Christmas Present - Christmas Day

Here is the full set of images that has been used over the last few weeks for the Christmas Present project. As I reflect on the journey we have made there are a couple of observations I would like to make.

Trying to get all of the photos done without pre-arranging them was tough.  We only had to arrange two of the images, I won't say which ones... I'll let you try and work it out! It got me thinking that we sometimes try to organise faith to fit nice neat packages, it's this or that, or it can't be that or this.  Why is faith so difficult to tie down?

There was also the difficulty of trying to find venues to act as homes for the photos.  We manged to get three without much bother, but the fourth venue was a lot harder... it reminded me that sometimes there is still 'no room at the inn' for Jesus. I wonder how much Jesus is allowed into our lives? Are there people and places that his extraordinary story never has access to? 

I wonder which image you find the hardest to engage with?  Which is your favorite?

I hope that this Christmas Present project has challenged you. I pray that these images will endure in your heart over the days and weeks to come, and that through them you will see God at work in some strange and wonderful ways.  

Printing and production of the images by trendy-art http://www.trendy-art.co.uk/
Photos by Kat Timmins http://ktimmins.co.uk/  

Christmas Present - Advent 4

This week as we approach Christmas we reflect on the Inn Keeper.  To help us reflect on it I have written a poem. Please feel free to share your thoughts. 

When I gaze on the world

The worries and woes

The wounded souls

Wondering where we went wrong

Walking the street

Where people pass by

Not a nod not a hi

Nor a how do you do?

When I gaze on the world

Are we really so worried

By what folks might say

Or what folks might see

When its ear phones in

And mobile on

as our heads are down.

When I gaze on the world

Were social was usual

Standing and chatting

To stranger and friend

Where gathering was fun

Where we weren’t so suspicious

Of stranger and friend.

Where welcome was normal

When there was time to chat, chew the fat.

When I gaze on a story

With its light and hope

Where the keeper of the inn

Was happy to help and happy to chat

There was nothing left

But something so earthy

That grounded the child

in the dirt of the earth.

When I gaze on the story

Does it ask a question

Something of welcome

Something of wonder

When I gaze on the story

When I gaze on the world

When the future looks bleak

And folks are so weak

Will we welcome the stranger

Will we bow to the poor

Will we stand with weathered

And withered of life

Not for us but for them

Will we lose our mobile

Will we ditch the head phones

Will we raise our head

And walk with a smile

Will hope be found in the way that we walk

In the way that we look

In the way that we stand

Will our faces welcome

So I wonder will Christmas be present?

Printing and production of the images by trendy-art http://www.trendy-art.co.uk/
Photos by Kat Timmins http://ktimmins.co.uk/   

Christmas Present - Advent 3

This week we are reflecting on 'The Star' and once again I have created a spoken word track.  Before you listen to it though, you need to know a little about me. 


I left school with no qualifications and had very few prospects but I did get on to the YTS (youth training scheme) program. For those too young to know what that is, it was for school leavers to help them get into the world of work and I remember I got paid £27 a week in the first year and that went up to a massive £35 in the second year! Anyway as a result of this scheme I got into the gardening trade... so some of the references in the spoken word track are to do with that... So have a listen and see what you think, click here to hear it in a separate window. 


I welcome your thoughts and comments.


Spoken word track engineered by Tom Roberts
Words - Rob Wylie 
Printing and production of the images by trendy-art http://www.trendy-art.co.uk/
Photos by Kat Timmins http://ktimmins.co.uk/   

Christmas Present - Advent 2

Prophet

I’ve been working through this for a while now trying to understand the picture we have of a big issue seller in our ‘Christmas Present’ project and the advent story.

As a result of my pondering, I offer you these words to think about and reflect on...

Are prophets all around us? Or are they hidden in the corridors of power?  However we understand that I wonder how many prophets we miss as we go about our everyday lives? Is it the big issue seller? The Occupy campaigners? What about the homeless person sitting in the same old place... waiting? Maybe it’s the young people that go out in there droves on a weekend to ‘forget’ there problems for a few hours? What about through the many projects that help people make a better life for themselves? What about the politician or local councillor who works for their community?  

So maybe the prophets of our day are the people we least expect?

With this picture of the prophet there is also this idea of hoping... We often ask children at Christmas time ‘what are you hoping to get’? When we are older our hoping is for different things and they vary from person to person, but some of the concerns that seem to be on the world agenda at the moment about this question of hoping are - hope for a better future for the generations to come, hoping for things to change in the world’s economic climate, hoping for peace and stability in the world, hoping for employment, hoping that I still have a job in the morning.

It seems to me that the biblical Christmas story has aspects of hope for the future as well as hope for the here and now... we long for it to happen and we long for it to make a difference now, there is a bit of me that wants to ask the question... how can we be prophets... not just to speak into situations but also to make a difference to a situation by the things that we do?

So here are some questions to ponder about this weeks picture:-

Are there prophets all around us?

What are you hoping for?

In what way can you bring hope into situations that you are in? 


Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments. 

Christmas Present - Advent 1

Christmas Present - Mirror Mirror


Ordinary People - Ordinary Places - Extraordinary Story


So the long awaited Christmas Present project is live!  As part of this journey I will be posting a fresh blog each week of advent.   Each blog will show one of the pictures from the project which will also be the focus of services in local Methodist Churches for that week.


Details of where to view the pictures are on the attached flier. 


This week we focus on the expectant Mary and Joseph as they travel to Bethlehem. To help us reflect on this journey have a listen to this spoken word track Mirror Mirror and please leave your comments below.    



Spoken word track engineered by Tom Roberts
Words - Rob Wylie 
Printing and production of the images by trendy-art http://www.trendy-art.co.uk/
Photos by Kat Timmins http://ktimmins.co.uk/

Christmas Present

Christmas Present

Ordinary People - Ordinary Places  - Extraordinary Story

Christmas lights going up in  Knaresborough

Last year I heard a friend talk about a Christmas photo project that he put together. You can read about it on his blog http://vfxhanley.wordpress.com/do-you-wonder/ . This got me and a local Methodist minister thinking about whether we could do something similar here in the North East. They did it slightly different to us in that their images were in 3D and they had them up in one place, but other than that it’s basically the same idea.

We have taken a series of photos of local people, in local settings from the North East, who take on the persona of some of the key characters in the traditional nativity story.  Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, the Magi, angels, shepherds etc. We will be placing these pictures in public spaces for people to view, and we have agreed to have some put up in our local Costa Coffee in Whitley Bay and other local cafes/bars. Then, in the final week before Christmas, we are putting all the photos together in one place for people to view.  The pictures will be on display from the first week in December in various places, look out for the connected flier, and they will also be able to be seen in the weeks to come on my blog.

Alongside this, we got together with a few creative folk to put some worship material together that will be used around a different image on each Sunday through Advent. So if you live nearby to North Shields and Whitley Bay why not invite a friend to come along to church with you and see what it’s all about.  Also over the four weeks in advent I will be posting something each week which relates to one of the pictures we have taken.

The idea behind this is about engaging our local community with the traditional Christmas story in ways that ask the question... what do you do with this story?  This project is about putting the nativity story in a modern context and I suppose asks a challenging question about what do we do with the traditional story that God came to earth as a small vulnerable baby. Why not, as you view the pictures, ask these questions

Is Christmas present for you?

What is Christmas wrapped up in for you?