Tag: General

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2010 – A year in review

faith

faithWhen Mrs H and I both felt God saying to us that 2010 would be a year of change, and where we would be shaken up, we never fully anticipated what that would come to mean or how that would change us but looking back now it’s fair to say that we’ve both changed quite a bit this year and that we’ve grown as a result of all that’s happened.

The year started out with me being ill on New Years Eve, so not the best start – but I was in a job I loved, working with people who were more friends that colleagues, and with plans for the company that had the potential to take us on to big things. We were looking forward to our first family holiday for 3 years and also the celebration of 10 years of wedded bliss. Church life was good, with me especially getting quite heavily involved in some areas and we were planning on pushing that forward more and more as God opened doors for us.

Continue reading “2010 – A year in review”

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For I know the plans…

There are times when God astounds and amazes in ways that you just can’t imagine.

As readers of this blog know, it’s been a year of major change and upheaval. It’s also been a year of huge promise and faith. The full fruition is yet to be realised, but I can honestly sit here and say to you that, with the exception of 1 thing, everything that God has told us has happened. That one thing is not ruled out by any means yet, we’re still believing it will come about at the right time, so we’re watching this space and keeping ears open.

To give you a taster of what we have experienced, both me and Mrs H felt at the beginning of the year (independently of each other may I just say!) that we were going to be shaken up and that I would be changing jobs. We were also, along with others, told that we would be moving out of the area – that one is the one thing we are awaiting but are prepared for when we get the nod.

When I lost my job through redundancy we both knew, independently of each other once again, that the following would occur:

  • The redundancy would be longer than I have ever known (we’ve always been blessed in that any unemployment has been no longer than 6 weeks or so in the past)
  • I would get my operation to remove the discs at C5/C6 & C6/C7
  • I would get time to recover
  • I would then get a job

Since being made redundant in July I have applied for over 100 jobs – and never even got a polite “thanks, but no thanks”. I’ve knocked on doors, sent off CVs and called in the hope of a position. Nada, nothing, nowt. It just wasn’t happening. I didn’t slack off I pushed *HARD* even applying for jobs the minute I got the email alert through (the weirdest one was at 2:30 in the morning!) – but the doors were not opening even a small bit.

I had my operation only just over 3 weeks ago (wow, it seems ages ago) and have fully recovered from it – even the scar tissue is healing in an amazing manner.

Now I have a job 🙂

Yup, you read that right. Just at the point I am able to drive again, feeling fully recovered and everything is sorted – I have been given a job. It’s at the only place to have offered me an interview and meets all that we have been looking for in a job. It’s a shorter commute (15 minutes), better pay and is a job that will allow me to grow in new areas professionally. With the decrease in travel we will also see a financial benefit as petrol costs will be more than halved, and insurance costs should come down as well.

I start my new job on Monday. It’s a crazy rollercoaster as we were expecting a situation where I would start in the new year, but this works out brilliantly for us as it allows me to re-integrate back into a working environment with the benefit of having bank holidays to enjoy as well.

All that God has told us would happen, has happened. My oft-quoted favourite bible passage, Jeremiah 29:11-13 (New Living Translation) says it all really:

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

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Misc Ramblings and General Randomness

It’s been a while since I last updated the blog here (sorry!) but life hasn’t really been too exciting really so there’s not been too much to say. Although that’s also a pretty poor excuse as I could have posted micro-updates. My bad!

So what’s been happening with all things Hartley? Read on for news, updates, videos and even a bit of desktop wallpaper that I designed the other day Smile

The job hunt continues on and on with not much happening on that front really but we are trusting in God and firmly believing in all the He has for us and all His promises. We’re still sure that God wants us to move elsewhere, and have even started to do some of that clearing out that always happens with a house move – going through books, toys, games and more to decide if we can car boot them, bin them, or give them to charity shops.
There are jobs out there, and I’m applying for plenty, but it’s obviously not the right job or the right time yet as I’m not getting much response. Your prayers are always appreciated though, especially with Christmas and birthdays coming up (our two boys have birthdays in December and January). Gods provision is keeping us afloat nicely, in fact the boat doesn’t even have any leaks – God never fails us and will always meet our needs.

The operation is drawing ever closer, 12 days and counting now, with the pre-op appointment next Thursday. Addenbrookes have asked me to take part in a research programme as well to test out a moving MRI system. Where you are normally pinned down during an MRI scan and cannot move a muscle, they are now looking at ways of taking MRI scans when you are moving to see the effects that movement has on your condition. In my case it will hopefully show some detail on how nerves are being pinched and how my disc and vertebrae problems impact me when moving. The MRI itself is a bit nervy as it’s like being stuck in a tight tube and gives me a real case of claustrophobia but if it gives more clues then that can only be a good thing.
The looming operation is beginning to play on my mind a bit, more and more each day if the truth be told, but that’s only to be expected really as with any operation. At least the operation won’t impact on any job opportunities or any capability to perform as the recovery process is basically sitting in a chair all day – what else does an IT guy do eh?

