Well how's about this for moblogging, I'm sat on a stationary plane on the tarmac of Heathrow while a tire, which apparently has a nail in, is replaced. Take off delayed by one hour, which means we'll be at the hotel for about three... Great! While sat on the plane I'm being entertained by Henri Nouwen's, 'Wounded Healer'. this particularly made me smile, and it will serve as my final words in this country; "the Christian leader, minister or priest, is not one who reveals God to his people- who gives something he has to the who have nothing- but one who helps those who are searching to discover reality as the source of their existence... In this context pastoral conversation is not merely a skilful use of conversational techniques to manipulate people into the Kingdom of God, but a deep human encounter in which a man is willing to put his own faith and doubt, his own hope and despair, his own light and darkness at the disposal of others who want to find a way through their confusion and touch the solid core of life. In this context preaching means more than handing over tradition; it is rather the careful and sensitive articulation of what is happening in the community so that those who listen can say: 'you say what I suspected, you express what I vaguely felt, you bring to the fore what I fearfully kept in the back of my mind. Yes, yes- you say who we are, you recognise our condition.'"
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