Hello... It's been a while!

Hello, I know very few people will actually read this but please believe me when I say I am truly sorry for the lack of new posts which has lasted now for about six months. I do intend to start posting again regularly and to do the things I said in the last post but my life has been somewhat disjointed in the last six months, as you may or may not know! My plans changed for this year, I was unemployed and homeless for a couple months (thank God some great people put me up in that period!) but now I am in Rome, yes indeed, and am following a course with the International House organisation, to teach English as a foreign language... Guess that's the employment path I'm taking, languages, and I'm actually very excited about it, because I get to be pedantic without being made fun of! It's real fun and I am learning so much! There is so much to know and the teaching I'm getting is not only top-notch but also, I believe, the kind in which I thrive: hands on learning, practical seminars, stimulating subjects and self-improvement aims.

I'll try out for the Université de Genève exams in March again, hoping to get in, but this could be a good career path for the next few years... I do want to keep studying and there are so many things to study and learn, but one has to do it one at a time... One thing I really want to do is form my ecclesiology really well; for those who don't know what that is, it's just a smart word to say "the way I believe church should be built and why"; why? To know what I stand for and why, what is un-negotiable and what doesn't need to be that rigid and to be able to convey to people who ask me and who want to argue why it is the best way, not because I say so, but because God does.

A book which I am re-reading and which is greatly, not only stimulating me, but also confirming a lot of my personal meditations on certain church matters is called "Confessions of a Reformission Rev." It is, quite simply, one of the best books I have ever read! Mark Driscoll has been given great insight by God into many church matters through the extraordinary experiences he and his congregation have had in building their mega-church from nothing in the space of a decade. What I love about Mark is his unswerving commitment to elevate Scripture and God's will above his opinion and his unwavering focus on the mission which Jesus has set him on: to reach Seattle with the power of the gospel. I need that attitude in my heart when it comes to ministry, and I want to learn not only to cultivate it, but also to infect others with it!

Right, gotta go, keep checking if you can!

Writing Projects

Hello bloggers and blog-readers! I don't know how many of you out there are still checking this website, I realise the last time I updated it was over a month ago, whoops! The reason for this, apart from the fact that I still don't have internet at home, is also because I am not doing much creative writing. I've got a few ideas in the creative pipeline, but my writing efforts are at the moment being employed in a pretty big project, which should be over soon. I'm writing a chapter for the Youth Work Manual of my church, something I'm very excited about. I get to write about "discipleship", the question about following Jesus, biblical models for it, useful tools etc. It is nearing 5000 words at the moment and might be in the end something like 7000 words. Just like my dissertation, only interesting and helpful to someone! Anyway, that's what I hope...

When I finish that, I have the intention of starting a series of posts on the Bible, writing first about the power of Scripture then going through some books and writing some passage commentaries. Hopefully, they will encourage and feed people who are interested in understanding Scripture better. I'll still be posting my creative writing and other stuff of course.

Great books that I have read recently and recommend:

Chasing the Dragon, the story of Jackie Pullinger
Taming the Tiger, the story of Tony Anthony
No Well-Worn Paths, the story of Terry Virgo and how God started his move of the Spirit in the '60s in the UK.

All three are exciting and encouraging books to read, they are great autobiographies of people who have seen their life being shaped by God's purposes. The first two are very fast-paced and full of exciting adventures, the third one just pumps me up for seeing God use me for his purposes and for seeing Jesus' Church restored to its beauty!

Peace out!

Joey

Gotta love the poetry

I know it has once again been a while since my last post, please forgive me all you ravenous readers out there... I have myself been reading a bit, some real good stuff and I'd like to put some quotes of C.S. Lewis' autobiography up. He is such a craftsman of literature; the way his sentences are built and each proposition is strung after another is a skill I can only hope to achieve one day.
But I don't have any Lewis today, what I have is some Hugo and some Rimbaud.
I found my mum's Oxford Book of French Verse while I was down in Orbetello over the holidays and asked her whether I could take it back with me. It has since been a place for me to delve in and dream and marvel at the magnificence of the verses of some of these French poets. It doesn't seem anything like English modern poetry it has such variety of themes, vocabularies and style figures.
I already loved Arthur Rimbaud's writings after having studied them for my baccalauréat, but I discovered Victor Hugo's verse, something spectacular. This one here is one of my favourites, short and beautiful:

Nuits de Juin

L'été, lorsque le jour a fui, de fleurs couverte
La plaine verse au loin un parfum enivrant ;
Les yeux fermés, l'oreille aux rumeurs entrouverte,
On ne dort qu'à demi d'un sommeil transparent.

Les astres sont plus purs, l'ombre paraît meilleure ;
Un vague demi-jour teint le dôme éternel ;
Et l'aube douce et pâle, en attendant son heure,
Semble toute la nuit errer au bas du ciel.

From Rimbaud, however, the classic Ma Bohème makes me dream everytime I read it, or recite it:

Je m'en allais, les poings dans mes poches crevées;
Mon paletot aussi devenait idéal;
J'allais sous le ciel, Muse! et j'étais ton féal;
Oh! là! là! que d'amours splendides j'ai rêvées!

Mon unique culotte avait un large trou.
-Petit Poucet rêveur, j'égrenais dans ma course
Des rimes. Mon auberge était à la Grande-Ourse.
-Mes étoiles au ciel avaient un doux frou-frou.

Et je les écoutais, assis au bord des routes,
Ces bons soirs de septembre où je sentais des gouttes
De rosée à mon front, comme un vin de vigueur;

Où, rimant au milieu des ombres fantastiques,
Comme des lyres, je tirais les élastiques
Des mes souliers blessés, un pied près de mon coeur!

My own stuff, I've spent some good time writing lyrics and music, nothing I'll put up here today, I'll just give a poor and short thing I wrote in January:

Picturesque Morning Hour

Amidst the kettle on and all my yawning
Time slowed down while making breakfast this morning:
What seemed to take thirty minutes only took ten.

Just as well, since a moment before
my ten minute shower actually took more,
it seems like things evened out in the end.

Ciao!

I'll keep writing

It seems like people are tired of going on this website to find the same posts as months ago with no updates... I don't care, I'll keep writing anyway. Sure, I do like comments and feedback on my work, but hey, whenever you find the time for it, I don't mind. The use of the blog has changed quite a bit anyway, I just post previously written stuff on it. Hey, You remember that poem I wrote about the Tuscan Countryside on a train? I've kind of grabbed some of it and made it into a song.
I have realised that I have quite a pile of creative writing and I really want to finalise the songs I have been in the process of writing for ages. Feedback is essential though, it's really about getting some good criticism. I'd love to be confident enough to perform my own stuff and be an artist in my own right (that sounds so pretentious, doesn't it?) . But more than that, playing with other people who bring something more, something really powerful to the songs, making them really awesome, really special music.
Before I ramble on too much, I'll peace out.

J.T.