Whenever i sit down to write a church article for a magazine there is always the question as to other the content should be slanted towards the seasonal, topical or eternal. So having considered all that I’ve decided this month to write about Postman Pat, the BBC children’s TV series.

When our youngsters were small, Postman Pat was a regular favourite TV watching experience. My wife Pam and I would often sit and watch the programme with them, getting quite familiar with the characters of Pat and his faithful black and white sidekick Jess the cat (and even as I type away I find that in my head I’m singing along with “Postman Pat, Postman Pat, Postman Pat and his Black and White Cat…”). They had such adventures trying to get the mail through to the outer lying areas of the village of Greendale, with early episode titles such as “Postman Pat’s Windy Day,” “Postman Pat’s Foggy Day,” “Postman Pat’s Difficult Day,” and “Postman Pat’s Tractor Express.” And then of course there were the other characters – Mrs Goggins the postmistress, Alf Thompson the farmer, Ted Glenn the handyman and the Reverend Timms.

I must admit I’ve lost track of all the adventures that Pat has had down the years, and I’m a little astonished to see that in 2016/17 the programme is now into its eighth series. It seems that the story lines might have progressed a little, as now there are episode titles such as “Postman Pat and the Zooming Zipwire.” There’s even one called “Postman Pat and the Cornish Caper” and another called “Postman Pat and the Loch Ness Monster.” Although I haven’t sat down to watch any of these episodes, it’s obvious that Pat’s mail delivery area and duties have been extended. Continue reading →

Many years ago my wife Pam and I decided that it was time to move to a bigger house. We lived in Windlesham, a village in Surrey that served the commuter belt into London and the technology centres of the Thames Valley. Windlesham is a good village to live in, and so we determined that in moving from our 3 bedroom end of terrace home we would look for a detached 4 bedroom property in the same area. The larger and detached house would provide a sound base for the start of a family.

At the time we hadn’t long been Christians, attaching ourselves to the local Church of England church, but I do remember praying to God about the move. Almost since the time of becoming Christians my business career had taken off, and so from a financial viewpoint we could just about stretch to a detached property in the village. And so to my mind the perfect property came up – a 4 bedroom detached house, complete with equipped kitchen, downstairs study, mock but tasteful Georgian pillars at the front-door, ensuite bathroom and double garage. It was also on the same housing development to where we currently lived – just a little bit more up-market and in keeping with our (alright, my) sense of rising status.

Our offer for the property was accepted and the usual train of estate agent and solicitor events put into place. The necessary paid-for structural survey of the new house was completed and we were pleasantly sailing towards completion. Then it happened – the sellers pulled out. I was somewhat dumbstruck, firstly that the sellers had allowed us to go so far down the line (at our expense) before pulling out, and secondly that it seemed that God was with us on this one – it was the perfect house – surely that was the plan, and now it was in tatters. What’s going on God!!? Continue reading →