Well, tonight thank God it's them instead of you....

Christmas will be very different this year - for lots of reasons. As a church we are out of our building because of our building project. That means lots of things - no Carols by Candlelight services, no Midnight Communion on Christmas Eve and NO service on Christmas Day! Like Cromwell and the Sheriff of Nottingham, some people think I've cancelled Christmas....

But it will be different this year for other reasons. Our trip to Africa has changed things. We have a different perspective - shopping yesterday in Edinburgh was an emotional experience. Surrounded by people desperate to get the 'perfect' present, I felt sad and angry. I even rang in to Radio Five Live and took part in a phone in on the merits of buying cows and goats for Africa - something I would never have done before our week in Kisumu. I saw a Scottish politician who had resigned the night before and shook his hand because I was so pleased to see a politician act with integrity and on principle - even though I disagree with his opinion! Why? Because in Africa I met people like Paul, Ronny and Bob who were leaders with conviction and integrity. They really believed they could make Kenya a better nation - and I was challenged whether I had the same attitude about Scotland or the UK.

But it will be different mostly because this year names I have always associated with Christmas have a different face. When I hear about Joseph, I can't help thinking of the man in Kenya who has taken in 10 children orphaned by AIDS. When I hear about Mary, I now see a young woman in a slum in Kisumu helping hundreds of people to live positively. And when I read of John the Baptist's mum, Elizabeth, I see a little 5 year old girl, outside a mud hut, wearing my daughter's pink hat and clutching to felt tip pens as if they are gold bars.

Christmas will be different because this year I know 'the greatest gift they'll get this year is life' and for me, it is no longer a lyric from Band Aid but something I have seen and heard, felt and touched. For a week I moved into their neighbourhood and saw things their way - lived life as they live it, to some degree. And that is what Jesus did at Christmas - and things weren't - could not - remain the same.

Hail Mary - full of grace?

For me this year Mary and Joseph have different faces - not two small children with tea towels on their heads but two people we met in Kenya. Joseph is an amazing man - taking in 10 orphans in addition to his own family - taking children who are not your own seems to go with the name!

And Mary? One of the bravest, strongest people I have ever met in my life. Watch the latest video to meet her yourself. A young woman, she has saved hundreds of peoples lives. To sit in a slum in Kisumu and hear one after another HIV+ person pay tribute to her, was one of the most moving experiences of my life. She could have been full of self-pity, despondent and dreading the future. Instead she decided to live life positively - in all senses of that word. She has set up the Day Centre, feeds children who would otherwise go hungry and ensures that people who are HIV+ receive the right drugs and maintain their treatment. To meet a woman who had stopped taking her drugs - had deteriorated rapidly - and then recommenced her treatment with startling results because of Mary's influence was striking.

Mary - a young woman - giving life to others - seflessly - and at great cost to herself - sort of fits in another Mary at Christmas?

New Kenya video diary now live

The next instalment of Dave and Cathy's journey to Kisumu is now live on YouTube and can be seen here.

There's more good news - you can now join the Take2 campaign online. When you sign up you are automatically pre-register for a special DVD pack featuring a film of Dave and Cathy's journey and stacks of other resources too. Stocks will be limited, so don't waste another second!

Busy time of year?

This time of year - the usual comments come to church leaders and clergy! ' Oh, Christmas! - your busy time of year then?' People are a bit shocked when I reply, 'Er....No - it's actually quite quiet!' Now I know we are an exception - because of the church we are, lots of the church are away at Christmas - and because we are out of our building at the moment, we haven't done our usual big Carols by Candlelight services and we can't do church on Christmas Day!

But meeting church leaders in Kenya made me think about the jobs we both do. I started off by introducing myself as doing the same thing as them - preaching, leading (apparently I do a lot of that if you've watched the first video!) and helping people to become Christians, and then grow in their faith.

But the more I met church leaders in Africa, I realised that though there are similarities, there are some striking differences too. I preach every week, just like them - the church in Kisumu had about the same number of people - 700 -as we do but my sermons don't include weekly appeals for families to take more orphans in as their own. I think the church I serve (by leading!) is a pretty good church - they're up for most things including lots of change - but weekly requests to take in more orphans might be pushing it too far!

If you're preaching this Christmas, try it on Christmas Day and see what response you get!

You'd better be good for goodness sake....

9 shopping days to go! Lists are being made - and Christmas music is in all the shops - actually some shops in Edinburgh began in October!

Seems a bit different this year though. We want our kids to enjoy it - to get some of the stuff they want - but can't help thinking about the children we met in Kenya. For Elizabeth and Charlie - Maureen and Melissa - children living around Kisumu Christmas this year won't be about Doctor Who, cybermen masks or how badly injured you can get by a computer control. There won't be too much food to eat - no decisions about which chocolate to leave until next time - or a stiffening of the resolve not to eat one of the 4 million brussel sprouts the nation consumes a week on Monday.

Christmas will be like lots of other days I guess - not much of anything really - apart from floodwater, mosquitoes and the daily battle to survive. For so many, there are no parents to leave lists for - and what would the use of a list be anyway? How do you write a list when the things you really want can't come down a chimney - even if you had one?!

For the thousands of coloured felt tips that will be thrown away by Boxing Day, we will think of a little girl in an African village thousands of miles away who will still be treasuring the ten felt tips given to her by two visitors from Scotland - and handling them as if they really were made of gold....... For the thousands of boys who complain that 'this is last year's away strip Mum!', we will think of a small six year old boy in an Arsenal kit who will play football with 19 other children in a Children's Home in Kenya and remember the day that 'old man' played with them......

It doesn't seem fair - and isn't! But that means, as the song says, we'd better be good, for goodness sake!

Cheap grace?

A counsellor, David Seamands, summed up his career like this.
"Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive and live out God's unconditional grace ; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness and grace to other people."
I think he's right - we may read a book by Philip Yancey or Max Lucado, sing 'Only by grace' or even 'Amazing grace' - but our lives and churches remain empty of grace so often.

But what does grace mean in Africa? How does grace respond to HIV/AIDS? How does an African orphan respond to grace?

Well, imagine a very ordinary Christian with child after child asking for his help - water, food, shelter, guidance - what would you do? Would you set up a Children's Home for 20 kids? Would you have the faith to pray for the land and buildings to be provided? Would you have the courage to clothe, feed, parent 20 extra children in addition to your own if you have them? I don't think that would be my response.

But that is what George did - he lives just outside Kisumu - with his family - and 20 other children in the Children's Home he has set up with a local church. They do normal things - play football, sing, laugh, cry, play, argue - but it is not a normal place. It is a place of grace - of unconditional love, given as a gift. And the name of the Children's Home?

'Grace Children's Home', Kisumu. Seems to mean a bit more in that context, don't you think?

First Kenya video diary now online

It's what you've all been waiting for - the first clip from Dave and Cathy's visit to Kisumu in Kenya is now live. And it's here.

Pictures from Day 1 in Kisumu

Here are some pictures from our first day in Kisumu.


Dave at the airport.
Our first attempt to land was aborted because of a bad rain storm directly over the runway, so we had an unscheduled return to Nairobi. Thankfully we made it OK the next day.
We later learned that another airline has stopped flying to Kisumu airport because of the bad state of the runway!


Walking through the manic Kisumu market. Quite different to Edinburgh markets!

Everyone was going about their business in the blazing hot sun.





It's incredible what people can carry on the back of bikes - one person we saw had a sideboard perilously balanced on theirs!