Mrs H and I managed to spoil ourselves the other weekend courtesy of Tesco Clubcard vouchers, going out for a nice Italian meal and then going to the cinema together for the first time in two years or so. We watched the supremely excellent RED, starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox and Morgan Freeman. The film was laugh-out-loud funny and the sight of Helen Mirren running around with semi-automatics and assault rifles needs to be seen to be believed. I can strongly recommend this film to anyone who fancies an fun, humorous, action film that is so cool it is frozen.
As an additional bonus we managed to get last minute tickets to go and see Jeff Lucas and Adrian Plass on Monday for the second date in their Seriously Funny tour. There were tears of joy and laughter, and tears of sadness – the evening truly was Serious and Funny and will be remembered for a long time.

October the 29th was a sad day for the UK Christian music scene as it was the start of the 2 farewell gigs by yFriday. We took our daughter to the event, being the first to arrive and in the queue so ensuring we got a great place to watch. yFriday have been around for over 15 years and have written many songs that have sneaked into the psyche of the Church. Ken Riley, the lead singer, has also collaborated with so many worship leaders and songwriters in the UK and the States with the best known result being the song “Everlasting God” as recorded by Chris Tomlin, amongst many others.

The supporting act for the gig were a “new” band called the Steels, who have worked with the guys from yFriday for a while now. I say “new” as they’ve actually been around for 8 years but have just signed with Kingsway records and their latest album, Supreme, is the first one to get really major backing and exposure outside of the north of England. All I can say is that they were totally brilliant and great fun on stage, whilst wearing their heart for God right on their sleeves.

I took a load of photos and video clips from the whole evening – and have so far uploaded two video to YouTube which are at the bottom of this post for your enjoyment Smile

Finally, I got a bit creative the other day after watching the rather weird, but also enjoyable, film “The Spirit” on TV. In typical Frank Miller style was a mixture of live action overlaid with comic-book elements and lots of Red, White and Black. I decided to copy the style in my own limited manner and came up with a desktop wallpaper which I am pretty pleased with, although I know it’s not the best piece of art out there Winking smile

If you click on the thumbnail image below you can view the image and if you right-click on it you can then “save as” to download if you like it – hopefully you will.

And finally, as promised, here are the videos of The Steels and yFriday – ENJOY! Open-mouthed smile

The Steels performing the title track of their latest album ‘Supreme’ at the Athena in Leicester
yFriday performing “Lord I Lift My Hands” a their penultimate gig in Leicester on the 29/10/10
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Fast Food Friendship

There I was, idly browsing facebook and twitter – enjoying reading about friends lives, or getting nuggets of creativity, pearls of wisdom, motor sports news/humour and tech headlines – when a tweet popped up from Tony Stewart, a “Husband & Father – Student at Fuller Theological Seminary – Creative Projects & Consulting – Online Community Pastor at LifeChurch.tv” to quote his Twitter Bio. The tweet simply said:

“Theory: It is more valuable to have someone’s Facebook home page then their email. Thoughts?”

Theory: It is more valuable to have someone's Facebook home page then their email. Thoughts?

I started pondering. My initial reaction was that it’s probably an accurate theory. Facebook allows you to keep up with peoples everyday lives and thoughts. It allows you to play games with them, to interact and to share life in a way that email doesn’t allow. The downside of facebook is that people don’t always use it to communicate – we feed off the information that’s there but don’t necessarily spend time talking to each other in the same way that we would in an email (or as we would in that ancient of mediums – the letter)

We absorb peoples status updates, browse their photo galleries, challenge them to games of word twist and share goodies in Farmville (of that’s your thing) and that can become the friendship. We don’t necessarily use it to converse with people. Communication is a two-way thing of sharing and responding and how many of us actually spend time doing that on facebook?

Throw Twitter into the mix and you get even more down the route of snacking on friendships – those 140 character updates become irresistible as you find out who’s doing what, where and what they are wearing or what the weather is like or what’s on their plates.

Our friendships can easily become a fast food activity – we rush in, grab our bit, rush out again and think that’s friendship.

Now you may read this and think “He’s missing the point” or come to the conclusion I’m against social networking etc, you may even be sitting there screaming that you don’t do that so allow me to present the other side of the coin. Continue reading “Fast Food Friendship”

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Obedience : The Sequel

The most spiritual place of the house.

The place where more close encounters of the God kind seem to occur.

The room that seems to resound with the call of The Spirit and where the clearest insights are received.

I do, of course, mean the bathroom!

Don’t ask me why but the bathroom seems to be the place where God will often grab me and where I will hear His voice clearer that anywhere else. Don’t think I’m insane in this either as I know I’m not the only one who finds this… it seems to be pretty well documented! Continue reading “Obedience : The Sequel”