The Money Statistics July 2018...another month goes by.

Striking numbers  £4.21: The average UK household spend on gas, water and electricity a day. 96: The average use of cash machines per second in the UK. £46m: The fall in Public Sector Net Debt per day in 2018. 125%: The average rent in London compared to the rest of England (2 bed). £122m: The increase in net lending to individuals a day. 230: The fall in unemployment a day. 18.24%: The average interest rate on a credit card bearing interest. £64.40: The average price of 50 litres of unleaded petrol. 0.3%: The real terms increase in regular pay on last month.

For all the recent details visit, the money charity.

Views of Ayr trip

Some pictures from recent trip to Ayr.

For some time I have been concerned for the fellowship and communion of Christians in the Highlands. I have lived in Ross shire Sutherland and Caithness and have felt there is a need for some local regional coordination be it electronic or physical to link up Christians for support, prayer and discussion. I believe this would be for those who are like minded and can tolerate others in different denominations or theologies. The recent questionnaire is to gauge this need for those in the Highlands and the results may help plot out a work. I would value your input in the questionnaire and separately.

As I said last week its too early to say what is done to support the work but already I am seeing clear needs for example the daily devotion or questions to consider during the day.

At some point it would be good to clarify any requirements. 

Quarterly rallies? Daily thought for the day, Questions to consider? Local buddies for prayer... Local small worship sessions.

Keep coming back. Subscribe and share please.

Over 30 folks... want to follow, at Rosskeen- 1742

A bit of Sunday reflection and consider the"awakening" some years ago if you go to my previous post on awakening you  will find out a bit more about historic changes in the community.

Come back and consider:
What signs are there of people looking for faith?
What is in my church or community to encourage faith?
Where are the hindrances?
Am I the blockage to an "awakening" ? 

For a community to be revived some would save certain conditions are required or helpful. What are these conditions?

When an awaking took place in the past in the islands, Rev Kenneth Macrae had strict tests to affirm it was a work of God and not just some minor hysteria.

He as well as other denominations would hear reports at there centres of works in communities. ( Free church, Church of Scotland, Scottish Baptist Union etc.)

By 1939 a wide revival work was present in lewis. At the Free Church Assembly he( Kenneth Macrae) recorded “evidences... that the Lord is effectively working in the hearts of men”.

There was concern over certain phenomena. At Point meetings were reverent and with solemnity. There was elements of excitement and hysteria. Yet clear evidence of lasting conversions.

By 1938 the phenomena of swooning, of out cries, of temporary paralysis of limbs and muscular spasms or jerks drew much attention. The press searched for stories. People would collapse, others rise together, some weep or call in Gaelic on their relatives. Some lost all power to their limbs and would be carried to other rooms to recover. These things caused controversy. Some ministers affirmed the physical effects as God's. In their thinking All the phenomena was linked to revival. Others were concerned how the media were presenting the situation.

MacRae spoke at one meeting of the Free Church Stornoway on the:

Unusual features of the present religious movement in lewis.

He was convinced there was a revival in Lewis and a work of God. But he wanted people to consider some of the peculiar features of it.

In particular MacRae wished the meeting to consider that in Park... convulsive fits.

Grimshader ...trembling or tremors...with crying.

At point and Shader ...trances and women praying and exhorting ( ...and a good deal of disorder). He noted further:

• Those or some could not give an explanation to what was happening. Rather than looking for the work of the Holy Spirit people were disappointed if there was no manifestations.
• Secondly MacRae saw a sense of superior order of Christians taking hold with those who had experienced some of the manifestations.
• He felt that matters might lead to unscriptural extravagances.
  
  

He also talked and reported on other happenings in the country, quoting Kilsyth and Cambuslang.

He concluded that the manifestations were neither good or evil but hysteria.

He quoted the medical observations for hysteria.

• Highly strung people mainly young women
• Infectious
• Associated with convulsions tremors and trances
• Attacks are always in an audience never alone.
• Those effected say they could not help themselves.
• If wanted to those effected could have controlled themselves.
• Delusions and hallucinations
• Consciousness not lost.

MacRae was concluding that mass hysteria was happening in Lewis and his concern was separating it from the work of the Holy Spirit.

Hi did specifically acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit at that time.

Quoting the action of McChenye from Dundee. He was supporting the need to have religious meetings closed by 11.00 pm. “Lest Good be evil spoken”.

It is clear from MacRae there is a need to discern what is of God and a work of the Holy Spirit and what is not. While he saw the Lewis revival as of God, not all was his making. It is easy to be tricked in times of revival to assume all phenomena are in connection with the spirit of God, and to question it is to hinder that Revival. There is a more discerning Church today- but a good warning nevertheless.

There have been many Scottish revivals and in particular in the 19^th century the country had “breakouts” in different parts. Alexander Macrae tells us that almost all revivals have been started by lay preachers. He has also noted that some if not all revivals have started when someone talked about a previous revival. The retelling of past works has inspired and moved the hearts of others. Whilst we would acknowledge that a Blessing of God transforms a meeting which can continue into revival, it is when people “work at it” with a sense of urgency and expectation that we see results in terms of a deepening of faith across communities. The work of the Haldanes is a good example of this. The North East coast revival in 1921 shows the spread and catalytic effect from a work. it started in Norfolk in 1921 and spread to Caithness Scotland the the travelling movement of the fishermen.

Now go back and ask the questions at the begining of this post again and reflect.

