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Help for Haiti

There are times when the hearts and souls of every human being cry out in horror, agony and helplessness.

There are times when people, quite understandably, ask WHY and HOW.

There are times when God can appear, on the surface, to be nowhere and completely incomprehensible.

There are times when the heart of God cries out more than ever and when He mourns and weeps for His children.

The statistics, such as they are right now, are frightful and completely swamp our understanding. 50,000 is one figure that has been mentioned. 1 Runway. Aid struggling to get through, and what aid there will be will not be enough to rebuild that place or rebuild damaged lives.

This is the time when we need to be compassionate, human and to cry out.

NOW is the time we need to put aside that cinema trip, that chinese takeaway, the new DVD, that flash new toy – and NOW is the time we need to help rebuild Haiti. To do our part within the global community and to give everything we can to help.

Please – visit http://www.dec.org.uk or http://www.compassion.com and donate. Do whatever you can to help. Please.

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Hippy Moo Car!

Erm… Happy New Year even – obviously not in my right mind. And WOWOWOWOWOW has it really been this long since I last posted. Sorry folks, life has been totally crazy these last few months with my work having a rebrand and new product launch, me getting my tonsils ripped out and the usual joys, work, chaos and fun of December and, of course, Christmas!

And so we are now in the new decade – no-one seems to know what it will be called yet with the Teenies or the Tennies being the favourites right now. Of course, some argue that we are not yet in the new decade until next year but I’m just going to follow common consensus and go with this being the first year of the Deccies (hey, you never know what it’s gonna be called!)

I can’t help but be totally stunned by the last decade – it seemed to go by so quickly, only seems 5 minutes ago we were all celebrating the Millennium and the doomsayers were predicting that all the computers in the world were gonna destroy us all and take over the world (or something like that)

In fact, to summarise, the last decade saw:

  • Me and Mrs H tying the knot in 2000 – so it’s the big 10 this year!
  • The birth of our 2 lads and countless birthdays
  • Me finally passing my driving test
  • 3 jobs
  • 1 house move
  • The Hartleys getting together more regularly than ever
  • Some really great family holidays
  • 2 Formula One races, several touring car races and even some test days.
  • All our kids going through playschool and into primary school – with the eldest now in year 8 at secondary school (year 2 to me and you!)
  • Me falling away from God, then Him welcoming me back with a great big bear hug
  • Mrs H and our Daughter getting baptised
  • And so much more I can’t think right now!

This year alone is going to see big things happen, with big changes at work and a great family holiday with my parents and Uncy Roo – the last time we went away together was an amazing time and we all really enjoyed it. Cannot wait for it really!

I’ve also felt that this year is going to be a time of growth, change and challenge for us with God having so much for us. There is so much going on at KingsGate as well with there being a huge raft of world-class guest speakers coming in the next couple of months alone. In fact, with everything going on I just pray and hope that I am open to all the God has in store for us as a family and me as a person, father, friend and husband.

My prayer for anyone that reads this is that you will have a truly blessed year, with peace and prosperity and good health – and that you will come to know Gods love in new and exciting ways.?

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A Gentle Reminder

As you may remember – when I (finally) turned back to God, nearly 18 months ago now, the parable of the Prodigals Son was one that really spoke to me and I genuinely felt that moment of the Father welcoming the Prodigal back by running to meet him (me!) and giving him (me again) a great big hug. (Note: If you don’t remember, or don’t know the details, you can catch up on the story here: http://hartleyweb.co.uk/?p=99 )

Last night was a corporate prayer meeting at Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough. Now these are great times and tend to happen 3-4 times a year and involve everyone descending on Kingsgate for 2 hours of real good Worship and Prayer – and usually with Communion as well. The session last night was packed – I’ve never seen so many people at a prayer meeting – and boy, was it a good time.

During one of the periods of prayer there was a real sense of Gods Love for us all, accompanied by a huge sense of peace, acceptance and belonging. During this I really felt God saying to me that He was still there for me – that He wasn’t just there when I came back, but that His Love for me was NOW and ALWAYS and that His arms of Love were always around me, holding me in a huge bear-hug.

It’s always good to remember that God is interested in us. He cares about our lives and isn’t just there as a doorman or as a ruler on a throne – but He’s there for us every day, every where and in every circumstance.

