done some things well, others not so well. If we meet again one thing we'll be sure to do is put up signs showing visitors where to go. Moggerhanger Park is a large site and has several roadways, the permanent signs needed some temporary supplements - especially as some of us arrived in the dark.

Some of those with young children left early, those that remained sat in a large circle and we had a delightful and encouraging time of sharing, praise, and prayer. People were not shy and there was plenty of variety including pictures, prayer for healing, singing, and prophecy. As we had hoped and expected, Jesus was right there at the heart of all we did and said.

Everyone who added contact details to the clipboard also noted that they would like to meet again in future. There was a general feeling that we'll all benefit from keeping in touch informally from time to time.

Fomalhaut b

What, you may ask, is 'Fomalhaut b'? If you are interested in astronomy you will already know. Fomalhaut b is a planet circling one of our Sun's nearest neighbour stars.

Fomalhaut b has been imaged twice by the Hubble Space Telescope, once in 2004 and again in 2006. This is important because it's the first time a planet outside our own Solar System has been seen to have moved in its orbit around its central star.

This is extraordinary news indeed. It's the same scale of forward step as Galileo seeing craters on the Moon for the first time, or discovering the rings of Saturn, Halley predicting the return of his eponymous comet, or the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.

Why is it so important? It's a milestone because astronomers have long assumed that other stars have planets. In recent years the presence of such planets has been indirectly detected, but this is the first time we can claim to have seen the light reflected by an exoplanet. You may not have realised it, but you have just lived through a truly historic moment.

The difficulty of making these images is difficult to grasp. Look at the picture again (you can click the image to see the full-size version).

The star - In the middle of the full image (but near the upper left in the article's thumbnail picture) is a small white circle. This is not part of the image, it was added later, but it marks the position of the star (Fomalhaut). In reality the star would be far smaller, just the tiniest speck, it's shown much larger to make it easy to see.

The obscuring disk - if the Hubble telescope had just been pointed at the star, the overpowering brightness would have flooded the image with light so that nothing but glare would be visible.

To see details really close to the star, it's essential to block the direct starlight. This was done by moving an obscuring disk in front of the star, and this is seen in the image as the irregular black area around the central white dot.

The halo of diffracted light - Outside the black zone, some starlight is still diffracted into the surrounding area. This is the circular zone that looks like the iris of an eye, close inspection of the large version of the image reveals that it's made up of lines of light radiating out from the position of the star. This not a real, distant object, it's created by subtle interactions between the starlight and the structure of the telecope.

The debris disk - The oval shape (clearly visible only in the full-size version) is a band of dust, gas, and orbiting rock and ice particles. It's part of a disk of material which is in the process of condensing into planets. Fomalhaut is a young star and is still developing a planetary system.

The planet - Just inside the inner edge of the dusty band is where astronomers thought there might be a planet, and sure enough when they looked they found one! This is a gas giant, probably much like Jupiter though something like twice as large, and it is so bright that many astronomers suspect it must have a ring similar to Saturn's (but larger).

The real clincher is that the planet appears in two Hubble photos of Fomalhaut, taken two years apart. It has moved, as expected, in its orbit around the star.

For more information see

• Wikipedia article - on Fomalhaut b
• BBC news article - about the discovery
• Astronomy Picture of the Day - the Keck Telescope's observations
• Gemini Observatory - details on exoplanet observations in infra-red light