Caithness work -on this blog 

Alexander Macrae, Revivals in the Highlands and Islands, 1998

 

Kenneth MacRae, Diary of Kenneth MacRae

revivals  Scotland wiki

Extreme Teaming

Amy C Edmondson and Jean Francois Harvey have a book on lessons in complex and cross-sector leadership named Extreme Teaming.

You have probably heard of the manager who hires people who are like him which makes life simple but means there will be gaps in skills and a lack of challenge. this book takes this further and suggests you go outside your organisation to have your team enlarged by people who are not on the payroll. Their insight might be valuable.

Extreme teaming was used in the successful  mining rescue in Chile 2010.
If you are looking for a refresher or some new ways to have an effective team this book might just help. Published 2017.

Results? too early

It is too early to summarise the questionnaire results and in any case i still would prefer to have many more take part, however it is clear that there is a desire for communication across the highlands. I have found a link in Caithness- Love North-, which is doing a good work. Anyway one desire is to have a daily devotional link or prompt to study a passage with the coming together of "results from study".

If you like this idea please come back in the future to see what is on offer or add a comment to this post.

I would appreciate if you could share to your Highland friends this site.

I also hope to put up video and links to other supporting material.

How much? The price of toilets in the north?

 Recent quote from the mother in law....

"How is it we can spend 2.5 Billion on a vertical space travel site in Sutherland but we cannot find the money to keep the toilets open at places like Durness! I cannot understand it!"


and the Answer please...? 


Council are putting aside 2.5 million. The 2.5 billion relates to the overall project.

 BBC response to recent announcement

Guardian on same topic

"The Mannie" under fire (*)

Fire fighting teams over the last few weeks have been dousing fires above Golspie. The fires could have been started due to the dry weather...some suggest it could be something more sinister. The Duke of Sutherland has always had a a mixed reception here in Sutherland. In fact over the years there has been signs of the monument being tampered with in a bid to fall the statue which can be seen for miles around- almost all of East Sutherland.  It stands as a reminder of the Dukes work... for others a reminder of the Highland clearances.

Signs of bravery and pulling together has resulted in the fire being contained. We have a thought for those who are suffering from the aftermath. The smoke the smells but even more the mountain bike business that will surely suffer from this fire.

* The Mannie is the local name for the statue above Golspie raised in memory of the Duke of Sutherland by supporters, and not encouraged by local crofters.

Paula White comment

 Paula White, wants to tighen borders.
In an interview about immigration in the USA last week Paula, said the following...

By Kamau360 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22145649

"I think so many people have taken biblical scriptures out of context on this, to say stuff like, 'Well, Jesus was a refugee,'" White responded. "Yes, He did live in Egypt for three-and-a-half years. But it was not illegal. If He had broken the law then He would have been sinful and He would not have been our Messiah."




"They care for the children," said White, who's also the senior pastor at New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida. "Not just three square meals, psychiatric care, clinician, medical care, chapel, events, schooling, language, and love."

Full link to "Christian Post"

Who is Paula White Wiki 

Culzean castle Ayrshire

Culzean Castle  Is a National Trust for Scotland premises

I visited the castle recently and was struck by the condition of the site. I felt the history was not very well presented. But there were at hand several guides to explain more details as they recited dates and information that folks will not remember. Have you noticed these places  where there is an air of " I know it all". 

I suppose we are all experts in our own field. ( By the way laptop still working)

 Now Culzean is not pronounced as here.   Well not in Scotland where the "Z" is silent. as in Dalziel. 

The castle is well set out for visitors wih good parking and an open feel as you head for the gates to the various premises. There is a walled garden, pictures below. The book shop was well stocked with second hand books but nothing for me to grab that covers my interst. Robet Adams castle is super.

 Walled garden plants

Culzean castle

Some views from recent visit.

Come back tomorrow.

Blue screen and its not the sunny sky.... happy ending

 I was going to tell you about a short trip to Ayr....



Just when you are settled and things are going good it all falls apart well that's what happened PC wise over the last few weeks. I had a skype meeting for Thursday in the meantime an update from Windows which had an effect on my Skype. the sound was wrong and sometimes not working I tried plug in phones bluetooth phones and the Laptop speakers. But to no avail Next was to bring out the old PC which I keep updated for emergencies like this. It gets all the updates Monthly.

So I fire it up and then when i go from sound to video on the Skype ...i get the blue screen.

 Today I am back with Current machine working fine after some sound adjustments ..and keep the blue tooth set away from the machine.

 The old machine was different.

"Unexpected kernel mode trap"..Blue screen.
So what now ...Because I have been updating monthly I am able to carry out a "fresh start" which is a new installation of Windows direct from the Website to the old machine.

That means no corrupt files from before being carried forward.
It also means  reinstalling all apps and software including anti virus

It takes a while but I was able to carry out other tasks while monitoring the progress.

This morning we are back again with skype working on both machines.

Advice
Always take the updates even if there can be challenges. 
Consider reinstalling Windows 10 with a fresh version including all the updates. Sometimes works out quicker.
Take back ups and use cloud drives as extra backups.

Ayr ...Maybe tomorrow.

Chief operating officer

I bought this book at the end of last year. with the view of a role I was contemplating south of the border. Jennifer Geary has pulled together some good stuff and compartmentalised into  16 areas of interest or concern.  it covers all you need to know or to watch out for.

Sometimes, the role of COO is to oversee change, sometimes to establish a set up or even to consolidate a growth period. This book accommodates all these situations. So from safeguarding to HR or facilities to strategy she covers it well. 

Published 2017