Celebrations.

We thought this month we would look at the whole area of celebrations as we had one or two in June and a number coming up.
First we celebrated my mums 86th birthday and took her out for a meal, which ended up to be good old fish and chips, her choice. Here she is with Eliana. At the moment she is in hospital where the planned operation to remove a cancerous tumour had to be stopped midway through because her heart was not coping too well under the anesthetic. They think they have got to the bottom of the problem and will try again in about two weeks time.

Then it was Rita’s mums 87th birthday and Rita travelled up and back to Liverpool in a day to wish her a happy birthday. Her mum seems to be doing really well and is definitely benefiting from all the good care she is getting from the home. Here she is with Asher.

I finish chemo on the 29th of this month, which will be great cause for celebration and then on the 17th August after a CT scan, I will get the results from the Oncologist. Another cause for celebration. My 66th birthday comes three days later. (I really don’t feel that old)



Rita’s birthday is on the twelfth October when she reaches the great age of 64 (am I allowed to reveal this information?) and then on the 16th October we celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Wow. Here we are on our wedding day in 1971 (No rude comments please)










Here is an up to date one, literally, it was taken today.







How are we going to celebrate we hear you say, well that's easy. We are off to Canada through September to see Sharon, Tim, Eliana and our new grandson. He’s due to be born mid August. Rita will be able to help Sharon with new baby, in those early days with Tim at work and I will have the tough job of taking Eliana out for ice cream and treats. (Well, someone has to do it.)
That’s it for now.

Togg on the blog

It was in the late 1990s that we were involved in the Reconciliation Walk, where Christians walked the crusade route of the 1090s apologising to Muslims for the way that ‘Christian’s’ had treated them as they travelled through Turkey and Syria, on their way to Jerusalem, raping pillaging and murdering as they went, all under the sign of the cross.
Rita and I took six others with us from our church in Liverpool and it was one of the most amazing times we have ever had.
We walked from Iskenderun to Antioch (also called Antakya) giving out the apology in the local language and had such good response with Muslims making it clear the apology was very meaningful to them.
While we were in Antioch there was an earthquake the epicentre being in Adana where we had been just a few days before. It shook the building violently but fortunately no damage was done.
We felt we should then go on to Northern Cyprus taking the apology there and how we got there is another story in itself.
As we prayed about where we should take the apology we felt it should be to leaders as well as the ordinary people. Meeting the ordinary people was no problem and they again received the apology warmly. Now to the leaders.
We went to the government building and asked to see someone there. In the end we spoke to both the speaker of the house and the Foreign Secretary. He then made it possible to see the chief Imam of the whole of Cyprus providing a government limousine to get us there. What favour.
We then decided we might as well try and see President Denktas so just turned up at the gate of the Presidential Palace and asked to see him. We were ushered into a reception room and one of his secretaries came to see us. After we told him what we wanted to do he said it was all very interesting because he had just been reading a book about the crusades. He asked us to go back to the hotel while he talked with the President and he would phone us with an answer. Back at the hotel reception I had great delight telling the receptionist that I was expecting a call from the Presidents office. She didn’t blink. A few hours later the call came through saying the President would see us the following afternoon. The following day, after we had all tried to scrub up the best as possible when you are on outreach, we were ushered into one of the reception rooms and as soon as the president arrived, photos were taken and then he asked what this was all about. We had half an hour to share with him. Amazing. As we came to an end I had felt the day before that I should pray for him, his family and the nation. I can remember saying I would like to ask you something and if you feel it is out of order please say. He shot back I most certainly will. Having asked he responded by saying that would be very good. What a privilege it was to pray. With that the meeting was over and we were on our way, hardly believing what had happened. What do you do after something like that? Well in a dazed state, we just went to a cafe and had ice cream sharing all that God had done.