I’m fortunate to have grown up in a loving family and now have a loving family of my own – but even with all that love in my life, Gods Love still knocks me off my feet (quite literally as you may have noticed if you were there last night!)

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HELLO WORLD!!!

Yes, I am alive! And, yes I know it’s been a lifetime (or several if you are a Mayfly) since I last updated – in fact the last you all knew I was about to enjoy 2 weeks holiday before starting at a new job.

Well, we’ve had the two weeks and I’ve also had 6 weeks at the new job – and you know what? I am LOVING it!

Since there is no way I have the time, or space, to fill you in on the last 8 weeks here is a quick potted history of my rebirth as a new life of use to society once more 😉

Week 1 – nice break… pottering around including doing Cadburys World and Duxford – great time, although my waistline didn’t enjoy the calories!

Week 2 – Bit of a “long-long-weekend” at the folks enjoying places such as Crich Tramway Village and the totally awesome and magnificent Magna at Rotherham – if you haven’t been there you have GOT to try and get… it is totally superb and a great time.

Week 3 to 8 – THE NEW JOB! Wowsers… what a change. For the first time in goodness knows how long I actually go to work and feel like I can leave having achieved something. I am busy. I have jobs to do, a task to perform and targets to hit – and it feels sooooo totally GREAT!

My new job is with a small startup so the workload varies as we all take on whatever needs doing which means one day I can be setting up hardware, then next I could be documenting processes, the next I might be on the phones. Now yeah I know that there is always a honeymoon period  in any new job or situation but this job is really enjoyable and challenging and I actually feel like there is a use for me and that I have room to grow and learn new skills and methodologies.

To totally ice the cake, and put a cherry on the top, the site I work at is right in the middle of nowhere and we go out for daily walks into the glorious countryside and through the hills, woods and fields. I haven’t exercised for sooooo many years – and yet now I am walking at least 2 miles a day and starting to lose some of the “unfitness” that has taken hold in the past few years.

The big Glory of this whole situation – and is only last simply so that you can understand why – the full Glory belongs to God. He was the one who opened the door, met our needs and led me to a place of fulfillment. So many answered prayers this summer and such abundant blessing!

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And now for that summer break

And… relax!

So now the job situation has finally been sorted out, and with a gap before starting my new job, I have the chance to enjoy some of the summer holidays with my family. With money being a minor issue until the income comes rolling in we’ve had to plan breaks using our noggins and a bit of handy local knowledge.

The first thing is making the best use of the Tesco Clubcard vouchers – sure, you can use them to buy groceries but an even better way is to exchange them for 4 times their value in day out vouchers 🙂 Yeah, I know Tesco have started to offer “double up” in parts of their stores but FOUR TIMES the value is much better!

So, we will be enjoying the marvellous displays at the Duxford Imperial War museum… feasting and gorging on chocolate at Cadbury World (yeah, I know that gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins but CHOCOLATE!!!! c’mon!) and then we will also be educating our minds by visiting the Magna Science centre at Rotherham (OK, so the Rotherham part is kinda a downer but the centre is meant to be unbelievable)

Not only that but we’ve also been collecting for the Walkers Day Out vouchers – meaning that one of our other days out will be to the Tram Village at Crich – sadly in De-De-De-Derbyshi-Derbyshire (sorry – I’ve got Nottingham blood in me so crossing the border into the D place is tantamount to voluntarily walking into the Siberian Gulag in deep winter for a prolongued break!). Despite the location it is meant to be an amazing place to visit and the kids should love it.

We’re also spending some time in Hotel-Family, aka my parents home, to allow us a base of operations and also a chance to chill, relax and catch up with the folks. To cap it all of (or rather – kick off the second half) we’ve got a gathering of a fair few of the Hartley contingent for a bit of food and a good old laugh so that will be an amazing time 😉

We usually go away every two years, but with things the way they are we knew this year wasn’t going to be possible – but in spite of that we are still going to manage to have a great time as a family… enjoying loads of interesting places, having fun and, most importantly, being together. We’ll get a holiday next year – already said that when the government finally coughs up the money it owes we will book a week away (probably south Wales) so that we are guaranteed the time together but I can also guarantee that we will definitely be saving up all those clubcard points, voucher and any other deals we can so that we can do more, for less 🙂